It is just after ten when Oliver calls. “Bring your bicycle,” he says.
“But…” Annie stammers. She is going to say not today, but before she can get the words out he hangs up.
Standing there with the receiver still in her hand, she frowns. The request is not all that unusual. She has, on a number of different occasions, brought the bicycle. They ride into the town square and go for coffee or an ice cream soda, which is all well and good. But today is Christmas, a day for leisurely dining and sitting in front of the fireplace.
Annie is tempted to leave the bicycle at home and simply say she forgot it, but moments before they leave she tosses it into the trunk of the car.
They arrive at Oliver’s townhouse shortly before noon. Annie is first out of the car. She lifts the bicycle from the trunk, sits it beside the garage door, then returns to help Ophelia.
The front door is unlocked, as it always is when Oliver knows she is coming. Ophelia is first through the door, but from behind Annie can hear the laughter coming from the living room.
This strikes Annie as strange; Oliver has said nothing about others being there. She and Ophelia follow the sound through the hallway and enter the room. Oliver is standing with his back to the door and doesn’t see them enter. The couple sitting on the opposite side of the room does.
The man stands. “You must be Oliver’s someone special,” he says and starts toward them.
Oliver turns and gathers both Annie and Ophelia into his arms. He is wearing a smile that stretches the full way across his face. “Annie, I want you to meet my mom and dad.”
“Ethan Allen?” Annie gasps. “You’re Ethan Allen?”
Ethan gives a deep hearty laugh. “That I am. Have we met before?”
“Not really,” she answers. “But I know of you.” Annie wants to tell him the whole story and perhaps in time she will, but for now there is only a round of introductions and polite getting to know one another.
Laura, Oliver’s mother, is soft-spoken and pretty. Ethan is tall, his back straight and shoulders squared. His hair, once brown, is now silver, and his jawline has been softened by time.
At first they talk about inconsequential things: the trip, the weather, Annie’s job, Ophelia’s garden. Eventually Laura asks how Oliver and Annie met.
Oliver laughs. “Annie came here looking for Dad.”
“Me?” Ethan Allen chuckles. “Why me?”
Annie hears the mischievous echo in Ethan’s laugh; it is the sound of the boy. She is now able to picture the face that has for so long eluded her.
“I have your bicycle,” she says.
Piece by piece the story comes out. Annie tells how she restored the bicycle, but instead of telling how she’d heard his laughter and seen the dog running beside him she simply says it was how she imagined him.
“I could tell by the scratch marks there was once a basket hooked onto the handlebars and figured a boy that age would be running errands for people,” she explains.
“What about Dog?” Ethan asks. “How’d you know about Dog?”
“Lucky guess,” Annie says. “Most boys either want or have a dog.”
When Ethan asks where she got the bike and how she knew it was his, Ophelia answers. She sticks to the story Annie has told Oliver, saying it came from one of the Sisters of Mercy.
“Of course, the woman is long gone,” Ophelia adds. “So there’s no way of knowing where the story originally came from.”
One word leads to another, and before long Ethan Allen is telling of his life with Grandma Olivia. When they sit down at the dinner table there is laughter and happiness. Ethan speaks only of the good times and says nothing of the tragedy that came before.
It is not until after they have finished dessert that Annie tells Ethan she has brought the bicycle.
“I thought being it has such fond memories, you’d like to have it back,” she says.
Ethan gives a roaring laugh. “You’ve got it here? Now?”
Annie nods.
“I sure would like to see it again,” Ethan says.
They all leave the table and follow Annie out to the driveway where she has left the bike. Ethan spots it the minute they round the walkway.
“Well, I’ll be,” he says and quickens his step. When he reaches the bike he throws his leg over the crossbar and takes hold of the handlebars. The memories come flooding back, and his face lights with a recollection of the day he received it.
“Mind if I take it for a spin?” he asks.
“It’s yours,” Annie says. “Do whatever you want.”
Ethan grins and pushes down on the pedal. In less than a second, he is off—rolling down the driveway then disappearing down the block.
Annie watches but while others see a man of years on the bike, she sees the boy. It is as she hoped it would be. The memories have gone home.
When Ethan pulls back into the driveway, he knocks the kickstand down and parks the bike. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a present I enjoyed more.”
He wraps his arm around Laura’s shoulder and heads for the house.
Ophelia and Annie are right behind.
Ethan is laughing when he turns to Laura. “Ah, if that bicycle could talk…the stories it would tell.”
It already has, Ophelia thinks, but this thought she keeps to herself.
More about Memory House
If you are reading this, I have to believe you have turned the last page. I hope your visit to Memory House was enjoyable.
