Page 118 of Just (Fake) Married
She smiled, a watery smile, but a pretty delighted smile. What kid didn’t find snot funny? She pulled in a big, deep breath and when she went to blow it out through her nose, I pinched closed the empty nostril and that chickpea shot out of her nose like a rocket. So did a bunch of snot, but that’s what the gloves and the scrubs were for.
I held up my arms and cheered like she’d won the Super Bowl.
“I tried that, but it didn’t work,” her mom said, apologetic and frustrated.
“It had gotten slippery in there with all the tears. It just needed some lubrication.”
Mom and daughter left, with the daughter clutching the lollipop I’d given her and making promises not to put things up her nose. As I put away my tools all I thought about was how Harmony was going to love that story.
It was shocking how much I wanted to get back to her at the end of each day.
How much I enjoyed that part of my life now. The life part. The not working part. Even though things were off between us lately.
I glanced at the clock and realized I was late for meeting Harmony at the museum.
Today was our costume fitting for the re-enactments. It was all starting to get real as the festival got closer.
Inside the museum, I found Harmony and Marion upstairs in the storage room where everything not on display downstairs was kept on long apparel racks, shelves and in boxes.
In the middle of the floor was the first Swinging D sign made out of branded wood. The bullet riddled bumper of the Model T that had been shot up by Sheriff McGraw before he killed Esther Calloway, and the hatchet Agatha Calloway used to cut off Thomas McGraw’s foot.
Bliss and Carter were there, too. But both Mac and Amity were missing.
“Which one of them is coming?” I asked the group, because one never showed up when the other was there.
“I asked them both to come,” Marion said. “This is really important and all feuds must be temporarily set aside.”
Carter and I exchanged a look that said good luck with that.
Except, there it was, the heavy clomping of two sets of footsteps coming up the attic steps.
“What happened to you not being in the same room as me?” I could hear Mac’s voice.
“What happened to you never wanting to eat my food again?” Amity replied.
They stepped through the door and immediately went to opposite corners of the room.
“Okay,” Marion clapped. “I have all of your costumes ready for you to try on. Harmony and Ethan, you should start us off with the original Widow Calloway and Duncan McGraw murder/murder.”
“Attempted murder/murder/hanging,” Harmony corrected her, pulling the old but familiar costume dress off the rack. These weren’t the original clothes, they were recreations made years ago during the festival’s heyday. “I love the dress, but do we have to stuff it with that itchy straw?”
“The straw comes from where she was pushed off the mountain,” Marion said. “It’s essential. Now, Mac and Amity, you can be Esther Calloway and Sheriff McGraw,” Marion directed them to pick up their costumes off the rack.
“Why do we have to be them?” Amity said.
Marion shrugged. “You two are the most likely to kill each other.” She slapped the cowboy hat and badge at Mac’s chest. “Now, are we certain Seth and Eli won’t be here for the festival?”
Bliss shook her head. “Eli is definitely not going to be at the festival.”
She said it with authority, and when she realized everyone was looking at her, she immediately backtracked.
“Because…he’s…like…in the army. Military. Or something. What about Seth?”
I shook my head. “I had a look at his most recent X-ray. Unfortunately, his leg is healed and he’s going back on the circuit. He’ll be in Texas when the festival happens.”
Marion expressed her displeasure with a heavy sigh, but kept moving us along. “This year, we’ve decided to switch up the Agatha Calloway/ Thomas McGraw frostbite amputation with something a little more in theme, which is the first Calloway/McGraw wedding.”
“Oooh, I get to be Mary Jane?” Bliss asked.
