by Nicole Ellis
I snorted quietly. There was always more to these jobs than it seemed at first. Desi elbowed me and accepted the paper from Lisa.
“Thanks.” She flashed a smile at Lisa. “I’ll be sure to get in touch with her. Jill and I are looking forward to taking part in the stroller walk on Wednesday, right, Jill?” She eyed me.
I sighed. I did need to exercise more and this would force me to get outside and actually do it.
“Of course. It sounds fun.” I looked around the room, where a few of the other moms were cleaning up. “Do you need any help?”
Lisa flapped her hand in the air. “Nope, we’re good. Thanks again for coming.” A movement off to the side caught her eye. “Oh sheesh, what is she doing?” She turned and stalked over to the table where an unsuspecting mom was unsuccessfully trying to stack plastic wine glasses on top of each other in a box.
Desi and I exited the library, stopping to chat outside. I shivered, wrapping my arms across my chest. This was where the jacket would have come in handy.
“So, what did you think?” Desi peered into my face.
“I thought it was uh …” On the street behind us, a car drove past with its radio blasting, giving me a chance to consider her question. I wasn’t sure what to say. While it could be good for me, I was already getting that sinking feeling in my chest like I’d committed to one thing too many. If everything stayed even, I could manage my workload, but that never seemed to be the case. As soon as I took on something else, Mikey would get sick or Ella would start waking up in the middle of the night again. With Beth’s recent health problems, I didn’t know if the status quo would change at the Boathouse, or if they’d need me to work more hours. I glanced at Desi. She looked so eager for me to join with her.
“You don’t have to do it with me if you don’t want to,” she said in a disappointed voice.
I forced a smile. “No, it’s fine. I’ll try it out. We’ll see how the first stroller walk goes, ok?”
A wide grin stretched across her face. “Thanks. I think you’ll really like it. My friend just raves about her group.”
“I’m sure I will. But I’d better get back to the house now. Hopefully Adam has Mikey in bed by now, but he sometimes loses track of time.” We walked toward our cars, stopping next to hers.
“See you tomorrow.” Desi slid into the front seat of her car and I walked back to mine.
When I arrived home, it was quiet, except for voices coming from the television. Adam must have successfully talked Mikey into going to bed. Lately, our son had developed a habit of procrastinating at bedtime. When the clock hit seven thirty, he suddenly realized that he was both extremely dehydrated and starving to death, and helpfully remembered all of the toys he’d “forgotten” to put away earlier.
“Hi, honey,” Adam said from the couch as I came into the living room. He muted the TV as I walked over to him.
“No problem getting them to bed?”
“Nope. Mikey and I played outside for a bit after dinner and I think I wore him out.” A self-satisfied smile appeared on his face. “He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.”
“Great.” I plopped down on the couch next to him. “It’s been a long day.”
“Well, it’s over now,” he said. “Do you want to watch an episode of this with me?” He gestured to the TV.
I glanced at the screen. He was watching a rerun of his favorite sci-fi show, which he’d been binging on for the last few weeks. Not really my style. I had never seen the need for two televisions in our house, but now that Adam was home so much, I was having withdrawal symptoms from some of the junk TV I liked to watch—not that I wanted to admit my addiction to my husband. When he’d been gone almost every night, I had to have something to fill the long hours alone at night before I fell asleep.
“Nah, I think I’ll head to bed soon. You can keep watching this.”
He shrugged and aimed the remote at the TV to unmute it, but before hitting the mute button, he called over his shoulder, “Oh, you might notice that I moved some things around in the kitchen cupboards. I don’t know how you ever found anything in there.”
Great. I know I’d wished for Adam to be home more, but part of me was starting to regret that my wish had been granted. I walked with trepidation into the kitchen and opened up the cupboard that had held Mikey’s plastic cups—a bottom shelf that I’d chosen so that he could reach them on his own. Adam had moved our heavy casserole dishes into the space. I hunted all over and finally found the cups in a top cupboard. I glanced at Adam, who was happily watching TV. Should I mention it to him now?
My phone vibrated insistently and I picked it up.
Desi: Call me now.
A discussion about the kitchen cupboards would have to wait.
“Adam,” I said loudly to be heard over the television. “Desi wants me to call her. I’ll talk to her upstairs so I don’t bother you. Good night. Thanks for getting the kids to bed.”
“No problem. ’Night.” He absentmindedly turned back to the TV.
I hurried up the stairs and into our bedroom, closing the door behind me so I wouldn’t wake the kids. I flopped on the bed and tapped Desi’s name on my phone.
“Hey,” I said when she answered.
“Oh my gosh. I just looked at the paper Lisa gave me with the name of the MUMs group director on it. You’ll never believe who it is.” She paused for dramatic effect.
I sighed. “Who?” As far as I knew, none of my friends or acquaintances were involved with the MUMs organization.
“Angela Laveaux,” she said triumphantly.
My brain seemed to freeze. “What?” How could Angela be the director of MUMs? Then again, I didn’t know her very well, and in all of our dealings, I’d never asked her what she did for a living. I guess I assumed she sold her art or something, but in all likelihood, that probably wouldn’t cover the cost of living in the Seattle area.
