Six

The rest of the morning and lunchtime were pretty quiet. After I went home to change into a pair of jeans and a sweater, I went to Nadine’s camper and took down all the inside decorations, leaving her a note that I’d appreciate it if she could leave up the outside decorations to appease Abby.

The agent must’ve been staying with Nadine because I saw them leave together around the time I was leaving for the library.

“We are all full up. Do you understand, Henry?” Dottie questioned Henry since we had to leave someone in charge of the office during business hours so we could go to the book club.

“Yes. No vacancy.” Henry nodded.

“Now, last time you said you understood, you double-booked some of the campers. So, tell me again what I said.” Dottie jabbed her finger at him.

“No vacancy,” he said again.

“What does that mean?” She asked him.

“He gets it.” I turned to Henry. “If anyone calls, just take a message. Or you can let the machine get it. I just want you to answer any maintenance calls or hiking reports.”

Hiking reports came from the forest rangers. Since it had snowed and the snow continued to fall, although lightly, they liked to update all open campgrounds on the conditions of the open hiking trails. Most trails were open, but the more rigorous trails usually closed for a couple of months in the winter since they had thick forests and big drop-offs.

“That I can do.” He sat down and propped his feet up on the desk.

“Come on.” I picked Fifi up and headed towards the door.

“Are you sure he can do it?” Dottie grumbled and groaned all the way to the car.

“He’ll be fine.” I opened the door to the back seat to put Fifi in her seatbelt. “What are you doing in here?”

Mary Elizabeth was perched up in the back like a bird in a nest.

“Oh, I invited her.” Dottie had already situated herself in the front passenger seat.

“Yes. It was mighty nice of her too. She did inform me that I had to sit in the back.” Mary Elizabeth’s eyes focused on Fifi, then she looked at me. “That dog has better clothing than you.”

“Okay.” I put Fifi in Mary Elizabeth’s lap.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Her nose curled and she had a look of sheer terror in her eyes.

“You never let me have a dog. Now I’ve got one and if you want to be with me, then you have to be with her. You’re bonding with and holding her because you are hooked in her seat belt.” I couldn’t help but smile looking at her all bunched up in a dog seat belt.

“I wondered why it was so small.” She actually giggled and settled into the seat with Fifi on her lap.

It was apparent she wasn’t going to enforce her no dogs ever policy and would suck it up.

I continued to give Dottie the death stare every so often because I wasn’t sure where the friendship had started between her and mommy dearest, though that might’ve been a harsh word to use on Mary Elizabeth since she didn’t beat me with wire hangers or anything else for that matter. She only tried to beat manners into me, though I felt I had been a pretty good kid considering the circumstances.

There was no place to park in front of the library or along Main Street.

“What on earth is going on?” The streets were jammed. I didn’t see anything happening in the snowy median and I wasn’t aware of a play being performed by the community playhouse.

“Who knows.” Dottie shrugged and pulled out her cigarette case after I’d finally squeezed into a spot that may have put my Ford a teensy little bit over the yellow line on the curb. Before I could put the car in park, she’d jumped out and lit the cancer stick.

“You should tell her it’s really bad for her health to smoke, not to mention her body odor.” Mary Elizabeth waved a hand in front of her face for effect.

“Why don’t you tell her?” I suggested, knowing how Dottie reacted to people when they told her that very thing. It’s not like Mary Elizabeth would be the first one to tell her that.

“Hmm.” Mary Elizabeth huffed and fumbled with the seat belt until she got it undone.

I took Fifi from her and carried her close to my body so she wouldn’t get cold. The snow had started to come down in bigger flakes, but it was still the fluffier type that didn’t leave the roads slick.

I let Fifi do a quick tinkle before we headed into the library.

“Oh, my stars,” Dottie gasped when we got to the door and saw it was standing room only inside of the library. “I’ve never seen more than two people in here and that includes Abby.”

“Do you think people are here to see that author?” Mary Elizabeth asked, a very good question, after we stepped inside.

“Wait over there and I’ll go find out what’s going on.” I gestured to the children’s section where there looked to be enough room to squeeze in two more people.

I weaved in and out of the crowd. Fifi wiggled in my arms. She wasn’t used to packed crowds like this when we went into buildings. I held her tighter. She’d get trampled if I let her down.

Abby and the rest of The Laundry Club ladies were nowhere to be found.

 “Hey there, Mae.” Trudy from the diner tugged on my jacket.  “I guess the word is out around town that we have a celebrity staying here.”

Standing right next to her was the woman writer I’d met at the diner.

“I wonder who told,” I said, sarcastically giving each of them the stink eye. There’d been a long table set up in the open part of the library with just enough chairs for the members of The Laundry Club. There was another table covered with all of Abby’s Tupperware products, which was odd.

“It was just too good to keep to myself.” Trudy really thought it was okay to spill her guts. “I mean, it was already all over town and the diner about the scuffle with that photographer. It wasn’t like I got on the telephone and went through the directory calling up everyone.”

