In Parched Gardens: Book 2

Chapter 4: Why Aren't You Here

"Could you hand me that, Finny?" his grandfather asked him, reaching back toward Fin and the box they'd dragged into the living room.

"Here you go," Fin answered, handing him a small porcelain ghost. His grandfather adjusted it neatly in the large living room windowsill. The window revealed the front yard, driveway, and road beyond. On the front porch, he saw his grandmother gently moving back and forth in a rocking chair, rummaging around a box that sat at her feet. Beyond her, Isaac walked toward one of the yard's biggest trees with a fall themed wind chime. He could see his grandmother directing him to just the right branch, motioning him slightly over, so that the chime hung in the same place it did every year.

"Just keep 'em comin'," Fin's grandfather called over his shoulder. Fin knew that he was referring to the little porcelain Halloween and fall figures that his grandparents lined along the windowsill every year. He continued to hand them to his grandfather as they talked.

"What was Allbrook like when you were a kid, Grandpa?" Fin asked him. Looking out across fields and an old abandoned church, toward Mill Lake, Fin wondered about older times in Allbrook.

"Well, what about it?" his grandfather asked. He wasn't one for vague questions.

"What'd you do for fun? What places did you go?" Fin asked.

His grandfather laughed. "For fun, huh?" he started. "Well I've told you about Mom and Dad before, haven't I?" he asked.

"Some," Fin answered, thinking.

"When I was really young, Dad was sort of a farmer for hire. In the spring he'd usually work on a pea farm just across the county line. In late summer and fall he'd usually work the apple orchards south of here. So spring through fall I was usually busy with him, workin' a farm somewhere." His grandfather paused and Fin thought through what he could remember of these stories. "Mom spent a lot of time raisin' all of us. Believe it or not... Several of my brothers were more ornery than me," he grinned at Fin. "Sometimes Mom worked part time at the hardware store in town. She'd bring me with her a lot of the time to help around the store. And when I wasn't with one of them or runnin' around the yard with my brothers, I was at school."

"Not too much time for fun then?" Fin asked.

"I don't know," his grandfather continued. "I really liked workin' in the apple orchards. And one of my friends from school was at the hardware store a lot because his dad owned the place. And I was always gettin' up to somethin' with my brothers. We had fun."

"What about when you were older?" Fin asked.

"Well I was pretty young when Dad was drafted to the War. He was a little older than a lot of the guys who went - he was young when they had us - and they needed about everyone they could get. When he got back, him and Mom opened the flower shop in town and I basically worked there whenever I wasn't at school."

"When'd you and Grandma meet?" Fin asked him.

His grandfather sat down for a moment in the chair where he always sat in the living room. It was a large, comfortable reclining chair facing the TV at the other end of the room. He reached beside him for his sweet tea and took a drink. "Your Grandmother and I met in highschool. She was two years behind me. One day I saw her and asked my friends about her and they told me what they knew. They said she tutored sometimes in the library, so I went and figured out when. Then I acted like I needed help in math - and maybe I did," he added grinning.

"When you two were first married, was there any place you'd go in town?" Fin asked.

"We had your uncle pretty quickly, so there wasn't a lot of spare time. That and the shop took up most of our time. But your Grandma's always loved the General Store. We'd go there and sit on the porch and play cards with friends sometimes. And I've always liked the Diner, so I'd convince her to go there every once in a while."