The Potter's Daughter (Literary Series) Read Online Free Page A

Caroline?”
    “Fine uncle Will.   Are you sure your ok?”
    “Dandy.   What’s the weather like sunshine?”
    “Partly cloudy, storm’s a comin’,”
said Caroline.
      Will winked at Caroline, “So where’s the
Birthday boy?”
    “You have some explaining to do,”
said Abby.
    “He’s inside.   C’mon in, I’ll get him,” said Caroline.
    Caroline opened the door and walked
through.   Will moved to follow her
and was stopped by Abby.
    “Let me brush that snow off your
legs,” said Abby.
    “Ok, ok.”
    Will had caked snow around the
calves of his blue jeans tromping across the yard.   From the inside of the door, Abby
grabbed a small broom that was kept for that purpose and brushed the snow off
for him.   When she finished Will
lifted his cool crystal blue eyes to her and asked, “Are we ready now?”
    “Yes, old man,” said Abby.   Her brows furrowed.
    Will stepped into the atrium
followed by Abby.   In a low voice to
the back of Will’s ear Abby said, “I can’t believe you were driving drunk on
Willow Lake Road.   You’re crazy.”
    “It was fine,” said Will, “no
unsafe conditions.”
    Abby did not like him using that
term.
    Winding twenty-one miles around
Willow Lake was Willow Lake Road.   Willow Lake Road many years ago had been a two-track road that after the
war became a two-lane dirt road and on the map became County Road
Twenty-Three.   Summer people did not
like stones chipping away at their foreign cars so a few years later County
Road Twenty-Three was coated with asphalt and on the map became Willow Lake
Road.
    Each summer Willow Lake road had at
least one fatal accident, a motorcycle collision, or someone just driving too
fast around one of the many curves, usually not a local, and each winter there
were far more fatalities because of ‘unsafe conditions’.
    Asphalt gathers precipitation,
moisture from the air, that when cold creates a layer of ice.   County trucks then put salt on the
asphalt melting the ice, ice that turns to water, water that is absorbed into
the minute cracks and crevices only to resurface when the effects of the salt
wear off forming yet a new layer of ice.   The new ice brings to the surface all of the oil and sediment that was
in the road creating black ice.   Black ice is slicker than normal ice, virtually invisible, and in a
word, deadly.   Since the asphalt had
been put down, the death toll rose and the blame is the layer of black
ice.   The police accident reports
give a simple explanation when the black ice is blamed not requiring too much
paperwork, ‘unsafe conditions’.
    When Abby’s brother died, his jeep
flew off the road, hit a tree, and then smashed into the rocks at South
Point.   The accident report read
‘unsafe conditions’.
    Will had used that term to shut
Abby down successfully.   She would
not be getting in the way of his good time.   He removed his coat and scarf then
handed them to Jenny, the neighbor girl Caroline had hired to help at the
party.   Then he entered the large
main room, peeked around, made smiles to familiar neighbors, and made comments
under his breath to Abby as to which smiling face was an idiot and which owed
him twenty dollars.   Will’s beige
wool sweater complimented his silver hair and contrasted his blue eyes in a way
that made them look brilliant.   Will
spotted the bar and walked there directly.   Abby did not follow him.
    Abby picked up the white wine that
she had set on the maple side table then headed toward the kitchen at the other
end of the house.
    Set out on the kitchen island was a
buffet.   There was a bright orange
ceramic plate with small chicken and egg meatballs covered in a ginger teriyaki
sauce.   A baby blue square ceramic
plate held enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon.   There were many swiss, cheddar, and
havarti cheeses with thin herb flavored crackers next to sopressata sausages,
salami, tuna salad, potato salad, and a local favorite, cream cheese and green
onion