“Well, that explains why the MUMs group is staffing the haunted house.”
“Yep.” She sighed. “I guess this means I’ll be working with the infamous Angela now. With any luck, I won’t have to deal with her very much. Lisa told me she has an assistant at the office who does most of the work.
“Lucky you. I wish I could say the same.” I daydreamed for a moment about what it would be like to not have to work with Angela on the haunted house. It felt heavenly. I shook my head. Like it or not, I was stuck with her.
“So did you really like it?” she asked.
“I think it might be fun.” I stretched out on the bed, suddenly as exhausted as Mikey had been.
“Good, I’m glad. Well, that was it. I just wanted to tell you about Angela.”
I laughed. “It’s funny how small a town this is. Goodnight. I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?”
“Yep. See you tomorrow.”
The call disconnected and I forced myself to roll off the comfy mattress and go into the bathroom to get ready for bed. I’d finished brushing my teeth and dressing in my pajamas when I heard Ella cry out from down the hall. I didn’t think Adam could hear her with the TV on, so I went to her room to rock her back to sleep. By the time I’d tucked her back into her crib, I was a walking zombie. I loved my little ones, but sometimes it seemed like a mother’s work was never done.
Early the next morning, an alarm sounded. I rolled over and smashed my hand down repeatedly on my nightstand, fumbling for my phone. When I finally was able to grab it and focus on the time, it read six thirty. The noise continued. That was odd—my alarm wasn’t set to go off for another fifteen minutes and, after the late night up with Ella, I really needed the extra sleep.
I groaned. It wasn’t my personal cell phone, it was my work phone—and it was ringing.
I picked it up and sighed. Angela Laveaux. Why was she calling me so early in the morning? The phone kept ringing in my hands. Finally, I answered. I didn’t think she was going to give up.
“Oh, Jill, I’m glad I reached you.” Her voice blared over the line,
stinging my ears.
Adam asked sleepily, “Who’s calling so early in the morning? Is something wrong?”
I patted his shoulder and held my hand over the receiver to mute it. “It’s Angela. Go back to sleep.”
Into the phone, I said, “Hi, Angela. Is there something I can do for you?” I slid my feet off the bed and stretched out my legs as she answered me. Our house was freezing. We turned the heat down at night and neither of us had turned it back up to our normal daytime temperature yet.
Goldie looked up at me from his doggy bed in the corner of our bedroom and I motioned for him to fetch my slippers for me. Like every other time I’d tried that move, he stared at me as if I were an idiot and lay back down.
On the other end of the phone, Angela prattled on. “We really need to get the decorations out of my storage shed today. If we don’t do it today, we won’t have enough time to get everything put together before the haunted house goes live.”
I counted to five, and then said, “I think we still have plenty of time to get everything together.”
“No. I’ve been doing this for years and years, and I have my schedule down pat. We must begin now.”
I could already tell this was going to be a long day. I did some mental calculations. We had reserved the main hall of the Boathouse for the haunted house for the next three weeks, so there wouldn’t be any other events planned for that space. I could humor Angela and let her start moving her decorations in early. “That will be fine.”
“Great. I’m going to need to have you come over and get everything from my shed. You do have people to do that right?”
I stared up at a paint splotch on the ceiling. In the off-season, we had less staff and there wasn’t anyone available to help transport the Halloween decorations. I supposed it was up to me. Then a thought occurred to me. “Isn’t the Ericksville chapter of MUMs planning on working the haunted house?
“Well, yes. I suppose they are.” She was quiet for a moment. “I’ll see if I can round anybody up to help you. I will be there, but my husband is highly asthmatic and he’s not able to help move anything.”
“Ok, keep me updated. I can come over today with a truck, but I won’t be able to do it all by myself.”
“Well, I guess that will just have to do.”
Yes, it will, I said to myself. “Is there anything else I can do for you, Angela?”
“No. Not right now. I’ll call you back if I think of anything.” The phone clicked off and I slid back into the cozy warm sheets.
Next to me, Adam was awake and grinning. “Angela again?”
“Yeah.”
He laughed. “At least you only have three more weeks of her, right?”
“Yeah. But that will be a long three weeks. I hope I don’t have to deal with her next year.” I brightened. “Maybe we can talk your mom into not hosting it next year.”
“I don’t think she’ll take too much convincing,” he said. “Mom seems pretty frustrated with her right about now. What all did she want you to do?”
“She wants me to move all of the haunted house decorations from her house to the Boathouse.”
“Is that in your job description?” he teased.
I glared at him. He held up his hands, as if to ward off any attack from me. I could tell neither of us was going to get back to sleep, so I reluctantly forced myself out of bed and into an oversized fleecy bathrobe. “I should check on the kids.”
“I’m going to take a shower, and then I’ll come down and start breakfast for everyone.” He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and rose, walking into the bathroom.
The kids were still asleep, and I turned the furnace up so our house would be toasty warm when they awoke. The beauty of working only a couple minutes from our house was that I didn’t need to wake up early. When I used to commute into Seattle every day, I would spend at least an hour driving into work from Ericksville and the same going home. It had been pretty miserable. Adam had continued to do the commute after we had kids, but now that he was working out of an office in downtown Ericksville, he had the same enviable commute as I did.
