Barbara L. Clanton - 1 - Art for Art's Sake Read online

  “Yeah, that would be awesome. It’d be nice not to have to, you know, start completely over.” Meredith laughed to herself because she had spent the last year and a half wanting to get away from all things Whickett High School. Going west across the state to Syracuse University was part of that plan, the plan where no one would know her. She still wanted to start over, but a friend like Dani in a new school would be nice. Dani put the truck in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. They headed toward the old painted lady which was a few blocks down Center Street.

  Dani opened the drive gate, jumped back into the truck, and pulled the pickup all the way up the long driveway. Meredith looked back and made sure they’d left enough room for Esther and Millie’s car.

  Dani asked, “Should we wait here or go in?”

  “Well, I don’t think Esther and Millie are here yet. I mean, I don’t see another car.” Meredith shivered from the cold and made the decision. “Yeah, let’s go inside, but let’s wait on the first floor. It’s still their house, after all.”

  “That sounds cool.” Dani looked down at Mikey who’d finally figured out how to unbuckle his seatbelt. “Hey, Mikey, want to go in the scary house?”

  Meredith shot Dani a look, but Dani had already turned away from her to hop out of the truck. Meredith hoped Mikey would be okay inside the scawey house.

  Meredith said to Mikey, “It’s okay. Dani and I went inside once, and it wasn’t scary at all. It was nice. You should see the big fireplaces. Do you want to go see?”

  “Okay, c’mon.” He pushed his sister so she would open the passenger door and let him out.

  “Okay, okay, pushy Mikey.” She opened the door and pulled her coat tighter around her. Meredith grabbed her brother’s right hand while Dani reached for his left. They walked like that for a few yards, but then Mikey suddenly pulled his hands together so Meredith’s and Dani’s hands touched. He let go and said, “Dani hold Mewey. Dani hold Mewey.” He laughed and laughed and ran ahead of them toward the front door.

  As Meredith pulled her hand away, she was surprised to see the look of panic in Dani’s eyes. She rolled her eyes for Dani’s benefit. “He’s crazy. C’mon, we’d better catch up to him. The railing’s gone on the front porch. Remember?”

  Dani cleared her throat. “Okay.”

  Mikey tried and tried to open the front door, but his gloved hands spun around and around the knob.

  “Hey, Mikey, we need the key.” Dani leaned the heavy flower pot back with one hand and reached under with the other. She held up the key. “See? You put the key into the lock like this.” Dani turned the key and let the door swing open slowly.

  Meredith grimaced at the slow, steady squeak of the hinges.

  Dani must have seen the grimace. “I know. It’s still creepy, isn’t it?”

  Meredith nodded and followed her brother and Dani into the house.

  Meredith fanned her nose. “Oh, my God. It stinks like cigarettes in here. Do Esther and Millie smoke?”

  “I don’t know. I hope not, but you’re right, it’s kind of gross. I don’t remember this bad smell last time.”

  Meredith shook her head.

  Dani shrugged. “Well, at least it’s warmer inside.”

  “Yeah, I’m glad about that.” Meredith walked into the sitting room, and Mikey followed her. “Hey, Mikey, let me turn up the heat and then we’ll look at the fireplace.” At the mention of the word fireplace, Mikey let go of his sister’s hand and scurried into the fireplace.

  Meredith laughed. “Or you could go now.” She moved the lever on the thermostat to sixty-eight degrees.

  Mikey tipped his head and stood up inside the fireplace. As they waited for the two older women to arrive, Mikey made sure Dani and Meredith saw him in the fireplace at least a half dozen times.

  Meredith took a couple of pictures on the first floor. She walked to the window in the sitting room and looked out over the auto parts store. She frowned. How sad it must have been for them to see their neighborhood turn into stores and traffic. Progress isn’t always, she thought with a sigh.

  “Hey, Merry,” Dani called from the bottom stair.

  Meredith raised an eyebrow. “Um...‘Merry’?”

  Dani shrugged. “I don’t know. It sounds so cute when Mikey calls you that.”

  “Okay, but don’t let anyone at school hear you call me that.” She grinned and rolled her eyes.

