Chapter 11
The next day everybody seemed to be in a much better mood as the pall of the birthday and the loss of their mother seemed to lift ever-so-slightly. “I still have birthday gifts for you.” They looked at her, and Toby said, in a shame-filled voice, “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “You don’t need to be. It was a rough day for all of us.”
He nodded slowly. “I keep forgetting that you lost her too.”
She smiled, not able to say anything for a moment. “Yeah, I did,” she shared, with a sigh. “She’s been my best friend since we were in school.” She thought about it and then added, “Since somewhere around the same age you are.” He looked at her in shock, and she nodded.
“We went to the same grade school, so some of the friends you’re making now could be your friends for the rest of your life.
” It was as if the thought had never occurred to him, probably because he considered his mom and Devon so old that such a thing wasn’t even a possibility.
She smiled at him. “Let’s just try to have a better day. ”
She got up and grabbed their gifts for them. Both were quite surprised and seemed appreciative. At least Devon hoped so.
By the time they got past that and through to the next weekend, everybody was back into a more normal swing.
Not that Toby was kinder but he was a little more stable, not quite so quick to fly off the handle.
She had contacted his therapist and had mentioned the issues from the week, just so that the therapist was aware.
The one thing Devon couldn’t do was interfere in the therapy. However, if certain aspects needed to be dealt with, then she had to trust that would happen. And it seemed to. Yet the weird shimmering something-or-other out in the backyard kept returning, arriving almost every day at the same time.
She almost got used to it, and that was a shock in itself.
She went out Friday morning, tired, frazzled, and more than ready for the weekend—until she remembered all the things happening this weekend.
With practices, shopping, laundry, and housework, it already looked to be not much of a relaxing weekend at all.
Something she had never realized when she didn’t have kids.
Always before she’d had a bit of a break sometimes. When Tabitha was in and out of the hospital, there was a break here and there. But now there was never a break, with none on the horizon, and Devon was definitely struggling with this.
Even as she tried to figure out how to get everything done and what she could maneuver into a better time frame or location, it just seemed as if she had no options.
When she woke up Saturday morning to the sound of a lawn mower running, she groaned.
She headed downstairs, looked outside, and, of course, the neighbor across the street was working in his yard.
That was one of the things that she still hadn’t resolved about her own lawn. The grass was way too high, but she didn’t have enough money to buy a lawn mower.
She didn’t even know what lawn mowers cost, but she hoped she could borrow Camden’s until she could figure out a better system. She’d never had a lawn before, and it wasn’t exactly something she was looking forward to taking on.
And yet homeowners did it all the time; she just had never been one of them. She picked up the phone, and, although it was still fairly early in the morning, she figured Camden would probably be awake, but she didn’t know if he might have had an overnight visitor.
She knew absolutely nothing about his personal life and didn’t want to take anything for granted. But when he answered, sounding cheerful enough, she began, “I presume I didn’t wake you, and you sound as if you’ve already had coffee and are cognizant.”
He burst out laughing. “Coffee for sure. I don’t know about the cognizant part. What’s up?”
She groaned. “I don’t know if this is even a thing or not, so please don’t be insulted because I really don’t know.”
“Spit it out,” he told her. “I know it’s hard, but spit it out.”
She sighed. “I don’t have a lawn mower, and I was wondering if that was something people borrow?
If so, could I possibly borrow yours? Believe me that I’m not asking you to mow my lawn.
That would be way past anything I would ever ask for, but I am trying to figure out what to buy, whenever I have the money.
Yet I don’t even know when exactly that’ll be or what I even need to get. Meanwhile, the lawn—”
“Yeah, your lawn’s getting way out of control, isn’t it?”
“It is,” she agreed, with a sigh. “So, is that something I could borrow, or do I need to hire a service to do it to get this chopped down to something that’s a little more manageable?
I don’t know. I’ve been meaning to ask you, but things have just—” Then her voice dwindled off as she realized her pitch had increased and had taken on the tone of desperation, as if everything had just gotten to be too much.
“I can come over and work on yours this morning. It’ll definitely need some muscle power to get through this first time. I’ll have to raise the deck to go around once, and then do a second trip after dropping it back down.”
She wasn’t even sure what deck he was talking about and didn’t really want to ask at this point.
“From then on, I think it’s something you and Toby should be out here doing.”
