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She reached over and patted my hand. “I know, sweetie, and I’m sorry about that. Give our apologies to Calvin — I’m sure he’ll understand.”
Being Calvin, of course he would. But I’d bought supplies to make an Italian dinner for four. Oh, well…I’d just be eating leftover lasagna for the next week. And of course, I’d send a care package home with Calvin, too.
“Okay,” I said, knowing that arguing the point any further would just upset my mother. A thought occurred to me, and I asked, “Can you leave a key to the house for me, though? I’m not quite ready to give up on this.”
“I don’t want you putting yourself in any danger — ”she began.
“I’m sure Selena will be careful,” Tom said, interrupting her. “And really, it’s just smart to have someone local with a key in case of an emergency.” He extricated a key ring from his pocket, then pulled off a shiny new brass key and handed it to me. “This only unlocks the deadbolt on the front door, but that’s enough to get you in. We did go back this morning and turn off the air conditioning and the lights, so there’s no immediate reason for you to go over there.”
No reason except a mystery I couldn’t seem to solve. However, I took the key and slipped it onto my own key ring without comment. As I reached for my coffee, my mother spoke again.
“Please only use that key in case of emergency. I really think everyone should stay out of the house for the time being.”
She knew me way too well. I’d already been plotting how to run over there and do a quick check of everything before I had to open the shop. I swallowed some coffee and said, “You can’t leave it like this forever, Mom.”
“I’m not,” she replied. “Like I said before, we’re just going away so we can get some perspective on the situation and figure out what to do next.”
“Are you going to sell the house?” I asked. “Because I doubt anyone’s going to want to buy the place with this mess going on.”
The two of them traded a glance, and I got a brief flash of yellow spikes radiating out from my mother’s aura before they disappeared. Yellow often indicated guilt, which seemed to indicate that they had already discussed the subject of selling the Bigelow mansion but didn’t want to tell me because they weren’t sure how I’d react.
“We’re keeping our options open,” Tom said. That was all he said, and I could tell he wanted me to drop the subject.
Which I did. They were adults and would do what they needed to do. Maybe they’d realize soon enough that the house really wasn’t sellable as-is, and so we’d have to investigate bringing in an expert to try to cleanse the place.
An uncomfortable silence fell as we all sipped coffee or returned to our neglected breakfasts and tried to act as though all of this was normal. It wasn’t, of course, but I knew my mother wanted this last shared meal of ours to be at least somewhat pleasant.
Afterward, I walked them out to their car, and gave them both hugs goodbye. My mother returned my hug with unaccustomed fierceness, saying, “Maybe you can come visit us. I’d love for you to be home for Christmas.”
I made a noncommittal sound, partly because, although the house she and Tom shared was very nice, it certainly had never been my home, and partly because I really wanted to be in Globe for my first Christmas there. Josie had told me that snow was a rare occasion but did happen from time to time. Just the thought of being able to watch the snow falling, my head pillowed on Calvin’s shoulder, a Christmas tree glimmering in the background, was enough to make me sure that I didn’t want to be anywhere else for the holidays.
And okay, I was a practicing pagan and didn’t really celebrate Christmas — I focused my holiday energies on the winter solstice — but Christmas trees were kind of universal.
My mother seemed to sense my reluctance, because she didn’t push it. She only gave me a final squeeze before letting go, and then she and Tom got into his SUV. I stood off to one side and waved as they backed out of their parking space and then headed out to the highway.
For a minute, I lingered there, watching them go, feeling a bit melancholy. So much still felt up in the air, something I didn’t care for very much. Probably because of my North Node in Capricorn, although I realized I had to accept that was sometimes how the world worked.
I got in my car. The key to the house felt like a lump of glowing plutonium in my purse. I knew I needed to resist its radioactive glow — my mother had all but forbidden me to go back to the Bigelow mansion unless there was an emergency. Exactly what such an emergency might constitute, I wasn’t really sure.
Still….
Oh, the hell with it.
I pointed the car east, but passed the downtown section and my store, knowing I was going to make a liar out of my little “be back at” sign and telling myself it wasn’t a big deal. Most of the merchants on Broad Street had a very, well, broad definition of what “on time” exactly meant. If I was a half hour late, it certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world.
The storms of the day before were gone as if they’d never been. Above, a cheerful sun shone out of the clear blue sky, and the unexpected green of monsoon season made this little corner of Arizona look far more lush than I’d ever expected it to be. On a day like this, it was almost possible to forget what I’d heard…and smelled…in the Bigelow mansion the previous night.
Almost.
In that bright sunlight, I could see the beginnings of ruts from all the rain forming in the property’s gravel driveway. I supposed there was someone I could call to come out and make sure it was properly manicured, but if my mother and Tom really were thinking of unloading the place, they might not care. I really hoped they wouldn’t take a bath on it, though.
I didn’t bother to pull up all the way to the garage. Instead, I stopped the car close to the spot where the flagstone path met the driveway and got out. A warm, fresh breeze caught my loose hair, and I breathed in the scent of roses from the gardens nearby. This really was a gorgeous spot…as long as I made myself forget what was going on inside the house itself.
Key in hand, I made my way up the path to the front door. The lock was a little sticky, but I got inside soon enough. Almost at once, the same stench I’d smelled last night hit my nose. I didn’t think it was quite as strong as before, although that hardly mattered when it was still pretty awful.
Trying to hold my breath, I hurried into the living room and threw open the windows, then did the same in the dining room and the small parlor off to the side where a baby grand piano sat. Almost at once, the same breeze that had played with my hair a few moments earlier rushed through the place, pushing out the terrible smell. It wasn’t gone entirely, but I thought that if the windows stayed open for an hour or so, everything should be back to normal.
Not that I planned on staying here for a whole hour.
