The Timber Effect

by Jacklyn Reynolds

  "Well, he did say that he didn't have any food yet. Besides, I've always liked helping," said Timber.

  "I know that," said Grace. "But you offered to help him set up his classroom and you're asking me if you can make his lunch. What is unusual for you is that you're commonly asked to do something though you always do it without complaint. You usually don't volunteer your time willingly and you're not one to take to strangers so quick. You've known the man for less than twenty-four hours."

  "I don't understand where you're going with this Aunt Grace," said Timber.

  "He's a very good-lookin' young man. You're seventeen. It's normal for girls your age to be attracted to a slightly older man. What do you find intriguin' about him?" asked Grace. "His eyes? His smile?"

  "His eyes and the way he smells," said Timber without embarrassment. Grace almost dropped her coffee mug.

  "W-what?"

  "The scent he has," said Timber. "It's familiar to me though I'm sure I've never met him before. I won't deny that I find the man attractive but you know I don't want a relationship. It's too risky for me if I'm found out. Also, I have a question." Timber sat down across from Grace looking serious. "I glimpsed his teeth last night when he smiled. They're identical in shape to Mom and Dads. Do you think he could be from that world? From Haven?"

  "It's a slim possibility, but I can't rule it out," said Grace but she didn't quite meet Timber's eyes. "Will you be alright if he is?"

  "Yeah," said Timber. "I don't remember much about Haven. We left a couple of years before Mom and Dad died though I keep thinking that the reason they died is because we left."

  "What do you remember?" asked Grace.

  "Woods, a large lake, a meadow full of flowers and many of our - well, Mom and Dad's kind. And marshmallows. I always remember marshmallows and a happy feeling that goes with them."

  "I don't know anythin' about Haven except for what your parents told me," said Grace. "If Henry is from Haven I would feel better if you didn't get involved - yet."

  "I don't want a relationship, remember?" pointed out Timber. "I'm going to die an old maid surrounded by cats."

  "If you say so," said Grace with a disbelieving shrug. Once again, Timber got the feeling Grace knew something she didn't. "I just remember your mom telling me that people from Haven were dangerous. But you were safe because even if you were attacked, it would have no permanent effect on you because of what you are."

  Timber pondered for a moment.

  "So if we're right, and Henry is from Haven, everyone in the neighborhood could be in a small amount of danger," said Timber.

  "Good morning, Mama," said a bright voice. Emily was bouncing into the kitchen. She grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. "Hi, Tim."

  "Tim-ber. My name is Timber. I'm not a guy, Em."

  "You're certainly dressed like one," teased Emily.

  Emily never wore pants if she could avoid them, though she always wore leggings under her skirts. She said that dresses made her a lady. Emily was only thirteen so Timber cut her some slack. When Timber was thirteen, she went through a phase where she got tired of hiding what she was. She spent hours fighting with Chad and Grace but she lost. Timber thought dresses were a better phase than fighting.

  "Well, I make a good-looking man then," joked Timber.

  Grace laughed, coughed, and pointed out the time. Timber's eyes got wide. She frantically started to make salads with the leftover shrimp from lunch the day before. Timber had just finished putting the lids on the Tupperware containers when the doorbell rang. Timber rushed to answer the door and was pleasantly surprised at the sight in front of her.

  Henry was standing on the haint blue covered porch in dark blue jeans and an old black t-shirt that said "Guns N' Roses", instead of the jogging sweats he was in the night before. Then she noticed that Henry had a couple of piercings in his right ear and a plain leather band on his wrist. His arms bore several tattoos of intricate design. Timber looked up at him and smiled as the morning sun radiated from him. He looked like he should have been in a punk rock band and Timber loved it.

  "Good morning," he said as he smiled at Timber.

  "Good mornin', Henry," said Grace coming up from behind Timber. "You're here for the girls, I presume."

  "I am," said Henry politely.

  "Emily is just grabbin' the lunches," said Grace. "She'll be here in a moment. Before you leave I want to make it very clear that I am makin' the choice to trust you with my girls," she added sternly. "If you make either of them even the slightest bit uncomfortable, Timber will not hesitate to call me."

