Blown Away

by K'Anne Meinel

  The teen watched as Ellen walked away. When she turned around the teen was still watching her and then she began to hurry in the opposite direction.

  Ellen watched until she was out of sight before she walked back towards her hotel, walking through the lobby she hoped the teen couldn’t see where she went but once inside the elevator she wouldn’t know where she was staying unless she was in cahoots with someone in the hotel. She laughed at herself as she locked the deadbolt and the latch; she had watched too many movies with Ryan over the years.

  She slept well and was up and ready to go early despite the long miles she had driven the previous day. She stretched, showered, arranged her hair and makeup and packed the few things she had unpacked for her stay. She checked out of the hotel and got in her car and drove into Las Vegas before stopping for a late breakfast.

  It took her a couple of days to drive to Oklahoma. The memories began to assail her as she crossed the border and the rolling hills, the vivid greens, even the trees brought back memories. She felt her stomach clench up but she drove on gamely. Calling Mr. Davidson she told him she would be there the following day. Knowing her town had been too small to have a hotel much less a motel she stopped and freshened up and went to bed early before started out on the last leg of her drive.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  REMEMBRANCES

  She stared at the ruins of a once beautiful farm house and memories came, flashing back in an instant yet spanning years. Over there once stood a beautiful pair of oak trees with a swing between them for her to play on. She could still hear the echoes of her mother telling her to be careful as she climbed them. Skinned knees and scraped palms; she never complained over the slivers her mother had to remove from her tomboyish activities. Their shade provided her endless hours of escape from the relentless sun and still she would burn from it. The wind would part the leaves and the sun would beat down between them. Her imagination could play for hours as she gazed up through them, envisioning them as towering giants and she a mere mortal. She loved those trees.

  “I can’t believe you climb like a monkey, and in a dress too!” her mother would scold. She remembered that fondly, the inflections, the lilt in her voice was still in her consciousness despite the span of years.

  The house still tilted haphazardly. Weather and time hadn’t pulled it to the ground and for this she was surprised as she stared at its sturdy build. Her great-grandparents had been among the first to build in this area and had used good wood and stone to construct their sturdy home. Their son and granddaughter had both raised families in this house. She scowled as she remembered she had been the last raised in this house.

  It look well picked over. The weeds around the place were elbow high and although she hadn’t seen it in over twenty years, she couldn’t help but wonder why it hadn’t been torn down before; which was why she was now here.

  “Ms. Avril?” a voice asked her respectfully and she started in surprise. She hadn’t heard anyone approach. “Oh, I’m sorry miss, I was expecting…” he began apologizing.

  “It’s okay, you just startled me,” she said in precise and clear tones, not a hint of the accent that was unique to this part of the country and so apparent in his voice. That accent brought back other memories. Ones she’d tried to quash and couldn’t. Ones that she’d known needed exorcising, and that could only be done by coming here. It was why she had come herself. She needed to stop the dreams that had returned. Her feeling was that it was in the past and it should remain there. Her psyche though was haunting her and she had to face it, one last time.

  “I was expecting Ms. Avril,” he began again, and peered at her intently and wondering who she was. He was shorter than she, his skin brown from the winds that blew here; he was stooped from a lifetime of work.

  She smiled, not realizing the beauty that was apparent in her face. Her pale white skin hid the freckles that came out in the sun, but no tan touched her creamy milk white skin anymore. “I’m A…Avril,” she answered hesitating over the name for only a millisecond. ‘Or, I was,’ she mentally corrected herself, but not aloud, he wouldn’t understand.

  “You’re Ms. Avril?” he asked puzzled. He peered at her for a long time shaking his head, trying to see some semblance of the youth he had known. As her smile faded, he saw a glimmer of recognition. Not of her but of her mother and that was when he took on a relieved look. His hat came off his head in an instant and his weathered face wreathed a smile showing several missing teeth. “Why Ms. Avril, you’ve all growed up!” he drawled, pleased at his discovery.

  “How are you, Mr. Davidson?” she asked pleasantly. The smile didn’t quite reach her eyes though. Not with the memories pushing at her temples wanting her to remember, to relive them; all the while she was trying hard to once again suppress them.

  “Poorly,” he said honestly. “Right poorly, but I aim to do the job you is needing done. I shorely do. Just like I promised.” He gestured to the truck that was parked at the end of the drive. On the trailer attached to it sat a front end loader, securely chained to its bed.

  She glanced at it, then back at the house he had come to demolish. It was the town’s attempt at getting rid of an ‘eyesore’ that had sat there empty for over two decades. Why they had decided that it needed to be done now, she didn’t know. But she was here, as requested, to get it done. Mr. Davidson had answered her call, surprised that she remembered him. He was eager to earn the money she had promised him for the job.

  “Do you want to go through the house to look for anything?” he asked, as he noticed her silently staring at the house.

  She shook her head. She had done her picking long ago, her few belongings in a few measly boxes and trunks, and a storage unit she had come to go through as well, a lifetime of memories and knick knacks that meant nothing to anyone but herself. “Just bulldoze it,” she said shortly, wanting it taken care of so she could leave.

  “You’ll have to move your car,” he mentioned, as they turned to head back down the driveway.