  “Sure thing…Merry.” Dani’s eyes were playful. “Let’s go check out the kitchen. I think it’s in the back of the house.” She pointed behind her.

  “Sounds good. Hey, Mikey? Get out of the fireplace and come check out the kitchen with us.”

  From inside the sitting room they heard an “okay” echo off the stone. Mikey came running into the front foyer. “Okay, Mewey, c’mon.” He grabbed her hand and started to lead her back toward the sitting room. He stopped in his tracks and said, “Where go?”

  Meredith and Dani laughed, and Meredith steered him back around toward the kitchen. The door to the kitchen swung both ways on its hinges, like a door found in the kitchen of a busy restaurant. It was also one of those doors that could knock you out if you didn’t pay attention.

  Both Meredith and Dani stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the mess. Beer cans covered the kitchen counters and floor. The cigarette stench overwhelmed their nostrils. Whoever had smoked the cigarettes couldn’t find ashtrays, but had at least used make-shift tin foil ashtrays instead.

  Meredith let go of Mikey’s hand to inspect the damage more closely. The sink was loaded up with balled up shop towels like the ones her father used in the garage. An empty pizza box sat discarded on the counter. “What happened in here? This is gross.” She picked up a couple of the beer cans from the floor and put them on the counter. “Do Millie and Esther drink beer?”

  “I don’t know, but this is way too much beer for just two people.” Dani reached down and picked up one of the foil ashtrays. “This is really weird. If we were real detectives we could send these to the lab and get DNA samples and then we’d know who had this party.”

  Mikey reached for the other foil ashtray.

  “Cigarettes are foul, right dude?” Dani picked up the other ashtray and put them both in a high cupboard out of his reach.

  Mikey whined, but Dani said, “You don’t want to get that stuff on your hands, Mikey. It’s gross.” To Meredith she said, “Maybe a few kids got in and, I don’t know, had a party or something.”

  “Sure looks like it.” Meredith felt a small prickle at the base of her spine. She wondered if Dani was thinking the same thing she was. “Dani?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think it was those guys?”

  “What guys?”

  “You know. Those guys from the auto parts store that night.” Meredith enlisted Mikey’s help picking up beer cans to get his mind off the cigarettes.

  “Oh, yeah. They were smoking, weren’t they?” Dani walked to the back door. “And, look. This lock is busted open— probably with a crow bar. Kids don’t usually carry crow bars when they go out to party.”

  Meredith stacked the beer cans far back on the counter so Mikey couldn’t reach them. “I’m just glad Esther and Millie weren’t here when they broke in.”

  Dani said seriously, “Do you think they were in the house that last time we came here?” Her eyes were wide.

  Meredith felt another prickle at the base of her spine. “Oh, my God, Dani. I don’t know. We didn’t smell cigarettes last time, though. What do you think?”

  Dani shook her head. “That front door didn’t open itself.”

  “See? I told you I closed it tight.”

  “I know you did. I heard it click shut. And I still had the house key in my pocket, but I didn’t want to make you even more scared than you already were.” Dani’s tone was gentle.

  Meredith was grateful Dani had been so thoughtful. “I think I’m going to take all the pictures we need today and never come back. Ever.” Meredith put the la
st of the cans on the counter.

  “I hear you,” Dani muttered.

  Mikey strained to reach the cupboard for the cigarettes since he could still see them through the clear glass. Meredith gently pushed his hand away. “Mikey, no.” She looked at the tray of cigarette butts and said, “Hey, Dani, look at these. Does something look weird to you?”

  Dani came over and looked closely. “Yeah, you’re right. Something’s not right.”

  Meredith pulled out one of the makeshift ashtrays. She nodded her head quickly. “Wait, I know. My grandfather used to mash his cigarettes out in the ashtray. These look like they were left to burn out on their own.”

  “Yeah,” Dani added as if she, too, realized the same thing. “You’re right. They don’t look smoked. Look at the long cylindrical ashes. And, look at this one.” She pointed to one that hadn’t quite burned all the way down.

  “It looks like they were lit and left to burn.” She felt a small prickle of fear run the full length up her spine.

