Page 9 of Silver Linings

He would have liked a beer after the flight and the drive to Silver Hollow, but he had a feeling a place like this wouldn’t have a liquor license. “Some iced tea, please.”

The woman — whom he assumed must be Eliza, although she hadn’t introduced herself — headed behind the counter where a big dispenser of iced tea waited, then poured him a glass. He guessed she was the only person minding the store right now, probably because the lunch rush was over and she didn’t appear to need any additional help.

Or maybe she did everything herself, at least during the slow season. Ben didn’t know for sure when things would begin to pick up, but because even Southern California was often kind of gloomy at this time year, when “May gray” began to give way to “June gloom,” he guessed people would wait for the brighter, sunnier days of July and August and September.

And possibly even later. Although the forests around town seemed to be made up mostly of evergreens, there were still plenty of deciduous trees in Silver Hollow itself — which he’d read had been named after the stands of birches in the area — and he thought the place might be absolutely spectacular when they began to show their fall colors in October or even later.

Not that he planned to stick around nearly so long.

“Is there much to do around here besides hiking?” he asked Eliza when she returned with his iced tea.

Her mouth quirked into a half-smile. “Well, hiking is the main thing. You can also go kayaking — Bright Creek cuts through the forest about a half-mile outside town, and it’s pretty popular.” She paused there, and something in her speculative gaze told him she didn’t think he looked like a candidate for hiking or kayaking or pretty much any other outdoor activity.

In a way, Ben thought that was kind of amusing, since he regularly went climbing in the San Bernardino National Forest just outside Yucaipa. Not to look for Bigfoot, of course, but just so he could get outside and clear his head.

However, he hadn’t packed any of those clothes for his trip to San Francisco, because of course he hadn’t thought he’d need them. The list of items he would probably have to pick up at the local outdoor store was becoming increasingly long.

At least he could use them as a tax write-off. He’d come here to do research for his YouTube channel, after all, and being properly outfitted was part of the job.

Now he just had to hope his accountant would also see it that way.

“Any local folklore I should know about?” he asked next, and Eliza’s expression immediately turned wary.

“‘Folklore’?” she repeated. “Like what?”

“Isn’t this Bigfoot country around here?”

At once, something about the set of her shoulders relaxed. “Oh,” she said with a chuckle. “I don’t know about that. I thought Bigfoot was sort of a Washington State kind of thing.”

He didn’t know the woman well enough to guess whether she was pretending to be obtuse or whether she really didn’t know anything. However, her instant caution seemed a little extreme for someone who had nothing to hide…which told him that maybe she did.

Asking about unicorn sightings point-blank probably wouldn’t be very useful. Ben decided he should just file away her reaction for closer examination later and instead continue their conversation as if he hadn’t trodden on delicate ground just a moment earlier.

“You’re probably right,” he said. “I suppose it was all the forests around here that got me thinking. Anyway, I’ll have the beef dip and a side salad.”

“Got it,” she replied, now looking infinitely relieved that he hadn’t asked for her input on any local Mothman sightings.

Not that he would ever do something like that. Everyone knew that the Mothman was strictly a West Virginia phenomenon.

Eliza told him his sandwich would be out in a few minutes and then escaped to the kitchen. Ben couldn’t think of her departure in any other way, not when he doubted she normally walked that quickly when taking an order to the cook.

Since she was safely gone, he allowed himself a smile. After he ate, he’d walk down the street to the outdoor shop — he’d noted that it was only a block away as he pulled up to the café — and after that, maybe he’d stop by the library and see if they had a section on local folklore and history. Considering how vague that one internet reference he’d found had been, he wasn’t too sanguine, but he figured he needed to start somewhere, especially since he didn’t think it would be a very good idea to set out on a hike when more than half the afternoon had already passed.

No, he’d take care of the mundane errands today, and tomorrow when he had more time, he’d do his best to see what the little town of Silver Hollow was really hiding.

Chapter Four

Even though I’d ventured into the woods the next morning to see if the unicorn had decided to reappear, I didn’t see a damn thing. Well, sure, I spied some squirrels, a raccoon, and a doe who scampered off through the trees the second she caught sight of me, but those encounters, while interesting enough, weren’t what I’d been hoping for.

Obviously, unicorns came and went on their own time.

So I’d gone back into town and opened the pet shop, doing my best to fight back an overwhelming sensation of futility. Why had the unicorn shown himself to me the afternoon before? Trying to help, in some sort of roundabout way? Checking in on me?

That possibility seemed to suggest that maybe he was in communication with my mother and grandmother, and was acting as some sort of messenger who could travel between the two worlds.

However, I had a feeling that theory was born of wishful thinking and not much else.

The pet shop was strictly about providing supplies, not selling animals — I knew back in the day there had been puppies in the window, but when my mother took over, she’d decreed there were far too many animals in shelters who needed homes and there was no reason for the store to have dogs and cats for sale — so I didn’t have to do much when I went in except turn on the lights and the cash register and then unlock the door. Later today, I’d be getting shipments from Science Diet and Blue Buffalo, but the UPS driver never appeared until after two o’clock, which meant I had plenty of time before I had to worry about that.

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