  "I understand," said Henry. "I promise they're in safe hands."

  "I got the lunches," said Emily bouncing towards the door with a full brown paper bag. "Can we go now, Mama?"

  "Yes, you can. Stick close to your cousin, Emily, and don't leave without tellin' Timber or Henry where you're goin'."

  "I promise," said Emily.

  "Bye Aunt Grace," said Timber.

  "Y'all be safe," said Grace.

  Timber and Emily waved to Grace as they crossed the lawn. The high school was only a few blocks away from their street so it was not a far walk. Emily bounced ahead a short way while Timber walked beside Henry. Timber looked down and wished she had worn something that didn't make her look heavier than she was. She was mentally slamming her head into a wall when Henry's voice ended her battle.

  "Your little cousin is quite the character," said Henry chuckling. Timber smiled as they turned the corner to head east on Willow Street.

  "Sometimes I swear she forgets she's thirteen," said Timber with amusement in her voice. "She's sweet, gentle, and completely innocent. Just don't make her mad. She takes after Aunt Grace. Once you get her started, she won't shut up. But she's still an amazing person." Timber became serious. "When her parents took me in, she was five years old. I was having trouble adjusting. I was frightened and angry a lot and I wasn't sleeping well at night. I wanted my parents. Emily started sleeping in my bed with me at night and she would hold me until I stopped crying. Then she would make up stories about pink unicorns and talk to me until I fell asleep."

  "She's quite remarkable," said Henry. "Being as young as she was, there was no way for her to understand how you were feeling but she was there for you anyway. That's a rare trait in a five-year-old."

  "I wish I was more like her sometimes," said Timber. "Well, except for the dresses. But she's amazing."

  "I'm sure you're amazing in your own way," encouraged Henry, and making Timber turn strawberry. "You're a very strong person, given the unfortunate circumstances you've had to endure at such a young age."

  "I needed help recovering from everything," objected Timber. "Unfortunately, I couldn't do it on my own so it's difficult for me to be convinced that your statement is accurate."

  "It takes a stronger person to accept help than to attempt to face their troubles alone," said Henry. "Admitting you need help takes more nerve. I know from experience." He became very somber. "Early last year my only sister was in an abusive relationship. I saw the bruises and tried to help her. She kept refusing my help because, in her words, 'I'm not so weak that I need your help'. Three days later, he beat her to death. I had just graduated and was ready to start teaching summer school. I became deliriously enraged and tried to do to him what he did to my sister. I stopped after I broke four of his ribs. I'm not proud, but I realized that I needed help. Learning from my sisters' mistake, I sought counsel from my mentor, Renegade Frost. I was able to get the help I needed."

  Timber saw his eyes darken. Without thinking, she grabbed his hand and folded her fingers around his and Timber felt something like an explosion of butterflies fluttering wildly in her stomach and she began to feel herself shake. The air vanished from her lungs and she could not draw breath properly.

  "I'm sorry," she said quietly.

  "Thank you, Timber." Henry gently pulled his hand away. He looked confused and torn for a moment but the expression on his handsome face quickly change
d. "My point is that we have all been through things we would rather forget but asking for help to get through them is not a weakness."

  "I found one of your strengths, Henry," said Timber as they passed Dana Grey Elementary, which taught grades three through five.

  "What is it?"

  "You're very easy to talk to," said Timber. "You're also kind, and very intelligent."

  "I don't know much about 'intelligent' but thank you," said Henry. "You're very easy to talk to as well."

  "So we're here." Emily stopped in front of a newly remodeled tan building with the words FORT BRAGG HIGH SCHOOL over the arched entrance. "Where are we going?" asked Emily bouncing back to them.

  "Room 108," said Henry. "I don't know where that is. Timber, can you help me?"

  "Certainly good sir," said Timber with a perfect curtsy and Henry laughed. "I might as well give you both the grand tour."

  "But I'm not going to be here until next year," argued Emily folding her arms over her chest.

  "Then I suggest you pay attention," said Timber.

