Read Online Dreaming August by Terri-Lynne Defino - Free Book Online

rang the bell on the counter. Nearly empty racks on the wall disheartened, until Benny spotted the tray of her favorite chocolate mud cookies.
    “Oh, hey, Benny.” Caleb, Charlie McCallan’s middle son, came out of the back room with a broom. “I thought I heard the bell ring. Can I get you something?”
    “A mud cookie. Make it two.”
    His face colored. “I’m supposed to bring two dozen over to a graduation party as soon as I close up, but I suppose Johanna wouldn’t mind, seeing it’s you.”
    Graduation party. Dan’s niece. She’d forgotten all about it.
    “No, no. Don’t do that. How about one of those big tollhouse cookies instead?”
    “You sure?”
    “Positive. I was torn between the two anyway.”
    Caleb slid the cookie into a waxed-paper sleeve and set it on the counter. Benny handed him a dollar and took a bite.
    “Didn’t you graduate this year?” she asked him.
    “Next year.”
    “You look into any schools yet?”
    The cash drawer dinged closed. “I’m pretty set on going to the Culinary Institute, like my sister. I love working in the bakery. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
    “Fantastic, Caleb. Really great.” Benny took another bite. “Johanna must be thrilled.”
    “Just a little.” He grinned, and in that instant looked exactly like Charlie. “Charlotte wants me to come south for the summer.”
    “She really likes it down there in Cape May, huh?”
    “Loves it.”
    “You going to go?”
    He shrugged. “Maybe for a couple of weeks. I don’t want to be gone all summer. It’s my last one as a high school student. I kind of want to hang with my friends.”
    “She’ll understand.”
    “This is Charlotte we’re talking about.”
    “True.” Benny put the last bite of cookie into her mouth. “I can’t believe I just ate that whole thing. You’d better give me another. It was supposed to be for later.”
    * * * *
    Her cookie tucked safely into the milk crate, Benny zipped out of town. It would remain light for a while yet. She had time to visit and still be able to get home before dark. She wasn’t a teenaged-goth-chick anymore. There was only so much time she could spend casually hanging out in the cemetery before other people started questioning her sanity.
    Scooter parked, she gathered her picnic supper from the milk crate. Henny’s plot looked pretty from a distance. Welcoming. Harriet’s too. Benny laid her blanket between the two, put her food on it, and went first to her husband’s grave. A hand placed upon the stone, she bowed her head and searched for words that never sufficed even if she did find them. The dream still spooked her. It hadn’t been the first time her Henny turned into zombie-Henny within the confines of her mind. All the other times, she woke in a cold sweat. This time he’d spoken— It’s not me. It’s you. I’m sorry, Benny —and his words spooked her more than his altered form.
    Letting her hand fall, Benny turned to Mrs. Farcus’s grave instead.
    “It’s no use. I’m a mess.”
    Nothing.
    “Augie asked me to come back. He said he’d show me where he’s buried. Anyone there? Augie? Mrs. Farcus?” She swallowed hard. “Harriet?”
    Still nothing. She went back to her blanket, sat down, and opened her sandwich. The giant cookie had robbed her appetite. She ate anyway, washed it down with the lemonade. The second cookie taunted her. She picked it up, nibbled at the edge.
    “I am eating for two, you know,” she told it, and ate the whole thing. If she couldn’t have one of Johanna’s mud cookies, two of her tollhouses were ample compensation. She felt a wee bit queasy, though she licked her fingers clean. Leaning back on her elbows, she looked up at the darkling sky. If she wanted to get home before dark, she had to leave soon.
    She rose groaning to her feet, gathered the garbage, and started for her scooter. Stopping at Harriet’s grave, she noted a few marigolds ruining the orange and yellow tableau with their