Trouble in Tuscumbia

By Charlotte Miller Winstead

"Trouble In Tuscumbia"
Real estate broker Maizie Reynolds life had never been easy. Along with the problems everyone must endure, at 300+ pounds she was all but confined to her custom-built desk chair. Leaving New York state for her hometown of Tuscumbia, AL. was her chance to turn things around. But troubles seemed to follow her, even there. Still, Maizie found she had strengths she would never have guessed she possessed.
After the local newspaper detailed Maizies membership in the Million Dollar Club, strange things began to happen. She and her new employee and friend Sue Parish were stalked by two men in a truck. Then Maizie disappeared. Sue and an old love of Maizies joined forces to find her. But he wasnt the only ghost from the past and soon Maizie discovered how to use her setbacks as springboards to a better life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 4, 2007
• ISBN: 9781465314703

Charlotte Miller Winstead

AUTHORS COVER BIOGRAPHY Charlotte Miller Winstead was born in Cooter, MO. She and her husband Jim have four sons and five grandchildren. She runs her own family history website and wrote a weekly column for the area newspaper for seven years. Charlotte is past-president of the local Missouri Community Betterment Committee and is the author of three mystery/thrillers and one Christian children's poetry book.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Maizie Reynolds took one last look around the office at the We Got ’Em Realty. She sniffed a few times as memories of her twenty years here came flooding into her mind. She saw herself as a rookie agent, much thinner than the 300+ pounds she now carried. She saw herself as she moved up the ladder to broker/owner after the original owner died. Number one in sales in the county, then the state with many awards, certificates and trophies to prove it. A fire-ball then, not so fire-ball now. Health problems caused her weight to soar until she had to conduct all business from her custom-built desk chair. Younger, thinner agents did all the leg work now though Maizie could still be drawn out by an especially lucrative sale.

Maizie had had many good times here but now it was time to say goodbye to New York state and Hello, I’m home! to Tuscumbia, AL. She had been born there, how many years ago she wasn’t telling, and had longed to go back for quite awhile. The New York winters were harsh and it was difficult for her to get around. Icy streets and snow drifts you could lose a car in, plus her size, made driving hazardous. Finally, her chance had come. A dear friend informed her of a real estate broker in Tuscumbia who wanted to retire and was selling his entire business. Maizie immediately put her expertise to work and her offer was accepted. She was also able to sell her business here and even made a modest profit in the transaction.

She was pleased that all of her current employees would be able to stay on with the new owner but she was going to have to build her new staff from scratch as the employees there had all gone elsewhere to work. That was okay, though, Maizie still knew lots of people in Tuscumbia and was looking forward to the challenge. Still, she thought as she locked the front door for the last time, I’m going to miss this place. Outside she saw that someone had already taken down the sign from over the front door and leaned it against the building. She was taking it with her as part of the deal. In a few weeks, the We Got Em" Realty would open its doors at a new address in the great state of Alabama.

CHAPTER TWO

Viney Sue Hatchet Parish stood staring at the streets of Tuscumbia outside the living room window of her tiny, one-bedroom house. Its furnishings were sparse. In fact, some of her belongings were still in boxes that had been stacked in the bedroom closet for nearly two years. Viney Sue hadn’t had the strength or interest to unpack them. She sat down on the small couch and gazed at the framed pictures on her coffee table. She smiled at the faces of her children and grandchildren and willed herself not to cry and wish for things to be like they used to be.

Her children still lived in Huntsville where they had been raised. Her oldest boy, Linus Eugene, had told her it was best for her to move somewhere else after the divorce and she chose her home town of Tuscumbia. At least here, as Linus said, she wouldn’t be subjected to the wagging tongues of former friends. Viney Sue still had relatives and friends here who were on her side and had been a tremendous help in the last two years. Linus was thirty-four now and the manager of the Huntsville Quik Pik convenience store. His wife, Cherie Louise Blount Parish, was a veteran of the beauty pageant circuit, having won her first pageant at the age of three, and was still a beautiful woman. They had two children: Grant who was four and Allie, one.

Viney Sue’s daughter, CherylAnn LaVelle, was thirty-two and a stay-at-home mom. She managed to keep quite busy, however, having babies. She had six now: Chance 17, Bettie 15, SueAnn 12, Eddie 9, Charlie 7 and Lotus 4. CherylAnn’s husband, Dalton Buster Downs, had been an all-star tackle in high school and was expected to go on the great things at the University of Alabama. However, the academic part of college was just too much for Buster and now he was a bargeman on the Tennessee River with Viney Sue’s husband, Dock. Ex-husband, she reminded herself.

Then there was her baby and admittedly her favorite. Handsome, smart and talented, Davis Coltrane Parish was interviewed right out of high school by the Huntsville Stars, at the time a minor league baseball team of the Oakland As. An outstanding pitcher, he could have written his own ticket to the majors. However, Davis had his own ideas of his future; he wanted to be a teacher. Now twenty-three, Davis was in his first