***
Shug pulled the truck in front of a small wooden tin-roofed cottage. Faded green paint peeked from behind thickly festooned vines that threatened to swallow the house whole. The front porch columns were whitewashed tree trunks, and the windows on either side of the front door were boarded up with plywood.
“This is my house,” Varina said, her eyes glowing with pride. “My daddy built it with his own two hands. He cut the trees down and milled the planks right here on this island. Mr. Samuel counted on my daddy. He sold him the land for our house, and I been keeping up with the taxes all this time.”
“It must be a really special place for you,” Marie said from the backseat.
“It’s adorable,” Lizzie said, peering out the window at the cottage. “It’s like one of those tiny houses they show on HGTV. I wish I could move in here myself.”
Felicia glared at Lizzie and silently mouthed the word, “Nooooo.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Varina said. “And now I’m fixing to move right back home.”
“Here?” Felicia’s voice was panicky. “I know it’s special, but look at this place, Auntie. It’s falling down.”
“Then I’ll fix it back up.” Varina patted Shug’s arm. “This man here can do anything. You’ll help me, won’t you, baby?”
“Why not?” He opened the door and planted one boot onto the weedy yard and appraised the house with a thoughtful eye. “This house has been standing all this time, so it must be sound. Gonna need a new roof, though.”
“You can’t stay here,” Felicia insisted. “Does it even have plumbing? Or electricity? Tell her, Shug.”
“It actually does have plumbing. And electricity, although we probably need to update the panel. Homer was living here until he got too sick and moved over to hospice. It hasn’t been empty but a couple of years.”
“Okay, but it’s gonna need a lot of work before it’s even remotely habitable. It’ll probably take months and months. And where will you stay in the meantime? You can’t get up and down the stairs at Josephine’s house.”
“Plenty of room at our place,” Shug said. “The kids and grandkids hardly come over at all anymore ’cause they’ve got sports and all that. Louette’s gonna be getting lonesome without having Josephine to look after and cook for.”
“Oh no, we couldn’t put you out,” Felicia started.
“We got two guest rooms. Plenty of room for both of y’all,” Shug said.
“Thank you, baby,” Varina said, beaming at her benefactor.
“Auntie, that’s just not possible,” Felicia said. “It’s sweet of Shug to offer, but I’m your caregiver, and I have to work.”
Varina’s jaw set stubbornly. “Didn’t you tell me you do all your teaching on a computer now? And don’t they have computers and all that here on Talisa?”
“Yes, ma’am, we got Wi-Fi here,” Shug said. “Me and Louette FaceTime the grandkids all the time on our computer.”
“See that?” Varina nodded enthusiastically. “So it’s all set, then. We can go on back to Jacksonville today and pack up our stuff and then be back for the morning ferry. Isn’t that a blessing?”
Lizzie grinned and poked Felicia in the ribs. “Sounds like a blessing to me.”
42
The ferry was waiting at the dock, along with a crowd of three dozen passengers—campers, day-trippers, and a group of middle-aged bird-watchers bristling with cameras, binoculars, and backpacks. Brooke was surprised to see just how large the ferry was, a gleaming white affair with two observation decks, with the name painted in large letters across the stern:The Miss Elsie Bettendorf.
“I wonder if that was Josephine’s mother,” Marie said as the group approached the boarding dock.
“That’s right. Miss Elsie was Josephine’s mama,” Varina said, coming slowly up beside them. “Those state people thought they were buttering Josephine up, naming the ferry after Miss Elsie, but that made her madder than a mule with a mouthful of bumblebees. She wrote all kind of letters trying to make them change the name, but it was too late. She wouldn’t even get near this new ferry, no matter what.”
“I guess it’s a good thing Josephine’s not still alive to know that her final trip across the river was onThe Miss Elsie,” Felicia said.
“Ooh, child,” Varina said, chuckling despite herself. “She’d come back and haunt us all.”
***
They found an empty row of shaded wooden seats on the first deck.
