Chapter 14
14
Inside, and the first thing that struck Deedee was how beautifully light and airy the house was. Two large open-plan rooms with a kitchen downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs, both with balconies overlooking the beach – an ocean view looking out of the front windows and the grassy dunes from the back – and a bathroom with a slipper bath by a window too with a panoramic view of the sea upstairs. Even with the faded newspaper at the windows, the light managed to stream in around the peeling edges and when Anthony removed a swathe of paper from the biggest window at the front, dust motes danced in a golden glow, highlighting the honey-coloured wooden flooring.
‘Oh my goodness, it’s taking my breath away!’ Deedee gasped, pressing her palms together up under her chin in joy.
‘Joe sure did good!’ Anthony said, moving from window to window and removing the newspaper to let in more and more of the golden light as the sun slowly dipped to form a beautiful sunset of candied pink and lavender streaks, creating a shimmering rainbow that radiated around the house.
‘It’s magical,’ Rosie said. Gina nodded, speechless, as she stood beside Deedee.
‘It sure is,’ Deedee murmured as she moved back into the hallway to take another look upstairs.
Wandering into the smaller bedroom at the back, Joe’s old childhood room, Deedee presumed, she stood in the centre and soaked up the atmosphere in an attempt to imagine him here. Deedee could see the wooden floorboards were a lighter colour, less worn in one section of the room opposite the glass double doors that opened on to a balcony and she wondered if this was where Joe’s bed would have been. Standing in the space, she thought of him waking up and being greeted with such a magnificent view of the grassy dunes. ‘You sure did good, Joe,’ she said softly, repeating Anthony’s words. She could hear her friends walking around downstairs, oohing and ahhing at various features of the house. She moved into the room at the front and to her delight, the double doors opened when she tried one of the smaller keys from the envelope.
Deedee walked out onto the wooden decking and rested her elbows on top of the safety barrier to take in the scene. Just as impressive, with a panoramic view of the entire beach, almost back to the boardwalk where they had walked earlier. Smiling, she inhaled the salty sea air and let the warm breeze linger in her hair as she admired it all – the white foam-capped waves tumbling over the shore – the tranquillity and solitude.
Anthony, Gina and Rosie were outside now, in the grassy garden at the back, which was where their voices were coming from. Deedee was just about to turn and go back into the bedroom when something caught her eye. A figure in the distance. Waving. A woman perhaps, it was difficult to tell with the haze from the sun blurring Deedee’s vision, as she tented her eyes with a hand, having left her shades in her handbag in the kitchen. Seeing there was nobody else around, Deedee assumed the person was waving at her, so she went downstairs and out onto the beach.
‘Hello?’ Deedee called in a cheery voice as the person came closer, a woman, much younger than her, with wavy, shoulder-length blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. The woman had a look of relief on her face as she dashed quickly across the last section of sand and up to the little path outside the beach house. Stopping by the driftwood log, the woman took a deep breath as she smoothed down her shirt and patted her hair as if tidying her appearance in preparation for her visit. ‘Can I help you?’ Deedee asked, studying the woman, and noting that she looked nervous.
But the woman quickly covered it with a wide smile before replying, ‘Who are you?’ in a broad Brooklyn accent. Taken aback, Deedee frowned and folded her arms across her chest and studied the woman some more. She had a look of familiarity about her.
‘Have we met before?’ Deedee asked, puzzled. She never forgot a face, maybe she had seen the woman at a social event, in a shop, restaurant, on the subway when she was last in New York with Joe, who knew? Deedee waited for an answer.
‘No, we’ve never met,’ the woman said with conviction but her fingers fiddled nervously with a chain at her neck, Deedee noticed.
‘So why are you here?’ she asked.
‘Sorry, you’ve taken me by surprise as there isn’t usually anyone here,’ the woman paused and then added, ‘I’m looking for Joe.’
Silence followed.
Deedee’s heart momentarily stopped.
‘Joe isn’t here,’ she eventually managed, her heart racing now as she prepared herself to tell the woman that he had died. But it didn’t feel right to just come out with it. Not when she didn’t know who the woman was or how she knew Joe.
‘Oh, um… I’ll come back another time.’ The woman shrugged awkwardly and stopped talking.
‘Maybe I can help you? I’m Joe’s wife.’ Silence followed as the two women held each other’s gaze momentarily. The woman pushed a hand through her hair, hesitated, seeming to change her mind, ‘You know, it’s OK, I made a mistake, sorry… I should go!’
Deedee walked towards her and held out her hands as if to calm the woman, who then took several steps backwards with a worried look on her face now.
‘Hey, it’s OK… no need to go,’ Deedee said, sensing she needed to tread carefully as the woman looked incredibly uncomfortable, wary even, as her eyes darted around as if searching for an emergency exit.
Backing away, the woman held up her hands. ‘I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have come here.’ And she turned away.
‘Please, at least tell me, why you are looking for Joe?’ Deedee asked, but the woman was already at the end of the path and gathering speed as she walked away. Not giving up, Deedee went after her and tried again.
‘It’s personal,’ the woman called out over her shoulder before breaking into a run. Disappearing across the sand, the woman went in the opposite direction from where she had come and headed towards the curved end of the shoreline.
‘Hey, please come back!’ Deedee yelled. ‘Wait. Please stop!’ But it was no use, the woman had vanished over the grassy dunes.
‘What’s going on?’ Anthony appeared. ‘I heard you yelling—’ He looked at Deedee.
‘A woman, she was just here asking for Joe,’ Deedee told him, stunned. Gina and Rosie were close behind Anthony, all with concerned looks on their faces.
‘What? Why? Where did she go?’ Anthony yelled to be heard over the suddenly thunderous sound of the sea pounding in Deedee’s head now as she tried to work out what had just happened. Deedee pointed in the direction the woman had taken, shocked on seeing her hand shaking.
‘Over the dunes, towards the lighthouse.’
‘What did she look like?’
‘Blonde, young, slim… I don’t know, it all happened so quickly,’ Deedee muttered, and armed with this information, Anthony instantly raced off in the same direction to look for the woman. Gina did too.