2 The Ghosts Upstairs

by SUE FINEMAN

  “It doesn’t look to me like she was capable of understanding anything. She looks sick.” Kayla waved her hand at the TV. “Look at her.”

  They watched in silence through the end of the tape. If anything, Eleanor seemed to get worse instead of better. When the tape ended, Billy said, “I can’t watch any more of this tonight.”

  “Go on up to bed. I’ll check on Georgia before I come up.”

  Billy took one rose from the vase in the kitchen and carried it up to Maggie’s room. “This one is for you, Maggie, for being so good while the kids were here.” He put the rose on the glass tray on the dresser.

  He felt a feather touch of something cold on his cheek. Had she kissed him? He couldn’t remember her ever kissing him. Maybe she had when he was a baby, but from as early as he could remember, all she’d ever done was yell at him to shut up and leave her alone.

  She must know the truth about Eleanor now. That Eleanor was sick. That she’d locked her mentally retarded son in the basement. That she’d sent him to an institution because she wouldn’t or couldn’t take care of him. That she’d turned her adopted daughter into a selfish bitch.

  Would Maggie have been a different person with a different mother? She’d led a privileged life in this house, one of excesses without limits. Maggie had never experienced the satisfaction of earning something herself. How could she, when Eleanor gave her everything she ever wanted?

  Had Eleanor really loved Maggie, or had she simply been obsessed with her?

  “Goodnight, Maggie.”

  Billy walked down to the suite at the opposite end of the hallway from the master bedroom, undressed, and crawled into bed beside Kayla.

  “Were you talking to Maggie?”

  “I took her a rose and thanked her for letting the kids have their party. She could have caused a disturbance, but she didn’t.”

  “No, Maggie was very good, and so was Eleanor. I haven’t heard a peep out of her in days.”

  He leaned in close and whispered, “Don’t say that too loud.”

  She laughed softly and snuggled into his arms, right where she belonged.

  <>

  Over the next few days, while Billy taught his last few classes and gave his students their final exams, Kayla painted, shopped, cleaned, and painted some more. Many times she looked over her shoulder to see Maggie standing there, watching. It was easy to see how Donovan fell in love with her, but how did a spoiled little rich girl handle living on a cop’s pay? After growing up here, it must have been a challenge for her to live in a regular house and not have people to wait on her.

  Kayla closed her eyes and pictured Billy as a little boy. Seconds later, she got a brief vision of Maggie lying in her hospital bed yelling nasty things at a scared little boy. Eleanor sat by her side with a smug expression on her face.

  Kayla’s eyes filled with tears, and she glanced over to see Maggie crying, too. “I know you were sick and scared, Maggie, but that’s no excuse for dumping all that crap on a sweet little boy. No wonder he has a hard time forgiving you.”

  After Kayla finished painting the bathroom and sitting room in the suite she shared with Billy, she started on the nursery. She and Georgia had chosen a soft mauve for those rooms. It changed color as the light changed, sometimes more pink, other times a pale grayish lavender, but it gave a nice glow to the rooms. The white crib, changing table and dresser, rocking chair, and white iron day bed looked nice in that bedroom, but the playroom was empty except for two sets of shelves. Would Billy consider giving these rooms to Georgia? If so, she’d need a desk to do her homework on, a high speed computer connection, and a comfortable reading chair.

  The family room was stuffed full of furniture. In addition to the big sectional and the entertainment center, there were three deep armchairs, one with an ottoman. She and Billy didn’t use the chairs. They sat on the sectional, with their feet propped on the coffee table. They could move one of those chairs upstairs.

  Would Georgia be here long enough to need a more permanent room?

  <>

  Saturday morning, Bob Snyder, the man who owned Snyder’s Used Furniture and Snyder’s Antiques, came to look at Eleanor’s bedroom furniture. Billy would have given him the furniture just to have someone haul it away, but Bob talked about wholesale market value, and Billy saw a chance to make a little money.

