Chapter 6
Chapter Six
When they got back to the main house, Lonnie was sitting on the porch already, sipping a beer and chatting animatedly with Carrie and Milo.
“How is it even possible you haven’t seen the first Avatar movie?” Milo said, openly gawking at the old man. “It’s the highest-grossing movie of all time, I think! Or at least it was at one point.”
“I just don’t go to the movies very often,” Lonnie admitted. “The tickets are too expensive if you ask me.”
“Yeah, but it’s not just that you didn’t go see it in theaters. They play that movie on TV all the time. I would’ve thought it impossible for someone not to have seen it at this point. Do you have cable? Or one of the streaming services?”
Lonnie shook his head.
“None of them?”
“Nope,” he said. “I really don’t watch that much TV. I read a lot, but movies and television were never really my thing. Oh, that reminds me, if you see a paperback book sitting around somewhere in the main house, it belongs to me.”
“Milo, you found it, didn’t you?” Ruby said. “The mystery romance one you were reading this
morning, right?”
Carrie gave her boyfriend a look, and Milo’s face flushed. “Yeah, I found it. But I wasn’t really
reading it. I was just flipping through it to pass the time since I couldn’t sleep.”
“Sure you were,” Carrie snickered.
Milo looked like he was about to argue, then he waved a hand in the air and said, “Oh, forget it. I’m not going to pretend like I didn’t devour that book in a manner of hours.” He turned to grin at Lonnie. “It’s a great read, man.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“But,” Milo went on. “I don’t think it’s a better story than the one that plays out in the cinematic masterpiece that is James Cameron’s Avatar. Just saying.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t watch it,” clarified Lonnie. “Just that I hadn’t had the chance. I don’t even own a TV at the moment, so it’s really not possible.”
“You don’t own a TV?” This seemed to shock Milo more than anything. “That’s crazy!”
“Leave him alone,” Carrie said. “Who cares if he hasn’t seen the movie? I don’t even think it’s that good.”
Milo then turned to gawk at her. “What? You can’t mean that.”
Ruby laughed and accepted the beer Lonnie handed her without a word. “Uh oh, Carrie. You have no idea what you just did.”
She looked worriedly up at Ruby. “What?”
“That’s not only Milo’s favorite movie,” she explained. “But it’s also what he considers to be a ‘perfect’ movie, and he will outline every single reason why that is the case. I made the mistake once of saying I thought James Cameron was overrated, and he lectured me for hours on end.”
“It wasn’t hours,” Milo huffed. “But I did have to set the record straight because James Cameron is not overrated.” He looked up at Dominic. “Help me out here, man. You saw the movie, right?”
Dominic nodded. “I’ve seen all three of those movies. I can’t say I cared for the second or third, but I liked the first one. It was visually very engaging.”
“It’s stunning! Best movie ever made.”
“I don’t think I would go that far,” Dominic said.
Milo clicked his tongue and turned back to the other man. “Lonnie, you have to watch it. Maybe if we can get the house hooked up to the electric grid, we can find a cheap TV somewhere and watch it together!”
“That would be great,” Lonnie said, his face lit up with joy that made Ruby smile in turn.
As strange as he could be at times, Ruby really liked Lonnie.
It made sense to her that he would’ve been friends with Edith and that she would’ve recognized how much he adored this property.
If it had been her, Ruby also would’ve chosen Lonnie to look after the land after she passed away.
“You all could come to my house,” Dominic suggested. “Not to brag or anything, but I’m already on the electrical grid, and I have a TV.”
They all laughed. Except Lonnie, who looked away and said nothing. Did he think he wouldn’t be invited?
Sure, Dominic was suspicious of him, but he wouldn’t be mean enough to not invite Lonnie to an event that was only taking place because Lonnie himself hadn’t seen the movie. That was petty, schoolyard stuff. Dominic was better than that.
“We can figure out the details later,” Ruby said. “But I do think that sounds super fun. We should make it happen.”
“Before Carrie leaves,” added Milo.
