LJ Maas - Rebecca’s Cove

BJ closed the door after thanking Ida, and once again tested the weight of the key ring in the palm of her hand. She looked down at Arturo before speaking. “Looks like we’re the keeper of the keys, pal.”Arturo wagged his tail and danced around her feet.

“Hey, it’s about dinner time,” BJ said when the grandfather clock in the living room chimed six. “Are you hungry?”

Arturo obviously knew that word. He spun around in a tight circle a few times, his feet barely touching the ground, then sped toward the kitchen.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” BJ said with an amused laugh. Owning a pet had never held any appeal for BJ, but Arturo seemed different. “I haven’t even been on this island for two days and already I’m talking to animals. Okay, she said your food was in this cabinet.”

BJ pulled out a large can, opened it up, and looked at it in confusion. “How much of this do you get?” BJ asked her canine companion. Arturo barked once and danced around a stainless steel food bowl on the kitchen floor.

“Hmm...okay, here ya go.” BJ emptied the entire can into the dog’s bowl. “Now how about me?”

BJ looked through the cabinets. She was only hungry for a snack and found an unopened box of Cheez-Its in the pantry. She loved nothing better than Cheez-Its and a nice cold beer. She was thankful that she had talked Hobie into making a brief stop at the grocer’s before coming back home earlier.

Briefly stopping at the refrigerator, BJ armed herself with an ice-cold bottle of Corona. She set her treasures on top of the coffee table and found the envelope containing her grandmother’s instructions for running the household. BJ took a long swallow from the bottle and opened the massive manual. She looked over at Arturo, who lay curled up beside her.

“Ha, we can do this, huh?” She took another drink. “Don’t tell me it’s too complicated. What do I look like—someone who flips burgers for a living?”

She started to read and became thoroughly engrossed in the many small tasks necessary to keep the greenhouses functioning. BJ stared in awe at the detailed drawings Evelyn had provided. “She must have been writing this thing for a year.”

“Oops. ‘Feed Arturo at breakfast and dinner. One-quarter of a can for each meal.’ No wonder you acted so happy, you little squirt,” BJ said to Arturo. The small dog, upon hearing the name that was quickly becoming familiar to him, stood up and shook the sleep from his body. He looked up at BJ, burped, and nestled back against the couch cushions.

BJ spent the rest of the evening reading her grandmother’s missive and talking to Juliana on the phone. She explained the whole story to her agent, who nearly laughed herself senseless.

“You know,” Juliana said, “if that doctor hadn’t called me, I’d swear you were making this whole thing up.”

“Trust me, this is no joke. I feel like I’m living in a surreal mix of Mayberry meets Twin Peaks. I promised Tanti, but I am not going to last out here, I just know it.”

“You hang in there, mate. I’m sure you’ll find a few ladies who can keep you occupied for the summer.”

“Are you kidding? Jules, you do not know what this place is like.”

“Yeah, well, that doc’s voice sounded plenty sexy. She rabbits on a bit, but she had the cutest laugh.”

“She laughed? When?” BJ arched an eyebrow at her unseen friend.

“I don’t remember what I said. She was probably affected by my wicked charisma and charm.”

“Bite me.”

Juliana laughed heartily. “Hey, do you have your laptop with you?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Good. You can get some work done while you’re there.” “You expect me to be creative and write a best-seller here?

Impossible, I can’t do it.”

“Yes, you can. You just need to chill out, mate. Get that doctor to give you some Prozac if you have to, but relax, take it easy, and work on that damn manuscript.”

“Do any of your other clients know what a ruthless, drug-promoting slave driver you are?”

“Yes, and they love me for it.”

“That’s what you think,” BJ muttered as she hung up.

BJ’s third day on the island started out uneventfully. She and her shadow, a Bichon puppy, started out the day with breakfast. Arturo looked longingly at his bowl after BJ put the prescribed amount of food in it.

“Get used to it, Squirt. I’m surprised you didn’t explode after last night.”

Hot coffee and the local newspaper sufficed as breakfast for BJ. She took pride in her above-average culinary skills but found that she had little to work with at the moment. The ringing of the telephone broke the silence.

“Baylor?”

BJ recognized Hobie’s voice immediately. She grimaced at the imaginary pain the name caused her. “Why do you insist on calling me that?”

“Oh, sorry, I keep forgetting.”

“Obviously.” There was silence from the other end. “Did you call for a reason or are you just testing the line?”

“Oh, yeah. Um, I’m off to the Cove for breakfast before I go to the office, oh, in about an hour. I wondered, well, I guess I’d like to make up for flying off the handle like that yesterday. I can give you a ride down there if you haven’t eaten yet. We don’t have to sit together, but...well...I thought I’d offer. My treat, what do you say?”

BJ looked down at Arturo, who sat at her feet. He appeared to be listening intently. BJ put one hand over the receiver.

“She’s trying to suck up. What do you think? She’s offering breakfast.”

Arturo stood and wagged his tail happily.

“What do you know? You’re just hoping for a doggie bag.”

“Um, Bay…BJ? Are you there?” “Sure, sounds like a plan.”

“Great. I’ll be by in about an hour. Bye.”

BJ hung up and looked down at Arturo. “Yep, she definitely knew she was in the wrong.” She grinned at the pup. “I thought I’d give the poor girl a break and say yes. I threw her a bone. Ha! Get it? I threw her a bone. You know, a little dog humor?”

Arturo just cocked his head to one side.

“I gotta get a dog with a better sense of humor,” BJ muttered as she went off in search of Evelyn’s instruction manual. It was time to water the plants.