  Bob examined the bed. “How much do you want for this?”

  Billy negotiated a price for the entire bedroom suite and they walked down to the little girl’s room. “Do you want this furniture, too?”

  Bob examined the furniture. “This is good quality for kids’ furniture.”

  Nothing but the best for Eleanor’s little girl. Maggie probably picked it out herself.

  Billy walked downstairs with Bob, who pointed to the tapestries in the entry hall. “I’ll give you five hundred apiece for these.”

  “Eight hundred,” said Billy. They were probably worth a great deal more, but Billy didn’t want them hanging in the house.

  “Okay, eight hundred,” said Bob, and Billy kicked himself for not asking for more.

  Bob and his helper drove away with the furniture and the tapestries. Billy had a nice check in his wallet, the walls in the entry were bare, and two bedroom suites were empty. Kayla had plans to paint those two suites, and then they’d remain empty until the house was sold.

  Bob’s truck had just pulled away when Georgia’s sister came to see her. Victoria was around fourteen, a cute kid who was also a student at the academy. Both girls had long, straight, brown hair and green eyes. Billy didn’t have Victoria in his classes this year, but he should have her next year. If he still had a job. He hadn’t been notified yet if they wanted him back.

  Sounds of giggles came from the maid’s apartment, and Billy smiled. Georgia needed this. She’d been somber and depressed about the way her parents had treated her, and she needed to know her sister still loved her.

  Kayla was outside working in the flower beds, so Billy made tuna sandwiches and opened a bag of chips for lunch. The four of them sat in the breakfast room and talked about school while they ate.

  “You’re welcome here anytime, Victoria,” said Billy. “I hope you’ll come again.”

  Dimples popped out. “Thanks.”

  “Only one more week of school,” said Georgia.

  Georgia would graduate second in her class. If the board knew she was pregnant, she wouldn’t graduate at all. She’d be expelled. The ultra-conservative board wouldn’t tolerate a pregnant student in their school.

  Victoria hugged Georgia and left after lunch. She wasn’t old enough to drive, so she took the bus. Did her parents know where she was? Billy didn’t ask.

  “I found a painter,” Kayla said after Victoria left.

  “Did he give you a good price?”

  “I think so. I can’t paint the entry hall by myself, Billy. And Trevor can’t do it either.”

  “I know. What color?”

  “A creamy golden yellow, almost like French vanilla ice cream. It should brighten the entry hall and upstairs hallway. I thought I’d ask him to paint the big attic room the same color. I can paint the bedrooms myself, but I can’t do it all.”

  “No, you can’t do it all yourself.” Even with Trevor helping, they couldn’t get the painting done themselves, and Billy wanted to get the house on the market this summer.

  Trevor brought the kitchen cabinet doors over and helped Billy install them. The frosted glass insets looked great. As Trevor fastened the hinge on the last door, Kayla stood back. “It looks so pretty. When we get the granite countertop on, it’ll look even better in here.”

  Could he afford to have the countertops replaced? He couldn’t keep spending money or he wouldn’t have enough to live through the summer months.

  How much was left in the safe?

  “What’s wrong, Billy?” Kayla asked.

  “We need to sit down and figure out what we’ve spent and what we have left. I don’t get paid in the
summer, and this house eats money.”

  “How much do you need?” Trevor asked.

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “I can loan you fifty thousand, and you don’t have to pay it back until you sell the house. Will that help?”

  “You bet it will, but I don’t want to borrow money if I don’t have to.”

  Trevor climbed down off the ladder. “You’re not your mother, Billy. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.”

  His father had told him the same thing. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind. If I run low, I may need it.”

  “Would you like to stay for dinner tonight, Trevor?” Kayla asked. “I have two pans of lasagna ready to go in the oven.”

  “Sounds good to me, if Pop is invited, too. Hannah and Donovan are taking the kids out tonight. I told Hannah I’d fix something for Pop.”

