They ended the night with each woman draped over Ursula's couch and chairs, Kelsea with her younger body laid on the woven rug as the firelight licked them into a tired kind of happiness until they each found their way to a guest room to sleep.
That night Eloise and Ursula walked to the graveyard in their jazzy sparkling dresses with moonlight lanterns, Casper and Sulphur by their side, to visit the lost souls, who were no longer lost. Eloise loved their story, how it came out, and how the young women who had been seen as unfair villains and killed for it had finally found peace. They stayed here, having found a home in what Ursula and the other women had created for them; a place to simply be.
They went out every other night, sitting in the graveyard, soaking in the calm and the true serenity as the night wrapped around them and the milky moon gathered her star children in a collection of beautiful night-time peace.
As winter found the town, snow covered the ground and the graves, the trees fell into a deep slumber and the stars looked crisp wrapped up in their cool black blanket. The black-capped chickadee still called the winter wonderland its home and Eloise would fall asleep in good company as the chick-a-dee dee dee sounded, three blankets and warmed-up magic wrapped around her underneath the large peach tree where she'd made a nighttime home. Ursula didn't ask her why she slept outside, and Eloise was grateful for the silent understanding.
Two months passed after Bess's sparkling vintage jazz birthday party and everyone seemed to hunker down and find a slower pace inside the warmth of their homes until one morning, halfway through March, the black-capped chickadee welcomed home the Carolina wren whose teakettle song joined the chickadee's chatter in the trees.
Eloise walked in her fleece-lined duck boots along the front porch with her hot coffee mug, a mummy, clasped between her hands and she smiled when she saw the bright snow-drops with their prayer-bent heads and shiny green leaves dotting the front yard in white polka dots. She sat on the front steps, where Ursula and Casper joined her silently as they watched the world warm in an ushering of sunlit offering so that spring would bless them.
It was one of the most simultaneously fierce and gentle things, watching spring push through winter. Winter would pull itself back, melting into the earth as spring in its bright audacity breathed life over everything. Is there anything more optimistic than the green new life that warms up the world after months of frozen repose?
Eloise didn't think so. And she breathed in her steaming coffee as she watched the grey-speckled northern goshawk sit its large, sharp body on a thick branch to look over the world. The white stripe over her amber eye gave her the fierce look of a hunter. The white fur of the snowshoe hare was a blur of motion as it sensed danger above.
"I missed this," she said softly.
"What?"
"The seasons. This exchange of cold to warm, stillness to life. There's something about the restlessness that settles inside of us at the end of a time of frozen absence of movement and then finally, the world wakes." She shakes her head and smiles into the steam hazily rising in front of her. "Florida is all one big globof hot. And nothing changes. I don't think I was built for things to never change."
Ursula made a humming sound of agreement as she leaned her dark head on Eloise's shoulder.
"I think I'm going to sell my cafe," Eloise announced, the words like a flower breaking through the ground.
"Really?" Ursula lifted her head in surprise. "Are you sure?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I can use the cash to do something else. Something here."
Ursula smiled at her friend and linked her arm with hers. "Want to go into town and get a croissant?"
"Yes. The answer to that is always yes," she replied with a laugh. "I can be ready in twenty."
They brought Casper, to his delight, and walked into town. The entrance of spring meant delicious warmth in the sun, the feeling like the color gold dripping through your body which they enjoyed with light jackets and boots. Eloise wore a felt wide-brim hat in tan with a brown leather band.
"I always loved your hair in the sunshine. It turns copper," Ursula mused.
"I can never get rid of the red no matter how hard I try," she replied, her fingers rubbing the ends together. Ursula nudged her shoulder lightly.
"Never get rid of the red. It's perfect."
Casper had his bone that Michelle kept a bag of for him under the counter and Ursula and Eloise ate their almond croissants without any grace. Eloise laughed at the powdered sugar beautifully dusting her friend's upper lip and Ursula reached over to brush off the white speckles from Eloise's chin.
"I think I'm ready to date," Eloise said, the second big announcement for the day.
"Oh yeah? And what kind of male should we be on the lookout for you, my wild, audacious best friend?"
"Ohh are we setting Eloise up? Because I have had this cute guy in my back Gucci pocket for months that I think would be perfect for you," Jen said, the words serving as her hello as she slid into the white chair at their table. "Great hat, by the way."
Eloise smiled around croissant.
"Who?" Ursula asked.
"Graham Bledsoe," she said and Ursula nodded eagerly.
"Oh good choice," she turned bright eyes to Eloise. "He is really cute. And smart. He could keep up with you."
Jen laughed, her white teeth flashing. Eloise got the impression of a she-wolf sometimes with Jen and she loved it. "I love when we say that. Aren't we old enough to admit that no man can keep up with us? We're too evolved."
