Fantasy House

by Ruth Hay

  Mavis’s speech was directed straight at Faith but the two women at the stove were listening as they worked, and anxious to hear what the girl’s response would be.

  Faith was disarmed. She had already acquired some respect for Mavis and that respect prevented her from lashing out. She chose to say nothing and ate her eggs in silence while attempting to absorb the information she was given.

  So, no family other than me? Pace was my grandparents’ name. Pity I never knew them. Pity I never got to know my father either. This is going to be a long day.

  By the time the platter of pancakes with butter and syrup was placed in the middle of the table for all to share, the conversation turned to the barbecue and whether the weather would permit an outdoor event. Several names were thrown around and Faith felt relieved when Mavis commented that she need not attend the event. She did a quick count and decided there was one more person to meet, other than her aunt.

  Must be the tall one with the dogs.

  “Any left for me? I could eat a stack! I smelled them as soon as I came indoors.”

  And here she comes! Right on cue!

  A breath of fresh air accompanied the speaker who introduced herself as Vilma Smith.

  Where do they all get these antique names from?

  “How were the dogs this morning, Vilma? Sit yourself down. We made plenty. Coffee?”

  “Thanks, Jannice. The dogs were great. We took a detour around the back of the crescent to see how far the woods go and we eventually found a stream. The dogs just plopped into the water and sat there cooling off so I kept them out longer until they dried off again.

  I hope you will give me a hand with my two, Faith. I could use the help.”

  Kennel maid? What next? Nice clothes though. Look expensive. The pancakes are really good. I might need dog walking exercise to keep the weight off me……... if I stay that long.

  When Faith finished eating, Mavis left the others to clean up and took Faith back through to the front entrance and further along the hall to her own lower tower room.

  “I need to change my clothes, Faith. Look around and see if you can find my cat. Help yourself to any books you might want to read.”

  This room is gigantic and it has a strange curved window wall with bookcases in between the windows and they are all stuffed with books. It’s like a library. She even has those old CD things. Do they still work? Are all the other bedrooms this size?

  It’s good to get away from all that chatter in the kitchen. I never knew a bunch of women could live together like this. It’s unnatural.

  Oh, there’s the cat! It’s brown with funny white bits and some stripy colours. I hardly noticed it, curled up on the duvet.

  * * *

  When Mavis emerged, refreshed and changed into regular clothes, she saw Faith standing looking out of one of the windows. She noticed a slump in her shoulders and thought the girl was not as brash as she would like to pretend. All this was a lot for her to deal with and the rest of the day was not going to get any easier. She hoped it would continue to go to plan.

  “Faith, have you met Marble? I want to ask you to do something for me.”

  She turned quickly, and Mavis thought she saw a gleam of tears in her eyes, replaced rapidly with suspicion.

  What now?

  “You see, the piano next door is mine. I had it in my old house for many years. Marble loves to sleep under the piano during the day. If you wouldn’t mind the company I am sure she would like to continue to do that.”

  “Okay with me. I never had a cat. Mom said we couldn’t afford to feed one.” She could always afford booze, of course. Did I say that out loud? No, thank goodness!

  “Thank you, Faith. Marble stays indoors for now so don’t let her out of the house. Why don’t you go back to your own room for a bit. You must have unpacking to do. You know where I am if you need anything.”

  Considering the short amount of time she had spent in the guest room, Faith could not believe how good it felt to finally be alone again with the door closed. She jumped onto the bed, rolled herself in the bedclothes and grabbed up her phone. Dead, just as she expected. This led to a search in her case for a recharging device. Once she was back in touch with reality all this weirdness would fade into the background and she could think again, but she would need to wait almost an hour before she could see if there was WiFi service here.

  Would these old dears want internet and such? Oh, Mavis said my Aunt Honor ran her business from here. There must be internet. If there’s Netflix I can survive anything until I figure out how to escape.

  Chapter 13

  “Is everything set for tonight?”

  “I believe so, but where’s the girl?”

  “She must be in her room. I heard her voice talking to someone.”

  “So she’s been on the phone? That’s not good. We have a generous package from Rogers but that did not take into account a teenager’s requirements. I wonder if she has discovered Vilma’s Netflix?”

  “I imagine she has by now or else she’s been catching up with her sleep. Who’s feeding her while you are at the barbecue?”

  “Eve made a lasagna and there’s a salad in the fridge. We’ll need to do some teen food shopping tomorrow.”

  “Fine, but we have to survive this evening’s first encounter between aunt and niece.”

  “Quite right, Mavis! I am relying on you to prevent actual bloodshed.”

  “Well, I can’t promise anything, Hilary. I think we have all done our part to smooth the waters, as it were. Make sure there’s enough noise over at the Ridley’s to blot out any screaming.”

  “Do not joke! I have no idea how this will go. Poor Honor! She must be in a panic by now, knowing her niece is here and likely to attack. Faith must suspect we have been keeping them apart.”

  “Stop worrying, Hilary. Go and meet the neighbours and find out what they think of Harmony House.

