Free THE SANCTUARY by Cassandra R. Siddons Page B

us are in Myrtle Beach and Mount Pleasant. There’s some kind of ordinance about big box stores so that all the mom and pop businesses don’t face unfair competition. I can’t believe what I’ve been missing. It is ten o’clock at night, and this place is still hopping. Don’t you wonder what all these people absolutely have to have that can’t wait until tomorrow? Maybe it’s just the thrill of going out shopping in the dark. Do you think? If a superstore ever comes to Georgetown, I believe I’ll start doing my shopping at night,” Julia vowed.
    Lydia was willing to bet that even if Georgetown were to get a superstore, Julia Reynolds wouldn’t be a patron. She had trouble picturing Julia fighting crowds searching for rollback priced items. The friends sat in comfortable silence, watching the commotion for another half hour before retiring for the evening. It had been a long day, and they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillows.
    They reluctantly awoke a few hours later to insistent banging on the RV door.
    “What should we do?” Julia whispered groggily. The clock showed it was only 6:50 a.m.
    “Who is it?” Lydia called loudly.
    “Santa Claus! Who are you expecting? I didn’t fly three thousand miles and drive all night to stand in the middle of a frigging superstore parking lot!”
    “Liz!”
    Sonya threw open the door and she and Julia attacked Liz with bear hugs.
    “Oh my gosh, you’re so thin! What kind of crazy diet have you been on this time?” Julia asked.
    “It’s called the sweat diet. It’s all the rage in the jungles of Borneo. I’ll tell you all about it later,” Liz promised. “Right now I just want to thank Liddie for having the courage to end this foolish feud. I admire you for admitting you made a mistake.”
    “Mistake?” Lydia asked.
    “I got all your texts explaining how wrong you’d been to stay angry for so long and how you were finally ready to forget about the past. You begged me to join y’all on this trip,” Liz explained.
    “I didn’t send you any texts,” Lydia said.
    “Yes, you did. See?” Liz said, holding up her phone.
    “The important thing is that Liz is here now, right?” Julia said. “Why don’t we have some coffee and catch up? Oh, you know what would be great? Glazed doughnuts!”
    “What have you done, Julia?” Lydia asked.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Julia said. “Who wants doughnuts?”
    When no one answered or moved, Julia finally broke. “Oh, all right. I sent the texts. This has gone on too long. Liz knows what she did with Sanctuary Island was wrong. It’s a shame that your mother died before y’all could resolve that. Liz missing her funeral just made you all the less forgiving. But she didn’t intentionally miss your mother’s funeral. She got stuck in Fiji. I know you asked her not to go, which was a big deal for you. But Liz thought she had time to do the interview and make it back for the funeral. Under normal circumstances she probably would have. You didn’t think she should have tried, but it took her three months to set that interview up, and it was important to her career, especially after the debacle with the Gullah story. After everything we’ve been through and as long as we’ve been friends, I have to say that I’m a little angry that you two have let this go on for so long,” Julia said.
    “Okay, so maybe Liz was just trying to do a good thing when she instigated that documentary on the Gullah and a vanishing way of life in the Lowcountry. But she knows how protective I am about that island. I promised my mother on her deathbed, for goodness sake! I thought she felt the same way. I was angry that she would exploit the Gullah just to forward her career. And I was angry about my mother’s death—angry that she was so brave and fought so hard, and it didn’t matter. Maybe I did overreact when I lashed out at Liz. But then she got so defensive and said all those terrible things.