  Timber led Henry and Emily all over campus. It was a small campus for a high school. There were only about four hundred and thirty students from ninth to twelfth grade. She showed them the large library, the cafeteria, and the gym. Then she took them around each building. Then she showed them the portables and a separate building for the auto body shop. Lastly, Timber took them to a door on the right side of the library Henry unlocked the door and went inside the hallway. Inside looked a bit worn due to the age of the school but it was clean and well maintained. They walked past seven rooms, and a group of lockers and then stopped in front of room 108.

  Henry unlocked the door and their eyes got big when they found the room in shambles. Books had been thrown everywhere, posters had been half ripped from the wall and the blinds were destroyed beyond repair. Desks and chairs were overturned and one of the bookshelves was laying on its side. The other was on its face.

  "Wow, they weren't kidding when they said he went nuts," said Timber in surprise.

  "What happened, Timber?" asked Emily.

  "From the rumors I heard last year, Mr. Brey found out his wife left him for another man who made a bunch of money and he lost his mind. I guess he did this during lunch that day. He was arrested. I didn't see him escorted out myself though I did see the cop cars outside of the parking lot." Timber pulled out her phone. "I'm going to call Aunt Grace. We're going to need extra help, or at least some new window treatments."

  Timber dialed the phone number and put the phone to her ear.

  "Timber!" cried Grace sounding panicked. "Are you alright? What about Emily? Did he do somethin' to you?"

  "No, Aunt Grace, relax. I'm calling because I was wondering if you could do us a favor. The room has been torn up pretty bad. It needs new window treatments. The blinds are beyond repair. You can take the money out of my allowance if you want."

  "I'm not goin' to do that, Timber," said Grace. "What size curtains do you need? Do you need rods?"

  "Well, the ceiling is seven feet from the floor I think, so about six and a half feet long? We need three sets."

  "What color?"

  "Umm... Hold on a second." Timber looked down. The carpet was deep gray and the walls were white. The textbooks were a lovely shade of deep red. She looked at Henry. "Do you like dark red?" Henry nodded. "Aunt Grace? Dark red is good. Like red wine, if you can find it for cheap. It doesn't have to be luxurious. And we don't need rods. I just found some behind the bookshelves."

  "I'll be there in two hours," said Grace.

  "Thank you," said Timber. She hung up the phone and put it in her purse. She turned to Henry and Emily. "Shall we get to work? Emily, can you pick up all the books? I'll get the desks upright. Henry, I can't tell you what to do so..."

  Henry, Timber, and Emily got to work immediately. Timber got the old curtain rods from behind the bookshelves before helping Henry put them up right. Timber was amazed by Henry's incredible strength. Timber barely lifted a finger and it had to weigh at least a hundred pounds of solid wood but Henry moved it with great ease. Timber stared in awe and disbelief as he backed it against the wall. Henry wasn't that large. He was tall, but he didn't look very muscular. She found herself breathing harder than normal. She shook her head to bring herself back to the task at hand.

  When the shelves were upright, Emily put all the books on the shelves and organized them in a neat fashion. Timber put the desks and chairs back on their legs while Henry started clearing off the teacher's desk and getting the filing cabinet's drawers back in place. When they had finished with their first tasks, they began cleaning up after the old teacher. The three of them took the old blinds off the windows, took the posters off the wall and threw them all into a trash pile. Timber cleaned the sliding whiteboards with spray she found on the shelves behind the boards while Emily took a bottle of Windex and wiped down the windows that looked out into the large courtyard. Timber even dusted the tops of the hanging light fixtures. When the girls had finished, there was no evidence of a mark or even a smudge. Everything looked brand new.

  A small knock on the open door made them stop working and look up. Grace was standing in the doorway in boots and denim shorts and her old high school dance team shirt with a bag, and a box of Round Table pizza. Timber saw the box and immediately wondered why she didn't smell it. Then she reached the conclusion that she was too busy working to pay attention to her nose.

  "I thought salad might be a little light with all the work you've done."

  "Thank you, Mama," said Emily.

  "Thank you," said Henry and Timber together.

