Page 9 of Crossroads Magic
“It’s Anna,” I told him. “You have news about my mother?”
“I’m a neighbor,” Ben Marcus said. “From across the road. I’m sorry, Ms…Anna…but your mother died last night.”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see it. All my emotions were on hold for the moment, while I dealt with this one horrible fact. “I see.” My tone was wooden. Flat.
“I think…if you can manage it, you should come out to Haigton Crossing,” Benedict Marcus added. “We haven’t found your mother’s will, yet, but I already know from conversations that I have had with her that you are her sole heir. And you are the executor of her will, too.”
I nodded again. “We’ll come as soon as we can,” I told him.
Chapter Three
If Edwards, upstate New York, had more than a thousand people living in it, I’d be shocked. It bore all the markers of a small town, which I knew because they were the opposite of everything in a big city. There was no traffic to speak of and no one to be seen walking the streets. No public transport.
There were occasional vehicles, many of them trucks with massive tires, which kicked up the snow as they passed. All the vehicles I saw seemed to be four-wheel drives. Every driver and passenger turned to look at us as they went by.
Edwardsdidhave a gas station, for which I was heartily relieved. I had rented a Ford Focus at Syracuse Airport, which was the nearest major airport, and failed to notice that the gas tank was only half-full. It had taken us two hours to reach Edwards, and I wasn’t certain about how far we had to go to reach Haigton Crossing.
I filled up the tank, fuming about the expense. I had emptied my savings account before we left L.A. but that only gave me a couple hundred dollars. I’d put the plane tickets on my one and only credit card, which I’d dug up from the dusty files in the box under my bed.
The pump clicked off and the credit slip spat out. I tore it off, and jammed it in my pocket with the other receipts that had been building there, even though I had tried hard tonotspend too much. But Ghaliya had to eat, and the flight had only served cookies and coffee, despite it being a nearly seven-hour flight.
I opened the driver’s door and bent to look at her. She sat huddled in the passenger seat, and shivered as the opening door pulled cold air into the car.
“Okay?” I asked her.
She shook her head.
“Need a washroom?”
“Not yet.”
I nodded. “I’m heading inside to get directions. Want a Mars Bar?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Can I have a Snickers?”
“If you eat it and keep it down, you can have dried moose meat, if you want.”
“Ugh. Just a Snickers bar.”
I closed the door and headed into the garage. It was very warm inside—radiant heaters in the roof were pushing warm air at the doors. There was only a counter to separate the front of the shop from the working area behind. I could see someone in overalls lying on a dolly and working beneath a truck.
A wire stand beside the door held bags of chips and boxes of chocolate bars. None of them were Snickers. I weighed up what Ghaliya’s second preference might be and went for the massive calories by grabbing a bag of sweet chili chips.
I moved over to the counter and tapped the bell sitting on it.
The worker put down his wrench, rolled out from under the truck, and sat up. He was middle-aged, silver at the temples, but not even close to being overweight. He pulled a rag from his pocket and wiped his hands, looking at me. “Help you?” he called.
I raised my voice. “I’m lost. I’m trying to get to Haigton Crossing, but it doesn’t show up on the map on my phone.”
He stopped wiping his hands. His brows lifted. “Haigton Crossing?” His tone was puzzled.
“It’s somewhere near here,” I said. “You must know which road I have to take from here?”
The man got slowly to his feet, and walked over to the counter. “I do,” he said. “But…it’s just…no one goes to Haigton Crossing. I haven’t heard anyone mention the Crossing since…” He considered. “Well, it’s been a while.”
I gave him a patient smile. “So which road do I take?”
“Oh, that’s easy. You head back south along the 24, here. You passed the turn off as you came into the hamlet. Just go back a mile, and you’ll find it.”
