Chapter 3 - Ida
Carter was a grumpy old man. He looked way older than his real age but there was something warm about him. The sort of people that knew exactly what to do to make things right, even if that meant to be hated by everybody. Ida saw that type of person as the reincarnation of the real christian spirit: doing what was hard for the best of everybody. She could not. She had a soft heart and a very fragile constitution. Arguments could start an asthma attack and she once had to go to the hospital for a stupid tax mixup. She owned the general store in Wood Burrow and was also a counsellor in the city hall. Mainly, her duties was to vote for highly essential decisions like: what kind of mocktail would the Pumpkin Festival have this year? Being a counsellor in a town like that meant a lot of gatherings involving food and alcohol and talks about weather. All in all, it was fine for Ida.
Very few people knew that she had, in another life, handled the investment branch of a big company in Seattle. She was young, had a bony face and the look of an old spinster. She made a burnout three years into the job, but she did gather a significant amount of money, more or less legally. It had been too much for her heart. She had been married then, and they took the decision to move to a less polluted and busy area. That's how she ended up living most of her adult life here, getting the reputation of a nice and quiet lady whose husband divorced her, leaving for a young version of herself.
"Hey Carter, how are you?" the veteran frowned as he would often do when people would talk to him. As if the idea of anybody ever wanting to enter in contact with him was absurd. He stopped in mid movement, climbing up the steps leading to his door. "I'm fine, why, what happened?" he asked, feeling something was up. And he was right. He had that incredible nose, which could smell out shit from miles and miles away. Behind him, Ida could see the young Joe, sitting at one of her garden chair, chewing something and listening to what was being said. "It's about… The new folks, you know, who bought the farms in the South…" Carter stepped down, approaching his fence. "I heard." he said, waiting for something else. Ida darted her eyes to Joe, who was now standing by the fence separating her house with Carter's. "Well… We've seen them in the general store this morning… They're… Odd to say the least."