The Obituary Society
Page 21
Chapter 30
Raspberry Rumba
Max hurried up the walk to Lila, who crouched on the porch steps fixing a railing post. He carried a gallon of paint, and his brows were pinched together.
Lila frowned. “What's wrong?”
“There's been a mistake. Char said it was a custom order, and there are no returns on custom orders. I tried, but she—” He sighed, dropping his head. “There are like ten gallons of this stuff.”
Lila pulled Max down to sit beside her on the steps, then smoothed his hair with her fingers. “I'm sure everything's fine. Show me what the problem is.”
Max took a big breath, wincing as he popped open the paint can. “It's pink.”
Lila frowned. “No it's not.” Her voice was cynical. She stood, pulling Max to his feet. Keeping hold of one hand, she twisted herself inward until his arm was wrapped around her, then unfurled gracefully, one hand stretched in a dramatic pose . “It's r-r-raspberry r-r-rumba!”
His eyes widened. “You did this on purpose?”
“In honor of Grandma Elaine. But don't worry. I'm going to give it some of my own flair: white trim, black shutters. She's going to be the most exciting house in town again, but with a little more sophistication to match her years.” She gazed at the house, envisioning every detail.
Max smiled, pulling her back in with a little less grace. “As long as you're not worried about resale.”
Lila kissed his cheek. “I'm not.”
“Alright then, give me a paintbrush.”
Juniper walked across the grass, squinting at a crumpled paper in her hand. “What's be-queath?”
“It means to give,” Max answered as Lila hefted a box of painting supplies up off the porch. He rushed to take it from her, then carried it down the steps and dropped it on the grass.
Lila looked down at him, smiling. “I didn't think it would be so easy to convince you.”
“I'm secure enough in my masculinity to live in a pink house.” His face reddened, and he rubbed his chin. “I mean—if I lived here—I wouldn't mind—” He rooted through the box, piling all the brushes on the grass. “You're very talented. You'll make it work. But I hope we use it all up on your place, so you won't be tempted to put the leftovers to use when you start working on mine. Some of us are concerned about resale. You know, someday I might want to—” He smirked at himself, shoving a hand through his hair, then closing his fingers around it.
Lila leaned against the porch rail. Her smile stretched into a grin as she watched Max suffer.
He stood up straight and strode over to the porch, then reached up and grabbed her hands. “If we sold mine, we could put the money toward finishing this one.”
Lila stared blankly. It took all her effort to keep a smile from breaking out. “But where would you live?”
Max blinked, and the muscles in his face tightened. “A whole lifetime of this?”
Lila kissed his head. “Sounds nice.”
“What's will and testament?” Juniper asked.
Max pulled his eyes away to look at Juniper. “What are you reading?”
She shrugged. “An old letter.”
Max walked across the lawn to join her. “Where did you find it?”
“In that truck.” Juniper pointed to The Beast, which had been hauled back to Ada's.
“I thought I told you not to play in there. Lou's supposed to be picking it up any minute. You're lucky you didn't get hauled away with it. You wouldn't like living at Lou's. He yodels.”
“At least he doesn't snore.”
Max glanced quickly at Lila. “I don't snore,” he whispered.
“And I wasn't playing in the truck,” Juniper said innocently.
“Fine,” Max said. He took the yellow, crumpled paper from Juniper's hands, then pushed up his glasses. “This is handwritten. And old.” He paused, and his brows shot up. “Lila, you need to come and see this.”
Lila rushed over and Max handed her the paper. Along the top were the words Last Will and Testament. At the bottom was the name Phillip Moore. A rush of excitement pounded in Lila's chest and sent tingles to her fingertips.
“Can you show us exactly where you found this?” she asked Juniper. The little girl nodded.
The three of them hurried down the street together. They waved at Ada and Elmer, who sat on the porch drinking tea.
“I thought you were painting today,” Ada called. “You'd better get it done quickly. We're lucky to have a few mild days before the cold sets in for good.”
“We are,” Lila answered. “We just wanted to take a look at your truck.”
