Barbara L. Clanton - 1 - Art for Art's Sake Page 9

  “Oh, I’ve seen better days, my dear, but they tell me my hip wasn’t fractured too badly. It’s not broken all the way through and should heal pretty much on its own. Rudy told me they’re going to start me on physical therapy next week. I can even get around a little with that walker. Hate using it. I’m not old enough for a walker. Am I Millie?”

  “Nope.” She didn’t look up from the crossword.

  “Rudy said I was lucky, but I sure don’t feel lucky. I’ve never tripped like that before, have I Millie?”

  “Nope.”

  “Honestly, I don’t know what happened. I slipped in the front hallway and then tripped over the rug. That’s when I fell. Thank goodness Gregory was up visiting for the weekend. He was such a big help, but he didn’t find anything when he checked around the rug. We were already at Albany Medical by that time. Millie was by my side the whole time. Right, Millie?”

  “Yup.”

  “Anyway,” Esther continued, “they moved me here to Hudson Pines for bed rest and some really fun pain medication. I’ll be here for about two or three weeks. That’s right, Millie, isn’t it?”

  “Yup.”

  Meredith smiled sympathetically at Esther. “Well, we sure hope you feel better soon.”

  “Yeah,” Dani added, “I think there’s a jig you’re supposed to be doing soon, right?”

  Esther laughed. “You girls are fun. So what can we tell you about our old painted lady?”

  Meredith cleared her throat. She wasn’t sure what to ask. Before they left that afternoon, she figured Dani would do all the talking. “Um, can you tell us a little bit about the history of your house? Do you still live there?”

  Dani jotted down notes while Meredith and Esther talked about the house. For almost an hour, Esther Randall, with some help from her friend Millie Bradley, relayed the story of the Victorian House. The Randall House was well over a hundred years old, built in the early 1890’s by Esther’s great grandfather, Charles Bickford Randall. Large tracts of land had once surrounded the property, but as Whickett grew, the property shrank.

  Esther talked about her days as a young girl growing up in Whickett. She had been born in 1936 during the Great Depression, but couldn’t claim to remember much about it. She had been too young. World War II, however, did make a big impression on her, and she told them about her volunteer work collecting nylon stockings, used cooking grease, and old tires for the war effort.

  Meredith found that she wasn’t shy around these two strangers. She wasn’t normally outgoing by nature, but she felt good talking with Esther and Millie. Her self-imposed bindings had loosened a little. She knew it was probably temporary, but she could almost understand why Dani was so perplexed at her introverted nature.

  Meredith asked, “So you inherited the house when your father passed?”

  “Yes. That was a sad time. It was just Daddy and me then. Mama had passed about ten years earlier. My sister Bernice had already moved out and was living downstate in Pearl River. That’s near New Jersey. We never understood why she wanted to live there, but her new husband wanted to be near the city. New York City, that is. So when Daddy passed on, Bernice sold me her share of the house. I was thirty five at the time, and it was right about then I met my Millie. Right, Millie?”

  Meredith thought that Millie had fallen asleep in the armchair, but Millie’s eyes flew open. She leaned forward and poked the air. “Best damn day of my life.”

  “Millie!”

  Millie just smiled and leaned back in the armchair.

  Meredith smiled at Millie and turned to smile at Dani. She was surprised to see Dani grinning like a cat.

  “Anyway, girls,” Esther continued. “We decided after my hip accident that the house was just too big for us. Well, to be honest, we’d been thinking that way for a while now, so my Millie hired some movers to take our things to a two-bedroom first-floor apartment over on Market Street we’d been looking at. It’s one of those over fifty-five housing complexes. I’m sure you’ve never heard of it.”

  Meredith looked sheepish. “I have to say that I haven’t. Sorry.”

  Just then Esther yawned. “Oh, I’m sorry girls. This is my usual nap time.”

  Meredith stood up, “Oh, goodness, we should be going.” Meredith was mortified that they had tired out the convalescing older woman. “Would you mind if we took a couple of quick pictures of you for our project?”

