He headed out the door with, "So don't be a stranger, if you need anything."
Jenny turned to Tidbit. "O.K., Mr. Tidbit. I guess it's just you and me. I don't know a lot about cats. I guess it's time I learned, right?" The tip of Tidbit's tail twitched as if to say, "I'm good with it," and he turned his big head, looking out the window, his ears swiveling as he watched the sparrows in the bougainvillea outside.
Jenny considered what to do next. In anticipation for the move she had gotten ahead on her writing assignments and had a couple days to work on organizing her new space and getting to explore her environment. But where to start?
The living room was much larger than her tiny apartment and her furniture looked a little sparse for the size of the room, but she set about assembling her bookshelves along one wall. Once the cushy armchair with the old fashioned stand lamp was positioned in the corner facing the entry way and her couch had been graced with her mother's afghan and throw pillows, it started to feel a little more like home.
She took in the fireplace and the empty space over the mantle. It needed a large painting or a big mirror, she decided, but that would have to wait.
After sorting out the living room, so she would have a place to welcome a guest, she worked her way through the bedroom and kitchen and by the time she had finished it was very dark outside. She had let Tidbit out for the night and finally decided it was time to head to bed.
As she prepared for bed she went to remove the necklace with the tiny gold key, which she had quite forgotten about until that moment. It wouldn't come off! She searched the chain several times for the tiny clasp, checking in the bathroom mirror and the clasp was just gone. How could that be? "I'm probably just tired," she told herself. "It won't hurt to wear it to bed. I'll figure it out in the morning." And with that, she fluffed her pillow, turned out the light and went to sleep in her very own house.
Chapter 2: Deliveries
In her dreams she was wandering through her house, looking for something. She wasn't sure what it was, but it was vital and just why she couldn't say. Her house seemed to be huge, acres and acres of rooms and furnishings and doors that sometimes would not open. When she awoke it was disconcerting to be in her cozy small bedroom once again.
Despite her disorientation she got up and went through her morning routine. She paused in front of the bathroom mirror when she finished brushing her teeth. "Well, look at you. You don't look like an 'heiress'," she chuckled at her image. "As a matter of fact, you look pretty average, as people go."
She looked at herself critically, as women are wont to do. Her ash blonde hair was really curly and hung below her shoulders in the back, but mostly, like this morning, she wore it either braided or in a pony tail or a knot on the back of her neck. Her deep blue eyes were nearly violet and large for her face. She always thought her nose was too big and her ears and mouth were too small. She didn't have any excess weight on her, but there was only one word for her body. She was "curvy" like her mom.
She didn't have the usual "California" tan, because she spent much of every day in front of a computer screen, but she did like to run and hike. She would have liked to spend more time on the beach, but there was a price of being good at her job. All of those enticing advertisements you see online about working from home showed someone with a laptop on a chaise lounge poolside. The reality was that computing outside was one of those urban myths. It really didn't work all that well, even in sunny California.
She dressed hurriedly and rushed into the bright kitchen, prepared her green shake and headed into her office to check emails and get ready for the day. In her email inbox was an email with the subject line: From Lizzie.
Puzzled, she opened the email. In it was a photo of Aunt Lizzie, seemingly not all that long ago, and a tall black man. Aunt Lizzie would have been considered a tall woman, but next to this man, wearing colorful robes in oranges, yellows, browns and reds she almost looked petite.
He was built almost square, broad shoulders and muscled arms, much like many weight lifters she had seen photos of. His broad forehead blended into the bald shiny head. The sunlight glinted off of his head as if it had been polished. His face was solemn, but Lizzie looked elated, as if she had won a marathon or the lottery. She had never looked as ancient as her age would have implied, probably due to her mischievous attitude, and as usual, her eyes crinkled with laughter, her mouth in a wide grin that showed all of her white teeth.
Jenny didn't recognize Lizzie's surroundings, but it was almost like one of those safari photos you see on travel pages. You almost expected there to be a Land Rover behind them and jungle foliage. Instead, they were in front of a large green building with odd architecture, all curves instead of angles.
Lizzie wore the same gray beret Jenny always associated with her aunt and around her neck was…THE KEY! The same delicate gold chain held the pendant just above the neckline of her V-necked t-shirt. Jenny raised her hand to the little gold key around her own neck, remembering, all of a sudden, her attempts to take it off the night before.
It was hard to tell where Lizzie and this large, somewhat foreboding stranger were standing, but in Lizzie's hand there was what appeared to be a map. "X marks the spot," chortled Jenny, now wondering if her aunt had been into treasure-hunting. She knew so little about her and this photo with no caption and no clue as to what it represented was tantalizing, but she felt no wiser.
She heard a yowl at the French doors in the dining room and got up to let Tidbit in. He waited patiently and wound himself around her ankles as he entered. "Good morning, Tidbit," she greeted him with a grin. It seemed that Tidbit was willing to accept her for now. "Hungry?"
His answering mrrrr trilled at her as he led the way into the kitchen and stood expectantly by his bowls. "Hey, kitty, do you know anything about this key?" she asked conversationally as she filled his bowl with what she recognized as one of the more expensive brands of cat food.
