Chapter 2 Peach Tree Welcome
The first day in The Lost Souls House had been peculiar yet comforting, like a deep exhale that stretched the lungs.
After the shock of showing up on her estranged best friend's doorstep following too many years of silence wore off, Ursula did exactly what she was too scared to hope for: she pulled her in for the hug only a best friend can give another.
When best friends hug, there is a meeting of souls, just a slight tap, tap, but it rights all of the misplaced feelings inside of you, of which most people have many at any given time.
Though time, space and hurt had been vast and they both had their own fears and wounds, this moment pushed all of that aside. For right now.
Until later.
"How...," Ursula's green eyes were wide and disbelieving, but there wasn't a hint of vitriol or bitterness. She shook her head, her black hair moving over her shoulders and she said, "You're here. You're...here."
"It was time," Eloise said with another shrug but then both women were crying and laughing and years of sadness, shame, anger, worry, and wonder dissipated between them like cotton candy on the tongue.
Eloise fingered a lock of raven wing hair and smiled. "I like it. You look," she shook her head, taking her in, "wild. Happy."
Ursula linked her hand with Eloise's, and tugged her into the living room where they sat on a sumptuous cognac velvet couch. "Tell me everything," her friend said.
And she did. Mostly.
She told her of the years spent in Orlando, where she owned a small cafe and lived in an apartment that smelled like nothing and felt lifeless. The air was too cloying there, thick and handsy. "I regretted moving there almost immediately but it's what I chose and it's where I stayed."
"I cannot imagine you in Florida," Ursula said with an awed smile. Their eyes roved over each other as though they couldn't quite believe what they were seeing; looking for the person they once knew so intimately, clocking the changes.
"That's because I do not, and never have, belonged there.
I wanted something so vastly different than the Midwest and that's where I landed.
An older man was selling his coffee shop that I had frequented while staying in a rent-by-the-week furnished apartment so I put an offer in and then it was mine.
" She shrugged, feeling a pang at the thought of the small shop she had put so much of herself into with the too-blue interior and bright white trim, the cracked tiles of the floor she was slowly replacing here and there and the white-topped fake wood tables from the 90's she was getting rid of and replacing one-by-one.
And while she had loved creating her own place, it had never felt quite right.
She'd have to figure out what to do with it now, but that was for another day.
Her assistant manager had it covered for now.
"How long are you here for?" Ursula asked and then interrupted her own question before Eloise could give an unsure answer. "I'm making dinner for some friends. Will you help me and I'll put on tea?"
She smiled. "That sounds amazing," she said softly.
She found herself led into a large kitchen so cozy and whimsical she laughed.
"This is you. This kitchen is perfectly Ursula," she said in wonder as she looked at the bronze gold animal cabinet pulls decorating the dark red cabinets with the black brick backsplash.
The island was a work of art, large with a deep copper farmhouse sink and countertops of such a lovely, worn wood with nicks and scrapes that told of time and stories.
"Yeah, this house is...not exactly like other houses," Ursula said carefully as she filled a kettle and pulled down two mugs.
One was a white ghost and the other was a black cat.
She pulled out tins and placed things in the cups as silence filled the room.
It was the silence of questions, hope, but most of all ease.
It was safe. She wasn't sure she had felt this kind of quiet in a long time.
But even in the safety, there were questions and uncertainties. Would Ursula want her barging into her new, interesting adventure? Had too much time passed in silence between them? Had their last meeting created too much of a hole?
Eloise, of course, had these wonderings and thoughts flitting through her mind the two days it took to get here.
She almost turned around at a gas station in a city named Ketchuptown, but when she got into her car, an unseasonably hot gust of wind pushed a strong smell of vanilla and sea salt through her window as though in a cajoling shove.
The moment that Ursula saw her, recognized her, there was an amazement on her face that Eloise hoped was joy. But humans were fickle creatures with what they said and what they felt, not always holding hands in agreement.
Once the mugs were steaming and placed on the island, Ursula leaned over the top across from her and smiled. Eloise held herself still.
"How long are you here for and please tell me forever."
And Eloise let out an embarrassing cry that sounded like a fox being wounded as emotion so deep and so worn came out of where it had been hunkered down for years inside of her.
She cried and she couldn't stop. They were tears of absolute freedom, everything she had been holding hostage in her belly and soul releasing out and into the world so that she no longer had to carry the burden.
Ursula came around the island and hugged her gently. Their tea, which smelled like fresh spicy sweet herbs, sat untouched.
Ursula made dinner while Eloise hiccuped through more tears, unsure when it would stop but knowing there was a river inside of her.
Bread was baked, soup was stirred, and never once did Ursula make her feel like she had to stop crying.
Even the air around her felt warm and quite like an embrace.
It might have been an hour or two later, the sun was slowly descending and the back door opened to usher in a bounding, insanely large animal and an incredibly attractive man who looked like he lived on a mountain with his flannel and boots and dark scruffy jawline.
Ursula kissed him and whispered something to him before he graciously nodded with a kiss to her forehead before walking back outside.
The insanely large animal bounded up to where she sat at the island and she stared wide-eyed at the big brown eyes that were level with hers as he nudged his head, the size of a watermelon that required both arms to hold, into her chest. Because he could reach her chest without jumping.
She looked up at Ursula as she lightly patted the wiry grey fur and Ursula laughed.
"This is Casper. I got him probably a month after," she let the sentence drop off.
"What is he? Is he...is half horse, half dog a thing?"
Ursula laughed again and told the dog to leave her alone to which he turned deaf, grey ears and settled into Eloise further. But Eloise didn't mind. She rather liked how he was pressing his thin body against hers as if he needed her comfort. She sniffled and a few more tears ran down her cheeks.
