9
The groceries were ready when Kate and Devin walked back to the Fresh Mart, and Kate tipped the bag boy who helped load Lisette’s boxes into the Subaru. Devin had already buckled herself in, and Kate was about to get behind the wheel when she heard voices coming from inside the store. A window cleaner on a ladder was squeegeeing the glass above the door, leaving the doors open.
“Why do you keep coming in here? He’s married.” Kate recognized that voice. It was the young woman with the ponytail at the business counter—Brittany.
“I don’t see your father complaining,” Selma said as she walked out. She didn’t see Kate standing there. Her skirt swished with agitation, and her heels clicked so hard on the sidewalk that they sparked and made black burn marks on the concrete. The air around her was charged with a bright red electricity that every woman recognized. So did every man, but for entirely different reasons.
“What’s the matter with Selma?” Devin asked.
“Nothing,” Kate said, climbing into the car. “She’s just in a bad mood.”
“The alligator likes her.”
“Does he?” Kate asked absently as she started the car.
“He likes everyone. I think he’s upset that he might not see them again. He doesn’t want them to leave.”
“Even Selma?”
“He thinks she’s pretty.”
Kate turned to back out of the space. “Well, that means he’s definitely a he.”
*
They were a few minutes ahead of Selma in arriving back at Lost Lake. When Selma arrived, she got out of her red sedan and walked to her cabin without a word.
Kate and Devin had just started unloading the groceries when Kate heard Selma call, “Kate! Oh, Ka-ate!”
With a box full of vegetables in her hands, Kate turned to see Selma now standing on the front stoop of her cabin. “Yes?”
“I want to take a long bath and I don’t have any clean towels.”
Kate nodded to the main house. “I’m sure Eby has some in the laundry room.”
“I’ll wait here,” Selma said. “You said you were helping Eby, right? Eby usually does this.”
Kate and Devin took the first load of groceries inside. “I’ll be right back with the rest,” Kate said to Lisette. “I have to run some towels over to Selma first. What is it with women like that?”
Lisette shook her head slowly and wrote something on her notepad. She is lonely.
“She doesn’t act lonely.”
Lisette smiled and wrote, None of us do. Not even you.
*
Minutes later, Kate knocked on Selma’s door. Selma called for her to come in. When Kate entered, she saw that Selma had already changed into a Chinese dressing gown and was lying on the couch, reading a magazine. The cabin seemed hazy but not by smoke. The haze had a scent, like a perfume.
Scarves were draped over lampshades. High-heeled shoes lined the hearth of the fireplace. There were open hat boxes strewn around, but they didn’t contain hats. One contained candy; another, hundreds of tiny makeup samples; another, inexplicably, bottle caps. Kate stood at the door and held out the towels.
Selma tossed the magazine aside in a truly impressive show of ennui. “Just put them in the bathroom. And take the old towels with you.”
Kate went to the bathroom, set the new towels on the sink, and came back out with the used towels, which were covered in makeup. She walked to the front door, about to leave, but then stopped and turned. “I saw you at the Fresh Mart today. You were having an argument with the girl there.”
Selma sighed. “She doesn’t like me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I flirt with her father. The man who owns the store. He’s married. It’s what I do. All my husbands were married when I met them.” She rubbed her bare ring finger distractedly. “But she doesn’t have anything to worry about. If I’d wanted him, I’d have used my last charm to get him by now.”
Kate opened her mouth, then closed it. Finally she had to ask, “All of your husbands were married?”
“Strange, isn’t it? But those are the rules,” Selma said.
“You have rules?”
“I didn’t make them. They’ve been there since time immemorial.”
“So why didn’t you stay married to any of them? You obviously went to a lot of trouble to get them.”
Selma frowned, then stood. “It’s never what I think it’s going to be.” She gestured to seven picture frames on the mantle, some large, some small, each photo of a smiling man. The youngest was an old photo of a man in his twenties, the oldest was a recent photo of an elderly man. “Those are my husbands,” Selma said. “I keep them around to remind me what not to look for the next time.”
Kate watched Selma walk over to the mantle. She picked up a small jewelry box. It was chestnut in color with tiny flecks of ivory inlay on top. On its own, it was completely innocuous, and Kate would have thought nothing of it. But the way Selma picked it up and cradled it made it alive somehow. Kate stared, fascinated. She could feel its pull.
“Do you know what this is?”
“No,” Kate said, shifting her weight and swallowing.
“The secret to my success,” Selma said, holding out the box and opening it slowly in front of Kate.
Kate leaned forward and looked inside. She frowned when she saw that it was empty, save for a small heart charm sitting on the black velvet lining. “What is it?”
“Ha!” Selma said, snapping the box shut, making Kate jump back quickly. “I knew it. Only women like me know what it’s for.”
“What do you mean?” Kate felt a little light-headed, like she’d stood up too quickly.
“It’s a charm. My last one. I’m saving it to use on my last husband. He will be old and rich, the last one I will ever need.”
Kate wondered if Selma clung to this idea of charms the same way Kate had clung to Cricket, because when you run out of rope, you grab the first thing within reach. When Selma divorced one husband, maybe the charms comforted her with the fact that she wouldn’t have to be alone for long, that another one would come along soon.
After standing there awkwardly for a moment, holding the dirty towels and watching Selma smile and stroke the box like a cat, Kate turned and left the cabin. Once outside, she stopped on the stoop. She took a deep breath of lake air and felt her head clear. She looked back at the door she’d closed behind her and wondered if understanding Selma was really possible.
Maybe she really was magic.