Dani joined Meredith in the largest bedroom, the one with the balcony overlooking Center Street. “This one.”
“This one what?”
“...was Esther’s. Yeah, this would have been Esther’s room.”
“And Millie’s was my art studio.”
“Yeah, okay.” Dani grinned.
Meredith moved to the French doors leading out to the second-floor balcony. She looked out to Center Street. “You know what, Dani?”
“What?”
“I want to paint their portraits.”
“Esther and Millie?”
“Yeah. I think their portraits should hang in the entryway downstairs. I mean, they want to call this the Randall-Bradley House, right? They’ll need something permanent in the front hall to remind everyone who created the Randall-Bradley House for Women.”
“That’s awesome. You’d really do that?” Dani moved closer to Meredith near the closed doors.
“Yeah, it’ll be my community service project.”
Dani’s smile went straight to Meredith’s heart.
“Meredith, that’s awesome. Wait, I just said that, but it’s true. I wanted the senior class to get involved in the community, somehow, but what you want to do is above and beyond. I mean, I just wanted our classmates to go down and read to some of the seniors at the center.”
Meredith wasn’t sure, but it almost looked as if tough Dani Lassiter had tears in her eyes. Meredith said quietly, “What I’m going to do is small, really small, compared to what Esther and Millie plan for this house.”
Dani turned to face her. “I know. A house for, how did they phrase it, women in need?”
“Yeah, I think so. You know, I feel so out of touch. I didn’t realize Whickett had women who were abused and needed a place to run to with their kids.”
“I know. Honestly, I’ve never thought about it, either. That shows you what a cocoon we live in, you know? Esther said there are lots of women who need help. I think it’s so cool they’re donating the house and property. Did Esther say she was still going to own it?”
Meredith shrugged her shoulders. “She said something about creating a trust, or something like that, so the house and land will become the property of some corporation they create. Hey, does Millie own the house, too?”
This time Dani shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what legal rights Millie has in the house, but Esther talked as if it was both of theirs.”
Meredith’s thoughts turned serious. “You and I are so lucky we have two parents who love each other and us.”
Dani seemed to understand Meredith’s train of thought. “Yeah, I can’t imagine a family having to run off in the middle of the night.” She swallowed hard. “All because the mother was getting beaten up. That makes me sick.” Her shoulders drooped.
“I know. Me, too. But Esther said abuse is more common than people think. It’s nice to know there’ll be a place like this, the old painted lady, where those women and kids can come to get back on their feet.”
Dani looked out the windows of the French doors leading to the balcony. Remember how Esther said she wants to help them find jobs and get counseling and stuff? That’s so cool.” Dani nodded. “I’m so glad we met them.”
“Yeah, they’re two modern old ladies, you know? They moved out to make room for people who need help.” Meredith looked around and then looked back at Dani. “How big is this place anyway?”
“I think there’s a third floor. We can check it out later, but first...” Dani turned the deadbolt to the French doors and opened one. She extended her arm toward the balcony in an after you gesture. “Join me?”
Meredith nodded graciously and walked past Dani onto the wooden landing. A gust of icy wind hit her, and she pulled her coat tighter. “Oh, this is so neat. I wish I had a balcony off my bedroom.” She imagined a world without the neon and noise of the present age. Two plastic resin chairs and a small table sat on the balcony, sure signs of a modern era, but Meredith didn’t care. She pulled a chair out for Dani who stepped onto the balcony behind her and said, “Miss Lassiter, will you join me for tea?”
“Well, I would be delighted, Miss Bedford.” Dani took the offered chair and looked expectantly at Meredith.
Meredith sat in the other plastic chair. She did her best to ignore the surprisingly cold plastic and pretended to pour hot tea into a pretend china teacup. She held out the teacup and saucer. Her fine companion, Miss Danielle Anne Lassiter from Whickett, New York, graciously accepted the tea. She then poured her own cup and said, “Thank you so much for joining me on this fine afternoon. The fields should be ready for planting, soon. Don’t you think, Miss Lassiter?” She held her pinky out to the side and took an elegant imaginary sip.
