Free Stormy Cove by Bernadette Calonego

doll so you can show it to Lori?”
    Molly didn’t have to be told twice. The door slammed, and Patience took a deep breath.
    “Una sometimes took care of Molly when I was called out for a birth. I’m a midwife, you know.”
    “Right. Your husband told me,” Lori said.
    Patience seemed puzzled.
    “Ches? Where did you meet Ches?”
    “I was in the woods with Noah, cutting down trees. He took me on his snowmobile.”
    “Oh, with Noah . . . you must really have charmed him. He doesn’t normally thaw out so fast.” A smile flickered over her chubby face.
    Lori changed the subject rapidly. She didn’t want people to get the wrong impression.
    “You must miss having a nice neighbor like Una.”
    “Oh sure. We often had a cigarette and a rum together when the men couldn’t see us.” She studied Lori’s face for a reaction. “When I was pregnant I stopped smoking, of course. Una worked in the fish plant before they shut it down. After that, she was bored a lot. Poor thing had too much time on her hands.”
    Lori remembered that Noah had said the same thing about Ches. How ironic that most people in Vancouver complained they had too little time.
    “So she vanished into thin air, and nobody’s heard a thing since?”
    Patience looked around the room some more, as if retrieving memories.
    “Nobody. They said on TV that this happens more frequently than people think. That people who disappear want to start a new life.”
    “Did Una tell you about her plans?”
    Patience pursed her lips.
    “She didn’t tell me much of anything. I didn’t even know at first that she’d left.”
    She gestured at the camera on the table.
    “So you’re here to photograph us? Do you ever do family sessions?”
    Family photo shoots? Why not? She could win over the people in Stormy Cove that way.
    “Yes, of course, that’s all part of it. I . . .”
    The front door banged.
    “ Mommy , Granny came over and Uncle Archie!”
    Patience straightened her sleeves.
    “You’ll have to meet Archie soon. He’s Noah’s uncle, and I’m Noah’s second cousin. Archie’s like a father to us all. Noah’s dad and my dad were killed fishing.”
    She turned around to look at Lori again before going downstairs.
    “It’s good if you meet Archie. But not today, he’s not in the mood to talk. A polar bear broke into his coop and ate all the chickens.”

CHAPTER 9
    Two days later, she saw them both: the polar bear and Archie. In that order.
    She was leaning against Noah’s snowmobile, her cell phone to her ear, and trying to hear her son describe his handball game.
    Reception on the hill above the houses in Stormy Cove was better than she’d expected, though it seemed surreal to delve into Andrew’s daily life in the middle of this cold white wilderness, out of Noah’s earshot but constantly aware of his presence. His bulky snowmobile suit made his silhouette look huge and ponderous; he was like an upright anchor in his monotonous surroundings.
    Noah didn’t seem to be in any hurry to repair the snowmobile he’d agreed to sell her, despite his reassurances that it wouldn’t take long. Clocks in Newfoundland ticked differently than in Vancouver, which wasn’t exactly a mecca of hustle and bustle. Lori would never want to trade the leisurely, laid-back West Coast lifestyle for the frenzy of Toronto. But here in Stormy Cove, a slower speed was linked with stubbornness; at any rate, that’s how it struck her. If people were already at the mercy of the forces of nature, then at least they didn’t want to have the rest of their life dictated to them. This explanation appealed to Lori, even though she suspected Noah didn’t trust her to venture out onto the Barrens on a snowmobile all by herself.
    “I’m on the right wing now . . .” she heard Andrew say.
    His words just poured out of him, which should have made her happy. His year as an exchange student in Germany was off to a good start. And he could stay with his father and his