Saviors 101

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Anne joined their little wooden table washed in the morning sunshine halfway through Dana’s tale and acted as if nothing was amiss with talk of angels and software running the universe, adding little more than a perfectly arched eyebrow to the conversation.

Dana was sure she’d lose one or the other of them when she told them that she apparently had a yet undefined pivotal role in the future of the universe.

Neither batted an eye.

At long last she stumbled to an exhausted halt. Her body dead from a lack of sleep with not even the happy excuse of Sam’s ministrations to her nerve endings, and her brain limp from being stretched too far in too many directions during the last dozen hours.

She couldn’t raise her head to look up and was forced to glance at her uncle sidelong.

Joshua freshened their coffee and flopped back in his chair. He looked more serious than was his norm, but that could be because he was trying to figure out how to turn it all into a good story that he could tell in the deli today without embarrassing her.

Anne was different. She was no comfortable teddy bear like Uncle with a welcoming hug and a kiss upon the top of your head. Anne had a beauty and a grace that Dana often credited with the success of the deli. He made great sandwiches, was charming, and a good listener. But the deli did twice as much business when Anne was around. As ageless as her Uncle, Anne’s silver hair flowed down past her slender bosom to land below the bay of her narrow waist upon womanly hips. Her eyes, the liquid color of the ocean, considered Dana.

Dana looked down at her coffee again to avoid those eyes. There was peace there, a depth of calm that made Dana feel way too young. A woman who must have seen it all and then some. A woman who, for God sakes, had lived with Uncle Joshua for who knew how long.

The bell tinkled at the front door as Henri delivered the bread. The warm, rich scent of home and flour and ovens that had been lit so early in the morning that they were ready to cool with the dawn.

Greetings slid back and forth through the bread-scented air. Joshua leapt up to help Henri load the racks from his great wicker basket of bounty, leaving her and Anne to sit quietly over their coffee.

Dana glanced briefly at Joshua, who was now intently adding a pinch of fresh dill to the pickle barrel and stirring it with a ladle that had once been bigger than she was.

Anne’s gaze drew her back. Her aunt’s eyes grayed ever so slightly with sadness, as if an era of innocence had ended and she’d now have to tell Dana that she’d lost her mind. Her aunt extended a fine-fingered hand and cupped Dana’s cheek just as she had when Dana had been several feet shorter and first come here with her mother.

“It’ll be okay, dear. Being chosen as a Messiah can be very disconcerting. Even to the best of them.”