3
Bay walked from the school to her aunt’s house in the growing darkness, having just missed the late buses because of the meeting. She didn’t feel like running today like she usually did, always so anxious to get to the Waverley house. So she crunched slowly through the red leaves on the sidewalk, her face to the sinking sun, thinking about Josh. When she saw herself with him, she saw snow, so maybe this winter something would happen. Maybe she just had to be patient. She’d discovered long ago that getting things to where they belonged was sometimes a timely process, so she’d become good at waiting. If only there wasn’t this longing that felt like actual pain sometimes. No one ever told her it was going to be like this. It was a wonder that anyone fell in love at all.
“Hello again.”
She had just reached the Waverley house. She stopped on the sidewalk and turned. Across the street, she saw the same man she’d seen yesterday on the green downtown, the elderly man in the gray suit. He didn’t have his suitcase with him today.
Bay smiled in surprise. “I see you found Pendland Street.”
“Indeed, I did. Thank you.”
“Are you visiting someone?”
“As a matter of fact, I am,” he said.
Bay was momentarily distracted by the Halloween lights flipping on in Mrs. Kranowski’s yard behind him—orange twinkle lights strung in her boxwood bushes, tattered glow-in-the-dark ghosts hanging in her spindly maple tree. The decorations had obviously been in storage, because Bay could smell mothballs from across the street. Mrs. Kranowki’s elderly terrier, Edward, was at the front window, barking wildly at the man.
When Bay’s eyes flicked back to the man—it had only been seconds—he was gone.
Edward stopped barking, as confused as she was.
Bay’s dark brows knit and she slowly backed away, then ran to the house. She slid up the wet hill, then hurried to the front door, looking over her shoulder as she entered, half expecting the man to have followed her.
First frost falling on Halloween this year seemed to be making everything just that much weirder.
It had been rose candy day in the Waverley house, the scent still permeating the air, even though the kitchen was closed for the evening. It smelled as if there were a garden hidden in the walls somewhere.
The back labels on all the rose candy jars read:
Rose essence is for memory
of long ago first loves,
have a taste and you will see
the one you once dreamed of.
Bay took a deep breath and felt her shoulders relax. But then she gave a start when her aunt appeared at the top of the staircase. She was in a bathrobe, obviously getting ready for her night out. “Bay?” Claire asked. “What’s wrong?”
Bay pushed herself away from the front door. “Oh, nothing. Just this elderly man I’ve seen outside two days in a row. He wanted to know where Pendland Street was.”
“It’s a popular street.”
“He just seemed strange. He was wearing this shiny gray suit, like a salesman, maybe.”
“Hey, Bay!” Mariah said, running down the stairs past Claire. She had brown eyes and curly brown hair like her father, hair that always looked somehow in motion, even when Mariah was still, as if someone were running their fingers through it, lovingly.
“Hey, squirt,” Bay said, giving her a hug. “I’ve got homework. How about you?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s do it together in the sitting room.”
As Bay walked into the sitting room with her backpack, she almost missed the look on Claire’s face, the look that maybe this man in the silver suit was not someone Claire was unfamiliar with.