Those Tangerine Hills by Evelyn J. Steward (the unexpected everything TXT) 📖

their way to the oncology department.
Having sat Frank down on one of the seats, Laura went over to the admittance desk and booked Frank in.
“There is a wait this morning. Doctor Kline is very busy. Please take a seat,” said the young nurse at the desk. A trainee, Laura thought, for she had not seen her before. Returning to where her father rested, woodwork magazine in hand, she sat down beside him. She wasn’t fond of hospitals and had had to suppress her bad feelings whenever she accompanied Frank on his various appointments.
As she sat, the waiting room dissolved. Her mind wandered back to when she didn’t live here. To when she was married to Peter.
They’d lived in a rambling old house a few miles outside the city. He’d been a lawyer and she’d worked at home as a designer. Evenings and most weekends they’d sat outside on the deck . Summer was fine, birds sang their evening calls. Loons called across the lake in the distance. Their song carried on the gentle breeze as the sun slowly sank to the horizon, They’d sat mostly on the swing seat, just rocking slowly. Talking and holding hands, discussing the days events or just things in general.
“I need new clothes,” she had told him.
“Those are fine,” he’d replied. “They’re not old.”
“I know” Laura had replied, “but they look out of date. I feel I should get something much more modern.” Pete had looked at her with those adoring gren flecked eyes of his.
“You look fine just they way you are. Comfortable. I like you to be comfortable for me to come home to.” He’d put his arm around her shoulder, had drawn her closer. “You have some great dresses for the social events and you look tremendous in them all. But for home, I prefer you in slacks and a sweater or whatever dress you want.” And it was left at that. He’d loved her so much.
Her thoughts, coming back to the present, were painful. She had loved him so much. They had both loved each other with a passion that burned fast and furious, and then was snuffed out so suddenly by that terrible accident. She almost couldn’t bear to think about it. Five dreadful years had gone by and she was still tortured by that night when the cop knocked on her door and told her “he’s dead.”
Laura bore that pain alone for three years until word came that her father was ill and needed a carer. Jim couldn’t do it, he‘d told her. His work took him all over the world so he was hardly around much. Her sister-in-law Ellie had three children to look after and had no spare time, even though she was not averse to helping out from time to time. So, as the only daughter and someone who had time on her hands, or so they thought, she was asked if she could move back home and look after her father. It was, after all, something to fill the lonely aching hours.
And so she’d moved back home. Taken over the household chores. Done the shopping, cooked and cleaned. She even started a garden out back. It wasn’t much in two years, but they had some good vegetables this last summer. Fresher than from the store. Fresh and better tasting than any she could buy in town. There hadn’t been time to build up much in the way of produce. She would have liked some berry bushes. That was her plan between now and spring, wondering now if she would have time to plant. If Pa died, what would she do? Would she stay in the old house or go back closer to the city, near where she and Peter had lived? Perhaps going back would hold too many bad memories. They might overpower the good ones?