  Just then, they heard the front door open and Millie call, “Yoo hoo. Are you girls here?”

  Dani called out, “Yeah, we’re in the kitchen.”

  “Are you smoking in here?” Millie called.

  “No, not us,” Dani called back.

  When Esther and Millie opened the swinging door, Dani put both hands up and said, “It wasn’t us. We found it this way.”

  Millie looked instantly upset. She picked up an empty beer can off the counter and set it down again. She looked at Esther, who stood in the doorway leaning heavily on her walker, obviously tired from the trek up the driveway. “Esther, someone has violated our painted lady.”

  Meredith went to the back door. “They broke the lock.”

  Millie patted Meredith on the arm and said, “Honey, we can fix this.” She turned to Esther who still stood in the doorway. “I think I need to come by here more often.”

  With effort, Esther used the walker to shuffle into the kitchen. “Yes, that’s probably a good idea, dearest.”

  “Dani,” Meredith said, “why don’t you and Mikey go get those plastic chairs from the upstairs balcony?”

  “Good idea. C’mon, Mikey, let’s get the chairs and then you can show Esther and Millie how you fit in the fireplace, okay?”

  “Okay.” He reached for her hand and pulled her out the door. “C’mon.”

  Millie and Esther laughed. Esther said, “He’s darling.”

  “I’m sorry. I should have introduced you. That’s Mikey, my brother. I hope it was okay to bring him. He loves being with Dani.”

  Millie rinsed out another beer can and said to Meredith, “You, too, I imagine.”

  “Millie!” Esther scolded.

  Meredith felt herself blush. Why did Millie have to make comments like that about her and Dani? Millie was complicated, very complicated, Meredith decided.

  Millie smiled and focused on the beer cans. “I’m going to take these back to the store and get the five cent deposit for each and every one. I should make…,” she counted the beer cans, “a whole dollar twenty.”

  Esther shuffled over to the broken lock. “Millie, you’d better get on down to the hardware store and get a new lock, too.”

  “Yeah, I’ll take Dani with me. I’m sure she’s handy with tools.” Millie winked at Meredith.

  Yes, Meredith thought, Millie was complicated, indeed.

  Before Millie and Dani left, they examined the broken lock and the splintered wood around it for a good ten minutes. The wood needed some metal plating for reinforcement in case the hoodlums, as Millie called them, came back.

  While Millie and Dani were out getting a new lock for the back door, Meredith and Esther looked over the old photographs. Meredith reached down into the cardboard box between their chairs and pulled out another photo album. “These pictures are wonderful. Thank you so much for letting us borrow them. Dani has a scanner she’ll use to make digital copies and as soon as she does that we can get these pictures right back to you.”

  Esther patted Meredith’s hand. “That’s fine, honey. You go ahead and keep them as long as you like. It’s nice that someone’s taken an interest in our old house. I’m anxious to get the Randall-Bradley House going. We’ve got a few more things like zoning to work out, but once we do that, this old house is going to become part of the Women Helping Women Network. Millie found out about it a few years ago. It’s a nationwide network of homes for women.”

  “That’s so cool.” Meredith rubbed her hands together. “Thanks for turning the heat up even more. I think I can finally take off my coat. Hey, Mikey Bikey,” Meredith called to her brother. Mikey had taken to tromping up and down the stairs after showing Esther over and over again how he could stand in the fireplace. “Do you want to take off your coat?”

  “Okay.” He bounded back down the stairs and stood in front of his sister with arms spread out.

  Meredith laughed and said, “You can unzip your own coat.”

  “Okay.” He grabbed the zipper and pulled down hard, but it didn’t budge. He tried several times, but the zipper just wouldn’t go down. He groaned in frustration.

  “Here, let me help you.” Meredith reached over to grab the zipper, fearful that Mikey’s whines would bother Esther.

  Mikey shouted, “No,” and flopped to the ground. He scooted across the floor on his backside to the fireplace and then turned away from them so he could work at the zipper by himself. After several long and nerve-wracking minutes for Meredith, he finally got the zipper undone.

  “Hooray, Mikey,” Esther congratulated him.