She had called up enough people for sure.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Abby scurry into the library office with Betts and Queenie following behind.

“Excuse me.” Fifi and I pushed out of the crowd and into the office. “What on earth is going on?” I set Fifi on the ground.

“Nadine White hates me,” Abby cried out. “I didn’t get that social media post off the internet fast enough and it went viral.”

“I told her not to worry about it. Everything has a plan.” Betts tried to use all her wisdom about plans and creation on her, but Abby wasn’t buying it.

“I told her to set up her Tupperware stuff and sell it. That way she could tell Nadine White that she was having one of them holiday bazaar sales.” Queenie nodded. “And she can make a little spending cash. Everyone out there bought something.” She held up the sheet with all the orders on it.

“That explains the Tupperware table,” I said. “I did notice that. Have you told Nadine about this?”

“Told her. She is in there right now talking to her agent.” Abby pointed to the door in the office. “It’s the closet.”

I let out a long sigh and walked over to the closet, flinging open the door.

Nadine was sitting on a box of copy paper with her agent next to her. . . in the dark.

“You!” Nadine gasped. “You did this, didn’t you?”

“No, Nadine. I did not.” I opened the door wide. “Please come out of there. We can talk about this.”

“You don’t understand. She has a real fear talking in front of people.” The agent had a very stiff upper lip.

“I’m Mae West.” I put my hand out. “We’ve not been properly introduced.”

“Valerie Young, Nadine’s agent.” The tall, lanky woman with greasy, dishwater brown hair shook my hand. Her face softened when she realized I wasn’t the enemy. “What do you suggest we do?”

“First, let me say that I’m sorry this has happened. It’s not every day or even every month that such a well-known celebrity visits Normal.” Even though  I had never heard of Nadine before this book Abby had us read, I did hear Mary Elizabeth’s saying in my head: “Mae, dear, live like a peacock; don’t ruffle your feathers unless you’re prepared to fight.”

Fighting with Nadine was the very last thing I needed on my plate this winter.

“Can you read just one or two pages of your book? I will address the crowd and talk about how we all need to respect your privacy while visiting our town.” I continued as she began to process my words and walk out of the closet. “After you read a few pages, they will leave and then it’ll just be our book club like we initially intended.”

“That sounds do-able.” Valerie nodded to Nadine. “She’s right. This is a small town and, honey, word gets around fast.”

“Don’t you write about small towns? You should know this.” Abby made a great point.

“No. I write the love scenes. I have a ghost writer.” Nadine might as well have slapped Abby across the face as hard as she could because it looked like Abby had just been beaten up. Her body had gone limp, her eyes dulled, and her jaw dropped. “My heart is in doing a cookbook for lovers.”

It was as sad as the day a sweet child found out the real truth about Santa Claus.

“Okay.” I gulped and gave Betts a look to get Abby out of there as soon as possible. “Let’s get this done.”

There wasn’t much time. The crowd’s murmurs had gotten a lot louder, louder than the library was supposed to be, and it was well past two o’clock.

I gestured for Nadine and Valerie to follow me, leaving Fifi in the office. Abby wasn’t having any part of Betts cuddling her. When we all emerged from the office and walked up front, a blanket of silence once again fell upon the library.

“Wow. Bring an author to town and the crowd will come,” I tried to make a joke. “Seriously, I’d like to thank Nadine White on behalf of Normal for picking our small town that maybe she can use in her novel she’s writing here.”

“Liar,” Abby whispered behind me. “Cookbook for lovers,” she muttered. “Ridiculous.”

“I’d like to think that we as a community can let Ms. White to have her privacy and enjoy the amazing winter season Mother Nature has gifted our part of the world. I’m sure if you see Ms. White out and about, she’ll be amazing as she always is, but please keep in mind that during those times, she’s creating in her mind.”

“Unlikely.” Abby’s voice was getting louder as her disgust was getting deeper.

“With that, Ms. White is going to read a couple of pages out of her novel Cozy Romance in Christmas.”

Nadine was right. She wasn’t the best public speaker. Her voice cracked and trembled with each word. While she tried to keep it together, I pulled Abby back into the office to try to get her to keep it together.

“I can’t believe it.” Abby thrust a fist into the air.

“I know. She’s a hot mess.” I wanted Abby to know that I understood where she was coming from.

“Hot mess? She’s not even that, she’s a lukewarm mess.” Abby curled her lips in. They quivered. “I thought she was a real person. Come to find out, she didn’t even write the parts I love. I love the scenery, the small town. I felt as if she were in my mind and heart.”

I watched Abby go from mad to sad. She was going through the stages of grief, as if she’d just lost a best friend.

