Hidden Talents

to arrange them on the shelf. “Caleb wants me to go home with him today and I said that I would. We're leaving around ten.”
    “So he wants you to meet his family.” Ariadne Galpin, owner and sole proprietor of the Sunflower Café, wore an expression of profound concern. “Sounds like a very traditional sort of man.”
    “He is.”
    “You don't do well with the traditional type, Serenity.”
    “Caleb's different.”
    Ariadne pushed one thick, graying braid back over her shoulder and crossed her arms beneath her ample bosom. Everything about Ariadne was broad and ample. Had she lived in more conventional surroundings, she would have been stereotyped as the grand-motherly sort. Here in Witt's End, people thought of her as an earth mother. There wasn't much difference, she had once told Serenity.
    “I give up,” Ariadne said. “How can he be different and traditional at the same time?”
    Serenity shoved the last jar of tahini onto the shelf and straightened. She smiled at Ariadne with all the deep warmth and affection generated by a lifelong bond. Ariadne had been present the day Serenity was born. She, along with the handful of others who had been in Witt's End that day, had helped raise Serenity.
    It was Ariadne who had taught Serenity how to cook, how to operate a cash register, and how to keep basic business accounts. It was Ariadne, too, who and been there to advise and instruct Serenity on the mysteries of the transition from girlhood to womanhood.
    And it was Ariadne who best understood Serenity's inchoate longing for a real family. She longed to experience for herself the intimate closeness of a mother, father, and child.
    “When you meet him, you'll see what I mean,” Serenity said.
    Ariadne pondered that with elevated brows. “This is serious, isn't it?”
    “I hope so.” Serenity loved Ariadne like an aunt, but it was hard to talk to her about men. Ariadne was the most asexual human being she had ever met. Apparently, she really had transcended the man-woman thing. “How's the cookbook going?”
    Ariadne sighed but she didn't try to pursue the subject of Caleb. “I'm finishing off the bean and pasta dishes. Jessie's completed the illustrations. They're spectacular. The finished manuscript should be ready to go to the printers in another couple of weeks.”
    “Good.” Serenity opened a sack of lentils, hoisted it onto her hip and poured the contents into an open barrel. “That means we'll have copies ready when the first edition of the catalog goes out. We'll be able to advertise it.”
    “Do you really think this mail order thing is going to work?”
    “I'm sure of it.” Serenity grinned. “How can it miss? We've got the best start-up consultant in the business on our team.”
    “I suppose it's much too late to advise you to keep your relationship with him strictly business'?”
    “Since when has anyone in Witt's End understood the meaning of the words ‘strictly business’?”
    “I was afraid of that.”
    Serenity glanced at the clock as she folded the empty sack. “I'd better change for the trip. Time for me to step into the nearest phone booth and emerge as Miss Town and Country.”

    Two hours later Serenity sat forward in the passenger seat of Caleb's green Jaguar and watched with delight as Ventress Valley came into view. Acres of well-tended farmlands, vineyards, and cattle ranches were spread out across a gently rolling landscape. There were more pickups than sedans on the roads. Tractors rumbled across open fields.
    The small town of Ventress Valley consisted of a collection of hardware and feed stores, churches, cafés, and the occasional tavern. The shop windows displayed denim overalls, plaid shirts, and Stetson hats.
    “This is where you grew up?” Serenity asked as Caleb drove down the main street. “It looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.”
    “Rockwell had a convenient way of not showing what really goes on beneath the surface of a small town like this,” Caleb said. There was no trace of emotion in his voice. “I used to dream about getting out of this place. I left the summer I graduated from high school.”
    “Where's your grandfather's house?”
    “About two miles on the other side of town.”
    “You're sure your family is expecting me?” Aware that she had never quite gotten the hang of passing as conventional, Serenity had packed carefully for the trip. She didn't want to embarrass Caleb in front of his relatives.
    She was