the wood as she went. She soon sweated heavily.
Going back inside, she grabbed some water and forgot she had turned down her phone volume. She frowned when she saw a missed call. Groaning to herself, she hit the message and listened. Nothing was there, so she dialed the number back. And, sure enough, it was the old gentleman she’d talked to.
“She says you can call her,” he said.
Delighted, Doreen walked to her notepad, grabbed the pen, and said, “What is her number?”
He read off the number and said, “Her name is Jennifer.”
When he abruptly hung up, Doreen laughed out loud.
“How come so many people out there can’t be socially friendly for longer than two minutes?” But it didn’t matter now because she had a name and another number to try.
As soon as she dialed, a woman answered. “Hi, my name is Doreen.”
“Oh, my gosh,” the woman said. “My father called me about you. I’m Jennifer.”
“Hi, Jennifer. I was just trying to find the name of the family members of Reginald Abelman who lived in Kelowna.”
“Well, you know he married Aretha,” Jennifer said, “and they filed for divorce, but the paperwork wasn’t finalized when he overdosed.” Her voice dropped in a mock despairing note. “The poor man, he must have been absolutely lovestruck.”
“I’m sure that was it,” Doreen said. Not. She didn’t believe that theory for a second.
“It’s all so terrible,” she said.
“Do you know what his sister’s name was?”
“I think I have it written down here somewhere,” she said. “Oh, there it is. Lena,” she said. “It’s Lena.”
“Good,” Doreen said. “Did she marry?”
“She did, but then …” her voice trailed off. “You know, I have so many notes here. I keep trying to get organized, but I never quite make it.”
“I can sympathize,” Doreen said. “I’ve just done a massive clean-out of my place.”
“Right. Still, I should have the information here somewhere.”
“I guess the question is whether she’s still married or not. It’s her daughter I’m trying to find.”
“The daughter. Yes, she had a daughter very young in life. I think she had her before she was married. There was a bit of a scandal about it, as I recall.”
“Okay,” Doreen said. “So do you know the name of the daughter?”
“You know what? I’m still looking for those notes.” Her voice was distracted, and Doreen could hear a ton of paperwork being shuffled. She groaned. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Jennifer said. “I’ll have to call you back with it. I’ll make it as soon as I can.”
“That’s fine,” Doreen said. “I guess it’s waited this long, so a little longer won’t matter.”
Jennifer sounded relieved. “I promise I have the information somewhere.”
Undisturbed, Doreen said, “Okay, I look forward to hearing from you,” and she hung up.
Now she had three people she was dealing with. She wrote down some notes, along with Jennifer’s information and what little bit they had come up with and knew the easiest solution would be to talk to Aretha. But she didn’t have her phone number. Looking down at the animals, she took a deep breath, remembering the last time.
“Road trip?” They all started going crazy. She picked up the leash and headed down the walking path toward Aretha’s house. As she got closer, she could see the gates were locked. She pushed the Call button, but nobody answered. She sighed, then ripped off a clean page from her notepad. She addressed her note to Aretha, asking her to Call Doreen, jotting down her number. She tucked it into the mailbox, leaving a little bit of it sticking out, so they would see it.
She slowly headed past the house, determined to get enough of a walk in that she’d be tired by the time she got home. By now she was just boiling over with nervous energy. It was Wednesday, and the week was going by very quickly. All these people had been calling her back, yet she hadn’t gotten any of the answers she wanted and needed. How frustrating.
Still, it was interesting to go back so many years and to hear everybody’s interpretations of what had happened. She turned around to head back when she saw a vehicle pulling up to the driveway, but it was too far ahead for her to call out and get their attention. Somebody did stop and pick up her note from the mailbox. Smiling, she said, “Now call me, please.”
Mugs just looked up at her. Thaddeus leaned against her, as if to give her comfort, compassion, and support. She