Spirits In the Trees

by Morgan Hannah MacDonald

  “What! You had me searching the entire house for an intruder, when it was probably just the wind that blew the door shut?” His face was red.

  “That would have been impossible.” Maddy walked into the kitchen and waved him in, then pointed. “See that large canister with the label that reads flour? That’s what was holding the door open. Did the wind also pick up the heavy container and line it up by size on the counter?” She smirked.

  He peered at the canister, then back at her. “Are you sure you propped it open? Maybe you forgot.” His hands rested on his hips.

  “I’m sure.” She stated mocking him by putting her hands on her hips.

  “Okay, did you notice anything missing?”

  “I really haven’t had a chance to look.”

  “You go look and I’ll call Grady. Where’s the phone?”

  “It’s back in the hall-”,

  Before she could finish her sentence he’d left the room.

  She followed, “But I haven’t had it turned on.” Half-way through her sentence, he had picked up the receiver.

  “There seems to be a dial tone. Maybe it was never shut off.”

  “That’s odd. Who would move out of a house and leave the phone connected?”

  “Probably someone who was very absent minded,” he answered as he dialed.

  “But wouldn’t the phone company have shut it off if the bill hadn’t been paid?”

  “Must have been an oversight somewhere.”

  As soon as she heard him on the phone, she went upstairs to check her belongings to see if anything was missing. When she came back down the stairs, Doug was waiting by the phone.

  “Grady is on the way,” Doug said.

  “It doesn’t look like anything’s been taken.”

  “Good. Did you touch anything?”

  “No, I just ran up the stairs to find you.”

  “Then how did the intruder get in? The doors were locked when I checked them.”

  “Maybe a window?” she said, hesitantly.

  “I didn’t notice any open windows, did you?”

  “No, but what about the broken ones?”

  “The edges are jagged and the holes aren’t big enough for someone to fit through. I guess we should check to see if anyone has removed any glass to make it easier to climb through.”

  They split up and met back at the base of the stairs.

  “Did you find anything?” Doug asked.

  “No, how about you?”

  “No, this is the most peculiar break-in I’ve ever seen. It was probably just some kids screwing around. Nothing to be alarmed about,” Doug said.

  Grady arrived an hour later. After a quick walk through of the house, he came to the same conclusion. That didn’t make her feel any better about the whole thing. She talked Doug into removing the kitchen door completely and putting it out in the shed. She’d had enough of the stupid thing.

  It was coming up on seven p.m. when she decided she was done for the day. She had just finished mopping the kitchen, and was resting on the mop handle when she sensed someone behind her.

  She half-turned and stopped.

  Doug was standing in the dining room doorway, half naked. He was using his tee-shirt to wipe his face; he hadn’t noticed her yet. She took advantage of the moment.

  Her gaze roamed across his broad shoulders, then down his tanned chest which glistened with sweat. She took in his sinewy arms, then glanced down his washboard abs where a trail of dark curly hair disappeared under his belt. She bit her lower lip before she gasped out loud.

  Still oblivious to her attention, he ran the shirt absently over his head and one wet curl fell onto his forehead. Before she knew it her heart was racing and the temperature in the room was suddenly unbearable.

  Just then, his eyes focused on her and she held her breath. His hair, now dark with moisture, made his light gray eyes stand out like beacons in the night.

  “I’ve done all I can for today. It’s getting late, why don’t you come over for dinner? I’ll throw some chicken on the grill. That should be quick and easy,” he said with a smile.

  She felt faint.

  “That would be nice,” she managed. She looked down at her legs and realized how dirty they were. Immediately her hands flew up to her hair. It felt as if half of it had fallen out of the ponytail. “Let me just get myself cleaned up a bit first.”

  * * *

  Doug stared at her and couldn’t help but smile. She was covered with smudges of dirt. He fought the urge to wipe off the tip of her nose. Several brunette wisps had escaped the fancy rubber band thingy she had tied her hair up with and now framed her face. The image was softly seductive.

  At some point in the day she had changed into a man’s button-down shirt and tied up under her breasts. It gave him a glimpse of her female form. He definitely approved. Her stomach was flat and pale as if she had been living in Washington instead of California.

  Her hips were slight, but not straight up and down like a boy’s. Her breasts were perfect, not too big or small, but firm and high. He could tell she wasn’t wearing a bra, and something in him stirred.

  Her face was speckled lightly with freckles and her lips set in a pout like a Kewpie doll. But he had to admit that her greatest feature was her eyes. They were the clearest pale green he had ever seen. He imagined they glowed in the dark like a cat’s. They held a certain innocence that he found irresistible. Too bad she would be going back to California soon.

  “Yeah, I’d like to do the same.” He turned around quickly and thrust his hands in his pockets before she saw first hand the effect she was having on him. “What do you say, an hour?” he asked heading for the front of the house.

  * * *

  Maddy followed close behind. She couldn’t resist staring at his butt as he walked. Suddenly he stopped and turned toward her. She almost ran into him. “What?”

  “Would an hour give you enough time?”

  “Oh, sure,” she answered, flustered.

