"Excuse me," Roy called out over the hubbub. "I'm grateful to all the families who have agreed to add two more kids to their lives during these next two weeks. Boys, let's give them a hand."
After some applause, he continued. "I will be around regularly to see you. You have my phone number and I'm going to hand you a card on the way out with phone numbers for Mr. Lyndsay and Mr. Sturtz. We're all coming together on Monday and next Friday night for dinner here at Sycamore House. Two weeks will pass very quickly, so make the most of your time. Are you ready?"
The boys nodded yes and followed their hosts out of the room, gathering up bags as they went.
Roy stood at the front door watching as they drove away. He turned back to the others, "I'm always emotional when they leave and I worry for them. They have great potential for good, but have never known what it was like to be accepted simply because they exist. Your friends come through for us every year, but I still worry."
Polly glanced at the time and said, "I have a dinner date and need to get ready. Have a good evening boys!"
Henry and Roy said goodbye and left by the front door as she went up to her apartment to get ready. Just before seven o'clock, Polly walked down her back steps, out into the garage and then up the stairs to the garage apartment where Doug Randall and Billy Endicott were now living. Her knock at the door was answered by Billy, who smiled and swept his arm out to invite her inside.
He gave her a few minutes to absorb the impact of the room and said, "Well, what do you think?"
Polly simply nodded and continued to look around, taking it all in. The boys had done a nice job and she was glad that she had insisted on sound proof insulation in the walls. From the looks of the electronics, the entire community should be thankful. The large front room was separated into two sections, the largest was a theater with an immense television screen hanging from the wall and two leather recliners sitting on either side of a comfortable looking sectional. Done in black, chrome and silver with splashes of color on the walls, it was the perfect place for two young men with nothing to spend money on but their apartment.
Just as she was thinking about how this was a great place for two single young men, a girl came out of the kitchen. She smiled shyly at Polly and turned to go back where she’d come from.
Before she could get away, Billy said, "Wait a minute Rachel."
Rachel stopped and waited for him to continue. She looked familiar, but Polly wasn't sure why. She was dressed in black and had piercings above one eye, through a nostril and covering both ears. Her right wrist showed signs of a tattoo, but at the moment it was covered by a skin tight black shirt under a sheer jacket. Polly saw another brightly colored tattoo coming up out of her shirt on the right side of her neck, but couldn't identify what it might be. Her eyes were rimmed in black and she wore deep purple eye shadow and bright red lipstick. The girl's hair was colored jet black with hot pink and purple streaks cutting down and across her head.
Both women looked at Billy expectantly as he said, "Polly, this is Rachel Devins. She helped us when we cleaned out that dead guy's house."
"Oh!" Polly said and walked toward Rachel with her hand out, "It's nice to meet you again. I really appreciated everyone's help that day." When Polly agreed to clean out the rental house of a former employee after his death, Billy and Doug had called on their friends and they responded. It didn't hurt that they used her computer lab whenever possible to play video games, but the kids had genuinely been helpful that day.
"It was no big deal," Rachel said. The poor girl was desperately shy and looked to Billy for help. When he didn't say anything more, she turned back to the kitchen. "I need to help Doug finish dinner or he'll burn something," she said over her shoulder and escaped.
Polly turned back to Billy and raised her eyebrows in a question. "New roommate?" she asked.
"What?" he said, his eyes huge. "No!" Then he smiled, "But I've asked her out a couple of times. I like her. And she's a really good cook. She wants to be a chef, but she doesn't have the money to go to school right now."
"You have a girlfriend?" Polly pressed.
"Well, no, I mean yes." He was flustered. "I suppose so. She's cool. And she likes to play games, too."
"That seems perfect. Will you show me around the rest of the apartment?"
Doug came out of the kitchen wearing an apron over his jeans and shirt. "Billy! Did you offer her something to drink?"
He turned to Polly. "We're not old enough for wine, but we bought sparkling grape juice. Would you like that or a Dew or something?"
"I'd love grape juice," Polly said, smiling. They were trying so hard, it made her want to hug them.
Doug opened a small refrigerator positioned beside one of the recliners and pulled out a bottle. Polly nearly burst out laughing, but maintained her composure. It was filled with soda and four bottles of sparkling grape juice.
"You show her around, Billy. I'll pour this," Doug said, nodding toward the bedrooms.
"This is my room," Billy said, leading her through a door off the main room. It was a typical boy's room with a computer set up on a desk and a laptop casually sitting on his bed. The bed was rumpled, but the comforter was pulled up and tucked under his pillows. He took her through the bathroom into the other bedroom. Polly could tell Doug's mother had been allowed to decorate in here. There were family pictures on the walls and framed pieces that he had drawn throughout the years. They were pretty good and she could see how he'd grown as an artist. He had flung a quilt over his bed, and the closet door was doing its best to hold back the onslaught of clothes, both dirty and clean. His desk also had a computer underneath it and two monitors on top which were lost among piles of books, comics and sketch pads.
"I didn't know Doug drew," she said to Billy.
"Oh yeah. He always wanted to draw comic books and never did anything about it."
"He's pretty good."
