Part 20 (2/2)
The door opened.
”Busy morning?” Lexi's mother came in. Myrna looked good these days, tanned and rested and cute in white clam diggers and a striped top.
”Pretty busy. And Oksana hasn't shown up yet. And I'm starving.”
”Well, you'll be glad I came in.” Myrna lifted a thermos and a box from her woven basket. ”Iced tiramisu coffee and some homemade blueberry m.u.f.fins. Thought you could use a little picker-upper.”
”Gosh, Mom, thanks!” Lexi grabbed a m.u.f.fin and munched ravenously. How cool it was, having her mother here like this. She wanted to tell her mother she was pregnant, but not yet. And not here, where a customer could walk in. ”Delicious.”
”Good.” Myrna looked around the shop. ”I remember when Dad and I ran our store, our summer help was usually college kids. They always partied too hard on Sat.u.r.day nights and showed up late on Sundays or came in with hangovers.”
”Oksana's not like that.” Lexi drank the iced coffee carefully. Her stomach seemed ready to accept it. ”She's never done this before. I hope she's not sick.”
The store phone rang.
”That's probably her right now,” Myrna said.
”Moon Sh.e.l.l Beach, Lexi speaking.”
”Hi, Lexi,” a man growled. ”Clyde Thompson here. Have you seen Jesse?”
”No...”
”He didn't show up for work today. I'm shorthanded as it is.”
Last night Jesse had stayed at his parents' house, claiming exhaustion, but this was more information than Clyde Thompson needed. ”Look, I'll phone you if I hear from him-” All at once Lexi's heart thudded. ”Oh, Clyde.” She dropped the phone, reaching for the stability of the countertop.
”What's wrong?” Myrna grabbed up the phone. ”h.e.l.lo? This is Myrna Laney. Can I help you?”
”Hi, Myrna, it's Clyde Thompson. I'm looking for Jesse. He didn't show up for work today.”
”I see.” Myrna studied Lexi's face.
”Is there something going on I should know about?” the contractor demanded.
”I don't know, Clyde.”
Lexi raised her head. ”Just tell him I'll call him back as soon as I know anything.”
FORTY.
Lexi thought she might faint. She swallowed bile, steadying herself against the counter.
Her throat was dry when she said, ”Mom, will you watch the shop? I'm going up to the pharmacy-the one where the Russian women work. They might know something about Oksana.”
”Of course,” Myrna said. ”Go ahead. Take your time. I'll be fine.”
”Thanks. I'll be back as soon as I can.”
She hurried into the heart of the town, tripping over cobblestones and bricks, stumbling like someone lost. She didn't feel the shade from the green arch of the trees above her. She didn't see the fabulous merchandise in all the shop windows she pa.s.sed. Her mind would not articulate her fears; instead it played a frantic loop that had her muttering as she walked.
”He wouldn't, he wouldn't, he wouldn't just go without a word...”
Occasionally a tourist would glance at her quizzically, but she didn't care, she was caught up in the pounding of her heart and the thudding of her sandals against the pavement, they were like drum rolls, and she burst into the pharmacy like a mother throwing open the door to a room where her kid sat smoking pot.
Several people were at the counter having coffee and chatting. Behind the counter was the lovely, tall, blond Sophia, adding whipped cream to a hot fudge sundae. Lexi was trembling as she approached the counter.
Sophia wiped her hands on the ap.r.o.n around her waist. ”May I help you?”
”Sophia, we've met before, I'm Lexi Laney, I own Moon Sh.e.l.l Beach where Oksana works.” The words came tumbling out fast. ”I'm sorry to bother you, but I need to know, you're a friend of Oksana's, and she didn't show up for work today. I was wondering whether you might know where she is.”
Sophie smiled nervously. ”Yes, I have something for you.”
Lexi felt the atmosphere change in the pharmacy. Silence fell as the pharmacists and customers went silent, straining to listen.
Sophia reached under the counter. ”Oksana left this for you.”
Lexi took the white envelope, so innocent and pristine-looking, with Lexi scrawled on it in curly script. Her heart raced, her fingertips felt cold.
”Thank you, Sophia,” she said quietly.
Somehow she managed to leave the store and walk through town back to her shop. The summer sun burned down on her, but she was icy with dread.
When she got to Moon Sh.e.l.l Beach, she didn't enter the shop but went around to the back to sit on the bulkhead. The ocean lapped musically against the sh.o.r.e. Sails cut back and forth on the blue water. A gull screeched overhead. Lexi opened the envelope.
Two pieces of paper were inside. Lexi unfolded them.
The first, in curly script, said only, ”Lexi, I am sorry. Forgive me. I fell in love.”
The other piece of paper was covered in Jesse's sideways, nearly illegible scrawl.
”Lexi, I'm sorry, but somehow I think you'll understand. Oksana and I are leaving the island. We're going to get married as soon as possible, and then we're going to her hometown. Labinsk-you can find it on the map-is in the middle of Russia. I'll be able to travel everywhere. With my savings I'll be able to buy a little shop for me and Oksana. I know this seems awful of me, to just leave like this, but the truth is, it's like in the Wizard of Oz, where the black-and-white world becomes Technicolor. For the first time in my life I know exactly what I want to do. I never meant to hurt you. But I know you don't love me, not really. We had a good time together, the two of us. I hope your future life is as happy as mine. Fondly, Jesse.”
Fondly? The casual indifference of the word stabbed Lexi hard. She made two fists, crumpling the notes in her hands as if she could destroy the words.
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