Genevieve almost ran back to the coffee shop.
"Nolee, Nolee" she called out as she entered the shop. Nolee looked up from serving her customer.
"I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to go off without paying you for the coffee and donuts!" Genevieve pulled out some change from her trouser pockets.
"It’s on me!" Nolee told her, pushing the outstretched hand back that held the coins. "Besides I enjoyed meeting you. How did the tour go with Mr. Van Rose? I thought he had an interest in you."
"Really?" Genevieve laughed at that comment. "He really just wanted me to rent a store!"
"Oh?"
"Yeah there’s a beauty salon in the mall with no one to run it." Genevieve told the confused looking Nolee.
Nolee beckoned Genevieve to sit once more at the counter with her. But Genevieve declined saying, "thanks but I better home to Dolton! I have a plan with what to do with the rest of my life!" she laughed.
"Are you going to run the salon?" Nolee asked her.
"Sure hope so. But I wasn’t gonna let on that I would. That Sherlan tried to make me sign papers. I want to see my parents first. And a lawyer!" Genevieve smiled. "How far is it to Dolton from here?" she added.
Nolee told her there was a bus from the Heights to Dolton Proper. Bob Stanley drives the bus. He lives just down the road. It runs every couple of hours.
Genevieve just shook her head in amazement. The whole world had changed around her while she slept. There was so much to catch up on. And people too. Yes one person in particular she wanted to see. She hadn’t told Nolee the whole truth as to why she was so late coming home that fateful night, but then why should she have? It was her secret and his...
"Well I better get going then. See you soon, maybe on Monday." Genevieve winked at Nolee as she left the mall.
Outside the sun was shining brilliantly. It was a new beginning. She breathed deep and headed down the street.
‘Two houses down’ she repeated to herself what Nolee told her where the bus driver lived. Well that street was crowded with people and....oh a yard or a street sale! My goodness and it covered the whole street. People and children and dogs were everywhere. Genevieve walked slowly looking at the items. She forgot her rush to get home to Dolton, when she saw it.
It was huge, standing behind the cashier, a lovely looking woman with long red hair. She reminded Genevieve of Yvonne back in Tu Mani. The resemblance was uncanny.
Genevieve made her way to look at the hulking piece of furniture.
"How much?" Genevieve asked the cashier.
The lady shrugged and said, "make me an offer!" Then she turned to serve a paying customer.
Genevieve lifted the purple covering. Underneath was a white vanity type of table. A large oval mirror was still intact and little stool fit under it all. ‘Why it would be a perfect styling station for her store! Hold on Genevieve’ her mind was spinning. ‘Fate, it had to be fate, this happening, this meeting. Why, had she gone straight to Dolton, this would never had happened! Yes yes it was meant to be.’
"So have you decided?"
Genevieve turned to the red headed lady who spoke. ‘My goodness this woman even had an accent like Yvonne’s!’
"I’m sorry but you look like someone I know" Genevieve told her. "But she lives in the states. Anyway yes I am interested in this. How about $100.?"
The woman just looked at Genevieve in surprise.
"Not enough?" Genevieve asked her, apprehensibly.
"No I was thinking more around $25. I would have let it go for $10. Just to get it out of my storage shed!" The lady exclaimed.
Genevieve was embarrassed, she had let her exuberance overtake her common sense. "Okay I will give you $25. for it then. But I have just one dilema..."
The woman waited.
"How can I get it home?"
The lady laughed. She leaned and looked behind Genevieve and called, "Gary! Bob! I need your help here!"
Two men slowly approached.
"This young lady has just bought this, ah vanity and she needs it to be delivered."
The men looked at each other.
"Ah Yvonne I have a sore knee" Bob stammered. "And besides I have to get my bus."
"Your Bob Stanley!" Genevieve said.
"Why yes, why?" He answered her.
"I need to take the bus to Dolton." she replied.
"Oh no, we can’t take that to Dolton!" Bob told her. "Besides you have to catch the bus in the Heights."
"I don’t want to take it to Dolton!" Genevieve told him rather sternly. "And why do I have to walk to the Heights when you are here and have to drive there anyway?"
Bob had to admit the woman made sense and both he and Gary were relieved they didn’t have to take the vanity to Dolton.
"Okay you can get on the bus here. I leave shortly. So where do you want the vanity to go?"
Genevieve had half a mind to tell the men to take it to the mall. But she thought better of it.
"You could store it in my garage overnight if you wish?" A woman’s southern drawl came from behind them.
‘Another Texan!’ Genevieve thought. ‘Have they taken over?’
Genevieve turned to see a lovely raven haired woman standing beside her.
"Hi I’m Marion Nixon. This is my place and you can store the vanity in my garage if you like. As long as it’s not for too long."
"Thank you, thank you so much. No it will just be until Monday. Are you from Texas too?" Genevieve blurted out.
