What Love Remembers by Muncy Chapman

Author:Muncy Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2014-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

eight

The first sounds that Kristen heard on Sunday morning were the gulls as they swept the beach in their never-ending search for the small fish and coquinas they found along the water’s edge.

She stretched lazily between her sheets and smiled, thinking of yesterday. Although the house was quiet, she could smell the coffee brewing. Kristen wished she could just grab a cup and head out for church, but no one at the Spinnaker went to church. Did the Baxters worship together? She reached for her Bible and began her private worship, softly singing one of her favorite hymns. Just as she ended her meditation and whispered her final “Amen,” she heard a strange low moaning from the connecting bath.

“Marla, are you sick? Do you need help?” She knocked on the closed bathroom door. When she received no answer, she cautiously opened the door into the bath, and discovered that the door into Marla’s room was open too.

Marla was seated on her bed, with her head in her hands. “What is it, Marla? Are you ill?” Kristen was alarmed at her appearance. Her disheveled hair hung down in her face, and her whole body was beet red. “Why, you’re badly sunburned. Didn’t you use the sunscreen yesterday?”

“No, I didn’t. I didn’t want to ruin my makeup with all that greasy stuff. Anyway, it’s not just the sunburn. My legs are hurting so that I can hardly stand on them. My head hurts, too. I think I must be coming down with the flu or something!”

Kristen saw that she was miserable, and felt sincerely sorry for her. “Lie down, Marla. I’ll go down and bring up a breakfast tray. I’ll bring up some aspirin for your headache and sore muscles, and something to sooth your sunburn. My legs are a little sore, too, this morning. It’s from the bike riding.”

Marla didn’t protest as she sank back against her pillows.

Kristen went into the bathroom and came out with a cool, damp washcloth. “Put this over your eyes and relax, and I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

She hurried down the stairs, where the only person she encountered was Mrs. Baxter. She explained Marla’s problems to a sympathetic ear.

“Oh, my. She never should have passed up the sunscreen. But I have just the thing for that.”

She went into her own room, and Kristen waited in the kitchen, expecting to see her returned with a bottle of lotion or cream. Instead, she carried a small potted plant.

“Now, you take this upstairs and break off one of these spikes, and have her rub the juice all over her body.”

“What in the world for, Mrs. Baxter? What is that?”

“It’s my aloe plant. Best sunburn medicine in the world. Just take my word for it. It’ll feel sticky, but it takes the fire out, and she’ll feel better right away.”

Kristen knew that aloe was an active ingredient in many of the body lotions on the market. Mrs. Baxter usually knew what she was talking about, so it seemed worth a try.

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