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Meg grimaced as she settled at the computer. 63 emails. She ran the cursor down the list. Nothing from redranger. She started with the junk, then the forwards. Next she looked for the paypal’s that announced that she had received a payment. There were six of them and she quickly printed them. Then she clicked on the eBay “your item sold’s “ that corresponded with the payments. Those out of the way she clicked on the other eBay correspondence. Six were questions which she quickly answered. Two from peepster25 who told her first how much she liked her new necklace and then the next one wished her a good vacation. 8 items were ended and needed to be relisted . At last she stared at a blank screen. She gathered the items that had sold and loaded the shipping labels in the top bed of the printer. Before she could call up the shipping list the mail box clicked. Redranger. She opened the email and began to smile. “Meg?”
“Eldon?” And the conversation was on. She told him how great the short vacation had been and how good Kevin looked and how they had ran and gone to the Golden Gate Bridge. It felt good to visit with Eldon. It was such a comfortable feeling. No pressure. And she could set at her computer in her ragged tee shirt and her gym shorts and he would never know. Long distance, Internet romance, what ever you called it, was exactly what she needed this morning.
He was the first to break off since he had to go to work. It was after 7:00 AM where he was which was an hour ahead of her time here in the Mountain Standard Time. So he was sort of on Central Time. She made a note to call Fred about the light in the chicken house. Fred was the retired Marine who helped out with odd jobs around this area. He lived a little ways up the mountain in a small cabin and worked cheap. Fred was a sad specimen as were many of the characters who lived on the mountain. Not bad people, just sort of misfits.
“I will be in early tonight and we can catch up. OK? :)” Eldon always signed off with the little smiley face and Meg always smiled when she saw it. She tapped back an “OK” and headed for the kitchen. She needed to make cookies for the luncheon on Tuesday for the AIDS clients. Once a month she sponsored a social luncheon in the conference room at the ACS office in town. AIDS Client Services had been active since 1987 when the epidemic was reaching new heights and help was not to be found. Currently the office served 145 people, but only about 20 of them were active in social events. The climate of the disease had changed a lot over the years and now it was more a chronic disease as opposed to a death sentence as it had been back then. It was much easier in this day and age to get on Disability Income. Meg was glad that Kevin was working. She could not picture him setting and waiting for the next shoe to drop. He had put himself through college and he would put himself through life.
Meg gave Fred a quick call and made arrangements for him to come by later in the morning to check out the light in the chicken house. That being taken care of she headed for the shower. She loved a nice hot shower especially on a cool morning like today. Most mornings were cool here in the foothills as were the evenings. That was one of the great things about Colorado. Kansas had been hot and humid. True she had never needed chapstick in Kansas, but then she rarely used it now. Just some times. The humidity was very low in this area so the heat and the cold did not affect her like they had in Selda. She suddenly thought of her sister and instead of the shower she picked up the phone.
“Eleanor! How are you? I have not talked to you since forever.” Her younger sister laughed softly.
“Course not. You just stay holed up out there and don’t talk to anyone. When are you coming for a visit? You know Betsy is getting married again, don’t you?”
“Well, how could I? Nobody ever calls. You know you could come out here and see me. I always go to see you.” And she suddenly remembered why she never called. She was the outsider. Mom had always been close to the 3 sisters. When Dad had left and moved to New Jersey with his secretary, Eleanor, Betsy and Merilyn had turned their backs on him and taken care of Mom. Meg had been in Montana than and saw no reason to return. Mom was in good hands and apparently so was Dad. Now Dad was dead and Mom was still not going to let it go. Nor were the girls.
“OK, Ellie, lets try to get together for Christmas. I would love to have you all out here. Want to?” Eleanor promised to talk to the sisters and Mom and let her know. So Meg rang off and started the shower with warm water. She stepped under the spray and turned the cold down a little. As she relaxed under the hot water she reached for the soap. Her hand stopped in mid air as she looked at the strange bar of soap in the tray. Irish Spring? She did not use Irish Spring. She bought all her soap from a girl on eBay who made it in her kitchen. It was all coordinated. Tahitian Vanilla Soap, Tahitian Vanilla Body Butter and Tahitian Vanilla Lotion. She had not bought any thing else in the last 3 years. She suddenly felt very vulnerable and small in her nakedness. She stepped quickly from the shower and wrapped in her lavender towel. The towel smelled of Irish Spring and she discarded it in a heap of the floor.
What was going on here? Who had been in her home? Was she alone now? The door bell chimed and she jumped. Grabbing her robe she ran down the hall, pulling it on and belting it as she moved. She wrenched the door open and encountered Fred on the porch with his hat in his hands. She must have been a sight because he stepped back and almost fell off the porch. Suddenly she felt very foolish.
“Oh , Fred! I am sorry! I forgot you were coming. Please excuse me. I must look a mess. Come in.” She stepped back while opening the door wider.
“Oh, no, Miss. I will just go check out the chicken house if that is alright with you. If you got a problem I will get right on it.” He hurried down the steps with a confused look on his face. Meg sagged against the door jamb. What a damn fool she must look like. She left the door ajar in case Fred got back before her and hurried down the hall to dress. She quickly grabbed a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt, panties and white cotton socks. In less than 10 minutes she was back at the door fully dressed and watching Fred ambling across the yard towards the house.
She met him at the door with 2 cups of coffee. She handed his to him and motioned to the glider. “Well, Fred. What did you find?"
“Not a thing, Miss. Light seems to be fine and I checked all the wires. Must have just been a trick of your imagination or a gremlin.” He sipped his coffee and looked toward the chicken house. “I did notice though that when I walked by the side of the house on the way out there that you got a loose screen right there on your garage.” He gestured and Meg’s eyes followed his finger. Loose screen? The whole bottom half of the screen hung loose. How had that happened? As she realized how it had happened her stomach went ice cold with dread. Some one had been in her home while she was in California! Nothing was missing, she was sure. She would check, but she knew suddenly that if the intruder had meant to do harm to anything he would not have taken a shower and dried on her towel.
In a very controlled voice she turned to Fred. “Yes, Freddie, I want you to fix that, but let’s do this. Go into town and get the screen and while you are at it, I want to burglar proof this place. See Mr. Watts at the Iron and Metal place and have something nice and sturdy installed. You work with him and I would like to have it done sooner rather than later.”
Fred smiled. This would be a job worth doing. Put a little money in his pocket. He liked money. If he didn’t like it, why did he have it buried all over his property? He pulled his tape measure off his belt and took a notebook and pencil out of his shirt pocket. “Yes, mam! I will get right on that!” He whistled as he walked to the first window.
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