  The second the door was closed, she ran up the stairs to get ready. As she entered her bedroom, she noticed the brand new window and smiled. Once in the bathroom, she flicked on the light and gasped at the catastrophe that met her in the mirror. Quickly she stripped off her clothes, then looked at the tub and frowned. She thought she’d noticed a shower in the master bath, so she picked up her bag, grabbed her robe, and headed down the hall toward the front of the house. Now was not the time to relax in a tub.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  While Maddy lathered her hair with ginger orange shampoo, the image of the vacuum calamity replayed in her mind. She held her face up to the warm water and let the spray cascade over her. As the grime from the day washed down the drain, she began to feel human again, revitalized.

  It was like that first shower after a long camping trip, nothing felt better. Out of nowhere, a memory from youth of Timmy Green pushing her into that mud puddle popped into her head.

  She’d had such a big crush on him growing up. He lived on her street and was two grades ahead of her in school. She had bugged the hell out of him, or so he’d said that fateful day he strongly assisted her into the mud. By the time high school rolled around, he had become her first boyfriend.

  Her first true love.

  They had dated two years before he went off to college. She had been crushed. They wrote each other faithfully the first six months, then his letters gradually came to a halt. Grams told her he was probably busy with his studies, but she knew it had to be another woman.

  Sure enough, the following Christmas, Tim came home and announced his engagement to a Bridget something-or-other. She was devastated. She just knew she would never recover. She would die an old maid in a house full of cats.

  Tim and Bridget were married that spring. Everyone in town attended, except for her. She stayed at home and nursed her broken heart. Angry, her grandmother told her she was being childish, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t imagine watching the love of her life standing u
p at the front of the church promising to love, honor, and cherish another woman till death do they part.

  Maddy laughed at the memory. Fall rolled around and she too had gone off to college. She met Bob, and the rest as they say, is history. Years later, she was home for a visit and ran into Tim. It’s funny, but after talking to him just a little while, she couldn’t imagine what she had been thinking.

  Pushing the thought from her mind, she decided she had better hurry before Doug had a change of heart about feeding her. She turned around to shut off the shower, when a shadow passed through the bathroom. It came from the direction of the bedroom, glided past the shower and into the hallway. As if whoever it was hadn’t noticed she was there.

  Her heart galloped in her chest. Silently, she pushed aside the curtain and grabbed her terrycloth robe. The steam-filled room felt chilled as she glanced from one door to the other. A shiver made her body jump. The doors were closed tight, but she hadn’t heard either of them open or shut. She rationalized that the water had disguised the sound.

  Cautiously, she stepped from the shower, opened the hall door and peered out. There was no sign of anyone. She wasn’t sure what she would do if she found an intruder. She prayed to God she wouldn’t have to find out. She searched the entire house, but came up empty. All the doors and windows were locked.

  It must have been her imagination. She sighed her relief, but decided to hurry all the same. The idea of getting out of the house grew more appealing by the second.

  She stood at the bathroom mirror trying to coat her lashes with mascara, but her hand was shaking. “Get a grip!”

  After pulling her wet hair back into a French braid, she bathed her lips with gloss. Finally, she inspected her reflection. She was wearing a white sundress with deep green fern leaves on it and a pair of sandals. She decided she looked pretty good.

  At the top of the stairs, she turned on the hall light so the stained glass window could welcome her home. She smiled at the thought as she bounded down the stairs and grabbed the key off the hall table. After locking the door, she slipped the key in her pocket and headed up the driveway toward the street.

  In August, dusk came late in the Pacific Northwest. But this evening, the sky had grown so thick with clouds, the sun was no longer in sight. Giant shadows loomed ahead. There were no street lights on this side of the island. She wished she’d thought to bring a flashlight.

  About halfway to Doug’s house, she spotted an elderly woman standing in the road. Maddy smiled and said hello. The woman didn’t reply. With a scowl on her face, she simply stared back.

  Maddy stumbled. “Ouch!” She looked down, noticed a large stone. Angrily she picked it up and tossed it to the side of the road. When she looked up again, the woman was gone.

  A bit uneasy, she hurried on to Doug’s. After ringing the bell, she glanced down at her foot and noticed her toe was bleeding. The door opened and she quickly glanced up. Doug stood there in a black Rolling Stones tee-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders and a pair of straight legged 501 jeans. His hair was wet from a recent shower and he smelled of sandalwood.

  “Hi, come on in.” A warm smile enveloped his face as stepped back so she could enter.

  Maddy hesitated. “I, uh, I stubbed my toe on the way over and I don’t want to bleed on your floors. Could you get me a tissue?”

  “That looks horrible. Don’t worry about it, come on in and I’ll fix you right up.”

  He ushered her into the house and helped her over to the bench right inside the door before he disappeared. Feeling self-conscious, she proceeded to take off her sandal. She put her foot back down on top of the shoe so she didn’t make a mess. She couldn’t believe how much blood was gushing out of the stupid toe.