  “I’ll go get him in a few minutes,” said Billy.

  Kayla turned on the oven and talked with Trevor while Billy called Pop in the other room. “Thanks so much for helping with the house, Trevor. I know Billy appreciates it, and so do I.”

  “You’re welcome. I had my doubts about the frosted glass, but it looks good in here. Will you show me what you’ve done upstairs?”

  “Sure.” They walked upstairs together and she showed him the three suites she’d finished painting. With the white blinds and white curtains she’d hung in all the rooms upstairs, the suites looked fresh and clean.

  “What do you have planned for the master and the other rooms?”

  “A gray-blue for the master. It’s a darker shade, but the rooms are so big it should look okay in here. And a darker gold than the hallway for the other suite. It’s a richer color, but still neutral enough that it should look okay. The only one that’s gender specific is the mauve in the nursery. Georgia helped me pick it out. Once I get the painting done up here, we’ll move her upstairs and I’ll finish painting downstairs.”

  “What’s her story? Why is she here?”

  Kayla filled him in. “She’s such a nice girl.”

  “If Hannah and I had stayed married, we might have a kid that age by now. Cute girl.” He smiled. “Better keep her away from Charlie.”

  “Charlie can get his own girls. Have you seen the attic?”

  “No. What’s up there?”

  She took him up to the attic and pointed out the home theater, bar, and bedroom wing. “There are four bedrooms, two full baths and a half-bath up here. The floors are a mess, but it’s a nice space.”

  “You can always carpet the floor. It would help deaden the sound. It echoes in this big room. Or, I can rent a sander and refinish them if you want.”

  “I don’t know what Billy wants to do. He’s worried about money.”

  “Billy has always worried about money. That’s why he still lives in the apartment behind Hannah’s house instead of buying a house of his own. He won’t go into debt for anything.”

  Maggie’s spending had left a lasting impression on Billy. He was a confident man like his father, but he feared ending up like his mother, spending more money than he could reasonably expect to repay. Most people borrowed to buy a house and cars and other necessities. But not Billy.

  Someday Kayla would like to own her own house, but she needed a good job first, one that would last more than a few weeks. When she got her inheritance, she intended to buy a newer car. Her old van probably wouldn’t get her back to Memphis.

  Trevor tinkered with the electronic equipment in the theater. “This needs to be replaced. I’ll take care of it next weekend.”

  “I’m sure Billy will appreciate it. I need to put dinner in the oven.” She walked downstairs, and Trevor followed. He seemed like a nice guy, and he’d made it clear he was interested in her, but she was in love with another man.

  As they walked into the kitchen, she asked, “What kind of work do you do, Trevor?”

  “I manage the local television station.”

  “Manage?”

  “I started out doing odd jobs and building sets, then technical work, and then I got into management. They liked my ability to do so many different things, so I kept moving up the ladder until the station manager retired. The owners gave me his job two years ago.”

  Impressive. “I don’t mean to pry, but why don’t you own your own home?”

  “I don’t like living alone. I have my own apartment in Hannah’s attic, and I help the family with jobs around the house. I feel like a member of their family.” He shrugged. “They haven’t thrown me out yet.”

  “What about women?”

  “The women I date have their own homes, and I don’t bring anyone home with me. Too many questions.”

  “You don’t want a wife and kids of your own?”

  He cocked his head and lifted his eyebrows. “Are you offering?”

  She was still smiling when Billy walked in with Pop. She gave Billy’s grandfather a gentle hug. “I’m so glad you came, Pop.”

  “Thanks for inviting me. I want to see what you’ve done to this place.”

  “Billy will show you around while I start dinner.”

  Over dinner, Pop asked Georgia if she was marrying her baby’s father. The room grew quiet as everyone stopped eating to listen to Georgia’s answer.

  “We can’t get married now, and I don’t know if we ever will.”

  “Don’t you love him?”