They walked into the dining room. Doug met them and handed a wine glass to Polly and a Pepsi to Billy.
"What do you think, Polly?" he asked.
"I think you guys are going to be just fine here. I like what you’ve done with the place. What about your parents? What do they think?"
"My mom is just glad I'm out of the house," Billy said. "She was afraid I'd live at home forever. It didn't matter to me where I lived."
"Mom and Dad told me that now I'm in my own place they're emptying out the house and are going to do everything they always wanted to do." Doug smirked and said, "Like I ever stopped them. Dad is turning the basement into a model railroad town. He's been doing a little bit since he retired, but there was never room enough for him to spread out."
Polly said. "I love those. Maybe he'll let me come over and run it sometime."
Rachel stuck her head out of the kitchen and said, "Guys? A little help here?"
"We're almost ready," Doug said, "It's time to put it on the table."
The table was set with real dishes and silverware. She wasn't sure what she had expected, but so far it was impressive. She wandered into the living area and over to the big windows looking out on the back yard and the tree lined creek. While the kids bustled back and forth, she watched the trees moving in the breeze and caught glimpses of birds flitting back and forth from branch to branch.
Soon Doug called, "Polly, we're ready to eat."
She headed back into the dining room and Billy stood behind a chair, pointing at its seat. He held it out as she sat down and she chuckled.
"Thank you," she said, looking up at him.
He blushed and said, "We flipped for it."
"You lost?"
"Oh, no!" and he turned away.
The three kids sat down with her and Polly took in the small feast. "This looks fantastic," she said.
"Rachel cooked. She's pretty good," Doug said.
"It was no big deal. I just mess with the recipes. This is Beef Bourguignon and here are roasted red potatoes, carrots and zucchini." She passed the first plate and
then the second dish to Polly. "Don't worry, Doug got the red wine from his mom for this. It's only good for cooking."
Polly smiled, "I wasn't worried. Do you cook a lot at home?"
"Not really," Rachel said, "No one likes it when I experiment. I don't mind cooking for these two though. They'll eat anything."
"How long have you been dating?" Polly asked Billy. She figured it was just as easy to get the weird conversations out of the way. People got a lot more comfortable in a hurry when they realized that she wasn't afraid of too many conversations."
"Umm. I don't know. Rachel?"
"It was after that day we cleaned the guy’s house out. You and Doug took me and Caleb out for pizza."
"That was a date?" he asked. Polly rolled her eyes.
"It was for me," she said. "I had to ask you out on the next one though."
"That's just because I don't have a car."
"We could walk, you know."
"Children! Children!" Doug interrupted. He looked at Polly, "They're starting to act like an old married couple. It's a good thing Rachel has a car and a mother who wants to know where she is, or she'd be sleeping on our couch."
Rachel turned to look at him, "Your couch?"
"It's our landlord," he stage-whispered back to her. "Be good."
"Right. The couch," she said.
Polly put her hands over her ears, "La-la-la-la-la. I don't want to know."
She caught a look that passed between Rachel, Billy and Doug. Billy dropped his head and Doug shrugged.
Finally Billy said, "Okay. I'll ask."
"Ask what?" Polly pressed.
"Rachel wanted me to ask if you could use more help with the horses. She'd like to learn how to ride and since she's always here in the evenings, maybe she could help in the barn until they got to know her. We haven't talked to Mr. Aquila, but since Jason has learned, well, Rachel really loves horses and I told her we had to ask you first."
"Have you ever spent any time around horses, Rachel?" Polly asked.
"Not really. My parents said it was too expensive. But, I love animals."
Polly grinned and shook her head. Those horses attracted the most interesting people. This young girl with her pink and purple striped hair, heavy piercings and tattoos would fit right in with Sycamore House's eclectic family. If she wanted to love those big animals, Polly was fine with that.
"I don't see any reason why you couldn't. It's hard work, but if Eliseo agrees, you can start tomorrow."
"Really?" Rachel said. "That's so cool! Thank you. I'll come over after work. What should I wear?"
"Your oldest, most comfortable jeans and t-shirt. You will need to get some work boots. But mostly you want to be comfortable. Eliseo will be good to you, but there is still a lot of hard work out there. You'll shovel horse crap and haul bales of hay, so you need to be prepared to be exhausted."
"I work in the kitchen over at the nursing home all day. It will be great to be outside. I can hardly wait!" She grinned across the table at Billy, who smiled back. Doug, who was sitting across from Polly, coughed loudly.
"Alright, enough goofy love stuff," he said. "Isn't there dessert here somewhere?"
He stood and picked up his plate. Billy took Polly's plate from her. Within moments they cleared the table and Rachel escaped back into the kitchen. Doug returned with dishes filled with cake and ice cream.
"Rachel made a spice cake and Billy and I made homemade ice cream today. Mom had four freezers so she let us have one. I like living on my own and deciding that I can make ice cream whenever I want it."
After dinner was completely finished and the table cleared, the boys seemed uncomfortable as to what to do with the rest of the evening. Rather than make them deal with it, Polly decided to take off, so she told them how wonderful the meal had been.
She changed her shoes back in her apartment and headed down the steps with her dog, snapping the leash onto his collar before heading out.