Tidbit was non-committal, however and set to eating his food almost daintily.
"Time to take a look around, I think. Are you coming or are you ready for a nap after 'catting around' all night?"
Tidbit looked up at her, blinking, his black furry face unreadable as ever, ears pointed forward.
"Fine. Bon Appetit."
She headed out the French doors into the morning sunlight and as she stood on the cement of the shaded patio she looked around at the large yard before her.
To her right, behind the small garage was the storage building. The white wooden siding and red roof tiles was a perfect match for the house. It was large, easily large enough to hold several cars, and appeared to be two stories from where she stood. There were no windows. A red door with a matching frame was the only opening she could see. She had the key on her key ring, but didn't want to spend however long it would take inventorying Lizzie's possessions.
Before her was a lovely herb garden, featuring a small trickling waterfall that fell tinkling into a small pool where decorative koi swam lazily, glinting in the sun. "I wonder if I'm supposed to be feeding them too?" she asked herself, filing that question to ask Bob, when she got a chance.
By the koi pond were two wrought iron chairs with colorful cushions and a small glass table topped with a brightly colored patio umbrella. It appeared this might have been one of Aunt Lizzie's favorite spots as there were worn spots in the grass before each of the chairs, worn by the feet of Lizzie and past visitors.
Did the large man in the photo come to visit here, and would she meet him? She giggled as she thought of that rather large man perched on one of those chairs, sipping herb tea and eating cookies with her aunt.
To her left the large variegated herb garden continued with such an amazing variety of herbs that she realized that this yard would take some caring for and wondered how it had stayed so neat as much traveling as her aunt had done.
Tidbit had wandered out to stand beside her on the patio and turned his large lamp-like eyes on her, cocking his head slightly
, almost dog-like in his curiosity. "Interesting place we've got here, kitty cat," she remarked.
She turned and wandered back into the house and her hand strayed back to her neck. "Very interesting indeed," she sighed.
The morning passed quietly, just her and Tidbit. She had plenty of time to think, continuing to unpack boxes, hoping she could get it all done by the end of the day, so she had a clear mind when she started back to work. She didn't expect Sam to pop by as she had a parasailing lesson that day after work, so she was surprised when her front doorbell rang just before lunchtime.
It was a tall young man with black curly hair and a rake in his hand. "Just checking in before I head back to the garden," he said with a lop-sided grin. "I'm Ted and I have been caring for this garden for the last few years for Miss Lizzie. You must be Jenny. Lizzie's paid me a year in advance, so you don't owe me anything. I just didn't want you to see a stranger in your backyard and call the cops."
He said all of this in a big rush, his words sort of tumbling out of his mouth, and a bit of a flush to his pale freckled skin. He held out his free hand and Jenny took it and shook it. It was rough and callused.
"Well that explains that," she said. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the fish?"
As it turns out, Ted did know about the fish. He explained that the koi were part of an aquaponic system where the plants around the pond fed the fish and the waste from the fish fed the plants. It was a self-sustaining system and would require very little maintenance, all of which was covered under Ted's contract. He pointed out that the plants edging the pond were strawberries and would soon be blooming and producing berries "so sweet they make sugar seem sour" as he said.
After he showed her around the garden, pointing out the various herbs in the garden, many of which she was unfamiliar with and their traditional uses, he shooed her back into the house, saying, "I've got this. I'll give you a holler before I go."
Jenny made up her lunch in her cool classic kitchen and took it into the living room, setting her plate on the little table beside her cushy armchair and pulled out a mystery book featuring a reporter who solved mysteries with a couple of Siamese cats that she had been meaning to read. She only got a few bites into her meal and a few pages into the book, however, when the bell rang again.
It was Bob. He had rung the bell with his elbow, evidently, as his arms were full of a stack of boxes that appeared to be heavy.
"Sorry," he panted as he set down the boxes with a thud on the dining room table. "I was supposed to give you these the first day and I plumb forgot. These were Lizzie's and she wanted you to have them, but she didn't want them put into the storage shed, in case you didn't get a chance to poke around in there for awhile."
"What are they?"
"No idea, Jenny. Lizzie just told me to hang onto them until you got the house…"
"Wait a minute. What do you mean? Are you saying she knew she was dying?"
"Didn't they tell you? Didn't anyone tell you?" Bob shook his head in disbelief. "She had an inoperable tumor. By the time they realized it, it was too late. She only had weeks to live. While she was dying, I wondered why no one came to see her."
Jenny was stunned. She hadn't known. This had all been such a shock. An aunt she hadn't known, but by reputation and those two brief meetings, and who had been so generous, but she had only found out she was dead after the fact. How sad that she had to die without family around her. Why hadn't she reached out?
Bob saw her shock and gestured to the couch beside him. "She spent her last weeks preparing this all for you. I guess I thought you two had been close."
"I didn't know her. Nothing about her really, except she used to travel a lot, that she was unmarried and that she was dad's oldest aunt."
