Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter
twenty-five
WE PARKED IN FRONT OF a bright blue house. Its lawn was a collection of wildflowers. Metal formations that could’ve been trash but also could’ve been art littered the yard. The front porch was full of mismatched pots that all housed dead or dying plants.
We stopped on the porch, and Theo turned to me with an encouraging look, making it obvious that he believed I should be the one to knock.
I did just that—gave three short knocks.
The door swung open, and a woman appeared. She had salt-and-pepper curly hair that was pulled into a ponytail on top of her head. She had the kind of tan leathery skin that told me she was probably a surfer herself or at least spent a lot of time on the beach. She wore coveralls splattered in paint. Was she a painter too?
“Hi,” I said. “I’m Finley Lucas. Charlotte Fox’s granddaughter.”
“Yes, hi. Let me show you out back to the shed. It’s a mess, but you’re welcome to take any surfboards you find in there.”
I wondered if she would be as willing to give up a surfboard if she knew that it was painted by Andrew Lancaster. I was probably supposed to tell her that was a possibility now, but my mouth wouldn’t open. I’d tell her if I actually found it. “Is your mom here? Can I ask her some questions?”
“My mom passed away last year. I’m still going through all her stuff. That’s why I’m here this weekend.”
My mouth opened, then shut, then opened again. “Oh. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“It’s been hard. But life is like that, isn’t it?”
I nodded, a knot forming in my stomach at the news.
“Follow me,” she said.
The storage shed was more of a large workshop. It was huge. One of those metal structures that could’ve easily fit two or three cars. When we reached the door, Alice turned to us with a cringe and said, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to wade through a lot of junk to see if there is anything real.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “We appreciate you letting us look at all.”
When she left, Theo faced me. “You okay?”
“What? Yeah, of course, this is exciting.”
He tilted his head like he didn’t believe me.
I did not want to discuss what the news of Cheryl’s death did to my insides. It wasn’t that Cheryl had died. It was sad, but I didn’t know her. It was that she was my grandma’s age. And now she no longer existed. Like Andrew. I didn’t want to think about that atall.
“Let’s go in,” I said.
He turned the handle to reveal the contents of the shed. There was furniture and boxes and tools and canvases and books all stacked haphazardly on top of each other nearly ceiling high.
“What are the odds we’ll find a surfboard in here?” I asked.
“Very low but not zero?” he said.
“What are the odds you’re going to want to help me at all in the future?”
“Higher.” He took a single step inside. That was about as far as he could go. “Let’s move things outside so we can create some sort of path through the mess.”
“Sounds good.”
About an hour passed and we’d finally gained some ground. We had moved bigger pieces of furniture outside the shed, and I was winding my way through others.
“Everything is seconds away from crashing to the ground in here,” he said. Boxes were stacked precariously high, the piles leaning against one another at odd angles. It was all coated in dust and spiderwebs, and I could feel a layer of both on my skin and hair.
“Yeah, it’s crazy. Be careful,” I said. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if he got injured while helping me.
Theo was unstacking a tower of boxes, moving them one by one outside. When the stack was low enough, I climbed over it, deeper into the building. That’s when I saw the unmistakable shape of a surfboard against the far wall. It was covered with some sort of drape. I pointed, and Theo nodded, a smile spreading across hisface.
“Do you think that’s it?” he asked.
“Maybe.” My heart was racing. The path to reach that surfboard was not clear and it took a lot of maneuvering, but finally, I reached the stack of boxes that covered the bottom half of the board. I assessed them, giving them a little shake, and then began climbing.
“What are you doing?” Theo asked, from right behind me.
“I just want to take off the cloth and see if it’s even the board before we try to move these boxes through that maze we barely squeezed through.
Worry colored his features. I couldn’t decide if he was worried that this wasn’t the board or that the boxes were wobbling a bit beneath me.
He answered my question when I slowly stood and he said, “Please, Finley, be careful. Maybe I should climb up there.”
“You absolutely should not. This is all me,” I said.
One of his hands reached up and wrapped around my ankle, holding me steady.
“Will you catch me if I fall?” I teased.
“If you fall, I will be buried beneath this pile of boxes.”
“I better not fall, then.”
He mumbled something under his breath that I didn’t understand as I reached for the yellowing fabric.
“Cross your fingers,” I said, and pulled it off. Beneath the drape was just a basic foam surfboard. My hopes crashed to the ground.“No.”
“That sucks,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s whatever,” I answered, trying not to let the disappointment settle in.
“Will you sit now…please?” he said, his hand still on my ankle.
“Am I stressing you out?” I asked, pretending to lose my balance.
“Finley, I swear,” he said.
I laughed and lowered myself to sitting before he took me by the waist and lifted me off the box.
“My hero,” I said.
“Do you want it?” he asked.
“Uh…what?”
“The board. Alice said if we found one, we could have it. Do you have a surfboard?”
“I don’t.”
“Do you want it?”
It wasn’t the one I wanted, but why not? It could be fun to try. “Do you think we can get it out of here?”
“Yes, I just need to move the boxes you didn’t let me move before climbing them.”
“I was too excited.”
He shook his head, but a small smile snuck onto his face as we began shifting things. The second box I attempted to move was heavier than I anticipated, and it fell to the floor, its contents spilling onto the cement.
“Ugh,” I said, squatting down.
“They’re pictures,” Theo said, joining me in the cleanup.
I collected a stack and flipped through them. They were old pictures, some warped and yellowed but many well preserved. I flipped through them, changing from a squat to a sit on the ground. I had just planned on depositing them back into the box, but when they looked like they were from the same time period as the ones I saw in the yearbook, I kept flipping.
“What did your grandma look like when she was a teenager?”
“I don’t know if we’ll find my grandma in these, but maybe a picture of the board?”
I was wrong; after going through several piles of pictures, I found something that made my heart jump to my throat—my grandma with what I could only assume was the painted board. She was standing on the beach in the cutest bikini, the board upright, it’s bottom stuck in the sand and her practically hugging it, a big smile on her face. Tears pricked my eyes and warmth spread throughout my body.
“Did you find something?” Theo asked.
I passed him the picture.
“This is amazing,” he said. “Your grandma was a babe.”
“I know.”
“You look like her.”
My cheeks went hot because Theo basically just called me a babe. “Not really,” I said.
“You do,” he assured me. “And this board. It’s awesome. Now I want to find it even more.” He passed the picture back to me.
The board was an eye. A huge sideways eye running the entire length of it. Not just any eye, my grandma’s. The color on the picture was faded, but I knew if we found the board, it would be the vibrant greens and browns that made up her eyes. I swiped at a tear that had escaped down my cheek.
“What’s wrong?” Theo asked.
“Her friend is dead, and she’s going to fade and seeing her like this”—I held up the picture—“it’s hard. Amazing, but hard.”
“I get it,” he said.
“I can’t wait to show her this picture.”
“Should we look for more?”
“Do you have time?” I asked.
“I came here for you,” Theo said suddenly, an intensity in his voice. He pointed to the picture. “Your grandma’s story is interesting and I know how much it means to you, but…I came here foryou.”