Millie, Badger and Ant, picking up on the all the exhilaration and anticipation around them, were leaping up onto the swing seat and racing from side to side of the trailer, bottoms waggling, tongues lolling, yapping and barking with great enthusiasm.
Jamie gave Georgia an excited grin. ‘I think they recognize where they are!’
‘Are we nearly there then?’ Deedee asked, making Georgia smile, as she suddenly remembered a very different Deedee. A spoilt, self-centered brat asking if they were nearly there, the night the house had literally blown up. A Deedee who not too long after that, had suggested elephants and going to Australia!
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘we are nearly there.’ And they were!
At two fifteen they reached their turn off, rode past the familiar Indian mound, and down the hill between the corn fields. (Not the soya beans that had been planted out last time she was here.)
There was a double bump as the Spyder went over the railway line, and then they turned left. All of a sudden Rebecca gave a loud whoop and there, just ahead of them, welcoming them in the hot dry afternoon sunshine, was their house.
Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, they turned up the drive. Dried up weeds choked the overgrown and browning lawn. The rose bushes, tangled with kudzu vine, heavy with pink blooms. They came to a standstill just outside the back door, the air heavy with the scent of roses and honeysuckle, and sat for a moment, almost in shock.
Finally Georgia climbed off the bike, all aches and pains and weariness forgotten. ‘We actually did it, we actually bloody did it.’ She shrieked with laughter, and then Josh lifted Ruby down and they were all hugging each other and crying and laughing and crying a little more. Millie and Badger ran round and round in circles through the long grass while poor Ant was going crazy, barking with indignation at not being lifted out of the Spyder.
Then they were unlocking the door, the key still under the door mat. The dogs raced ahead, nails clicking on the wooden floors as she ushered the others inside and looked around.
Suddenly she caught sight of Nathan’s jacket, hanging over a chair in the kitchen, and her heart leapt to her throat. For a moment she felt nothing but relief. He was here! But then as she took in the thick layer of dust and the spider webs in the corners of the room she realized her mistake. Remembered how it had been a hot day when they had last driven away from here, and that they were nearly all the way to Kansas City before he discovered that it had been left behind.
Jamie and Rebecca must have had the same initial reaction for on spying the familiar jacket, they rushed through the kitchen before she could stop them, and into the hall. Their footsteps crashing on the stairs as they called, ‘Dad, Dad, we’re home.’
But she knew he wasn’t home and he had not been here. Nothing had been moved since they last walked out, locked the back door and slid the key under the mat. Despite everything she felt the tears come, the disappointment was numbing in its enormity.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Josh said, as Lola took her into her arms, and Georgia could feel that she too was crying; her tears hot and wet upon her shoulder. After a moment, she pulled out of Lola’s arms.
‘I have to be strong for the kids,’ she said, and went upstairs to find Jamie and Rebecca.
They were sitting on Jamie’s bed. Rebecca had her arm across her brother’s shoulder, and both of them had tear streaked faces.
‘He’s not here,’ Rebecca sobbed, ‘we checked all the rooms.’
Jamie moved aside and Georgia sat down between them, her arms across their backs, pulling them close. They sat like that for a very long time, the silence of the house interrupted by the occasional sniff, and the soft murmur of voices that came from downstairs.
‘Do you think dad will think to look for us here?’ Jamie said after a very long while.
‘Yes,’ Georgia said, certainty in her voice, ‘one day he will come.’ And as she said it, she silently cursed him, him and his wandering eyes, for the renewed pain he was putting his children through. ‘He had better be dead,’ she thought perversely, ‘because that was the only acceptable reason for not being here.’
Then Rebecca said, ‘he will come, God will show him the way.’
‘Yes,’ Georgia said, ‘no doubt he will, and until then we will manage.’
Suddenly Ant came running up the stairs bounding into the bedroom. She stood for a moment staring at the three of them, then did a mad run round the room, barking excitedly.
Jamie laughed. ‘Ant is real glad to be here.’
‘Yes she is,’ Georgia said as she stood up, ‘and she has reason to be. Come on let’s go downstairs and make the others feel at home.’
