The house was big. Very big. Jaxyn had occupied her thoughts for the past few months with scenarios of life in the 'wilderness' and saying that she had misjudged her soon to be new lifestyle would be an understatement. When her mom said they would be living in the country for the summer Jaxyn's thoughts immediately wandered to the old western movies she used to watch with her dad and the make-shift log cabins that the characters inevitably ended up in. It sounded queer to hear the words 'country' and 'living' coming from Miss Dubois's mouth in one sentence and Jaxyn wondered if someone had kidnapped her mother and replaced her with some sort of doppelganger, but now that the girl stood by the fountain in the center of their new round-about driveway looking up at the four stories of victorian craftsmanship, everything made sense.
"Do you like it?" Miss Dubois asked her daughter, smiling up at the blue house with an uncharacteristic aura of pleasure.
"It's...nice..." Jaxyn replied, shrugging her shoulders.
Miss Dubois seemed not to notice the lack of enthusiasm that her daughter produced and took a deep breath of the country air, her red lips curling into a rare smile.
"Just two more days," she said. "The movers have to get everything arranged but once that's done this wonderful place will be ours!"
"Ours?" Jaxyn asked skeptically.
"Yes...Well, for the summer at least."
Jaxyn shaded her dark eyes from the sun and squinted at the building. Although it did not show and she would never have admitted such a thing, she was glad to be spending the summer away from the city in a place where no one knew her and no one would bother her. The blue house was indeed beautiful, with a long white porch and lots of elegant patterns carved into the trim, just like in the books Jaxyn was always reading. She could already feel the warm sun coming through the large window in her knew bedroom and the thought of no alarm clock nearly burst her heart with joy. However, like her mother, Jaxyn remained calm and collected, holding her chin high without so much as a smile.
"Well I have to get back to the office," Miss Dubois said, shoveling through her sleek black purse for the car keys. "Would you like to come with me or stay here and help Del for a while?"
Jaxyn shrugged and looked impartial, but in her mind she was adamant about staying. The office was such a cold and dreary place and everyone there smelled of mint and hairspray.
"I don't know, I don't really care," she lied. "I guess I'll just stay with Del."
Miss Dubois was already getting into the car and waved a hand dismissively. "You do that, hon," she said, both shiny black heels disappearing into the mustang as the door slammed shut.
Pushing the gas pedal to the ground Miss Dubois sped around the fountain and back down the long driveway in a spray of gravel, disappearing into the trees and leaving a cloud of dust behind.
There was silence again.
Jaxyn sighed and kicked at the ground drowsily, turning to look back at the house.
"Finally we're alone," she whispered, allowing a small smile to cross her flawless features.
There was a tall stone wall wrapped in ivy that encompassed the house and the immediate yard, which was practically all garden, and Jaxyn remembered a book that Del had read to her as a young girl. It was about a garden that was locked up for ten years behind towering stone walls, covered in ivy just like the ones before her.
"It would seem the gardener has been slacking," Jaxyn muttered with displeasure. Her eyes had wandered over to the tall weeping willow, its branches hanging like a green curtain all the way to the ground.