"Dinner's over. Taking a walk with Obiwan," she texted to Henry as they walked north toward downtown.
"Was the date everything you thought it would be?"
"And more! It was a little awkward, but oh well. They're good boys."
"Yes they are. Did you meet Billy's girlfriend?"
"I did. How did you know about her?"
"I pay attention. And she's hard to miss."
"There is that!"
She and Obiwan crossed the highway and headed downtown to the park across the street from the Methodist church. Obiwan had never marked that as his territory and she knew he'd love the new smells.
Polly didn't think about it when she saw lights on inside the bank, but when she heard yelling coming toward the front door, instinct caused her to crouch with Obiwan behind the bumper of a car.
In moments, Cindy Rothenfuss stormed out of the building, then turned around and yelled back, "I will make you pay for this, you son of a bitch. You won't get away with it, I promise you that!" She opened the door of her Lincoln Navigator, slammed it closed, started the SUV and screeched out of the parking space, paying no attention at all to the car that was coming toward her. The driver swerved and stopped, waiting for her to pass, then drove on.
Polly and Obiwan walked as casually as possible past the front door of the bank and she peered inside, trying to see if anything was amiss, but the lights had been turned out except those in the back, so there was nothing to see. They walked on past the post office and crossed the street to get to the park, where she took a deep breath.
"That woman is nasty to everyone. Do you suppose that was her husband?" she asked as Obiwan ambled around sniffing at individual blades of grass. He didn't respond, just pulled her further and further into the park.
He rousted a young high school couple off a picnic table. They jumped when he loudly sniffed behind them and looked guilty as Polly smiled and walked on. They exited the park at the other end of the block and made their way back downtown. There were a few people standing outside the Jefferson Street Alehouse, smoking cigarettes, who said hello as she passed by. The pizza place was busy and the smells coming out of the front door had Obiwan pulling toward it, but she drew him away and around the corner.
"It's been a good day," she texted to Henry when she got inside the garage. "We're home and heading upstairs. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Good night," he replied, "I love you.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Hearing sounds of activity in her home gave Polly a lot of joy. It was Friday afternoon and the place was hopping. People continued to arrive with quilts and the men who were working on the addition were in and out of the building. Andrew and Jason were swimming and due back any minute. Polly turned around in her chair in time to see them come flying across the parking lot. She watched until they entered the front door and heard them laughing as they ran upstairs.
That gave her a notice that Jason would be ready to head for the barn and the horses. She spun back to her desk and saw Billy Endicott and his girlfriend come in the main door of the office.
Rachel had listened to Polly and dressed in normal street clothes - jeans and a t-shirt, with her hair pulled back under a ball cap and very little makeup on her face. Polly wouldn't have recognized her on the street were it not for the very distinctive pattern of piercings. She looked so much younger and more vulnerable.
"Is this a good time?" Billy asked as they entered her office. He pointed to a chair and Rachel sat down.
"It's great," Polly assured them. "Jason just ran upstairs to change his clothes and all I have to do is pull on my work boots. Are you coming out with us, Billy?"
"I might walk out, but as soon as Rachel gets comfortable, I have things to do!"
Rachel looked at Polly with her big, brown eyes and shyly smiled. "He wants to level up tonight and there is some big quest that's happening."
"Oh!" Polly laughed and slowly nodded. "Sure! I get it!"
"Whatever," Billy said.
Eliseo came around the corner from
the kitchen and Polly called his name. He turned into the office.
"Eliseo, this is Rachel, the girl I asked you about. I think she's ready to work."
Rachel stood up and put her hand out. Eliseo took it and said, "It's nice to meet you, Rachel."
He didn't blink at her piercings or striped hair, simply smiled and asked. "What drew you to our horses?"
Polly felt a lump in her throat, but stayed completely quiet. She'd never heard him speak about the horses or for that matter, anything at Sycamore House with a sense of ownership. It thrilled her to realize he felt like he was part of the family.
"I love animals," Rachel responded. "You should see the walls of my room. They're covered with posters and pictures of horses. We couldn't afford to have one and I never fit in with the 4-H crowd. I used to drag Mom down to the State Fair every year to the horse shows. Now I go by myself. I like the way riders and their horses seem to communicate. They don't use words like we do, they just seem to understand each other."
"There's a lot of learning and practice before that happens," Eliseo responded, "but you're right. That's one of the best feelings there is. Horses, just like dogs and cats, know what their owners want. Sometimes they give it to them, sometimes they have to be coerced and sometimes they're just plain brats about it. But, there is nothing more powerful than being accepted by one of those animals. It's an extraordinary gift."
"That's what I thought," she said. "My dog licks my face when I cry and then sometimes he does silly things to make me feel better."
Rachel slipped behind Billy's chair and stood talking to Eliseo. "He never cared about what I looked like."
"Horses don't care about any of that stuff either. They want to know you are trustworthy and that they are safe with you."
"I hope I'm both of those."
The two continued to talk to each other as they left the office. Billy and Polly looked at each other in shock until she giggled at him.
Secrets and Revelations (Bellingwood #4) Page 9
