Patterns of Change

by Terri DuLong

  After each of us had a plate, Marta returned with a carafe of coffee and began filling our cups.

  One bite of the torte and I thought I was in heaven. David was right. I didn’t see how a French bakery could possibly be better than this.

  Conversation was minimal as all of us enjoyed the dessert.

  When Marta returned to clear the plates, I felt like I was gushing but such a work of art certainly deserves the highest of compliments.

  “Thank you,” she said and didn’t seem aware of her extraordinary talent.

  After we finished our coffee, Mavis Anne said, “Yarrow, why don’t you show Chloe around upstairs. I’m going to retire to the patio and then we’ll show her the gardens.”

  “Sounds good,” Yarrow said and I followed her down the passageways, back through the sitting area and formal living room to the front staircase.

  “So you’ve lived here since the age of ten?” I asked, as we climbed the stairs.

  “Actually, I feel like I’ve lived here all my life. Even when my mom was alive, I spent more time here than with her, but when she died, I came here permanently. She had a cottage nearby on Orchard Lane—which is where I live now. It stayed empty for years but when I got out of college, I decided that was where I wanted to live.”

  I noticed that no mention at all had been made of Yarrow’s father and, even though I was curious, I thought it better not to ask.

  We reached the top of the stairs, where a long hallway ran the length of the house. Like the downstairs, the area had a warm feeling. I saw a highly polished wood floor, more antique tables with vases of fresh flowers, and wall hangings.

  I followed Yarrow to the back of the house and a bedroom at the far end.

  “This used to be my grandfather’s room,” she explained. “But when he died, Aunt Mavis decided to switch rooms and take this one.”

  Another beautifully appointed room with antique furniture, lots of bold floral prints, and a sense of calm.

  “It’s gorgeous,” I said, walking to the window, which overlooked the back garden. It was then that I saw the fishpond. There it was. Behind the stone wall. With brightly colored fish swimming around. Just like in my dream. How could this be possible? How could I dream about a place that I’d never been?

  “Are you okay?” I heard Yarrow ask.

  I swung around to face her and smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine. I think I was just captivated by the fishpond.”

  Yarrow joined me at the window and nodded. “That’s been there ever since I can remember. Actually, I think some of the fish in there are over sixty years old. Koi are known for their longevity. But I’ll let Aunt Mavis tell you the story behind the fishpond.”

  I followed her into two more bedrooms. Like Mavis Anne’s room, each one had an attached bathroom and each one was furnished in Victorian décor with antiques, beauty, and calm.

  Until we got to the last bedroom, which overlooked the front of the house. This was the room that jutted out with the turret. As we stepped over the threshold, a different sensation came over me. Not the calm I’d felt in the rest of the house—but melancholy.

  “This was my mother’s room when she was growing up,” I heard Yarrow say, as I looked around to see a beautifully carved sleigh bed, matching bureaus, pale yellow-and-white-striped wallpaper, lace curtains, and a sitting area at the far end of the room with French doors.

  “Rumor has it that my mother would sneak out over her balcony when she was a teenager,” Yarrow said as I followed her.

  She opened the French doors and we stepped out onto a roofed balcony with a small table and two chairs. I looked across the side garden and could just make out another house through the leafy tree branches. I assumed this was where David and Clive lived.

  I looked over the edge of the half wall and laughed. “Are you serious? Your mother jumped to the ground from here to sneak out?”

  Yarrow laughed. “Oh, no. She was too clever for that. When she had plans to go out at night, she made sure she propped a ladder against the balcony. She’d climb down and then back up when she returned and made sure she got rid of the ladder in the morning. But it wasn’t a secret. My aunt knew exactly what she was doing and I think my grandfather did too. But as my aunt said—my mother was spoiled rotten and it was never discussed.”

  Mavis Anne was right: Emmalyn Overby was a wild one. As I stepped back inside, a sense of unease came over me and, silly though it sounds, I had a feeling that Yarrow and I weren’t the only ones in the room.

