Journey's Child

26

Back at the cottage my mom and I settled into a comfortable evening routine. Not having shared this time with her since our first night here, I was enjoying the comfort of her company. I decided to save the last half of 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' for later. I thought I might enjoy it more once I was back home and attempting to survive middle school. I decided to be polite and give 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' a chance since it was one of my mother's favorites.

In a short time, I was lost in the story. For over an hour I found myself caught up in the words that reached out from the pages, pulling me along with Lucy through the wardrobe to the magical realm of Narnia. I was interrupted when I heard my mother's phone ring.

"Hello," I heard her say. "Oh Thad, hello."

I climbed down from my bed and stood at the doorway in an attempt to hear better.

"When?" she asked. "Sure, I think she'd be happy to help. Let me ask her."

"Gilly," she called into the empty space between our rooms.

I walked the short distance from my door to hers. "What?" I asked.

My mother held the phone against her chest, "Thad has to go out of town for a couple of days and he wants to know if you will feed Captain?"

"Sure, when?"

"Tomorrow. We'll go over in the morning and he'll show us where everything is, okay?"

"Yes, that's good with me," I replied.

"Okay, we'll come over around 9:00 if that works for you," my mom said into the phone. "You too, good night."

"Where's Thad going?" I asked, feeling irritated that I wouldn't have much time with him before we left to go back to San Jose.

"Sacramento," my mother answered with a faraway look on her face.

"Are you okay?"

"Sure," she sighed. "Let's get some sleep, Gilly. Good night."

I went back to my room and read until I fell asleep.

*

I woke up to a cooler room than usual. Forcing myself out of my warm bed, I looked out the window and saw that it had rained during the night. The clouds had moved away forming a gray fluffy frame around the pale sky that spread out over the ocean. Even the air in the cottage seemed fresh and clean. It figures, I thought to myself - now that we're leaving.

I got dressed and made my way to the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal for my breakfast. As I entered the hall, I heard the toilet flush in the latrine. My mother must be up, I thought.

Within minutes, she appeared, looking beautiful and happy. "Good morning," she chirped as she went about making a pot of coffee. "How are you this morning?"

It took a couple of seconds to realize that she was talking to me. I wasn't used to seeing her up that early, let alone speaking. I looked over to find her staring at me as she waited for my answer.

"Oh, I'm good," I mumbled into my cereal bowl.

"Well, we're going to meet Thad at his house at 9:00."

"Okay, are we driving or walking?"

My mother looked like she was thinking about it, "Let's drive."

"Okay," I agreed as I stuffed another spoonful of cereal in my mouth.

*

I'd never seen the front of Thad's house. It was surrounded by woods like the back, but some of the trees had been cleared away. A thick green lawn was laid out with ferns and flowers growing in rock beds that were built up against the house. His garage was big and the front looked like barn doors. The brass hardware was fancy and the wood slats were painted a deep brown to match the house. To get there we drove for a while on a gravel driveway surrounded by the woods on both sides. This made our arrival to the clearing and his house that much more spectacular.

"Wow!" I exclaimed as I climbed out of the car.

"This is gorgeous," my mother added.

"Hi," Thad greeted as he opened the door and Captain came charging out to say hello.

"Oh my," my mother said in surprise, "this must be Captain."

"Sit," Thad ordered. After a few more sniffs, he sat down. "He obeys the sit command much better than come." Thad told us. "I usually have him sit before I give him a treat. In fact, if you don't have food, forget getting too much of a response from him."

"Good to know," my mother replied.

"Well, come on in and I'll show you around. Don't worry about the lawn, the sprinklers are on a timer."

The front door was actually two gigantic doors with a wide pane of stained glass in a geometric design.

"That looks like a window I saw in a picture in my dad's office," I told him.

"It's possible. It was designed by an architect.

His name was..."

"Frank Lloyd Wright," my mother said, completing Thad's sentence. "My husband would have loved this house," she said with just a hint of sadness in her voice.

I had wandered into the living room and was looking at the large painting that hung over the fireplace. It hadn't been there before. I recognized the girl in the picture as Thad's daughter, Heather. She was sitting in the aqua blue row boat. It was resting on the beach with the ocean behind it. Heather was smiling and her long brown hair was swept back from her face by the breeze. She was beautiful and probably really popular I thought to myself.

When Thad and my mother came into the room, I asked him, "Did you just paint this picture?"

"No," he answered. "I couldn't bring myself to hang it before now. It's the last picture I painted of Heather. That was almost eleven years ago. Having you around got me thinking about her and I decided it was time to hang it."

"Why isn't the boat in the water?" I asked.

"Gilly..." my mother began.

"It's okay," Thad said. "My wife was afraid of the ocean. She didn't want Heather to be in the boat if it was in the water, not even if I was with her. She would get upset if Heather walked along the tide line - never liked her near the water." He stopped talking and walked over towards the door leading to the kitchen.

"What do you need Gilly to do?" my mother asked. "Pay attention, Gilly," she instructed.

Thad took both of us through Captain's routine and feeding schedule. "I really appreciate this, Ally. Usually, Richard at the gallery looks after Captain when I'm away, but I didn't have advanced notice and Richard is on vacation." He looked over at me and smiled. "I'll pay you for your time when I get home."

"That won't be necessary, you've done enough for us already," my mother said.

"I'll be home Wednesday afternoon. At least let me take you out for a nice dinner."

"Wednesday!" I yelled. "We're leaving Saturday to go home!"

"Well, then we best make the most of the time we have," he said as he winked at me.

On leaving, I told Captain that I'd be back that evening to play with him and feed him his dinner. "See you Wednesday," I called to Thad as I climbed into the front seat of our car.

"See you then," he called back.

My mother got in and started the car. I looked over at her and smiled. She returned my smile and said, "He'll be home in a few days, Gilly."

Having my mother back made me happy, but there was something hanging in the air that I couldn't name. There was an electricity that made the hair on my neck and arms stand up. It gave me cold chills and followed me wherever I went. I think it was trying to warn me.

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