In writing this novel, I envisioned it to be a story about stories. Ophelia tells of the memory she discovers in each treasure, but like so many aspects of life there is more. Much more. All of these treasures have a story that came before and after: an unfaithful lover, a lifetime of heartaches, a heavy-handed daddy, a mother who’d give her life to save her child. Each of these stories can be found in one of my other novels.
In Memory House Ethan Allen is an old man, but in Spare Change he is just a boy—an eleven-year-old lad with a foul mouth and a killer on his tail. He has no one to turn to but a woman who is set in her ways and has no use for children. The bicycle and ball that lead Annie to Oliver are taken from Spare Change.
Spare Change
The doll on Ophelia’s bed is taken from Jubilee’s Journey the story of a child born in the West Virginia mountains and orphaned before she is seven. When she and her older brother go in search of an aunt, he is caught up in a crime not of his making. Jubilee knows the truth, but who is going to believe a seven-year-old child?
Jubilee’s Journey
The locket is perhaps the saddest of all stories. Taken from Passing through Perfect, it belonged to Delia Church. Annie feels the impact of the disaster that came to pass, while Ophelia finds the sweetness of the night Benjamin placed the locket around Delia’s neck and swore he’d love her forever.
Passing through Perfect
The Lannigan family Bible and the snow globe are both from The Twelfth Child. To escape a planned marriage, a willful daughter leaves home and makes her way in a Depression-era world. When she is nearing the tail end of her years, she meets the young woman with whom she forges a friendship that lasts beyond life.
Twelfth Child
The watch with all of its memories and dangers belonged to Wilbur Washington, one of the residents of the boarding house in Previously Loved Treasures. He would give his life to protect young Caroline and before the night is over, he may have to—unless Peter Pennington’s magic is powerful enough to save him.
Previously Loved Treasures
Ophelia is right when she says the Christmas ornament once held an engagement ring—it happened in Wishing for Wonderful. The story, narrated by a Cupid with attitude, will have you laughing out loud as Cupid schemes to give two deserving couples the love they deserve.
Wishing for Wonderful
Ophelia is also right about the quilt that covers her bed—it portrays a story of friendship. In What Matters Most Louise Palmer is faced with life-
altering changes and must choose between friendships and marriage. Although it is at times laugh-out-loud funny, beneath the humor there is a message of love, tolerance and coming to grips with reality.
What Matters Most
Last but certainly not least, please know that just as I love holding onto the connection between stories, I love connecting with you, the reader.
I would love to hear what you enjoyed and what you didn’t. I’d like to know what you’d like more of, and if you have a story to share I am always willing to listen. The best stories are always the ones that start with a grain of truth and then grow into something magical.
You can contact me through my blog at http://betteleecrosby.com, and while you are there sign up for my newsletter. It’s a fun way to stay in touch and every month there’s a special giveaway for all of the friends and fans who open the newsletter e-mail to see what’s new.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Table of Contents
MEMORY HOUSE
A Pinch of Rosemary
Ophelia Browne
The Garden
The Twelfth Child
Annie’s Dream
Annie
The Bicycle
The Loft
Twins, Fins & Mergers
Everything Changes
Annie
A Job in Jeopardy, A Love Renewed
A Hole or a Whole
Annie
Rust is the Reason
The Gypsy’s Prediction
Ophelia
A Crooked Wheel
Roses, More Roses
Annie
The Decision
Help at Hand
Ophelia
The Watch
The Reality of Regret
The Ball
Ophelia
In the Months that Follow
Philadelphia
The Question
Annie
The Locket
Ophelia
The Time Has Come
Meeting Mister McLeary
Annie
The Library
November
Tuesday
In Wyattsville
And So It Happens…
Christmas
MORE ABOUT MEMORY HOUSE
Table of Contents
MEMORY HOUSE
A Pinch of Rosemary
Ophelia Browne
The Garden
The Twelfth Child
Annie’s Dream
Annie
The Bicycle
The Loft
Twins, Fins & Mergers
Everything Changes
Annie
A Job in Jeopardy, A Love Renewed
A Hole or a Whole
Annie
Rust is the Reason
The Gypsy’s Prediction
Ophelia
A Crooked Wheel
Roses, More Roses
Annie
The Decision
Help at Hand
Ophelia
The Watch
The Reality of Regret
The Ball
Ophelia
In the Months that Follow
Philadelphia
The Question
Annie
The Locket
Ophelia
The Time Has Come
Meeting Mister McLeary
Annie
The Library
November
Tuesday
In Wyattsville
And So It Happens…
Christmas
MORE ABOUT MEMORY HOUSE
Memory House: Memory House Collection (Memory House Series Book 1) Page 17
