Hacienda Moon (The Path Seekers) (5 page)

4

The water problem escalated over the next week. Tandie spent more time turning off faucets than pecking out Marsha’s next best seller. She finally turned to using electrical tape as a remedy for Chelby Rose’s quirks as Marsha so eloquently named them.
 
She sat down at her desk, enjoying the Carolina sunshine brightening the dark room. She’d awakened her writing eye, the zone where writers of all types and levels described as the ideal place to reach.

She had just lifted her hands and placed them on the guide row keys, when a noise that sounded like heavy rain cut through the ambience, startling her.

“What the—What now?” Tandie said aloud.

As she moved down the hallway she heard water gushing from several areas of the house. She felt torn about which way to go first; so she chose the closest room, the kitchen.

Trudging into the room, she slowed her pace as she got closer to the sink. The tape she triple-wrapped around the faucet was ripped, the water flowing through as if it were teasing Tandie’s amateur repairs. She inhaled deeply and glanced around the kitchen, a strange feeling growing in her chest. Outside the window over the sink, the daytime sun made jagged shadows in the flower beds sitting along the edge of the woods. A rush of cool air crept up Tandie’s backside. Grandma Zee always called that feeling the creepy chills.

Gushing water noises erupted upstairs. Willing her nerves to steady, Tandie trudged up the stairway, into her bedroom, and stopped at the doorway to the bathroom.

The tape on the plumbing in the bathtub and sinks had broken too. After turning them off, Tandie studied the faucets, blinked, and chewed the right side of her lower lip.

“Okay, now this is getting freaky.”

She walked in a daze down the steps and back toward her study. Passing the window beside the entry door, she glimpsed a young blonde girl around seventeen years of age. She was shuffling around Chelby Rose’s neglected rose beds that lined the property’s borders. No one but Saul and Marsha had stopped by since Tandie arrived two weeks ago. Even though she knew the population was small, she’d begun to believe she was the only resident on this end of town.

Tandie stepped outside and approached the girl. She wore a strange costume, a brown prairie-style dress complete with a shift that lifted it up at the sides the way women wore their clothing back in the 18th century. It even had an apron on the front and a collar made out of lace. It looked as if it were ripped straight out of a different time period. When she noticed Tandie standing behind her, the girl jumped and held her chest.

“May I ask who you are, and what you’re doing on my property? Tandie asked sharply.

“By all means, I do apologize. I’m Ella, the neighborhood gardener.” She spoke with a hard southern accent and made a small curtsy, her curly blonde ringlets pinned up in a loose chignon. Tandie repressed a grin and held out her right hand. The girl stared at it and frowned. Slowly, she reached her hand up and placed it in Tandie’s.

“And you are?” Ella asked.

“Tandie Harrison. This is my place now. Or, it will be soon enough.”

“Tandie? Hmm. Why that sounds just like—candy.” High-pitched giggles spilled out of Ella. She covered her mouth and tilted her head down as if she’d shamed herself by laughing.

“Yes, I believe it does,” Tandie said.

Another series of high-pitched giggles erupted from Ella.

“Okay then, Ella. Why are we poking around my flower beds?”

“You’re gonna need to be thinking about my services real soon. Just look at all these poor wretched souls. You need to hire me right this instant.” Ella caressed a couple of the dried roses, touching each one as if she were a parent tending a sick child. She seemed confident enough. But there was something about this girl that gave Tandie an uneasy feeling. “Tell you what. Since we’ve just met, and I don’t really have any pictures of your work—”

“This is my work. I did all of this right here by myself. My mother helped me a few times, at first. But I got it right all the next times, though.” Ella’s voice raised a notch.

“I understand, Ella. I’ll get back with you when it’s closer to blooming season,” Tandie said.

Ella narrowed her eyes for a moment, and then a Scarlett O’Hara smile flashed across her face. “Well don’t wait too long, unless you want them to freeze up and turn black.”

“I’ll make a note of it.”

Ella bowed again and turned around without saying goodbye. Tandie watched the girl bounce away, skipping down the driveway until she turned and disappeared behind the trees.

“Do people around here not believe in cars?” Tandie wondered aloud. And then, she turned and walked back in to Chelby Rose. “What a strange girl.”

Tandie walked into the hallway and paused. A drip-drop echoed through the house. It appeared to be coming from the kitchen, yet again. Rolling her eyes upward, she trudged toward the noise. Even though the tape she’d wrapped around the faucet was still in place, a steady drip still managed to escape through a slit at the bottom.

“I don’t believe this,” Tandie said, fighting an urge to do some true damage to the valve.

She spent about an hour trying a host of other solutions that the thick orange do-it-yourself repair book proposed. Saul still hadn’t returned either of the two messages she’d left for him about the issue. Maybe if she called and told him the house was floating away then he’d move faster.

“All right. The book says I need some
Stop Leak
. So guess what you leaky little thing? It’s time for me to head into town,” Tandie said, feeling odd for scolding a faucet.

Trudging through the hallway, she grabbed her handbag off the desk sitting beside the living room door. She headed toward the front door, yanked it open, and screamed. The woman she almost collided with screamed too—her best friend, Frieda Tyson.

