THREE
Stephanie
‘And, um, I know there’s only a stove top but you can get those little ovens now or an air fryer and I really don’t mind if you use mine sometimes…’ Stephanie trails off, leaving the sentence unfinished. Did she just tell these strangers that they can use her oven? She did. Shit.
It’s only been a week since she told Gail that she was willing to rent out the in-law suite and things have moved so quickly, it’s almost been overwhelming.
Gail let her know the day after they first talked about the family who needed accommodation that they were delighted to accept her offer and that led to five days of frantic cleaning and sorting for her and Luke and Avery.
Stephanie spent a long time scrubbing the cream tiles in the bathroom, and she even contemplated getting a new vanity because the present one was once white but has now aged into a dull cream.
But then she decided that everything looked fine once she had replaced the handles with new stainless-steel ones from the hardware store.
The rest of the place looked okay although the grey carpet has some worn patches. She has cobbled together a living room area with an armchair and an old sofa as well as a coffee table made of timber, scratched but sturdy.
Are they what she expected? Probably not.
‘Oh, we’ve got one of those small ovens,’ says Cecelia, who is married to Jason.
Stephanie breathes a sigh of relief. Strangers in her house every day would be too much. This is going to be a completely separate arrangement. There’s an entrance down the side of the house so the Kemp family can come and go without the families disturbing each other.
They have a daughter named Polly, who is fifteen and is at school right now, as are Luke and Avery.
‘When we heard we were getting this, I gave the local school a call and they were so good about taking her immediately,’ Cecelia told Stephanie when she asked where Polly was.
‘This looks great,’ says Jason, who is tall with broad shoulders and deep-blue eyes.
He has light-blond stubble across his face and large rough hands covered in nicks and scratches.
‘Sorry builder’s hands,’ he told her when he shook Stephanie’s hand in greeting.
Cecelia is the same height Stephanie is, and curvy with black hair in a pixie cut.
Cecelia doesn’t look like she’s old enough to have a fifteen-year-old daughter but perhaps that’s just genetic luck.
‘Great,’ says Stephanie. ‘I’ll just leave you to it then.’
‘Thanks,’ says Jason as he looks around the small space. ‘It really does mean so much to have this so quickly.’
‘My pleasure,’ Stephanie replies.
‘Oh, look, babe, a welcome basket. Aren’t you sweet,’ says Cecelia, offering Stephanie a dimpled smile, her hazel eyes lighting up. Stephanie has filled the basket with a bottle of wine and a nice piece of cheddar, some crackers and nuts and a small box of chocolates.
‘Well, you’ve been through a lot. I hope you’ll be comfortable.’
‘We have,’ says Cecelia, nodding. ‘We really, really have.’ She looks down and then immediately up again, a smile on her face. ‘I don’t drink but Jason here will have that over dinner,’ she says as she glances at her husband and then looks away.
‘Unless you’re inviting us over, in which case I’ll bring it to share,’ says Jason.
‘Oh, I…’
He bursts out laughing. ‘Just kidding, Stephanie, just kidding. We have lots to do to get settled.’
Stephanie knows it’s time to leave her new tenants to it.
‘Well, I hope it’s comfortable.’ She wants to tell them to call on her if they need anything but she thinks that makes it sound like they are her guests.
It’s hard figuring out what to say and what not to say.
Rental negotiations have gone through Gail, who has spoken to Jerry, who has spoken to his friend and it’s all a bit complicated.
When Stephanie looked up how much she could rent the granny flat or in-law suite for, she was shocked at the figure.
In her area she would technically be well within her rights to charge over six hundred dollars a week.
But that just doesn’t feel right, and she’s mindful of what the Kemp family has been through.
Stephanie turns to leave and Cecelia grabs her arm, startling her so that she pulls away and turns back.
‘Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,’ she says. ‘I just wanted to give you the first month up front. I hope you don’t mind cash. Some of the jobs Jason does… well, what the tax man doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?’ She grins.
‘Oh… oh, of course,’ says Stephanie, looking at the envelope Cecelia is holding out towards her.
It’s stuffed full of notes but Stephanie knows she can’t count it here.
That would be rude. They’ve agreed on a rent of three hundred and fifty dollars a week.
A lot less than she would get if she advertised but she’s happy to be helping.
She reaches out to take the envelope and Cecelia pulls it back, a grin on her face. ‘Oops, too slow,’ she says with a giggle.
