by Sonja Hakala

“Faye? What are you doing up so early?” Diana Bennett asked as she stumbled out of her bedroom, rubbing her eyes.

“Mom, you should see your hair!” Faye said.

Diana reached up to find an odd bristle on the side of her head, just above her ear. “Do I look like a cockatoo?” she asked.

“More like a crazed rooster.” Faye turned her attention back to the thick layer of peanut butter she was spreading on bread slices  laid out on the kitchen counter. “I’m headed over to the beach to see if the bald eagle shows up on Belmont Island again.”

Diana silently counted the slices of bread. “And you need three sandwiches for that? Not that I mind but you don’t normally eat that much.”

Suddenly, Faye’s face felt quite warm, and she turned it away from her mother’s view. A tiny smile flickered over Diana’s lips. Aha, so it’s a boy, she thought. This should be interesting.

“Um, some other kids might be coming along so I wanted to have something to share,” Faye said quickly, dipping a spoon into a pot of strawberry jam and smoothing it over the peanut butter. “We’re all bringing something.”

“Uh huh. And how are you getting down to the beach? Is Wil taking you?”

“Hmph, I don’t think so, Mom.” Faye shook her head. “If it’s not baseball or basketball or football, Wil doesn’t know anything about it. This is birds, not balls.”

“So how are you getting to the beach?” Diana leaned against the wall. It wasn’t that she liked to watch her daughter squirm but it was only a month ago that Faye had declared her undying devotion to the idea of never letting “any boy, ever” into her life.

“Um, Dave Muzzy’s picking me up.” Faye made quite a show of cleaning up after herself.

“Wil’s friend Dave?”

“Yeah, he and Wil hang out but Dave also likes birds, and he’s got these really cool binoculars, and he’s already showed me how to tell the difference between a hawk and an eagle when they’re way up in the sky.” Faye took a deep breath, and turned her still-burning face toward her mother. “Please don’t tell Wil. He’ll tease me, and I just don’t want to hear it. It’s just bird watching.”

Diana strolled into the kitchen, tilted her daughter’s face up, and kissed her on the forehead. “Not a word. Promise,” she whispered. “But in the future, tell me where you’re going, and who with, okay? I don’t need to know all your business but you know how I worry. Deal?”

Faye nodded. “Thanks, Mom. Deal.” She started piling sandwiches into a small cooler.

“Do you want some cookies to go with those?” Diana asked.

“I thought they were all gone,” Faye said. “They disappeared out of the bakery after that bus showed up yesterday.”

Diana opened a cupboard door. “What’s the sense of being a baker if you don’t have a stash of chocolate chip cookies in case of emergency. Help yourself.”

Faye gave her mother a quick hug, grabbed a handful of cookies, and slid out the door without another sound.

Diana yawned, stretched her arms above her head then turned to go back to bed. The alarm would go off soon enough so there wasn’t a moment to lose.

“Was that Faye?” her husband Stephen asked sleepily as she snuggled up close. “I thought I heard her voice.”

“Yep.”

“Where’s she going this time of morning?”

“She has a bird-watching date.”

“A what?” Stephen didn’t sound so sleepy any more. “Are you serious?”

“Quite serious,” Diana said, “and you can’t say a word to Wil, though I figure he’s going to find out soon enough because it’s his friend Dave.”

“But I thought…?”

“That your daughter was going to be a nun? Never have a boy in her life? Shun all male company forever?” Diana asked.

“Well, that’s what she told us not too long ago,” Stephen said.

“Hmmm, that’s what they always say…just before it happens,” Diana reached her face up for a kiss, and Stephen obliged. “They’re headed down to the beach to see if that eagle shows up again.”

“Mmm, do you think I should get in the car and follow them, just in case?” Stephen asked.

“No.” Diana laughed. “I think you’re going to stay right here, and let Faye figure this out on her own.”

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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.