* * *

“Girl, you scared the crap out of me. I thought you were a ghost or some crazy ass thing like that.” Frieda pulled Tandie into a tight embrace that winded her.

At 5’9” tall, she was a healthy woman, with an equally strong embrace. The two women were opposites in both style and appearance. Frieda, with her exotic dark skin, made you think of the Nubian goddess statues found in the Harlem museums. She towered over Tandie’s pudgy 5’5” frame. Frieda was elected to the homecoming court twice and the guys flocked to her like bees. Tandie preferred the quiet calm of the library, the nerd in their group. Add to that oddness a pair of bi-colored eyes (one light brown and one green pupil) a mixture of races: an Egyptian mother and a Black mixed with Lumbee Indian father, and you have a girl that was nicknamed Miss Metropolitan Ice Cream in high school because of all of that. Her grandma used to say that her “curvy” body and reddish undertones were compliments of her heritage and that she should be proud of her buffalo butt.

“Just look at you! Gorgeous as usual. I hate you so much right now,” Frieda mocked and then burst out in laughter.

The perfume she’d doused herself with reminded Tandie of a flower garden just the way it always did. Frieda, a sex therapist, was a hippy woman. Still without kids, she and her tax attorney husband, Dom, travelled all over the world. Frieda always made sure she sent plenty of pictures back to Tandie, making her yearn for just a touch of the exciting lifestyle her friend had found. Being in Frieda’s presence ignited the ache in her chest. If there were one person Tandie could be herself with, then she was the one.

Tandie clucked her teeth. “What about you with your designer duds? And look at those fingers filled with rings. I think that hater feeling is mutual.”

“Let me get real, girlfriend. How are you, baby? Are you feeling all right?” She placed an arm across Tandie’s shoulders, staring deep into her eyes.

Walking into her study, Tandie contemplated the best way to answer her friend’s question. “Let’s see, other than trying to accept my new status as plumber, I’m dealing with things.” She glanced at the picture of Breena sitting on her writing desk.

“This house is ancient. What did you expect? I’m so mad you haven’t called me until now. Don’t you know how much I love you?” Frieda said. Before Tandie answered her she continued talking at a break neck pace.
 
”This little water-hole town is so strange. You can’t be too quiet around here. I won’t have a clue as to whether you’re truly gone or not. I don’t understand why you just didn’t move back to Castle Hayne. Your grandmother’s house is still there.”

“I can’t even get a word in edgewise,” Tandie finally managed to say as Frieda took a breath.

Her friend placed two fingers on her lips. “Sorry, baby. This little water hole is strange. I worry about you out here all by yourself.”

Thinking about her grandmother’s old house made Tandie’s skin crawl. More specifically, memories of the thing in the woods behind that house haunted her thoughts. She’d never forget the day she got lost in the swampy woods or the terrible events that followed. To forget about that tragic time,
the day her babysitter and one of her friends disappeared, was
one of the main reasons she moved to New York with Jack.

“There are maybe 200 people living in this town. What could possibly happen?” Tandie asked.

“Bolivia’s ghosts can happen. I almost didn’t come here tonight. I love you, Tandie, you know that. But I don’t fancy driving around here. In fact, some of my colleagues take an extra twenty minutes just to drive around it. The gas companies must love us, right?”

Tandie nodded absently. “It’s not that bad.” She thought of Saul. She had to admit she found it odd that even Chelby Rose’s former owner didn’t want to live in his family’s home.

“What’s it like living in an old plantation house? Aren’t you scared the ghosts of Old Jacob Atwater and the other slaves might come back to get you?” Frieda asked.

Tandie smirked. “Oh, Frieda, you’re so dramatic. There aren’t any old slave quarters on the premises. If there were then they’re all gone now. Besides, these old houses are rare. Owning one is a privilege. Something to be admired, I would think.”

Frieda smirked. “All right. You might have a point, I guess. But this place still gives me the creeps. Everybody knows the old Chelby house is haunted, which is why I came to get you out of here.”

Tandie frowned. “I just moved in. And I kind of like it here.”

“Not like that. We need a girl’s night away from this ghost house.” Frieda stood and pulled out her keys. “There’s this cute little bar over in Castle Hayne. It’s owned by some friends of mine. We can go there.”

“But I really need some
Stop Leak
.”

Frieda gave her an incredulous look. “Tandie, stop making excuses for why you can’t have fun anymore. Girl we’re only twenty-seven-years-old and you’re about ready to grab the crochet needle and a couple of cats, I think. I know it hurts. I miscarried two years ago. Hell, I still get all teary-eyed when I think about it. But, baby, you have to let life go on. You can’t play the victim forever.” Tears lined Frieda’s eyes. 

“Okay. Let me grab my bag,” Tandie said, blinking back hers.

“Uh, you need to change. There is no way I’ll be seen with you wearing your grandma’s gear to a club,” Frieda said, eyeing Tandie’s floral patterned dress. “I want you to grab some jeans, a sexy shirt, a smile, and some courage. No questions. Now, get to it.”

“Yes, Mama Frieda.” Tandie said and headed up the stairs to change.