She had never ventured inside her grandmother’s greenhouses. Evelyn Warren had five acres of land. When BJ was a girl, the land had consisted of scrub grass and palm trees. Later, when she grew older and her visits became less frequent, Evelyn had created her dream.

Some of the buildings were like big garages, and BJ assumed they had their own independent light sources. From the outside, it appeared that only the ceiling of the long main greenhouse was made of glass. The rest of the building looked like all the others: clean, untarnished corrugated metal.

BJ wondered why the buildings had never held any interest for her before. Even odder was the fact that Evelyn had never shown BJ inside the buildings. The only thing she would say was that the greenhouses were something that reminded her of her travels around the world with her friend Aimee.

When you understand the key to happiness, Baylor, you’ll be able to appreciate my greenhouses.

BJ could hear Evelyn’s voice as if she were standing beside her. “Funny that I don’t remember her saying that till just now,” she mused aloud.

“Well, you with me, Squirt?” BJ looked down at Arturo. She held Evelyn’s operations manual in one hand, the keys in the other, while maneuvering her crutches at the same time.

They went through the back door of the house, which led to the main greenhouse. BJ was surprised to find a four-foot hallway and another door. Asign on the door said, “Temperature-Controlled Environment: Keep Door Closed.”

“Well, that’s different,” BJ said. Arturo barked in apparent agreement.

BJ opened the door to enter the greenhouse and turned to close it without looking inside. She pressed the door shut and immediately felt a humid warmth surround her. Turning and looking up, she reeled in stunned dismay.

“What the hell...I mean, wherethe hell am I?” The greenhouse was a tropical paradise. “It’s a jungle.”

BJ took a few cautious steps and watched as Arturo barked and sped off toward a large pool, complete with a fifteen-foot rock waterfall. The dog never missed a step as he launched himself into the water. He retrieved a floating object and jumped out of the pool. The small pup looked even smaller dripping wet until he shook himself with unmitigated vigor, fluffing his fur back into shape. He ran over to BJ and dropped the tennis ball at her feet.

“Ah, you’re a regular here, I see,” she said. Arturo wagged his tail in reply. “This place is amazing!” Wearing a wondering grin, she turned in a circle. “It’s like your own little Shangri-La. Too cool! So, Tanti, why have you been hiding this from me all these years?”

Armed with her grandmother’s instructions, BJ followed a stone path to the west side of the greenhouse. The tropical plants were dense in this portion of the building, and she was hot and sweaty by the time she reached her destination. Without Evelyn’s detailed drawings, BJ never would have found the hidden plastic and metal boxes that contained the watering system’s controls.

BJ looked at key number two. It was marked along the top as “main: lock boxes 1-3.” She easily opened all three hinged lids and looked over the contents of the boxes. Each contained ten knobs that appeared to be water shut-off valves. Each row of knobs had a different color of plastic coating. Letters identified each knob, and each knob had numbers around its base like a clock, one through twelve.

“All righty then,” BJ said as she leaned in to take a closer look. She squinted and studied the knobs with intense fascination. “There it is, all right...a bunch of totally unidentifiable knobs.

Geez!” She pulled out her drawings and scanned them. “What the hell is this, Tanti? What do I look like—an engineer? How do these old broads do this?”

BJ had a quick flashback just then. She was in the house and the old woman from next door had just handed her the enormous set of keys. Okay, Beej. Note to self. The next time someone asks you if you’d like them to run through the steps involved in anything, you just nod politely and say yes.

“We can do this, eh, Squirt?” BJ spoke to Arturo, who had found a high perch on some twisted tree roots that resembled the bottom of a mangrove tree. “I mean, it’s right here in black and white.” She indicated the manual in her hand. “How hard can it be?”

Arturo let out a tiny whimper, which didn’t seem like a good omen to her. She decided to overlook her new friend’s lack of confidence. Usually, she would have been the first to admit her own limitations when working with her hands. When she thought about it later, she realized she had never done anything like this before. She paid people to do mundane physical chores, even if they were in her realm of capability. She couldn’t remember ever attempting to do something like fixing a leaky sink or changing her own flat tire.

“Okay, let’s give this sucker a shot, shall we?” BJ held up the instructions in one hand and began turning knobs with the other.

Finally reading all of the small print that Evelyn had added to the instructions, BJ learned that the tightly sealed building was a rainforest, complete with its own storms. When set to exact specifications via the colored knobs, the system controlled every aspect of the watering of the main greenhouse. The system knew exactly how much rain to add and when to add it to the carefully maintained environment. The key was to set the controls differently each day of the week, then begin all over again on Monday.

“Red H-4...Blue C-10...Green F-1. Geez, I feel like I’m playing Twister, or at the very least calling bingo. Okay, only a few more to go.” BJ completed the last few turns as the instructions indicated. “Ha! Don’t tell me I got no skills.” She stood back and folded her arms across her chest, a gloating smirk on her face. Glancing down at the instructions again to double-check her work, BJ stared in disbelief at the next paragraph. “Under no circumstances should you adjust the last knob in the series before making sure you have a clear path to the outside door. The system begins two and one-half minutes after last knob adjustment.”

“Oh, Tanti! Do you think you could have written this before you told me how to move the last knob?” BJ cried out in frustration.

Aheartbeat later, a siren sounded over BJ’s head, causing her to involuntarily duck. “Oh, that can’t be good. Come on, Squirt. We gotta book or we could end up in the middle of a typhoon.”