Housewarming

by Jennifer Bowen

  “How am I supposed to see my grandchildren…and you, if you leave? All I’ll have left is Tracy, but she won’t have any excuse to visit me anymore with you gone.”

  Kara didn’t indulge the statement, because she knew it wasn’t true. As long as Tracy lived in the same apartment building as Margaret, they’d stay friendly, much to Kara’s displeasure. Tracy was generally a good friend, but she had a habit of keeping Margaret up-to-date on Kara’s goings-on; as a result, Kara had learned not to divulge too much information to her. Censoring herself was annoying, but Margaret didn’t need to know everything.

  “What’s wrong with Cosgrove?” her mother asked. “There are plenty of good schools and neighborhoods here.”

  “We tried. It doesn’t matter. It’s not like Grace Township is on the other side of the state. Mom, I’ve gotta go. I’m literally moving right now.”

  “Grace Township! I’ve never even heard of it!”

  “I’ll call you when we’re settled.” Kara hung up. “Oh my goodness, Lilahbean,” she said, glancing in the rearview mirror. Lilah leaned back in her booster seat, her face turned to the window.

  Kara asked her, “Are you excited?”

  Lilah didn’t reply, her eyelids lowering. She would be asleep soon.

  Kara refocused on the road, the moving truck always in her line of sight.

  Forty minutes later, they pulled off the interstate, driving deeper into the hills. Easing off the accelerator, she enjoyed the early afternoon. The sun’s rays filtered through the shimmering leaves, and the constant green of the stationed spruces dotted the roads they steadied past.

  She mimicked John’s turn onto another road and passed a boulder with an affixed plaque reading, “Grace Town.” She smiled. The moving truck double-honked and John waved his arm out the window. Kara double-honked back. He turned right, but she got stuck at a red light, the only traffic signal in town. She turned off the air conditioning and rolled down the windows, watching the postcard town in action. The bells of a Roman Catholic church chimed, “Come All Ye Faithful,” marking the one o’clock hour at the same time laughter erupted from the sidewalk across the street. She watched the group, chatting and laughing intermittently, until the light blinked to green.

  She turned onto Main Street, the main strip in town and passed the brick, nineteenth-century library and an equally-ancient, white-washed Presbyterian church towering close to the street. She drifted by an ice cream shop and outdoor café, bursting with customers of all ages. On the sidewalk was a folded sign reading, “Happy Cones” in swirled green letters.

  A grand Federalist-period house stood on the other side of the road, instantly capturing her attention. It was coated in red brick and set back from the street, with a hip roof topped with a white balustrade. White pillars proudly held up the covered wraparound porch. Black, wrought iron fencing separated the property from the sidewalk. A plaque set into the gate read, “Private Residence” in bronze letters. She noticed two urns filled with pink and white roses on both sides of the double doors before she obeyed the posted speed limit, which commanded she increase her speed by ten more miles per hour.

  She hummed, not realizing it was a melody her mother had sung to her when she was a little girl, and passed a hobby shop and perfumery store before turning left onto Seter Lane. Instantly, charming town life morphed into country living. Even the dilapidated weathered barn at the corner added to the scenery. Her eyes flitted over it as she passed and then she glanced over the houses that led the way to hers. The trees broke away on the left and she slowed, turning into their opening, which was the start of her gravel driveway. Steering carefully up the hill, not used to the incline, she pulled in beside the moving truck where the driveway spilled into a pool of gravel to the left of the garage. John and Jack waited at the rear of the truck.

  “You made it,” John said when she stepped out of the car.

  She smiled at him before gazing at the house. Her eyes trailed down, over the front sidewalk, and down to limestone tiles scattered in the grass, connecting the lawn to the driveway. She turned to Jack, noticing the medium-sized box he held. “Is that heavy?”

  “No.” He scowled. “Can we go in now?”

  John peered inside the sedan’s backseat at Lilah. “Is she still sleeping?”

  Kara replied, “You guys go on in. Jack wants to see his new room.”