  I followed Yarrow back downstairs and saw her grab a set of keys from a hook on the kitchen wall. “Come on,” she said, “We’ll show you the garden and the schoolhouse.”

  Schoolhouse? “There was a school here?”

  Yarrow laughed and shook her head. “Not really. Aunt Mavis will tell you about it.”

  It looked like Mavis Anne had been dozing but when she heard our voices, her eyes popped open and she sat up straighter in her chair.

  “So what did you think of your tour of Koi House?” she asked.

  “It’s a magnificent home. My aunt Maude had an old house in Brunswick, Georgia, and my sister and I spent a lot of time there. I think that’s where I developed my love and passion for older homes. She always told me that I was just like her—drawn to the mystique of old houses.”

  “Your aunt was a wise woman,” Mavis Anne said. “Because older homes do have a mystique. Many things are woven into the soul of a house—good and bad. And over time they become so ingrained, they will remain there for eternity. That’s why I could never sell this house to a stranger. It would be like giving away a part of myself.” She slid to the edge of the chair and reached for her cane. “Do you have the keys for the schoolhouse?”

  Yarrow jangled them in the air. “Right here.”

  With the assistance of her cane, Mavis Anne made her way across the patio toward the fishpond and we followed.

  A stone archway led into the pond area and as I walked through it, a sense of tranquility came over me. Stone benches surrounded the circular pond, with huge tubs of orange and yellow lantana, violet pentas, and milkweed placed between the benches. I detected a hint of lavender and mint in the air. And there in the water were brightly colored red and white koi fish happily swimming around.

  I let out a deep sigh. “This is just beautiful,” I said, allowing the peace to envelope me.

  “It is,” Mavis Anne said, sitting on the one of the benches. “And it’s been my sanctuary for most of my life. In 1952, when I was ten, I contracted the polio virus. I was fortunate that my father was a doctor and understood the disease. I did have a mild case of it compared to some, but I wasn’t able to walk for a few months. After a stay in the hospital, my father hired a private nurse and I recuperated here at home, but I was a terrible patient and wasn’t making any attempt to walk. My father told me about koi fish and how legend has it that they can climb the falls of the Yellow River to become dragons. They symbolize personal strength or perseverance as one goes through difficult situations. He said they had become a symbol for people struggling to make it through tough times and overcome obstacles.”

  I sat beside her on the bench and shook my head as my eyes continued to watch the fish. “I never knew that. What wonderful symbolism.”

  Mavis Anne nodded. “It is and so, my father told me that if I began to make an attempt to walk, if I faithfully did my daily exercises with my nurse, he would have a koi pond built just for me.”

  I smiled. “And so you did.”

  “I did, but it was much harder than I thought it would be. There were days I just didn’t think my muscles would ever work well enough for me to walk. But while I was attempting to make this happen, my father had hired a crew to dig the pond, make the wall, and follow through on his promise. He had the utmost faith in me. And finally, almost a year later, with the assistance of crutches at first, I was walking. I’ll never forget the day my father and I walked out here for the first time and I saw the fish. That was over
sixty years ago, and some of those fish you see today are the original ones.”

  “That’s an amazing story,” I said. I couldn’t help but admire the fortitude it must have taken to get through such a very difficult time.

  “I have a strong feeling that it helped to form the person I would become. There were more disappointments, heartache, and sadness over the years, combined with much joy, but I always found that coming here to my fishpond diminished the bad times and enhanced the good ones.”

  I glanced up to see a swarm of butterflies hovering over one of the plants. I recalled that butterflies symbolized change and growth and couldn’t help but wonder if all that had happened in the past year had been meant to bring me right here, in the company of Mavis Anne Overby, to this moment.

  She patted my knee. “Okay,” she said, leaning on her cane to get up. “And now we shall show you the schoolhouse.

  “It wasn’t really a schoolhouse,” she explained as we walked across the garden toward the medium-size, honey-colored, stone structure. “My father had this built as a playhouse for David, Emmalyn, and me when we were kids. I can’t even remember why, but somehow we began calling it the schoolhouse.”

