Harbinger in the Mist (Arms of Serendipity) (4 page)

They walked up the twisting stairway and onto the second story landing. For the first time, Mr. Jones wasn’t rambling on and on. The only sounds were those of their footsteps echoing through the empty house. Mr. Jones obviously didn’t exercise because he was panting and out of breath as they reached the top of the stairs. Lindsey wondered if a bride had ever walked down those stairs to the tune of Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.”

“These two front rooms,” Mr. Jones motioned to his left and right at the top of the stairs with one hand and wiped sweat from his brown with the other, “are identical to the bedroom downstairs with the exception of the bathroom. The second door on the left is a full bath and the second door on the right is where you’ll find the laundry room and linen closet. Now, there are two Master Bedrooms. They take up the entire back of the floor. They, too, are identical, just mirrored.”

They entered the bedroom in the far right corner of the landing. It was massive. Mr. Jones made a point to show them the large radius head window that framed a perfect view of the ACE Basin. (As if they needed it pointed out.) The 12-foot ceilings he’d mentioned in passing earlier were much more impressive up here. Lindsey left them in the room and went into its twin. It, too, was massive and has its own curved window and view. This would be her room. It called to her. She already knew where she’d put her bed – near the window so that she could see the sun set each day – as well as her dresser, Gramma’s old hope chest, the TV, and whatnots.

There were two doors along the inside wall. One was a closet, the other a bathroom.

Oh, the bathroom! It would be a haven all its own. On the left, a large claw foot tub with brushed nickel feet and fixtures sat in the corner under another large, rounded window. The tub looked antique on the outside, but whirlpool jets were visible inside it. The window ledge was large enough to hold candles and bubble bath. She smiled at the thought of what her mom would think when she saw hers. A shower stall, the only modern looking piece, took up the other corner. On the right sat a large vanity, sink, and toilet. Like the tub, the lights and fixtures were all brushed nickel.

“Lindsey? Linds?  Mr. Jones and I are going to wrap things up. You ready to go check out the hospital and the school?” asked her mom from the bedroom, breaking her reflection.

“Yeah, Mom. I’m coming!”

Aimee poked her head into the room. “Amazing isn’t it?” she asked.

“Oh mom. This is right out of romance novel! What do you think? I know I wasn’t enthusiastic before and I know it’s a little big for us, but I love it!”

“I was thinking the same thing. I think this is what we need – to get away from Indiana, to be in a place where we have room to breathe and move… a place where we can think things through. Come on down when you’re ready. We’ll be out on the front porch. With a little luck, we’ll be living here by month’s end. It all hinges on me being able to seal the deal today at the hospital.”

Lindsey walked around the room, imagining it full of her stuff. She walked over to the window and thought about whether or not to leave the windows as they were or to hang curtains. As she watched the gently flowing waters of the Basin, a snowy egret swooped down over the water and landed in the reed bank. There were no street lights that she’d seen anywhere near the property, so she anticipated the view of the night sky and the reflection of the moon and stars on the estuary waters.

“So, what do
you
think?” She took Serendipity, the little pony from her lunch, out of her purse. She made sure the tail was still intact and then set it on the ledge of the window. “You think this would be a good home for us?”

She was so lost in thought that she was startled when she heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway again. Muffled steps clomped to the door to her room and stopped. Then she heard a second, lighter set of feet echoing on the landing. They, too, stopped just outside her door. After a moment, the second person headed back downstairs.

Lindsey sighed. She must’ve been up here lost in thought way too long and the lawyer and her mom had come to get her. But why didn’t they say anything? Why did her mom just turn and go back downstairs. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to interrupt her reverie. She hadn’t heard the lawyer retreat so, reluctantly, she turned, fully expecting to see Mr. Jones standing in the doorway. He wasn’t.
That’s odd
, she thought. He was probably in one of the other rooms.

She figured it was time to go and headed toward the door. Before she stepped out of the room, she looked at Serendipity and said, “Watch out for my room, girl. I’ll see you soon.” She turned and left the little pony sitting on the windowsill.

“Sorry, Mom,” she said as she walked out on the front porch moments later. She was surprised that both her mother and the lawyer were there; she could’ve sworn that she’d left him upstairs somewhere since she hadn’t heard him retreat back down the stairs behind her mom. Then she remembered that Catherine the cleaning lady was probably still roaming about the house, so she didn’t say anything.

“It’s alright, honey. We’re just finishing up,”Aimee said as she signed a paper, flipped several papers back on top of it, and handed the stack back to Mr. Jones. “How do we get to the hospital from here? We’d like to see the college as well.”

“Oh, it’s a short drive. Walterboro’s a cozy little town, hard to get lost in once you know the main roads. I highly recommend you also go over to the Artisans Center and introduce yourself to Ms. Darby Boone. She’s lived here forever, since she was born, I believe. We kind of think of her as the unofficial welcoming committee. She can tell you anything you need to know and help you get settled here in this great town of ours. Tell her I sent you.”

Mr. Jones drew them a map on the back of their copy of the papers that he and Aimee had been signing. He nonchalantly passed the map to Aimee and bid her farewell. Aimee turned and locked the heavy wood door before they headed down to their car.

After Lindsey and her mom were buckled in, Lindsey asked, “What were y’all signing, Mom? Are we for sure keeping the house? What if you don’t like the hospital? What if you don’t get the job?”

“Well, I’m 99.9% sure that I have the job, honey. I’ve been talking to and emailing Ms. Radke about the position. She’s already checked my references and seems really excited that we’re down here this weekend. I think that this meeting later today is just a formality so that we can hash out some minor details.”

“
Mo – om!
How could you not tell me something like that? I’m so happy for you!”

