by Sonja Hakala

When Agnes Findley takes her first walk of the day down her driveway to fetch the local newspaper, she’s still half-asleep. It’s not a long walk, and she knows her partner Charlie Cooper would do it but Aggie enjoys those first breaths of morning free of the tug-and-pull that the day will bring. In November, the barely-rising sun provides just enough light to see the newspaper box lined up with its neighbor, the mailbox.

But not this morning.

“What the…?” Agnes’s mind snapped from inattentive to wide awake in a single moment. “Where’s my newspaper box?”

She hurried to where the distinctive green box on its darker-green pole lay in two pieces across the top of her driveway. When she picked them up, the morning’s paper fell at her feet. “What the heck…?” Aggie said as she examined the slotted hole where the newspaper box had been the night before.

Her partner, Charlie Cooper, heard Aggie’s approach to their back door long before he saw her. “What’s going on? You’re huffing like a steam train.”

For answer, Aggie waved the newspaper box and its pole above her head. “This. This has been happening all over town. What is going on?”

Charlie took the pole from her hands to look closely at the end that had been in the ground. “Do you know if they’ve all looked like this?” he asked, pointing to a bend in the metal about twelve inches from the bottom of the pole.

Aggie stopped grumbling. “It looks like it’s been dragged out of the ground,” she said.

“Or pushed,” Charlie said. “I’d be willing to bet that someone is not paying attention when they’re driving and the newspaper boxes are taking the brunt of it. Who else has been hit, do you know?”

“Ruth and a couple of her neighbors,” Aggie said.

Charlie started poking around on the shelf where they kept their collection of paper maps, rummaging until he found an old one of Carding. He spread it open on their kitchen table and pointed at the location of their house, and then at their friend Ruth Goodwin’s. “Anybody else?”

Aggie hunched up close to Charlie as she popped her reading glasses onto her nose. “The Dawsons and the Elliotts over on Orchard Street.”

Charlie used his finger to trace a circular route from Ruth Goodwin’s street to Orchard Street and then back to their house.

“Doesn’t Vivian Smart live up there?” Aggie asked. Charlie had lived in Carding all his life with the exception of six disastrous months in California when he was trying to keep his first—and so far only—marriage intact. He and Aggie have been happily celebrating their “unmarried” anniversaries for a quite a few years now, and intend to keep on doing so.

Charlie tapped the map, his eyebrows curling toward one another. “Yeah, she does though there’s been talk of her moving closer to her daughter in Montpelier. Last time I saw Vivian at the store, she was leaning on a cane because of that fall she took on the Appalachian Trail.”

“I can’t see Viv moving,” Aggie said, shaking her head. “How long has she been the president of the hiking club?”

Charlie picked up his phone. “Forever. I keep trying to get her to accept a president emeritus status so that others can learn how to manage things. Maybe it’s time I try again.”

Aggie stopped him before his fingers tapped his screen. “Let’s have some breakfast first. I don’t think Viv would appreciate a call, even from you, at this hour.”

———————————

Meanwhile, in the center of town, Faye Bennett sat on the deck that wrapped around two sides of the second-floor apartment where her family lived above the Crow Town Bakery. Her older brother, Wil, was pacing in the small parking lot below, talking on his phone while waving his free hand in the air.

The kitchen door opened and their mother, Diana, came out to join her daughter. “Do you have any idea who Wil’s talking to?” she asked. 

“I’m not sure yet,” Faye said.

They watched Wil’s performance grow in vehemence. His flailing gestures now included pulling on his hair.

“I bet it’s a call for technical assistance from Gram,” Faye said. “That always makes Wil want to pull his hair out.”

Wil finally shoved his phone back into his jacket pocket, and stood still, shaking his head. 

“Yeah, I’d definitely say that was a call from Gram,” Faye said. “You know, I don’t get it. Gram is incredibly smart. She runs Carding Academy without a hitch, hires teachers, organizes classes, and keeps track of everything, and yet when anything changes on her computer, she just falls to pieces. Why is that?”

“Maybe she just likes spending time with Wil and this is the only time he stops long enough to pay attention to her,” Diana said. “Both of you are hard to pin down for more than sixty seconds so we never know what’s going on in your lives.”

“You’re kidding, right? Wil and I live here, Mom. How can you not know what’s going on with us?” Faye said.

“Hmmm.” She turned to face her daughter. “So, how’s your situation with Dave Muzzy? I thought you two were kinda close but I haven’t seen him around for a while.”

Faye squirmed. “What do you mean?”

“Well, back in September, you were leaving the house early so that you and Dave could kayak together on Half Moon Lake.…alone…in the mornings. Now all of a sudden, you’re home for breakfast. So I’ll ask again, how’s Dave?”

“It’s complicated.”

Diana waited.

“I’m not sure.” Faye fidgeted with her jacket’s buttons. “I thought I really liked Dave.”

“But?”

“But…well…we’ve been finding out we’re different from one another.” Faye said. “So I’m not sure.”

Just at that moment, Wil stomped up the steps to the deck, giving Faye some relief from her mother’s questions. The truth was, her conversations with Dave about their likes and dislikes and the way they wanted to live their lives had become awkward, and had recently stopped altogether. 

Part of it was that Faye had detected a disturbing trend in her own behavior. She’d realized that she deferred to Dave when it came to making social plans for the two of them. It wasn’t something that Dave expected. Not at all. So why was she subordinating her own desires to his, even when they were unspoken? The answer to that question made her uncomfortable.

“Aarrgh!” Wil threw himself into a chair. “Since when is Gram taking classes by Zoom?” he asked. 

“She enrolled through the library,” Diana explained. “She and Ruth and Aggie.”

“Ah, the fearsome threesome,” Faye said. “Are they taking the same class or different ones?”

“Last I knew, they were taking a sociology class together on how people create effective social change,” Diana said.

Faye and Wil looked at one another, their eyebrows arching. “Now that could be dangerous,” Wil said.

His mother laughed. “I certainly hope so. That’s why I’m taking the class with them.” She leaned forward, locking eyes with her son. “And there are two reasons why Gram is asking for your help with setting up Zoom. The first one is that it’s the only time she ever sees you, and she misses you.”

Wil tried to dodge his mother’s stare. “I just never know what to talk to her about.”

“Hmm, I think you should come up with a better excuse than that if you want it to be believable,” Diana said. “The other reason is that it’s quicker to ask you for a tutorial than it is to learn that sort of thing online where you can’t ask questions in the moment. You know your grandmother hates to waste time.”

“And she makes great cookies,” Faye said. 

“And she’s seventy years old,” Diana said. “Every human being lives with regrets, Wil. Don’t make ignoring your grandmother one of yours.”

Wil eyeballed his mother and sister for a moment then pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen. “Hey Dave. Listen, I’m going to spend time with my grandmother this afternoon so I won’t be around. Maybe we can get together tomorrow, okay?”

Diana covertly watched her daughter while Wil talked with Dave Muzzy, wondering if the drifting-apart that she’d seen in Faye’s relationship with the young man was permanent. 

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Wil said as he put his phone down. “I get impatient sometimes. You know I love Gram.” Then he turned toward his sister. “So what’s going on with you and Dave? It seems like you two aren’t tight any more, and he’s not talking.”

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This is Part One of “Early in the Morning.” It will be continued over the next two Mondays. I look forward to seeing you then.

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The Carding Chronicles are short stories written by author Sonja Hakala about the Vermont town that no one can quite find on a map. They feature the characters in her four Carding novels.

The Carding books are available from Amazon and the Chronicles appear here, on this website, every Monday. Hope to see you next week.