The Nothing House

by Cherie Mitchell

  She did? I’m unexpectedly touched by this gesture and I haven’t even got my words arranged in the right order to comment when Liam steps forward. “Go get that check, Organza, and tell your brother to come back out here. We’re going into town right now to buy everything we need.”

  I’m still opening and shutting my mouth, doing a perfect goldfish out of water impression. Organza, for once in her life, has done exactly as asked and has gone back inside to get Reece without starting an argument. Maybe Liam has finally out-bossed the Bossiness Queen. Today is full of surprises and I’m not sure if I want any more. Hopefully the shopping trip will be fun.

  Chapter Seven

  The shopping trip isn’t fun. In fact, it’s a nightmare. Turns out there’s only one furniture store in Gypsy Creek and it doesn’t have a whole lot of stock to choose from. I leave Liam to his conversation with the owner as they discuss how long it will take to order in the TV cabinet and dining table and chairs that we need and I go back to wait with the kids over by the bed section. Organza has transformed herself into a full-on spoiled brat, complete with arms crossed over her chest and stuck-out bottom lip. Turns out she doesn’t like the beds on offer. She had some idea of a white princess bed in her head and of course, a cut-price store in downtown Gypsy Creek doesn’t have anything like that on the display floor.

  “Organza, we have to take what’s available.”

  “You could order me one,” she pouts. Organza, captaining the good ship Mutiny, has well and truly set sail.

  “Sure, I’ll go ahead and do that, shall I? The man has already told us it could take up to six weeks for new stock to arrive. You’ll be back home with Mom by then. What are you planning to do in the meantime? Sleep on a rug on the floor?”

  “It’s not fair.” Organza aims her foot at the leg of the plain and simple bed in front of her and gives it a good kick. The owner clears his throat from the other side of the store and I have to stick my hand into the pocket of my jeans so I don’t give my sister a slap on her spoilt little rear.

  “Don’t kick the bed. Reece has found one he likes. Surely you can find something? The bed itself doesn’t have to be fancy. We can buy you some Egyptian cotton sheets and a cute bedcover to make up for it. I had a gorgeous flag bedcover when I was a kid. Grandad bought it for me and it was very special.” Why am I trying to placate her? Organza always has this effect on people – she grumbles and snarls until they offer her a decent alternative. I shouldn’t let myself fall prey to her little game.

  “I remember the flag bed,” Reece pipes up unexpectedly. “It was cool.”

  “You do?” I smile across at my little brother. He’s so darn easy to please and right now I just want to hug him.

  “Yeah. It had a missing star and I used to think I’d find it if only I looked in the right place.”

  “Awww. That’s sweet, Reece. You were just a little kid back then. I didn’t think you’d remember.” We share another smile across the rows of plain and simple beds. The one that Reece is sitting on isn’t so plain and simple, though. It’s a secondhand bed with complicated scroll work on the bedhead and elaborately curved legs. The storeowner screwed up his face when Reece asked about it, said he’d bought it to use as a window display and was about to add a plump, multi-spring mattress and a selection of fine-spun wool blankets, but Reece’s sad face made him change his mind. He’s a nice man, I’ve decided. Mr. Devall proudly told us that he’s a long-time citizen of Gypsy Creek and from the few wisps of conversation I can hear from here, it seems he’s a Dodger’s fan like Liam.

  Organza stares with obvious distaste at the bed in front of her before finally conceding. “I guess it’ll have to do.”

  “It sure will.” I grab her by the elbow and steer her over to the shelves of sheets and linens, glad to chalk up a point to me. “Choose your sheets and bedcover and hurry it up. We need to go get stuff for the kitchen if you want to eat tonight.”

