South of Superior - Ellen Airgood [136]
“Oh, I don’t think—”
“Try it,” Mary growled. “I’ll give you some venison, too. You’re going to live in this country, you should eat of this country. That’s what’s wrong with the world today. People want to eat lettuce and tomatoes in January, I never heard of anything so foolish, the stuff’s got as much taste as an old shoe.”
This was true. “All right. I’ll try it.”
“You ever hear from that young man of yours?” Mary asked just as Madeline was about to trek away across the clearing.
“What?”
Mary made a look of impatience. “Paul Garceau.”
“Ah—he’s hardly mine.”
“He Used to come now and again, to visit. I got the idea he thought a lot of you.”
Madeline felt herself flush. “I liked him too. He was good to Greyson.”
“That ain’t what I meant,” Mary said, sounding put out.
Madeline ignored this. “He writes to Greyson, short things—cards, a note—and Grey writes back. He’s so independent about it. Has to have his own envelopes and paper and stamps. I can’t believe how much he’s grown Up just since I moved here. Paul calls every week, Greyson loves that. And Paul did send me a postcard too, I got it the other day. He’s somewhere down south right now, working for the Red Cross. He and his nephew are there for a month. A hurricane ripped through someplace and they decided to go help rebuild.” She shrugged at how Unpredictable people’s lives were.
“Bah. Don’t you know life is short?”
“What?”
“Life can get lonesome on your own,” Mary said in a warning way.
Madeline decided to ask a really honest question, which in her experience people usually did not do. “Has it been, for you?”
Mary looked off across the horizon. With the trees bare of leaves you could see the lake clearly. She squinted, her eyes watering a little in the cold. “Naw. I wasn’t never lonely.”
Madeline nodded, not believing this at all. She shifted on her snowshoes, suddenly anxious to get moving.
Gladys was behind the registration desk when Madeline got back. Greyson was on the lobby couch playing with his handheld computer, Marley tucked into his hip.
“How’s it going?” Madeline plucked off her hat and ran her fingers across her scalp. She was drenched in sweat and thought of a shower pounding down on her back. But such things did not exist in the Hotel Leppinen and she’d have to be content with a soak in the tub. Maybe Pete would have time to help her install the fixtures she’d ordered to convert the taps to include a showerhead tomorrow. Maybe not, too. He and Arbutus were heading to Chicago again in a few days and were busy getting ready to go. Madeline had gotten so dependent on his help, it made her nervous to think of his being gone for that long, two weeks. She wondered how Gladys was handling it. It had to be at least twenty years since she and Arbutus had been apart as much as they had been in the last few months.
“Things are fine,” Gladys answered. “Greyson got home from school about twenty minutes ago.”
“Earth to Greyson,” Madeline called and he nodded without looking Up from his game. Madeline sighed. “I hate that thing. He disappears into it.”
“He’s all right, he doesn’t do it every minute. It’s probably relaxing.”
“Relaxing! Jabbing away at those buttons, trying to blow Up something?”
Gladys shrugged. “He’s good at it.”
Madeline studied him. Probably Gladys was right. The toy let off a series of beeps and whirs and squeals and Greyson said, “Yes!”
“Any phone calls?” Madeline asked idly, not expecting any. Gladys glanced Up, then looked down again to make a notation in the guest register, which was lying open before her. The journal Madeline gave her was open on the desk too, and Madeline tried to decipher a few words of upside-down writing. Gladys flicked the cover closed. “Pretty quiet,” she said. “I did rent a room for tonight and tomorrow. A couple coming Up to cross-country ski from downstate, I put them in Two, it’s warmest, backing Up to the chimneys like it does. The woman said she