  “Yes, but he has his future mapped out, and there’s not a place in it for me and the baby.”

  “That’s too bad,” said Pop. “My wife was pregnant before we married, but we loved each other, and as soon as we knew she was expecting, we got married.”

  Billy’s hand fell to the table. “You’re kidding.”

  Pop turned to Billy. “You think your generation invented sex?”

  “No, but—”

  “But what? We just had different ways of handling things back then. The county clerk was a friend of the family, and she recorded our marriage as happening the same date a year earlier. In those days, no one wanted their kid to have the stigma of being illegitimate. Nowadays it doesn’t seem to make much difference, but it did back then.”

  Georgia sighed. “It still does to some people, like my parents.”

  Pop squeezed her hand. “They’ll change their minds when they hold your baby. Babies have a way of bringing people together.”

  Billy was still having trouble picturing his grandparents making love before they were married.

  “Have you considered adoption?” Pop asked.

  “No.”

  “Years ago, pregnant girls who didn’t get married went away for a year, supposedly to go to school somewhere else, and gave their babies up for adoption. My cousin gave her baby away.”

  “I couldn’t do that. I’d always wonder where he was and if he was happy and loved. I may not be able to give my baby material things, especially at first, but he’ll have what he needs. He’ll be loved.”

  Pop smiled at her. “Young lady, you’re going to be a wonderful mother.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered, and her eyes filled with tears.

  Billy silently thanked Pop for telling her that. She needed to hear it from her parents, but she wouldn’t hear it from her father. The jerk thought he was better than anyone else because he was a rich man and went to church every Sunday. He hadn’t learned anything from the Sunday sermons or he’d give his daughter the support and love she needed instead of treating her like an outcast.

  After Trevor took Pop home, Billy sat at the desk in the study and went through all the receipts from Kayla’s purchases. She hadn’t spent nearly as much as he thought she had.

  He counted the money left in the safe and added in the check from the buyer who took the furniture and tapestries. He had nearly forty thousand plus whatever Kayla had left from the five thousand he’d given her.

  The porte-cochere would cost a few thousand, and he still had to build a roof and screen in the back porch. Those things and
the granite countertops would cost the most. The bathrooms could use updating, but he didn’t intend to do them. There were five bathrooms on the second floor, two full baths and a half-bath in the attic, two half-baths in the basement, and two full baths plus three powder rooms on the main floor. There was also a bathroom in the pool house. He definitely didn’t have enough money to update fifteen or sixteen bathrooms.

  If the utility bills weren’t too high, he should make it through the summer.

  Maybe.

  Billy spent most of the evening grading final exams. He wanted to look at more of the videotapes, but they could wait another week. When he finished, he stretched and went looking for Kayla.

  She stood out on the moonlit patio. “You can turn the pool lights on, Kayla.”

  “Actually, I’d rather go for a swim, but I have one little problem.” She turned to face him. “I don’t own a bathing suit.”

  “Is Georgia asleep?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you don’t need a suit.” He grinned. “I don’t have mine with me.”

  She playfully shoved him. “Skinny dipping?”

  “Why not?”

  He took her hand and led her to the pool house, where they shucked off their clothes and wrapped themselves in big towels. Seconds later, the towels dropped by the side of the pool and they dove into the sparkling water.

  She bobbed up to the surface. “Oh, this is nice.”

  Yes it was, especially without a bathing suit. “We should do this every night. It’s good exercise.”

  She laughed softly. “I thought we were getting plenty of exercise at night.”

  He splashed her and chased her to the other end of the pool, where he pinned her against the ladder and kissed her until his erection was so long and thick and hard it was downright painful.

  The white globes of her creamy breasts floated just below the surface, and he lifted her out of the water to take one nipple into his mouth. Then he looked up and saw Maggie and Eleanor standing in the window upstairs. “Aw, shit! Why did they have to do that?”

  “They can watch anytime they want. Locked doors mean nothing to a ghost.”