"The last time I saw you were telling me that you were moving. No one ever visits me anymore, honey. You never told me why you left either. Why are you here today of all days?" Madame Hilda asked me motioning for me to come inside. I hadn't been in this house since I was 17. I would always visit Madame Hilda to help around the house since she was old and couldn't do as much as she used to and when I was younger my mother would drop me off here when she went to work. She would always enforce me calling her only Madame Hilda, never just Hilda. One time I was in a hurry and called out "Bye Hilda" and she stopped me the next day and scolded me for it. I knew the exact reason I left and she was part of the idea.
She would always know where I was before and after I was at her house every day. At first, I thought it was a coincidence but it started getting worse. I didn't feel safe which is why I left. I came to visit my family while my apartment was being checked for mice. I had to be out for a week so I came home. My mother had kept in touch with Madame Hilda while I was gone and when I came back mom told me to visit Madame Hilda. I never thought I would see her again, but here I was again after 4 years.
As I walked in I could see Leo lying next to his food bowl like he always did. Leo was a very old cat that I found when I was 7. He was a fat Maine coon kitten I found on the side of the road one day. He had separation anxiety to his food bowl. He would carry it around in his mouth if he got up. As soon as he saw me he got up, bit down on his bowl, and walked over to us.
"Hey, buddy! What were you doing?" I asked, leaning down, petting the back of the old cat's head. Madame Hilda was used to me talking to animals like they would respond. Like when I was like 9 I would always insist I saw Leo and Madame Hilda having conversations. Now I just ignore my imagination when with these two.
"Do you want anything to eat or drink?" Madame Hilda asked, taking a few steps toward the kitchen, as Leo looked at her expectantly, "I know you want food, but I already ran out of treats. I was asking Peggy."
I had already eaten before I came over but I knew that she would not take no for an answer. "Do you still make your signature lemonade? I would love a glass if so."
"Yes, yes. I will get a glass of it for you. You can sit on the couch while I get it if you want." She said, walking into the kitchen. I had memorized that house for years, now the memories came flooding back. Walking through the house I saw so many things that made me cringe, I broke open my forehead smacking into that wall, I broke my wrist tripping over that table leg, and I sprained my ankle tripping over that cat tree that I swear Leo has never touched. So many days I had to go to the hospital. By the time I sat on the couch Madame Hilda was already there waiting with two cups and a pitcher of lemonade.
"I added two ice cubes like you always have in my lemonade. I was wondering why you left all those years ago?" Madame Hilda asked me, pouring lemonade out of the pitcher, not spilling a drop with a steady hand.
"I thought I told you then," I started, knowing full well that I never told her anything about why I left. I had reasons not to tell her.
"I left because I wanted to pursue my dream of living in the big city, remember?" I knew that she would believe that lie I told her even though I always hated the city, she forgot most things I said.
"I remember now. You wanted to work at an office job while living in a small apartment with a dog. I think." Madame Hilda said to me, trying to think hard about it. I hated office jobs.
"Yeah, I did and that is why I moved," I said, looking away, not wanting to give away I was lying. Leo was looking at me as if he knew I was lying, even though he is a cat. He always looked so judgy.
As I took a sip of lemonade Madame Hilda asked, "Are you still friends with Veronica? I think she still lives in the same house down the street."
I choked on my lemonade, "She does?" I asked with some slight urgency in my tone. I thought she would have left this town already.
"Yes, yes. I talked to her last week when I was at the store. She seems bored with her life here." Madame Hilda said, stroking Leo, who was laying on the arm of the couch.
I looked down at my watch, noticing it was half-past one. "So sorry, but I need to go. How about I visit sometime this week before I leave?" I asked, standing up, dusting the small amount of cat hair off my lap.
"Okay, it was great to see you today." Madame Hilda said, standing up as well, grabbing the glasses of lemonade.
As I walked out of the house and onto the front steps, I reminded myself that I should visit Veronica later. I pulled out my phone as I walked and texted Noah, I will be there in a few minutes. Noah was my roommate and best friend. He worked at a coffee shop near our apartment when I first moved to the city and we became friends, so I told him about how I was looking for a place to live and he offered to let me live with him. After a while, I learned that he also used to live about 15 minutes from me in town. Today I was meeting up with him and one of his other friends, they were reconnecting in a coffee shop. The coffee shop V used to work at.