When Ursula sat next to her she wrapped her hand around Eloise's. "I want you to cry as much as you want or need. I have four friends coming over who I would love for you to meet, but if you'd rather some alone time I have many guest rooms and any of them are yours."
Eloise hiccuped and swallowed, nodding. She could feel her whole face was puffy and splotchy.
"Could I freshen up and if I can't stop crying I will just lay in a bed for a while?
I don't want to scare your friends. And we're talking about that," she pointed to where the handsome man had entered and exited moments ago, "later. In depth."
"Anything you want," was her soft reply with a coy smile. "But just so you know, these friends cannot be scared away by a few tears." She stood and her dog lifted his head from Eloise's lap. "Up we go. Follow me."
They walked through the other door in the kitchen through a hallway with celestial night wallpaper and star sconces on the walls.
They passed one door and Ursula murmured, "No, not this one.
" They paused in front of another to which she shook her head and at the third door they stopped, two women and one horse-dog, waiting for Ursula to decide.
When she decided with a firm nod she turned the bronze and crystal knob, pushing it open to reveal a perfectly cottage-like room.
"Here we go. Perfect. Well done," she said with a smile and Eloise wondered if her friend was talking to anyone in particular, but then she stepped inside the room and stared with an open mouth.
The floors were wide-plank honeywood with woven rugs of yellow and copper.
The bed was a large four-poster of antique wood that matched the bedside table and the long dresser with a large, ornate mirror.
The bedding was all fresh cream and plush with so many pillows she wanted to jump on them letting them swallow her, and a dark caramel thickly woven throw was carefully placed over the foot of the bed.
The walls were the most delicious buttercream yellow.
And anyone who has decided to decorate and especially paint with yellow knows, picking out the right yellow that doesn't look green, or like too-bright egg yolk is a difficult task.
This was just the touch of yellow, like the creamy paint took on the whispered suggestion of lemon kisses.
The ceiling was a cream-painted wood beadboard that sloped up slightly into a point meeting the large windows, with stained color trimming each top with a brown stained glass tree taking up one half of the pane. It was historic and charming.
A rounded arch doorway led into a white-tiled bathroom with a warm wood vanity and gold-framed mirror with perfectly plump peach towels and a claw-foot tub that any woman would groan over.
"This room is...it's perfect. I would pick out everything in this room," she said in wonder as she walked around taking in the details.
There was a wide and shallow cream bowl that sat empty on the dresser and a peachy pink vase standing tall with branches sticking out of it.
Three jarred candles in various shapes and sizes smelled of mossy oak, vanilla cupcake and one was simply called starlight.
There was a collection of six books standing sandwiched between two stone book ends in the shape of women dancing.
She leaned down frowning as she read the titles then turned back to Ursula.
"These are all on my to-read pile. All of them," she said with awe.
Ursula's face simply said it was normal. "Yeah, so this house is different, like I said. It kind of takes on the characteristics and needs of the tenants and its visitors." She leaned next to where Eloise stood and turned a raised eyebrow at her. "Is that a romance with the male lead as a shark?"
Eloise nodded her head slowly. "It is." When Ursula's raised eyebrow inched up further she shrugged. "Kind of a joke. Told one of my workers I'd give any book a try."
"Are you going to read it?" she asked with a laugh.
"Absolutely," she replied with sharp honesty.
"You're afraid of sharks."
Another slow nod. "Yep. Going to be one of the rockiest romances I've ever read," she replied seriously. "But, I am a woman of my word."
Her friend cocked her head with an old smile. "That you are." She looked around the room and nodded after taking it in. "The house did well. If I had walked in here yesterday and found this..." she shook her head with a sadness.
Eloise nodded, thinking to the articles she had found on her friend when she looked her up in Florida. There was mention of this house and its peculiarities, but from what she could find, that wasn't so uncommon in this strange town.
"Do you remember coming here and thinking that surely if magic existed anywhere, it would be here?"
Eloise tilted her head at the memory. Ursula had a habit of straightening her hair daily until that trip when she found the charm in its wildness. Then out of college she wore it shorter, straight and polished.
"Yeah, I do. That was an amazing trip."
What they didn't say out loud was that it had been their last trip together. Before everything went to dust. Eloise looked around at the lovely room and sighed deeply.
"Thank you," she said softly and Ursula hugged her, holding her pieces together.
She breathed in the scent of her friend. Sea salt and vanilla. She was going to start crying again. She wasn't sure her body could handle that much dehydration, so she pulled away.
"How about you take a hot bath? There will be everything you need. I'll finish dinner and you come out whenever you're ready."
Eloise sat on the puffy bed as the door clicked shut and she let out a breath.
A bath sounded like heaven. She found peach blossom bubble bath and a jar of homemade dried lavender bath salts under the sink and soon the room was filled with the thick warmth of hot water and fragrant bubbles.
She sank into the water, the tickling fingers of it running down her body giving her the most delicious shivers.
Tension was pulled out of her as she closed her eyes and let the water do its magic.
A heavy, peach-colored robe was hanging in the closet and she wrapped it around her body before she dug through the suitcase someone had placed on the low, tufted bench at the foot of the bed and pulled on her fleece-lined leggings and a light pink sweater.
Her auburn hair she twisted into a clip at the back of her head and she slid on what looked like new slippers, peach colored with a plume of peach feathers on the top, placed lovingly next to a bronze heating vent.
She stepped out of the room following the smells of an autumn dinner and the sounds of women's voices. When she walked into the kitchen five pairs of eyes found her immediately.