meh. And Blowing Rock, which so far I like the best. My realtor is looking for the best fit for me. It needs to be big enough to host my family and small enough that I don’t have to hire a housekeeper.”
Susan cocked her eye and laughed. “I can’t imagine letting someone else clean my place. I take it there is no Mrs. McBride anymore.”
“She passed away two years ago. That’s when I decided to retire. I wasn’t able to be there for her much of the time when she was so sick, and now she is gone. Is there a Mr. Reese?”
“He was killed in Korea. We hadn’t been married a year. We didn’t have children, so I have had hundreds of wonderful children as students instead. I have my music, my extended family, lots of cousins, a host of friends, and lots of good memories. I still have an aunt who lives by herself at age eighty-six. But she told me a few weeks ago she has her name in a retirement home in Banner Elk.”
When the waitress at Our Daily Bread approached with a cleaning cloth in her hand and told them the store was closing, they were surprised. They had been chatting for an hour and a half, and it seemed as though it had only been ten minutes. Yet on the other hand, it seemed they had known one another for years.
Over the next couple of weeks, Mac saw Susan every day. Although she lived a half hour away from Boone, they met either in Boone or some other place that either he wanted to see or she wanted to show him.
One day she got behind the wheel and didn’t say where they were going. Winding curves to gravel roads and shifting into four-wheel drive up a country lane and mountainside. She took him to Willson’s Cove and showed him the old family home, although they did not go inside since her cousin Mike wasn’t there. Dook, the mixed-breed hound, greeted them with a bit of jumping and tail wagging. He recognized Susan’s car. Mac shared his lunch with the dog.
Then Susan took him to her own house, the place her daddy, Harvey Willson, built when he and her mother had married. They stayed long enough for her to show him the house and raid the refrigerator.
Last but not least, she took him back a rocky track to visit her Aunt Carrie.
Aunt Carrie was delighted to see them. “Well. Hope you don’t mind if I don’t get up and make y’all coffee, but seems I’m a-windin’ down these days.” She patted her walker. “Got my name in over at the retirement home in Banner Elk. You won’t forget to come and visit, will ya?”
“You know I won’t, Auntie.”
Carrie put her stamp of approval on Mac by pulling him down to her ear. She whispered something, but Mac never told Susan what she said.
One day they hiked the easy trails on Grandfather Mountain. Susan had no trouble keeping up with Mac. She was in great physical condition. She told him she worked out at a fitness club in Banner Elk.
“What better way for you to get acquainted with the high country than to visit the places of local interest with a local,” Susan said.
Mac laughed.
Does he know what I’m thinking? She really meant get acquainted with each other.
Mac had to return to Macon for some business, but before he left, he purchased a great place in Blowing Rock. He gave her more than a hint that he wanted more than a few weeks’ vacation in her company.
Does he have something permanent in mind?
Mac first met Susan on the third week of July. After going to Macon briefly, he returned to Blowing Rock and remained in the area until October, enjoying his new house in Blowing Rock and Susan. Bob, his son, and his family from Savannah; and Jessica, his daughter, with her family visited late in August. All the family met Susan, and she seemed to fit into their idea of a suitable consort for Mac. Jessica, however, made her feelings known.
“Dad, I am glad you found someone you enjoy being with. Just remember that no one, but no one can replace my mother. Be careful. That’s all I’m saying.”
At Thanksgiving, Susan joined Mac in Macon for a family get-together, and everyone hit it off well enough that even Jessica grudgingly admitted that Susan brought the best out of their father.
In December, Mac came to the high country supposedly to ski on Beech Mountain. He did not get much skiing done but spent most of his time fifteen miles off the slopes, in front of Susan’s fireplace. It was there that he proposed.
After a few trips back and forth between his place in Blowing Rock and Macon, Mac returned for the summer of 2009, and on a Saturday afternoon in early September, they had a private wedding ceremony at Susan’s little country church in Willson’s Cove. The only ones attending were Mac’s children and grandchildren and some of Susan’s first cousins who lived nearby. Susan insisted that Aunt Carrie Vance should come and asked Aunt Carrie’s daughter, Gladdie, to bring her mama.
There was a nice reception at the family home with foods provided by some of the cousins. It was a simple, low-key ceremony with the two families getting to know each other. Aunt Carrie was almost as lauded as much as the bride and groom.
The bride and groom took off the next morning for a honeymoon in Apalachicola, Florida.
Chapter 2
Susan
Apalachicola, Florida, September 2009
Susan stood glued to the floor at the entrance of a storefront. It couldn’t be. But it is. It is like his ghost! Banjo music was floating out the doorway, and it was coming from a white ponytail with holey blue jeans. He was playing Willson’s Cove songs the unique way Grandpa always played, and the sound was exactly the same. And it was Grandpa’s voice. Almost makes me believe in channeling. Once she got over the shock of the sound, she ventured inside.
Mac, having been in another store, came and stood beside her and handed her a glazed doughnut. “We need to go across the street and make reservations for this evening’s dinner. You come with me?”
“No. I need to talk to this fellow. He has given me a jolt!”
“Jolt?”
“I’ll explain later.”
Susan approached the man as soon as he took a break from playing. “Hey. Where did you get your banjo? Who taught you to sing that way, those versions? What is your name?”
“Whoa! One question at a time. I am Harry Harvey from St. Petersburg, Florida. And you are?”
“Susan Re—I mean, Susan McBride from North Carolina.”
“Well, Susan McBride, my dad taught me, and he learned from his mom. She, in turn, learned from my grandfather. The banjo was one he gave Dad when he was a little boy back in the 1920s.”
“May I see your banjo?”
Harry grasped the neck and held it out to her.
Susan grasped it with one hand supporting the head and the other hand on the neck, like it was going to get away from her. She peered inside, scrutinizing all around inside. She hoped to see if there were any markings that would tell who had made the instrument. Could this be one?
Susan had been looking for one of Grandpa Willson’s banjos for more than
