When the Leaves Stop Falling

Chapter 4

Courtney sat with Dr. Maynard at the counter in the diner and giggled as quietly to herself as possible when Mrs. Meyers let out another string of curses. Doing her monthly totals always put the woman in a sour mood.

There hadn't been much excitement tonight. A few truckers were brooding over their steaming coffee while their rigs were gassing up next door. None of them paid any attention to the three of them at the counter, so long as their coffee was kept hot. She figured the townsfolk were out enjoying the warm quiet night or were tucked safely in their houses among their loved ones. Courtney plopped her chin in her palm and fought off the stray thoughts running through her crazy brain tonight.

Mrs. Meyers glared at her hyenas with a scowl. "Richard, why don't you start bringing your boy around here, instead of laughing at me, so Courtney can begin wooing him."

Richard chuckled, slowly shaking his head at Courtney's dropped jaw. "He's only fifteen."

"Never too young to start," she mumbled without looking up from her work again.

He rubbed his eyes with a fond smile and turned once more to Courtney. "So, how has it been going?"

Keeping her chin on her fist, she shrugged. "Okay, I guess. You?"

He expertly ignored the question and asked another, as he was prone to do. "Has the side been causing you any discomfort?"

She remembered the ache from her broken ribs ten years before, which hardly bothered her at all anymore. Arthritic shadow pain, Doc had called it. "Only when it rains, so I'm good, considering we're in the desert." She gave a fleeting look as a trucker wandered in from the highway for a break. "Besides, Doc, it was years ago."

"I still see you holding it sometimes."

Courtney reached over and grabbed the coffee carafe from the burner. "I'm okay." She nodded to Mrs. Meyers before she could ask Courtney to take the trucker's order.

When they thought she was out of earshot, Mrs. Meyers said, "You see, Richard? There's nothing for her to do here. She comes in the diner, on her night off, for fun."

"You know how long it took her to trust us. Where do you expect her to go?"

"Somewhere other than here. She's wasting away."

Doc belted a laugh. "Hardly. She's doing well now."

Courtney sighed, shaking her head, and walked to the table as if she hadn't heard. Once finished, she returned at sat on a stool. "He just wants coffee."

"Courtney, have you ever thought about moving on, trying out a new city?" Doc asked. When she frowned and Mrs. Meyers raised her eyebrows, he quickly added, "I mean, wellYou're young, and smart. You could take a vacation or...Why don't--"

"You two are going to give me a complex. You sound like you don't want me here."

Edith smacked her hand on the counter, making Courtney jump in response. "Damn it, girl! You know we love you. It's not about us not wanting you here. You've been stuck too long, and you're healthy, so there's no excuse not to travel, see the world." She grunted and gentled her tone. Courtney had been yelled at enough in her lifetime, God knew. "We want more for you than this. There are other people to meet, places to go."

"I have no one but you guys, where else should I be?"

The familiar jingle on the door saved Courtney from the conversation, but her body went on instant alert. She sensed the woman even before seeing her. A twinge pierced her chest she couldn't quite explain, causing a whoosh of air to escape her lungs as if she'd been struck.

The newcomer nodded at them, causing her curly, shoulder length dark hair to fall around her face.

Courtney's grip tightened on the countertop edge as she struggled to pull air into her lungs. She closed her eyes, breathing through the pounding in her chest. Damn, it had been a long time since her Spidey sense had gone into hyperactive.

When settled, she walked to the booth the woman had slid into. "Coffee?" she offered.

The newcomer looked up and, with a polite smile, waved her petite hand. "No, thanks. I never drink the stuff. Do you have tea?"

Courtney felt an urgent need to rub tension from her chest. She'd never had chest pain before, but then again, this wasn't a pain really. More of an...ache. Before she could brood over it, she lost her focus in the woman's deep, golden brown eyes framed by lashes she would kill for. Not an attraction. Nothing so innate as s****l, but a connection of sorts. A tether of a bond slithered in the space between them and knotted.

Courtney shook her head to clear it. "Um, hot or iced tea?" she asked awkwardly.

"Hot please."

Courtney nodded slowly and, without thought on her task, went behind the counter to start boiling water. She leaned close to Dr. Maynard, who had been watching her closely. "I just got this strange feeling in my chest."

Doc's usual pliant smile dialed to concern. His dark brown gaze skimmed over her, forcing his worry lines to stand out. "Are you dizzy at all? Short of breath?" He placed a hand on her wrist as if to take a pulse.

