Chapter 2 #3
Chase pulled off the last sheet, revealing a credenza over which hung an ornately framed mirror. “Yeah, the previous tenant left all this here. We haven’t had a chance to do anything with it.”
“Did they leave recently then?” I asked. “Mr. Proffitt said the apartment became vacant unexpectedly.”
Chase shrugged. “About a month ago, I guess. Just up and left. Didn’t take much—just clothes mostly. Skipping out on rent, if you ask me.”
I glanced around once more, seeing it differently this time.
I’d left behind the furniture at the tiny house I’d rented, giving some of it to my neighbor and some to charity.
Whit assured me he’d dispose of the rest. We’d brought what had meant something—the personal.
So I was baffled by the previous tenant’s ability to just pick up and leave everything.
Books, artwork, plants (now dead). There were even baubles and knickknacks that looked sentimental—amateurish clay fingerbowls made in a kindergarten art class, Disney World souvenirs.
Not really the kinds of things you just discard on a whim.
Or maybe that was just a rich-person thing.
Growing up, I’d never left any of my meager belongings behind if I could help it.
Anything nice or meaningful from Vivian was rare and performative.
Like when she was putting on a show of how good a mother she was.
So maybe I was more attached to things than I should’ve been.
But even when Vivian was skipping out on rent, we’d load up the car or a friend’s van in the middle of the night so we could still take our personal things.
“Mama, can I see my room?” Henry asked, tugging my hand to get my attention.
I looked at Chase. “Is it safe for him to look around?”
“You go right ahead, buddy,” Chase said. “Everything’s solid in here. We’ll get in to paint and repair the cracks in the plaster soon. The rugs need replacing, but that can wait a bit. You’ve got hardwood in the bedrooms. Looks rough, but the boards themselves are good—not rotting or anything.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Is there a kitchen? Bathroom?”
“’Course,” Chase said. “Kitchen’s through there.
” He gestured toward the arched doorway off the living room.
Then he pointed toward the short hallway off the other side of the room where Henry had gone exploring.
“Bedrooms and bathroom are down that way. You go ahead and take a look around. I’ll start bringing up your stuff. ”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that!” I said quickly. “We really didn’t bring that much.”
Chase winked. “Well, all the more reason for me to take care of it. Y’all get settled.” He set the manila folder and keys on the credenza. “I’ll just leave all this here for you to look over. The code for the front door is in there, too. Be back in a few minutes.”
“Thanks,” I called after him, bemused. The apartment was far better than I’d dared hope.
The first person I’d met was as friendly as I could ask for.
If they were all as welcoming as Chase, it was going to be hard to leave when Whit decided it was time for us to go.
But, for now, I wasn’t about to complain.
Starting to feel cautiously happy with my decision and maybe even a little excited, I went to find Henry to get his reaction.
“Henry?” I called, heading to the first bedroom. “Where are you, baby?”
I peered inside, taking it all in. Everything in this room was covered in sheets as well and was thick with shadows. “Henry?”
I heard him giggle in the next room and smiled, turning to go see what he found so amusing.
When I poked my head around the door jamb, I saw him sitting in the middle of the floor, playing with a pile of action figures he’d apparently dug out of a toybox I could see just inside the open closet.
All the sheets had already been removed from the furniture—a simple twin bed, dresser, and bookshelf filled with children’s books.
The drapes were open, revealing a small air conditioning unit in the window.
The paint on the walls was chipped and worn down to plaster in some places and the white paint on the ceiling curled up in one corner where I guessed there’d been a leak.
Across from the closet, a large crack spanned a good portion of the wall, but it was still an improvement over what Henry had had in the one little bedroom at the old house.
Henry giggled again, drawing my attention back to him.
“What were you laughing at?” I asked, coming in and turning on the air conditioning unit. It kicked on with a loud whir, the cool air blasting me in the face and chilling the sweat that had accumulated beneath my hair. I closed my eyes, briefly enjoying the artificial breeze.
“The funny pictures in the closet,” Henry answered before returning his attention to the action figures. “I’m gonna get you this time, Doc Ock! No way, Spiderman!”
My heart filled with such happiness at seeing my son enjoying our new home, that the tears stinging my eyes weren’t tears of frustration for once. Blinking rapidly before Henry could see them, I went to the closet to see the pictures he’d mentioned.
Several crayon drawings were taped to the back wall of the walk-in closet.
One showed a little boy stick figure holding hands with a mommy and daddy stick figure and a house with smoke coming from the chimney.
A sweet little family scene. The next was a child’s rendition of what I suspected was supposed to be Spiderman.
