The Clockwork House

by Wendy Saunders

  ‘Kelley?’ she guessed.

  He smiled at her, pleased she’d remembered his name.

  ‘Hello Ava,’ he replied easily.

  ‘Bailey!’ Ava called loudly when her dog continued to bark, ‘enough! You’ll wake the dead with all that noise.’

  ‘Please don’t say that,’ Kelley’s eyes flicked uneasily to the house to the left of them.

  ‘Bailey, back up girl.’

  Kelley watched as Ava’s dog backed up, stepping into the circle of light cast by the fire as he moved forward, and he got a proper look at her.

  ‘Whoa! Holy shit that’s an enormous dog! Was she created in a lab?’

  ‘No,’ Ava’s mouth twitched, ‘she’s part German Shepherd part bear.’

  ‘When you said dog,’ Kelley’s eyebrows rose as he continued to stare at Bailey, who was in turn watching him mistrustfully, ‘I don’t know, I just pictured something small and cute that would fit in your purse.’

  ‘Would have to be a pretty big purse,’ Ava continued to stir whatever it was simmering over the fire in an enormous shiny, silver, flying saucer shaped pan.

  Kelley grinned, ‘Big? I think you’d have trouble fitting her in a packing crate.’

  ‘Why do you think I drive a huge truck?’ Ava glanced up, a small smiled tugging at the corner of her lips. ‘Why are you here Kelley?’

  ‘Came to welcome you to the neighborhood,’ he gave her a cute, slightly lopsided smile, held up the bag and shook it. ‘I brought dinner, although whatever the hell you’re cooking smells a hundred times better.’

  ‘What’s in there?’ she asked curiously.

  ‘Burgers cooked just the way you like it and steak for your dog.’

  ‘You bought Bailey a steak?’ she stopped stirring and stared at him.

  ‘Seemed like the thing to do at the time,’ he shrugged.

  ‘Bailey,’ Ava called out after a moment, ‘let him sit down.’

  Bailey turned her head toward Ava, letting out a little sniff of discontent but she moved out of his way none the less, trotting over and sitting next to her mistress obediently as she continued to watch Kelley warily with large unblinking black eyes.

  ‘I thought you were your brother just now,’ she watched him take a seat on a small log she’d placed beside the fire.

  ‘I heard that’s not the first time today that’s happened,’ Kelley glanced at the fire, noting that she’d taken the time to dig the firepit down into the ground, encircling it with huge rocks from the beach. Either side of the pit she’d laid logs just large enough to sit on. She was obviously a woman who was no stranger to the outdoors.

  ‘No,’ Ava snorted quietly. ‘I walked into his office this morning and met his heavily pregnant wife. Then he walked through the door and I thought it was you. Embarrassing.’

  ‘You’re not the first one to make that mistake and you won’t be the last,’ Kelley grinned. ‘I have to ask Ava, what the hell are you making? It smells entirely too good for something cooked on a campfire.’

  ‘It’s Thai street food,’ she twisted the pan over the flames, swirling the red colored contents around the inside with a sizzle as she reached into a paper bag and retrieved some leaves which she dumped in. ‘Bay leaves,’ she informed him at his curious look.

  ‘You know how to cook Thai street food?’

  ‘Among other things,’ she nodded. ‘This is Massaman Gai; it’s one of the milder Thai curries with Persian influences. Are you allergic to nuts?’

  ‘No,’ Kelley shook his head.

  ‘Would you like to try some?’ she offered.

  ‘I thought you’d never ask,’ he grinned.

  ‘It’s almost ready,’ she nodded.

  ‘You like to cook then?’

  ‘I love to cook,’ Ava replied absently as she concentrated on the sizzling pan, ‘even if it’s just for me.’ She glanced down and gave Bailey a sharp look.

  Fascinating, Kelley thought, the dog actually looked away guiltily. If she’d been a person she’d have been whistling in mock innocence.

  ‘Bailey’s not allowed any. Last time I made curry she snuck some from my plate. You cannot even begin to imagine the mess she made in my truck. I had to air it out for a week.’

  Kelley laughed loudly as Bailey barked once at Ava, almost in protest.

  ‘What?’ she replied to her dog, ‘you and I both know it’s true. Need I mention the chocolate incident?’

