Authors: Barbara O'Connor

Greetings from Nowhere (16 page)

Willow looked down at the guest book opened on the
counter
.

Dave and Lillian Klinger from Belton, South Carolina
Ollie Branson from Athens, Georgia
Hattie Norris from Dayton, Ohio
Mr. Frank T. Dodd from Fairfax, Virginia
Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey Hix from Baltimore, Maryland
Augusta Russell from Cleveland, Mississippi
Felton Nisbet from Fountain Inn, South Carolina
Roy and Doris Gilmer from Cedar Bluff, Alabama

The motel would be full!

Willow and Aggie were going to hurry and clean Kirby's and Loretta's rooms after they left.

Kirby and Loretta.

Willow had been so busy with the tour group that she hadn't had time to think about them yet.

But now she did.

She thought about them leaving.

She thought about how quiet it was going to be without Kirby bouncing out there on the diving board.

Boing. Boing. Boing.

She thought about how boring it would be without Loretta skipping around in her cowboy vest.

She thought about sitting in the bottom of the swimming pool without anyone to talk pig Latin to or do yo-yo tricks with.

And then her father came into the office and she remembered what she had to do.

She stood up straight and squared her shoulders and said, “Daddy, Aggie can't leave. We need her to help us in the motel and our family got all messed up so now she can help make a family for us and we'll still have plenty of rooms for guests. Ugly won't like it in a condominium and he can't even go outside or anything.”

She stopped to take a breath.

And then she said, “And Harold is in the tomato garden.”

She took another breath. “Well, not
Harold
Harold, but,
you know”âshe jerked her head and glanced up at the ceilingâ“Harold.”

There.

Willow waited.

Her father took off his cap and scratched his head. He put his cap back on and glanced up at the ceiling. Then he looked at Willow and said, “Okay.”

Aggie

Aggie plopped into Harold's old lounge chair. Her back
hurt. That bursitis in her shoulder was acting up again. And the arthritis in her knees was interfering with the day, that was for sure.

But what a day it had been.

Just like the old days.

Well, almost â¦

“Aggie?” Willow called through the curtain over the office door.

Aggie forgot about her back and her shoulder and her knees.

“Come on in, sweetheart,” she called.

Willow came in and sat on the bed in front of her. She looked so solemn, Aggie felt scared for a minute, like maybe she was about to get some real bad news.

But instead of telling her bad news, Willow said, “We need you to stay.”

“Stay?”

Willow nodded. “Stay here. With us.”

And then the words came tumbling out and Aggie had to lean forward a little to make sure she was hearing everything right.

This is what Willow told her:

That she and her daddy needed Aggie to help them run the motel because Willow would be going to school soon and somebody needed to be in the office while her daddy worked on other things, like weeding and filling the soda machine and checking for wasps under the eaves.

That Willow's family had gotten a little messed up and if Aggie stayed, well, maybe they could all be like a family right here at the motel.

That Ugly needed to be outside because that's what cats like, not condominiums and hot tubs.

That when Dorothy comes to visit, she will want to meet Aggie.

And that Willow and Aggie could fix up the garden togetherâweeding
and pruning and plantingâwhile they talked to Harold.

And then she stopped.

And Aggie said, “Okay.”

Kirby

“Hurry up, Kirby. I haven't got all day,” Kirby's mother
hollered out of the car window.

Kirby jabbed at the gravel with the toe of his sneaker.

Aggie and Willow and Mr. Dover and Loretta and her parents were gathered around him.

Loretta's parents told him how nice it was to meet him and maybe they could all go fishing next time they were out this way.

Mr. Dover thanked him for helping with the weeding and all. He couldn't have done it without him.

Aggie told him he was a fine young man and she would send him banana bread. “And you come on down here and
visit us when you have some time off from school,” she added.

Willow looked down at her feet and said, “Bye,” with a little flap of her hand.

Loretta said, “Ee-say ou-yay ater-lay, irby-Kay.”

And Ugly purred.

Kirby gave Willow his purple yo-yo.

