Happiness Key (42 page)

Inside, Tracy changed out of her youth camp shirt and brushed her hair; then she grabbed keys and took off again.

Janya had joined them by then. She was telling the women about Herb’s plants. “I have most of them at my house. They needed so much attention, and I was afraid they would die. But of course, they belong to you.”

“I might take some cuttings on the plane,” Pamela said. “But I’d like you to have the plants if you want them. Katie?”

Katie smoothed her son’s curls. “Maybe I’ll take something small and easy to remember him by, but just one. I barely have enough energy to raise Frankie here.” She set the little boy on the ground and watched him toddle right for the road. “See what I mean?” She took off after him.

Pamela watched her daughter and grandson with a smile. “Katie’s husband is in Iraq. Did she tell you that? We thought it made sense for her to use the house I grew up in, since she wouldn’t have to pay rent. She’ll stay until Richard comes home next year.”

“We didn’t really talk,” Wanda said. “But she’s welcome out here on the key any time she wants to come and visit us.”

Katie joined them again. “So this is where Herb lived?”

“Let’s go inside.” Tracy unlocked the door. Wanda and Janya looked at each other, as if trying to figure out if they should come, too, but Tracy beckoned them inside. She didn’t want to be the only one to explain what they knew.

“He lived all alone?” Pamela asked. “He wasn’t…married? I mean, to somebody other than my mother?”

“No, he never married again. And he did live here by himself. But he was energetic and friendly. He was able to manage, and he seemed fine right up until the end.”

“He died of a heart attack?”

“He did. Right here. Peacefully, too.”

Pamela was wandering now, lifting a dish, then a magazine. “He didn’t have much, did he?”

“We cleared out some old papers, but everything else is right where he left it. I hated to throw anything away. We knew he had a daughter somewhere. We were sure we would find you. Of course, we didn’t know how hard it would be.”

“He told you about me?”

“He told other people, and they told us.”

Wanda spoke up. “It got to be a quest, if you know what I mean. We, none of us, felt we’d given him enough time when he was living. We were all just so busy with our own lives. So I guess we felt we had to be good to him after he died.”

Pamela stopped pretending she was interested in Herb’s few possessions. “I don’t even know how to start asking questions. I thought he was just the man I’d hired to watch out for my house. He stopped by one day when I was getting the house ready to rent, and he was willing to work for so little. I sent him Christmas presents, and always gave him a nice bonus in the summer when the yard had to be mowed. And when he got too old to manage, I hired a lawn service and repairmen, but I still paid him to stop by and just look things over from time to time.” She stopped, biting her bottom lip, as if she was trying not to cry.

“I guess that’s the way he wanted it,” Wanda said.

Tracy knew it was time to explain how they had figured out the convoluted puzzle that was Herb’s life.
She launched into it, with occasional help from the other two women. Both Pamela and Katie were wide-eyed as she concluded.

“And that’s everything we know.”

Pamela was silent, but Katie was shaking her head. “You mean that when this Gloria Madsen left him, he could have gone home, even wanted to come home, but he didn’t? He lived all those years wanting to return, but he never did? Not so anybody knew, anyway?”

“I’m afraid that’s it.”

“I think we learned to know Herb through this,” Janya said. “I believe he was so ashamed he had left your mother, Pamela, that he felt he could never go home again.”

“Do you know why we still have that house?” Pamela asked. “Why my mother wouldn’t sell it when a builder wanted to buy it for good money and put up an apartment? Why
I
never sold it? Why we never changed those old-fashioned locks?”

Wanda put her hand on Pamela’s shoulder. “Because you were hoping he would come home one day. He would walk up to the house and fit his key in that lock, and be welcomed home again.”

Pamela wiped her eyes, because now the tears were falling. “My mother loved him until the day she died. She knew what the war had done to him, how he had changed, and she understood. I think she always hoped he was alive somewhere. She wanted him to come home to her. To us. And then we would pick up where we had been and be a real family again. I buried her in Georgia, where she was born, but even at that, I wondered if I should have buried her here, in case he tried to find her.”