As I walked in I saw Noah and someone sitting in a booth with drinks in front of them. I walked over, knowing that Noah already ordered my green tea.
"Hey, Peggy!" Noah said as I sat down next to him in the booth, "I already ordered you your tea, just how you like it."
"Hi, I'm Wyatt, Noah was just telling me how you guys met a few years ago," Wyatt said, setting down his drink on a folded-up napkin.
"I'm Peggy. Do you still live in this town or are you just visiting?" I asked, looking around, seeing that this place still looks the same as it used to.
"I still live here, I work at the clothing store by the town center," Wyatt said.
"Oh, that is cool. Starlight collective? I used to work there too." I said, looking over at Noah seeing that he was texting someone.
"Who was your manager? I have Mr. Kene. He said that he has been working there for 5 years. I was wondering if you had him when you worked there?" Wyatt asked, taking a sip of his drink.
"Here is that green tea you ordered. Was there anything else you would like me to get you guys?" A familiar voice said, setting down a cup of steaming tea in front of me.
"Veronica?" I asked, looking over to see my old friend.
"Peggy?" She said, putting her notepad back in her pocket.
"Oh my gosh," I said in a small voice.
"Peggy! I haven't seen you in forever! Why are you back here?" Veronica asked.
"V, I-" I started but got interrupted.
"Veronica? This is your V? Peggy, I never thought that you would be best friends with my sister." Wyatt said, looking at me and then at V.
"What? I- What?" I said looking back and forth at V, Wyatt, then Noah.
"I thought I told you?" Noah said in a small voice.
"Did I do something wrong? Do you want me to go?" Wyatt asked.
"No! Stay, you are fine, Wyatt. But--" I said, trailing off my sentence, looking over at V, "V, when is your shift off?"
"In like 30 minutes." She said, looking over the clock on the wall.
"Can you meet us at the park after your shift?" I said, looking at the guys.
"Sure, do you want all your drinks in takeout cups? I am still your server." V said, shifting her weight over to her other leg. All three of us nodded and she walked away. I turned to Noah, who was sitting still, looking at me.
"You thought you told me? I have never heard you talk about knowing someone named Veronica, also called V," I said, I knew that I did not need to be rude but I was still going to talk about it.
"I'm sorry, Peggy. I know I told you about Wyatt having a sister before, though I don't think I said her name." Noah said, looking over at Wyatt, then back at me.
"Umm, which park did you want to go to? There are two about the same distance from here." Wyatt asked, intervening in the conversation.
"Emerald Moss Park. I know an area there that no one knows about." I said quickly, taking a sip of my tea, slightly burning my tongue.
"Boss let me off slightly early. I got your takeout cups though." I heard V say. We took our new takeout cups and got up. As we walked out I got a text; I'm going out with your father tonight, I put the key in the spider plant pot.-From mom. I have a feeling like I'm not going to be home before you guys.
"Do we want to walk or ride?" Wyatt asked us, taking keys out from his pocket.
"Let's walk, to save gas. We have to share a car, you know." V said, re-adjusting her bag. I noticed that she was wearing forest green pants and a light pink tank top, her purse was a grey and pink accented small backpack. I also noticed the bracelet on her wrist, the half heart I gave her before I moved. I walked over and put my hand into hers, the magnets on the parts of the heart clasped together. V looked over then back over to the sidewalk and we continued walking down the street.
After a minute or two of walking, we came to a park that had a set of swings, a playset with a bridge going over to a slide, and a forest in the back, a pine forest. The forest had a path going into it surrounded by trees. I knew exactly where to go from here. I walked into the forest with the others following, them seeing that I knew where to go.
"Are we going to the tree? The mushroom one?" V asked, slightly jogging up to be side by side with me.
"That's what I planned on doing. Not going to lie, I don't even know if it is still there or if it is even safe anymore," I said, glancing around making sure that I remembered where to go.
"I don't know, either. I haven't been there in years," V said, picking up a medium-sized rock, "But with this, we can know if we are close." She tossed the rock into a clearing and it made the grass swish, revealing small mushrooms at the base of a fallen over tree. It was beautiful, the mushrooms climbing the side of the tree. We had found the tree in 8th grade, we were walking around throwing rocks at nothing and V hit the tree revealing the mushrooms. The clearing was surrounded by trees that littered the ground with pinecones. The tree that had fallen had ripped out of the ground during a storm and the grass was messed up near there. It had taken a while for the grass to grow back, but even with it grown back, there was still a divot left in the ground.