She immediately backed away from his touch. This wasn't medical, but how to explain it? "No, it's not me." His concern faded to confusion. "I mean, the woman, who just came inI think she's...Never mind."

It was difficult to explain the strange sensations she got from people. It wasn't everyone, and it didn't occur at all hours, but some people's emotions could slam her into a wall. Whoever this woman was, her soul was the loudest Courtney had experienced to date. It left her more than a tad shaken.

Mrs. Meyers and Dr. Maynard looked at her with apprehension. They'd picked up, almost from the start, that she had this way about her. Like she wasn't like everyone else, even though she hadn't discussed it with them. Ever. She'd chalked it up to her defenses being down when they first took care of her after finding her in a ditch.

When the tea kettle screeched, Courtney turned and transferred the water into a cup, grateful to have a distraction. She ignored the hairs on the back of her neck, a sure sign they were still staring at her. She grabbed a tea bag and walked back to the booth.

"There you go. Can I get you anything else?"

The woman's golden gaze dipped to Courtney's clothes. "You don't have a uniform on."

Courtney looked down at her jeans, faded from use, and her white blouse. "Oh." She smiled. "I'm not working. I'm just helping out for a minute. It's my night off."

"Would you be able to join me then?"

What an odd request. Hundreds of patrons traveled through the diner every day, all people who would barely glance at her, nevertheless ask her to join them. She found herself drawn to the golden brown eyes again searching back at her for an answer. "Sure."

The woman's smile turned into a full grin as Courtney slid into the booth. "Thanks. I've been traveling awhile, going back home. Gets lonely, I could use some chatter."

Courtney grinned back, surprised at her immediate comfort with the wanderer. It typically took her too long to get used to people. "Where you headed then?"

"Georgia, back to Grandma's house." She gingerly she sipped from her tea.

Courtney noticed the slight southern accent then, the one she tried to mask, putting it in place. "Over the river and through the woods."

Her companion laughed in a deep-throated, almost s****l way, and nodded her head. "Yes, something like that."

The woman pulled a bottle from her purse and poured a small white pill into her hand. She tossed it back, swallowing it dry, then picked up her tea and sipped. She looked pale. It didn't seem to be her normal complexion, but rather from exhaustion. She had just a slight shadow under her eyes, almost hidden by beautiful high cheek bones and long dark lashes.

She was petite and carried herself with confidence. She moved with a grace rarely seen in these parts, as if ingrained propriety ran deep. Courtney thought it unusual she chose to wear a black turtle neck in this climate, but then again, she was traveling.

The flesh between Courtney's breasts burned, sizzling a long path to her naval. She had a brief flash of a scar swim before her eyes and was gone.

"You'll need something to eat with that pill." Courtney rose, not knowing how the wanderer's hidden scar made its way from her chest to Courtney's vision. "I'll just get you a bowl of soup. Be right back."

Courtney ladled chicken and wild rice soup, trying not to focus on that little white pill, or the sensation rooted behind her ribs. The woman was her age, no more than maybe two years older or younger. How could scar that size mar her chest? It hit her then, as it always did, fast and not at all pleasant. A hospital. Antiseptic filling her nose. A pitying pat on the hand with sympathetic eyes from a man in a white coat. The beep of a monitor irritating her ears.

Her visions were always right. There was no justice in them, and at times like this, she wished she could shut them off. The woman she was about to serve was dying. And soon.

She pulled in a shuddering breath and snatched a package of crackers. Setting the bowl back down on the table in front of the woman, she slid back into the booth.

Her companion looked up with a smile not quite reaching her eyes. "Thanks. How did you know I needed to eat?"

Courtney thought it best not to say the truth. People didn't understand, and tended to fear anything out of the scope of normal. She could almost hear the drunken slur from her father's mouth. Witch. "You came into a diner." She shrugged. "And most medications you need to take with food."

A moment passed between them. Not the awkwardness she'd expect from a stranger, but intense in its joining power. As shocking as lightning or an earthquake, a seal seemed to vibrate between them. Words couldn't describe the enormity of the moment, but for an instant, Courtney had known the woman before her all her life.

The smile faded from the other woman's oval face, making the shadows under her eyes more prominent as, seemingly, she felt it too. As a distraction, she blew gently on her spoon, and then tasted the soup. Her thin, arched eyebrows rose. "This is great."

Courtney cleared her throat. "Mrs. Meyers will be glad to hear it."

"Did I hear my name?" As if on cue, Mrs. Meyers walked over and slapped her chubby hand down on the back of the booth with a look that said she was up to something.