“Uh, yeah sure. Uh, I mean, why yes, Miss Bedford. What a wonderful spring we’re having here in the country without cars or streetlights or Mexican restaurants.” Dani giggled and Meredith couldn’t help herself. She started to giggle, too. After all, it was, maybe, thirty degrees as they sat in cold plastic chairs talking as if the spring planting was imminent.
Meredith pretended to spill her tea on the table. “Oops. How clumsy of me.” She grabbed at her pretend napkin and reached down to wipe up the spill at the same time Dani did. Their hands touched startling Meredith back into the present. She looked up at her friend. Dani’s serious expression made Meredith uneasy, but she wasn’t sure why. She realized their hands still touched and jerked hers away.
Dani cleared her throat and broke into a smile. “Um, Miss Bedford? Think we can take this party inside? My tea is frozen.” She looked into her imaginary cup.
Meredith smiled and got back in character. “Why absolutely, Miss Lassiter. Please, lead the way.”
Dani led them back into the bedroom, and Meredith locked the balcony doors securely behind her. Something had happened on the balcony, and the mood between them had shifted. Meredith couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her today. Their hands had touched. So what? A shared moment between friends shouldn’t make her uneasy. Meredith figured she was just out of practice when it came to friendship. It was, after all, only a few scant hours since she had decided to let her guard down around Dani.
They made their way toward the staircase to go up to the third floor, but froze in their tracks. The distinctive groan of the front door opening shattered the serenity of the house.
Meredith grabbed Dani’s arm through her letterman’s jacket. “Dani!” she whispered.
“I hear it.” Dani leaned over the railing toward the front door, but Meredith knew she wouldn’t be able to see anything since the staircase reversed direction after a small landing in the middle and blocked any view of the front foyer and door.
Dani whispered, “I can’t see anything.”
“What do we do? What do we do?” Meredith squeezed Dani’s arm tighter.
“I don’t know. Maybe we left the door open and the wind got hold of it.”
Meredith wanted to believe that, but she was the one who had closed the door. She had heard it click shut. She was sure of it. She hadn’t turned the deadbolt, though. Maybe it was those guys she’d seen at the auto parts store the other night. Or, she prayed, maybe some kids were playing around.
Dani whispered, “Wait here. I’ll go check it out.”
Meredith didn’t want to be separated from Dani, but decided she didn’t want to go downstairs either, so she murmured, “Okay. I’ll look out the windows and see if I can spot anyone.”
“Okay.” Dani squeezed Meredith’s forearm as if to reassure her everything would be just fine. Meredith reluctantly let go of Dani’s arm and headed back toward the master bedroom.
Meredith thought, Mikey’s right. This is a scary house.
Meredith crept to the windows in the bedroom. She looked out the French doors to the front of the house. The sun had already gone down, but she could still make things out in the dim shadows. Several cars were stopped in the traffic in front of the house, but nothing looked out of the
ordinary. She looked at the driveway. The gate was still wide open with Dani’s truck on guard. Meredith checked the property from the windows on the second floor and found nothing strange except for the fact that she couldn’t hear Dani. A cold shiver ran through her. She rushed to the top of the stairs and hesitated.
“Dani?” she whispered, but realized that unless Dani had been standing beside her she wouldn’t have heard. She was just about to call out to Dani a little louder when the front door slammed shut making her jump. She slunk back toward the wall and swallowed around the stone in her throat. She looked from left to right, but didn’t know which way to run. She heard the slow creak of a footstep on the bottom stair and was propelled into action. She slowly backed her way into the master bedroom. She had nothing to defend herself with, no fireplace poker or anything remotely useful. She could open the balcony doors and grab one of the plastic chairs, but it was way too late for that. Besides, the noise would give her away. Wait. Her camera. In the darkening late afternoon, she could set the flash to blind whoever was messing with them. If that didn’t work she would hurl the camera at him and fly down the stairs, find Dani, and get out of the house.