  “I’ll show him the woods first,” John suggested. “That way we can all go in together. Jack, go ahead and put the box down.”

  “Okay, we’ll meet you on the porch.” Kara unbelted Lilah, who had woken up and was looking out her window. Kara followed her gaze to the yellow, two-story colonial next door, peeping through the trees. An old-school antenna stood crookedly from the roof of the screened-in porch that jutted out from the front of the house.

  Kara returned her attention to Lilah. “You awake?”

  In her stupor, Lilah continued staring at the yellow house.

  Following her gaze again, Kara squinted, seeing nobody. “We’ll meet the neighbors soon.” She tugged on Lilah’s foot, then backed up.

  Lilah finally blinked, then yawned, and a moment later they were walking hand-in-hand at low speed over the gravel.

  “Rabbit,” Lilah said, rubbing her eye with her free fist. They stopped. A brown rabbit, a yard from them, nibbled on grass, eyeing them.

  “Oh, wow! I bet we’ll see lots of animals.” As if on cue, a fawn darted out from the rear of the house, escaping through the yellow house’s front yard. “Did you see that?”

  “What?” Lilah jerked her head, stealing away toward where Kara pointed.

  “A deer. You didn’t see it?”

  Lilah shook her head.

  “That’s alright. You’ll see plenty more.”

  “When?”

  “Just keep your eyes open.” Someplace in the woods a chorus of birds chirped, their ruckus making them glance over as they neared the front porch.

  “Hey, Mom!” Jack called, running ahead of John as they came into the front yard. “Can we go swimming?”

  “Swimming?” Kara wrinkled her nose. “We’re moving in today.”

  “Come on! I’ve never had a pool.”

  “What?”

  “Dad said maybe today.”

  Kara turned to John. “What?”

  John tilted his head and whistled, looking skyward.

  “Jack, what are you talking about?” she asked.

  “Come on!” Jack took off around the house. “See?” he called when Kara appeared in the backyard.

  “What in the world?” She approached the above ground pool that hadn’t been there the last time she had toured the property, and dipped her hand into the water.

  John laughed as he and Lilah neared. “It was installed last week. Thought the kids would like it. Do you like it, guys?”

  Lilah hopped from one foot to the other, alert now. “Yeah!” John lifted her up to see the water.

  Jack nodded, pushing his arms over the pool’s edge, his fingertips just barely touching the water.

  “How deep is it?” Kara asked.

  “Four feet,” John replied. “I thought we could eventually extend the deck to reach it.”

  Kara walked to the deck steps and stopped, laying a hand on the railing. “Wait. Was the deck finished? The last time I was here there was no railing.”

  “Maybe I enlisted somebody’s help and maybe we got said deck completed…just not extended to the pool.” He cleared his throat. “Yet.”

  Kara asked amazed, “When did you do that?”

  “I gave Dolph a day off and let him work half days in the office so we could finish it. Most of the deck was here already. We just needed to add railings and stairs.”

  “You guys did a great job!”

  “It’s alright, needs to be bigger.” He slapped the railing. The deck was modest in comparison to the width of the house, but it could easily fit a small gathering.

  “Can we go swimming today?” Jack asked.<
br />
  Kara shook her head. “Not today. We have a lot to do.”

  He flicked the water. “Tomorrow?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Who wants to see their room first?” John called.

  Everyone hollered, “Me!”

  They went back to the front porch and John unlocked the rounded front door. Kara slid a hand down the bumpy stone façade before following the family over the threshold. She looked up and scowled at the brass chandelier dangling from the foyer’s two-story ceiling. One of the projects she hoped they’d work on soon, the rounded and obnoxious light fixture hung just a couple of feet above John’s head reminding her of a giant’s teat. Why would anybody select that style? It didn’t go well with the rest of the house at all.

  She glanced into the office that would be John’s and then turned around to the mouth of the staircase off the entry. The bare walnut treads stopped halfway at a landing before twisting and going up the rest of the way to the second floor.