  Bailey whined and looked away again.

  ‘That’s what I thought.’ Ava replied.

  ‘Amazing,’ he murmured.

  ‘What is?’

  ‘It’s almost like she understands everything you say,’ Kelley replied in fascination.

  ‘Oh, she understands plenty,’ Ava shook her head. ‘Her breed’s very intelligent anyway, but we’ve been together since she was born. She more or less ignored her mother unless she wanted feeding and attached herself to me. As it’s just me and her on the road, on our own, pretty much most of the time, I think we’ve just come to understand each other.’

  ‘On the road?’ he leaned forward and propped his elbow on one knee and his chin in his palm, ‘you travel a lot? For pleasure or work?’

  ‘You ask a lot of questions,’ her dark eyes flicked back to him.

  ‘It’s how you get to know someone,’ he smiled. ‘Ask me anything, I’m an open book.’

  ‘Sorry I don’t read much,’ she shook her head.

  ‘A challenge huh?’

  ‘If you’ve got a steak in that bag you might want to give it to her. It might sweeten her up or she’s going to growl at you the whole time you’re here,’ Ava changed the subject.

  ‘She always like this with strangers?’ he asked as he reached into the bag.

  ‘No,’ Ava shook her head, ‘she actually has a very sweet disposition.’

  ‘So, it’s just me then?’ he asked perplexed as he unwrapped the steak.

  ‘Yeah,’ she nodded.

  ‘Oh,’ he frowned, ‘dogs usually love me. I’ve never had one dislike me before.’

  ‘She doesn’t dislike you,’ Ava reached down beside her for a bowl. ‘She’s wary of you and protective of me. She’s unsettled, we’re in a new place and its dark, and you’re a stranger.’

  ‘But she met my twin earlier?’

  ‘Dogs have over three hundred million smell receptors in their noses,’ she began to spoon the curry into the bowl. ‘You and your brother may look almost identical but trust me, to her you’d smell very different.’

  ‘Oh,’ he held up the steak and Bailey’s ears pricked, she lifted her furry face and sniffed before turning to look at Ava.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she nodded.

  Bailey moved forward carefully taking the steak from Kelley’s hand before dragging it back over to devour it at Ava’s side.

  ‘She asks your permission first?’

  ‘In some of the places we’ve lived in over the years, people will feed the dogs any old crap. It’s not good for her, so I taught her not to accept food from strangers.’

  ‘What sort of places?’ he handed her one of the beers he’d brought, noticing that she discreetly checked to make sure the bottle was sealed and not tampered with in any way. It made him wonder exactly what sort of life she’d lived that she’d be so cautious, not just for herself but with her dog too.

  ‘Just places,’ she shrugged as she handed him a bowl of curry and a slightly bent metal spoon.

  ‘What about your family?’ Kelley spooned a mouthful of curry, making a hum of pleasure as it hit his tongue. ‘So good, where the hell did you learn to cook like this?’

  ‘Here and there,’ Ava smiled.

  Kelley swallowed his mouthful and studied her carefully, his light-colored eyes appearing even paler in the dancing firelight.

  ‘Ava,’ he spoke softly, ‘I know you don’t know me yet, but you can trust me. I may come across as a bit of a stalker, but I am genuinely interested in getting to know you, no strings attached. I’m har
mless I promise.’

  Harmless, Ava almost snorted. There was nothing harmless about just how appealing the guy was, or how her belly jumped and tied itself into nervous knots when he was near, but… she was forced to admit, she would be working closely with his brother for the foreseeable future and she couldn’t avoid everyone on the island. She’d spent her whole life wondering what it would be like to have a permanent home, a place to belong and when she was finally presented with the possibility of one, she didn’t want to inadvertently alienate her potential friends and neighbors.

  The problem was, she was rusty and out of practice. It had been her and Bailey for such a long time now it was hard to remember how to interact with people on a social level.

  ‘I can go if you want me to?’ Kelley interrupted her thoughts, ‘I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.’

  ‘Finish your curry before it gets cold.’ Ava shook her head and set the cooking pan on a nearby pile of rocks to cool as she picked up the large wooden spoon she’d used to cook with and ate directly from the pan.

  ‘Don’t you have another bowl?’ Kelley frowned.