"She said the soup was good," Courtney replied, not surprised in the least that Mrs. Meyers had been listening in.

She belted a dry laugh, holding her round belly. "Isn't it always?"

Courtney twisted her lips and explained to the woman, "Mrs. Meyers isn't modest."

Her companion's mouth quirked as if unsure whether to smile.

"No, modest I ain't." She focused on the woman again. "So, where you headed to all by your lonesome?" With that as an invitation, she nudged Courtney over and sat next to her.

"Georgia. A small community just outside Athens." Her manner was polite, but her expression indicated she wanted to know why she was being asked.

"Well now, Courtney, you've never been there." She slapped her on the arm affectionately, not even trying to be subtle.

Mortified, she rubbed her eyes and sighed. "No, I haven't."

Mrs. Meyers had a dark gleam in her eye. "I was always sayin' my girl should travel more."

Courtney groaned. "Leave the girl alone, Mrs. Meyers. She's had a long trip, and a long way to go yet."

The dark-haired wanderer chimed in, much to her surprise, as if she was being pulled by strings. "You should go sometime. It's beautiful there." She smirked behind her cup.

"A nice young girl like you," Mrs. Meyers pointed at the stranger, "should not be traveling alone." The woman only laughed, giving her an open invitation to continue. "You should take this one here with you. She has tons of vacation time she's never used."

"Mrs. Meyers!" Courtney turned back to the woman, imploring apology, as embarrassment heated her cheeks. "I'm sorry. She doesn't have a tact gene, but she means well."

The woman shrugged, amusement lighting the previous shadows in her eyes. "It's quite alright." She looked into her cup with a sly twitch of her mouth. "I wouldn't mind the company, actually."

Courtney felt the color draining out of her cheeks and grew dizzy. "You just met me." She rubbed her forehead. "It's a ridiculous idea."

Mrs. Meyers patted her hand, gaze softening. "You can't stay here forever. Take this chance, Courtney. You'd know if something was amiss and if this wasn't right." She turned her gaze to the newcomer. "She has no criminal record and she'd give a stranger the shirt off her back. You could do worse for a friend."

Courtney looked from her companion to Mrs. Meyers and back again. This was the most absurd thing she'd ever heard. She hadn't even known this woman all of five minutes, and she wanted her to just get in the car and go. The worst of it was they both seemed to like the notion. This stranger had no qualms about letting someone she'd just met into her life, take her home.

The woman darted her eyes between the both of them, seemingly in hopes for a resolve. Not a sliver of apprehension hit her expression.

For a brief second, Courtney thought about this town that took her in so long ago, when she had more scars than dreams and not even a change of clothes. She wouldn't even be alive if not for the large pain in the ass woman next to her, who was now telling her to flee for the second time in her life. Her only plan when she'd run from that horrid place all those years ago was to get out. Well, she'd done that.

But leaving now? What would be the goal? She had a place of her own and a job. There was no reason to go. Except... She reflected on her lonely apartment waiting for her return and all that Mrs. Meyers had done for her. She wanted to grant this one request, something to pay her back for all the love so feely given. But in all the time Mrs. Meyers had been encouraging her to venture out, the truth was Courtney never had.

Because she was scared. Scared of what was out there, all she didn't know.

"It's a lovely place," the newcomer said, breaking into her thoughts. Her golden eyes were kind, and not unaffected by the strange connection almost from the second she'd walked in the diner. "I don't know you, nor do you know me, but for the first time in a long time, I'm...at ease." She shook her head and laughed rather unsteadily. "I know this sounds crazy, but I feel like I've been waiting to meet you."

Courtney drew her brows together, surprised that she'd had the same thought. She wasn't sure why it felt right--cosmically so--to have two complete strangers run away into the night. An innate awareness told her this woman was the friend she never had. No harm would come to her as long as she was smart, followed her gut.

If she was one thing, it was smart. Not book intelligent, but street wise. Back then, she'd known when to speak up and when to stay quiet, hiding in the shadows. She had become a master at blending into her surroundings as to not be seen. In those few minutes after her father had fallen asleep, with a bottle of gin tucked under his arm, she identified it was her time to run. Just as she knew, with nervousness in her belly, that it was her time to run again.

Courtney knew things about the woman sitting across from her, things she shouldn't, and one thing she didn't. "I don't know your name."

Her companion laughed, which ended on a sigh as if thankful Courtney agreed to accompany her. She smiled, a little sad and a whole lot relieved. "Serena. My name is Serena."