A Small Town

Chapter Fourteen\ Evelyn Blakemore

"My names not Lisa, Bax. It's Evelyn... Evelyn Blakemore... and I am trapped here too." She said looking sad.

"My parents were Doug and Linda Blakemore, They were wonderful people. They adopted me when I was six months old. It was never a secret, I've known I was adopted as long as I can remember. I grew up in a three-bedroom bungalow in the suburbs. Doug and Linda were upper middle-class and as an only child, my existence was idyllic. I had everything and they spoiled me rotten.

When I was nineteen they even helped me fill out the forms to try and find my birth parents but that's a long process.

June 17th, 2001 I was twenty-six and working as a substitute teacher when my whole world changed. My parents had been visiting friends in Ottawa, and on the way back there was a traffic jam on highway 401. They stopped behind a line of cars but the guy driving the eighteen-wheeler behind them was texting and he didn't even touch the brakes. He ploughed into them at over eighty miles per hour and they died instantly.

Just like that, I was completely alone. I had no grandparents, no brothers or sisters, no aunts or uncles.

The letter came the day after the funeral. A thin manilla envelope. When it comes to manilla envelopes thin is never good. The adoption agency had found out almost nothing about my birth. Inside was a short letter.

In the letter, they told me the name of the orphanage I was adopted from – which I already knew from Doug and Linda. They explained that I had been left on the doorstep, just like in the movies. The only thing I came with was a short note. I looked and found they had included it at the bottom of the envelope.

It was hastily hand-written on the back of what appeared to be an order from a fuel company. It said 'Her name is Lisa – look after her'.

That made me angry. I can't really explain it but for that envelope to show up the day after the funeral seemed cruel. What kind of a God would do that? I almost tore it up, but then I decided I couldn't.

I grabbed the yellow pages and found a private investigator. His name was Leo Hennessey, former detective – retired and willing to take my case. Later that same day I sat in his office downtown and waited while he read the letter from the adoption agency.

Leo was a big man in his late sixties. He was balding and what little hair he had left was grey. He was powerfully built and I felt safe as soon as I met him. He finished reading the letter and then picked up the little hand-written note. Without saying a word he took out a pencil and began rubbing it on the back of the page. I remember thinking it was like something out of a Sherlock Holmes mystery. As he rubbed the pencil on the page words appeared as if by magic.

Whoever had written the previous order form had pressed hard enough to make an impression on my twenty-six-year-old note. Leo held it up to show me. I couldn't read all of it but one thing stood out as plain as day... 'Primacy, Ontario'

Leo said he would start working right away and contact me in a couple of days. He called two days later and said he was coming up empty and was heading to Primacy to dig deeper.

That was the last I heard of him. A week went by, then two, I tried to call and then went back to his office. His answering service couldn't reach him and after a month I gave up hoping he would call. That's when I decided to come here myself.

I took a leave from teaching and drove here just like you, but my car didn't break down. Unlike you, I started talking to people and found out a whole lot of things. First I found out that my birth mother was dead, that stung. I also found out that no one knew who my father was but by then I didn't care. My mother had left me the bookstore. Heather Munday, from the General Store, was her best friend and had a copy of the will. I got the bookstore and the apartments above it as well as a decent amount of money. It was incredible, suddenly it felt like I had a whole new lease on life. I had always wanted my own little bookstore in small town. I forgot all about Leo.

I opened up the bookstore again, as it had been closed since my mother died. I started making friends and before I knew it three months had passed. I was horrified, I had to go back to Toronto and look after my parent's affairs. As their only child, there were a hundred things to do.

Heather came to me then, she was scared. I'd never seen her like that before. She told me not to go. I argued with her but agreed to wait a couple of days just make her happy.

Two days later I tried to drive out, I headed west out of town passed Bob gas station and was almost at the town line when I found myself making a U-turn. I turned back and tried again but the next thing I knew I was parked in front of the bookstore.

I tried all day, but it was no use. I went through a whole tank of gas but I was still in Primacy. My head was pounding and I had a fever. I came back inside and went to bed for three days. By the time I was well again and decided to give it another shot, my car was gone. I can't say anyone stole it or hid it. Frankly, I don't even remember how I got back here that day.

Since then I've tried a few more times, walking like you, riding a bike, even hitchhiking not that there's ever any cars to speak of, all with the same results. I'm still here, and no ones looking for me.

Is anyone looking for you, Bax?"

Bax was sitting on the edge of the bed now with Lisa – or was it, Evelyn – sitting next to him. He shook his head no.

He turned to look at her and her eyes were big and wet. She smiled sadly and two small crescent-shaped creases formed at the corners of her mouth like brackets. It was as if her mouth was somehow separate from the rest of her face. If her expression had been a mathematical equation, then her lips would have to be solved first and he had the solution.

He leaned in and kissed her then, softly at first and then more fiercely. There was an urgency in that kiss, an unspoken need for both of them. She pushed him down onto the bed and they made love, first fast with mad desperation and then a second time, slowly and tenderly.

Later they slept, their naked bodies tangled together warmly in the small bed. Outside, just before sunrise Bax's car drove past the bookstore headed east, and a scream came from the bottom of the well.

Bax gave a start, half opened his eyes, then pulled the barn owl closer and went back to sleep.