Page 36 of The Newcomer
13
AS SHE DRESSED FOR WORKon Friday morning, Letty reflected that it felt good to have a routine again. Or as close to a routine as a person could get, while on the run from the law and a murderous ex—with a frightened four-year-old in tow.
Maya woke up at seven, so that’s when Letty got up, too. She ate a breakfast of cereal topped with local strawberries and watchedCurious Georgeon PBS, while Letty had yogurt with strawberries and checked her email.
Earlier in the week, she’d reluctantly bought herself a new iPhone with a new phone number and acquired a new Gmail account, both of which she’d texted to Zoey.
HOW ARE U? HOW’S M?her friend texted back now.
Letty glanced at Maya, who was seated on the bed, dressed in her favorite outfit du jour—a bathing suit top and pink tulle princess skirt—happily sorting through the contents of her plastic pocketbook while softly humming thePeppa Pigtheme song.
I’m adjusting. Working. M is okay. Not as many nightmares. Dry bed last night.
She paused typing, wanting to know, but dreading the answer.
Any more E sightings?
No, but that detective lady came back & asked Art for your job application.
Letty’s mind raced, trying to remember the kinds of questions that had been on that long-ago perfunctory job application. Name, age, phone number, address, previous experience. All routine. Andthen she remembered. Social Security number. Her Social Security number would have been on that job application.
Just as she was considering all those implications, and starting to panic, Zoey texted back.
Don’t worry. Art laughed, told her it’d been nearly 6 years & he didn’t keep files that old.
“Thank God,” Letty breathed. Ava had given her a job application, which she’d promised to fill out and return. She hadn’t yet, and wouldn’t, she decided, unless her new employer made an issue of it.
So far, her arrangement with Ava was extremely casual. She suspected that was because her boss had a casual attitude toward things like unemployment insurance and Social Security deductions. For Letty, this was the ideal situation.
Not having to make decisions about what to wear was a relief, too. She had three pink Murmuring Surf polo shirts in her wardrobe rotation, a pair of jeans, and two pairs of shorts she’d picked up at the big-box store in the nearest shopping center, along with a new pair of white Keds. Today was a shorts day.
She packed two sack lunches with turkey sandwiches, grapes, and carrot sticks, then quickly straightened the room. Their unit was so tiny and otherwise grim-looking that the only way Letty could stand to return to it in the evening was knowing it was neat and tidy.
Ava was waiting for them when they got to the office. A shopping list in one hand, her purse slung over her shoulder.
“Good morning, ladies,” she sang out. “Letty, the coffee’s made. I’m headed out to run errands. We’ve got the Carlisles checking into unit two this afternoon, but those weirdos from Orlando are still taking their own sweet time about packing up and getting out. I knew it was a mistake renting to those people.”
Ava disliked what she called “short-termers”—guests who only checked in for a few days, as opposed to her long-term seasonal renters who booked rooms for weeks and months at a time. But since her motto was “heads in beds,” when she had a rare midweek unit become available she reluctantly lit up the vacancy sign out front.
“Anything I can do to hurry them along?” Letty asked, settling Maya at her table and unpacking her art supplies and Ellie.
“I told ’em checkout’s at ten sharp,” Ava said. She turned and gazed out the plate-glass front window in the direction of unit 2, one of the original, smaller postwar cottages. It was painted soft coral, with a turquoise door and window shutters. “Don’t see any signs of life over there.”
“Not surprised,” Letty said. “I heard them partying ’til late last night.”
“Don’t I know it,” Ava said. “Ruth Feldman called and woke me up at midnight to report that those people were still playing loud music and splashing around in the pool. I had to get up, get dressed, go over there, and tell ’em to shut it down. You won’t believe this, Letty.”
She looked down at Maya, who was preoccupied with drawing flowers, and lowered her voice.
“The two of them were butt naked and goin’ at it like a pair of rabbits. Right there in the shallow end of my pool. In public!” Ava’s face was pink with a mixture of outrage and embarrassment.
Letty started to giggle.
“Frolicking around like it was nothing,” Ava went on. “I’m just glad Isabelle didn’t see them.”
“What did you do?” Letty asked.
“I yelled at them to get dressed and get the hell out of my pool,” Ava said. “And then that man—I bet they aren’t even married—got out of the pool and had the balls to stand there—stark naked with his wangdoodle hanging out—and try to tell me I should calm down and mind my own business!”
