Checked out

Chapter One

It was not a good Viggo day, Tessa noted as she squatted down to unlock the outdoor book drop. Humid Monday mornings in South Georgia don’t make good hair days, and Tessa’s was already looking like a wool sweater run through the heavy cycle of a Kenmore. Twice. She was opening the library alone this morning, Karen was reading at the Baptist preschool and Marian came in later to close. This would have been the perfect day for Viggo Mortensen to show up at the library and whisk her away from all this, should he just happen to be in the area. She hauled books up from the metal bin and tried to focus on what he might drive up in. Forget what he drove up in, she thought as she dove in the bin for another handful, what am I wearing when he finally shows up? I hope it’s winter; at least my hair won’t be wadded up in a knot in this scrunchie. She straightened up and looped her hair again through the offending piece of elastic again to tighten it so she could reach in for the final armload of books. Bending down one last time into the drop, she quickly drew back at the sight of lurid orange flames and the frantic hand reaching out of them.“Frigging Pentecostals!” she huffed as she snatched the bible tract out of the bin to examine it. “Will you burn in Hell?” was the subject of this week’s missive, which was certainly more ominous than last week’s “Are you ready to be Saved?” “They must have thought Marian was opening today,” thought Tessa spitefully, “ I’ll just put it on her desk”
Tessa pulled the door to the library to relock it behind her. She valued her mornings alone to get caught up with paperwork and think of new ideas for programs. The little town of Lightsey was lucky enough to have a building for a library, and three women desperate or crazy enough to beg the county yearly for enough money to keep it open. They relied heavily on community donations of money and books, plus volunteers to keep the grass mowed and bushes trimmed. None of the three women running the library were even certified librarians; instead they came from wildly diverse backgrounds. Karen had headed public relations for a major hotel chain for years before her mother’s illness forced her to return to Lightsey. Marion had moved there with her husband when he retired from the military. Eleven months after his retirement, she retired from their marriage and started working part-time at the library. Tessa had burned out from social work during the week and bartending during the weekends in a larger town and picked a small town to raise her son in.
She looked up from her emails to see Karen unlocking the front doors and pushing her travel basket of puppets and craft materials from preschool story time with her foot. “Coffee?” Tessa asked as she jumped up to help her friend carry things in. “God yes” Karen moaned, “the Baptist Brats really worked me over this morning, little godforsaken heathen bastards”. Tessa sympathized. Though she had a child, she had never been comfortable with other children. Preschool story time was a torture they agreed to take turns with on a weekly basis. Karen had dogs, Marian had boyfriends, and they all agreed that to be really interesting you had to have attained the age of reason and be able to make a decent martini. “Is it too early to add bourbon to this?” Karen asked, wrapping her paint stained hands around her mug. “Possibly, but I won’t rule it out for later” replied Tessa as she finished checking in a stack of books, “It’s Monday, a full moon is about on us, and I haven’t heard from Marion since I left her at Follies Saturday night”. “Have you checked the machine to see if she called out?” asked Karen as she leaned in to see if the light was flashing on the answering machine. “No, if she had a really good weekend she would have called me Sunday as soon as she got him out the door” laughed Tessa. “I did find a new tract in the book drop this morning though” she said as she passed the pamphlet over to Karen, “It’s got her name all over it, don’t you think?” “So who or who all was she intriguing with Saturday night?” Karen said as she flipped though the pages. “Well, she was trying out her new blonde hair on Teeter Coolidge, and it appeared to be working. However Teeter’s wife and her evil posse of girlfriends were giving the voodoo eye to Marion’s backside.” “Why does she want that sort of drama in her life?” Karen said “I am so glad I am past the age where I am even remotely interested in men. I have my babies and my pottery and that’s all I need.” Tessa rolled her eyes behind Karen’s back, she had heard this lecture before and didn’t believe it for a second. She knew Karen was devoted to her “babies”; two positively gargantuan German Shepards ironically named Bitsy and Bootsy. Then there was the gorgeous pottery she created. Her dream was to have her own studio and teach classes, but her savings had been all but depleted by her mother’s long-term illness. Karen had always been reticent about her past, and Tessa and Marion were at an age where they knew not to pry. Tessa knew there had been a brief marriage in Karen’s early twenties that ended in divorce and that was all she actually knew about her friend’s romantic past.