“Well, I wanted to wait to see if you like the area and such. But while we are on the topic of things that have been kept secret, I want to talk to you about a habit you’ve apparently picked up. Now I know that you’re 18 and out of high school. And I know that this situation has to be stressful on you. You may legally be an adult, but while you’re living in the house with me, there will be no smoking.”

As they headed back down the dusty drive, Lindsey furrowed her brow, laughed once, and said, “Um, OK Mom. I don’t smoke but I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Lindsey, I smelled smoke when I came up to get you. I didn’t say anything then, but I can’t
not
say anything now. I’m your mother and I love you. I don’t want to see you addicted to cigarettes. As a nurse, I’ve seen what those things can do to your lungs and heart. Those things kill, Lindsey.”

“Mom, I wasn’t smoking! I swear! It was probably that wheezing lawyer.”

After a few moments of silence, Aimee finally apologized for jumping to conclusions. She agreed that it was probably the lawyer, that he probably had a light before they arrived and that the cigarette smoke had simply lingered in the hallway.

Five minutes later they were talking excitedly about the potential of the new house as they wove their way into the heart of Walterboro searching for a hospital, a college, and a woman named Darby Boone.

Back in Retreat house, a certain pony toy had been lifted from the windowsill and was dancing about the floor in the second master bedroom under the power of hands unseen.

Three

“Lindsey, darling, I thought your momma would like this. It’s a Lorrie Gunn original that I managed to snag at a bargain price. Where do you think she’d want it? Over the fireplace or over the sofa?”

Darby stood in the living room holding a framed painting of a house very much like the one in which they were standing. A skeletal tree stood in the forefront of the canvas, its branches hung ominously over the house and the path leading up to its front door. The artwork was dark but utterly intriguing.

Lindsey looked from the painting to Darby face, acutely aware of the woman’s questioning gaze. “It’s beautiful. Who was the artist again? Lorrie, who?”

“Lorrie Gunn. She’s one of the Southeast’s most promising talents. She did a tour of places around here about a year ago and was quite taken with Retreat House. She painted this after her visit. She recently bought a house over on Edisto Island and offered a few of her pieces to the Artisans Center. I managed to cut a deal with her and bought it for y’all as your welcoming present. It only seemed fittin’ that it should hang here after all.”

“That was sweet,” Lindsey smiled. “How about over there where Mom told the movers to put the sofa? If she doesn’t want it there she can move it later.”

“Well alrighty then,” Darby said in her old South drawl, an accent which was not one of ignorance, but of an affluent era gone by. She certainly matched this house.

Lindsey sighed. The move had taken two days and she was honestly too tired to think about where she thought artwork should be hung at the moment, but she couldn’t bring herself to be mean to the elderly lady. Darby had been a God-send to her and her mom. From the first moment they met her, she took them under her wing and guided them through the preparations for the move.

As they packed back in Bremen, Darby went through the pain of getting both the power and water turned on, brought over her own little TV so the satellite guy could wire the house, and stocked their fridge with some much-needed basics. She even started the paperwork for the address change, license and tags at the DMV, and helped enroll Lindsey at USC-Salkehatchie – the local satellite campus for the University of South Carolina.  Talk about Southern hospitality!

Darby had been standing on the porch with the twin girls from next door when Lindsey and her mom drove up behind the moving truck this morning.  She didn’t seem to have any family around, so the town had become her life. At only 5-foot-tall, and weighing no more than 100 pounds, she had incredibly smooth skin and thick, straight, cotton white hair that just brushed the top of her shoulders before curling under. Lindsey didn’t know what her secret was, but she had seen women half Darby’s age in much worse shape.

Maddie and Michelle were the opposite of Darby. Both girls towered over her by at least six inches. And while not identical, both girls had long, black hair, tanned complexions, and large brown eyes.

Lindsey went back to unpacking her box of wires and electronics – DVD player, VCR, cables, and such.

Darby pulled a step stool over to the wall and proceeded to climb it with the framed print in one hand, hammer in the other, and a nail between her teeth. She hammered the nail in the wall, each of her five heavy swings echoed around the large, mostly empty room. She hung the print, walked to the middle of the room and looked at it, then adjusted it so that it hung straight. She moved to the box marked “lamps/candles” and ripped the tape from the lid. In the kitchen, Lindsey could hear the twins stacking plates and whispering incoherently to each other.

The doorbell rang about an hour later, causing Lindsey to jump. She heard the door open, her mother greet the unknown person warmly, and another female voice welcoming her to the neighborhood.

“Well hi, there! I'm Barbara Robbins,” the woman drawled nasally. “Maddie and Michelle, my daughters you see, said that you were just moving in and I thought that you might be too tired to make lunch. So I took the liberty of fixin’ y’all a little somethin.’ I hope you like meatloaf because this one is hot outta the oven. I got some fixin's to go with it and an apple pie, too, for you and your girl.”

Darby seemed unsurprised by this latest visitor and went back to screwing the shade on a lamp. Lindsey was looking around curiously and the twins were peering up from the boxes they were unpacking in the kitchen. Aimee appeared a few moments later with a short, plump woman. Her thick black hair spiraled halfway down her back.

“Why, you must be Lindsey,” she cooed. Her accent was slower and less refined than Darby's. “Look what a purdy thang you are. You look just like your mama. Anyhoo, I brought y’all some lunch you see,” she sat a basket on the counter and began pulling out covered plates. “Y’all been working so hard, you need to eat. And girls,” she turned to the twins, “Daddy wants to know if y’all have the Nolvasan ready in the barn. Wind Dancer is starting to wax so he thinks she might drop that foal anytime now. It’s early, but you never know. You also need to get her some fresh hay and feed in there so don't be too much longer.”