  Esther sat up and smoothed her hair. “Of course you can, honey. I’m not looking my best these days, but, sure, go ahead.” She turned to face Millie. “We have some old pictures of the house the girls can use, don’t we Millie?”

  “Yup. I was going to unpack that box when I got home tonight.”

  Meredith smiled. “Thank you so much, both of you. This will really help our project. We’re putting together a PowerPoint—a kind of slide show—for our class and some old pictures would be perfect.”

  Dani added, “I’ll scan them on my computer and get your pictures back to you right away.”

  Meredith pulled her coat off the back of the fold-up chair and patted down the pockets for her digital camera. “Oh, shoot. I think I left my camera in the truck. Let me go—”

  “I’ll get it.” Dani sprang to her feet. “I’ll be right back.” She grabbed her letterman’s jacket and shrugged it on as she bolted from the room.

  Millie leaned forward and gestured toward the open door. She said to Meredith, “She’s quite a catch.”

  “Millie!” Esther reprimanded.

  “Cute, too.” Millie teased. “Those pretty blue eyes. That golden blond hair. I used to have hair like that. Okay, I was six at the time, but still.”

  “Don’t mind Millie,” Esther said to Meredith. “What she means is that you’re very lucky to have such an attentive girlfriend.”

  Meredith cleared her throat and asked, “What do you mean?”

  Millie gestured at the chairs. “Well, she put your chair out for you. She let you introduce yourself first and waited in the background. Then she jumps up and runs.” She turned to Esther. “Did you see her run?”

  “Reminds me of you, Millie.”

  Millie smiled and looked back at Meredith. “Yeah, she’s a keeper all right. I have an intuition about these things.”

  Meredith’s confusion must have shown because Esther changed the subject with a nervous laugh. “Did we tell you about our plans for the house?”

  “Uh, no. No, you didn’t.” Meredith was relieved the subject had turned.

  “Millie and I want to renovate the house into a sanctuary for women who need help getting back on their feet.” She looked at Millie with hopeful eyes. “Oh, Millie, I hope we can pull this off.”

  “We’ll do it, Esther, we’ll do it.”

  Just then Dani raced back into the room, out of breath. She handed the camera to Meredith.

  Meredith thanked her and took the camera out of its case. “We took some pictures of the house last weekend. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Esther said, “No, of course not, honey. You girls take as many pictures as you like. Millie, do you still have a key under the flower pot?”

  “Yup.”

  Esther looked back at them. “If you girls want to take a good look inside, Millie keeps a key hidden under the clay pot on the front landing. Go ahead and let yourself in anytime you want. The heat’s on, but set low, so turn it up when you get inside. Just remember to turn it back down when you leave.”

  Meredith couldn’t believe that Miss Randall and Miss Bradley would tell virtual strangers where they kept the key to their house hidden. Meredith tried to keep her disbelief from showing. “No one lives there now?”

  “No, honey. I haven’t been there since my hip, and Millie hasn’t been there in weeks, either.”

  “That’s probably why it looked so lonely the other day.” Meredith smiled sympathetically.

  Millie frowned. “It’s lonely without my Esther and with the furniture gone. It gives me the heebie jeebies. That’s why
I stay away.”

  “I live here at majestic Hudson Pines for now. Millie’s at our new place on Market Street with all our things. Well, we had to put some of the bigger furniture in storage, but no one’s at the house to bother you, so you girls go ahead and take all the pictures you need.”

  “Thank you both so much.” Meredith put a hand to her heart. “I promise we’ll take good care of your painted lady.”

  Millie stood up and said, “Hey, anything for a sister.”

  “Millie!”

  Meredith had no idea what Millie meant by her comment, she just laughed at the silly antics of the two older women. She smiled and turned on her camera. “Here are the pictures we took of your house the other night. She stood up and leaned toward the older woman in the bed. Millie, already standing, leaned in from the other side. Dani moved in behind Meredith to look over her shoulder.

  Meredith said, “We haven’t even looked at them ourselves.” When Meredith scrolled to the last picture, she laughed. “I took this one just before the banister broke and Dani fell off the landing.”

