“Is it that bad?” Tessa asked. Then she heard Lily’s voice in her head reminding Tessa that she swam out of her condo a few days ago.
She glanced at the mint plant on the stand. It had stretched its gangly legs toward the map. A few tendrils were wrapped around silver pushpins in Alaska, Hawaii, and French Polynesia. Traveling around the world seemed glamorous from one perspective, and Tessa had escaped right into Paul’s adventures the night before. But the thought of being homeless made her feel as though she’d eaten undercooked scrambled eggs. She skipped coffee, which was, in hindsight, a rotten idea because she would need all the fortification she could get when she drove to her condo.
The closer Tessa got to her condo building and Jordan Pond, the more the air reeked of mildew and decaying, sodden leaves. Miscellaneous items, stolen by the floodwaters, collected at the sides of the streets and speckled front yards. A three-legged lawn chair lay against the curb, crumpled and muddy. Baby dolls, splattered with pond scum, convened beneath an oak tree. A ruined summer dress and broad-brimmed hat hung from the lowest branches of a Japanese magnolia, looking like a ghost billowing in the breeze.
High-powered, industrial vacuums snaked their long hoses out of homes, sucking the water from the interiors and dumping it into the gutters lining the streets. Hundreds of flood-drying fans filled the air with a constant humming, and the entire town vibrated beneath the noise.
Tessa parked the Great Pumpkin in the lot behind her condo building. There was still a good three inches of stagnant water putrefying in the sun around the edges of the concrete foundation. Tessa kicked off her flats and tugged on her pink rubber boots. The amount of muck and grime covering the walls of the building, covering the abandoned cars, coveringeverything, shocked her, even though she’d seen how flooded it was.
Beneath the mud and debris, only the roof of her car was still its original slate-blue color. The insurance company would probably total her car since the water had risen over the dashboard. With the electronic system, it would cost more to repair than the car was probably worth. They’d scheduled to come out and assess the car this week. Once she had the money, she’d start thinking about what she wanted, but buying a car was further down her to-do list.
Tessa sloshed through the water, squelching as she walked, and when she rounded the corner leading to her ground-floor condo, she gasped. Jordan Pond had receded, but it looked as though it had also tossed out a half-century’s worth of gunk and tree branches onto the surrounding areas. Her backyard looked like a combination of Mississippi swamp and garbage pit.
Someone had tried to close her condo door, but the door had swollen like a magazine in a swimming pool, and it refused to shut completely. Tessa leaned into the door, but it didn’t budge. After ramming her shoulder against it, it groaned open and sent a low wave of water through the living room.
For a few seconds Tessa couldn’t even react. Looking inside her condo felt like looking at a foreign hut she’d never set foot in before. There was no way this place had been her home. Filth covered the furniture, floors, and her personal belongings. Water stains marked the walls three feet high. The sheetrock was destroyed, probably already growing enough mold to call for an evacuation.
She moved through the condo in silence, the sight of each room bringing more tears to her eyes. When she stepped into her bedroom, a fat toad croaked at her from the bed. It stared at her with glassy black eyes. “Have it,” she whispered. “It’s yours.” Then she called Lily.
Tessa hefted another cardboard box from the front stoop of the apartment and carried it inside. The cardboard stunk like spilled beer and pond water. She held it as far from her body as possible without dropping it. Water rushed through the pipes as the faucets in the bathroom turned on. Tessa walked through the bedroom and into the adjoining bathroom.
Lily knelt in front of the garden tub and held a muddy stuffed animal beneath the water. She scrubbed its head and arms with a bar of soap. “I need you to promise you’ll never tell Mrs. Borelli we contaminated her bathtub while washing muck out of your stuff,” Lily said. “How attached are you to this?” She held up the soiled teddy bear. Its wet fur was matted and pitiful.
Tessa’s bottom lip trembled. She’d received that teddy bear as a gift from her grandpa on her sixteenth birthday, but she knew if she opened her mouth to tell Lily, she’d blubber.
But Lily could see Tessa’s fragility a mile away. She dropped the bear in the tub and stood, reaching for a mud-stained towel. “Hey, it’s okay,” she said, pulling Tessa into a hug. “Look at all the stuff we saved.” She made a sweeping motion with her arm.
Shoes, picture frames, an assortment of kitchen items, and a few armfuls of books had been salvaged from her ruined condo. They were scattered across the bathroom floor, drying on towels.
“Your clothes are at the cleaners,” Lily reminded her. “You’ll have a fully functioning wardrobe in a few days. You have a working car, even if itisthe Great Pumpkin. The Borellis stocked your fridge. And let’s not forget you have a perfectly good place to stay.”
“You’re right.” Tessa pulled in a steadying breath. “Iknowyou’re right. Focus on what I have,not on what I lost. But . . . I can’t stay in the Borellis’ apartment forever.”
“Of course not,” Lily said. “But we’re not talking about forever. We’re talking about right now. And right now you have plenty of people who are making sure you’re okay. Let’s brew some tea. I have a little bit longer before I need to be back at work, and I think you need a mental break.”
Tessa glanced around at the pieces of her life on the bathroom floor before following Lily into the living room. Lily pointed at the mint plant, which stretched long runners in two directions. Half of its green, leafy legs grew toward the open window, and the others reached for the wall map. “What are you feeding that thing?” Lily asked.
“Water,” Tessa said.
“I thought mint was a creeper not a climber,” Lily said. “Not that I’m a botanist, but Mama loves growing spearmint. Hers looks like bushes. Yours is growing like ivy.”
Tessa shrugged. “Mrs. Borelli said her plants are hardy. Maybe this is a special variety of mint.” She walked toward the mint and popped off a handful of leaves. Then she patted its head as though it were a pet.
Tessa dropped the leaves into the porcelain teapot on the counter and put the kettle on the stove while Lily washed her hands and made herself a cup of coffee in the Keurig. Lily opened the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of strawberries. Two recipe cards were attached to the front of the container.
Lily eyed the top recipe card and read Cecilia’s note:For when you need comfort. “Does Mrs. Borelli know what happened the last time you decided to cook?”
Tessa snatched the strawberries from Lily. “It’s forpancakes.” She plucked the recipe card from the carton and read through the instructions. “This sounds like an easy recipe. No one can destroy pancakes.”
Lily reached for a strawberry and bit into it. “Except you.”
“Except me.” Tessa sighed. “At least the other recipe is for tea. I can’t mess up tea, right?”
Lily raised her eyebrows in response. When the kettle whistled, Lily pulled it from the stove. She filled the teapot and watched as mint leaves floated to the top. She leaned over the teapot and inhaled. “I love how refreshing mint smells. It clears my head.”
A calming effect settled over Lily’s features. Tessa thought of the conversation with Crazy Kate in Sweet Stop. Lily filled a mug with tea for Tessa before grabbing her mug of steaming black coffee.
“Do you think herbs have special powers?” Tessa asked.