Willow said, “Thank you.”

Then he reached in his pocket and took out the poodle dog pin and handed it to Loretta and said, “Here.”

He waited for everyone to yell at him.

He waited for everyone to hate him.

But Loretta grabbed the pin and squealed, “My pin! My pin! You found my pin!”

She did a little la-la-la dance around and around in circles, jangling her charm bracelet and kissing her pin.

Then she took the sheriff's badge off her fringed leather vest and handed it to Kirby.

“Here, you have this,” she said.

Kirby took the sheriff's badge from Loretta and started to put it in his pocket. But then he changed his mind. “Thanks,” he said, and pinned the badge to his T-shirt.

When Kirby's mother honked the horn, Kirby looked around at everyone and they were all smiling at him and no one was yelling and no one was hating him.

Kirby felt as light as air, like he was going to float right up into the sky. He got in the car and waved as his mother drove out of the parking lot.

When they started up the winding road toward Smoky Mountain Boys' Academy, Kirby looked down at the trees and the mountains spread out below them, and he knew he had been wrong.

This wasn't nowhere, after all.

Loretta

La la la â¦

Loretta danced around in circles, kissing her poodle dog pin as Kirby's car disappeared up the winding road.

She climbed into the van and put the pin inside her box. She was never, ever, ever, taking that stuff outside again.

Then she joined the others out in the parking lot.

“We're coming back next summer and you can go to Dollywood with us,” Loretta said to Willow.

“Okay.”

“We can be best friends, okay?” Loretta said.

“Okay.”

Everyone hugged.

Loretta's mother hugged Mr. Dover.

Aggie hugged Loretta's father.

Loretta hugged Aggie.

Around and around the hugs went.

Finally, Loretta and her parents climbed into the van with the sandwiches and cupcakes that Aggie had packed in a brown paper bag.

“Y'all stay in touch, now,” Aggie said.

Loretta and her parents said, “We will.”

Aggie patted Loretta's arm resting on the open window of the van and said, “Have you decided where you're going next on that charm bracelet of yours?”

“Yep.”

“Let me guess. Texas?”

“Nope.” Loretta grinned out at Aggie. “O-nay ace-play,” she said.

Aggie cocked her head. “No place?”

Loretta nodded. “I like it here,” she said.

Then the van bounced and squeaked across the parking lot toward the road, with Loretta hanging out of the window, waving both arms.

Her charm bracelet jingle-jangled.

And her mother said, “Aren't we lucky, Marvin?”

Aggie

Aggie watched the Murphys' van disappear around the
curve. Willow stood beside her, clutching Kirby's purple yo-yo.

“I guess you and I better get to work,” Aggie said.

She and Willow cleaned Kirby's and Loretta's rooms. They changed the sheets and put fresh towels in the bathrooms. Willow ran the vacuum. Aggie dusted.

When they were finished, Willow said, “You wanna go sit in the swimming pool?”

Aggie chuckled. “Okay.”

So she sat down there by the drain with Willow and Ugly. They talked about how good everything had turned out. That tour bus parked over there by the office. Those folks
sitting in lawn chairs out by their rooms, studying their complimentary maps of the Smoky Mountains.

They talked about how good things were going to be later. How Aggie was going to be in charge of the office while Willow was at school. How Willow was going to visit Dorothy in Savannah real soon. How they could all go to Dollywood with Loretta next summer. How Kirby could come visit them when he had a break from school.

When the sun started sinking below the mountains and the air grew cool, Willow helped Aggie up off the crumbling cement and they headed for the office.

Halfway there, Aggie said, “Let's skip.”

So they held hands and skipped across the parking lot. Aggie's thin gray hair bounced and her glasses slid down her nose.

As she skipped, she glanced up at the sky and said, “Look at me now, Harold.”

Aggie and Willow sat outside the office until the sun disappeared completely behind the mountains.

Lightning bugs flickered out across the parking lot.

The motel sign glowed in the darkening sky.

And NO VACANCY flashed on and off.

On and off.