Watermelon Wishes

Chapter 13

Evey woke in a mess of tangled bed sheets and backaches; she had slept miserably with one bad dream after another. Her worst nightmare involved being chased by villagers as they ran towards her with flamed torches as if out of some old movie. Evey ran in fear and was even more horrified to see the Casteel farmhouse come into view. They were chasing her towards the farmhouse. She ran and ran but they gained speed on her. When she got closer, she noticed a woman a flowing white nightgown standing on a far end of the porch with her arms open. She kept running and saw that she recognized this woman. It was Cora Casteel, as she was in the Watermelon Cove Gazette article, maybe late twenties. She was beautiful and she wore an unmistakable message on her face: understanding. In her nightmare, Evey could practically feel the heat from the torches and bounded up the porch steps as fast as she could. She had a feeling that Cora would keep her safe. But the closer she got to Cora, the closer Cora moved towards the end of the porch until she had disappeared, leaving Evey standing next to the porch railing and the large birdhouse that was installed on the porch roof. She remembered feeling petrified in the nightmare for being all alone with the angry people who were after her. But when she looked down, they had all vanished. Leaving just Evey alone in a dream version of the Casteel farmhouse. She felt a large hand on her shoulder and when she turned around in the dream, she woke up.

She tried to shake off the bizarre dream by stretching and decided that calories might help it go away. She was starving. She pulled on clothes, threw her bag over her shoulder and before locking her hotel door, she picked up four pairs of crutches. Far too many for one person to obtain in such little time, she told herself. Her ankle was feeling so much better, she didn't need the crutches any longer. Plus she was afraid if she kept them around, it might be convenient for her klutziness to kick in even more.

After sneaking out of the hotel unseen, she made her way to her car and stowed the crutches in the Subaru's backseat.

She spotted a coffee stand on her way to Dr. Sherman's and purchased two regular coffees and two blueberry scones.

Pulling up to Dr. Shermans, she maneuvered the breakfast materials out and placed them on the roof of the car. The she hoisted the crutches out and brought them up to the front door, leaning them against the wall. She went back to the car and picked up the coffees and scones and brought them up as well. The scones looked slightly stale but were heated up and smelled heavenly to her empty stomach that was threatening to growl. She couldn't wait to have hers. She opened the door called out.

"Hello? Dr. Sherman?"

"Be right with you!" she heard his jovial voice return from a back room.

Setting the simple breakfast down on the waiting area table, she brought the crutches inside and sat down, picking up a magazine entitled "Toy Making for Cats." Interesting. She forced herself through an article about stuffing shredded paper into an empty paper towel tube so that she wouldn't be tempted to start on her scone. She didn't want to be rude. At this point, she needed as many people to like her as possible.

"Sprained ankle!"

She looked up to see Dr. Sherman along with a elderly couple who were about the same height. Dr. Sherman's height (and girth) dwarfed the couple.

"Evelyn, am I right?" he asked.

"Um, close," she said, standing. "Evey. Evey Markham."

"That's right!" he said. "How is the ankle?"

"Much better, thank you," she said, holding it out and rotating it slowly to prove it. It felt only slightly sore as she moved it.

"Glad to hear it!" he said, clapping his hands over his mighty belly.