Carrie laughed. “I don’t think I’d be that remiss if I didn’t get to see the movie again.”
“Okay, I let you off the hook before, but now I think the two of us are really going to have to hash this out.” Milo crossed his legs in front of him and sat up straighter. “How can you possibly not like this movie?”
“Hang on a second,” Ruby said, shaking her head.
“If you’re about to launch into a whole diatribe, may I suggest you two take it inside.
It’s not that I don’t want to listen to you rant about the movie; it’s just that I have a headache from inhaling the cleaning chemicals all day…
and I also don’t want to listen to you rant about the movie. ”
“Neither do I,” Carrie mumbled, but the two of them got to their feet anyway and headed inside. Ruby took Milo’s place on the porch steps and opened her beer. It was cold, light, and exactly what she needed in the moment. She took a big swig and smacked her lips together.
“Delicious,” she said with a satisfied exhale. “Thanks, Lonnie.”
“Anytime.” He pointed to the cooler and glanced at Dominic. “You want one?”
“I wish I could,” Dominic said. “But I’m actually on call tonight. I need to head home, change into some scrubs, and then head back to the hospital.”
“You’re working the night shift?” Ruby balked. “But you were cleaning with us all day! Aren’t you exhausted?”
He shrugged. “I’m sleepy, sure, but I have a few hours before my shift starts.
I’ll take a quick nap, but that and some coffee will be all I need.
I used to work long shifts all the time.
My body is sort of used to it by now. I can pretty much run for 16 hours straight without missing a beat.
After that, things start to get a little messy, but with a nap in the middle there, I’ll be just fine. ”
“If you say so.” She whistled under her breath. “But I can’t imagine going to work after this long day of cleaning. Anyway, do you want me to walk you to your car?”
“Not a chance.” He waved her off when she moved to stand. “You look so comfortable. Don’t get up. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You will?” They hadn’t made any concrete plans for the following day, but then again, none of their past interactions had really been planned either.
Similar to Lonnie, Dominic had a tendency to show up randomly without prior notice.
Not that Ruby minded. In fact, she really liked that he felt comfortable doing so.
“I will,” he confirmed. “I’ll sleep in after I get home from my shift, but not too late. I’m actually thinking about bringing some society members around, if they are available in the late morning for a tour?”
“Great!” She grinned. “I would love that.”
“Cool. I’ll touch base with you in the morning then.”
“Sounds good. Hopefully your shift goes well.”
Dominic held up two crossed fingers, then bid them both goodbye, and walked away, leaving Lonnie and Ruby to their beers and the lovely evening ahead of them.
“So you’re giving the grand tour tomorrow?” Lonnie said with raised brows. “When did that happen?”
“You just witnessed it happening,” she said, laughing. “That was the entire conversation.”
“Really? Wow. That was so easy.”
“I think Dominic is anxious to get the society members on the property as soon as possible.” She shrugged. “Which I’m fine with, since I could really use some funding as soon as possible. I can’t really move on to any of the other projects until I do.”
Lonnie took a long sip from his beer, his brow creased in thought. “I don’t mean to bring the mood down, but can I ask what you’re going to do if you don’t get any funding?”
She sighed. “You can ask. I don’t have an answer.” Ruby rested her elbows on her knees. “I’m struggling to figure out what makes the most sense.”
“What would you want to do?”
“Ha. That doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters.”
“Well, okay, it matters,” she admitted. “I just mean, it’s not the main factor at play here. I have a lot of other things to consider than just my own wants.”
“Yeah, fair enough. I won’t sit here and tell you that you should just follow your heart and forget about the consequences, but…” he trailed off.
“But what?”
“I guess I just know that Edith would want you to follow your heart.”
Ruby scoffed. “That would be easy for her to say! She was rich.”
“That’s true. And maybe I shouldn’t even be speaking for her. We were friends, but I won’t sit here and pretend that I actually knew her that well. From what I understand, she didn’t really let people get to know her that well.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. But I’ll bet you still knew her better than I did.” She sipped her beer and leaned her head back on the wall of the house behind her. “I’m hoping that I’ll get a better sense of what kind of person she was now that I’ve found some of her old diaries.”