“He knew where she was buried,” Wanda said. “We
found bills for flowers from a Georgia florist. I bet he had them put on her grave.”

Tracy pulled the key to the house on Pelican Way from her pocket. She had taken the time to retrieve it when she went inside to change. Now she took it to Pamela and placed it in her hand, folding her fingers over it.

“He was holding this when he died. I found it in his hand. I think he probably carried it with him always.”

“The key to happiness for all of us.” Pamela grasped it tight. “And he was afraid to use it.”

“He wouldn’t be the only one in the world who ever was,” Wanda said. “But maybe it helps just a little knowing he wanted to, more than anything else in the world.”

Tracy was sitting on her front steps when Marsh passed in his truck to drop off Olivia. She met him on the road, and they walked in silence down to the same stretch of beach where they had first met.

“So I guess you had some kind of day,” he said when they were standing looking out over the water.

“I’ll tell you about the last part another time. But here’s a clue. It’s all about holding the key to happiness in your hot little hand and being afraid to open the door it belongs to.”

“I’ll be interested to hear all about it.”

She turned to him. “I finally got around to looking at that packet of papers you left me at the beginning of July.”

“I knew you would eventually.”

“I didn’t really understand all the legal gobbledygook.”

“No reason you should. I figured you’d ask for details if you wanted more information.”

“Wild Florida wants my property as a conservation easement?”

“It’s really not all that complicated, Tracy. You sign away your rights for certain things, like developing it down to the last inch, and we give you money.”

“Marsh?” She shook her head. “Here’s your chance to be the soul of honesty.”

“Okay, you can’t develop it at all, if you want the truth. But you can improve the houses that are already here, maintain the driveways and the yards, maybe even put up another house or two on the old foundations, but you can’t build, say, a marina, or condos.”

“Garages?”

“Yeah, you could do that for the houses that are standing now. You can add on some, but you can’t turn them into mini-mansions. We’ll be watching you.”

“You’ll pay me for these rights? But I keep the land?”

“Decent money, too. But your heirs have to abide by the covenants we agree to. The land can never be developed. Not ever.”

“And I get tax benefits on top of that?”

“Boo-coo. The land loses value once the ability to develop it is lost. The county will evaluate it accordingly, and that’s how you’ll be taxed. Plus you get other tax breaks right up front. So you can keep all this acreage, afford to live here and enjoy it, and even improve and rent out the cottages if you want. Down the road, you can sell them if you find a buyer willing to go along with the plan.”

“There’s a group of developers who want it. Maribel’s been negotiating with them. They’re tough guys and willing to fight you in the courts.”

He just looked at her, tilting his head in question.

“I would be rich,” she pointed out.

“You already are.”

Tracy knew he wasn’t talking about money.

He smiled. “You’re going to let us have it, aren’t you?”

“I just may.” She rose up on tiptoe and kissed him.

He put his arms around her and held her there. “You decide soon, okay? Because I’m getting kind of tired of waiting for a little happiness of my own, and I don’t mean Happiness Key.”

“A little?” She laughed. “What makes you think it will just be a little?”

He was too busy kissing her to answer.

Thursday night had become their night together. None of the women was sure how it happened. Nobody decreed it. The first Thursday night Janya had the neighbors to her house to practice her henna tattoos. Then the following Thursday Wanda had them over for sweet potato pie, and to show off the new marble tile Ken and Tracy were planning to install when work slowed a little at the rec center. Last week Tracy had invited them for dinner to prove that she was indeed learning to cook at the center’s basic cooking class and could now make a mean macaroni and cheese—if nothing else.

Tonight was Alice’s turn. She had asked them to come for dessert, and the smell of chocolate greeted Tracy when Alice let her in. She could hear voices and knew some of the other women were already there, including Katie, who was becoming one of the gang. Alice was particularly fond of Frankie, who was screeching somewhere nearby.

“Wow, look at these Halloween decorations!”

“Karen loved Halloween.” In the past weeks Alice’s speech had improved measurably, and she had gained much-needed weight. Without Lee hovering over every move, she had also gained confidence, which helped with everything else. She was driving again, which helped most of all with Olivia’s after-school activities, although sometimes Olivia just walked to the rec center to go home with Tracy.