  ‘Nope,’ she spooned some more into her mouth. ‘Like I said, it’s usually just me and Bailey. I wasn’t expecting company.’

  ‘I feel bad now,’ he frowned, ‘I didn’t mean to impose.’

  ‘You’re not,’ Ava sighed, ‘I’m just a little prickly with people of the two-legged variety. I’m out of practice.’

  ‘Are you planning to stay on the island permanently?’ he asked curiously. ‘You’re one of the Wallaces aren’t you?’

  ‘So I’m told,’ she nodded as she continued to eat. ‘Apparently Harriet Wallace was my grandmother, but I never knew her. Serenity wasn’t real big on sharing personal details.’

  ‘Serenity?’

  ‘My mother,’ Ava replied matter of factly.

  ‘You call your mother Serenity?’

  ‘Called, she’s gone now, died just before I came here.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Kelley murmured as he studied her.

  Ava shrugged.

  ‘Her name was Caroline Wallace, but she was always known to everyone as Serenity. I don’t know why,’ Ava mused dryly. ‘The only time there was anything serene about her was after she’d smoked her way through an entire bag of purple haze.’

  ‘Where did you grow up?’ Kelley cracked his beer open and took a swig. ‘I don’t remember Hari ever having her granddaughter to stay.’

  ‘Hari?’ Ava repeated curiously, ‘you knew my grandmother?’

  ‘It’s a pretty small island, everyone knows everyone, but in this case, Hari was friends with my grandmother Alma. They played bridge together every Tuesday.’

  ‘What was she like, my grandmother?’

  ‘Hari?’ Kelley smiled, ‘she was a kind woman, tiny, with the sweetest smile. She baked the best cookies around, even better than my grams, although if you tell my grandmother that I’ll call you a dirty rotten liar.’

  Ava smiled, damn it she didn’t want to be charmed but she was charmed. She didn’t want to like him either, but she did.

  ‘Communes,’ she offered randomly with a sigh.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘I grew up in communes,’ she explained self-deprecatingly, ‘sexy huh? Surrounded by a bunch of grubby half naked hippies who were stoned 99.999 percent of the time.’

  ‘Do they still even have communes?’ Kelley wondered, ‘I know they were big in the seventies, but I thought they’d pretty much died out by the eighties.’

  ‘Oh, they’re still around if you know where to look,’ Ava opened her own beer and took a slow thoughtful sip. ‘That’s where I learned to cook. By the time I was twelve I was cooking more often than not, for anything between twenty and sixty people at any given time.’

  ‘Wow.’

  ‘Yeah, I learned pretty early on that if I stayed in the kitchen no one really bothered me. Once I hit puberty, I started getting a lot of attention I didn’t want.’

  ‘I’ll bet,’ Kelley frowned. ‘What about your mom?’

  ‘Oh, she was around,’ Ava rose from her seat and moved across to a large tub of cold soapy water and began to scrub the pan. ‘Serenity wasn’t big on laying down rules and boundaries for me. She wanted to give me the freedom to explore my sexuality, but I had no intention of exploring it with those guys. I mean each commune is different, don’t get me wrong I’m not stereotyping anyone, but more often than not these communities are polyamorous or polygamous, which is basically a justification for a free for all.’

  It was no wonder she was so guarded Kelley thought to himself as he handed her his empty bowl and spoon.

  ‘I can do that if you want?’

  ‘It’s okay,’ she took the bowl and dunked it in the water.

  ‘I can’t imagine what it must have been like growing up like that.’

  ‘It wasn’t all bad,’ Ava shook her head as she set the clean bowl and the pan against the rocks at the edge of the fire to dry. ‘Just different.’

  ‘It doesn’t sound like a very safe way to grow up.’

  ‘I was always safe,’ Ava sat back down in her original seat and picked up her beer as Bailey curled into the side of her legs. ‘Don’t get me wrong, there were a couple of occasions when certain guys didn’t want to take no for an answer and got quite aggressive, but Serenity got me out of there pretty quickly. Say whatever you like about her, the one thing she always did was protect me.’

  ‘She sounds like a complicated woman,’ Kelley rolled the half empty beer bottle between his palms.