Marion laughed "yes I am. My neighours too are, the Stanleys. You met Bob and over there" she pointed, "is his wife Diane. We came for the summer and well we just stayed! We love it here. I just opened a flower shop in the Lofton Mall."
"Really" Genevieve said. "I hope to open the beauty salon. That is what I want the vanity for."
"Oh my that will be great. I need to get my hair coiffed every 3 weeks, so I will definately be pleased to see you open the salon. I’ll get my husband to help Gary move the vanity for you."
"Thank you" Genevieve genuinely said. "I promise to pick it up on Monday. It was nice to meet you all. But I really have to get home now!" Genevieve paid the redheaded woman the $25. And took her receipt. By the time she had walked the end of the block she could see the town bus waiting for her.
But Genevieve saw Bob Stanley standing by the bus so she knew it was the right bus. Genevieve wondered where Dolton Beach was, maybe it just went to Brennan’s Ranch. There was a beach there of course, as Genevieve had often swam there as a child. She remembered Ken Brennan’s father, who always had the Dominion Day picnics at the ranch. The whole town would come for the festivities. Genevieve wondered if that tradition was still held in Dolton. Would Mr. Brennan even be alive?
After paying her fare, she sat across from Bob and then asked, "Do you stop at the Brennan Ranch?"
"Nope" he said as he pulled the doors closed and proceeded to navigate down the hill. Bob was used to the hill into Dolton but this one from Lofton was much steeper. He did not relish driving it in the winter time. But with the beach closed for the rest of the year he was glad of the work.
Genevieve did not talk to Bob as he drove down the steep road. She was still very nervous in vehicles and rightly so. She held the rail in front of her tightly and even closed her eyes until she felt the bus come to a stop. Reluctantly she opened her eyes. They were in the Heights, well on the outskirts. A couple of residents she didn’t recognize were waiting at the bus stop.
"Hey Martin, another weekend in the Heights eh!"
Martin and a tall blonde woman with a little girl clamoured up into the bus.
"Yep, Rue and I came to visit my cousin John and of course go shopping at the new mall." he winked. "Gonna have to work overtime this week at the post office to pay for it all!" he said showing Bob all the bags they were carrying.
Bob just nodded. Soon he hoped they would be coming to his wife’s new store and hopefully buying lots of goodies there. The bank had come through for them. Of course the money from the sale of their cottage (to Max) had helped. Plus they had collateral in their new house and Bob has this job. So Diane went full steam ahead ordering her stock for the new store. Bob hoped it would be a success. Diane knew her product well. He just hoped there were lots of....
"Pardon?" that woman was asking him questions again.
"How long have you lived here? In Lofton I mean?" Genevieve asked him.
They were on a straight stretch of road and there was no traffic so Bob was able to turn to answer the woman.
"Lofton, almost a year now. Dolton Beach, two years and Dolton Proper, well we only spent one winter there."
It was more than Genevieve expected to hear. But there was that Dolton Beach name again.
"Okay so where is this Dolton Beach?" she asked the driver.
"Remember where we stopped at the Heights?" Bob asked her without taking his eyes off the road this time.
"Yeah" Genevieve replied.
"Well if you went in the opposite direction that is Dolton Beach. It’s on the other side of the Brennan River."
‘Oh so it was at the Ranch’ Genevieve thought, trying to remember the landscape.
"And if you go this way" Bob pointed.
Genevieve looked out towards the highway. In the distance she could see a huge blue building, a gas station she recalled, then nodded.
"That’s Highway #2, it goes to the beach also. But you have to turn off the highway to get there. It’s the only way to drive there."
‘Highway #2' Genevieve thought, ‘where she had her accident.’ Shivers went down her spine. She gripped the railing once again for they had approached another steep decline. Not as bad as the one from Lofton. Ah yes, this was the road into Dolton, she actually remembered it now. But wait what was this? A huge structure loomed in front of them.
"That’s the new Dolton Mall," Bob told her. "Won’t be finished for another year or so. Biggest in Ontario."
There was no chance to ask anymore questions. The smell of food hit her. Suddenly she felt hungry. The bus slowed then turned into a tunnel like building. It’s name said Dolton Depot. Another bus was already inside unloading passengers. Bob swung the bus round the loop and waited til the bus came to a complete stop.
"This is it!" he said to Genevieve.
She stood up and thanked Bob then alit from the bus. Oh my she was hungry. It must be suppertime at least. Genevieve checked her watch. 5:30! She knew her parents would not be expecting her home yet, so she trudged up the steep hill to Terry’s Diner.
Genevieve stopped outside the building and took a deep breath. Would Terry be inside? How would he react in seeing her. Nolee had told her that Terry owned the Diner and that yes he was married. Genevieve wondered if she knew Terry’s wife. She took one more deep breath and walked in.
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