“Are these some of her things?” Tracy picked up a ceramic haunted house in the middle of a scary village on a side table.

“Lee stored some boxes. In the utility room. Olivia found these.”

“It must be comforting for her to carry on her mom’s tradition.”

Alice smiled gravely. “She is so much like Karen.”

Janya came out of Olivia’s bedroom carrying Frankie, and Katie followed with her arm around Olivia.

“Hey, gang,” Tracy said. “Do I smell brownies?”

“Cupcakes,” Olivia said. “Like my mom made every single Halloween. I made them myself.”

Halloween wasn’t for another month, but Tracy could see that the intervening weeks would be rich in celebration. “Hey, if you’re that good at cupcakes, I think you ought to have a party for your friends out here on Halloween night.”

She started to suggest a haunted house over at Herb’s, which was finally empty of all belongings and ready to rent again for the winter. But maybe a haunted house was too close to the truth. Herb had, in his own way, haunted each of them. Now that his ghost was
finally at peace, she figured she would let it stay that way. Just in case.

Wanda arrived with a bag full of books and magazines for Alice. Janya had rooted cuttings for her, and they discussed the perfect windowsill. After they chatted for a while and watched Olivia feed the fish, Alice served coffee and tea on a lace tablecloth, along with the cupcakes, which were adorned with spiderweb frosting, and spiders made from gumdrops and licorice. The tablecloth had come from J.C. Penney’s, but the last time they were together, Alice had showed them the new pineapple tablecloth she was crocheting for Olivia. She had already made headway.

“Well, I got news,” Wanda said. “Kenny and I, we’re taking a cruise to Puerto Rico at Christmas. I know some of you’ve been everywhere, but I’ve never been squat. So this is exciting. It’s kind of like a second honeymoon.”

The room buzzed with suggestions for what to bring, things to do on board. When the buzz died down, Janya made her own announcement.

“I start work on the library mural in two weeks. They like my design and found me an assistant to help with some of the work.”

Again everybody talked at once. Tracy had seen the design. Janya had incorporated scenes from familiar adult and children’s novels. It was fabulous.

Katie described a letter she had gotten from her soldier husband. Olivia told them she was trying out for a play at the local community theater.

Tracy had nothing new to tell. Sherrie had come for a visit and pronounced a blessing on Tracy’s new life. Tracy liked her job more every day. The legal work was already
in phase two with Wild Florida, and she and Marsh had moved on to a new phase of their relationship, as well, which held acres of promise—if they could figure out how two such different people could share a life. Living in Florida was a work in progress, but she had a million things to look forward to. She wasn’t sure that had ever been true before.

“I have something.” Alice got to her feet and disappeared down the hall.

“Your grandmother’s looking good,” Wanda told Olivia, who was down on the floor setting up blocks so Frankie could knock them over.

“She’s happy,” Olivia said.

Tracy thought that, despite missing her father, Olivia was happier, too. She had been to see Lee once at the county jail, but she had not asked to go again. Years would pass before Olivia dealt with all the things that had happened to her family, but she had a lot of people willing to listen as she did.

Alice returned with a shopping bag. She stopped in front of Tracy and pulled out a little bundle tied in ribbon. Tracy looked up to see if Alice was really serious. “No, you’ve got to be kidding, Alice. You have no idea how awful I am at things like this.”

Alice made tsking noises and went on to Wanda, who got the same bundle and made the same protests.

Janya took hers with a smile. “Oh, this will be fun.”

Alice passed out the last bundle to Katie.

“Olivia already—” Alice took her place again “—made a scarf. She’s only ten. None of you have excuses.”

Tracy looked down at her crochet hook and a glittery red ball of yarn. She tried to imagine an occasion when
she would wear this scarf, and she couldn’t. She tried to imagine telling Alice she refused to learn to crochet.

She
really
couldn’t.

Alice held up her own hook. “We start by making a chain.”

Tracy thought the women had already made one, the very best kind, and every link was right in this room.