In the House On Lakeside Drive (36 page)

“What happened?” Eric asked.

“Is everyone all right?” Frank queried.

“Well, seems Mr. Longoria managed to fry his toaster. Which shorted out the socket it was plugged into, and caused a fire to travel the length of the wire behind the drywall.”

“The house isn't on fire?” the Englishman asked, looking poised to get up.

“No, thankfully they managed to put out the fire. But it's gonna be a fix. Plus he needs to call the fire department to see if it was a short or a problem with the toaster that caused it. Dangerous to work on something like that without clearance.”

“Looks like your business is picking up,” Eric said. “That's a good thing, isn't it?”

“If they pay me in money. I don't think I can take another rack of ribs or a case of beer as payment.”

Frank chuckled. “You never know. When I was growing up, it was common to pay for services that way. I remember my mother paying the neighbor down the lane with a free breakfast if he would mow our garden for us. He had the garden mower, you see—very expensive back then, and that was
if
you could get one.”

The
whoosh
of the city bus taking off from its stop drew Evan's attention. Two familiar figures strolled from the stop down the driveway, one waggling his white cane as though it were a heavy sword. “Be careful, Sam!” he called out. “There's a hole in the road some…”

“Found it!” the youth called back. The pair scurried up to the porch, eager to see the newspaper. “Was it good?” Sam asked.

“Andy did a fine job. We were thinking Gio's for dinner, seeing as it's hot.”

“Great!” Remy said. “They've got that new salad I wanna try…”

“Ice cream sounds great,” Sam added. “What are we waiting for?”

Evan pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Last one…”

The young men were off like a shot. Behind him, Frank chuckled. “Makes you feel young, doesn't it?”

Evan smiled as he looked out at his family and friends. “It does, Frank. It certainly does.”

Acknowledgements

So much has changed since I started writing eight years ago. For one, I've figured out my process, and it takes not only an amazing amount of imagination but an awful lot of folks to both inspire me and to help me make sure that I'm not accidentally killing people off with weird ingredients in a recipe or letting people get off with charges that don't actually exist. It also takes some special people to give me an honest opinion about my work (Lord knows I am an
awful
editor) and to be willing to tell me when I need to change things.

That said, there are a few people without whom I could have never gotten this story written.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank Beth Kapteyn and Ari Dasgupta for their insights into the pharmacy profession. I still can't remember the brand names of things half the time, and for sure when I asked them, “what's the easiest thing to get hooked on in a pharmacy?” they thought I was stark raving mad. Thanks guys.

Beth Hanninen-Mulvena has been one of my best friends for many years and my unofficial “editor-in-chief” since I wrote
Taken
six years ago. She knows exactly what I'm looking for—and what I'm not—and puts up with me taking over her writing time to edit my stuff. May we collaborate on many more projects to come.

I want to say thanks to Ryanne Griffith for not only giving this story a first look, but for helping me out with some of the medical terminology I used. I'm a person of many professions, but medicine is not one of them. Thanks for taking the time to make sure I didn't kill anyone with powdered sugar or give poor Evan a heart attack when I wanted him in shock.

On a personal level, I'd like to thank Patricia Betti for being supportive as always and Stephanie Nicol for making sure I don't lead our students down the wrong path, and for being a wonderful friend and sounding board.

Last but not least, the world of Otter Lake is based, in part, on real places. In particular, the school, OLBC, is based on a wonderful transitional school in Michigan called the Transitions Center. Like OLBC, this school services young adults with various disabilities and helps them prepare for both the working world and independent living. I have the good fortune to be able to work with the students and staff at this school every day, and without them none of these wonderful characters would have ever come into being. Thank you for broadening my horizons and making it a joy to go to my day job every morning.

Corie L. Calcutt, 2016