"THIS WAS A BAD MOVE, a major mistake. I can't believe I'm
doing this." Sarah Tucker's head pounded. She turned the
steering wheel, rounding a curve. Most women who were
nearing thirty were leaving home, but not her. No, she was
returning to her hometown after nearly twelve years away,
and she didn't want to think about the reasons why.
Pulling up at the stop sign just before one of the last
few turns leading to the town of Gold Tree, Wisconsin,
Sarah popped the clutch and wrestled the aging beige
rustmobile through the gears, negotiating the snaking
road. In the winter the road would be slippery with snow
that threatened to send a car skidding into the trees, but
in the July heat the tires clung to the asphalt and held
tight into the turns.
Ever since she'd made the decision to come home a headache
had been threatening, and now the pain blossomed. The
steering wheel thrummed beneath her fingers. The licorice
road with its yellow center stripes was like a rope
pulling her back into the past.
Her younger years had been ordinary, even happy... right
up until that day when she had been ten and had had her
first vision. After that her world had changed, and
nothing had ever been ordinary or right again, especially
where her father was concerned. He had tried to use her
gift to make money. He'd become a verbal abuser, and he
had continued his using and abusing until she'd finally
bolted just after her eighteenth birthday.
She hadn't been back since. When she'd lost the baby she'd
been carrying by a boy who had promised her everything and
then left her with nothing, she had swallowed the grief
that threatened to consume her and continued to run,
knowing that her father and the boy weren't unique. There
were others who would use her or any offspring she might
have. A normal life wasn't in the stars for someone like
her.
She passed the road leading to Lake Apple. She was getting
close now. The pain in her head seemed to
increase. "Nonsense," she told herself. "It's just nerves."
Probably because her communication with home these past
twelve years had been sporadic and stilted. There were
days early on when she would have liked to have had the
chance to see her mother and little sister, but her father
had made it clear that he would not provide the funds for
anyone to visit her and if she came home, she did so on
his terms. That meant using her special talents to find
missing objects or people who sometimes turned out to be
dead. All for money. It meant living with nightmares, so
she'd kept her distance until the distance no longer
seemed to matter and her past seemed like something she'd
once watched in a movie. A movie she didn't want to sit
through twice.
And yet, here she was, headed toward Gold Tree. "Not quite
the conquering heroine marching into town wearing jewels
and a tiara, either," she said, rubbing one aching
temple. "I can see the headlines of the Gold Tree Weekly
now. Sarah Tucker Returns Home Almost Broke, Completely
Homeless, Jobless and in the Company of a Questionable
Companion," she said, turning toward the passenger seat,
wrinkling her nose. "What do you think?"
Her companion wagged his tail.
Sarah smiled wearily. "Yeah, pretty unlikely. I'm
yesterday's news now. I doubt anyone here cares about my
former quirks. And yes, I'm sorry for the insulting
comment, Smooch. You're the best companion a woman could
have."
She looked at the big dog strapped in to the low, torn
bucket seat. Smooch, a gold-and-brown mutt of
indeterminate ancestry, was a mass of wayward, fuzzy fur.
His right ear looked as if it had been chewed on many
times by other dog bullies, and it probably had. He had
the words "street tough" written all over his wiry,
scarred body, and he had undoubtedly lived a violent and
abused life before Sarah had pulled him from the animal
shelter, brought him home and finally coaxed him to
tolerate her company. Still, despite his checkered past
and the fact that he had every reason to distrust humans,
his big brown eyes held no accusation and plenty of
unabashed loyalty and devotion, his body wriggling just at
the sound of her voice. He was the only male she had ever
known who had not passed judgment on her or tried to use
her. And he didn't care about her particular talents or
even if she had any talents at all. For that alone she
loved him.
"Stick with me, pal, and sooner or later I'll find us a
good home," she promised, throwing out a hand. "For now,
we've got to stop here for a few weeks."
And she wasn't just stopping because her boss in
California had closed his antique shop to retire, leaving
her out of work, or because her landlord had raised the
rent and instituted a no-pets policy, even though those
were both good reasons for coming home.
If that had been the case, she would have been here six
months ago for her father's funeral. She hadn't been able
to bring herself to do it, not even when she found out
that he had left her the shop, Tucker's Lost & Found
Emporium, where her father, R. J. Tucker, had tried to
harness her powers and turn her into a golden goose,
punishing her whenever she refused. It was the last place
she ever wanted to go. He had probably known that and left
it to her as a final punishment.
Instead, she had ignored the bequest. She hadn't even
wanted to think about that place, but then the taxes had
come due, and with almost no money in her pockets, it was
obvious she would have to do something about it.
She'd tried to think positively. Her life these past few
years hunting down antiques for hungry dealers had been
mostly good. The fact that she'd met with a few setbacks
lately was just life. She'd reasoned that she could sell
the shop, handling the transaction from afar.
Then yesterday her mother had called. Madeline Tucker
never called. She had to be the world's most retiring
woman and had never made any demands of Sarah in her life.