  They will be very curious by now. I would not mention Faith, however.”

  * * *

  Honor watched the four women walk over to the neighbour’s by the side path. Now she was alone in Harmony House with Faith Joan Jeffries. Mavis would also stay to run interference. It had been such a long and nerve-wracking day but she had agreed to the plan and from what Mavis reported earlier, it was working out pretty well.

  Whether pretty well was good enough, still remained to be seen.

  In five minutes from now, Mavis would bring Faith down to the lower level apartment and she would stay while Honor showed her around. After that, Mavis would leave and Honor could decide whether or not to stay there for the talk or go up to the kitchen and eat, with the talk as dessert.

  Not funny! None of this was funny.

  She heard the footsteps on the porch and knew they were coming in from the side door. She positioned herself at her computer where she felt more at ease. It would not be good to show how nervous she really was.

  Earlier, when Mavis and the girl were in the garden she had peeked out to catch a glimpse of this unknown niece. There was not much to see at that distance but she looked normal-ish. Hair under a ball cap with a brim that hid her features, sweater around her shoulders, wrinkled long white shirt, not any taller than Honor, which could be a family trait. Felicity and her twin were exactly the same height. It was about the only thing they had in common.

  Oh Lord! This is Felicity’s child. We are going to have to get into the whole family thing after years of trying to blot it all out. Can I do this? Will she even listen?

  She pushed her hair back behind her ears and began to type absolute nonsense on the screen. It was a way to distract herself from the panic that had descended. It was too late now to cancel.

  * * *

  Mavis descended the steps first, while talking about the lower level of the house and its advantages.

  Faith heard nothing. She was focussed on the small round person seated at the computer, typing furiously and ignoring her presence.

  “Here we a
re at last, Honor. I’ll be doing a last round in the garden. We can go upstairs for a delicious lasagna any time you and Faith are ready. Just call me.”

  With that, Mavis opened up a section of the window wall and disappeared onto the stone patio, wending her way quickly through the seating and heading up the central path to the bench.

  They were alone.

  Faith wished Mavis had stayed.

  Honor wished the ground would open up and swallow her but she was the adult and it was her responsibility to get things started. She took a breath and stood up, looking Faith Jeffries in the face for the very first time……….. and her knees turned to water.

  Instantly, she was swept back decades, to the time when she and Felicity were at high school together.

  This girl, with her white blonde hair pulled back in a twist, was identical to Felicity Pace. Faith had not inherited the regular features and full mouth of Honor’s twin. She had the hair but with darker eyes and thin features which were inclined to make her look angry most of the time, even when she was feeling quite pleased. This resemblance to Felicity was uncanny.

  “Would you like to pull over a chair? We have plenty to talk about. Let’s start with you.”

  She hoped this ploy would give her a few moments to recover from the shock. She knew she was temporarily incapable of standing steadily on her feet.

  Faith decided to go on the attack. There was nothing to be gained by pretending.

  “Well, that’s a total cop out, I must say! You want me to start talking? I knew nothing about you until recently and you never as much as sent me a letter to explain what was going on with you and your sister, who, I believe was your twin sister! And here I am half-way across the country to a new province, a new town and a new weird-as-anything commune place. I might as well leave right now.”

  Honor was taken aback at the fury in the girl’s voice but she had enough presence of mind to reach out and grab her shirttails.

  “Please wait! You are right! I apologize. I will start at the beginning. Give me a chance, Faith. Believe me, I am just as upset as you about this, but I admit I should have contacted you right away when I got the letter.”

  It was the apology that made the difference. Also, the chance to find out things about her Mom she had always wondered about. There were gaps in this story that needed to be filled. She looked around for a chair on wheels and pulled it nearer to the computer desk.

  Not too near. Don’t give anything away. Stay strong.

  Honor Pace settled back into her chair and sent aloft a prayer to whoever was listening. If she had ever needed help from above, now was the moment. She forced herself to start talking before the girl took flight.

  “Obviously, things went very wrong between your Mom and I. When we were just a bit older than you are now, the differences between us began to escalate. We were never all that close. We did not look alike and we did not think alike. People treated us the same because we were twins, but somewhere in the processing our reactions were very much at odds with each other.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  Honor knew she was going to have to be more specific and in doing so risk sending this girl away forever without any answers.

  “Felicity was impulsive and lacked a sense of danger. I often pulled her back from doing stupid things and lied to our parents when she got into trouble. She was smart and creative with the truth. In other words, she was always on the verge of disaster and when she reached about sixteen I could not control what she was doing any longer. She skipped school and went off with a gang of boys. At first it was about smoking cigarettes, then smoking worse things, then alcohol and finally sexual promiscuity.

  In those days you could be expelled for any one of these activities and I tried my best to warn her and protect her from the worst of what would happen.

  Eventually it all blew up. She was caught, our parents were furious, she was sent to a reform school and she ran away.”

  Faith’s indrawn breath was audible in the silence. “I knew nothing about all this.”