"We're here. It still looks the same," I said, turning around to face the boys.
"Why did we come here? It looks kinda boring." Wyatt said, "No offense,"
"I still take offense to that," V said, walking over to the tree and sitting down, avoiding the mushrooms.
"Okay, okay. Why did you want to come here? We could have talked at the park." Noah said, walking over to sit on the tree as well.
"I wanted to catch up and talk about something else that V might recognize if I say a name, but we will talk about that later," I said, sitting next to Noah.
Wyatt was the last to sit with us. We all took a bit to explain what we had been doing for the past few years. I explained how I moved to the city to end up living with Noah, Wyatt explained how he had been saving up money to get his own car, V explained how she had been working on her online business to earn more money, and Noah told us about how he had been working to open his coffee shop downtown (which I already knew).
"-and I've been working on new recipes too. I might try to open Topped Off in the next few years." Noah said, looking over at the trees on the side of us.
"Ooh, it will be great. Peggy, what else did you want to talk about while we are out here?" V said, tapping my shoulder.
"Oh, yeah. I was wanting to talk about Madame Hilda, I went to visit her earlier." I said, standing up to stretch.
"She still lives here, if not, how is she still alive?" V said, looking at me like I was crazy.
"Who are you talking about? Is it that one old lady that lives down the street?" Wyatt asked, looking back and forth at V and I.
"Yes, she is 'that one old lady," I said, sitting back down.
"What did you want to know about her? I haven't talked to her for a few months." V said, looking at me, slightly confused.
"Wait, what? She told me that she talked to you at the supermarket last week. I thought you had kept in touch with her?" I said, looking over at V again, "Do you think she is doing to you what she did to me back then? If so, this is bad."
"What did she do to you, Peggy?" I heard Wyatt and Noah say at the same time.
"Well, it's a long story," I said, trying to deter them from the subject.
"We have all day if needed," Noah said, shifting his weight so he could look at me comfortably.
"So, Madame Hilda. This is going to be interesting," V said, looking at me, "I can help telling if needed."
"So, when I was 12 I started going to help out Madame Hilda. When I was like 14 I noticed that she would always know where I was, even if I didn't tell her where I would be. I thought it was weird so I talked to my parents but they didn't believe me so I started looking around her house when she was not paying attention. I-" I was still telling the story when I got interrupted.
"Isn't that trespassing?" Wyatt asked.
"No, now let me finish. When I was looking around her house I found a drawer filled with pictures of me at home and me when I was out of the house. I never told her about it, but I would look at what she had on me. One day I told my parents but they didn't believe me again. After a while of looking around her house, I found that all the kids that she knew she had pictures of everywhere. I stopped going to her house and just kept an eye out for anyone following me. I went back when I was 16 to talk to her about her life, trying to nonchalantly get it out of her that she had someone following me. I could never get it out of her though. So I stopped asking and just would look for clues. When I was 17 I convinced my parents to let me move to the city because I told them that I wanted to finish school there. When I moved I got pictures of all the stuff she had on people just in case. V was the only one that believed me. I never thought Madame Hilda would go for V. I still want to know what she was doing with all that information." I said, feeling out of breath.
"Woah, that's a lot," Wyatt said, "I thought she was just the old lady that lived with a fat cat."
"And that is why you are the dumb friend, makes sense that you are younger," V said, knowing she was being rude to her brother.
"Peggy, do you still have the pictures of what she had on you? Maybe you had missed something in the pictures?" Noah said, intervening in the conversation between the siblings.
"My mom might still have my old phone with the pictures on it." I said, thinking about how she wasn't home, "I can text and ask,". I pulled out my phone and pulled up her contact, Do you still have my old phone? I want to go through it.-Me.
"Okay, if so we can go through it to see if someone else was in the picture," Noah said, standing up, "I think we should head out, it's getting kinda dark."
"Yeah, come on you two," I said, getting up to stand next to Noah, seeing that the two were glaring at each other. As the two stood up I got a text, The phone is in the drawer next to your bed, I started charging it before you left just in case you wanted to look at it.-Mom
PLEASE NOTE: I, the author, would take it as very helpful if you could somehow exclaim you liked this and if I should continue to write it. 🙃
