Maggie and the Mourning Beads by Barbara Cool Lee

Author:Barbara Cool Lee [Lee, Barbara Cool]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pajaro Bay Publishing

Chapter Eleven

After Lauren and Hendrix left, Maggie helped Jasper up the stairs from the beach. "Only a few more, pup. You can do it."

Jasper was game, and climbed each stair one at a time. On the landing halfway up they paused to catch their breath. She rubbed his back and praised him lavishly. "You are so good," she said. "You're doing great."

He grinned at her and wagged his tail, then got up and took the next stair on his own. She followed slowly, letting him set his own pace. Unlike a person, he made no excuses for being weak. He just kept trying.

"Good boy," she told him with each step. "Just a few more."

When they got closer to the top of the stairs, Maggie realized there was an eerie wail coming from Casablanca.

It was a droning sound, like a low-pitched engine straining to climb a hill.

When they reached the top she let go of Jasper's leash, and he limped over to a man kneeling on the lawn overlooking the pool. The man knelt at the foot of the rusted wave sculpture, deep in meditation. It had been his rumbling om noises that she had been hearing.

The sculpture echoed his voice with a metallic clanking of its own every time the breeze brushed through the rusted rebar, but he didn't move.

Jasper licked the man on the face, and he calmly opened his eyes and smiled.

Most people would be startled by a huge dog suddenly licking them while their eyes were closed, but not Eddie Zimmer.

"Hello," he said serenely, first to Jasper and then to her.

"Hi, Eddie."

With remarkably little effort, he got to his feet. Eddie was a short man with dark curls and lively brown eyes. And he had the look of someone formerly famous—like you knew you'd seen him before somewhere, but couldn't quite place him. His eyes held a calmness that was almost intoxicating, like a deep, still pool.

"Waiting long?" she asked.

He stretched, apparently not the slightest bit sore from kneeling long enough to leave an indentation in the grass.

"Time is just an artificial construct," he said softly. "After all, what is time?"

"I don't know, Eddie. I just know I don't have enough of it."

Jasper came back over to her and bumped her. She stroked his long nose absently.

"We have all the time we need," Eddie said. He went over to the patio table, his very slight limp a reminder of the car accident he'd survived eleven years ago. There was a thick portfolio on the table. He got out his phone and checked his messages.

"How are the kids?" she asked.

He gave her that same peaceful smile. "They're wonderful." He was the former rock star who had married Paige, the yoga teacher. They had two little girls, Lotus and Serenity, who were adorable and filled with the same calm and generous spirits as their parents. Last time she'd seen the children they were rescuing bugs that had fallen into their cat's water dish. They fished the insects out and

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