chap 1

Here's chap 1 so far from the new project...

Chapter 1

Walking down the quaint main street of O'Kelly Creek, NC both gladdened and sickened Anna McLeod Matthison. She remembered the feeling that emanated from the shops and cafes and homes—that sweet, quiet joy that can only be found in a mountain town by the tourists who come looking for it. Anna also knew that behind the white picket fences that dripped with ivy and the open windows overlooking thick azalea blossoms lingered another face of O'Kelly, the real one unseen by tourists. A town full of tradition and whispers, suspicious of any stranger who stayed through summer and into fall. The half backs, those that moved from New England to Florida and then traveled half way back to Carolina, were welcomed into town for the summers, but most locals were only too happy to watch those same Buicks and Volvos head back south come September.

Anna grew up in the thick of the O'Kelly life. Her mother, Meaghan McLeod, came to the area as a child with her uncle, a farmer, and aunt, a homemaker and incredible cook. They came from Ireland, though of Scottish decent, and settled in O'Kelly, as the story goes, because Paddy O'Kelly was Meaghan's great great grandfather, a high born young man who escaped a wrathful brother, bent on killing him to gain their father's substantial inheritance. Apparently Paddy valued his life more than his money, coming to this new land and putting down stakes in a small but fertile valley where a small creek fed the French Broad. Paddy's farm grew, and, being an enterprising man, he started shipping his good down stream towards Asheville for the best prices. Soon, other men were bringing their goods for shipping too, and thus the town began.

Anna's mother, Meaghan, inherited a similar entrepreneurial spirit and opened her bakery in 1968. This shop dominated Anna's earliest memories—the sound of the big mixer turning some new creation—the smell of cream cheese frosting on her fingers even after they were licked clean—the voices of friends and neighbors and tourists sitting around the store mixed with intermittent pauses as they sunk their teeth into Meaghan's wares, leaving even the chattiest person speechless for a moment. Mostly, she remembered her mother, smiling in colorful aprons and heels, baking while she talked with her guests. Anna would kneed dough or ice cupcakes and just listen as the adults talked about new businesses moving into the area or the latest match made in O'Kelly or how some hiker heard something again up near Emily's Peak. Whenever this got mentioned, Meaghan would glance at Anna and give who ever was talking a look, along with the statement, “We don't know anything about that.” Always the same look, always the same statement. They would quiet down real quick, knowing full well about those few people who failed to heed Meaghan's looks and were asked to leave the store, or found themselves running out, Meaghan behind them with a wooden spoon, her Scottish eyes blazing.

Anna, now 28, was no longer a child, and her mother's bakery no longer wafted deliciousness through the town, luring customers in for just one cookie. In its place stood an outfitting company, complete with solar panels and a watering hole for dogs, owned by two young guys from up in Boone. At least, that's what the sign claimed. Anna kind of thought it was probably owned by some smart grandmother who just used the names of her grandkids for marketing purposes. Those boys probably lived in Nashville. While it looked like a nice store, it only nauseated her a little more. This town just wasn't right. Maybe that's why they left in such a rush 12 years before.

That fateful night, Anna awoke to her mother urgently whispering her name, her full name, which, at the time, everyone knew her by. “Maryanne--grab you shoes and coat and move girl, move!” As the pair ran to the front door, they both froze. The bakery, across the street on the corner,, blazed in front of their eyes, huge flames reaching for every panel of wood, every roof tile, every flower in the window boxes. It all burned. “What have I done?” Meaghan whispered. “What is this place?” She grabbed a confused Anna, pulled her to the car, and never looked back.

Anna's life changed dramatically—they moved to the Pacific Northwest and started a new life there—a new bakery, new school, and new name. Maryanne got shorted to Anna, and life got on. Despite the unpleasantness of their departure, Anna could not shake the memories of her hometown, or the mystery surrounding the fire and her mother's fear.

In college, she majored in business, minored in history, and worked at a bakery, using her mother's secret recipes to entice customers, eventually managing the store for the owners and finding some measure of success. She got married her senior year to a man who couldn't say no to her or to her butterscotch brownies, only to be widowed four years later. Her beloved husband, Nathan, left for a rafting trip one weekend and never came home. Anna wept and grieved for months, then slowly began to find healing in her baking and in her new found love, hiking. Oregon lended itself to the outdoor types, and while Anna always like being outside, she'd never felt such a pull to climb peaks or reveled in the rush of seeing the world below. There, she felt organic, peaceful, and caught up, for a moment, in some unseen romance. She could finally breathe.

For two years after Nathan's death, that's all she did, with Sig, the sweet and fiercely loyal Doberman she rescued. All morning she baked and served her customers, and most evenings were filled with traversing through the woods.

While she walked, she planned, and eventually made some major decisions. One day, she packed her Subaru station wagon, loaded up Sig, kissed her mama, and headed east down the same road they'd traveled up so many years before.

As she bade farewell to her mother, Meaghan cautioned, “O'Kelly is not what it seems, Maryanne Margaret.” Anna sensed the serious in Meaghan's voice. “Keep your eyes open and your head on straight—do what is right and good, no matter the cost.” Anna saw a quick sadness in her mother's eyes, which then recovered and smiled again. “You'll know what to do.” With one more wave, she drove away.

What do ya'll think??