Magpie Shiny: Chapter 10
This story is posted weekly in draft form. Need to catch up? Here are links to the previous chapters:
Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9
Chapter 10
“Do you know I’ve never set foot outside this valley?” Beth settled into the chair by Maddie and stole one of the girl’s French fries. “You must be Maddie,” she said, smiling at the girl and stealing another fry. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” Her long, straight straw hair blew in the breeze, held back only by the teal scarf she wore tied around her forehead, nineteen seventies-style. Her white cotton blouse was loose and flowing, with a simple scoop-neck collar and teal raglan sleeves. And she was still rail-thin in those hip-skimming acid-washed Levi’s, damn it. Lauren tried not to be envious, but it had been a long time since her own hip-bones had disappeared into her cellulite.
Maddie giggled. “My mom said sometimes you know things without anyone telling you. Is that how you knew about me?”
Laure gave Maddie a warning look. “I told you we don’t talk about that.” Beth laughed and Vinnie joined in.
“I think we can make an exception for your daughter,” Beth said, her eyes glazing ever so slightly. “She’s family.” Turning back to Maddie, she nodded. “I do know things, sometimes not the exact thing, but I have a sense. As long as you don’t try to keep secrets from me, we’ll get along just fine.”
It was Maddie’s turn to nod, vigorously. “Mom told me that, too. I’ll try to remember. Do you want to get your own fries?”
All the women laughed, and Vinnie called out for Kevin to bring another order of fries. Lauren raised an eyebrow at Beth.
“What you have to do in order to be able to leave the valley?”
Beth rolled her eyes. “Oh, not much. Just get pregnant, have a kid, raise the kid, and then hand over my duties to said kid just when he or she is getting old enough to…you know. Want a life. It shouldn’t take more than a few decades.”
“Do you have a man picked out? Because the last I looked there were no fertility clinic clinics here in the Valley.” Vinnie winced, as Lauren checked her in the arm with the fist. “What? There won’t be any handing–kids–over–to–their–own–gruesome–fate unless there’s a man around to help kick it all off.” She thought for a second, then tilted her head and gave Beth a curious look. “Unless you can do something about that that we can’t.“
Beth shook her head, and rolled her eyes. “Yes, I need a man. And no, I don’t have one picked out. Hence the source of my current depression and the abbreviated store hours. I’m bored, I’m tired, and I can’t even take a vacation.” Kevin set a fresh plate of fries in front of her, and she looked at him like he was her very own sun and moon. “Thank you. It’s been way too long since I had good fries.”
“Does Silas have any ideas?” Lauren asked, stifling a grin as Maddie stole one of Beth’s fries. “Isn’t there always a loophole of some sort in these things?”
Beth smacked Maddie‘s fingers lightly as the girl reached for another fry. “He’s gone through all the books and documentation he has, and I’ve gone through all mine too. There’s just no way around it that we can see. If I leave the valley without having a blood heir in place, then bad things will happen.”
“What kind of bad things?” Maddie asked.
Lauren answered quickly before anyone else could. “It doesn’t matter, because Beth isn’t going anywhere until this is sorted out. Isn’t that right, Beth?”
Beth sighed heavily, picking up the last fry from her plate and offering to Maddie. “No, I’m not going anywhere. Not anytime soon.” She wiped her fingers and took a sip of Maddie’s Coke. “Which is why you have to tell me everything about the time that you spent away from us. I want to hear every detail, every little smell and taste and piece of art that you saw. You brought pictures, right?“
Lauren laughed, and nodded, reaching into her purse for her phone. “Of course,” she said. “Maddie and I would be more than happy to tell you both all about life in Denver. Or most of it, anyways.” She pulled up the photo gallery on her phone. “What do you want to see first? My first apartment? Baby pictures? Or the gym where I worked and practically lived?”
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