  “I’ll pay for it,” Dani said quickly.

  Esther reached for Dani. “Don’t worry about that, honey. Are you all right?” Esther didn’t wait for an answer and turned to Millie. “See? I told you that old place is cursed. The old painted lady reached out and hurt this child, too.”

  “Pah,” Millie said. “The old painted lady is just old. She’s not cursed.”

  While Esther and Millie bantered back and forth, Meredith looked more closely at the photograph. She held the camera out so Dani could see the image. They looked at each other wide-eyed.

  Meredith whispered, “Is that a face in the window?”

  Chapter Seven

  The Old Painted Lady

  THE TRIP FROM the Hudson Pines Senior Center to Esther Randall and Millie Bradley’s Victorian house took them ten minutes. Meredith felt bad staying warm in the truck while Dani pulled up the metal latch holding the drive gate shut, but Dani jumped out of the truck as soon as they pulled into the small length of driveway in front of the gate. Dani walked the gate open and pushed the metal rod into the ground so it wouldn’t swing shut as they drove through. Dani turned and gave Meredith a thumbs-up. Meredith smiled but motioned for Dani to get back into the truck quickly.

  Dani opened the driver’s side door and jumped back in. “What’s the hurry? Esther and Millie said we could check out the house any time we wanted to.” She pulled the truck up the long narrow driveway alongside the old house.

  “I know, but it’s getting dark, and I don’t want to be around this house in the dark.” Meredith shivered. “I still say that was a face in the window of that picture.”

  “Maybe it was a trick of the light, or...”

  “Or what?”

  With an evil laugh, Dani said, “Or maybe the house is cursed.”

  “Danielle Lassiter. You cut that out. That’s not funny.” Meredith crossed her arms.

  “Okay, okay.” Dani’s voice took on a more serious tone. “I was just kidding. By the way, my middle name is Anne. It sounds more threatening if you say ‘Danielle Anne Lassiter’ like my mom does when she’s pissed at me.”

  “Well,” Meredith said unfolding her arms, “Miss Danielle Anne Lassiter, I suggest we get going, because the light is fading fast. So, chop, chop. Let’s go.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Dani put the truck in park and turned off the engine. She opened her door and hopped out. Meredith met her in front of the truck.

  “Can you go see if that key is up there? I’m going to wait here. Just in case.”

  “Chicken.” Dani laughed. Her feet crunched the frozen grass as she took a short cut from the driveway to the front porch. The house stood higher than the surrounding buildings giving it a look of superiority over the rest of Center Street.

  The late afternoon shadows reminded Meredith of the scare they had the first time they checked out the house. The loud bang, the face in the window—maybe someone had been trying to scare them.

  What was taking her so long? Meredith tried to keep the nerves out of her voice when she called, “Dani? Is it there?”

  “Yeah, right here. C’mon up.”

  Meredith steeled herself and headed toward the house. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, c’mon.”

  “Do you really think we should? I mean, shouldn’t we wait until Miss Randall or Miss Bradley is here? It’s their house, after all.”

  “Meredith, c’mon. They gave us permission to look around, and it’ll be great for our project. I know you’re scared, but they said that no one will be here and...”

  “What?”

  “Well, after meeting them, I kind of wanted to see where they lived. I want to see what their life was like in their old painted lady. You know?”

  Meredith took comfort in that because she, too, was curious about the two older women and their house. “Okay, let’s go before I change my mind, but let’s not break anything this time, okay?” She attempted a smile and pointed to the banister lying on the front lawn.

  “Go ahead. Rub that in.” Dani smiled back.

  They turned toward the front door and looked through the windows flanking it. Meredith heard Dani exhale loudly. Meredith smiled. Dani was nervous, too.

  Dani said, “Looks clear. No ghosts.”

  Meredith smacked her playfully on the arm. “Just unlock it.”

  Dani unlocked the heavy wooden door and pushed it. The door swung open wide into the front foyer. The slow squeak of the hinges made Meredith cringe. The eerie sound was something from a horror movie.

