Page 8 of Echo
“Silly me.” The woman patted her chest as if to slow her heart. “I was thinking about how you looked like a young Pearl.”
Then why did that scare her? Did she think Pearl came back to haunt her or something? “Were you friends?”
“Not really. Pearl stayed to herself. She was a private woman who didn’t have friends.” Most of the older women in my family were like that. Sticking to each other be it by phone or letter, rather than making new friends.
I nodded my understanding.
“I apologize for the rude introduction. We don’t get a lot of new people here. You gave this old woman a start.” The woman came out from her hiding place and held her hand out to me. I shook her cool and rough hand.
Now that she was closer, I could smell lavender on her. “My name is Sally Mae. Everyone calls me Granny Sally. I haven’t seen blue eyes like yours since most of your family moved out to the area. Except for Eddie and Pearl, of course.”
Such a strange thing to say to someone. The sky-blue eyes ran pretty strong in the family, but the shade wasn’t that odd. Surely there were others with the same color in the area. I was often complimented on my eyes, it was one of my best features, but no one had been shocked by them before.
My dad used to say Mama’s eyes calmed even the most blood thirsty man to peace. He told me I was a lot like her in that way.
Too bad taming violence was more art than science.
The woman with the man threw her head back and laughed. “You know the Rinah family made a deal with the devil for beautiful women back in the 1800s. It’s not her fault she’s so gorgeous. It’s the work of Lucifer, as he searches the family line for his wife.”
What the actual fuck?
“Don’t mind her none. It’s a bit of an old local legend.” Sally Mae put her hand up when my face undoubtedly broadcasted my thoughts. “Don’t think badly. We don’t mean no harm.”
“Our ancestors were undoubtedly jealous of yours. They had to soothe themselves somehow.” The woman chuckled. “They say my family has red hair because we were born of the flames of a great forest fire in the early 1900s, and are the omen that the mountains will be eaten by the flames of hell.”
So, being weird was pretty common here. “That’s intense.”
“People around here are superstitious,” Sallie Mae admitted. “Some of it’s silly and should be taken with a grain of salt.”
For whatever reason, that made me think of the giant salt ring around my property. Part of me wanted to ask, but the bigger part of me didn’t want to hear whatever horrible rationale the people had come up with. Or worse, Pearl’s rationale. For all I knew, the family paranoia was contagious. Best not think about it, so I didn’t catch it.
The younger woman stepped up, “We’re the Falins. I’m Hilda. That’s Aaron.” She pointed over to who I assumed was her husband.
“What’s your name?” She ran her hands over the red hair she had in a messy bun at the top of her head, like she needed to soothe some imperfections away.
“Madison Valentine.”
Hilda hugged me without any kind of warning. “Welcome to the neighborhood.”
I resisted the urge to rip her off of me, figuring it would be best to not piss off the community I intended to live in for the unforeseeable future.
“What reason could you be here? Surely you’re exhausted from the drive out.” She released me, and I took a subtle step back, so I wouldn’t get stuck in her loving trap again.
“Food? I couldn’t find any in Pearl’s kitchen.”
Hilda laughed good-naturedly. “You didn’t look hard enough. It’s called a farm for a reason, honey.”
What an idiot. I slapped my forehead. I hadn’t even considered that all her food was out in the yard. “That makes perfect sense.”
“Are you intending to stay in the area? I couldn’t help but notice your car was pretty packed,” Hilda asked.
“Yeah.”
The three adults shared a pointed glance that made me feel like they were saying I didn’t belong at the big kids' table. Perhaps I made it up though, since it was gone before I could even nail it down.
“Get that place running again, fast.” Sally Mae winked, not giving any indication that she thought I wouldn’t make it. “I need honey, and Rinah farm is the only place for miles that produces it.”
What do you know, future-me already had solutions for my problems. “I’ve never worked a farm in my life. There’s a lot I’ll need to learn. Fast might be too high of an expectation.”
