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Description:

Jenna Thompson has lived all of her 19 years in a cottage behind the Ashton Mansion. She is the maid and groundskeeper, and since her mother’s death, the sole occupant of the huge estate.

Like everyone else in Pepperville, Jenna’s entire day is planned, from what she will buy at the store to the kind of footwear she will wear to walk there.  In fact, everyone in Pepperville is a little eccentric — from the policeman on his bicycle to the postal worker who will only deliver mail at night. An outsider would certainly think that things are certainly a bit odd in Pepperville, except that no one from Pepperville has ever left to tell the tale.

Then Jenna encounters someone living in the biggest tree in town during a routine trip to the Shoppe and Walke. Her efforts to remove him permanently will change the course of her own life, as well as life in Pepperville. 

"The slightest change in one's life can begin a spiral of transformation.
 THE SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED IN PEPPERVILLE is the story of Jenna Thompson
and the tree-dwelling vagrant who enters her own life. Determined to rid her town
 of the man whom everyone else welcomes, Jenna soon finds there's more to this unusual
gentleman than she truly knows. An entertaining novel of small town life."
— James A. Cox, Editor in Chief,
The Midwest Book Review

Excerpt:

“Hey girl. You’re in my class early for once. Gotta date later?” Calley asked with a wink.

“Who would want to date me?” Anessa replied, her voice breaking. There had been many long letters and a new bottle of perfume, and still no attempt on Donovan’s part to cement the relationship with Anessa.

Calley took her arm and guided her to the broom closet. Jenna got up and followed, uncertain of her role in that next Anessa trauma.

“Tell Miss Calley what’s goin’ on,” Calley said soothingly. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Jenna had walked through the door and she motioned for her to join them.

Anessa relived her problem with Donovan and asked Calley where to go next.

“Y’all need to remember to breathe deep, like we do in class, and look him in the eye.” Calley explained something she had heard from a video. (Strengthen Your Relationship and Your Abs, 1984). “He’s been readin’ your notes; that’s somethin’,” she said encouragingly.

“Calley, I’m not even for certain he has eyes. Maybe the birds pecked ‘em out. He won’t look down long enough for me to see.” Anessa’s eyes shifted back and forth and she looked at the floor uneasily.

“Maybe I don’t know how to… how to talk to boys. Maybe Greg didn’t know what he was talkin’ about when he told me…”

Calley noticed Jenna was shifting from one foot to the other. She was about to erupt, something that had been happening with more frequency these past weeks and as a surrogate mother figure, Calley was beginning to feel some concern.

“Oh for goodness sake! Really! We have to get him out of the tree and out of Pepperville and you aren’t helping! That idiot thinks he’s a bird, or a twig, or whatever and the more attention you pay him, the longer he’ll stay,” Jenna snapped. The dark circles under her eyes were obvious under Calley’s fluorescent lights.

“Now, honey, let’s don’t…” Calley began.

“Why doesn’t anyone else see how offensive it is to have a stranger living here? Like that!” Jenna turned to Anessa. “And you—why don’t you hunt someone else? Preferably at ground level!” She turned and stormed out of the studio, pausing only long enough to restack her mat.

Anessa’s jaw was open, but she was uncharacteristically silent. Calley was experienced in dealing with crises of that magnitude. There was always at least one lady in class with man troubles.

“I don’t know what’s got into her. She’s needin’ some serious yoga, is what I think,” said Calley, shaking her head. “You can just go ahead and like whoever you want, girl. They can live in a tree, on top of a car, or wherever!” She patted Anessa on the back.

“He does like me. He reads my notes and one of the other checkers told me that when I’m on break, he climbs down to a lower branch, like he’s wonderin’ where I went. He does,” Anessa sniffed. “Just because he won’t look at me doesn’t mean he doesn’t…”

“You don’t even need to worry about lookin’ at his eyes. I’m sure he knows you’re there. Any hay—keep your options open! There’s more than one fish in the tree, if ya know what I mean,” Calley winked at Anessa.

Anessa nodded. She had certainly never limited herself to one crush before. In high school she had juggled five football players, at least in her mind, writing their names on the front of each spiral notebook beside her own.

“Thank you, Calley. For everything.” She wiped her eyes and then glanced around, hoping for the latest concoction to be readily available. After all, a girl has to keep up her strength.

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