Ada tipped her head and stood. “What do you want with that old thing?”
She and Elmer left their rockers and walked arm-in-arm down the porch stairs.
The truck door creaked as Max tugged it open. After its exciting last ride, The Beast was even more defiant than before. Dust motes swam through the warmed air inside. Max lifted Juniper in.
“Well?” he asked.
She climbed up on the seat backwards, her knees pressing into the vinyl. Her tiny fingers felt along a vertical seam, then pulled it open.
Max and Lila stared at each other, mouths gaping.
Juniper reached inside the seat and pulled a beaten, bulging envelope out from between the springs. She grinned, handing it to Max.
Max held the envelope toward Lila and Ada, waiting for one of them to take it.
“You go ahead, dear,” Ada said, her face pale.
The envelope was brittle, and crackled as Lila opened it. She froze as her fingers closed around a stack of soft paper, bound with an elastic. When she pulled out the bills, everyone stared with wide eyes. Lila handed the stack to Ada, then peered into the envelope. Behind the piles of bills and what appeared to be a stack of stocks and bonds, was a folded piece of paper. She pulled it out and unfolded it.
“This is for you,” she said, handing it to Ada.
Isaac and Ada,
The first time my mind wandered to the past, I wanted to stay. It was a nice place for the most part. We were all together in our fine house painted pink just for Elaine. I knew I'd be back.
Now I'm in the past more often than not. Before my mind is gone for good, I want to make sure I leave you with the parts of the story you don't know. The way I grew up, finances weren't spoken of much. Every man kept his business to himself. Besides that, I always wanted you to know where my heart was, and what really mattered to me. But I suppose you were curious when you opened this envelope, and when I think about it, finding my fortune led me to my real fortune, and you ought to know about that.
There was a time many years ago I hope never to return to. I thought I was a grown man when I joined the service. But when I was far away from home, witnessing horrible things, I was just a frightened boy. There was a young man in my outfit named Stuart Hobbs, no doubt you've heard me speak of him. We became good friends. He was a boy whose head was always spinning with ideas. We'd talk about them at night in our cots, to crowd out the fear and the loneliness. Together, we'd figure out how we could make them work, and dream about how we'd go home and make money for our families.
Only one of us went home. For awhile, I felt too guilty to think much about our plans. But as I worked my father's fields, those ideas started drifting back in. I experimented with some of them. One of them was a mixture you added to fertilizer, meant to increase crop production, of course. I tried it out, and was surprised to find it was a success. So I traveled around selling the stuff. I made a lot of money, and invested some of it.
But I got feeling bad about Stuart, because he wasn't here to share in the success of our invention. I wanted to make it right, so I went to his hometown, Auburn, Nebraska. When his sister Elaine opened the door, I knew how I'd make it up to him. One way or another, I was going to take care of her, and his mother and father. Luckily, Phoebe made it easy and married me.
Eventually we built our dream house and took care of her parents, like Isaac and Phoebe ta
ke care of me. We had many good years together.
What you find in this envelope is not the stuff happiness is made of, but I sure enjoyed watching the happiness it enabled me to bring to others. I hope it will bring a little more enjoyment to your lives, and the lives of those you love.
Love,
Dad
Ada wiped tears from her eyes. “I know just where this money should go.”
“A new car?” Lila laughed.
“Well, I won't argue with that, but . . .” She handed the envelope to Lila.
“I can't take this,” Lila said, shaking her head.
“I'd like to see that home completed. Dad and Mother would have liked that, and Isaac and Phoebe too. Will you do that for me?”
“Of course I will.” Lila took the envelope and wrapped her arms around Ada. “We're going to be neighbors for a very long time, Aunt Ada.”
“That's right dear, until they put me six feet under, and even then I expect you to put lilacs on my grave every year when they bloom. And speaking of that sort of thing,” she leaned over to whisper in Lila's ear, “we're going to have to figure out what to do about that pond behind the house. I have a feeling if it was a problem before, it will be doubly so now.”
