Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Michelle dropped her cleaning rag as a huge sneeze overtook her.
“ACHOO!” She blinked and sniffled, wiping her nose yet again with the tissue that she kept stuffing back into her pocket.
She was in one of the upstairs rooms of the mansion, starting to tackle the shroud of dust that was at least seven years thick. She didn’t blame her grandmother at all for not keeping every room in the house clean, but the dust had gotten to the point where cleaning it up was decidedly daunting.
Still, I’ve been enjoying this, she thought, looking around with a smile. I feel like I’m an archeologist, discovering some old long-buried treasure.
She laughed softly and went back to scrubbing the dust off the brass headboard of the old bed.
Even though she’d never felt more congested in her life—barring the times she’d been sick with a cold—she felt a kind of joy as she worked.
Ever since she’d come to Coral Sands, something inside her had brightened.
She felt more optimistic about her future than she ever had before, as if all of the beauty surrounding her made her certain that her life would be beautiful too.
Maybe that’s why I like this so much, she thought, wiping her nose again. I’m making this room beautiful, just like how I’m determined to make my life beautiful.
She smiled quietly to herself, thinking about how when she’d been searching for a new place to live, she’d wanted to feel a kind of click that would let her know she’d found the right spot. She’d felt that click the second she’d stepped out of the taxi onto the sidewalk of Coral Sands.
She finished dusting off the headboard and looked around the room again, deciding that she would tackle the windows next.
She could see that they were a pattern of squares of regular clear glass bordered by small diamonds of colored glass.
She felt eager to see what colors the stained glass was, since the window was covered so thickly in dust that the colors had been muted.
She sprayed a generous dollop of window cleaning foam onto a clean rag and began to scrub vigorously at the windows.
Tendrils of wet dust began to fall off the glass like tiny snakes.
Michelle wrinkled her nose at the sight, although the work was satisfying.
It became even more satisfying when she saw how gorgeous the colors of the small diamond-shaped panes of glass were.
Emerald green, ruby red, and sapphire blue gleamed and flashed in the sunlight.
She sucked in her breath, stepping back from the window and taking in its majesty.
And to think this has been hiding away up here all this time, she thought. Time to bring you back into circulation, room. A window like this is meant to be seen every day.
Once she had the window perfectly cleaned off, she turned her attention to a big antique chest that was resting in the corner. She dutifully scrubbed it clean with a dry cloth, since she didn’t want any kind of cleaning product—even water—to potentially damage its gorgeous old wood.
Once it was clean, she gave in to her curiosity and opened it.
The inside of the chest had been lined with a beautiful floral paper.
It had yellowed a great deal, but that didn’t take away from its charming elegance.
She blinked down at the contents of the chest for a few moments before realizing that it was a hope chest.
Oh, this is fantastic! she thought eagerly. I wonder if Grandma has ever looked through this before. I’m honestly not sure—this room may not have been used for decades, considering how dusty it is.
She decided to stop looking through the chest by herself, since it seemed like the kind of experience that would be sweeter if shared. She couldn’t wait to look through the contents of the chest with her grandmother.
She was just shutting the lid of the chest when she felt her cellphone begin to ring in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw that the caller was her friend Ruby.
“Hey, girl!” she said eagerly, sitting down on the end of the bed, which had been covered many years ago by a white sheet.
She realized a second later her pants were going to be covered in dust, but she grinned and decided not to worry about it.
She was due for a shower anyway, after all the cleaning she’d been doing.
“Hey,” Ruby said, sounding a little breathless, and Michelle guessed that her childhood best friend was calling her from the middle of a run. “I saw on Instagram that you moved to a new town. On the East coast?”
“Yeah.” Michelle laughed. She lay back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling, knowing she would have to wash her hair too.
She didn’t mind—the bed was comfortable despite how old it was, and she felt cheerful and excited to talk to the girl who had been her best pal during her earliest years.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call and tell you about it before you saw it online, but it was a very last-minute decision.
It’s not like I’ve been ignoring you, it’s just been a whirlwind. ”
“Well, don’t worry about that,” Ruby said, and Michelle could hear her friend’s smile in her voice. “I understand better than anyone that it takes two minutes to post online and phone calls are never that quick unless somebody’s really mad and hangs up.”
Michelle laughed. “Are you mad at me?” she teased.
“Definitely not.” Ruby laughed. “But I am surprised. What made you decide to move all the way out there?”
“Hey, if I remember correctly, you and your family moved really far away first.”
“Um, yes, and we knew about it months beforehand and you and I cried about it like six times,” Ruby said, and Michelle wasn’t sure how much of her breathiness was due to laughter and how much was due to the fact that she was jogging. “You really just packed up your life in a couple of weeks?”
“Uh, more like a couple of days.”
“What?!”
Michelle closed her eyes, smiling. How could she convey to Ruby how thrilling it had been to let herself get whisked away, and to suddenly leave behind a life that no longer seemed good?
“I know it sounds crazy, but my mom—well, she and my dad are getting a divorce, and that was completely sudden and pretty awful. She lost the house and everything. So she decided to move out to Coral Sands, where she grew up.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ruby said, sounding sympathetic. “But you’re not your mom. Why did you move?”
“Well, partly to be with her,” Michelle said. “But I also just wanted to move away too. I’d just gotten fired from the travel agency for pushing back on the fact that they were misleading customers.”
“Ugh,” Ruby said. “That’s so unfair. I’m sorry Michelle.”
Michelle shrugged. “I felt really bad when it happened, but in the end, I don’t want to work for people like that, you know?”
“Fair. But still—losing a job doesn’t mean that you have to pack up your life out of nowhere and move somewhere totally new—and to some tiny little town? Please tell me you’re only going to live there for a little bit while your mom gets back on her feet.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Michelle said. “So far, I really like it here.”
