Amie texted me. “Do you want to go to a carnival with us later? We can pick you up.”
“Sure, sounds good!” I replied. Even though I kind of liked being at the B and B, and I liked hanging out with Dylan and Amie, I wanted to be with Grandy.
I needed to get to Grandy’s and see what I could find out about Beverly, even if I had to go alone. This was one thing I wanted to finish.
I closed my eyes. After a while, I fell asleep and in a dream I saw some purple irises. I felt like someone was next to me. I couldn’t see their face but I heard a voice. It said, “You knew where Olivia was, keep looking and you’ll find me.”
I woke up when a bird crashed into the window on the side of the house right near the hammock. Sometimes birds have such bad judgment.
I thought about Beverly. I wished I could ask her what she was thinking right before she died. Maybe then Grandy would get some answers. What do they call that? Resolution? Closure? Something like that. But really, why would I think a dead person would tell me anything?
Chapter 13
The three of us walked through the carnival gate. After spending so much time in the dark, quiet attic, I felt like I was being bombarded by loud music and flashing lights on all the rides.
"It smells like popcorn and funnel cakes," Amie said.
"Yeah, it smells like an antique fair, except the mold and mothball smell is missing," I said.
"Our moms would probably want to combine antique fairs with carnival games,” Amie said. “You could throw a dart and win an antique instead of a goldfish or huge stuffed animal,"
"They should throw the dart right at the antiques,” Dylan said. “Or maybe a rock. Instead of saying if you break it, you buy it, they should say if you break it, everybody wins because you've saved the world from one more piece of junk."
"Right, I mean, just aim for a cut-glass compote dish. No one needs that," I said. “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I watched Cinema Paradiso last night. I really liked it.”
Dylan smiled and nodded. “Good ending, right?”
“Yeah, the end was awesome,” I said. “It was so cool to for the guy to find out someone who had died left a gift for him, something he never got to see as a little kid.”
I turned to Amie. “Have you seen it?”
“No, but that’s what you need,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I said.
“A gift from someone who died. Showing something the person couldn’t see when they were a little kid,” she said.
“Huh?” I said.
“You need a gift from your Grandpa’s sister explaining what happened,” she said.
“Oh, wow,” I said. “You’re right. That would be amazing.”
“AMIE!!!!!”
Four girls came running up to Amie. I had forgotten that the carnival was near where Dylan and Amie lived, so of course they might see people they know here.
“Come hang out with us!” They were all wearing exactly the same shorts and sandals.
“Okay!” she said.
She turned back to us. "Can I meet you guys back here later?" she said. She looked at me.
“Do you mind?” she asked.
“No, that’s totally fine!” I said.
I just wasn’t sure if Dylan would want to walk around with just me. Maybe he would want to ditch me if he saw someone he knew.
"Yeah, okay," he said. "Meet us back here in an hour."
Amie and her friends went running over to the carnival games. Dylan and I started walking past the little kid rides. Some band was playing and a bunch of old people were sitting on lawn chairs and blankets watching the band.
"Do you like Ferris wheels?" he asked.
"Yeah, I love them!" I said.
We went the booth and bought our tickets. Then we got in line for the Ferris wheel.
We were slowly getting toward the front of the line near the carnival guy who took the tickets. We stood by him while the ride went spinning past us. He had a microphone and was reading from a card.
“All right, folks, while you’re waiting, how about a little trivia question?” he said.
Dylan and I looked at each other.
“Hey, maybe we can win something,” I said.
The man cleared his throat.
“Do you know when and where the Ferris wheel was first introduced?” he said.
I smiled. Then at the exact same time Dylan and I both said, “World’s Fair 1893.”
“Duh,” I added.
“I did not expect you kids to know that,” the guy laughed.
“Did we win anything?” I asked.
“Well, no, that’s just to help pass the time. But do you know the other name for that year’s World’s Fair?” he said.
“The Columbian Exposition,” I said.
“Duh,” Dylan said.
“You two must be big Ferris wheel aficionados, is all I can say,” he said.
Some girls got off the ride and walked by us. One of them said, "Hi, Dylan." She had perfect skin and pretty eyes.
"Hey," he said.
The girl kind of smiled at me, like she was trying to be friendly but she was wondering who I was. He didn’t introduce us. After she walked away he said, "That's just Amie's friend's sister."
I wondered if that was the person Amie had mentioned to me. I realized that she was the girl I saw in his YouTube video. I just nodded and tried not to look like a stalker.
After we gave the man our tickets, we went through a turnstile and the line of people went up a ramp. Each car took forever to unload and then load. At least there was a lot to look at and listen to if we couldn't think of anything to say to each other. Music was blasting. When it was our turn we climbed into our car. It had two bench seats facing each other. I thought if we sat next to each other, the thing wouldn't be balanced. If we sat across from each other, it might be weird just looking at each other.
I sat down first so he could decide where to sit. He sat down across from me. The carnival guy closed the little gate on our car. I couldn't help but smile along with the loud whooshing sound when we started moving forward and upward.
