Free Mammoth Secrets by Ashley Elizabeth Ludwig Page A

wanted her to meet him in Branson this Memorial Day weekend while he was on leave. Right. In a huff, she crumpled Eli’s letter.
    She flipped to the next thin envelope and sighed.
    Anthony’s opening read like a poem, to his delicate Ozark rosebud.
    Who writes like that anymore? She read on, absorbing every word as if it were living water. Then, on the next line, his fine, block letter spelled out her doom.
    “Of all the...” She wanted to laugh, cry, scream, and kick something. Instead, she sank to the large stone that edged the garden and read his careful script again.
    Anthony was coming out to spend her birthday with her, over Memorial Day weekend. He’d be arriving in Mammoth the weekend of the Reunion Carnival. And the Revival. If she’d have him, that is. He’d booked a room for himself at the Mammoth Inn on Route 67, the easier to visit her. No mention of wanting to do anything more than ride a Ferris wheel by her side, maybe hear her shriek in joy on a roller coaster.
    “Eden!” Nana’s voice ricocheted from the porch.
    “Coming, Nana.” She waved. “Just gonna change first! Got a pie for you.”
    Nana slammed the screened-in porch door.
    So far, the only one who knew about her little fiasco was Lilah. Maybe it would stay that way. Maybe she’d just hide in the closet where she waited out tornadoes.
    The sun arced closer to the rocky hills, backlit the canopy of new green leaves. Soon, it’d be summer, the Memorial Day weekend, and that meant—oh, she didn’t even want to think about what that would mean. This year’s Reunion was coming in with a hand-basket of trouble, and she was the one hauling the handle.
     
     
     
     
     

12
     
    Lilah chopped red onions in Eden’s tiny kitchen until her eyes streamed with tears. The well-used plastic cylinder sat in the sink, full of water, ice, floating lemons, and cleaned trout fillets from her fishing expedition with Jake. She sealed in the smile. No matter what Nana said or thought, Jake was intent on becoming her friend.
    “What’re you so happy about?” Eden’s voice preceded the back door close.
    “Who said I am?”
    Eden set the pie box on the counter. “Hmm.” she shrugged her purse onto the stool, and sat. “You fish the river out?”
    “Yeah.” Lilah smiled at the tub of white fillets chilling at her elbow. “Papaw’s spot still works.”
    “’Course it does.” Eden twirled a pen with manicured fingers. “Nothing changes here. Or have you forgotten?”
    “Some things change.” The smile wove its way to her lips. Whether Jake’s concern was with her soul in the hereafter or her life in the present, Lilah didn’t really care. For some reason, Jake wanted to spend time with her, and that was worth everything when the rest of her world was falling apart.
    “What?” Eden studied her like a butterfly on a pin. “Something you’re not telling me. Isn’t there?”
    Lilah flipped the focus back to her twin. “Did you ever think, the older we get, the less alike we seem?”
    That brought a blast of laughter. “Don’t change the subject. What’re you hiding?”
    “Nothing.” Lilah slid the knife into a stream of faucet water, rinsed, dried, and returned it to the knife block. “I’m an open book, remember?”
    Eden’s crunched eyebrows showed she wasn’t convinced. “When’re you taking that up?”
    “I’m not.”
    “It’s Saturday.”
    “Yeah, and I said I’m not.”
    “Did you tell Nana?”
    Lilah gave a quick shake of the head.
    Eden’s jaw hung open. “If you don’t come and aren’t the one to tell her—” her voice shook. “Oh, wait. I get it. You’re leaving this on me again, aren’t you?”
    “No. It’s Saturday night, and I’m having a friend over.” Lilah clattered the knife into the sink. “I’m a grown woman, Edie. I don’t have to do anything.”
    “But...Papaw...”
    “Will be fine. Just give him another pill.” Lilah hated the bitter tone, but in truth, this morose Saturday ritual