Free Arizona Homecoming by Pamela Tracy

hayride?”
    “Cooper took over to give me a break. We’ll probably be at it a while longer.”
    The three girls in front of Eva stood up. “Bye, Miss Eva.”
    “Speaking of needing a break.” Eva reached out for her father so he could help her up. “Kneeling for hours while nine months pregnant isn’t much fun.”
    “Your mother said the same thing.”
    A look passed between the two, something that tugged at Donovan’s heart. Clearly Jacob’s wife had been loved and was still missed.
    “I ran into Donovan,” Jacob said. “He’s bringing his RV over this afternoon. We’re going to put him up in one of the cabins while he builds Tinytown.”
    “Oh, Timmy will be thrilled. Where is he, by the way? I’ve not seen him for a good hour.”
    Donovan spoke up. “He was just in Emily’s story time. She gave a talk about the Corn Maiden.”
    Jacob’s eyes twinkled. “Her mother’s stories. Emily’s pestered both Eva and her uncles since she was little. Now she knows more than anyone else. She’s passing them down. There was a time she was writing them, but that girl’s got more on her plate than a casserole at a church potluck.”
    “I don’t bring them to life like Emily does. She’s always been a storyteller.” Eva, hands on her back, paced back and forth. “She could spin a tale. Got her in trouble more than once. In kindergarten, she pulled another little girl’s hair and then told her teacher that Coyote made her do it.”
    “Coyote?”
    Eva grinned. “The Trickster. In Hopi legends, he causes all kinds of trouble. Hang around Emily enough, you’ll know them all.”
    “Not just the Hopi legends got that girl in trouble,” Jacob added. “She got quite a few ideas from Harold Mull, our foreman. You’ll meet him later today. In first grade, during recess, she stuck a bunch of little rocks in her mouth. Whoever was on recess duty told her to spit them out, and she wouldn’t. By the time I got to the school, she was in the principal’s office, tears streaming down her cheeks, and tired of all the small rocks in her mouth but too stubborn to spit them out.”
    “Harold,” Eva continued, “told her that if she were ever thirsty, to just suck on stone. Apparently, the recess teacher wouldn’t let her go in for a drink, and Emily decided to take care of the issue in a unique way.”
    “I paid for the installation of drinking fountains outside,” Jacob said. “Don’t know why they weren’t there already. This is Arizona.”
    By the time Donovan left Eva and Jacob, story hour was over and Emily was gone. Leaving Donovan feeling that he’d once again fallen victim to a missed opportunity.

Chapter Six
    E mily left the library festival a good twenty minutes later than she meant to. She had nobody to blame but herself. She’d hurried out of Elise’s clothes and went looking for Donovan.
    She didn’t find him.
    Probably, she told herself when she left Main Street and aimed her truck for the museum, he was holed up in some corner with his cell phone. Sometimes, she wished the device had never been invented. Other times, like when she needed it to find an out-of-the-way address, she thought it a better invention than ketchup.
    She pushed Donovan from her thoughts—it took the entire drive—and pulled into the museum’s empty parking lot.
    She wished just one car waited for her, a happy family hoping to explore the past. One that wouldn’t even care that her note specified her return time and that she was a solid thirty minutes late.
    “Should have grabbed some green eggs and ham to go,” she muttered to herself, taking down the notice and flipping the sign to Open. She stashed her bag in her office. No way did she want something to happen to her kachina or Elise’s things. Then she settled her purse in the cabinet up front.
    Before she could do one more thing, her stomach growled.
    She’d settle for what she had in the employee office, which came with a small refrigerator and a microwave.