Leaves of Hope by Catherine Palmer

Author:Catherine Palmer [Palmer, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2006-10-27T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“I met your friend,” Beth said. She had come back into the house about an hour after shouting at her mother and running down to the lake. “The man with the white dog? Jim Blevins.”

“Oh, yes, he’s over here bothering me all the time.”

Jan tried to sound lighthearted, hoping her daughter couldn’t tell how hurt she felt. When Beth had returned to the house that morning, she apologized for her explosion, went into the guest bedroom and shut the door. Jan could hear her making phone calls. Now they were out on the screened porch eating lunch. She had made chicken salad sandwiches, even though she secretly felt her daughter didn’t merit the effort it took to create good chicken salad.

Still, a mother’s love never ended, did it? While Beth was at the lakeshore pouting or fuming, or whatever it was this time, Jan had hopped in her car for a run to the grocery store. She bought everything she would need for the chicken salad, as well as some lemons, lots of fresh vegetables and a loaf of seven-grain bread. So much for her fruit-and-cereal diet. Her hips would head east and west, the way they always did when she ate too much of the wrong things, but what could she do? It wasn’t like she could serve her daughter nothing but cornflakes and strawberries.

In the Lowell family, the phrase “shut up” was never spoken. That expression of disrespect and anger was forbidden, and for good reason. Nothing could cut a person to the quick faster than those two words. Even now, seated on the porch with roses and barbecue smoke perfuming the air, Jan still stung from the reprimand.

What had she done wrong? Nothing but sing an old family movie favorite. Nothing but try to start the day on a cheerful note. Nothing but love her daughter and do her best to make the most of their short time together.

“I think he likes you, Mom,” Beth was saying.

“Who?”

“Jim Blevins. He had nothing but wonderful things to say about you. He thinks you’ve really brightened up the neighborhood.”

“I wish he and that dog would just leave me alone. You watch…The pair of them will stroll by here in a few minutes. Jim will wave and holler out some kind of a question that I’m supposed to answer, like—‘Did you get rid of your aphids?’ or ‘Have you heard the white bass are biting?’ Then he’ll pretend he didn’t hear me answer, so he and Trixie will come walking up my driveway, and the next thing you know, they’ll be right here on the porch with us.”

“Why don’t you like him? He seems nice.”

“He’s nice enough. I just wish he wouldn’t hang around so much. It’s because his wife died and he’s lonely.”

“I think he’s set his cap for you, Mom.”

“Oh, for pity’s sake. Jim is a good twenty years older than I am.”

“So what? Are you going to live here by yourself tending roses and making chicken salad

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