  “That’s awesome.” Meredith gave him a thumbs-up. “Can you hang your coat over the railing?” He was obviously confused so Meredith got up and draped her own coat over the stair railing. He put his coat right next to hers.

  Esther stood up and took off her coat as well. Mikey came up to her and said, “Hang up.” He reached for Esther’s coat.

  Esther smiled and said, “Why, yes, young man, you can hang up my coat for me. Thank you very much.” Mikey smiled and ran to the railing where he flung Esther’s coat next to his own.

  Meredith said, “Sorry about Mikey’s little outburst. I think he’s tired. He’s probably hungry, too.”

  “Oh, he’s fine, honey. Don’t worry.”

  Just then, loud footsteps sounded on the porch. Esther’s face lit up. “That’s my Millie. I’ve missed that step on the porch.”

  She was right. The front door to the house opened wide, and Millie yelled, “Lunch is ready.” She held out a bucket of fried chicken.

  Dani came in behind Millie with several bags from the hardware store and the Price Chopper grocery store.

  Esther’s face lit up into a huge grin. “You got lunch? How sweet. Dearest, we don’t have any plates or silverware.”

  Dani held out a Price Chopper bag. “We took care of that. We got paper plates, plastic utensils, napkins, big trash bags for our lunch trash and for the, uh, debris in the kitchen.”

  Meredith got up and took the chicken bucket and the other fast food bags from them. “Thanks for getting the food, you guys. Hey, Mikey, look. Dani and Millie brought us lunch. Say thank you.”

  Mikey ran to Dani and hugged her around the middle. “Thank, Dani.”

  “You’re welcome, dude.”

  “Welcome, dude.” He giggled.

  “Thank Millie, too,” Meredith directed.

  Mikey let go of Dani and ran over to Millie as if to give her a big hug, too, but he stopped short and looked up at her. He said shyly, “Thank, Mill.”

  Millie laughed. “You’re welcome, young one.” To Meredith she said, “He doesn’t know me well enough, I guess.”

  Meredith nodded and smiled.

  “Hey, dude.” Dani reached into one of the grocery bags. “I’ve got something else for you.”

  “Okay.” He came over and took the book Dani offered him. “Thank, Dani.” He sat cross-legged on the floor and opened up his new book.

  Meredith l
ooked at Dani questioningly. Dani said, “Oh, we were in Price Chopper and I saw one of those Harry, Dog Spy books and thought he might like it. That was okay, wasn’t it?”

  “More than okay,” Meredith said relieved. “This’ll give him something to do. Thanks.” She took the plastic wrap off the paper plates, then unwrapped the stack of paper napkins. While they ate, Meredith told Dani all about the pictures Esther was lending them for their project.

  After their quick meal, Dani and Millie went into the kitchen to start repairs while Mikey settled in on the floor near his sister to read his new book. He was so absorbed in his book that Meredith and Esther were able to look at more photos uninterrupted. Meredith saw pictures of Esther as a young girl, Esther’s family, and the house when it was much newer. The house had been splendid in its day. At one point in the parade of pictures, she got a sense of the time period when Millie entered Esther’s life. She couldn’t help but smile because Millie and Esther were obviously great friends.

  Esther closed the last of the photo albums and sat back in the resin chair. “Oh, I’m going to miss this old house, but time marches on, and Millie and I need to pare it down a bit. I know that once I see the Randall-Bradley house opened and helping people, I’ll be okay. You girls have been so helpful. Millie and I missed out not having children.” She laughed loudly. “Maybe we can adopt you two, but I guess you’d have to be our grandchildren at this point. Can you adopt grandchildren?”

  Meredith smiled. “We’d love to have, uh, adopted grandmothers. That’s sweet. I think it’s awesome what you and Millie want to do with the house. I want to give you a gift for the Randall-Bradley House, if you and Millie are willing, that is.”

  “Oh?”

  “I want to, um, paint your portraits for the front hallway.” She pointed toward the front door. “You know, somewhere in the entryway.”

  “Meredith, oh my.” Esther put a hand on Meredith’s arm. “That would be so nice. Let’s tell Millie. I need to get up and walk a little bit, anyway.”