  They crossed over the threshold in silence. Once inside, Meredith closed the massive door making sure it latched tightly against the cold. Inside the house, a warm, homey feeling enveloped her. The house had been loved. She was sure of it. She looked to the left. “Hey, look at this room. This must have been the sitting room where Miss Randall and Miss Bradley entertained their guests.”

  “Esther and Millie.”

  “I can’t call them that. It seems, I don’t know, disrespectful somehow.”

  “They insisted we call them that when we were leaving just now.”

  “I know, but—wow, look at this fireplace.” The decorative stone and wooden mantle were in such good condition they looked brand new. “I bet they had wonderful evenings sitting in here by the fire.”

  “Yeah, Esther knitting and Millie...hmm, what would Millie be doing?”

  “Smoking her pipe,” Meredith said confidently.

  “Smoking her pipe? Where’d you come up with that?”

  “I don’t know, really.” Meredith ran her fingers along the fine wood of the mantle. “I just kind of pictured her with a pipe. Weird, I know. None of the old ladies I know smoke pipes.”

  Meredith noticed the thermostat on the wall. “Hey Miss Randall said we could turn up the heat.”

  “Esther.”

  “Okay, fine. Esther said we could turn up the heat, right?”

  “Go for it.”

  Meredith turned the dial. “How high should I set it?”

  “Uh, I don’t know. Sixty-eight maybe?”

  “That sounds good. Anything’s better than the fifty degrees it’s set on now.”

  Meredith turned back toward the wide staircase that wound its way to the second floor. “So, Esther has a sister named Bernice, right?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “So, Millie isn’t Esther’s sister?”

  “No, they’re definitely not sisters.” Dani walked to the other side of the sitting room and stood next to the window that overlooked the auto parts store.

  Meredith realized her error. “Oh, right. If Millie was Esther’s sister, then Gregory would be Millie’s grandnephew, too, but Millie denied being related to him. Esther and Millie seemed so close, you know? Like sisters. Maybe they’re two old spinsters living together because they never found husbands.”

  Dani laughed loudly, and Meredith shot her a glance. “Why are you
laughing at me?”

  Dani pulled herself together and said, “I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing near you.” She poked Meredith lightly on the arm and shouted, “Tag. You’re it.” She bolted past Meredith and up the stairs to the second floor.

  “Hey, don’t leave me alone down here.” Meredith chased after her fleeing friend. “Wait.”

  Meredith was winded when she got to the top of the stairs. She found Dani in one of the smaller bedrooms, the one that overlooked Fiesta Loca, the Mexican restaurant next door.

  Dani seemed wistful when she said, “I wonder what they used to see out this window. You know, like, cow pastures or meadows?”

  Meredith stood next to her at the window. She blocked the brightly colored restaurant from her mind’s eye and said, “I bet there were big open meadows where Esther played with her big sister Bernice. Their mother would call them in for supper, but they wouldn’t want to come in yet, so they’d hide in the tall grass and stay really, really quiet. After a while they could tell by their mother’s tone that they were going to get in trouble if they didn’t come in. Then, but only then, would they leave the field and go in.”

  Meredith felt Dani looking at her. She turned her head slightly to return the look. “What?”

  “That was nice. You made that sound so...real.”

  Meredith smiled. “You know what?”

  “What?”

  “If I lived here, in the old painted lady, this would be my studio. The light is fantastic right now. I’d be up here all day painting and you’d be downstairs making supper and call up to tell me it was ready.”

  “Why am I the one making supper?”

  “Because I’m up here painting.”

  “But I’ll be out coaching lacrosse somewhere and won’t be home, woman.”

  “You’d stay away all day? And leave me alone?” Meredith flashed a hurt look.

  Dani’s expression changed from playful to serious. “Never.”

  Meredith caught Dani’s serious expression and felt her cheeks color. They had just decided to become friends and Meredith couldn’t understand why she’d imagined Dani in the house with her. She must be lonelier than she realized. Flustered, she turned away and moved into the hallway toward the biggest of the three bedrooms on the second floor. “Hey Dani,” she called, “which bedroom was Esther’s? Which one was Millie’s?”