"Well, judging by the weight of these boxes, they've got papers in them, or maybe rocks," Bob said, handing her yet another sealed lavender envelope. "This was supposed to go with it."
He got up, sticking his hands into his jean pockets and rocking on his feet. "Gotta get back to work," he murmured, ducking his head. "Let me know if you need anything."
Jenny thanked him, still somewhat numb, and saw him out the door. As she turned back to the dining room, there was Tidbit, sitting on a dining room chair, looking at her as only a cat can do. "What do you think, Tidbit? I wish you could talk. I'll bet you know a whole lot more than what you're saying, don't you?"
She fingered the seal on the lavender envelope, wondering if she really wanted to read what was inside. With a deep sigh she put her finger under the corner of the seal and pulled it open.
The note in the now familiar green ink read: "Jenny. I know this is all pretty overwhelming for you right now, but I want you to know that you will understand soon. The boxes have a lot of documents that may come in handy at some point and hopefully will answer some questions as they come up. Bob is a good guy and he can be trusted, if you need anything. Box number 1 is where you should start. The others will come in handy and are also numbered. The manila envelope on top should be your first stop. Don't forget to feed the cat. Love, Lizzie"
Chapter 3: Thinking Outside the Box
Jenny lowered herself almost unconsciously into the dining room chair, eyeing the 3 boxes warily. "What do you think, Tidbit? Do we open up Pandora's box?"
Tidbit had sidled up beside her looking calmly into her eyes. The very tip of his tail twitched, but he didn't mrrrr back at her.
"Well, you're no help," she muttered.
She pulled the tape off of the top of the first box and pulled open the top. As promised, there on the top of a pile of file folders was a large, thick manila envelope. There was no writing on the outside, but she opened it as instructed. Out of the envelope fell another sheet of lavender paper attached to something that looked somewhat like a passport, but it was different than passports she had seen. The cover, instead of dark blue, was a yellow gold. And, surprisingly, there just inside the cover was a picture of Jenny which looked like one of her college photos, but she didn't remember posing for it.
She didn't recognize the language or even the characters of the printing inside it, so she stopped to read the note attached to it. "You'll be needing this. Put it somewhere safe, where you can get to it easily and quickly. It isn't time yet for me to explain all of this, but you will understand in time.
The other documents in this box are some old photos, like the one you got in an email I had scheduled to send to you to get your attention. I have set up an auto-responder with additional messages you will receive from time to time. I want you to know I'm not playing games with you or trying to be mysterious, but what has been set before you needs to be done in order.
Unless I have misjudged you, you will not only be up to it, but I think what comes next will enrich your life and give you so much more than you can imagine.
One last thing. The next mail you receive will give you the details of a special account I have set up for you at my bank. There should be enough in there for you to live on for the next few years. After that, you won't need it. You might want to consider taking a leave of absence from your current duties very soon.
Love, Lizzie"
Jenny sat there dumbfounded and perplexed. What in the world did all of this mean? What in the world had she gotten herself into? She opened the "passport" again, staring at herself beaming up from the photograph on the first page. Other than the writing on the facing page, the rest of the little book appeared to be blank. It didn't have a country seal on it that she recognized. The symbol on the front cover was an 8 on its side, the symbol for…infinity.
"Whoa," Jenny breathed. "Whoa, whoa, whoa…"
She realized she was fingering the little gold key at her neck. What was this all about? How in the world had she gotten involved in what was beginning to feel like an adventure she hadn't volunteered for? Who was her aunt anyway? What she didn't know about her aunt now seemed to be a lot more important than ever before.
How in the world could she go to he
r agency and tell them she would be taking a "leave of absence" and what exactly did her aunt want her to do instead? Her head spun with questions and uncertainty. Evidently this "gift horse" had some serious strings attached.
Her eyes strayed to the contents of the box. Several large old-fashioned picture albums and large hard-backed books that looked like old accounting books or journals practically filled the box. She gingerly pulled one of the albums out. It was very old and as she opened it, black and white photos of people she didn't know filled the pages. She turned them idly. They were labeled with some names she actually recognized.
Her father had been a family history enthusiast and she knew a lot more about her ancestry than she had thought she would have researched on her own volition. Her dad used to tell her stories about her grandparents and great grandparents that dated clear back to pioneers in covered wagons and handcarts, who had pushed their way across the territories of North America and settled new places that eventually became the western states.
The people in these old yellowed and bespeckled photos stared out at her without a smile among them. Women in long dresses with aprons and men in white cotton shirts and dark trousers held up by suspenders peered out from the past at her. As she thumbed through carefully, for fear of tearing the fragile pages, the photos began to change; they were clearer, although still in black and white. Names were carefully inked in a cursive hand she didn't recognize. The ink was fading, but legible and as she got closer to the end of the album more and more familiar faces appeared.
As the photos crept forward in time, she recognized the wedding photos of her grandparents, copies of which hung in the dining room of her parent's house. And then, faintly colored photos of her dad and mom as small children. There was a photo of her dad taken at a family reunion; his parents were in the photo, and among the large family, what looked like a much younger Lizzie.
The House on Infinity Loop Page 2