In the kitchen, she found they had already done that. The gas stove had been lit and the kettle was steaming away. Josh was wiping down chairs as Deedee busied herself laying out cups and saucers on the old fashioned red Formica table. Over by the draining board Ruby carefully measured out tea into an old battered silver teapot.
She looked up as they came into the room. ‘Ah, there you are dear,’ she said, then sighed with pleasure, ‘and I see you’ve brought the children. I expect you’re all ready for a lovely cup of tea.’
Georgia caught Lola’s expression, and the two of them burst out laughing. ‘Yes, Ruby, we would love a cup of tea.’
Chapter Seventy Four
Georgia sat at the kitchen table, sipping tea from ridiculously delicate cups, listening to the civilized clink of china as tea was poured and sugar stirred in. There was an occasional contented sigh, and someone said hmm, as though mildly surprised. But apart from that no one spoke.
It all felt fanciful, and dreamlike. She stared at the silver teapot, thinking what a ludicrous thing it was, with its three little legs, and ornate scrolls. So impractical! You couldn’t stand it in a fire, it needed a flat surface or it would fall over, and it probably required special brushes to clean out the spout.
She had a sudden urge to giggle but didn’t, then she wanted to cry all over again. To weep from the sheer relief, exhilaration and nervous exhaustion that was wracking her body and mind. She could scarcely believe that they had actually done it and she half expected to wake up with the journey still ahead of them and the Spyder needing to be loaded up with their sleeping gear before they hit the road again. But this wasn’t a dream. This was real and they were indeed here! They were actually here in the kitchen in Bethel no less, and drinking tea out of her very own bone china cups.
After all the frenetic energy of the last days, it seemed almost wrong to just be sitting. She should be inspecting the house, looking over the beds, and examining the contents of wardrobes. Then there was outside. The water tanks needed checking, plans made for where the vegetable garden should go, and fresh flowers picked for the house, maybe some of those lovely roses and…,
Ruby interrupted her thoughts. ‘More tea dear?’
She looked up startled. ‘Um, no thanks, actually I was thinking of doing a quick check on all the rooms and…,’
‘Good idea,’ Lola said, ‘I am dying to see round the place.’
Everyone else was keen to see as well, so she led them on a tour through the house; the bathrooms, lounge, formal dining room (not nearly as grand as it sounds), the downstairs bedrooms, the upstairs playroom and then more bedrooms. They behaved like excited children at a fun fair, pulling off dust sheets and bouncing on beds. Opening closets and admiring the neat piles of linen and blankets. Running to windows and flinging them open, letting in fresh air and admiring the view and the dogs getting under foot at every opportunity.
Georgia pushed open another door. ‘And this is…,’ she had been going to say our room, but fell silent. She could hardly call it ‘our room’ any more. Not when the other half of ‘our,’ was either dead, or off gallivanting with another woman. Somewhat belatedly she added, ‘my room,’ as the others followed her in.
The huge king size bed, covered by an antique handmade quilt, dominated the room. It was all as lovely as she remembered, the
white wash walls and built in alcoves; the huge picture window that looked out across the fields, all the way to the bluffs.
‘Oh, there’s another house,’ Deedee exclaimed.
‘Yes,’ Georgia nodded. ‘But it’s abandoned, our nearest neighbor lives just as far away again, on the other side. There’s a funny story about that house, well interesting anyway. This house, and the abandoned one, were built at the same time, by twin sisters. The idea being they would be able to wave to each other from the upstairs rooms. The houses were meant to be identical in every way, but ended up being mirror image instead, something to do with builders reading the plans wrong. I never really understood how, but family legend has it, that the other sister was so upset she refused to ever set foot in it.’
‘So did she come and live here?’ Deedee asked.
‘No, Crazy Grandma, wouldn’t swap houses, as she didn’t want to live in it either.’
‘Crazy Grandma?’ Lola laughed, ‘sounds interesting.’
Georgia shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t know if she really was nuts, but everyone called her that. She was, if memory serves me correctly, Jamie and Rebecca’s great grandmother.