Dylan looked off in the distance, took his phone out of his pocket and started filming the view. I leaned back and looked down. I thought I saw Amie's red shirt in a group of girls. Right then she turned around and looked right up toward us. I waved and she waved back with both hands, jumping a little.
"Amie's down there," I said.
Then I realized maybe I should be quiet if he's trying to film with the carnival music and everything.
"Sorry," I whispered, pointing to his phone. "I'll be quiet."
"What?" he said. "Oh, you don't have to be quiet. I'm just getting footage."
He moved across and sat down next to me, but he was just trying to get a different angle for filming.
I could see he was going to get me in the frame so instead of looking at the camera, I tried to just look off in the distance. This was awkward. Good, he was done. He put his phone down.
"Do you have an idea of a film you're going to make or whatever?" I said.
"I don't know. Sometimes I just need to film a whole bunch of different things and then later I get an idea of what to do with it," he said. “And I like the view from up high and it’s cheaper than buying a drone for filming.”
I couldn’t think of anything to say. Then Dylan started filming again so I didn’t need to talk.
Our car thunked to a stop and the guy unlocked our gate. We got up and Dylan got out first. When I was stepping out of the car I almost tripped and Dylan caught my hand. Even more awkward, we were kind of standing there like we were shaking hands.
“Okay kids, you Ferris wheel experts can leave now,” the carnival guy said.
Dylan let go of my hand, stepped back and gave me room to walk down the ramp.
Just then Amie ran up to us holding a huge stuffed penguin.
“Can you hold this for me till we meet up?” she asked.
“N
o,” Dylan said.
“Sure,” I said.
I took the penguin and Amie ran off toward her friends, yelling “Thank you!” behind her. Dylan looked around at some of the other rides.
“Do you want to go on the swings? I wouldn’t mind filming a panoramic while it goes around,” he said.
“Yeah, okay,” I shrugged.
We bought more tickets and got in another line. The penguin was big enough to have its own seat. When we walked in through the gate and picked our seats, I let Dylan take the outside seat so he could film.
After I locked the seatbelt, I held Amie’s penguin on my lap. I took a selfie with it, and texted it to Amie. A few seconds later we got lifted up and started flying around as the ride started turning. Just like on the Ferris wheel, I couldn’t keep from smiling when it took off. Dylan was already recording the scenery whizzing by, but he looked over at the penguin and he smiled.
He turned back to his filming. The sky was starting to get darker. I hugged the penguin and closed my eyes, feeling the breeze and hearing people laughing on the other swings. Everyone sounded happy. I remembered Lauren spinning me around on the tire swing at Grandy’s. Then when I opened my eyes again I looked straight down and I thought about Beverly. I wondered what she must have been seeing right before she fell. Maybe she didn’t mean to fall. Maybe it was just an accident.
And I thought about little Grandy finding out about her. And suddenly the music and the noise and the flashing lights didn’t feel fun or happy anymore. They just felt like chaos.
Chapter 14
It was dark when we pulled up to the Bed and Breakfast after the carnival. I could see Paloma the cat watching us from the window.
"Maybe I can come back here for the yard sale," Amie said. "I wonder if Rosemary would pay me to stand out on the road with a sign or something."
Wow. There are so many things this girl wants to do that I would never even consider.
We got out of the car and walked up the front steps and into the house. Rosemary, Jan and my mom were working on the jigsaw puzzle together. It looked like they only had a few pieces missing.
“What did you find out about your ankle?” I said to my mom.
“They didn’t do X-rays at that walk-in clinic so they just gave me this Velcro boot,” she said. “If I want an X-ray I have to go to the ER which is much farther away. I have to ice it and elevate it. It was a complete waste of time. Unfortunately I can’t drive anywhere yet because it still hurts really badly when I move my foot at all. It figures I had to injure my driving foot.”
“If I had my permit already, I could have driven you there,” I said. “And back to Grandy’s.”
She ignored me.
“I can drive you to the ER tomorrow,” Jan said. She was snapping the last puzzle pieces in place.
"I hate to cause so much trouble. Anyway, how was the carnival?" my mom asked us.
Of course we managed to tell her as little as possible. Amie showed them her penguin. Rosemary held a plate of cookies up to us.
"Have a cookie," she said.
“Thanks,” I said. Amie and I both took one.
“Shoot, we’re missing one piece of the puzzle,” Jan said, lifting up the boxes and looking on her lap and under her chair. My mom and Rosemary looked under the table. Amie and Dylan were both looking at their phones.
I glanced down and saw the missing piece upside down on the floor by the wall.
“Here it is,” I said.
“Oh good,” Jan said. “Robin, since you found it, you can do the honors.”
“What?” I said.
She pointed to the empty space.
“Go ahead, put in the last piece,” she said.
I popped it into place.
“Okay, very good,” Rosemary said. “If you kids want to start a bonfire there’s a big pile of branches behind the shed. You might have to break up some of the longer branches. There’s a metal tub back there you can carry the sticks in. I might even have some marshmallows for you.”
Rosemary got us a lighter to start the fire. We hauled the wood to her fire pit on the side of the house. There were already some lawn chairs set up around the fire pit.
