Weeping Willows

Home Sweet Home

Chapter 2

Driving into her new town Elizabeth glanced around taking it all in. The homes were magnificent pieces of new architecture, with citrus trees in nearly every yard. She had seen several similar houses for sale when she had been looking online. While stunning in their own way, they just weren't for her. The house she had settled on was older, built sometime in the late 1800's. It had been remodeled in the 1940's, but nothing major had been done to it since. It was a rather large home, bigger than necessary, but a place with a story of its own that needed some TLC. She could relate. Feeling it was a match made in heaven she started the paperwork rolling. Elizabeth didn't know if a house could be someone's soul mate. If it was possible though she had found hers.

Bought and paid for, the property was all hers. She went from a quaint, quirky studio apartment to owning a 5-bedroom, 3 full baths house in Crystal Springs. She wasn't even sure she had enough things to fill the place. The first thing she would do when she got there was unpack. Next, she would make a list of everything she would need that she didn't before. Treating this move as more of an adventure, she found over the last week that it took to drive down, she was excitedly anticipating it. As she drove through the little town, she noted all the little locally owned shops on both sides of the main street. Crystal Springs had none of the big town supermarkets and department stores of her last residence, she was looking forward to rambling about. She could only imagine the trove of small hidden treasures each shop held as she watched them pass by her window. She made a mental note to make some time to come back into town and poke about the place.

Coming to the end of town she turned onto the road that headed out towards the reservoir where she would find her new abode. As she turned off the A/C and rolled down her window she noted the faint smell of sulfur in the air. When she had investigated the place on the web, she found the town was built near a natural spring. It caused the slight sulfuric odor, but found it didn't overpower the smells of nature that was around her. The paved road turned to more of a wide dirt path the closer to her house she drove. Seeing the turn off for her drive her anticipation, as well as her anxiety peaked. She had conjured images of what her house would be like. And even though the website did provide a picture tour of the interior, she somehow found it lacking in detail. So, her imagination took over creating scene after scene of sunlit grandeur about the place. Pulling up to the house she experienced a pang of disappointment at the unkempt outer appearance. Shaking off her misgivings she told herself it just needed a little sprucing up to be the home she had pictured. With a renewed purpose she mounted up the steps to the beautiful stain glass door. Placing her key into the lock and taking a deep breath she finally opened the place up.

A large crest fallen breath gusted out of her mouth stirring up the dust in the air. She figured when the agent said it hadn't been lived in in a while that it would need some sprucing up, but this just looked abandoned. Glancing about she took in the dirty windows, the wallpaper bubbling and peeling from the walls, chipped paint, scuffed wood, and a thick layer of dust that covered the floor. The only thing in the place that looked usable were her meager stack of boxes sitting among her sparse furniture pieces in the grand Living room. Looking at the floor she could clearly see the exact path the movers had taken to bring all her things in. Disheartened she moved among her things looking for the box of cleaning supplies. The first thing on her to do list was apparently going to be a good scrubbing that would no doubt take a month for her to complete alone.

Armed with her supplies Elizabeth decided to work on the ground floor first. When she had walked about the place, she found a working kitchen, a couple of large bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms all on the first floor. She could make that all livable first and work her way up to the other floors later. After all it was just her that was living here and while she was sure the girls might find a need to visit her, it probably wouldn't be soon. With a sense of purpose now that she had a plan, she grabbed her box of cleaning supplies and marched into the kitchen. Flipping the light switch she was pleased to find the electric had been turned on. Next, she tried the faucet and much to her delight water streamed out with an acceptable amount of pressure. This wasn't going to be so bad and perhaps some mindless manual labor would allow her to just drift away from all unpleasant thoughts.