“Hey, Henry, which of these pictures did you think were funny?” I asked, frowning at the sweet drawings—drawings I wouldn’t have parted with for anything if they’d been Henry’s. In fact, I had a whole folder of them in one of the boxes in the car.
Henry scrambled to his feet and ran to the closet. “Not those,” he said, pointing to the ones on the wall. “The ones in the desk.”
On another wall of the closet sat a little desk just the right size for a child. It had a top that lifted like an old-timey school desk I’d seen once in an antique shop, and initials had been scratched into the corner—DP.
I grinned, running my fingertips over the carved letters, wondering if they belonged to the little boy who had apparently stayed in this room before his parents had skipped town.
“Here,” Henry said, lifting the desktop. He pulled out a stack of crayon drawings and handed them to me.
The first couple of drawings were cute. A puppy making a silly face.
A bunny with green ears and a purple nose.
More attempts at various superhero characters—a happy-looking Hulk and a broadly grinning Thor.
But the next in the stack showed a stick figure of a child with curly blond hair—the little girl downstairs, maybe?
Or was it a little boy? Hard to tell. Next to the child figure was a stick figure of a woman with long dark hair.
Her eyes were black circles, and her mouth was a squiggly line, making her appear angry.
Definitely not a happy little family scene…
The next drawing was even more disturbing. The angry woman again, but this time, she held a knife that dripped with blood. Next to her was the child, its head of golden curls lying on the ground at the woman’s feet.
“Jesus,” I murmured, horrified by the disturbing drawings. “What the hell?”
Whatever had been going on with the previous tenants, one thing was certain—their kid was deeply troubled.
“Maybe we should put these somewhere safe in case he comes back for them,” I suggested, hoping Henry had only seen the first few.
Henry’s mouth turned down in a pout. “But David said I could have them.”
I paused in gathering the papers, my brows drawing together in confusion. “Who?”
“David,” Henry told me. “The little boy in the closet.”
My flesh prickled with goosebumps and the hair on the back of my neck rose, but I forced a smile, ignoring the sudden closeness of the closet.
“Well,” I said, gathering up the rest of the papers and steering Henry out before closing the door, “I’ll put them up for a while. If he doesn’t want them back in a couple of weeks, you can have them.”
Henry shrugged. “Okay. Do I still get to play with his toys?”
I took in the room again, making note of more toys than I’d originally noticed. “Are all these toys David’s?”
Henry sat back down on the ground to continue playing. “Well, kinda. They were someone else’s, but now they’re his. He said he’d share them with me if I shared mine with him.”
I shuddered, suddenly colder than what the little air conditioning unit could cause but immediately chastised myself for being freaked out by what Henry had told me.
We hadn’t even been in the new apartment for an hour, and I was already allowing what had happened at the old place with the intruder to put me on edge.
Henry just had an active imagination. That was all.
“Is David your new friend?” I asked, willing to play along.
Henry nodded. “Yep!”
I experienced a pang in my chest, feeling for the millionth time that it was my fault Henry didn’t have any friends.
I’d berated myself I don’t know how many times, my mom guilt in overdrive: If only I’d been able to afford to live in a better neighborhood, maybe he wouldn’t be so lonely.
If only I’d tracked down his father and asked for his assistance. If only, if only, if only…
But this was a fresh start for both of us, with a chance to make new friends.
I’d never had many friends growing up thanks to our frequent moves and had made up a few imaginary friends too, so I wasn’t going to take that away from Henry if that’s what he needed right now to cope with the changes in our life.
“Well, I hope I get to meet him sometime,” I said, sitting down on the floor with Henry and leaning forward to squeeze his hand. “But, hey, I have an idea—maybe we can go meet Adelaide once we get unpacked. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Henry shrugged. “I dunno. David says he doesn’t like Adelaide.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
He shrugged again. “He says she doesn’t ever talk to him, so he doesn’t like her.”
A whisper of a breeze at the back of my neck chilled me to the bone once more. Except the air conditioning unit was directly across from me, not behind me.
“Hey, y’all!”
I started so hard every muscle in my body contracted.
“I brought little man’s toys first,” Chase called, his voice growing closer as he came down the hall toward us.
Embarrassed by my overreaction, I scrambled to my feet and snatched up the stack of drawings as Chase entered with the box of action figures, toy cars, and stuffed animals.
He paused in the doorway, flicking a glance at the papers in my hands. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nervous laugh. “Yeah, it’s great. Just taking a look at Henry’s room. I still can’t believe they left all this behind.”
Chase set the box down and took the room in. “Never know what people will do when they’re backed into a corner.”