Give Fudge a Chance by Nancy Coco

Author:Nancy Coco [Coco, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2023-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Scheduling the fudge-making demonstration for an hour later than usual actually had a better turnout.

“Wow,” Madison said when the crowd finally thinned. “Maybe you should change your times to eleven a.m. permanently.”

“After today I may consider it,” I said as I washed my hands. “But it could just be a fluke.”

“Then we have to test the theory,” Madison decided. “Let’s make it eleven for the rest of the week and see what the average crowd looks like.”

“That’s a good plan,” I said and took off my chef’s hat and coat. “I’ve got to take Mal for a walk. She was mad at me for going to the Chamber coffee without her.”

“Have fun,” Madison said. “I’ll man the fort.”

“Thanks.” Lucky for me, the podcasters were upstairs editing their film. It gave us all a brief break.

It was sad that soon the summer season would be over and I would lose Madison to her school. It made me wonder if Hazel had ever had a chance to go to college or if she had simply spent time with her mother instead. The truth was, I didn’t know much about Hazel except that she cared for her dying mom and worked for an insurance agency. Had she always worked there, or only after her mom died? Had she worked anywhere else? Maybe it was time I dug a little deeper. Frances might know something. I took down Mal’s leash.

“Frances,” I said as I hooked on Mal’s harness first. “Were you teaching when Hazel was in school?”

“The year she graduated was my last year,” Frances said. “Why?”

“Did you know about her mom?”

“Of course, the community rallied around Rose. She lived three years longer than the doctors thought. So, there was something to all the dinners we brought her and the prayers we said for her.”

I snapped the leash to the harness. “Did Hazel want to go to college?”

“She always had plans to become a nurse,” Frances said. “Hazel used to love to hang around the clinic and pretend she was a helper. In fact, she was a candy striper her junior and senior years of high school.”

“Her mom died a few years ago?”

“Five years,” Frances said. “We all thought Hazel would take the insurance money and go to college, but she didn’t. She just stayed on the island. For the first year, she didn’t even work. I think she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.”

“And she didn’t have a boyfriend?” I asked as Mal danced around me, impatient to go for the walk.

“She was too busy once her mom got sick, and after Rose died, most of the men on the island were already married. She dated a fudgie every now and then, but nothing really stuck.”

“I understand she worked for an insurance guy in St. Ignace. Did she live off the island?” I asked. “I didn’t think so since she was around a lot.”

“Yes, she worked in St. Ignace,” Frances said. “But she still lived in her mother’s family home.

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