  Yarrow unlocked the wooden, oval-shaped door, which reminded me of a thatched cottage in the English countryside, and we stepped into a large, empty room. Light flooded the area from two rectangular skylights in the peaked ceiling, with additional light streaming through a bay window in front and French doors to my right, which led back out to a garden area. Wide white paneling covered the walls and above me I could see white beams between the skylights. At the far end, in the center of the room, was a stone fireplace that acted as a divider from another room behind it.

  “Oh, wow!” I exclaimed. “How beautiful!”

  Mavis Anne smiled and nodded. “Much like my fishpond, this cottage has given me many hours of solace.”

  I followed her and Yarrow toward the fireplace. Two arched doorways flanked either side and we walked into a kitchen area, complete with small sink, cabinets, and stove. More French doors on the right led out to a small brick patio area with towering oaks providing shade.

  I shook my head. “This was some playhouse. What lucky kids you were.”

  Mavis Anne let out a chuckle. “As kids, I don’t think we realized just how fortunate we were. But now—oh, yes, I’m very grateful for what I was given. My life has been blessed and I certainly have no regrets. There’s just been one thing missing—one dream that was never fulfilled.”

  Somehow I had a very strong feeling I knew exactly what she was going to say. “Owning your own yarn shop,” I blurted out.

  She threw her head back and laughed. “Chloe Radcliffe, you are a very intuitive woman.”

  Chapter 11

  I had been surprised that following the tour of Koi House with Mavis Anne’s revelation, she made no further mention of possibly turning the schoolhouse into a yarn shop—with me at the helm. Which was fine with me. Although I had to agree that the space would be an ideal location for a shop, I was in no position to take a business risk. Hell, I wasn’t even sure if I’d be staying in the area permanently.

  I answered my cell on Wednesday morning to hear my sister’s voice.

  “Are you busy?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” I said, grabbing my mug of coffee and heading out to the balcony with Basil. “What’s up?”

  “I’m just wondering what you’ve been up to. Haven’t heard from you since Saturday. How’d the dinner go at Koi House?”

  I brought Grace up to date on all of my news and heard a deep breath come across the line when I finished.

  “Wow,” she said. “That house sounds fantastic. And you’re as bad as Aunt Maude and me when it comes to the connection with old houses, but Mavis Anne sounds like an impressive woman. She’s had quite a life. Seems to me that she’s trying to tempt you into opening that yarn shop for her.”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, I think you could be right.”

  “Well, would that be so bad? You did love being a partner with Dora and you’re not the type to sit around doing nothing.”

  True. “I know that. It’s just . . . I’m still not sure if I’m going to stay here permanently. I think I could be very happy here, but . . . I just don’t know.”

  “You will in time. Let it go and just enjoy the moments. You felt the same way before you came to Cedar Key, remember? And that turned out to be a good thing, even if it wasn’t meant to be forever.”

  I knew Grace was right. “I do know one thing. I’m glad I agreed to stay here longer than two weeks. That wouldn’t have been enough time to make a decision. As a matter of fact, I’m meeting with a Realtor this afternoon to look at a few places to rent.”

  “Oh, that’s great, Chloe. I’m hoping you’ll find exactly what you want. I have to run, but I’ll talk to you on Friday. You haven’t forgotten it’s your birthday, have you?”

  I let out a chuckle. “Hardly, but I think it’ll be a pretty quiet one this year. Love you and talk to you later.”

  The fact that I had a birthday on Friday had come out in the conversation at the Sunday dinner, but I hoped it had been quickly forgotten.

  After viewing two townhouses and one detached home, I was feeling a letdown. Though I couldn’t say what it was, exactly, that I didn’t like, I just knew none of the three places was for me. It suddenly struck me that it had more to do with how I felt walking through the various rooms, rather than the physical sight of them. What was lacking was that spark, that burst of energy or what some called vibes. That precise feeling I had from the moment I entered Koi House.

