Summer Shadows
Page 39
“Me, too. Springfield was never my kind of town.”
“And Franklin?”
She lifted her head and pulled his face down to hers. “Very promising,” she whispered.
Ron woke up at the first rap. He heard Julia opening the door, and then the sound of Robert entering. After a few minutes, they left the kitchen and went into the living room. Intensely curious, he laid in bed straining to listen, yet afraid of what he might hear. He was exhausted anyway, so he decided to go back to sleep.
He was just nodding off again when Dana came to his bedside.
“Aunt Julia let someone in,” she whispered.
“I know,” he said. “It’s Robert.”
She got that curious, excited look on her face that he’d learned to mistrust. “Really? What’s he doing here?”
“I don’t know, Dana. Go back to bed.”
“I want to see.”
“Don’t!” he warned, but she ran out of his room and shut the door behind her. He thought about going to get her, but he was still tired, so he laid down again and closed his eyes. It seemed as though he’d just done that when he felt someone pulling on his arm.
Dana was as excited as if Santa Claus had come a day early.
“It is Robert!” she whispered, jumping lightly up and down. “And he’s kissing Aunt Julia!”
Ron rolled his eyes. “Gross,” he said, but he was secretly pleased.
“Amelia and I are going to be real sisters. See, I told you!”
“You did. Now go back to bed.”
She turned to leave, but a moment later she was back again, shaking his shoulder.
“What is it, Dana?”
“Our houses are both too small for all of us,” she said. “We’re going to have to move again.”
“Oh, brother!” He threw himself back down on the pillow. “They aren’t even engaged yet, Dana.”
“But I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Yes, they are too small. Why?”
“Well, because I was thinking. J. C. says that the Langs are going to sell the haunted house at the end of the street. Wouldn’t it be cool if we bought that one?”
“Creepy, more like.”
“Romantic,” she said dreamily. “That house brought us all together.” She yawned and smiled sleepily. “The stars are out tonight. I’m going to wish on one for the house. I want to live in it and it’ll be fun to work on it like we did this house.”
Ron laughed. “You’re wishing on a star? That’s for babies, Dana.”
She paused at the door and grinned at him. “No it’s not. I wished for a sister and I’ve got Amelia. Amelia wished that we would stay and we did. Both of us wished for Aunt Julia and Robert to get married and now they are…”
“Dana!”
“Well, they’re kissing aren’t they? Anyway, I’m going to wish for the house and I’ll get it. You’ll see. Good night! Love you!”
She slipped out and shut the door behind her.
Ron waited until he was sure that she wasn’t coming back, then he rolled over and looked up through the skylight. Stars glinted above him, too many to count. He picked out a constellation and smiled as he found the North Star. Robert was right. It was easy to find, once you knew how.
He thought about Dana and her wish for the Lang house. How could she want to move in there? Terrible things had happened in that place – loneliness, murder cover-ups, Ron being attacked. But, then, worse things had happened in their own house. Stephanie Lang had been killed, Michael Irwin had broken in, tore up the floorboards, and attacked Aunt Julia, all in the downstairs room. They really ought to hate the house, or at least be nervous around that room.
Only they weren’t.
Aunt Julia and he had removed the bloodstained wallpaper, repaired the wall, and painted it a pretty shade of lilac, which Aunt Julia said was the state flower. Then, despite everyone warning her that she’d have nightmares from the attack, she made it her bedroom.
“I’m not going to let the past dictate the future,” she’d told Ron when he asked her about it. “We’ve cleaned it up and we’re giving it a new history now. That’s all that matters.”
Whether she had nightmares or not, she never said, and it wasn’t long before everyone sort of forgot that these things had happened in her room. It was as though the room had been healed of its tragic history. Like the wall itself, the brokenness had been fixed. From dust, dirt, and death, new life had sprung. A new history was being written in the house.
That, Ron decided, was what Aunt Julia did best: she made things come to life again. She took an ugly old house and turned it into a bright, happy home. She took care of a lost Amelia, and made her feel secure and comfortable. She brought Jack out of his shell, and gave Dana the security she needed to heal. And even though Robert was a strong, capable policeman, ready to handle anything, Ron suspected that he, too, needed a family. He needed Julia.
Ron thought about his parents and that awful night in February. His family had been shattered by his parents’ death, broken until they could barely hold on to each other, frightened by a dark, empty future. He, himself, had been so hurt that he couldn’t feel anything, and poor Dana and Jack bore the brunt of his unhappiness. Aunt Julia had been there the whole time, taking care of them, comforting them, giving them time and safety to heal, until now they were a new unit, whole and strong. He’d never stop missing his parents, of course, and things weren’t the same as they were before, but they were good, very good. Ron, Dana, and Jack had a home again, thanks to Aunt Julia.
Ron loved her for it.
He looked up at the stars and thought about the Lang house again. It was an ugly shambles of a place, with a dark history, and would require even more work than this place had. But thanks to his experience working on this little house, Ron could see that once the work was finished, the Lang house would be a grand place to live in. He imagined it with new windows, clean siding, and a new porch, and his heart expanded with the idea.
They could do it. Between him, Julia, Robert, and the others, with a little faith and a little work, they could bring that old house back to life, just as they had done with this house. Just as they had done with themselves. Together, as a family. Life from death, whole and strong and new.
Ron gazed up at the sky and concentrated. “Wish I may, wish I might…”
It was practically in the bag.
* * *
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
* * *
Killarney Traynor is a New England-born writer, actor, and history buff living in New Hampshire. Summer Shadows is her debut novel.
Find Killarney on the web at killarneytraynor.com.