“Okay,” Ruby said doubtfully.
“What?” Michelle prompted with a laugh. “I can tell you’re thinking something. What is it?”
“You’ve only been there a few days. I’m just worried you’re going to miss the city. Don’t you think it’ll get really boring there after a while? I bet you end up moving back to Scottsville before long.”
Michelle considered her friend’s words for a moment. “I’m really loving it here so far,” she said honestly. “All I can say for sure is that this is the right place for me in this moment.”
She and Ruby continued to chat for a few more minutes, catching up on other details of their lives. Michelle enjoyed talking with her friend, who was boisterous and affectionate as well as outspoken, but at the back of her mind a doubt began to grow.
Maybe she’s right, she thought, trailing her fingertips over the dusty sheet she was lying on. Maybe after a while, I won’t be happy to live in such a small town anymore. Maybe it’ll get boring and I’ll start to feel cooped-up.
Her heart sank at the thought, since she didn’t want it to be true.
What she wanted was to stay in Coral Sands indefinitely, breathing deeply of the clean salt air and enjoying the company of all the kind people she’d met since she’d arrived.
Not to mention the fact that all the food in town was truly spectacular, especially the food her grandmother cooked.
Finally Ruby said that she had to go, and the two friends said an affectionate goodbye.
Once she’d hung up, Michelle lay still on the bed for a few moments before sitting up and looking around the room.
She’d made a good dent in the dust, but it was still going to be a lot of work to make the room truly clean again.
She exhaled, feeling suddenly tired. She decided to be done cleaning for the day, and she thought of a nice hot shower and smiled.
She left the room, shutting the door quietly behind her as if the room was a living thing that wouldn’t want to be disturbed.
She made her way to her bedroom, which had its own private bathroom.
She took a long hot shower and washed her hair and then changed into comfortable leggings and a large sage green sweater.
She wrapped her wet hair, which smelled like mangos from her shampoo, up in a towel and rubbed lotion across her face, enjoying how much more relaxed she felt.
I’ll take things one day at a time, she thought with a smile. I don’t know what the future will hold. Coral Sands may surprise me yet.
She had just taken her hair out of the towel and pulled it back into a ponytail when she heard Audrey and Elaine calling for her.
“Dinner!”
Michelle grinned, and her heart warmed when she heard her mother shouting the familiar word.
She scampered down the old wooden staircase and made her way to the kitchen, which had a lovely dining table placed near a row of windows that looked out onto the back garden.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were cooking,” she said, kissing her mother’s cheek and giving her grandmother a sideways hug. “I would have come down and helped.”
“That’s okay, sweetheart,” Elaine said. “We heard the shower running and figured you wanted to get cleaned off after all that cleaning.”
“That’s the truth.” Michelle laughed and then sniffed the air eagerly. “Whatever you made, it smells incredible. What is it?”
“Enchiladas,” Elaine said. “That was one of your mother’s favorites when she was little. She told me that it’s one of your favorites too, so I knew it would be the perfect recipe. Perfect for a sleepy evening like this.”
Michelle nodded, smiling, noticing that a light rain had begun to fall, sprinkling the windowpanes with droplets that gleamed in the light like gentle diamonds. It felt warm and cozy inside, and she felt a peace wash over her that was as comforting as a soft blanket.
She helped Audrey and Elaine set the kitchen table, and soon the three of them were sitting down to dinner together. They poured themselves glasses of red wine to go with the enchiladas, and Michelle found the flavors of both the wine and the food to be spectacular.
“This just hits the spot,” she said, swallowing a delicious bite of the cheesy, spicy enchiladas before taking another sip of her wine. “This is the same recipe you used to make, isn’t it, Mom?”
“Definitely.” Audrey’s expression took on a nostalgic softness. “I think it’s safe to say this is true comfort food for all of us, on a number of levels.”
The three of them chewed their food in companionable silence for a few minutes, and then Michelle remembered the hope chest she’d found upstairs.
“While I was cleaning, I found something,” she said eagerly.
“Well, two things—the window in that bedroom I was working on is absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait for both of you to see it tomorrow when the light’s coming through it.
The colors are just breathtaking. But what I really wanted to tell you about is the hope chest in that room.
Have you ever looked through it, Grandma?
I was thinking we could all look through it together. ”
Elaine nodded, a sudden light in her eyes.
“I have, but not for many years. I nearly forgot about it.” Her expression became sentimental as she stared into space.
“There are a lot of family heirlooms in that chest—some of which I think the whole town would appreciate. Our house is almost as old as Coral Sands itself, and some of the house’s history sheds light on the history of the town, in its own way. ”
For a moment, all three women were quiet, each of them thinking of all the people who had lived in the house before them.
Just think, Michelle thought. So many people have eaten dinner in this room. People who were talking about historical events that weren’t history at the time. They held newspapers and felt emotions about things that I’ve only read about in history books.
“I have an idea,” Audrey said suddenly, her expression bright.
“What is it?” Elaine asked, sounding just as enthusiastic as her daughter.
“We can turn this house into a historical attraction,” Audrey said. “It’s certainly old enough! I can go to the city office and get a feel for all of the permits and things like that we’ll need to get. But I’m sure it’s not all that complicated! I bet we could do it.”
Elaine clasped her hands together. “I love that idea.”
“Me too.” Michelle learned forward, feeling excited. “I think that’s a brilliant idea, Mom.”
If our house gets turned into a historical attraction, she thought with a grin, things will never get boring. There will always be someone new to meet and things to talk about.
She felt a surge of confidence in the answer that she’d given to Ruby. While it was true that she couldn’t know for sure how she would feel in the future, for the time being she was very happy living in Coral Sands.