“Okay,” she replied slowly. “Is it safe for Toby?”
“Sure, how old is he?”
“He just turned eleven.”
“Absolutely it’s safe. Of course he’ll need some basics.”
“Not to be sexist or anything, but, if Toby is doing it,” she added, “Tabby is also eleven.”
He laughed. “You’re right. That’s on me. They should both be learning how to mow a lawn. So, I will do it the first time myself. Then, when I drop the deck, we’ll get them out there and see what response we get to that.”
“Since their birthdays, things have improved a lot, but—”
“Right,” he noted. “Everything is different on a day-to-day basis. I get it.”
“I’m glad you do,” she replied. “And believe me that I really appreciate this.”
“If you step out on your back deck, you’ll see that I’m already prepping the lawn mower to come over because yours will be a bit of a chore right now. It’s not something that should ever get left to this extent.”
“And, if I hadn’t felt as if my hands were so full early on, I might have realized what I was doing with a house of my own,” she acknowledged.
“I need a maintenance list in order to keep myself in good stead.” Even as she watched him, she added, “And, of course, we have somebody outside in my backyard right now.”
“I see him,” he replied, his voice low.
“I still don’t understand why or who though.”
“I’m no closer either.” She heard the rumble of Camden’s lawn mower. “I’m coming around the front. If you want to let me into the backyard, that would be helpful.” She went outside and opened up the side gate for him as he came around the front and then into her backyard.
He stopped, looked around, then nodded. “Yeah, this will take at least two passes, maybe a third. I’ll see.
” And he turned on a switch, pulled some cord, and the thing fired up beside her, making her jump.
He just shrugged and nodded. “Look out. Make sure the lawn is clear, that no toys are hidden in the grass for me to run over.”
She went ahead of him and quickly picked up a few sticks and rocks. Then she headed back inside and grabbed a cup of coffee and stepped back out on the deck. She felt foolish watching him, but she’d never been close to a lawn mower before. “Talk about being a city dweller,” she muttered.
At that, she heard Toby beside her say, “He’s even mowing your lawn? Wow.”
She looked at him and shook her head. “Not really. He’s doing it the first time because it’s gotten too high and will be more difficult. After that, he’ll show all three of us how to do it.” Toby just stared at her in horror, and she nodded. “Yeah, we will all be doing the lawn.”
“Oh, no, no,” he squawked, taking a step back. “I’m not doing that.”
“Doesn’t matter what you say,” she stated firmly. “We have a house, and things must be done to maintain it. I can’t do it all, so not only will you help but so will your sister.”
At that, Tabby came into the kitchen, clearly hearing the conversation. “I don’t mind.” Devon looked back at her. Tabby shrugged. “I don’t mind helping out, and I like being outside,” she shared. “Besides, I’m not scared of bugs,” she declared, turning on her brother.
Toby snapped, “I’m not either.”
“Sure you are,” she snickered. She stepped outside, watched Camden, then turned to Devon. “It doesn’t look hard. He’s just pushing that thing back and forth.”
Devon nodded. “That’s exactly what he’s doing. And I think, for the first little bit, he may be willing to let us borrow his lawn mower. I don’t have the money right now to buy our own.”
Tabby nodded. “I don’t know whether they’re expensive or not, but buying the house wasn’t an easy decision, was it?”
“Nope, it sure wasn’t,” she admitted, with a smile.
“Still, we’re better off here than anywhere else,” Tabby noted. “So, we’ll do what we need to do.”
“Thank you for that,” Devon replied, delighted to hear a reasonable response from her. They weren’t supposed to be adults yet, but that didn’t stop Devon from being grateful when the twins exhibited a more mature attitude.
And, sure enough, by the time Camden was done with one round, Devon noted the ghost just sat there on the side, and neither of the kids commented.
She stared at them and looked back at the ghost, but nothing, absolutely nothing was mentioned by either of them.
“There’s a weird shimmer out across the lawn,” Devon began.
The kids just looked at her and shrugged. “Yeah, so? That’s always there.” Eerily enough, once again they both said it, in perfect sync.
Unsure what to do, Devon swallowed hard and asked, “You mean, you’ve seen that a lot?”
“Sure, it’s been here since we moved in,” Tabby declared, “but we see those things all the time. Don’t we, Toby?”