  John bent toward the kids. “Your bedrooms are upstairs.”

  Jack took off up the staircase and Lilah trotted behind, holding onto the railing as she went.

  Kara turned to her left, looking down the narrow hallway leading to the garage. She glanced at the powder room off the foyer and then moved down the main hallway that ended in the breakfast nook at the back of the house. She surveyed the adjoining great room and the closed door to the unfinished playroom, which anchored the eastern side of the house. On the other side of the breakfast nook were the kitchen, dining room, and spacious master bedroom.

  John followed her into their bedroom. On the far side were three side-by-side windows with a bare MDF window bench below. Tucked partially behind the garage and jutting out just beyond to the side of it was the master bathroom and through there, the closet.

  Kara went into the bathroom, giving it an approving once-over. The white porcelain of the corner soaking tub shone magnificently under the skylight, a five-pointed star with rounded edges—another unique choice of the builder’s. Her only regret with the other bathroom window, set a few feet above the edge of the tub, was it didn’t open. It would’ve been nice to take a hot bath with it open to an outside breeze.

  “Now that’s what I can’t wait to do,” Kara said, running a hand over the tub’s edge.

  “I can’t wait.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” she said, poking John’s side. “Maybe not now. I have a feeling this moving situation is going to be exhausting.”

  “Well, it’s half over. Maybe if we tried running, it’d go quicker…” He raised his eyebrows, trying to appear serious.

  “Brilliant idea.”

  “You think so? Yeah, I have my moments.”

  She laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck. “This place is perfect.”

  “See?”

  “Well, I am farther from my mom, you know. That’s the real bonus.”

  “No Daughter-of-the-Year Award for you this year.”

  “I guess not.” She would’ve loved to have had a normal mother-daughter relationship, but there was nothing she could do with the hand she’d been dealt. Besides, it was how her mother had raised her. The estrangement wasn’t all Kara’s fault.

  “That’s okay. You win the Wife-and-Mother-of-the-Year Award,” John said, kissing her.

  They broke the embrace and Kara opened the door to the walk-in closet. She flipped on the light, then halted. “What’s that?” There was a pile of green fabric on the far side of the otherwise empty closet. She picked it up. “Whose blanket?”

  “Maybe it’s Dolph’s.”

  She turned it over, finding streaks of red paint on the wool fabric. “Does he want it back?”

  “I doubt it. You don’t want it?”

  “No, it’s scratchy. It’s got paint or something on it anyway.”

  “Throw it away. He probably left it behind as trash.”

  “Why’s it in here?” She looked at the white walls. “Did you guys paint?”

  “No. Maybe he thought we’d be painting. He was probably wandering around and just left it.”

  They corralled the kids back outside and Kara dropped the blanket in the garage, the first item in the trash heap. “Is the truck close enough to the house?”

  John scratched his head. “I could probably get it closer. The ground’s flatter in front of the garage.”

  “So now you’re telling me the house isn’t on a flat surface.”

  He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she laughed. “Keep the kids with you.” He hopped into the truck and they watched him quickly reverse to the front sidewalk. He jumped out and slid open the rear door of the truck. “Okay, the smallest boxes and bags are in front of the big stuff. Jack, you can help with that. Kara, you can start pulling out the small stuff too. Lilah, you’ll need to stay out of the way.”

  Kara told him they’d get her some toys from the car and sit her in the grass while they worked. She led Lilah toward the sedan. Kara squeezed her hand and said, “Come on, Sophie.” Kara dropped Lilah’s hand and double-blinked, stopping short.

  Sophie.

  It was like being stung, feeling the name drop from her lips, and hearing it. Confused by it, Kara tried to swallow as her thoughts raced, but failed, the back of her throat putting on the brakes. Suddenly, she had been struck deaf. She grounded her feet in the gravel, straining to hear the rocks clatter. She heard the pounding of her heart, but that was of little encouragement. She forced herself to try swallowing again to pop her ears, but she couldn’t. It was as if the name had poisoned her throat.