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Chapter Two

“Mr Currier, Doctor will see you now.” The voice held a sharp note, as if she resented being tied to the desk instead of learning her vocation, least Laura hoped it was a vocation.
She helped Frank up and across to the hallway and down the corridor. You always had to walk a way to the doctor’s office, in any hospital and she wondered why they built them that way. When they reached the room where the doctor was waiting, she sat him down in front of the desk and took a seat over by the wall.
Doctor Kline asked Frank a lot of questions. Some of which he was not disposed to answer. After about twenty minutes, the doctor leaned back in his chair, steepled his hands and looked sternly at Frank.
“I want you in for some tests and observation,” he told Frank finally. Looking over to Laura he said, “He can stay overnight at least. You can ring in tomorrow. It may take a day or two. I‘m not sure how much we can get through today. What do you say Frank?”
Frank stared at him but said nothing. He thought Dr. Kline was always imposing.
Laura took that for a yes and said, “We have no clothes with us.
“He won’t need them. We have plenty of gowns and robes for him to use. You can visit him tonight of course, but we will not know anything for a couple of days. I should go home now if I were you and I will speak with you on Thursday.” He had risen and was making shooing motions with his hands. When Frank turned around, she had gone.
“Alright Frank? A nurse is going to take you to your room and we will see what’s up with you,” He spoke more kindly now that Laura had left the room.
A sad fleeting look came over Frank’s face then was immediately gone as he settled to the inevitable.
Laura stepped out into the late morning sunshine. Trees around the edge of the car park were already dropping their brilliant-hued leaves. Perhaps they knew something she did not want to admit. There comes a time, she thought, when leaves must die…. She left the thought hanging like it was a fragile spider web, cold, frosted. Beautiful, but not everlasting.
First, she drove to The Point, an outcrop of crystal embedded rock that overlooked the lake at the east end of town. The deep blue waters sparkled and danced in the sunlight. The tree-covered hillside across the water shone in all colours of red, yellow, orange, brown and the dark green of the conifers. There were many houses that gleamed white with green lawns leading down to the golden sand-like beach. A few jetties sported small boats that had not yet been ‘bedded down’ for the coming winter. When she moved away, Laura missed this beautiful scenery.
A flock of Canada Geese flew in noisily, honking to announce their presence. They landed on the grass slope below the verge and promptly started grazing. She sighed. She had missed those geese and their noisy habits, their green droppings you had to watch in case you slipped on them. Now she watched at every opportunity and could not get enough. All too soon they would disappear, the light would change, the lake would start to freeze and snow would blanket everything.
Laura had the day to herself and decided to drive north to where the small rivers burst from under bridges, torrents that moved with great force to empty into the lakes someplace further away. They criss-crossed, meeting each other to form great tumultuous waterways that rushed ever onwards.
A some miles north east at the beginning of Muskoka there was a place a little way off the main highway. A short walk through the woods to a small area of dammed up water that seemed so placid on the surface. The deceptively still water mirrored the blue sky and the tall trees losing their leaves, but imperceptively darker. The water tumbled over the log dam, ran over a cliff top to tumble deep a steep gorge, landing in a secret lake. It was a narrow waterfall that cascaded down over white rocks
A small sandy island lay far distant in that placid lake. When she had been there once, she saw someone camping on that island. Smoke from the campfire drifted lazily upon the warm Fall air, lifting up into the sky in a thin stream that curled and twisted like a spiritual dancer. The sun had shone so bright on a tranquil scene where the lake water reflected deep blue the clear Fall sky.
A couple of hours later she was at the cranberry farms. Another gorgeous place to spend time where the fields ran blue, reflecting the sky in the water that flooded the cranberry fields. Laura walked around the farm yard. It was a brilliantly bright sunny day. All the colours were intensified. Heaps of pumpkins, leftover from Halloween, sat on the ground by the cranberry plant where berries were sorted and packed; tumbling down a gentle slope to empty boxes, filling them with all shades of red ripe berries, ready for packing. A huge black dog wandered amongst the visitors. She had never seen one so big. He was gentle but when she offered him a bit of her sandwich, he just ignored it and went to someone else.
Moving on to the little town, she walked around looking at the small shops, the houses set on the banks of tiny rivers that looked more like canals with overhanging trees, spending a relaxing few hours. As the afternoon wore on to early evening, Laura headed back towards home. It had been great to get the hospital stink out of her nostrils.
Back home, she decided to go to the ‘all you can eat’ Chinese restaurant. It was here she saw him again. The place was crowded but there was a spare seat across from the guy. Making her way through the people-filled small tables, she stopped where he sat and asked if the seat was free.
“Sure, sit down. Pretty busy in here tonight.”
“Thanks,” she almost stammered. There was no food in front of him, so he hadn’t eaten yet.
“Don’t I know you,” he asked, watching her as she fought to calm herself and reply.
Laura bowed her head, shaking it slowly as she replied, “I don’t think so.” She started to blush and was glad her eyes were scrutinising the tablecloth, her hands now in her lap, the floor, anything lower than his eyes.
“Wait a minute,” he said, light dawning. “Weren’t you the one I asked for travel directions?” He lowered his head, watching her all the time, trying to will her to raise her head and look at him.
For a few breathless moments the world stopped for them both. They failed to hear the chatter from tables around them. Did not notice the waitress returning with