  I needed a pick-me-up and headed to the tea shop. I was surprised to only see Yarrow and Mavis Anne when I walked in.

  “Quiet day?” I asked, heading to the counter.

  “I was busy this morning, but I think bad news has a way of making people scatter,” Yarrow said. “What can I get you?”

  “I’ll let you decide. What’s going on?”

  She began to prepare my tea and before she had a chance to answer, Mavis Anne placed her knitting in her lap and said, “What’s going on is my niece is about to be forced to close this shop. The owner has informed her that the building has sold and the new owner doesn’t want a tea shop here. He has other plans.”

  “Oh, no,” I said. Just when I was feeling I had found my niche, the place that would provide friendship and bonding, it could all be falling apart? “This is terrible. I’m so sorry, Yarrow. Geez, your day doesn’t sound much better than mine.”

  We all fell silent while my tea brewed.

  “What’s wrong with your day?” Mavis Anne questioned as I sat on the sofa with my tea.

  I proceeded to tell them about my property viewings. “They just didn’t hit me. I can’t explain it. The price was okay, the location was fine . . . I don’t know what it was, but if I’m going to stay in this area, I need to find the right place to live.”

  Mavis Anne banged her cane on the floor, causing both Yarrow and me to jump. “Indeed you do,” she said. “And I have the solution.”

  I felt a skeptical expression cross my face as I looked at her.

  “You will move into Koi House. Lord knows there’s plenty of room, and now that I’m staying with David and Clive, it’s almost sinful that poor house is sitting alone and empty.”

  Was she serious? There was no way I could afford the rent that house would command. “Oh, well, thank you, Mavis Anne, but . . . I don’t think so. I just don’t see—”

  She cut me off and waved her hand in the air. “Now look . . . the way I see it, you need a place to stay, a place to call home. My home is empty. Just sitting there, being tended to by Marta, but with nobody to give it the love and attention it needs. Of course I’m aware of the rent I could get from that house, but honey, there comes a point in life where it just isn’t about money anymore. Not at all. Answer me a question.”

  I looked at her and waited.

  “If I came up with a fair and eq
uitable price that you could afford, would you consider it then?”

  “I guess I’d be a fool not to,” I blurted out, which caused Mavis Anne to throw her head back laughing and stamp the floor with her cane again.

  “Then it’s settled. We will discuss a price and you will move in. Now . . . I only have a few rules.”

  I saw Yarrow roll her eyes as she mumbled, “Oh, God.”

  “Hush,” Mavis Anne hissed. “Of course you must bring that dog of yours, Basil, and by the way, I still haven’t had the chance to meet him. You have full run of the house and by that I mean you are to feel free to invite friends over and do anything you would do in any other rental. Also, while I’m sure you’ll clean up after yourself, I will still retain Marta to do the bulk of the cleaning. First of all, it’s a large house and I certainly don’t want to put her out of a job. It will be up to you if you’d also like Marta to prepare any meals for you. You can talk it over with her and you’ll be responsible for paying her accordingly for any extras. Any questions?”

  “No,” I stammered. This was all too good to be true. “It sounds more than fair to me.”

  Mavis Anne nodded her head emphatically. “Okay. A few more things. You must sign a lease for one year and if possible, I’d like you to use the furniture in the house rather than moving in your own things, and secondly, you will take the front bedroom. The one with the turret and balcony.”

  I felt a shiver go through me at the same time my heart fell. Emmalyn’s old room? The one room in the house that made me feel uneasy? Damn. I let out a deep breath.

  “I have no problem with signing the lease or using your furniture, but . . . is there any particular reason why I couldn’t have one of the other two bedrooms?” I knew one was Mavis Anne’s but that still left two empty rooms.

  “Yes, there is, but it doesn’t warrant an explanation. At least not right now. Take it or leave it.”

  This woman drove a hard bargain.

  “I’ll take it,” I hastened to say before she could change her mind.