  “Food?” she asks hopefully. Organza has always been fond of eating. Reece can take or leave a meal but not Organza. She should be the size of a freight train, but she isn’t. I can eat a lot without gaining, too. I sometimes wonder if the trauma we were subjected to all those years ago sped up our metabolism. “Plates and stuff. Pots and pans. Tableware. Dish cloths.” It makes me feel tired just thinking about it. I’ll probably be the one cooking dinner for four tonight and we still have to get the groceries yet. Oh, and a fridge and washing machine. We really need to head over to the appliance store and Liam is still gum flapping with Mr. Devall. I leave Organza sifting through the bed linens and walk back to join the men. “My sister will take one of the budget basic beds, thanks. Is it possible for them to be delivered this afternoon? We’ve just moved into our new house and we don’t have any furniture yet.” I smile at Liam as I say our new house. If feels good to be a homeowner. We just need to get through the stress of these first few days and everything will be fine.

  “They sure can.” Mr. Devall nods as he pulls out a notebook and pen. I think he looks a bit like Santa Claus with that bushy white beard. His red sweatshirt with the black “Devall’s Furnishings” embroidered logo above the chest pocket only adds to the effect. “Tell me your address and I’ll make a call to my delivery driver.”

  “13 Pannier Street,” Liam says. He’s still grinning at me, looking like the cat who’s got the cream. I’m so proud of him for how quickly he’s accepted the unexpected disruption of my siblings.

  “Uh.” Mr. Devall’s smile drops from his face, as if someone has taken a damp cloth and wiped it away. “That old house with the big oak tree?”

  “Yeah, you know it?” Liam hasn’t picked up on Mr. Devall’s hesitation, but I have. I’m good at recognizing changes in people’s moods. I tell everyone it’s a gift but I think it’s more like I learned early on to be acutely aware of what’s going on around me at all times.

  “Uh.” Mr. Devall’s eyes flick between Liam and me. “Just you two kids living there?”

  “We’re not kids. We’re Berkeley graduates,” I say, sounding far too much like my Mom for my own comfort. “We just bought the house and my younger brother and sister will be living with us for the next few weeks. They’re going to help us renovate.”

  Mr. Devall closes his eyes for a few seconds and I’m starting to get worried that he’s about to keel over when he suddenly blinks them open again. He’s wearing a professional mask now and it’s as if he’s not even seeing us. “I mustn’t hold you up any longer. I’m sure you have a lot to do. I’ll call Aaron now and organize the delivery. Is 3pm good for you?”

  Liam looks at me, clearly puzzled and full of unanswered questions. I can tell he’s wondering what happened to the friendly old man he was talking baseball with just a few minutes ago, while I’m wondering just what it was about our new address that changed his attitude so quickly.

  “3pm is fine,” I say hurriedly. “The kids are choosing their bed linens and we’ll add them to the tab so you can tally up the account.”

  Chapter Eight

  I’m exhausted by the time we finish the rest of the shopping. I’m so tired I can hardly raise any interest when Liam suggests we stop off at Dick’s House of Waffles for a meal but Organza’s enthusiasm makes up for the lack of mine. “Waffles? Oh yeah. I can eat a whole stack.” She play-punches Reece on the shoulder. “Are you hungry, Reece’s Peeces?”

  Reece just smiles and nods. He does that a lot. He’s not big on conflict and he likes it best when everyone is peaceful and happy.

  The back of the car is shoved full of household items, there are only a few cents left over from Mom’s check, and yeah, I think we have everything we’ll ever need as well as all the stuff we won’t need. My mind is already beetling ahead to unpacking it all when we get home and finding the right places to put everything while project managing the first of the renovations, when I remember something. “Liam, we can’t stop for food. It’s nearly three and the delivery van is due at the house.”

  �
�No!” Organza yells at me from the back seat, acting like I’ve just told her I’ve decided to donate her brain to science while she’s still using it. “Ellie, don’t be so mean.”

  I roll my eyes at Liam as he turns the corner and heads away from town, back to the house on Pannier Street.

  “Where are we gooooo-ing? Dick’s House of Waffles is back there!” Organza kicks the back of my seat and I swear, I’m about ready to turn around and bop her one.

  “We can order in,” Liam says, his voice firm and manly. Decisive. “Anything you want.” God, I love that man.

  Organza huffs and puffs but she stops complaining. Liam gives me a complicit smile and reaches over to squeeze my knee. “You did good,” he whispers. “We’ll get the furniture in and everything will work out, you’ll see.”