“You found those?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Wait—you know about the dairies?”
He nodded. “I’ve skimmed them. I hope you don’t think of that as an invasion of your aunt’s privacy or anything. I found them one day and just thought I would flip through a couple, but maybe that wasn’t appropriate.”
“Oh, no. It’s fine!” Ruby said. “I don’t think Edith would care, and I think it’s nice, having this documentation of her life.
There’s so much I didn’t know about her.
So much, I’m excited to learn. After I’m done with the diaries, you can read them more closely if you’d like.
Dominic mentioned that some people at the historical society might also want to take a look at them, but I will make sure they all end up back here after that. This is where they belong.”
He reached down and grabbed them both two new beers. “Agreed.”
Ruby wasn’t even halfway done with her first, but the thought of another cold one put her instantly at ease.
She was tired and stressed, but her headache was starting to diminish, and the cool breeze coming up from the beach was putting her in a great mood.
She finished off her first beer and took the second.
The two of them snapped the cans open at the same time, shared a smile, and took a sip.
* * *
Three beers later, Ruby was a bit tipsy.
She hadn’t eaten enough that day, and being on her feet, cleaning and scrubbing, really burned calories.
It felt good, having some of her inhibitions down, however.
She needed to relax after such a stressful couple of days, and Lonnie was just so easy to talk to.
He’d been telling her some stories from his past, when he was a young man growing up on Sanibel Island, working a lot of random jobs.
“I was a hyper kid,” he explained. “I could never seem to stick with one thing for very long, so I was always quitting one job and starting another one. It drove everyone nuts, especially my coworkers and managers, but I just liked doing new things. I liked to keep things interesting.”
“I get it,” Ruby said. She laughed. “Actually, no, I don’t.
I can’t say I get it at all. I’ve been working the same job for most of my adult life and never really thought about changing things up.
I’ve thought about quitting, don’t get me wrong, but not because I wanted to look for something new.
My job can just be very draining at times. ”
“Social work, right?”
She nodded.
“I can only imagine,” he said with a sigh. “Must be really difficult work at times.”
“It is.”
“But you know something, I think your Aunt Edith would’ve been proud of you,” he said. “She valued hard work and community. Even though she was a loner, she used to donate a lot of money to a few different charities in the area.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
“She mentions it in one of those diaries we were talking about earlier.”
“Oh, I see. I guess that was in one of the ones I haven’t gotten to yet. Truthfully, I’ve barely even skimmed the surface of those diaries. There are so many of them, and she wrote an entry every single day. It’s going to take me weeks, months maybe, to read them all.”
“Months probably,” he said with a shrug.”
“You think?”
“I know.” He looked at her now, and a seriousness settled behind his eyes. “I, uh, was sort of misleading earlier when I said that I had only flipped through the diaries. That’s not really true.”
She shifted around to get a bit more comfortable on the hardwood of the porch. “What’s the truth then?”
“The truth is, I’ve actually read every single one. I’ve combed through them front to back on multiple occasions. I probably could quote directly from some of those diaries if I wasn’t already on my third beer.”
Ruby frowned but tried not to sound too judgmental when she asked, “Why?”
“Why did I read them? Or why did I lie about it?”
“Er—no. I understand why you would read them the first time,” Ruby clarified. “I don’t really understand why you lied about it, but I can assume it had something to do with you feeling bad about invading Edith’s privacy. Which, for the record, I don’t think you need to worry about.”
“Let’s hope not.”
“What I don’t understand, however,” she continued.
“Is what would lead you to comb through them multiple times. That’s so time-consuming, and while I’m sure some of the entries are interesting, a lot of them are probably painfully boring accounts of Edith’s everyday schedule, right?
Why would you want to study her diaries in that way? ”
Lonnie finished off his beer with another big gulp.
“Because I wanted to know where the Wever family buried the bodies.”