The Summer of Closed Doors

The Mud Room Door

Tom is carrying bags from the car through the mud room, setting them down on the small table there. The name for the room very much describes the look of the entryway. A mud room. This is the first time he's actually walked through this area. It's attached to the deeper end of the driveway that wraps around to meet with the vegetable garden. Compared to the rest of the house, it looks like this part gets the most foot traffic going through it. Just as he's looking out into the backyard, the sound of more bags falling next to him snap him back into his body. The fumble of the bags is followed by an array of curse words spouting from Heather's lips. Tom goes down to the ground to gather all the spilled contents. Heather begins storming over to grab the rest of the bags from the car while Tom places the picked up items on the table. When she comes back with the bags, Heather looks better than she sounded just before she walked out. She places the bags on the table as well before releasing a pent up dramatic sigh. Now that everything has been brought in from the car, Heather dismisses Tom to head back to the art room where they can continue the clean up of it, with a lingering hold on his shoulder.

Did he just develop a cold sweat from that touch? Possibly.

The walk to the room seems to be going on forever as Tom's heart rate makes it hard for him to focus on his path. Did Heather mean to hold on to him like that? She was standing up straight, it's not like she was having balance issues. She's pretty agile, and very youthful so that can't be the reason. Tom is thinking up any other reason for Heather to reach out like that, anything but the possible idea of her making a move on him like he wants to believe. It's not like he hasn't woken up in the middle of the night from a sweet dream where that is a normal thing for them. But every time that thought pops into his brain, he also reminds himself of how unrealistic the idea of Heather reciprocating those feelings for him are. Sure, she can find him charming or handsome.. as a kid. It's a mater of if the woman of Tom's wildest dreams is willing to give him the shot he wants, to show her and treat her with the never ending love she deserves.

People would say he could simply do that with any girl his age, but there's something about the way Heather looks at him and carries herself when around him compared to all other girls in his life. It's like she is her truest self when around him, unlike all the girls Tom has faced in his age group that try to talk to him. They can try to be in the moment when trying to get to know him, but they don't come across as genuine to him. They always come off as some sort of boxed up rendition of themselves that is meant to be placed on the shelf for him to admire, not one for him itching to unbox and explore more deeply. With Heather, he has seen more sides to her in the last few days than he had ever seen from his previous girlfriend of four months. He knows that she will always see him as an attentive young man but not someone she would probably spend every waking moment giving the affection that he so desperately craves. Sure, it probably isn't a relationship everyone would be behind but it is the one he yearns for. He's gone this long giving girls his age a try, and it truly isn't even about their age difference at this point. Heather is just so different from all other women, no one can shine a light to the beacon of a catch she is. Her ex-husband was a fool to let her go. Of course, he only knows small details of the relationship but anyone stupid enough to walk away from a dime piece like Heather is fully mental.

Tom gets into the project room and immediately commences his cleaning duty. Box after box gets passed by his hands, but he doesn't really pay attention to what he's looking at. He knows to pull anything that has Heather's name on it or anything to do with the property, while everything else gets collected into a big bin to be tossed. Those papers don't get much attention when Tom has to transfer them into the bin, but he comes across a folder with Heather's name along with a last name he doesn't recognize. He knows her maiden name is Jackson but these papers don't seem to have her name on any of them. What he does repeatedly see is the last name Brooks. Tom looks up from the pile of papers in his hands to scope the room out as well as peeking out to the hall to see if Heather is coming down his way soon. When he sees the coast is clear, Tom jumps up to one of the high chairs in the room to plant himself on. He opens the folder up and starts by pulling the first sheet from the left pouch. It looks like a certificate with the Dallas county logo on the center of it. That's not too out of the ordinary as most paperwork gets settled out in Dallas, he thinks. By the look of how old this file is, there's no way it could have been something recently or else it could have had the Collin county stamp instead.