Chapter 21
Eric, Laurie, and Angie pulled up to City Hall to cast their vote Tuesday morning. Charlotte stood outside with a sign. With his eyes still glued to her, he parked his truck, quit the engine, and unbuckled his seatbelt. “What is she doing?” he whispered to Angie and his mom, still in the truck with him.
Opening the car door, he stepped out, slamming the car door.
Charlotte stood just outside the marked and required space of fifty feet beyond any door to City Hall. She held a sign in her hand: Vote NO on Proposition 11.
He marched up to her. “What are you doing?”
“Campaigning.” She handed a pamphlet to a person walking by.
“Yeah, but…” He pointed to her sign. “You’re campaigning for our side.”
“I hope to save your dairy farm.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you.”
Heat filtered through his body. He rushed to her and picked her up and gave her a squeeze, twirling her around in the parking lot. “You’re amazing. But—”
“I know. If we lose the house, we lose the house. I care more about relationships than material things.”
“Does your brother know about this sudden change of heart?”
“No.” Her face lost a shade of its sunny light.
“I appreciate you doing this.” Laurie stepped forward and shook her hand. “But it’s probably too late.”
Charlotte clasped Laurie’s hand. “Perhaps. But it’s just the right thing to do.”
“Are you sure?” Eric glanced at the voters standing in line around City Hall.
She had a faraway look for a few seconds. “I’m sure.”
For the rest of the afternoon, he stayed next to her and handed out brochures, held signs, accosted people. Energy ran through him. They might make it after all. His heart swelled with love for Charlotte. She was a genius.
At lunch, he grabbed her something to eat while she continued to campaign.
By seven, when the poll closed, his feet ached, and his arms still hadn’t recovered from the tractor pull. The earlier energy that sustained him now flagged. He was spent—emotionally, physically, and mentally. He hoped it paid off.
“Now all we have to do is wait for the results to come in.” Charlotte picked up the pamphlets, the signs, and their trash.
The sun set long ago. Wind whipped through him.
“It’s in Heaven’s hand now. They’ll have them out on the local news by tonight.” He rubbed his neck. “Wanna come over and we can watch together?”
“Sure. Let me take these things home, and I’ll meet you over there.”
Laurie and Angie had gotten a ride home with Tara hours ago. He hastened to his truck.
Once he got inside the Victorian farmhouse, he warmed two mugs of apple cider, flipped on the news while making caramel popcorn, and rearranged the pillows. Then rearranged them again. He couldn’t decide if he should leave on the lights in the TV room or turn them off.
Angie and Laurie took Lizzie to Tara’s to watch the results.
The doorbell rang.
His heart leaped into his throat. She was here. He left the lights on.
He slid across the wood floors to the front door and opened the screen for her.
Ushering her inside out of the chill, he was glad he’d warmed the cider and made caramel popcorn. The house smelled cozy and inviting with cinnamon and cider.
She sat on the couch.
He was a little self-conscious of the old thing. It had been through seven kids and had seen better days. He’d covered up the biggest stains with the pillows.
“The local news just started.” He set the bowl of caramel popcorn next to her and handed her a mug of cider. Hope sprung into his heart. But also sadness. No matter what, someone would lose. If the proposition failed, Charlotte and Preston would lose their home. But Charlotte could always stay. And Preston could rent a place in Burlington while he went to school.
The local newscaster appeared again after a commercial break. “Tonight’s close decision on Proposition 11. Did Sugar Creek vote to annex their southern border? We’ll find out, but first…”
Eric let out an impatient sigh, swinging his arm around Charlotte. He dug his hand into the popcorn and brought out a fistful of sticky and sweet kernels. She drank the cider and listened to the announcement about the Halloween dance at the community center.
Nerves rankled through him. He wanted to kiss Charlotte, but her mouth was occupied with eating caramel popcorn. He shouldn’t have made the snacks. If it was a winning announcement, he told himself, he’d make his move.
“Well?” a man in a suit asked. “How did our citizens turn out to those polls today?”
The newscaster in a red dress with bright lipstick responded. “Good news for those who voted to add the southern border of Sugar Creek. The majority voted to annex those businesses and homes just south of the city…”
Eric didn’t hear anything else. His stomach soured. It couldn’t be. He shook his head. The newscaster was still talking about what the changes would be.
“I—” He stammered. “I thought we would win.” All the last-minute campaigning. The fact that Charlotte who had been so influential in fighting for the annexation switched sides should’ve been convincing. He stared at the TV.
Charlotte sat still beside him. Finally, she melted. “I’m so sorry. I was in shock. I can’t believe it. This wasn’t how this was supposed to happen.” She moved to put her arm around him.
He moved forward. All of a sudden he was too hot. Energy of a different sort surged through him. Someone had to tell Laurie. What would happen now? They’d default on their loans. They didn’t have the money to pay the extra taxes.
His insides crumpled. A wave of nausea swept over him.
“I should go.” Charlotte stood, but he barely heard her.
He couldn’t help but feel so unworthy of her. Never before had the gulf dividing them felt so wide. They had the mansion and would be successful. He was a failure.
“It’s just as well. I failed.”
“No. You didn’t.”
“Don’t you understand? I never thought I was good enough for you. Now I know I am not.”
