Renewal; A Tale of Katrina's Kitchen

Welcome to Renewal

     On the walk to her house, Missy McKay pointed out the few businesses, who owned them, and where they lived.

     "I guess you been to Harrison's already, if you got the stuff to fix Katie's leaky kitchen. Randall don't talk much anymore. He's got a nice old farmhouse out of town a ways, back the other direction. On the other side of the hardware is Shelly's dollar store. She gets stuff that past its prime date from them big stores in the city. She gets it cheap, sells it reasonable. Mostly. It's as reasonable as payin' for gas to drive to one of them big stores in the city."

     As they continued walking south on main street, Missy continued her monologue without expecting input from Jonah.

     "That's the post office of course. Nothing fancy, lucky we still got one. Across the street there, you got a laundry mat place, a barber, he pretends to do women's hair too. Hah!"

     "The drug store, unless you need something in a hurry, in that case, just go to the city. The old theater, it's been closed for ten years or so now."

     "Over there," Missy pointed southeast as they crossed a side street, "is Marshall's grocery, they got most of what you need and a real meat counter. A little pricey, but that goes back to that gas thing."

     "On this side is Portman's bar & grill. Gets a bit crazy on the weekends sometimes. Young people, the few that stay around, let loose on Friday and Saturday nights. The food's alright, but the coffee is awful. That's why I go to the Kitchen. And down Marshall Street, you'll find the Town Sheriff."

     She continued the tour, pointing out the town's church and various homes on Main street. Soon they arrived at a weathered, three story house.

     "This is my roost, its got eight bedrooms. Seeing as I only needed one, I figured the others might as well make me some mad money."

     Jonah could see the broken fence she had mentioned earlier. Should be an easy enough repair as long as he could get what he needed at the local hardware. He thought the whole house could use a coat of paint too. This wasn't the right time of year to be painting, though, and he didn't plan to be here when the weather was right.

     He followed Missy up the front walk, she climbed the steps to a large, covered front porch. It had several wicker chairs and a hanging glider. She didn't open the front door, instead walking across the front of the house to the south, where the porch continued along that side of the house. The door at the other end opened into a good sized kitchen.

     "Put that bag on the counter there. And you did wipe your feet I hope"

     "Yes ma'am, I mean Missy McKay. I did." He said as he placed her bag where she had indicated. .

     Missy turned, put her hands on her hips and said, "now, Mr. Jonah Pierson, we're gonna have a talk."

     Jonah stood uncomfortably in front of the the old woman. He expected he'd now get a lecture on taking advantage Katie's good nature. And how he hadn't fooled her and he'd better just move on.

     "Alright, son, where you from? Why, for the love of God, would you come to Renewal? There ain't a damn thing here to interest anyone. And yes, I'm a suspicious, snoopy old lady."

     Jonah took a breath and a minute to decide what to tell. There was a big part he would not speak about, but he could perhaps put her mind at ease. "Well, Missy McKay, I came from New York City. I had a good job in a financial company, a nice apartment in a good part of the city. And I had a fiance. We were going to be married next spring."

     "Why wouldn't she marry you?" Missy asked. "You mistreat her, cheat on her?"

     "No ma'am." He didn't correct himself to 'Missy McKay' this time. He blinked to hold back the tears that had started to fill his eyes. Then he told his half truth. "She was killed last spring. She was jogging in the park. They found her after three days." He didn't tell Missy McKay his fiance's body had been torn to shreds and partially eaten. He didn't tell her that he'd woken up next to that body two days before it had been found by a park employee, that he'd reported her missing himself.

     "I was in shock when I found out," or immediately after waking up next to what was left of her. "I couldn't do my job. They tried to work with me, but I just didn't care. I lost my apartment. I think that may be when I finally came back to reality. But, it was too late to fix anything. So I packed what little I had, sold things I didn't need and started to walk."

     Missy was silent for a minute. Then she asked the same thing the police had asked, "Did you kill her?"

     Jonah looked the woman in the eye, "No. Missy McKay, no, I did not kill my fiance." After several months of walking, he was certain of that. He could never hurt Tammy, he knew what had, but it was not him.

     Missy nodded. "You still didn't tell me why you landed in Renewal, but we'll let that go. For now. Now, we'll talk about rent and fence fixing.