  Oh, I hope so.

  Anyway, the van is late and that’s probably not a bad thing. It gives us time to unpack the car and lug everything we bought into the house. Some of the windows in a couple of the rooms are missing curtains and we forgot to buy those, but Liam painstakingly rigs up some sheets with clothes pegs and a loop of wire and viola! We have temporary curtains.

  Organza is still stomping around and making a fuss but everyone is ignoring her. Reece is over the moon about that crazy-eyed rocking horse in his bedroom and has already given it a name. Nostradamus. Seriously, he’s so in love with that creepy thing. I wouldn’t be surprised if he started feeding it apples and oats and I’d be even less surprised if it gobbled them right up in front of his adoring eyes.

  Liam ordered Mexican food in the end, promising Organza we’ll eat in at Dick’s some other time. Anyway, we’re taking a break and sitting on the floor eating fish tacos when the bell on the front door rings. I look at Liam, wondering if he sneaked off and fixed it when I was unpacking the plates and crockery in the kitchen. I’ve pushed that bell ringer a whole bunch of times, hoping to hear a chime, but up until now it’s remained stubbornly silent.

  Liam pushes himself up off the floor, taking a scoop of corn chips with him. “I didn’t know that bell could ring. It must have a loose wire. Have you kids cleared all your stuff off the floor of your rooms? I’ll be helping the delivery guy bring the furniture in and we don’t want to be climbing over kid junk.”

  “I’ll check that Nostradamus in his spot so you can get in the door,” says Reece as he scrambles to his feet. “He likes it best under the window. I think he likes the sunshine.”

  Organza doesn’t move. She stays where she is, sitting cross-legged on the floor, dipping corn chips into the plastic container of salsa as if she has all the time in the world and some to spare.

  “Organza? Did you hear Liam?”

  Liam is outside now and I can hear another male voice, one of those voices that sound as if its owner has spent a lot of time outdoors smoking weed and drinking whisky from the bottle.

  Organza tosses her head and carries on eating corn chips. I feel a hot ball of anger starting to form in my gut. I need to deal with this now, otherwise my little sister and I are going to come to blows over the next few weeks. “Organza, while you’re under our roof you need to follow our rules. If Liam or I asks you to do something, we expect you to obey our instructions. Okay?”

  “You sound like Mom.” She doesn’t even look at me as she says it, which is probably just as well. I already know she has that sneaky look in her eye, that one that tells me she’s said something just to rile me up.

  “I don’t care.” I lean over and snatch the corn chips away from her. “Move it. Go to your room now and make sure there’s enough space for when the men bring your bed in. We need the delivery driver to help Liam carry the stuff and he’s probably not planning on staying around for the entire rest of the afternoon while he waits for you to get yourself together.”

  “Or what? What will you do if I don’t?” She narrows her eyes at me and waits for my reaction.

  I surprise her with what I do next. Heck, I surprise myself. I’m all up in her face in an instant, my lips pulled back into a snarl and my eyes fierce, with my nose held just an inch from hers. “You’ll do as I fucking say or I’ll have you stripped naked and swinging from the lower branch of that oak tree before you can say Organza Friedlander, that’s what. Move it, bitch, before I take the decision out of your hands.”

  Organza is on her feet faster than I can finish with everything else I want to say and she’s running off down the hallway that leads away from the living room, heading for her bedroom. My hands are shaking and I take a deep breath to compose myself. I’ve cleaned up my language a lot since our time on Cemetery Hill and I don’t often lose my shit like that anymore. Organza is just one of those people who manages to find my last nerve and squeeze it.

  I stand up and smile sweetly at the delivery guy as he backs in the door holding the front end of the queen bed we bought earlier. “Hi there! Is that for our room? Up the hallway and first door on the left.”

  Chapter Nine

  The house looks so different with furniture in, even if it’s still missing the dining table and chairs and the TV cabinet. It looks like people might actually live here now and that gives me a warm feeling. We moved around a lot after leaving Cemetery Hill, often relying on the kindness of strangers while Mom struggled to find work to support us and we waited for the insurance payout. No place ever really felt like home after leaving the house the curious old bastard built because despite our odd living situation, that was our family home. We did have our happy times there, no one is denying that, and we made the best of what we had.

