We ran down the street and turned the corner to Twin Falls Park Road. My new friend Olivia was walking out to her mailbox. Her gorgeous dog, Hercules, was beside her as usual.
“Good morning!” she waved and smiled.
We slowed to a stop in front of her home, and Hercules walked over to me. “Hi, big boy.” I reached out to pet his soft fur. As usual, he leaned his body into mine and relaxed into being petted. He was a Saarloos wolfdog, a mix of a German shepherd and a grey wolf, and was the largest canine I’d ever known. He was an amazing protection dog, and on more than one occasion had been my own personal sentry and rescuer. I always carried a bag of meat in my backpack when I ran this route, as an ongoing thank you to him for being my protector. I held out a handful of his snack, and he gobbled it up as we chatted with Olivia. As usual, she was a fount of information about the community. You couldn’t keep a secret from this one.
“Did you tell Hayden who took over the DF Camping & Hunting store?” she asked Axel. She was bouncing in place, barely able to contain the gossip.
“Actually, we’re headed there now.” He tilted his head toward me, and shrugged his shoulders, subtly trying to stop her from spilling the beans. “It was going to be a surprise.”
“Oops!” Olivia said, totally missing his signals. Or intentionally missing them, so she could provide the news. It was one of her favorite things to do. “Hayden, you’re never going to guess who it is!”
As always, there was no point in guessing. She’d jump right in to tell you if you paused for a breath. “Gwendolyn broke the lease on her shop. She never really wanted it. It was just a way to get back at her ex-husband, winning it in the divorce, you know. That woman hated her ex as much as she hated anything to do with camping and . . .”
“Who took over the store?” I gently interrupted to get her back on track. I wanted her to say it before Axel stopped her from giving me the name.
“Oh! Right. You really need to meet her; she’s a hoot. Her name is Poppy and get this! She’s Cleobella’s sister!” Olivia looked at me with wide eyes and clapped her hands enthusiastically.
Cleobella is my grandmother’s personal assistant, housekeeper, and all-round support person. She’s one of the most unique people I’ve ever met. She silently appears at my grandmother’s side whenever there’s something to be done or food to be served, gliding in and out of rooms at precisely the right time with whatever Grandmother needs. I have yet to figure out their system of communication, but I feel it would be rude to ask.
Before I first saw her in person, I had seen evidence of her stealthy helpfulness. I had expected that she was an unobtrusive, blend-into-the-background, grey-dress-with-a-white apron kind of person. I was very, very wrong. Very wrong.
Cleobella is a tall, elegant woman with the most striking white-blond, waist-length hair. Every time I see her, it’s done up in some elaborate fashion, and often topped with a glamourous hat. No bland, grey uniform for this woman. She dresses like a cross between Cher and Lady Gaga in full costume, from her fancy hat to her usually sky-high heels. She’s dressed up like this no matter what the day or the task. I could find her cleaning the kitchen in full-on Gaga.
Cleobella is deaf and can’t speak, but her presence is anything but silent. She seems to fill a room with her extraordinary appearance. I was wondering if her sister was anything like her when Olivia answered that question.
“You think Cleobella is unique? Her sister is cut from the same cloth. They’re two of a kind. And wait until you see the store! It’s spectacular! Seriously, Hayden—go see the shop and meet Poppy.”
I could barely hear Axel murmuring under his breath, “That was the plan.”
Axel said we’d meet Poppy first since it was on our route to the coffee shop. When we walked up to the DF Camping & Hunting Store, I got the shivers, remembering how completely horrible Gwendolyn was. She was haggard and bad-tempered, and that was just her outward appearance. Deep down she was downright evil, and I’d had a frightening encounter with her. Thankfully, she was gone now.
I noticed the shop’s sign had changed. It now read Poppy’s Camping & Hiking Extravaganza. I stepped inside the store ahead of Axel and stopped dead in my tracks, frozen by shock and awe. The entire store looked vastly different from the last time we were here when it had looked like a typical sporting goods store.
This shop was no longer typical in any way. It was set up like a campground and hiking trail. Exactly like a campground and hiking trail. I could have sworn I was outdoors. I looked way up through enormous trees to what was painted to look like a blue sky. I felt like dipping my toes into the babbling brook that wound its way through the center of the store. I felt like roasting a marshmallow at one of the various campsites that were set up. Everything you could possibly need for a first-class camping trip was displayed in a real-life setting.
There was no reasonable way that all this would fit into a building this size, and I was giddy with the idea that Destiny Falls made such magic happen.
I spotted a tall woman with white-blond hair near the
