Chapter 5 Chapter 5

The echo of her chuckling in relief replaced the scurrying noise when she saw the small triangular face looking up at her from a few feet away. Remembering that armadillos carry leprosy, she took a few steps back before addressing the smallish creature that took a few years off her life. “Hello there. You know it’s rude to sneak up on a person in the woods. Good way to get tased.” She waved the taser in its direction.

The woodland creature seemed unimpressed with her or her taser. It turned its back on her to dart back into the woods. With a wave bye, she continued on her way into the deeper woods. The canopy now covered most of the sky with only slight glimpses of blue visible through the leaves. She was thankful for the shade. Despite the humidity it wasn’t too miserable. The far-off barking of a dog sent several birds flying into the air. The sound of their wings created an eerie sound that sent a shiver down her spine. Shaking it, she continued deeper into the woods.

She stopped when she came across a barbwire fence with its fenceposts painted purple. Having never seen a purple fence like this she pulled out her phone to look up the importance. A quick google search revealed that purple fences meant do not trespass. It would seem that she had found the back property line. That meant she had walked roughly three acres of woods. She turned on the step counter on her phone thinking it would be fun to see how many steps it was back to the house. The phone made a polite chirp sound before she got it put back in her pack. Her mother’s ringtone. It was only a matter of time until she called. Olivia had just hoped for more time to figure things out before having to deal with her. With a deep breath she answered the phone.

“Hello.” Despite her best efforts she couldn’t keep the trepidation out of her voice.

“Want to tell me where you are?” Madelyn Trotter’s voice broke the tranquility of the woods. The tone was that of a woman used to getting what she wanted. This was going to be ugly.

“I told you mother, I moved to Texas.“ Olivia wouldn’t have told her that much, but she had the resources to scour through public records to find her daughter. It wouldn’t have surprised her to find out her mother already had the bill of sale for the house and the rental agreement for the SUV sitting in the carport on her desk.

“You cannot be serious. No Trotter runs away and hides with backwoods buffoons.” Her mother sneered into the phone. “If you must hide after the disaster in the courtroom, you should have gone to the Amalfi Coast or the Maldives.”

“I won in the courtroom, Mother. Remember?” In an attempt to keep her cool, Olivia closed her eyes and focused on her breathing.

“You aired all of your family’s dirty laundry in a public arena! There were reporters in the court room. The name Trotter still means something in this town. As does the Adler’s.” Her mother paused for a moment. Olivia assumed it was to club a baby seal in the head or take candy from a baby while scolding it for eating sugar. “Celebrities might delight in sharing their private affairs for the gossip columns but, we do not behave like that! You were raised better than that. You will be lucky if Sheldon does not sue you for defamation of character!”

“Mother, all I did was tell the truth. There is nothing Sheldon can do about it.” She paused while she untangled a piece of fur from a barb on the fence. “He was outed as an abusive philandering husband. I don’t think we are going to become the next Johnny and Amber.”

“I can not believe that you allowed that to come out. It makes you look weak. Do you not care how that affects the Trotter name?” Madelyn was on the verge of screeching now. Olivia knew all too well how much she cared for protecting the Trotter family name. Her maternal grandfather Charles Trotter had been known as the toughest litigating lawyer in the Windy City. He and his perfect stay at home/corporate wife had Madelyn. She went on to marry the son of the mayor. She kept the Trotter name but passed the Adler name down to Olivia. After the divorce Olivia chose to return to Adler instead of being stuck with Milton and thinking of Sheldon every time she introduced herself.

“The fact that he has been living with his mistress for the past two years made it a bit hard to deny. Meredith was in the audience every day after she testified!” In frustration Olivia tapped the phone to her forehead a couple of times.

“Honey, you have got to put that on speaker. I’m dyin’ not knowing the other half of this conversation. Of all the days to NOT have popcorn with me!” Surprised, Olivia looked around. At some point a tall curvy woman had come to be leaning against the tree on the other side of the fence. Olivia couldn’t help but stare at the women’s pixie length aqua hair with a blonde streak in the front. Amused blue eyes were watching her over iridescent mirrored purple sunglasses. She couldn’t help but smile at her yellow tank top with a bee on it saying bee kind.

“Mother, I have to go.” Olivia hung up on a protesting Madelyn. She reached a handout to the colorful stranger. “Hello. I’m Olivia Adler.”

“Dixie Mae Huxley. Go ahead and laugh. Everyone else does.” Olivia tried not to laugh at the name as shook hands. “Did you buy the old Powers’ place?”

“Yeah, the cheery yellow house.” Olivia hooked a thumb over her shoulder back towards the house. “You should come by sometime.”

“Love to.” The two women exchanged numbers before Dixie had to head back home. Olivia turned to head back to what she hoped would soon be known as the Adler place.

Olivia walked back into the wood smiling under the midday sun. Now that she potentially had a friend, her thoughts focused on what the people around here did for fun. Having lived her entire life in the urban jungle of Chicago she was afraid it would be out of her comfort zone. All she knew of country life was what was on TV and in movies. Hopefully she wasn’t going to be expected to go catfish noodling.

Close to the halfway point back to the house movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Quickly she turned expecting to see another armadillo. Instead, a dark human shaped shadow disappeared into thicker trees off the path. The adrenaline shooting through her system had her chasing it to find out who was stalking her in the woods. Possibly this was why she kept feeling watched. Crashing through the underbrush, she could never see who was casting the shadow.