‘I had a crazy great grandmother?’ Rebecca asked.
‘Cool,’ Jamie said.
Deedee rolled her eyes, grinning at Rebecca. ‘Well that explains a lot!’
‘It does not,’ Rebecca shot back.
‘Yeah it does, just saying.’
Georgia interceded, seeing a fight brewing. ‘Well, I don’t know that she was actually crazy, it might just have been an affectionate nickname, or maybe she was just ahead of her times and did outlandish things. I imagine, in those days, a woman arranging to have her own home built, was more than a little unusual.’
‘So there!’ Rebecca said, glaring at Deedee and yet somehow also managing to look smug.
‘Shall we look at the next room then?’ Georgia asked, before Deedee could think of a rejoinder.
Ruby went into raptures when she discovered a bookshelf half way down the corridor filled with old favorites. Then as they were looking round the play room, Jamie whooped with joy upon opening a cupboard and finding it filled with CD’s and videos, then he suddenly went silent, shrugging his shoulders sheepishly. They spent a long time gazing at the fireplace in the lounge. No more sitting outside in the wilderness, from now on, their evenings would be spent here, lazing on sofas, and armchairs, safe indoors.
There was so much about the house that Georgia had forgotten, or more to the point, simply taken as part of the old world charm of the place, never thinking that any of it could ever be useful. It turned out the ancient woodstove in the kitchen was not nearly as rusty as she had remembered. It really only needed the flue to be swept out and given a bit of a wipe down.
‘It’s a lovely house,’ Lola said as they all sat down to a real sit down meal at the kitchen table, one with plates and knives and forks and glasses. ‘I love how sunny and cheerful the kitchen looks, with this yellow art deco wall paper and the copper pots hanging on the wall. All it needs is a potted palm or a hanging fern and…,’
‘What it needs is a really good clean,’ Georgia said, looking up as the others laughed.
‘Well it does,’ she protested, ‘everything is covered in dust and there are mouse droppings in the pantry.’
While the others were unpacking the Spyder, Georgia began cleaning the pantry, meticulously wiping down the shelves. As the packs were brought in, Lola and Rebecca sorted through them, carefully stacking all food items on the table. Suddenly Rebecca gave a little squeal of pleasure. ‘Oh I had forgotten all about these.’
‘What?’ Georgia asked poking her head out of the pantry.’
‘The Mars bars, I didn’t know we had any left.’
‘I knew, but I was keeping them for emergencies.’
‘I reckon right about now is an emergency,’ Lola said.
Georgia grinned, as she wrung out the rag she was using, and hung it over the door handle. ‘You think?’
Rebecca nodded solemnly. ‘Definitely.’
‘It really is,’ Deedee agreed.
‘What is?’ Josh asked as he came in dropping an armful of corn on the bench.
‘It really is an emergency,’ Deedee explained.
‘It is?’
‘Yeah, it is,’ Rebecca said, holding up the Mars bars to emphasis her point.
A broad grin of understanding spread across Josh’s face, ‘I have to agree, this is definitely an emergency.’
Georgia laughed, wiping her damp hands on her jeans. ‘Well then seeing as the situation is so dire, I guess you could share two of them between you, but don’t forget to ask Ruby if she wants a piece.’
‘Don’t you want any?’ Lola asked as she carefully unwrapped them and lay them out on a chopping board.
Georgia shook her head. ‘No, I think a cigarette will do me.’
She took her pack of smokes and the lighter and went outside, surveying the grounds, and walking over to the double garage. As she stopped to light her smoke, she noticed large paw prints in the dry dirt leading round the side of the house, coyotes for sure. She didn’t like that, didn’t like that they were coming right up to the house. They would have to ensure that the dogs stayed inside after dark, at least until they could fence off a section outside the back door. She did not want to get everyone safely down here, only to have a coyote snatch up one of the dogs.
She sat down on one of the swings, surveying the garden. No plums on the tree this year, and very few apples. She wondered if someone had taken them.
