15. Ember
EMBER
How is this my life?
For whatever reason, now that the outside of the manor is as beautiful as the inside, it’s as if a weight has lifted off my chest. I hadn’t realized how much the outside with all of its gnarly limbs and unkept grass was making the house look so run down.
Now, birds are venturing into the yard. I even saw some butterflies dot the area as if finding new homes in areas that aren’t a mess of tangled branches. Sure, the side and backyards need to be fixed up, too, but what a fresh start for the place.
Taking a break, I sip my coffee and wrap fake, fall-leafed garland around the porch railing. Seeing it almost new again inspires me to decorate the place, and hopefully, even pull the eye toward the decoration and not toward the areas that still need work.
The porch door creaks open, and Devon walks through.
He has a clipboard in his hand with the drawing I completed of the Children’s Haunted House.
He laughed this morning when I told him it wasn’t to scale.
Obviously. It was his job to go into the ballroom to see how much of the space it could occupy and then “spec out” the haunted house according to my direction.
“I’ve got a quote for the PVC,” he relays.
“Excellent.” I tuck the end piece of garland into another so it will stay in place and turn to face him.
“Luckily, your idea is within your budget. PVC is pretty cheap and easy to access.”
He shows me the quote, and I let out a sigh of relief. I don’t know how I could be more grateful that things seem to be coming together. “Wait, did you add in your labor?”
He waves me away. “We’ll talk about that when the time comes.”
I give him a look, but then my phone rings. I pull it out and see my mom’s name on the screen. I’ve sent her a few pictures without any response.
“You should answer it,” Devon says. “I have some floorboards to fix, but it’ll take at least a week for the PVC to get here from the wholesaler.”
It rings again in my hand, and I nod before turning my back. “Hey, Mom.”
“Ember, hi.”
Behind me, the screen door creaks open and closed, then a loneliness rears up. I tell myself it’s because I’m talking to my mom, but more and more, I don’t know that I can keep fooling myself. Yes, Devon was a grumpy jerk, but he’s been different lately.
“Ember?”
“Sorry, Mom, I’m here. Did you get my pictures?”
“I did. It looks very nice.”
The way she says it sounds like a monotone greeting from a doctor’s office.
I nearly roll my eyes. My parents were not thrilled about me moving here.
Not just for the obvious reasons of me blowing the money I won on a house I hadn’t seen before, but the whole idea of moving here away from everyone else was so foreign to them that they hadn’t grasped the reasoning why.
“You guys should come visit so you can see it for yourself.”
“We decided to wait and see if it takes.”
My stomach drops. I wait a second to make sure I heard her correctly, and then ask, “What?”
“You know,” she says. “What if it doesn’t work out and you end up coming home anyway? We’ll wait and see if you actually stay up there.”
“Mom.”
“Oh, I know,” she grumbles. “I’m not being supportive. I’m being difficult. We just want you here.”
I don’t know how many times I have to explain it.
It’s not that I don’t want to be with them, but it’s that I’ve had this call on my heart for a long time.
Like all the dreams I ever dreamed will be answered in a place like Harvest Falls, and if I dared to guess, it would be Harvest Falls that I was dreaming about all this time. My heart belongs here.
I don’t know how I know it, but I do.
“I understand you’re upset, but a little pretend excitement could go a long way. Just because you like and comment on the pictures I send doesn’t mean I’m going to think you’re okay with what I’ve done. You made your opinion loud and clear before I left.”
“We just want what’s best for you.”
“I know. You should see all the work we’ve accomplished here, Mom. The manor looks like a brand-new house.”
“We’ve?”
“Well, Devon has been helping me. He’s the local handyman. The mayor also found me some money to renovate the exterior before the big fall season. I should send you before and afters.”
“So, who’s this Devon?”
My shoulders slump. “He’s just a guy, Mom. He’s the mayor’s son, but he’s basically the handyman of Harvest Falls. He can do it all, I think.”
“What’s he look like?”
“Mom,” I groan.
“You’re right. I don’t need you falling in love with someone there because you’ll never come home then. It’s a better idea if you come back home and meet someone so I can be close to my grandchildren all the time. The clock is ticking, you know.”
I bear down on my jaw. A pounding starts in my temples. I’ve tried and tried to discuss what I want with my life with my mom and dad but it never seems to take. I want children, I just don’t want them right now. Mainly, because I don’t have anyone to have them with, and I refuse to settle.
