Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 02 - Apple Pots and Funeral Plots (31 page)

“When?”

“I don’t know.
But I’ll definitely be back for the first week in August.”

Tom smile broadened.
“That would be nice, Liza.”

“I’m looking forward to spending some time with Michael.”
I smiled and lied through my teeth.
Actually, I’m more than a bit apprehensive about spending some time with Tom’s seven-year-old son.
Dealing
with kids one hundred and eighty
days a year, doesn’t leave much patients for anymore.
I never thought I’d ever get involved with a divorced man with a small child.
What was I thinking?
Am I nuts?

“I can’t wait for you to meet him, too.”
Tom interrupted my whirling thoughts.

“Me, either.”
I nodded.

“I’ll see if I can come down next weekend for a visit.”

“Can’t stand to be without me?”

“Well, I know that once school starts
I won’t
see you very much.
I’m trying to get my fix now.”

“You make me sound like a drug.”

He nuzzled my neck.
“You’re intoxicating, my dear.”

I opened the door to the rental car.
“I love you, Tom, and I’ll see you soon.”

“I love you, too.”
He closed the door and I left the mountains.

Shelby
hated being in the backseat of the car.
She
paced and whined
because she was used to riding shotgun with me.
I would have to make sure that she could ride in the front seat of my new car.
Maybe I’d buy a truck.
They’re the only vehicles I know of that let you turn off the front airbag on the passenger side.

A couple of hours later, I pulled into my own driveway.
It had been nice at Tom’s but it was really wonderful to be home.
The front yard had been recently mowed.
It was a good thing I had a gardener or the grass would probably be six feet high by now.
He would have also mowed the backyard but didn’t take care of the shrubs and flowers.
I couldn’t wait to see what they looked like.

I opened the back door and let
Shelby
out of the car.
Then I took my bags into the house.
A few minutes later, I heard the familiar toot of Justin’s horn on his wheelchair.
I went outside and set down the triangular ramp I kept there for Justin’s wheelchair.

Justin waved and wheeled to the porch.
“Hi, Teach.”

“Hello, Justin.”

“Please don’t tell me that the piece of junk in your driveway is your new car?”

“No.
It’s a rental.”

“Thank God.”

“I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“It looks like a rental, Teach.”

“Well, it is.”

Justin turned his wheelchair so I could see the sides.
“Look at my new writing.”

The words said, “Super Cyber Sidekick” on the side in red metallic paint.
“It looks great.
Did you bring the bill?”

“It was kind of expensive, Teach.
I told the guy I’d work it off by doing computer work for her.”

“No, I said I’d pay it, so hand over the bill.”

Justin dug a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me.
I opened it up.
It was four hundred-dollars, a little expensive, but Justin’s help is always invaluable and well worth the money.
I took out my purse, wrote the Detail Shop a check, and handed it to Justin.

“Thanks, Teach.”

“No, thank you.”

“Hey, I think I finally figured out why those people thanked Danielle in that paper.”

I sat down at the table.
“Why?”

“They had a niece whose parents were killed and she came to live with them.
Three months later, she ran away.
They never knew where she’d gone or what happened to her.”

“Danielle helped them find her?”

“I think so.
About a year ago there was an article in the paper about her coming home and she thanked a teacher for finding her and convincing her to come home.”

“Did the article have Danielle’s name in it?”

“No, just a thank you to a teacher and then the thank you from the aunt and uncle to
Danielle
.”

“You’re probably right.
That’s it.”

“Tell me what happened with the drugs and the apple pots.”

I spent the next several hours going through the entire incident, step by step.
Justin loved all the details.

“Wow, you brought down a mayor, a doctor, and a police lieutenant.
That’s pretty good, Teach.”

“The best part was finding out who killed all those people.
Now their families have closure.
It’s important to understand why something happened in order to move past it.”

“I suppose.”
Justin shrugged, clearly not feeling philosophical about the incident.
He just liked the fact that we had outwitted all those people.

A few minutes later, Justin was on his way and I was left to unpack and check the backyard.
My flowers were dead, so I spent the rest of the afternoon pulling them and putting them into my yard waste recycling can.

That evening I was sore, but felt exhilarated that I’d gotten so much accomplished in one afternoon.
My entire backyard was manicured and clean.
It was a good feeling.

Before I went to bed, I decided to check my email.
Justin had shown me how to check my school email from home.
It gave me the chance to delete all the unwanted emails on a weekly basis rather than going back to school in August and deleting hundreds of them.

I had several emails from pharmaceutical companies and banks, so I deleted them immediately.
I also got an email from my friend, Julie.
She was a retired teacher, sixty-three and looking for the next love of her life.
She was going on a single’s trip to
Europe
in a few days.
I told her to have a good time.

Then I noticed I had an email I didn’t recognize.
I opened it up, but it was blank.
So I replied to the email and asked whom it was from, then went back to deleting emails from all the local stores.
My computer beeped, telling me that I had a new email.
Great, another one to delete.
It was in response to the last email I’d sent, marked “Undeliverable.”
The address didn’t work.
How could that be?
I’d used the same one from the original email.
I started to delete it and then noticed the date.
August 13, 2004.
That was a date I knew very well.
It was the date my parents were killed in a plane crash.
No mystery there, no closure needed, so the date must be for something else.

It didn’t matter to me why the date was wrong.
Call it divine intervention or just a fluke.
I opened the Internet and started researching.
Nothing much happened on that date.
There was an earthquake in
Argentina
, a couple of bank robberies in the Midwest, and a lot of gang activities in
Los Angeles
, but nothing that struck me.
Nothing that I had a personal connection to.
Maybe I should call Justin and have him research the date.
He was so much better at searching the World Wide Web than I.

Just then my computer beeped again.
I had never shut down my email system.
I clicked back to it and had a new email from the same “Undeliverable” address with the same date.
I opened the email and there was an attachment.
Justin was always telling me to never open attachments from people I didn’t know.
But I decided to do it anyway.

When I opened it, the first thing I saw was a picture I’d seen a hundred times.
My mom and dad.
It had been taken a month before their plane accident while they were on a cruise.
They were both smiling and happy.
I scrolled down, but I didn’t need to read the article.
I had read it a thousand times before.
I knew every single word by heart.

Why had someone sent me an article about my parents?
What did it mean?
My parents had been killed in a plane accident – or had they?

Epilogue

Just in case the Apple Pots have made you hungry for a scrumptious dessert, here’s the recipe.

Topping:

In a bowl combine:

             
1/3 cup flour

             
1/4 cup brown sugar

             
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, uncooked

With a pastry blender or two knives used scissor-fashion, cut in 6 tablespoon butter or margarine, cut into pieces, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

[This can be made ahead of time, put into a Ziploc bag, and stored in the freezer. You can even double or triple the recipe and use it whenever you want to add topping to fruit before baking.]

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Choose whatever size baking dish you need – from individual pots to a large baking dish.

Peel, core, and cut apples into 1/4 inch slices. Golden Delicious apples make a sweeter dessert, whereas Granny Smith apples are tart. Toss the apples with fresh lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon (if desired), and flour.

(For a 1 ½ quart baking dish use: 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour.)

Place apple mixture into baking dish and sprinkle on topping. Bake until apples are tender and topping has lightly browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool slightly on a wire rack to serve warm. Add vanilla ice cream if you want!