Free River's Song - The Inn at Shining Waters Series by Melody Carlson Page B

taught me, we did it in secret too."
    "So your mother wouldn't know?"
    Anna nodded.
    "You were very fortunate to have a grandmother like that, Anna."
    "I'm beginning to appreciate that more and more."
    "I'm curious about your canoe. Would you mind telling me about it?"
    So Anna told her about how it was won in a card game and Hazel laughed. "I have no idea how old it is, but I think my grandma's second husband, Crazy Bob, died about ten years before I was born. So that means it's been in our family for close to fifty years."
    Hazel looked confused. "Fifty years? How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"
    "I'll be forty this fall."
    Hazel looked shocked. "No, that's not possible. I thought you were a girl when I first saw you. Even now I would've guessed you to be in your twenties."
    Anna chuckled. "Well, thank you! But I have a daughter who would beg to differ with you. She is always telling me how old—and how old-fashioned I am." Anna flipped one of her braids. "Although I don't usually wear my hair like this."
    "But, really, you look quite young for almost forty." Hazel smiled. "Not that forty is so old, mind you. It's been nearly twenty-five years since I was forty and I'm still fairly spry if I do say so myself. I wouldn't be surprised if I was still around forty years from now. My grandmother recently passed and she was 103."
    Anna nodded, absorbing this. "You're making me feel almost young."
    "Well, you are young!" She laughed. "And don't let anyone convince you otherwise."
    "I feel like I can trust you,"Anna told her. "And not just because of your flattery."
    "I am not a flatterer, my dear. I simply speak my mind. Besides being given over to exuberance, I am also known as a highly opinionated woman. Some people can simply not abide me." She shook her head. "Including my ex-husband, Herbert."
    "Ex-husband?"
    She nodded firmly. "Yes. I am a divorcée. I have been so for nearly thirty years now and am not the least bit ashamed of it. Never married again. Not that I wouldn't consider it, if the right man came along."
    "Do you have any children?"
    "My daughter lives near Seattle with her husband. She has two grown children, both girls, going to college in Washington. And I have a son who lives in Eugene, and a teenaged grandson as well. They're what attracted me to the university there. I wanted to be near my boys." She sighed. "And you say you have a daughter. Any other children?"
    Without going into all the details, Anna explained she was a widow with only one child. Then she stood. "As I was saying, I trust you, Hazel."
    "That means more than I can say to me." Hazel stood as well. "And I'm highly appreciative of your hospitality and your time."
    "Because I trust you, I'm going to let you see where my grandmother lived."
    Hazel looked surprised. "I thought she lived here."
    "No, my parents lived here. My grandmother had her own cabin. Would you like to see it?"
    "Yes, yes, of course!"
    As Anna led Hazel out of the house and over to the cabin, she explained about how Grandma Pearl's first husband, John, built this house for Pearl and her mother. "My grandma's aunt lived in town. Her name was Dora. She was married numerous times. Mostly to white men. My grandma sometimes called white men 'the moving men' because they had moved here from someplace else. She usually called them that when telling stories."
    "She told you stories?" Hazel stopped walking, placing her hand on Anna's arm, her eyes lighting up. "Do you remember any?"
    "Oh, yes. And my father wrote many of them down." Hazel fanned herself with her handkerchief, almost as if she felt faint. "Oh, my! Oh, my! I feel as if I've just stumbled into a diamond mine."
    Anna laughed. "Well, I have heard the town of Florence described as "The Diamond among the Pearls." And the Siuslaw River sometimes sparkles like diamonds. But I'm afraid that's the only diamond mine you'll find in these parts. And even those diamonds have become dulled by all these logs crowding in from