  ‘Complicated?’ Ava smiled, ‘no, not that complicated. She loved freedom, she loved rolling from one day to the next never knowing where she was going to land or what adventure the world would bring. She loved endless possibilities and not being tied down, and most importantly she loved weed.’

  ‘Sounds like you’ve lived an interesting life,’ Kelley replied. ‘I’ve never left Midnight, well except on vacation but my roots are here, it’s my home.’

  ‘You’re lucky then,’ Ava murmured as she studied his face, ‘I’ve never had a home. We settled for a while in San Francisco, when Serenity met my dad.’ Her voice trailed off as she began to pick absently at the label on her bottle. ‘We were a family for a while.’

  ‘What happened?’

  She looked up and blinked; she’d been lost in her thoughts and for a moment had forgotten about him.

  ‘He died,’ she replied, ‘motorbike accident, it was a blind corner, the sun was low. The truck driver never saw him.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Kelley replied genuinely, ‘are you close to your dad’s family?’

  ‘They’re dead too,’ she chuckled, ‘are you sensing a theme here? My dad came over from El Salvador when he was a teenager, his whole family were killed in the civil war.’

  ‘Wow,’ Kelley’s brows rose, ‘I don’t’ know what to say. I can’t imagine what that’s like. I come from a huge family. We are legion, I’ve lost count of how many cousins I’ve got.’

  ‘So, I hear from your sister in law.’

  ‘She’s a sweetheart,’ Kelley grinned.

  ‘She warned me to stay away from you.’

  ‘She’s a crazy woman who doesn’t know what she’s saying due to a massive hormonal imbalance.’

  Ava laughed out loud; it was the first time he’d seen her really laugh. Not a polite, slightly amused chuckle but an honest to god belly laugh. She lit up like a roman candle and he found himself staring at her like a stunned gazelle.

  ‘I liked her,’ Ava smiled.

  ‘She liked you too,’ he shook his head in amusement, ‘judging by the twenty messages she left on my phone, grilling me about the woman I met in the bar the night before.’

  Ava looked up as the sky rumbled suddenly, very loud and very close.

  ‘Looks like it’s going to storm,’ Ava murmured as she began to pack away all of her herbs and spices and utensils before the rain hit.

  ‘Yeah,’ Kelley ga
zed at the turbulent sky.

  The stars had disappeared and the black vastness above them was now a boiling swirling mass of dark gray streaks.

  ‘You should probably go,’ she packed everything into the back of her truck and covered it over.

  There was another loud bang, setting Bailey barking madly and the sky lit up like the fourth of July, highlighting the choppy ocean in the distance, the blackness of the water punctuated by the white frothy edges of the turbulent waves.

  ‘You’re seriously going to make me walk back in the storm by myself?’

  ‘You’re not scared, are you?’ she tilted her head as she watched him.

  ‘Yes,’ he grinned, ‘I’m terrified. You should probably stay close and hold my hand.’

  ‘Nice try,’ she chuckled as the first fat drops of rain began to fall.

  They stood staring at each other as the rain began to pound down, soaking them almost instantly.

  ‘Welcome to Maine,’ he told her with an amused smile. ‘The weather’s temperamental.’

  ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ she rolled her eyes and peeled back the opening to the tent, ‘get in.’

  ‘I don’t know if I should,’ he blinked demurely, ‘I’m not that kind of boy. What if you’re using the storm as an excuse to take advantage of me?’

  She found herself laughing out loud again.

  ‘Just get in the tent before I change my mind, I’m getting soaked here.’

  Kelley threw her a grin and ducked into the tent, stumbling and falling to the ground which was covered with sleeping bags, blankets and pillows. He twisted as he hit the ground, jarring his shoulder as he rolled onto his back.

  Still as suave as ever, he thought in amusement but at least this time he’d not knocked himself unconscious. Suddenly a big wet dog bounded into the tent, trampling all over him, the sheer weight of her knocking the breath from him in an audible whoosh, her long tail slapping him in the face and her huge paws crushing his balls.

  He rolled to his side groaning in pain, feeling slightly nauseous.

  ‘You alright?’ Ava climbed into the tent and zipped it closed, laying down beside him.

  ‘Yes,’ he wheezed.

  ‘Sorry about Bailey, you’re in her spot.’