"I think your sister, Cass, is in trouble. I think she
might be...becoming like you. I wish...I wish you would
please come home," was all her mother had said.
It was the first time in all these years that her mother
had said the words "come home" or implied that Sarah might
be needed. Her request, her worries about Cass hung in the
air, and this time Sarah couldn't stay away. Despite the
fact that she didn't even know her younger sister. Cass
had only been six when Sarah had left home.
Becoming like you. Sarah knew what her mother meant. If
what she said was true, then Sarah had to help Cass,
because no one else could truly understand. Cass must be
frightened. Sarah knew every bad thing that went along
with her gift. She knew the fear of seeing things not
meant to be seen...and the horrified looks of the
townspeople when they learned about her gift. Maybe she
could protect Cass in some way or at least teach her how
to handle a situation the way she wished there had been
someone to help her.
Sarah rounded the last curve, the big pine trees bending
low over the car. She breathed in the heady scent of
woods, of green, of earth, of long-lost little-girl
memories. The good ones, the only ones she planned to
allow herself.
"We're home, Smooch," she said. "I might not want to be
here, but it can't be helped, so we'll do the best we can.
We'll settle here for a few weeks, see if we can help Cass
if that's possible. We'll use this as our base until we
regroup and find a new place to stay."
In the meantime, she was going to do her best to make
lemonade out of the lemons she had been given and come to
terms with her past, maybe even rid herself of the
nightmares at last. She would take that shop her father
had left her and rip it apart, shred it, sell it.
And this time when she left, it would be because she had
chosen to leave town, not because she had no choice.
This time things would be different. When she had lived
here before she had been known as an oddity, but that had
probably been because of the way her father presented her.
He had wanted people to be in awe, to be a bit frightened.
This time things were bound to be different, better.
Sarah stopped and got out of the car a half mile outside
of town. She looked up, up, way up into the crests of the
tall pines that swayed with the wind and brushed at the
town with their branches.
"I'm back," she declared to no one in particular. Yes, the
witch of Gold Tree was back, but with one major
difference. She had submerged the clairsentient powers
that had cursed her all her life. In doing so, she had
finally, finally lost them.
She could touch something nowadays and not feel a thing
out of the ordinary other than a slight pain behind her
eyes, no worse than a mild sinus headache.
She was glad. At last she was free. And no man would ever
chain her up, tie her down or try to use her again. No man
would ever have a hold on her or any say over her life.
In fact, if she played her cards right, men would only
play a marginal role in her life.
OFFICER LUKE PACKARD surveyed the scene before
him and immediately swung into action, grabbing for his
radio.
"Ben, get an ambulance over to the Tucker place pronto,"
he said, dropping to his knees beside Madeline Tucker. She
was lying at a crooked angle at the bottom of the stairs.
Her ankle was swelling, she had a lump on her head and she
was blinking as if she didn't know who he was. He didn't
like any of this. "Luke?" she asked, her voice weak.
He managed a small smile. "Well, welcome back to the world
of the living, neighbor," he said. "When I heard that you
were hurt, I was pretty worried." He decided not to
mention the fact that Madeline's eighteen-year-old
daughter, Cass, had delivered the news that her mother had
fallen and then Cass had immediately disappeared. As a
concerned friend, he definitely needed to know what that
was about, but now was not the time to ask.
Madeline tried to sit up. "Mad, no," he told her. "You
were unconscious when I came in, and there's definitely
something wrong with your ankle. No sitting up until the
doctor says it's all right, and that's not going to happen
until the ambulance arrives."
A look of distress came over Madeline's face. Normally she
didn't look her age, which was probably fifty-something,
but right now her pallor and the worry lines on her
forehead made her look much older.
"Where's Cass? Where's Danny?" she asked, referring to her
daughter and Luke's son, whom she'd been babysitting. Her
voice broke.
"Not here, but Cass is the one who called me to the scene.
She dropped Danny off at the police station, and Jemma is
adding looking after him to her clerking duties. He's
fine." He didn't tell her that Cass was fine, because he
didn't know. Again he wondered what had happened here and
why Cass hadn't come home.
Madeline gave a tight nod of her head. Her hands clenched.
She looked as if she might cry. He almost closed his eyes.
He'd seen so many women in pain. His mother, every time
his abusive father had beaten her, his wife when she'd
realized he didn't love her. He didn't want to ever see
another woman hurting, but of course he would. He was a
cop. He didn't get to turn away. In fact, part of the
reason he'd gone into law enforcement was to be able to
protect women who were in danger, to try to prevent some
of the tragedies he had seen.
"Want to tell me what happened here?" he asked quietly.
He saw a slight flicker in her eyes and knew what that
meant. He'd seen it too many times. She was going to
either lie or give him an edited version of the facts.
"Nothing. Cass and I argued a little and I wasn't paying
attention and slipped on the stairs. But I can't go to the
hospital, Luke. Sarah is coming. I have to be here."