  “Well, she would not want to tell you, of all people, about her mistakes.

  When the police finally caught her she was a mess. They sent her to hospital to detox and it was there they discovered she was three months pregnant. She would not identify the father with any certainty, and, at first, our parents refused to accept her back home.

  Felicity blamed me for everything. It was easier than taking responsibility for her actions. She claimed I had introduced her to the gang, and given her the first cigarettes and the drugs. Because I had stayed silent trying to protect her all this time, it was not easy for me to contradict these lies. I was tarred with the same brush, as they say. People believed we were co-conspirators during all of this time, when the opposite was the truth. I was the one trying to save her until she went far from my influence.”

  “But, Mom was married. I remember my father very clearly. He was a good man.”

  Honor looked away. She could see Mavis working in the garden and hear the sounds of music and laughter from the Ridley house. If she told the girl the rest of the story, she would be devastated. And yet, this might be the only opportunity she would ever have to set the record straight.

  “Your grandparents were not bad people, Faith. They were trying to do their best in difficult circumstances. They offered your Mom one last chance to make good and to restore their good name in the neighbourhood. They tracked down one of the gang of boys from high school who had also been thrown out by his parents. They persuaded him to marry Felicity and move into a small flat on the other side of town. They paid them both an allowance as long as the boy stayed and helped look after the baby and never told the truth to anyone.

  I lost touch at that point. I went away to college. I never knew if the child survived. Our parents died during those college years. The grief and pain Felicity had caused them hastened their death.”

  A stunned silence filled the room to the ceiling. Honor could feel it but there was nothing she could do.

  It had all come rushing out more abruptly than it should do. It came from deep inside her without a filter and with no rehearsal. The truth was out now and for her it was a bitter-sweet relief.

  She counted heartbeats until she reached one hundred. Faith was as still as a stone statue in a graveyard.

  “He was not my real Dad, then? Is that why he left us when I was small and we never saw him again?”

  Honor nodded. It was more than likely. She could see waves of horror and pain wash over the girl’s transparent young face. It was more than she could hide, much as she may have wished to, in order to save her pride.

  “It’s… it’s a horrible story but it makes some kind of sense to me. It explains why my grandparents were never on the scene and why we moved from place to place whenever Mom’s drinking meant she lost another job. It’s why she kept on drinking no matter how many promises she made. I thought it was because I disappointed her in some way. I……..”

  “Oh, no! No, Faith! None of this was your fault. From what I was told, you were so good to your mother especially in her final months. You must not blame yourself. There’s plenty of blame to go around without you taking it on. I should have done more to track you and your mother down. Perhaps I could have saved you from a heap of pain. I was a coward. My sister was a fierce combatant and I was more than a little afraid of her in the end.”

  “Yeah, she took no prisoners when she had a skinful.”

  It came out with a kind of gruesome chuckle that underscored how brutal Faith Jeffries’ childhood must have been. And here she was now; still young, still alone and fearing to be cast away again as if her life was nothing of importance to anyone in the universe.

  For the first time, compassion for this girl welled up in Honor Pace overcoming her fears. It became crystal clear that, in spite of all her doubts and inadequacies, there was no other choice than to become a protector for Faith Joan Jeffries. Whatever it might cost, th
is was going to be the only way forward.

  Chapter 14

  Mavis Montgomery tiptoed along the porch after listening to hear if there was anything alarming coming from Honor’s area.

  She waited as long as possible and since Honor had not sent a signal for help, she went to the kitchen to rescue the lasagna from the warming oven. She was very hungry; partly because of a stressful day, and partly because of the delicious smells coming from the Ridley garden where the barbecue party was emitting happy chattering sounds as well as a plume of mouth-watering barbecued meat aromas.

  She was just placing a spoonful of pasta, vegetables and meat onto a warmed plate when the sound of wailing reached her from somewhere in the house. She dropped the plate onto the table and fled to the elevator. If it was not trouble between Honor and her niece she could work her way back up through the house until she found the source of that desperate crying which had now started Vilma’s dogs howling.

  As soon as the elevator landed in the basement level, Mavis knew she was in the right spot. She stood back and watched. There was no blood in evidence. Honor seemed to be handling things. She had her arms around the sobbing girl and she was making soothing noises while patting gently at Faith’s back.

  From this, Mavis assumed some discussion had taken place between them and a conclusion had been reached. It looked like progress of some kind but she was well aware this child was only in the first stages of grief. There was a long way to go and much to be decided.

  Would Honor be up to this huge responsibility?

  Would Hilary be prepared to accept Faith as a non-contributing housemate for the long term?

  Would the others be willing to accommodate a teenager who would, more than likely, disrupt their lives? Would they vote to send Faith away, as was their right?

  These questions rolled by as Mavis looked at the sad scene before her. She had no answers to offer.

  She stepped back into the elevator and returned to the kitchen. At some point, when the tears had ceased, the aunt and niece would realize how great stress creates a great need for food.