She heard another slow creak on the stairs. Closer. She fumbled with her coat pocket trying to find her camera. Where is it? Where is it? Panic rose in her throat when she couldn’t feel it. Was it in the truck? She willed herself to slow down. She finally found the camera and yanked it out of her coat pocket. She hit the flash switch and heard the familiar whir as it charged. Another creak. This time at the top of the landing, right outside the bedroom door. C’mon, c’mon, she willed the flash to charge. Why was it taking so long? She squatted just inside the doorway hiding the camera from view. Her heart was pounding so hard she knew anyone could hear it. She prayed whoever was outside the doorway would think the second floor was empty and just go back down the stairs. No such luck. A shadow moved across the doorway. Don’t snap too soon. Wait. Wait. The shadowy figure took a step into the room, and Meredith reacted. Snap! The camera flashed.
The figure took one startled step backward, and Meredith darted out the door and into the hallway. She was just about to flee down the stairs when Dani spoke.
“Meredith, what are you doing?” Dani blinked repeatedly. “I can’t see a thing.”
“Oh, my God.” Meredith flew back in the room and threw her arms around Dani’s neck. “Oh, my God. I thought you were Jack the Ripper.” Her heart was still racing.
Dani returned Meredith’s hug, but continued to blink furiously. “What had you so spooked? It was just the front door. We didn’t close it all the way.” With a laugh she asked, “Are you okay?”
Meredith pulled away. Her heart slowed down, but nowhere near normal speed. “I got myself all worked up. Can we get out of here? This house is cursed.”
“What? You and Esther. You both think the house is cursed. C’mon, let’s go back down. We’ll check out the third floor another day.”
“Fine by me.”
Meredith wanted to bolt down the stairs and out of the house, but she didn’t want to be first so she clutched the sleeve of Dani’s lacrosse jacket. She didn’t care if Dani thought she was a coward.
At the bottom of the stairs, Dani pointed to a large discolored area on the floor. “This must be where the rug was, the one Esther tripped on.”
“Yeah, she said she slipped right before she tripped.”
They inspected the wood floor, but didn’t find anything odd.
“Hey, wait. Look over here.” Dani knelt on all fours and inspected a spot on the floor. “The wood looks different here.”
“Hmm, that’s about the size of my sketchpad.”
Dani looked up with one eyebrow raised.
Meredith shrugged. “What? You’d probably say it was the size of the top of your lacrosse bat or something. We all have our points of reference.”
“Stick.”
“What?”
“Lacrosse stick and, yeah, you’re right. The stain’s about as long as my lacrosse head.”
Meredith nodded knowingly.
“What?”
“See? Like I said, we all have our own points of reference.”
Dani sat back on her heels and laughed. “Okay, you got me there.” She leaned forward again and put her nose to the stain.
“What are you doing?”
“Smells like grease.”
“Grease? Like for french fries?”
“No. Axle.”
“Axle? Axle grease?”
“Yeah. I have a truck, remember? I know axle grease.”
Meredith exchanged a puzzled look with Dani. She got on her knees next to Dani and smelled the stained wood. The stain smelled like the garage when her father worked on his truck. “Why would someone put axle grease on the floor?”
Dani just shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said slowly.
“Ah, c’mon. The movers probably dropped something there.” She stood up and put her hand out to help Meredith up.
Meredith accepted Dani’s help. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Now, can we get out of here?”
Dani swept her arm toward the front door. “Why, yes, indeed, Miss Bedford. Your chariot awaits.”
Meredith turned the thermostat back down to fifty degrees and got out of the house as fast as she could.
Chapter Eight
John Casey
MRS. LEVINE PLACED a silver pair of scissors on the worktable between Meredith and Dani. She said, “It’s Monday which means a new project. Meredith, I want you to help Dani see the interplay of light and dark, shadow and reflection.”
