The Lilly Flower

By Julia Weaver

When she was a small child, Lilly and her mother had lived with her Uncle John, an archaeologist, in an old caravanserai near Konya in Turkey. Her father, his brother, was excavating at another archaeological site in Syria.
Lilly loved her Uncle John. He had recently had a heart attack, so when his partner Aladdin telephoned to inform her, she planned to visit him immediately.
When she exited the Ankara Airport, her Uncles partner Aladdin was not there to meet her as he usually was. Lilly waited an hour and then hired a taxi to go to her uncles apartment.
She was met by two policemen enquiring about her uncles friend Nick Talmage. She let the police enter the apartment and search its rooms. When they finally left, she bolted the door.
Lilly was ready for bed when she heard noises in the hallway and looking around the bedrooms doorway, she saw Nick Talmage collapse to the floor. A bookcase behind him swung back into its place in the wall.

Take a Flying Carpet Tour it can change your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479756940

Julia Weaver

I write because it is fun to create characters and to invent situations that use some of my interests in the arts, archaeology and the places I have traveled. My past career was as a graphic artist and that enables me to have more fun in creating the cover art and photographs for my book. My husband and I are now retired and are living in the Southern California desert's Coachella Valley.

Book preview

1

Damn it Lilly, I don’t repair half a roof, yelled Elton as he started down the ladder.

The other side doesn’t leak and I can’t afford to fix the whole roof right now, she said, shading her eyes from the sun as she looked up at him. The old barn needed new paint and roofing but was structurally sound. Lilly planed to move into the barn’s loft after the plumbing for the small kitchen and bath were complete.

Why do you have to move into the barn now? he said, leading her into the shade. I thought we had until October to finish up?

I’m not asking you to finish, just to make the roof water tight so I can store some things until you do finish.

The old house and barn which sat on thirty acres had been a scary investment for a single woman of twenty five, but the size of the California live oak trees, the large cottonwoods lining the gravel drive, and the porch that ran around three sides of the three story house had helped her to decide to keep the property that had been her grandmother’s family farm. Five miles into the San Timoteo mountains was another world. The ninety year old house had now been turned into four apartments and an attic studio. In the last five years, Lilly’s spare time had been filled with a great deal of sanding woodwork, painting walls and a very personal acquaintance with the plumbing—she had become an expert with washers and wrenches.

Elton folded the ladder and hung it on his truck. Why do you need to decide this today? I could have taken you to dinner.

"I have to leave for Turkey in three days, my Uncle John has had a heart attack.

I knew you were going later this month.

He wants me to come now. I have his book ready for final proofing and that might cheer him up. I also quit my association with the college today and need to store my art equipment. She saw Elton grin. "I have also rented the attic studio so some of my things need to be stored, Is there anything else about my personal life you need to know?.

Now don’t get excited. You quit your job?

I quit one job. You know I work freelance. Oh why am I explaining? she said, brushing a wisp of blond hair out of her face, the coil at her neck coming undone.

But Lilly, where will you live. You going to camp out?

I’ll worry about that when I come home.

What does your mother think?

Lilly was beginning to simmer. Elton, if you won’t roof half the barn, I will just put a plastic tarp over what I store in the barn, can you complete the kitchen and bath plumbing while I’m gone and have the floor sanded? I have the money for that work.

Now don’t get uppity, you pay me for half the roof, that will buy the materials and I’ll do the whole job, you can pay the rest later. Honey, if you would just let me take care of you, he said leaning closer and putting his arm around her shoulder.

Elton, you’re a good friend, but I am not going to marry you, you promised not to ask me any more.

Just thought I’d catch you off guard, he said grinning, I’ll call you tomorrow with an estimate.

He was as ‘gorgeous’ as her friend Milly said, a real hunk, six feet of tanned muscle in blue jeans. But he wasn’t Nick—nobody was.

Oh my, what a day, she thought. As she started up the outside stairs to her attic studio, she paused. The twilight view through the silhouetted oak trees, that grew up the canyon, was always one of the best reasons for coming home. A quail family was bustling around the small pond in the side yard, on their way home after a day’s foraging. She leaned against the house and gradually relaxed. This is my life now, I have to take care of myself and continued up the stairs to pack up her personal belongings.

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That morning, her meeting with the art director at the university publishing office had been as unpleasant as she had expected it to be.

You are burning your bridges by leaving these offices, Edgar Price said leaning over his desk, and abandoning this project is the final straw! He slammed a contract form down in front of Lilly. She was sitting on a straight backed wooden chair on the opposite side of his large messy desk wondering how many more indignant cliches he would come out with. He had tried charm and now threats.

You knew of my plans to take the summer off six months ago Edgar. You have it in writing. Lilly gathered her briefcase and purse and handed him a piece of paper. Here is a list of the things I’m moving out of my office, please check the inventory.

Lilly dear, this isn’t necessary.

Edgar was a petty troublemaker when he didn’t get his way. Lilly imagined he had probably promised an impossible deadline on the contract he wanted her to take on at the last minute. Not cancelling her trip, he thought, was sheer insubordination.

I’m sorry, Edgar. I’ll be back in September, we can talk then.

What will your mother say?

Edgar, she said, biting her tongue, I do make my own decisions. She returned to her office in the art department and started to fill cartons. Two students and a truck were due at noon to help her move. The telephone rang—it was her mother. Lilly explained about John’s heart attack and reminded her mother of her summer plans.

You know I disapprove of your running off to Turkey by yourself. I’m astonished you are still intending to go.

Oh mama, I love Uncle John and I want to see him. You know I’ve been designing his book and he needs to see the final proofs.

That squalid town, such unpleasant memories.

For you maybe, not for me. When her mother finally finished, Lilly replaced the receiver and sighed, That was a new record. The gossip about her leaving had only taken two hours to reach her mother. She reached for another carton.

2

Lilly’s mother knew everyone ‘that mattered’ in the small college town. She informed people what ‘Lilly thought’ and they were often astonished at what Lilly really thought when they bothered to ask Lilly.

Lilly had heard all her life, "But