“What? You think the Laurents haven’t fallen on hard times? Just so you know, Jules, my ghost, is my great-grandfather, and he’s stuck here because he was a rum runner.”
Eric stopped complaining.
“He was afraid to lose the house, so he turned to illegal means to keep them solvent. At least you didn’t break the law.”
“But I’m losing my house, our business, and our retirement plan for my mother.”
She clutched a pillow to her chest. “Do you know what shame his revelation brought upon me? The house should’ve been lost long ago. Maybe we weren’t meant to be in the mansion. Maybe I was supposed to correct that.”
Listening to her lightened his own burden, but he wasn’t sure that was the reason she was being haunted by a ghost.
Charlotte placed her hands on top of each other. “But I can’t help but feel like Jules is here for a reason. I thought it was to teach me that I shouldn’t prioritize material things over relationships, that the house needed to be lost again. But that didn’t work.”
He placed his hand on top of hers. “Tell me more about your ghost.”
“Jules said he was murdered by his enemies for rum running sometime in the twenties. They stole the gold he made from the runs.” A tear dripped from her eyes.
“Yikes.”
“His family was nearly insolvent and sold this land to your family to continue to live in the house. I feel like our two stories are connected somehow. That losing this land, losing the house are all connected to Jules, but I’m just not sure how.”
He ran a hand over her shoulder. “Let me do some digging in my family history. I might be able to discover something about the sale of the property or something that might help us uncover the mystery.”
He heard Lizzie, Angie and Laurie come home from Tara’s. From their doleful air, he guessed they’d heard the news at Tara’s. His stomach sickened.
“Thank you.” Charlotte leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
He walked her back to the front door and saw her out.
Then he stared into his quiet house. These walls had been filled with his family’s laughter for several generations. Memories of singing around the old upright flooded him. He could see Pa, sitting next to the Christmas tree handing out presents, as giddy as the children with excitement. He loved giving the perfect gifts for his kids. They were never expensive, but they were meaningful.
With the new city taxes as well as the pumps, they couldn’t afford to stay. They would have to foreclose or sell to a corporate-run dairy. Would a professional dairy even keep the house? Would they raze it to make room for more milking sheds? Or would they use the house as an office? It was hard to imagine all the love in this house replaced with computers, copiers, and desks.
His whole paradigm shifted. This was it. They were done. He glanced up to the high twelve-foot ceilings where a faucet turned on, water flowing through the pipes. Where would Laurie go? What would she do?
He needed to find Laurie and tell her the bad news.
After coming home from Tara’s house, Laurie snuggled under the covers and read by her bedside lamp. Even though she technically had the whole king-sized bed to herself, she still respected Will’s side of the bed.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Yes?” She held her page open with her finger. She removed her glasses to bring the world back into focus.
The door creaked open.
Eric stood in the doorway, his face ashen.
Alarmed, Laurie sat up. “Is everything okay? Is someone hurt? How are the cows?”
“Everything is fine.”
It was a lie, and she knew it. His voice sounded too mechanical, too reassuring. She didn’t need to guess what was wrong after that. She knew. She’d been reading to avoid thinking about it. But she had known this moment would come.
She gulped away a bitter taste in her mouth. “The proposition passed.”
Eric nodded and looked away. “I thought we had a chance at the end.”
“I did, too.”
“Charlotte—” He choked back emotion.
“She did her best.” She kicked her feet out of the covers and sat up. “Hey, come here. It’s not the end of the world.”
Eric crossed the room and collapsed at his mother’s feet. He laid his head in her lap.
She stroked his hair, just like she did when she was a child. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Is it? We can’t pay the additional taxes. We’ll default on the loan. You won’t have a place to live out your old age. We have no means of supporting you. It doesn’t sound okay.”
She continued to stroke his hair. “Listen, something will come up. We can pray for a miracle.”
He snorted. “Maybe James will pay back the money he took.”
She hit him slightly on the head. “Hey, now. I gave him that money. It’s my mistake. If I end up in the poorhouse because of my bad decisions then so be it.” If things had worked out better with Carl then her kids wouldn’t have to worry about her. But the ache of so many disappointments swallowed her.
“Maybe Tara could loan us some money, just to tide us over.”
“Tara is a brilliant businesswoman, but we can’t allow her to risk her own venture just to support us. Besides, it would take months to get out of the shortfall. Even a lump sum at an easy interest rate would still not be enough.”
“I’ve failed you, Mother.”
She couldn’t remember the last time he’d called her Mother or Mom. “No. I’ve failed you. You’ve worked so hard. You sacrificed your schooling to come home and work the farm. I shouldn’t have given that money to James. I hoped and believed he would be successful, but I should’ve looked at his work ethic and compared it to yours.”
“No use beating yourself up over it now.” He sniffled, then standing, he hugged her. “Thanks for the reassurance.” Grabbing a tissue, he kissed her goodnight and left. “But I can’t help but feel I’ll never be good enough for Charlotte.”
Laurie tried to be strong for her son. As soon as he walked out of her room, she collapsed into bed. Turning off the light, she cried herself to sleep. Everything was wrong in her life, all through her own bad choices. And she didn’t know how to fix it.