Hope Springs: Chapters 1–5

Every drawer in the kitchen was open and she’d already said three almost-swears: corn nuts, kitty whiskers, and bumfuzzle. I cringed as she tossed a wooden spatula in the Tupperware drawer.

The foamy soles of her white nurse shoes made a sticky sound on the linoleum as she walked over to the table.

Arletta Paisley had her own show on the Hearth & Home Network called Queen of Neat.

With regular old household items, patience, and imagination, I could create something new. Arietta called it “glamorganizing.” But I thought of it as a way to leave a tiny bit of me behind with the people and places we left, and sometimes, a way to take a little something along as a keepsake.

All my crafts, from the large-scale collages hanging on the walls to the decorated toilet paper dispenser, were what Nan called “pack-worthy.”

I wore a blue gingham skirt I’d sewn myself and an ironed T-shirt, white as a bowl of whole milk.

We packed all our worldly belongings into Nan’s old hatchback on Thursday and were on the road first thing Friday morning.

Hope Springs’s City Hall was a two-story brick building with tall white columns and pairs of paint-peeled shutters on every window. In front, there was a stone well with a commemorative plaque.

DESPITE SEEMINGLY INSURMOUNTABLE HARDSHIP, INCLUDING THE DEVASTATING DROUGHT OF 1840, THESE BRAVE INDIVIDUALS RISKED THEIR LIVES TO LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR THE COMMUNITY THAT EXISTS TODAY.

DESPITE SEEMINGLY INSURMOUNTABLE HARDSHIP, INCLUDING THE DEVASTATING DROUGHT OF 1840, THESE BRAVE INDIVIDUALS RISKED THEIR LIVES TO LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR THE COMMUNITY THAT EXISTS TODAY.

THEIR TIRELESS EFFORTS IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY HAVE GIVEN US ALL A TREASURE WORTH MORE THAN GOLD—A HOME.

I tried to reclaim that hopeful feeling I’d had just minutes before. I tried to ignore the fact that so far Hope Springs was falling a little short of what I’d hoped for.

“I’m Jubilee. Nan and I just moved here.” I flicked a tattered leaf off my skirt.

Nan must have sensed my skepticism. “We’ll make it work. ‘Creativity takes courage.’ Henri Matisse.”

I wasn’t ready to give up on Hope Springs, and I wouldn’t let Nan do it either. “Don’t worry. Like you said, with a bit of courage, creativity and fifteen”—I eyed the pink and mauve striped drapes in the living room—“thirty-five yards of upholstery fabric, anything is possible.”

I wasn’t ready to give up on Hope Springs, and I wouldn’t let Nan do it either. “Don’t worry. Like you said, with a bit of courage, creativity and fifteen”—I eyed the pink and mauve striped drapes in the living room—“thirty-five yards of upholstery fabric, anything is possible.”

There was a cutting table marked up with scratches and gouges next to a register, though getting there was like navigating a Halloween corn maze.

When she finished, she clutched the book to her chest and said, “That General Maldonado is a real scoundrel. I personally can’t get enough of him.”

Holly nodded and removed her reading glasses. “Old Mrs. Burgess was a real fan of pink. She singlehandedly kept me in business my first year.” She laughed at our dumbfounded expressions.

The bulldog shook his face, curled up again with his back facing us, and then a horrible smell wafted up.

I loved looking at patterns; each one with alteration ideas was a solid set of instructions packed with possibilities.

Almost more than anything else, Nan liked to have options. I nodded, and while Nan went up to the register, I went back to perusing.

I’d never made anyone something after only just meeting them, but Holly and Rayburn seemed in desperate and immediate need of some subtle glamorganizing.

It was hard to see many opportunities when faced with floor-to-ceiling pink cabinets and drawers teeming with the stuff of nightmares.

For the rest of the evening, I unpacked and arranged my supplies. There was a whole box of dusty mason jars in the shed. After some cleaning, they sparkled and held small knickknacks labeled with card stock tags.

I hopped out of bed, skipped to the living room, and set up my notebook, my sharpened Ticonderogas (three: one to use, one if the other broke, and one just in case), and my two ink pens—a special one for jotting quotes from Arletta and one for calligraphy—and a highlighter, for extra emphasis.

She smiled, nodded her big blonde hair, and said, “Join me for a whole new season of Queen of Neat, because y’all know life can get messy.” Then she winked one of her deep lake-blue eyes. Everything about her seemed tranquil and soothing, pillowy almost, and gave me a feeling I could sink into.

“I-I’m not really dressed for fishing,” I stammered.

Abby nodded. “Me too.” She looked over at me and flashed a big smile. There was no easy way to get out of this. Nan answered my pleading look with a discreet shrug.

“Guess I’ll go change.” I left the kitchen, turning off the TV with a stifled sigh. By the time I returned from my room, wearing my oldest T-shirt and cutoffs, Abby had a bowl in front of her and a napkin on her lap, and she and Nan were visiting like old friends.

Nan and I had a Relocation Rule for this kind of predicament: When something is totally new, pretend it isn’t.

“Even grosser if you know Mr. Meacham.” Abby shuddered, then pointed to an outcrop of rocks. “Steer clear. Saw a rattlesnake there last week.”

“There’s a club for fishing?” I asked. She gave me a look like I’d asked if the sun was made of yellow chiffon.

“Well, not everything in Hope Springs is downtown. There’s a river just east of town with a rope swing and a pretty strong current for tubing down. The trail up Ginger Hill is bright red from the clay in the dirt, and at the top, the sun lights up everything as far as you can see. Then there’s Boggy Pond. Crawfish big as bananas hide under every rock. And, of course, there’s the people. If I ever needed help, chances are I could ask the first person I ran into, and they’d give it.”

“That reminds me—take a look at this.” She dug around in her tackle box and pulled out a lure. It was a little wooden fish painted dark green on top and light pink on bottom, with red lips and round eyes finished with cute curling eyelashes, all lacquered to a high shine.