“Librarians get lost in the books. We take them personally. She comes in here to a book club and tells us that she has a ghost writer who adds all the cozy to her scenes. I skip over the romance part.” Abby went right back into the angry stage. “She’s a scam. A disgrace to the writing community.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Hashtag Nadine White is a hashtag scam.”

“Okay.” I grabbed her phone. “You’re not going to do that. You’re mad and this vindictive person you’re pretending to be is not you.”

I clicked the back button on her phone to erase the social media message.

“We don’t need any bad publicity.” I handed her phone back to her. “So, she’s not what you thought she was. Who is? Look at me. When I came to Normal, everyone judged me by what my ex-husband had done. People just couldn’t believe we lived under the same roof and I had no idea what he was doing right in front of my face.”

“That’s true.” She snapped her fingers.” Nadine is no different than your husband. She is scamming everyone who is buying her books and funding her lifestyle.”

“I think several authors have ghost writers, it’s just that the public has no idea.” I ran my hand down her arm. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I’m fine. Let’s just get the crowd out of here and get this book club thing over with.” Abby headed out the door with a little more foot stomping than normal, but it was to be expected. Abby’s image of her idol had really been shattered.

I’d heard about this before, how social media paints authors as super nice and kind, but when you meet them in person, they aren’t what they appeared to be. Hiding behind a screen on social media didn’t appear to be any different from hiding behind a computer to write their books. In any case, all I cared about was Abby.

One thing Mary Elizabeth had always been good at was dispersing a crowd. When she was finished at an event she’d hosted, she got them out right quick and right now it was nice to have her and her skills.

“Who on earth has ever heard of selling Tupperware at a book club event?” Nadine snickered under her breath to Valerie.

“Excuse me!” Abby’s hands formed fists. “I’m sorry that I ever thought you were a decent and sincere person. I honestly thought you understood small town life. Your heroine sells Tupperware in your series! Maybe that’s why I decided to sell it myself!” Abby shook a finger at Nadine. “You. . .” she caught her breath. “You. . . you are disgrace to this library! Get out!”

Nadine’s jaw dropped for a few seconds. Her face reddened, and she closed her mouth. Her eyes narrowed, and her jaw tensed.

“I’ve had enough of this for one day.” She turned to Valerie. “I want to go back to the camper and get my things. Get me on the first flight out of here tonight.”

“I’m not sure if the airport is even open since a blizzard is coming through.” Valerie gestured out the window.

Without us even realizing it, the snow had fallen a lot faster and everything looked like it was covered by a fluffy blanket of white.

“Get me out of here!” Nadine yelled at the top of her lungs.

Abby ran off in a fit of sobs. Mary Elizabeth stood there with Betts, Queenie, and Dottie.

“I can take you back to the campground.” The young woman who’d I’d talked to at the diner earlier said, shrugging her shoulders. “I’ve got a truck that’ll drive through just about anything.”

“Great.” Nadine headed towards the door and then turned around. “Valerie, are you coming?”

“Yes. One second.” She lifted her finger. “I’m sorry about this,” Valerie apologized to me. “I thought everyone knew that because Nadine is so popular now that she simply can’t do all of the writing with her appearance schedule. We have several different writers who write various parts of the story, but the romance is really her thing.”

Why was she telling me this? I didn’t care.

“I guess what I’m saying is that Nadine is really a great woman and I think all of this has caught her off guard. She didn’t bring any clothes to be seen in and the paparazzi showing up didn’t help matters. She wants to get back to writing the entire book without having to rely on a ghost writer, so, please, give her some grace.” She shrugged and looked at each of us. “It’s all we ask while we are here.”

“We’re sorry it didn’t go as planned. When Abby settles down, I’m sure she’ll understand.” I really didn’t know where Abby’s head was at the moment, but I knew she was very disappointed.

After Valerie left the bookstore and hopped into the woman’s truck next to Nadine, there were a few moments of silence before Queenie started to laugh and bounce on her toes. 

“We need a little oxygen in our muscles after that,” Queenie huffed and transitioned her little dance into a Jazzercise grapevine. “By the looks of things, I’m going to be a little late for teaching my class.”

“Yeah. It looks like a lot of things might be late or cancelled.” I knew I wasn’t being a good friend to Abby when all I could think about was my supper date with Hank and where it stood with this snow.

Queenie and I found Abby in the romance section, right in front of Nadine White’s shelf that Abby had dolled up for the big occasion. She had made sure Nadine’s books were displayed to perfection. The top of the bookcase had Nadine’s framed photo alongside her framed bio. Abby had even gone as far as to list all of Nadine’s achievements.

“All of those are lies.” Abby pointed to the list of book awards. “She didn’t deserve them. Whoever her ghost writer is deserves them.” The anger in her voice was so strong and deep, I wasn’t sure she was ever going to recover.

“Abby, why don’t you come with me to release some of that steam?” Queenie jabbed the air as a growl expelled from deep within her gut as she twisted her core with each hit, jutting towards Nadine’s framed photo.