Page 52 of There I Find Hope

Chapter 22

“Can you tell me who has box number forty-three?” Sunday asked Mrs. Miller as she stood on the other side of the counter of the post office in Strawberry Sands.

Mrs. Miller, her gray hair curled close to her head, her glasses perched on the end of her nose, a golden chain that led from one side arm to the other dripping down to her shoulders on both sides, peered across the counter at Sunday.

“This is a government institution. I cannot divulge that information.” Her face was serious, but then she broke into a smile, her eyes twinkling. “But if you want to know who’s pregnant, you can go ahead and ask. Because I know that news, and I can tell you.”

“Who’s pregnant?” Sunday asked, swallowing her disappointment that she couldn’t find out who owned PO Box forty-three.

She’d been thinking about coming to the post office for a while, trying to figure out who Business Boy was. She was curious, she had to admit. She wanted to meet him, but she wanted to know who she’d been talking to all this time first. It had to be someone who lived in Strawberry Sands, as he answered her letters so frequently. He’d said he had a business but didn’t want to divulge the details. Did that mean it wasn’t legit? That he didn’t really have a business? That he was just trying to hide it?

She was suspicious.

“Your sister, Clara Landry.” Mrs. Miller’s voice trembled with excitement. “Well, she is Clara Hudson now.” She rubbed her hands together. “I just heard this morning, directly from her. She said she was keeping the news to herself for a little bit, but if she told me, you know she didn’t mean that.”

Sunday’s brows went up. Her sister was pregnant? She hadn’t heard a word.

Maybe Clara was just so excited that she couldn’t contain herself. Probably she was going to announce it to the family on Sunday at their regular Sunday dinner. Usually Sundays were her mom’s busiest check-out day, but they often tried to have dinner together as a family at the bed-and-breakfast if they could.

This time of year, they often ended up going outside and eating around the campfire. Sometimes the guests joined them, and everyone had a good time.

It wasn’t the best place to tell everyone news a person wanted to keep secret, but it would work.

Now Sunday wanted to seek her sister out and congratulate her. She was going to be an aunt again. That was exciting. And all of her was happy. Although there was a part of her that was a little bit sad. It didn’t take away from her excitement about her sister, it just reminded her that she had had a baby once. And now he was gone.

She supposed that was something she needed to get used to since it would probably be something she would think about for the rest of her life.

“I’ll have to find her and congratulate her. That’s so exciting.”

Mrs. Miller nodded her head. “It’s so thrilling to see you girls who grew up here in town staying here and having babies. So many people move away. It can be hard. This was definitely a ray of sunshine, and I can’t wait to tell everyone I see.”

Sunday nodded, and she tried to look a little pathetic, to play on Mrs. Miller’s sympathies. After all, she just heard that her sister was having a baby, and she had lost her son not that long ago. Surely the woman could feel a little bit bad for her and maybe tell her something that she didn’t usually tell customers.

“Are you sure you can’t tell me who owns box forty-three?”

“Well, I can’t tell you who it is. But I can tell you that their permanent address is in Chicago.”

That didn’t really help. Except, Business Boy had said he had an office in Chicago. Of course, the address might not be an office. It might be an apartment building or something he made up.

“Thanks, Mrs. Miller,” Sunday said, trying not to sound as dejected as she felt as she pushed the door open and walked outside.

Was there some other way she could learn the identity of Business Boy? She couldn’t think of anything, and it was time for her to go feed Hope again.

She smiled at the thought. Nodding at the strangers on the street, tourists most likely, she walked down to the bed-and-breakfast.

Her mom was sitting on the porch with Clara, and after checking the time and seeing that she had a few minutes to spare, Sunday did a ninety-degree turn and walked in the gate to the bed-and-breakfast.

“Sunday! I have news. And I’m sorry, I haven’t been able to not tell anyone, although I wanted to tell my family first!”

“Let me guess, you got a dog?” Sunday said, knowing what the news was but teasing her a bit.

“No! Almost, you’re very close.”

“Hmm, very close to buying a dog. Let’s see, you sold a painting for six figures?” Her sister was a painter, and since she got married, her husband, Alex, had been encouraging her to give her art the time it deserved.

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