As she let out a long stream of smoke, listening to the Katy-dids, and the occasional bird song, she cocked her head, noticing for the first time the absence of other expected sounds. The normal far off sounds that lets you know you are in a community. She felt the hairs on the nape of her neck prickle. It was really quiet, far too quiet. There was no distant laughter of children, no hammering or banging, carrying on the breeze. Not even the lowing of a house cow or dogs barking. Now that she thought about it, they still hadn’t seen anyone else. Not even when they were taking in the view from the upstairs rooms.
She drew in a final puff on her smoke, then checked her watch. Quarter to five, just over two and half hours till sunset. Would that be enough time to have a bit of a look around the neighborhood? She got to her feet, pinching the cherry from her cigarette and dropping it to the ground. As she crushed it out beneath her boots, she made up her mind. She would unhook the Spyder trailer, grab her shotgun, and get Jamie to come with her.
They set off twenty minutes later. Lola, who had insisted on coming as well, sat perched uncomfortably between them on the brake seat.
‘First stop, Auntie Darlene’s farm,’ Georgia said, as they made their way down the drive and onto the road.
‘So what’s Auntie Darlene like,’ Lola asked as they began to pick up speed.
‘Well, I love her to bits, she would be nearly sixty, still very attractive, loves her horses and…,’
Lola laughed. ‘Maybe she can teach you to ride!’
‘Yes, more than likely. She has several, but her first love is Pepe, her Chihuahua, nearly as small as Ant, and pure white. I suspect she loves him more than her husband.’
‘Oh Pepe sounds so cute.’
‘He’s not, I assure you,’ Georgia said, ‘he’s snappy and ill-tempered, bites ankles and Ant hates him.’
They rode a little further and as they passed the first of the houses in the village they slowed down looking for signs of life.
‘You know,’ Jamie said suddenly, ‘I don’t think anyone has been here in a while. The grass is real long and I reckon if there were folk around, at the very least the weeds would be trampled down, leading to the front steps.’
They brought the bikes to a standstill, staring around them. He was right, the place did seem deserted.
‘Come on,’ Georgia said, ‘let’s get to Auntie Darlene. Hopefully she will be there, and clue us in as to what i
s going on.’
It took them another twenty minutes to reach the entrance to her property. The huge double gates hung open, kudzu vine growing up over the wrought iron hinges. Not that that meant anything, from memory, the gates were always left open. They slowly rode up the drive way past the fig trees with their shiny fat green fruit and parked outside the screened in veranda.
The door was also ajar and Georgia felt the first twinge of disquiet. This was unusual. Darlene always kept that shut to keep Pepe in.
‘Wait here,’ she said, as she stepped inside.
‘Darlene,’ she called, ‘it’s me, Georgia. Are you here?’ When there was no reply, she hesitatingly made her way into the kitchen, noticing a thick layer of dust coating every surface. The once much loved pot plants had dried up and were dead in their planters, fallen leaves scattered across the floor.
Then she saw the dining room table and any last hope that Darlene was still in the house went out the window. The table was set with four place settings, but this meal had been dished up a long time ago. Thick mold crusted over shapeless, unrecognizable fare. The large platter in the middle had held a pot roast, she gathered, the carving knife and fork set to one side. Wine glasses nearly empty, a pink crusted stain on the glasses showing the slow evaporation process. Drowned insects suspended in the remaining darkening liquid. The table itself was covered with mouse droppings. Black speckles against the once white cloth. Two candelabras held candles that had dripped red wax as they had burnt down and finally guttered.
The only sign of disarray was one dining room chair that lay on its side.
She went back outside. ‘Looks like they left in a hurry, some time ago,’ she said, ‘but I want to go back indoors and check all the rooms.’
Jamie came with her, his hunting bow at the ready, she had unslung her shotgun, safety off. Together they went room by room. In the master bedroom, the bed was made up, but the carpet was scattered with dried up dog shit and numerous yellowing stains. Had Pepe been locked in here? That didn’t sound like something Darlene would do at all. Besides which, she would never have left dog shit lying around and she would never have let Pepe disgrace himself like that.
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