Stephanie flushes.
Jason lays a hand gently on his wife’s arm. ‘Don’t be silly, love,’ he says and Cecelia holds the envelope out again.
‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘Just messing with you.’
Stephanie finds herself hesitating but she reaches for it and takes it from her. ‘Thanks,’ she says and she leaves, unease sitting heavily in her stomach.
Once she’s inside her kitchen she closes the door to the garden and then, after a moment’s thought, locks it.
That was a weird thing to do but it was probably just Cecelia being funny and the family have been through a lot so she shouldn’t judge. Although Jason did look embarrassed by his wife’s behaviour.
She finds herself uncomfortable staying in the kitchen because she can be seen from the garden.
It’s not something she has considered throughout the process of getting everything ready but the in-law suite sits squarely in the middle of the garden, at the back.
Stephanie can see the blue painted front door, slightly ajar, from where she is standing in her kitchen.
The little square house is something she has been looking at for so long that she has simply stopped seeing it but now that people are living there, it sticks out, the white painted walls bright in the spring sunshine.
Well, they’re there now. You’re being paid, and you’ll get used to it, she reassures herself.
Picking up her cup of coffee from the square timber table she always sits at, she heads to her bedroom where she closes the door and sinks onto her bed with a sigh.
She’s obviously going to have to get used to a lack of privacy.
There are blinds that cover the door in the kitchen and she will have to start using them but she didn’t want to pull them down today, in case it sent the wrong message to the Kemp family.
Pulling the cash out of the envelope she counts it and is grateful to see that it’s the right amount. She would have hated to have to have a discussion about missing money.
It’s enough to give Luke cash for the camping trip and pay for a couple of runs to the grocery store.
Separating the money into two piles, she leaves her bedroom for the study where she puts money in an envelope for Luke.
Then she goes to the kitchen to grab her purse from her bag, and she tucks the rest away in there.
As she turns around in the kitchen she glances back out towards the garden, and then she jumps, emitting a weird scared shriek.
A girl, thin to the point of being gaunt, with a bright gold nose ring, is standing at the glass door, staring into the kitchen. Her long brown hair is coloured with two streaks of blue down the sides.
Stephanie’s heart races and she grabs her phone, going towards the door. ‘Hello,’ she calls through the glass, not wanting to unlock the door, when she realises that the girl is actually wearing a school uniform. She recognises it from one of the schools nearby.
Unlocking the door and pulling it open, she opens her mouth to speak when she hears a woman call, ‘Polly, over here, over here.’ Cecelia comes bolting up the garden, her long green dress flapping around her legs.
‘Sorry,’ she says when she gets to them, winded despite the very short distance. ‘Polly, this is Mrs Gordon. She owns this lovely house. We’re down there in the little shed.’ She points and her daughter turns around and looks at the accommodation.
Stephanie would use the word house rather than shed – there are rooms, and electricity and carpet and soft furnishings and running water, even though it’s small. But she reminds herself again of what the family have been through. Probably a slip of the tongue.
‘How are we going to live in that?’ the girl hisses at her mother. Turning back to the main house she looks Stephanie up and down. ‘You could fit four of those into this house.’
‘Oh… well…’ Stephanie begins, embarrassed and irritated at the same time.
‘Don’t be so rude,’ snaps Cecelia. ‘Just go and put your stuff down.’
The girl swings around and stomps off down the garden.
‘Sorry,’ says Cecelia, rolling her eyes and laughing. ‘Fifteen-year-old girls. She won’t even notice where she is once she’s on her phone.’
‘Oh… oh, it’s fine,’ replies Stephanie. ‘Luke is sixteen and he has his moments.’
‘Is he your only child? I wouldn’t think so in a house this size,’ says Cecelia and Stephanie feels it again, the embarrassment at what she has, as though she should apologise for the size of her house. ‘Oh no, I have Avery as well. She’s twelve.’
‘Yeah, well,’ says Cecelia. ‘You just wait until she’s a teenager. Polly will drive me mad one day. I swear if I didn’t know she was out, I would have sworn that she set our house on fire in a fit of rage.’
Stephanie is too stunned to say anything to that remark. Their house burned down, along with many others, in a fire from a downed power line. Why would Cecelia make such a joke?
Cecelia bursts out laughing. ‘Just kidding, of course. I love her to death but she does drive me mad. I had her when I was so young I’ve had to grow up with her.’