Meredith nodded her understanding. “Okay. That shouldn’t be too hard.” She looked at Dani and chuckled because Dani had a look on her face that said, “Easy for you to say.”
“Meredith,” Mrs. Levine said, “the reason I’m promoting you to private tutor is so that you can get started on her portrait on Friday. You can use my workroom, okay?”
“Thanks, Mrs. Levine.” Meredith nodded. “I think we’ll start with her happy eyes portrait first.”
Mrs. Levine smiled. “Perfect.” She moved on to another student.
Meredith was surprised to see Dani’s flaming red cheeks. “Now, don’t worry. I’ll take good care of you.” She flashed what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
“I know. It’s just embarrassing.”
“What is?”
Dani looked down obviously flustered. She stammered, “I don’t know. I’ve just never had anybody talk about my ‘happy eyes.’ It’s weird.”
“I didn’t mean to embarrass you, but you do have a very expressive face sometimes.”
Meredith reached under her sketchpad and pulled out a brand new vinyl pencil case she’d hidden at the beginning of class. She pushed the case over to Dani.
“What’s this?”
“I, uh, got you some pencils.”
“For me?” Dani picked up the case and ran a finger along the tiny green bow Meredith had attached with scotch tape.
“Yeah. You’re a real artist now and you need professional equipment. And...”
“And, what?”
“I want to say thanks for being my friend.”
Dani beamed and looked down at the pencil case as if embarrassed. “Thanks. This is so nice.” She opened the case and pulled out a sealed pack of graphite pencils along with a professional set of colored pencils. She grinned when she pulled out the green and yellow pencil sharpener that had ‘WHS’ printed on the side. “Oh, sweet. Did you get this at the school store?”
“Yeah. I thought you might need a Whickett High souvenir.”
“I do. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Meredith smiled and opened her sketchbook. Having a friend felt amazing.
Dani unwrapped her brand new pencils. “That’s awesome Mrs. Levine is going to let us work on the portrait during class. I mean, we’re still doing art, right? But it’s you doing the art.”
“I appreciate you giving up you
r own art time for my project.” Meredith smiled at her friend. She held out her wrist so Dani could take off the rubber band. When Dani didn’t reach over for it, Meredith looked up bewildered.
Dani whipped up her sleeve to reveal six colored hair bands, each about a half-inch wide. She held them out and said with a grin, “You’re not the only one with something up her sleeve. My sister helped me pick them out yesterday. I had no clue what kind to get for you.”
“You got these for me?” Meredith was stunned.
“Yeah.” Dani dropped her gaze, but then looked back up.
“That’s so nice. Thank you.” She looked over the selections and chose the second one in line—the red one. “Look, this one will match my sweater.”
“Yeah, it will. You’re pretty in red. But I still think you should keep your hair back all the time.”
Meredith felt a slight blush creep across her face. She looked at Dani. “Maybe I will.” She cleared her throat. “But, um, I think we should get to work on these scissors.”
Meredith pulled her sketchpad toward her, picked up her own pencil, and began teaching Dani how to see the scissors in terms of light and shadow. Meredith showed her how to subtly shade the sketch so the scissors took on a three-dimensional look. Dani caught on quickly, so Meredith went back to her own sketch.
They worked silently for a bit, but then Dani stopped sketching and sat back.
Meredith stopped her own work and looked up.
“Meredith?”
“Yeah?”
“That kid’s name is John Casey.”
“What kid?”
“You know, the basketball player.” When Meredith still didn’t understand who she meant, Dani continued, “You know, that jerk that tackled you in the hallway the other day.”
“Oh, him.” Meredith looked down at her sketch. She didn’t want to think about him.
“I asked my friend Lisa who plays on the girls’ team who he was. And here’s what I think you should do.”
Art for Art's Sake: Meredith's Story Page 10