Karen checked the bathrooms for supplies and unlocked the heavy front doors to let in the early morning customers. As always Raiford Archer was first through the door. Raiford was an Internet addict who could barely live through the weekend without his MySpace fix. He spent all day, every day on MySpace trying to meet women. At twenty-nine, unemployed, living at home, and having an IQ of protoplasmic proportions he was actually having more success at relationships than the three librarians combined. “Wassup?” he slurred in Karen’ face, causing her to wrinkle her nose at his miasma of cheap body deodorant and cigarette smoke. “Please do not smoke on the library grounds again Raiford, we have told you about this several times”, she replied sternly, frowning at his dirty undershirt and drooping shorts. His odious grammar and speech patterns offended her even more than his stench or wardrobe, she set great store by using proper language and her own voice was so beautifully moderated that it sounded classically trained. He shuffled by, oblivious to her disapproval as always and plopped himself at the computer terminal farthest from the circulation desk.

Martha Lee came in next with a passel of children she took care of during the day. She was a miracle worker with children, and had taken care of dozens during the years Tessa had worked at the library. Her own grandchild Tyler was part of the group this morning, and Tessa watched him run to be first on the children’s computer to play games. “Tyler home sick from school today?” she asked Martha as she checked in her books. “He was fevery this morning so I thought I would keep him in” replied Martha “You know it’s been hard on him since Terri left, I’m so glad his teacher’s have been understanding this year.” Martha Lee’s daughter Terri had been a difficult child, a horrible teen, and now a rotten mother on top of everything else. She met yet another man a few months ago and took off, leaving her son Tyler with her parents. Martha and her husband were in the process of legally adopting Tyler to protect him from his unpredictable mother and largely unknown father. “How’s the case coming along?” asked Tessa sympathetically, she knew Martha worried night and day that Terri was going to show up and take off with Tyler. “Okay” replied Martha “You know how these things drag out. We have a court date in three weeks and since Tyler’s dad has not come forward things are looking good for the judge to finalize our adoption. You keep your fingers crossed!” “I will”, promised Tessa. Tyler reminded her so much of her son Drew when he was little. He had the same beautiful eyes and habit of singing to himself when he played. “Martha, I have some new books in. Check on top of that first shelf, I know there is a new Fern Michaels book and a few others you’ll like.” Tessa hoped everything would work out. She met Tyler’s dad once a few Halloweens back. He brought the then very little Tyler trick or treating at her house. Tall, dark, and scary had been her first impression of the man with his long hair, multiple piercings, and colorful tattoos. Not her type by any means until he looked at her with the most vivid sapphire eyes that seemed to glow out of his tanned face. She flushed up and dropped the candy she had been putting in Tyler’s little plastic pumpkin, aware that he was watching her intently with those very blue eyes while she bent down to pick up the suddenly slippery candy. When she straightened up he was directly in front of her, smiling as she clumsily filled his son’s container with way too much candy. Her mind was blank for just a moment as their eyes held and his voice was very soft when he thanked her before striding off across the dark yard with Tyler held securely in his arms. He disappeared out of Tyler and Terri’s lives soon after that like most of her men, and no one was surprised but Tessa. Despite that she thought he looked like a criminal, there was something in those eyes that made her suspect he was not just a cliché of his appearance.

The rest of the afternoon went rapidly like they always did at the library. As small as they were, they were a community center of sorts. There was always some group meeting there, would be writers on Monday, book club on Tuesdays, the Lightsey genealogy/historical society on Thursdays. There was an after school tutoring service sponsored by the local college every afternoon and GED classes in the evening. Marion came in at the usual time and in her super efficient way immediately went to work. Though in her miniskirt and four-inch wedgies, she did not fit the usual mold of an archetypical frumpy librarian, she had given in to age and started wearing glasses after Tessa had to speak with her about her shelving problem. She looked well rested and had no visible hickies, which was good. Unfortunately she had a cat that did something unspeakable to the canary grin on her face that indicated a less than innocent weekend. The three women worked through the afternoon without even an afternoon coffee break. Tessa slumped in her chair at 5:30 and logged out of the library’s main computer to go home for the evening. She had not even had time to find out how the rest of Marian’s evening had gone Saturday, barely greeting her when she came in at two o’clock. She grabbed her tote bag out of her office, waved at the two busy women still at the desk, and headed for her car. “I’ll call you tonight” mouthed Marian as she turned to serve another customer. Tessa turned briefly and raised her eyebrows at Marian in question; she had been dying to know how the evening ended especially since she hadn’t heard from her friend in almost thirty-six hours. As the customer reached in her bag to remove books, Marian licked her lips and winked lewdly at Tessa to signal “hot gossip forthcoming”. “Lord have mercy”, thought Tessa “Marion the Librarian has struck again.”