  He reappeared with a first aid kit in his hand. He knelt down before her and proceeded to clean her foot. Embarrassed to have him down on the floor with her dirty foot in his lap, she spoke up, “That really isn’t necessary. I can do that.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, I’m almost done.” He acted as if it was no big deal, so she tried to do the same.

  “How did this happen?” he asked without looking up.

  “I ran into one of your neighbors on the road and when I took my eyes off the ground to say hello, I stumbled. I feel like such an idiot.”

  “You shouldn’t, it could happen to anyone. Who’d you run into?”

  “It was an elderly woman with a real mean face. She was very rude. She didn’t even say hi back.”

  “Maybe she didn’t hear you.”

  “I don’t see how that’s possible, she was only about twenty feet away. From that distance, she could easily have read my lips. Then she just took off!”

  Doug snickered. “Took off, as in running? Maybe you scared her.” He sat back on his knees while laughter filled the room. “I just got this image in my head.” He laughed again. “You.” Chuckle. “Saying hello and this little old lady spinning around on her heels and running as fast as her little feet could take her.”

  He laughed so hard, he fell sideways onto the floor and held his stomach.

  Maddy loved watching him belly laugh, it was becoming contagious. “Maybe it was my breath.”

  “Stop it, you’re killing me!” He’d stopped laughing just long enough to eke out the sentence.

  After he got control over himself, he got up off the floor and grabbed her foot again.

  “It was kind of weird how she just disappeared though,” Maddy said.

  He looked at her seriously now. “Disappeared?”

  “Yeah, after I stumbled I looked down, when I looked back up again she was gone.”

  “As in vanished?”

  “As in poof! Now you see her, now you don’t.”

  “Where the hell could she have gone? I wouldn’t think she would be able to move very fast.”

  “I know, it kind of gave me a chill.”

  “That and the fact you forgot to wear a sweater. What did this woman look like?”

  “She was a little shorter than me, around five-five? White hair severely pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck. She wore a white dress with little red things on it, probably flowers. The dress was belted, ample bosom, white shoes and socks. Does she sound familiar?”

  “Not at all. No one living on this lane fits that description. You’ve got me curious now.”

  He finished cleaning up her toe and put a Band-aid on, then invited her into the kitchen for a glass of wine. They headed out to the back deck, wine in hand, where Doug placed chicken and corn on the cob on the grill.

  “Have you ever been married?” She talked to his back as her eyes slid down to admire the fit of his jeans.

  “No.”

  “Ever been close?”

  “Yes, in college.”

  “What happened?”

  He turned around and leaned back against the balcony.

  Her eyes flew back to his face.

  “Her name was Crystal Lawrence, we had dated for about three years. We both wanted to finish college before we married. She was going to be a journalist, actually she is a journalist. She won the Pulitzer for her story on 9/11.”

  “Yes, I’ve heard of her.”

  “Yeah, well, everything turned out for the best.” He turned back to the grill and fussed a bit.

  “But why didn’t you get married?”

  “After I left college to help with Dad, weeks turned into months. I guess she got tired of waiting. She met a fellow journalist and went off with him. We’re both better off.”

  They ate at the table outside overlooking the water and talked for hours. Maddy noticed the conversation had died and they were gazing into each other’s eyes. She broke contact and stood. “It’s getting late, I should go.”

  He stood. “Let me walk you home. I’ll be right back.”

  While she waited for him by the door, she mentally kicked herself. I’m going home soon. I don’t have time for a summer fling.

  A moment later, he appeared with
a flashlight and a denim jacket.

  “Here, put this on.” He helped her into the jacket. It was so big, it swallowed her whole.

  “Thanks, I guess I wasn’t prepared at all.” She felt awkward as she looked up into his eyes.

  He cleared his throat and opened the door. “You’re fine.” He placed his hand on her low back and guided her down the stairs.

  And just like that, she felt at ease.

  The stars twinkled brightly, the breeze was slight. The thick cloud cover from earlier had broken up. A lone cloud hung over half the moon. It was a perfect summer evening. They walked in silence listening to the crickets’ song.

  When they reached her front door, she suddenly became nervous, like coming home from a first date. She could feel the heat of his body close behind her. She turned around and gazed up at his lips, into his eyes. They stood toe to toe.

  “Well, no mean old lady this time!” she said, with a nervous giggle. Oh God, that sounded so lame! She mentally slapped her forehead.

  “I should hope not. I’m sure she’s been in bed for hours now.” He smiled back at her.

  Silence again.

  Kiss me, kiss me. No, don’t kiss me.

  He slipped his hands into his pockets and stepped back.

  “Thanks again for dinner. You’re a good cook.” She cringed and spun around to face the door. She slipped the key from her pocket. The more time she spent in his presence, the more her self-control slipped. It was like someone else took over.

  If she wasn’t careful, she was going to make an ass out of herself. Okay, a bigger ass out of herself. She wished she could be one of those women who just threw caution to the wind and slept with a man just because she wanted to. A free spirit like one of the characters in her books, but somehow she knew she would get her heart stomped on.

  “Oh yeah, I’m a whiz with chicken and corn on the cob.”

  Maddy tried to clear her head and focus on the door.