“I saw Lake the other day.”
“Okay, can you leave it? He’s dating Susie, and we’ve been over and will never be a thing again.” I don’t know how many times I have to explain to her my ex is an ex for a reason.
“I was just going to tell you that he and Susie are engaged.”
She drops that bombshell, and I expect to feel something, but I don’t. I’m okay. I’m happy for them. He was a good guy, but he and I never would’ve worked out. He wanted to stay in Greenville forever, and I didn’t. “That’s great, Mom. I’m happy for them.”
“I showed him the pictures you sent, and he said he was happy for you, too.”
I refrain from commenting because he can say he’s happy for me, but my own family can’t?
As if on cue, my mom says, “I just don’t know why you couldn’t have found an old house here to restore if that’s what you wanted to do. There’s that house on Maple Street that could do with a makeover, and then that other one on Shore Lane.”
“They’re beautiful old houses, but they’re not in the right area.”
She’s silent for a while. I sigh into the phone. She doesn’t get it, and I understand that. I even think she believes she failed because I wanted to move away, but it’s just that I needed to spread my wings. I needed to see what I could accomplish without my family to fall back on.
“I’m sorry you don’t understand. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Tell Dad I love him, too.”
“I will.”
“Bye, Mom. I’ll keep you updated. Respond to my texts, okay?”
“As long as you answer my phone calls. Bye.”
The phone goes silent, and I stand there with it clasped by my side and my eyes closed for a little while.
It’s not even that I wanted to get away from them.
I’d love to have them visit. It’s a hard thing to explain because I don’t understand it myself.
It’s just a knowing in my heart that I need to be here.
I scan the garland to make sure it looks okay. I even walk out to the front gate where weeds used to wrap around the metal and turn to get the whole view. It’s perfect.
Now to focus on other things. I have two items on my to-do list. Write up a proposal for the mayor for the Children’s Haunted House idea, and find a story and costume for the Haunted History Tour.
I could use the internet to look up stuff, but asking the locals sounds like a better plan. I just so happen to have one in the ballroom, and if he doesn’t work out, I can always head to the library, which I’m sure has plenty of information on the manor and its history.
I sweep back inside, grabbing my coffee as I go. Today, it’s pumpkin mixed with vanilla, and it’s delicious. I purchased a bag of Bea’s coffee from Rose’s gift shop before I left the other day, and I’ll have to stock up on some more.
When I waltz into the ballroom, Devon is tearing up a couple of floorboards underneath the furthest window. His shirt stretches across his back, so tight that I can see his muscles working underneath. He has his hat on backward, and I stop in my tracks for a minute, taking him all in.
He’s so far from my ex. Lake was a professional.
He went to work in a suit and tie. For a while, I thought that was sexy, but after seeing Devon around the manor, I don’t know why I was ever attracted to that.
I like a man with muscles from blue collar work.
A guy who can get dirty. Who doesn’t mind if his clothes get a little ripped. It just shows all the work he’s doing.
Guys like Devon are mouthwatering.
I suppose that’s the description of Devon I could have given my mom when she asked.
My feet shift a little and the floorboards creak underneath. Devon peers up, and I start walking like I haven’t just taken a brief interlude to ogle him. “Hey, I need a local’s mind.”
“One sec.” He pulls up with a hammer and the floorboard finally gives way. He stands to his full height, and my senses get overwhelmed again. There’s just something about his manly aura that does it to me. “What can I help you with?”
My brain starts giving me ideas that sound like fun but I would never say out loud. They all have something to do with his shirt being off.
Instead, I shake my head and take a deep breath. “The Haunted History Tour?”
He nods.
“Do you remember any stories about the manor that I could use? Any spirit tales? Clanking chains? People who ran out of the house screaming like their lives depended on it?”
Devon quirks a brow. “I can’t tell if you’re making fun or actually asking.”
“Actually asking. In a couple of days, I have to dress up like someone who used to live here and tell a story in front of people, and I’ve got nothing.”
“Well, the Lewises definitely aren’t ghosts.”
“Thank God,” I state. I like the idea of ghosts.
I enjoy reading about them and watching about them on TV, but I would never want to actually be inundated with ghosts in a house that I lived in.
Luckily, this place has been completely spirit free since I moved in, or even the call on my heart to live here would’ve had to wait because I’m not dealing with creepy visitations.