“We'll figure something out. But let's not think about that now.” Lila dropped one arm and turned to walk Ada back to the porch. “For now, I'd like to share a cup of tea with you and Elmer and Max and Juniper. And when Lou comes to pick up that truck I'll tell him he can take it over my dead body. Turns out, I've finally made peace with it. I think we can turn it into a lovely flower bed.”
Ada's eyes brightened. “Oh, the gardening club will die of jealousy.”
After bringing out the tea, they sat on the wooden steps, Juniper leaning into Max's right arm, Lila resting her head on his left shoulder. Lila sighed as she sipped her hot tea, thinking how little she cared about what other girls her age were doing, and imagining many years of front porches and steaming tea and club meetings with miniature cakes. -And if a hint of Old Spice mingled with cinnamon wafted past her nose, she pretended not to notice.
You made it to the end. As Grandma Garnet would say, bless your heart. As an Indie Author I depend on word of mouth. If you liked this book, please pin it, post about it, review it, whatever you take part of in the online realm. I hope you enjoy the recipes.
Grandma Katie's Rolls
I make the dough in the breadmaker, squeeze them into balls, put them in greased 9x14s, cover with a towel and let them rise a while. Bake at 325 for 12 min. or until golden brown.
The best thing about this recipe is it also makes awesome cinnamon rolls, scones, pretzels, even bread and pizza crust (I use less sugar for the last two).
2 tsp. yeast
½ cup sugar
½ cup warm water
1 cube butter, melted
1 cup milk (you can warm it first if you want)
2 eggs
2 tsp. Salt
5 cups flour (if it's sticking badly to the sides of the breadmaker, add a little more until if forms a ball as it mixes)
Ada's Maids of Honor
This recipe was curiously missing some key ingredients. Looks like someone wasn't willing to let it out of her hands.
Great-Grandma Benson's Caramel Pie
This is a family favorite, but Ada wasn't kidding, it's a little tricky. Might take a few tries, but it's worth it!
carmelize ¼ cup sugar (trickiest part)
add ¼ cup hot water. Boil for 5 min. to dissolve carmelized sugar.
Combine, then add:
½ cup brown sugar
5 Tbsp. Flour
¼ tsp. Salt
stir until thick on medium heat
add:
4 Tbsp. Butter
2 egg yolks (before adding yolks, put a tiny bit of the hot mixture in with them, stir, add a little bit more, stir- that way your yolks wont become scrambled eggs when you add them)
¼ tsp vanilla
Acknowledgments: This article helped me understand some of the issues that come with an old home. I can still dream, though.
http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/03/buying-an-old-house-plan-for-these-home-repairs/
Thanks again to my family; those that inspired me, discussed ideas with me, encouraged me, and helped edit.
Also thanks to those on Critique Circle.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1Sour Lemonade
Chapter 2The Cinnamon Scented Lawyer
Chapter 3High Fructose Corn Syrup
Chapter 4Aunt Ada's Fridge
Chapter 5The Mail Order House
Chapter 6 Maids of Honor
Chapter 7Sold
Chapter 8Old Spice“
Chapter 9Store-Bought
Chapter 10Gypsy Blood
Chapter 11Rocky Mountain Oysters
Chapter 12Better-than-Betty Crocker
Chapter 13The Old Hodgers Bluegrass Band
Chapter 14Fireworks
Chapter 15An Unkindness
Chapter 16Goldie's Locks
Chapter 17Mantis
Chapter 18Outsiders
Chapter 19Vintage Snapple
Chapter 20The Pact
Chapter 21Intruders
Chapter 22Jail Biddies
Chapter 23Betrayed
Chapter 24Deep Fried Chocolate Milk
Chapter 25Heights
Chapter 26 Finding the Finder
Chapter 27 Like him
Chapter 28 Anything for Love
Chapter 29Nightmare
Chapter 30Raspberry Rumba
Grandma Katie's Rolls
Great-Grandma Benson's Caramel Pie
Acknowledgments: