Fountain of vitriol (Cumberland Saga)

Morning was a near repeat of the previous morning.

The boys complained and wanted to know when they were going back to St Louis. “Worst. Vacation. Ever!” Evan complained.

Amira ignored his carping and handed out assignments.

“Abe, Evan...I will need you about mid-morning to carry some things. Until then, I want you to help your father” she said. “Walter, I talked to Alice yesterday and she has some vegetables that she can spare. I expect you and the boys to help her clean out her root-cellar. She is an early-riser, so she will be expecting you.”

The doctors had warned her that Walter could suffer an aneurysm at any time, but it would most likely occur while he was sitting on the toilet, straining.

Amira, ever practical, realized that switching Walter over to a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and high-fiber breads would bulk-up and soften his stools. While in St Louis, she mandated that he eat a banana with every meal.

Bananas were a rare treat in Copperhead Cove but they had an abundance of potatoes, turnips, carrots, onions and saurkraut in their root-cellars. Later, there would be leafy greens, cucumbers, green beans and other garden truck as they started to produce.

Alice had vegetables that were nearing the end of their storage life but were still usable. Amira and Walter needed them and they could be had for the effort of sorting the still-sound from the need-to-be-used-now.

Once Amira had Walter clear on the task she set out to find Constanze.

Knocking on the door of her cabin, it took a minute before Constanze opened the door. She opened it just a crack and peered out.

“Who are you?” Constanze asked, face hidden in the dark interior.

“I am Amira. I am new to Copperhead Cove. I want to meet you” Amira told her.

Amira believed in the direct approach.

The door slowly swung slightly more open.

Amira held out a paper bag. “I brought you a fresh loaf of bread.”

Constanze snatched it out of Amira’s hands. Bribe accepted.

“You realize I am being shunned, don’t you?” Constanze queried.

“Sig doesn’t like me either” Amira replied with a shrug as if any one person’s opinion was of little importance to her.

And just like that, Constanze had a new, best friend.

Within five minutes Amira had learned that Constanze had landed a job some distance from Copperhead Cove but no way to get there. Pigeon Forge was more than 90 miles away from Copperhead Cove.

Amira said “Maybe I can help you with that.”

Then she said the magic words. “I have a car. I can give you a ride and help you move there.”

Constanze had been offered a job in housekeeping at an inn. Constanze assumed she would be supervising the staff at a mansion. Amira saw no need to pop her bubble.

In exchange for $200 cash and a ride to Pigeon Forge, Constanze agreed to sign a hand-written Quit-Claim relinquishing any future claim to ownership of the cabin, the furniture, the garden plots or the contents of the pantry or root-cellar.

Amira had Evan and Abe carry Constanze’s earthly belongings to the Subaru parked beside the public road. From one perspective, it was a pathetically small amount. From a different perspective, it made moving much easier.

Constanze did not shut-up from the moment Amira had handed her the loaf of bread.

It was Amira’s opinion that if Constanze had not been quite right in the head before the shunning, the lack of social contact had firmly shoved her over the edge. Constanze's rants displayed paranoia and a sense of grandiosity. She truly believed that she had been the queen-of-the-realm in Copperhead Cove prior to the shunning.

Her vile speculations about the other inhabitants of Copperhead Cove revealed darkness in her soul. She saved a vulcanic fountain of vitriol for Sarah and Blain who she blamed for her fall from grace.

That was not a huge problem for Amira. As a supervisor she had to deal with unhinged people on a near-daily basis. Pragmatically, Amira didn’t try to “fix” them. She concentrated on figuring out what motivated them and used that information to keep them focused on being productive.

While passing through a town south of Knoxville, on a whim Amira pulled into a store that sold cellphones. As a parting gift to Constanze, Amira bought her an entry-level phone and a modest pre-paid plan. Amira showed her how to enter numbers into contacts. Constanze spent the rest of the drive busily entering numbers into her phone and calling people she had numbers for but had not visited with in years.

Relieved of the necessity of being civil, the rest of the trip was much more peaceful for Amira.

Constanze did not think to ask for Amira’s phone number. Amira did not volunteer it. If Constanze had asked, Amira planned on transposing a couple of the numbers so it would not work.

Amira had a strong “Ick!” reaction to Constanze and had a very strong desire for a clean break.

The hotel that had offered Constanze employment was modern and looked clean and efficiently run. Amira offered to wait while Constanze found the manager but Constanze was sure there would be no problems.

Amira helped unload Constanze’s four bags, placing them on the walk-way that ran around the hotel. Then she drove off.

Arriving back at Copperhead Cove, she found that Walther and the boys had moved their things to their new cabin. Constanze was not the only one with pathetically few belongings.

***

After eating dinner, Amira told the boys to wash the dishes. She had a small errand to run.

Knocking on the back-door of Sarah's house, she asked if Sarah had a few minutes for "a private conversation".

Sarah grudgingly came outside.

Amira started by saying "I spent 2 hours in a car with Constanze. She is crazy but she made a comment that I want to share with you."

Sarah's expression was icy. Not only was Amira pushy and not her favorite, but Constanze...well, she agreed with Amira's assessment about her being crazy in the head but didn't see how anything Constanze said could be of any value.

"What is it. It is chilly and I don't have a wrap" Sarah hurried Amira along.

Picking her words carefully and NOT quoting Constanze word-for-word, Amira said "It seems likely that Sig will have a hard time enforcing the cellphone ban. Modern people are addicted to them. They take pictures and post them on social media."

Sarah's face remained noncommittal.

"Some of the new people will be very curious about Blain. Very few outsiders come to Copperhead Cove unless they are running away from something in their past" Amira continued.

Sarah gave a slight startle, as if it something that had never occurred to her.

"In many places, men grow a beard when they get married" Amira added "not that I am suggesting that Blain needs to. That is between you and him."

"Oh, and they let their hair grow so their ears are covered" she concluded.

"Is that all?" Sarah asked, imperiously.

"That is all that I wanted to share" Amira agreed.

***

Blain's beard grew quickly and was a rich, chestnut brown with two, prematurely gray streaks and was very curly.