  "You're welcome," said Grace. "Here's the curtains, Honey." She handed the bag to Timber. "Leslie from the cookie shop in the Company Store happened to have purchased the wrong size curtains for her living room. She gave me these. I hope they work."

  Timber looked inside at the pile of apple red fabric and beamed. "These are perfect," she said happily.

  "I'm glad," said Grace with a smile. "Now let's eat."

  "Can you handle it?" asked Timber.

  "I made myself a hot toddy and took a short nap. I feel almost right as rain."

  The four of them sat down in the circle eating pepperoni and pineapple pizza (which was Timber and Emily's favorite) and the shrimp salad that Timber made that morning. When they finished eating, Emily and Timber went and sat in the back to work on a sign for the classroom door with colored paper and markers that Emily brought from home. Instead of helping Emily, Timber kept her ears on the conversation between Grace and Henry

  "I can't express how thankful I am for everything you all have done for me in the last twenty-four hours," said Henry with a grateful smile.

  "Well to be honest with you, we usually aren't like this with strangers," said Grace. "Timber has taken a likin' to you which is extremely out of character for her. She's usually wary and timid around people she doesn't know. She's been like that since her parents died. We've learned to trust her judgment when it comes to people." Grace grinned. "We had to learn the hard way, unfortunately."

  "How so?"

  "My older sister came over one night about three years ago. Timber kept tryin' to get her out of the house yellin' that she didn't like her. She was literally screamin' and she kept tryin' to push her out of the house. Chad had to carry her up the stairs and lock her in her room. What surprised us is that Timber had never met her before. We let my sister stay the night when she came over since I hadn't seen her in years and I wanted to spend time with her. In the mornin', I found my dinin' room table covered in cocaine and a few other substances, my grandmother's pearl necklace gone from my bedside table and my sister nowhere to be seen. What was worse is that Emily thought it was sugar. We cleaned it up before she stuck any in her mouth."

  "That's terrible. Did you find the pearls?"

  "I found them in a pawn shop," said Grace. "I knew they were my grandmother's because Emily had gotten red lipstick on them by accident and I couldn'
t get it off completely. I explained my situation to the shop owner and brought a photograph of Emily kissin' them with red lips. He gave them back to me without charge. After that, we learned to trust Timber's instincts, which is why I trust you. I trust you because Timber does and Timber's instincts about people are never wrong."

  "Henry? What's your last name?" asked Emily suddenly. Timber was so involved in listening to the conversation between Henry and Grace that she forgot about Emily and she jumped a little. "I'm trying to make a sign for your door."

  "My last name is Santelli," said Henry. "S-A-N-T-E-L-L-I. My father was an Italian immigrant and my mother was obsessed with the Victorian Era, which is why my names are so old-fashioned."

  "I like your names," said Emily.

  "You would be the first one besides my mother," said Henry with a small smile.

  "I have to get home now," said Grace, getting to her feet. "I do need to have another nap. I'll see y'all when you get home."

  "Bye, Mama," said Emily.

  "Bye, Aunt Grace," said Timber. Henry bowed his head in farewell because his mouth was full of the last slice of pizza.

  Grace smiled and left the room. Not two minutes after her departure, Emily announced that she needed to use the restroom. Henry gave her a key. Timber told her where the closest bathrooms were and Emily hurried out of the room and down the hall.

  Timber stood up on a chair and hung up the white curtain rod after putting the red curtains on them. She hung the first two without a problem. When she tried to hang the third one, she leaned over just a little too far to the right and the chair tipped over. Timber fell to the ground with a loud crash and a high-pitched yell as her head hit the desk next to her, her shoulder came in contact with the hard floor and the desk fell on her twisted legs. Henry rushed to her side, threw the desk off of her, gently lifted her shoulders off of the ground and cradled her upper body against his chest.

  "Are you alright?" he asked looking worried.

  "My shoulder hurts but I'm pretty sure that it's going to bruise a little," said Timber who was holding her head and trying not to look into his eyes. Timber had never been cradled before. She wasn't uncomfortable being held that way. In fact, she felt the exact opposite. Henry was warm and Timber felt safe in his arms. "I'll be alright."