  The kids are settled now, curled up on the sofa together with a blanket over their legs, and they’re watching one of those survivor reality TV shows. It seems that my ‘little talk’ with my sister scared away her smart mouth, at least for now, and she’s been acting as sweet as cherry pie all evening.

  “Hey, you.” Liam slips his arm around me where I’m working in the kitchen, busy tidying stuff away and wiping down the counter. “Welcome to your new life, Ellie Friedlander.”

  I giggle and pretend to push him away but I don’t really want him to go. Tonight is a hundred times different from our first attempted night in this house and even with the kids here, it feels perfect. “Do you want to do the grand tour with me? Check out all the rooms now that they have furniture in them?”

  “Yeah.” I stretch up to give him a kiss but then I purposefully push him away. “I have to text Mom and thank her for the check. It was her check that allowed us to buy everything.”

  “That was guilt money, Ellie. She felt bad for dumping the kids on you, and so she should.”

  “They’re not any trouble,” I say as I quickly type out a message. “Look how cute they are, cuddled up on the sofa together.”

  “Hmmm.” He drops his arm from around me and glances through the door at the kids on the sofa. “Is that normal? For two teenage siblings to be so close?”

  “Define normal.” My tone is flippant. I don’t want to have to explain to him again that our family is different from most. Besides, Reece and Organza have always been super close. Even when they were Timmy and Megan. I’m not about to judge their relationship and I won’t stand for anyone else doing it either. Not even Liam.

  “My sister would never have shared a sofa with me, let alone a blanket,” he says. “Jeez, she even refused to watch the same TV shows as me.”

  I can’t help snorting through my nose even though I know it sounds rude. “Marianne? She’s as cold as a day-old slab of sea bass. I can’t imagine her doing anything remotely sibling-ish.”

  “She’s not that bad. You just don’t know her well enough.”

  “I don’t think I want to know her any better, thanks very much.” I hit Send on my thank you message to Mom and drop my phone down onto the countertop. “She didn’t act too pleased to know me on the couple of occasions when I did meet her.”

  “She has her off days.” He opens the door of our shiny new refrigerator and grabs a can of soft drink. “Y
ou want one?”

  “Nah, I’m good.” I give him a warm smile to show him that even though I’m not particularly fussed on his sister Marianne I still think he’s the best thing ever. I hold out my hand. “Let’s go do our grand tour.”

  We make a game of it, pretending we’re a snooty upper-crust Lord and Lady with put-on accents as we waltz away from the kitchen and do a circle of the living room. Reece and Organza look up from their show and smile indulgently as we dance out of the room and up the hallway, marveling over how ab-so-lute-ly won-der-ful our house is. We stop in our bedroom and Liam tries to throw me on the bed but I swat him away, telling him to wait until the kids are asleep.

  We look into Organza’s pink and gold-themed room, ignoring her yells from the living room that we’re not to touch anything of hers, and then we peek into the bathroom and take time to admire the fluffy towels and the soap dispenser. Yeah, yeah, I know. But they do look pretty, especially as the bathroom isn’t anything to write home about with a basic shower over the tub and a boring toilet crouched in the corner. We make a few plans, talking about renovating the bathroom at some stage and adding a Jacuzzi and rainforest shower head.

  Liam pulls me into his arms outside the bathroom and we enjoy a few minutes of passionate kissing in the darkness of the hallway before Reece’s voice comes drifting out from the living room. “Did you look in my room yet?”

  “Coming!” I shout as Liam growls and tries to push me back into our bedroom. “Stop that, sir,” I say, putting my fake accent back on and looking haughtily down my nose. “Do behave.”

  “What time do the kids go to bed?” His eyes are dark and intense and I know what that means.

  “Whenever they like.” I skip away from his arms and set off back down the hallway, feeling mature and adult. “We have to look at Reece’s room. It’s the only room we haven’t given our seal of approval to yet.”