“He’s flirting?”
“Look, I know that you just found your dead cousin and it’s super distressing and all, but the silver lining here is that the Sheriff is hot for teacher.”
“Doesn’t that only work if I’m actually a teacher?” I laughed.
“Words are tricky, don’t get caught up on it.” She began walking back up the slope towards the main street and soon I was able to see the sign for the pizza place that she worked at and the corner where the donut truck had been earlier. “Vest please,” she said holding out her hand after taking off her own bright orange accessory. “No need to wear that hideous thing anymore.”
I pulled the Velcro apart and slipped the vest off my arms. Once I handed it to her, she screwed up my vest with her own, like a tangled fabric ball, and threw them over her shoulder. I looked back and they hadn’t landed on the street, or on her head, or anywhere at all. They were both gone.
I was clearly suffering from my long trip to get to the island, the experience of being rushed into a storm shelter and the shock of finding a dead body. My eyes were playing tricks on me.
“So, what have you got planned for tonight?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know, probably unpack and see if I get any good channels on the TV. Will there be a TV in the house?” I hadn’t even stepped foot into my new home and had to hope that Effie had made good on her word to find the key. I would be sleeping on a table in the café otherwise.
“I’m playing GPS roulette again, feel free to join,” she smiled. “It’s an app that we just got here in Hallow Haven a few months back and it is just ruining my life, but in the best way. You open it up and it gives you random co-ordinates for a location nearby and you go and film what you find. There’s never anything good at the end, just sand usually, but one day there might be something exciting and... I’ve lost you haven’t I.”
“Sorry, I can’t stop thinking about that woman we found,” I confessed. More than anything I wanted to be able to push the memory aside, but with everyone saying I was related to her it felt like a face I couldn’t risk forgetting. If I was about to move into her old house, then maybe there would be some clues to clear up this confusion.
“It’s okay, I know how you feel. I tend to go for a big hike when I have a lot on my mind, I find the fresh air healing. I’ve tried to get Effie to play GPS roulette and she doesn’t have an interest either,” Kate complained.
“What about tomorrow night? I’ll be up for it after some proper sleep,” I said. Ever the people pleaser. I can’t honestly claim that the thought of it sounded like something I would choose to do. I’d already tried one short explore of the island and ended up wading through a flooded cemetery, but I was determined to try new things and come out of my negative shell.
“You’re on!” she said, clapping with excitement. I was over a thousand miles from my old life and knew nobody, if this was what I needed to do to make friends then I was willing to give it a go. Kate continued to share tales of her anticlimactic findings on previous adventures with the app, and I continued to seem enthusiastic about our trip out tomorrow. We were soon back at the cafe and Effie was waiting.
“Kate? Can a girl get a text back? I’ve been trying to get hold of you for hours, I thought you’d gotten Sadie killed in the storm or something,” Effie complained. She punched her sister in the arm in a playful way and then the two of them smiled.
“Sadie found Greta,” Kate explained.
“That’s awesome! I wouldn’t have expected things to kick in so fast, but this—” Effie said before being cut off by an elbow to the ribs from Kate.
“Her body was washed up in the cemetery,” Kate finished.
“Ah.” The two of them took their eyes off each other to look at me. What had Effie been talking about? Miller said they had already declared Greta officially dead. Hadn’t that been the reason Effie put the café up for sale? Why would she think that it was ‘awesome’ that I had found her?
“I think you should get started with your TV night, or whatever,” Kate suggested.
“Yeah, I’ve stocked your refrigerator and tried to shift some of Greta’s stuff out of the way so you can just crawl into bed. She’s awesome, and I love her, but sometimes her house was like a tornado hit a landfill,” Effie smiled. She handed me the keys to the house, and I walked through the kitchen to reach the door to my new home.
Effie and Kate shouted goodnight and I heard the lock turn in the café door. I was all alone now. I pushed my way through into the house and locked myself in. Effie must have left the hallway light on so that I could see where things were. The hall was a long, straight corridor through to another door at the other end. Based on the amount of light coming through the glass in that door, it must lead to outside.
It was cute. Nothing like my interior design preferences which were all shades of white and grey, but colorful and lively. It was as if a toddler with a crayon box had planned the paint and wallpaper and I was surprised by how much I loved it. I reached into one room and found the light switch; this was the living room. A brightly patterned couch stretched out around the corner of the room and faced a TV attached to the wall. Perfect.
Even if the rest of the house was a disaster,