I yawned. Even with the short commute, I still hated mornings. Half-asleep, I plodded downstairs and turned on the coffee pot. Without coffee, there was no chance I’d be able to handle whatever the day could throw at me.
3
Although we did sometimes help clients by picking up items for their events, the Boathouse didn’t officially have a vehicle for this purpose. Luckily, my father-in-law, Lincoln, owned a truck and I’d convinced him to let me borrow it to retrieve the decorations from Angela’s house. His pickup truck had a long bed plus a crew cab, and it was absolutely gigantic in comparison to my minivan. The blue paint on it still shone as bright as the day he’d bought it brand-new twenty years prior.
“Now, please be careful with her.” He dangled the keys in front of him.
I reached for the set of keys, but he didn’t let go easily.
“Sorry,” he said, with a foolish grin. “I know you’ll take good care of the truck.”
“I will.”
He relinquished the keys. I hopped into the driver’s seat and closed the door. I hadn’t wanted to tell my father-in-law that this was the biggest vehicle I’d ever driven and to tell the truth—I was a little scared.
He was still in his driveway, waiting for me to leave, so I gave him a brave wave and started up the truck. I inched it out of the driveway, gaining a little speed after I turned onto the main road. In my rearview mirror, I could see Lincoln still standing there with his hands in his pockets. No pressure, Jill. I had a feeling he wouldn’t be too happy if I did something to his truck.
On the way over, rain started to fall from the sky in fat droplets that blurred the windshield. I flicked on the windshield wipers but the visibility wasn’t great. Twenty minutes later, as I neared Angela’s house, the rain stopped.
I arrived at the house safely, which I recognized from the plethora of Halloween pictures I’d rifled through. Her house was in an older part of town, in the area between Ericksville and Everton, right on the bluff overlooking Puget Sound. Houses like this didn’t come cheaply and it looked like hers had a double lot. The extra space allowed them to have a carport in the front, and a white car was parked in the driveway. I managed to maneuver the big truck into the driveway behind it.
When I got out of the truck, my legs were shaky and I stood for a moment to settle my nerves, basking in the October sun that had appeared after the rain clouds passed through the area. The air held the distinctive smell of recent rain and the grass and flowers in front of the house sparkled as the sun hit the drops of moisture that remained on the plants.
I wasn’t looking forward to moving the decorations, but at least it wasn’t raining now. I was a little worried that there didn’t appear to be more people here to help. I knocked on Angela’s front door, but instead of her, a man came to the door.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m here to get the Halloween decorations for the haunted house.”
Recognition dawned on his face. “Oh, yeah. Sure. Let me get Angela.”
He disappeared into the house, limping as he walked. He shouted out her name, but returned a few minutes later wearing a puzzled expression.
“I don’t know where my wife went. I’ve been in my study all day and haven’t ventured outside.” He pointed at the white car I’d parked next to. “Her car’s out front, so she should be around. Maybe she walked down to the corner market or something.”
My jaw clenched and I forced myself to relax. I found myself doing that a lot of that when it came to Angela. She’d asked me to come and pick up the decorations and she couldn’t even be bothered to show up? And where were the other helpers? She’d promised me she’d enlist some help.
“I can show you where she keeps everything though. I’m sure she’ll be back soon.” He turned away from me to slip on some sneakers from an alcove just inside the front door. They were splattered with specks of wet mud,
reminding me to clean off my own shoes before I got back into the truck. Lincoln wouldn’t appreciate me tracking dirt into his pristine truck.
The man led me down the steps of the front porch and through an imposing wrought iron gate with a sticky latch, leading to the back of their house, where a large shed had been erected. A woman stood near the shed, fiddling with the lock.
“Can I help you?” Angela’s husband asked.
She turned, and I recognized Lisa, the group leader from the MUMs meeting.
Her face flamed when she saw us. “I was trying to get this stupid padlock back on the door. I found it on the ground when I got here, but I can’t seem to get it to stay on the door.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “When you’re done, I’ll lock up again.” He looked around. “Did my wife let you in?”
“No, I haven’t seen her, but she told me the shed was around back. She was supposed to meet me here.” Lisa opened the shed doors partway.
“Me too.” I peeked into the shed, which held several shelves piled high with Halloween paraphernalia. A musty smell assailed my nose and light streaming through a single window in the shed revealed dust floating in the air. However, the boxes of decorations looked to be in good condition. A large sarcophagus had a place of honor against the back wall. “Whoa. This is way more than I expected.” I was going to need to make several trips between here and the Boathouse, which would really cut into my day.
“Hey,” called out a familiar voice.
I turned to see Desi come around the side of the house and I walked toward her to help her with the latch on the gate.
“Hey. What are you doing here?” In my phone call with Angela that morning, she’d said she’d try to round up a few volunteers, but I hadn’t expected to see my sister-in-law.
“Don’t sound so excited to see me,” Desi said. “I can go back home if you’d like.”