At the lake house, Grandy always used to start our bonfires with twisted newspapers and wooden matches. The ash of the newspapers curled and swayed in the fire. Lauren said they looked like little gray ghosts dancing.
Whenever I looked at Grandy by the fire, I noticed that the light smoothed out his wrinkles and for a few seconds I could picture him as a teenager, or even as a little kid.
It was hypnotic to watch the fire until the last ember stopped glowing in the dark. We'd walk up the path to the house, with the back porch light showing the way.
Rosemary brought out marshmallows and sticks, then went back in the house with my mom and Jan. Then Amie, Dylan and I got the fire going.
After we got tired of toasting marshmallows, Dylan went to the trunk of their car and brought out a guitar. He sat down and started playing. I knew the song from listening to old seventies music with my mom. Amie started singing along, softly without any jazz hands or dance moves. She had a really pretty voice. I could see why she would like performing.
After she finished singing, I looked at the fire. In my mind I could see Grandy as a little boy. I remembered the red leather book of poems by Charlotte Bronte. The human heart has hidden treasures.
More images came, but it didn’t seem like they were coming from me. It felt more like someone was showing them to me, one after another like in the ending of Cinema Paradiso. I saw the art case with the robin's nest on it. Then I saw Amie's list of scavenger hunt items. I saw myself finding Grandy's missing boat keys in the freezer and putting them in his hand.
Next I saw one of Grandy's license plate signs in my mind. Home Sweet Home. What if there’s something I need to find at his home, up at the lake?
I sat back and watched the flames. It was a perfect moment. I felt peaceful and warm and happy. I even felt hopeful for some reason. Like everything was going to be okay. Beverly popped into my head again. Whatever was going on in her life or in her mind, I wished she could have felt like this on the last day of her life. Because if she felt like this, she wouldn’t have wanted it to end.
Chapter 15
That night the dreams came again. I was looking down from the top of a Ferris wheel, and then I was suddenly in the woods looking down from a cliff. I heard a voice saying “Look for the light. When you find me I’ll tell you what happened that day.” Then I saw the attic here at the B and B, and a hand reaching into a corner lifting up a loose floorboard.
I woke up. It took me a second to remember that I was at the B and B. Sunlight was streaming through the window and I could see the dust floating around. Then I noticed that something smelled really good.
I went downstairs into the dining room. My mom was sitting there with her leg up on another chair, drinking coffee.
“Good morning,” she said. “Look at this breakfast.”
Rosemary walked in from the kitchen.
“Have some waffles. There’s also strawberries, blueberries and orange juice,” she said.
“Oh my God, yum,” I said. I sat down and filled my plate. After we ate I told my mom that we need to get the recipe and a waffle iron that isn’t an antique.
I looked at a few of Rosemary’s family pictures on her sideboard. I’ve never actually seen many pictures at Grandy’s. Just my mom and my Aunt Linda’s senior pictures on the wall. It’s so weird seeing them when they were in high school.
“Does Grandy have old family pictures at the lake house? I want to see a picture of Beverly,” I said.
“There used to be a couple of boxes of them but all the family pictures got ruined when the basement flooded when you were a baby. The only ones that survived were upstairs on the wall or some that were already at Aunt Linda’s house,” she said.
“The basement flooded? That stinks. Also, is that why the basement stinks?” I
wrinkled my nose.
“Yep,” she said.
“Too bad they didn’t put the pictures in the attic instead of the basement,” I said. “Except now the attic has a tree crashed into and maybe water damage, too, so maybe that wouldn’t have even helped.”
“We’re going to have to do some clearing out at my dad’s attic whenever we can get there,” my mom told Rosemary.
“Oh, I bet you’ll find some treasures up there,” Rosemary said. Has he lived there since you were a kid?”
“He grew up there, then moved away, then after his parents died he inherited the house and moved back in,” my mom said.
“Did you say he lived at the lake house when he was a kid?” I said.
“Yes,” she said. “You knew that.”
“What? No, I didn’t!” I said. “I thought he bought it as a vacation house and then moved in. I mean, everyone calls it the lake house.”
“Yeah, that’s where they lived,” my mom said.
“Mom! This is important!’” I said. “So that was where Grandy and Beverly grew up? That’s where she was living? I thought he lived in Madison. Wait, that’s where you grew up?”
“Yes, we lived in Madison when I was a kid,” she said. “Grandy grew up at the lake house but he moved away when he got out of school and started working. But way before you were born, when my grandparents died, they left the lake house to Grandy and he moved back. All their old stuff was in the basement. A lot of it got ruined when it flooded. Pictures, letters, yearbooks. Some furniture. Such a waste. I guess I never mentioned it and you’ve never asked.”
I never had a reason to think about it. Which maybe makes me kind of a jerk. Grandy never really talks about when he was a kid. Not to me, anyway. Maybe because of what happened to Beverly, he doesn’t tell a lot of stories about his childhood like some old people do. I can’t believe my mom spends her whole life trying to get her hands on other people’s old things, and she never even told me about our own family history. And I never even asked.
Retro Road Trip Page 7