  She pressed the small flap of cartilage on her ears. There, she could hear a distinct rustling. Her eyes searched for what made the noise, moving over trees beyond the driveway’s turn-around. Was it a bird or squirrel?

  A blue jay screeched, making her jump, and just like that, the outside sounds returned. She took quick breaths, clearing away the strange feeling, and looked over at John. Had he heard her flub?

  Sophie.

  It didn’t look like he had. He was hauling a large box out of the back of the moving truck, concentrating on the task at hand. She looked at Lilah, who made careful steps down the driveway. She hadn’t noticed either. Deliberately, Kara made her way to her. She wondered at her error, stealing a glance at John and Jack, who busily stacked boxes in the garage. The slip-up was bizarre, but she pushed it away, forgetting it.

  Dinner was a hodge-podge of snacks left over from the apartment, as no one felt like finding a restaurant or grocery store at the end of the first day in the new house. After they ate, the Tamesons made ready for bed. The kids, excited to have bedrooms of their own, were tucked in on hastily-dressed mattresses. Both had a bedspread and pillow, which thankfully, hadn’t been hard to locate.

  Kara closed the door to the master bathroom, refraining from turning on the light. Moonlight streaming in from the skylight guided her as she gave the bathtub a quick rinse. She undressed and stepped in, pausing to peer out the other window. The lamppost stood at the edge of the driveway’s turn-around, situated where the side lawn began, illuminating the gravel and the start of the lawn. The woods bordering were just darkness; not even moonlight touched the trees.

  When water had risen above her ankles, she sank into the tub and closed her eyes. John’s movements on the other side as he pushed boxes along the carpeted floor were the only sounds in the house. After a while, Kara opened her eyes, lazily capturing the bathroom. She couldn’t believe she was a homeowner and the fact that their first house was their dream home was unreal. She turned off the faucet and slid down, luxuriating in how the water warmed her. Her eyes moved across the room to the custom two-person shower stall, cast in shadow. It was a dream shower with four shower heads, surrounded in Tuscan tile.

  She rolled her head back and looked up at the skylight directly above. She wasn’t sure if she liked the star-shaped window. Was it charming or gaudy? She gazed through it, presently charmed by starlight dotting the night sky. She closed her e
yes again, sinking further into the tub, a head poking out of a pool of ecstasy. After a moment, she stretched her limbs, looking up again. She frowned. Was the ceiling darker at two of the rounded star points?

  She studied them, but couldn’t tell, so she begrudgingly got out of the tub. She dried off, pulled on a nightshirt, and flipped on the light. She squinted at the ceiling, seeing tan stains touched two edges of the star. She opened the door. John was dragging a sheet over the mattress. The bed frame, in pieces near the far wall, hadn’t been assembled yet.

  She asked, “Did the inspector mention a skylight leak in his report?”

  “Hmm?”

  “There’s a leak in the bathroom ceiling.”

  He tossed pillows on the mattress and followed her into the bathroom. “Hmm…I don’t remember if he pointed that out.”

  “Could he have missed something like that? Is it bad?”

  “I don’t know. The stains look faded. I guess we really won’t know if it’s an issue until it rains. I’ll check it out.”

  They went into the bedroom and he flipped off the light.

  “Well, we moved,” Kara said, when they settled onto the mattress.

  He placed a hand on her arm. “Yep. How do you like it?”

  “So far so good.”

  He kissed her, then rolled to his side, facing away from her. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight.” She closed her eyes and started to drift to sleep until an image of Lilah crying flashed in the dark. Kara blinked her eyes open. “Do you think the kids are alright upstairs?” Jack and Lilah were on the other side of the house, a floor away. Would she hear them if they needed her?

  “John?”

  He didn’t respond.

  She propped herself up on her elbow and, peering over his shoulder, saw he was already asleep. She shifted away and looked at the dark doorway, listening. The house was silent. Was she too far away to hear?