At First Sight - Nicholas Sparks [49]
Despite the darkness, he recognized the car as Mayor Gherkin’s, and a moment later he watched the shadowy figure emerge.
“Jeremy Marsh?” the mayor called out. “You out there?”
Jeremy cleared his throat, surprised for the second time. He debated whether or not to answer before realizing that his car gave him away. “Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I’m over here.”
“Where? I can’t see you.”
“Over here,” Jeremy called. “Near the big tree.”
The mayor started toward him. As he approached, Jeremy could hear him going on.
“I’ll say, you do come to the strangest places, Jeremy. It was all I could do to find you. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, though, knowing your history with this place and all. But still, I can think of a dozen better places to go if a man wants to be alone. I guess a man feels the urge to go back to the scene of the crime, don’t he?”
By the time he finished, he was standing before Jeremy. Even in the dark Jeremy could make out what he was wearing: red polyester pants, a purple Izod shirt, and a yellow sport jacket. He looked something like an Easter egg.
“What are you doing here, Mr. Mayor?”
“Well, I came to talk to you, of course.”
“Is this about the astronaut? I left a message at your office—”
“No, no, of course not. I got your message, so don’t you worry about that none. I had no doubt you’d come through, being that you’re a celebrity and all. What happened was that I was working in my office, just finishing up some paperwork at my store downtown, and I happened to see your car passing by. I waved, but I suppose you didn’t see me, and I said to myself, I wonder where Jeremy Marsh could be going in such a hurry.”
Jeremy held up his hands to stop him. “Mr. Mayor, I’m really not in the mood—”
The mayor went on as if he hadn’t heard him. “But I didn’t think anything of it, of course. Not at first, anyway. But wouldn’t you know it, you drove by a second time and then a third, and I started wondering if maybe you needed someone to talk to. So I asked myself, Where would Jeremy Marsh go, and . . .” The mayor paused for dramatic effect, then slapped his leg for emphasis as he went on. “Like a bolt of lightning, it hit me. Why, he’d go to the cemetery!”
Jeremy simply stared at him. “Why did you think I would go to the cemetery?”
The mayor smiled in satisfaction, but instead of answering directly, he pointed to the magnificent magnolia tree in the center of the cemetery.
“You see that tree, Jeremy?”
Jeremy followed his gaze. With gnarled roots and sprawling limbs, the tree had to be well over a hundred years old.
“Did I ever tell you the story about that tree?”
“No, but—”
“That tree was planted by Coleman Tolles, one of the town’s most prominent citizens, back before the War of Northern Aggression. He operated the feed store and the general grocers, and he had himself the prettiest wife for miles around. Her name was Patricia, and though the only painting of her was destroyed in the library fire, my daddy used to swear that he’d sometimes go to the library just to take a gander at her.”
Jeremy shook his head impatiently. “Mr. Mayor—”
“Let me finish now. I think this might just shed some light on your little problem.”
“What problem?”
“Why, the problem you’re having with Miss Lexie. If I were you, I don’t suppose I’d be too thrilled to find out she’s been spending time with another man.”
Jeremy blinked in shock, speechless.
“But as I was telling you, this Patricia was one beautiful lady, and before she married Coleman, he had courted her for years. Pretty much everyone in the county was courting her—and she loved the attention—but old Coleman won her heart in the end, and their wedding was the biggest the county had ever seen. They could have lived happily ever after, I suppose, but it was not to be. Coleman was the jealous type, you see, and Patricia wasn’t the type to be rude to those other young men who’d been courting her. Coleman just couldn’t take it.”
The mayor shook his head. “They ended up having