  She glanced at the Maserati and nearly laughed aloud at the contrast between it and his old rusted out Chevy. She hadn’t thought of that when she decided to drive back here. If she hadn’t before, she would surely stick out like a sore thumb now. Another reason to get the job finished and get out, get gone. Something she had done years ago and not looked back. She glanced over at the barns and silos. They still looked as solid as the day her great-grandparents and grandparents had built them. Nothing had touched them, not time, nor weather, they seemed to be as strong and steady as the day they were built. They could use a little paint, but with the weather that came through this part of the country it was amazing they were still standing. She could see they were used well by the tracks that led from the path up to them and down the driveway, but that was all. Everything else was abandoned, the chicken coop, and a few other outbuildings. The grass overgrown and obviously untrodden, no animals or people to grind it under their heels.

  “Can you tear down those too?” she asked as she gestured to the outbuildings not in use.

  “Ahyup,” he grunted as they reached her overpriced car and she automatically pressed the button on her keychain to open the door and let her in. He glanced at the car as the door opened quietly and on its own for her, expensive enough to pay a couple of year’s salary to someone like him, and most folks around here. It was none of his business though so he hurried over to the trailer where another man stood, awaiting orders. “Let’s get her down,” he gestured to him, and they immediately began removing the chains holding the machine to the bed of the trailer.

  The younger man kept watch out of the corner of his eye as the redhead drove the expensive sports car onto the road. She parked it opposite the driveway so they could drive the front end loader onto the property. She was definitely worth a second and third look and he wondered if she remembered him as she watched his uncle maneuver the heavy machine off the trailer. She caught him staring as she got out of the car and he felt his cheek
s reddening. He hurried after his uncle to collect any boards worth salvaging hoping she hadn’t noticed. She had said they could take whatever they wanted.

  She followed along slowly and looked down at her Prada shoes knowing she should have dressed down for the farm, but after twenty years she had nothing appropriate to wear on such a place. She hadn’t thought about it as the miles passed and she headed for this part of Oklahoma.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  A LITTLE REVENGE

  “Mr. Mann, I’m surprised you are still practicing,” she greeted him as he shook her hand and gestured her to a waiting chair.

  “Yep, I’m still a kicking and I must say you are looking fine, mighty fine,” he told her with a smile. She was even more beautiful than her mother had been. The teenager who had left this burg so long ago was also long gone. He’d read about her in the papers and magazines, she deserved all the good things that had come to her. She’d worked hard and achieved something that few if any could do.

  “Thank you,” she blushed becomingly. Even after all these years, this sort of thing could make her blush. She controlled rooms of people with her business acumen and expertise and this kindly old gentleman had her blushing like a school girl.

  “Well, what can I do for you today?” he asked. He’d been wondering since she called to make an appointment. He didn’t do much these days but he could still do a bit. His much younger partner was taking the brunt of the work and would someday take it all as he had himself had done so long ago.

  “I’d like to sue a few people around here,” she said with a wave of her hand.

  His interest was piqued. He was also alarmed. He knew the kind of money this woman had and what she could do to their small town. “A bit of revenge?” he asked astutely.

  She nodded but added, “And a bit of justification,” she added. She then proceeded to tell him of the visits she had made around Oakley. To the former sheriff’s house. To several others who had been surprised to have this smartly dressed redhead on their doorstep but allowed her into their homes when her innate good manners and their own civility and curiosity overwhelmed. She had been pleasant; keeping the visits down to a mere fifteen minutes but looking about their living rooms she had taken note of specific things and handed a list to the attorney now.

  “You realize how this is going to look?” he asked.

  “I don’t care. They didn’t have the right and they still don’t.”

  “Can you prove that?” he asked indicating her inventoried list.

  She handed him a photo album where she had carefully post-it noted specific pages and photos. She handed him her agreement with the co-op that outlined perfectly what they could and would do with the farm.

  “You thought this out didn’t you?”

  She nodded again, her many miles between San Francisco and Oklahoma having been lost in thought. “I’ve had twenty years to think this out. Being here brought it all back,” she confided. Her own ‘guilt’ over what had transpired was rapidly diminishing. She didn’t know if Nancy would approve but she felt compelled to do this, to get it over with, to put it behind her and move on. Ryan would have approved and understood.

  “Well, I can get this in the works and written up over the next few days,” he informed her, thinking about the work involved. Inside he was gleefully admitting to himself how this was going to affect the good citizens of their not-so-little town. It had grown considerably in size in the twenty years since she left, but was still basically a small town.

  “I’ll await your call. Do you want me to sign anything?” she asked. “Pay your fee in advance?” she offered glancing about the dingy office and knowing he didn’t have a lot of funds.

  “Oh that won’t be necessary. I’ll be happy to get this going. When I call you in a couple of days you can sign our agreement then.”

  “Do you know why the town suddenly decided to have my parents place torn down? It’s well outside the town limits.”

  He nodded. “I think they hoped to have you here. Come personally, and so you have,” he smiled.

  “What for?”

  “Probably to hit you up for some town function. You’re the most famous person to ever have come from here. Even Billy Maxon the football player can’t beat Avril Ellen Christenson and the fact that she came from this part of Oklahoma,” he told her with self-depreciating smile.

  “Famous? They couldn’t have cared less,” she said, slapping her hand down on the corner of his desk and a little bit of the old bitterness came out.

  “They didn’t care then,” he leaned forward and put his hand on hers in a grandfatherly gesture. “But you proved the lot of them wrong. They want that association,” he informed her.

  “Association? They’ll get an association all right,” she said the irony aloud.

  “Yes, they will won’t they?” he pulled back and indicated the photo album he had on his desk.

  She smiled and nodded as she arose. “If I have a few more things to add, you’ll take my call?”

  He nodded and allowed a rare smile to cross his face. Her mother would have been proud of how she turned out.

  * * * * *

  Ellen drove around looking and remembering. The house was now gone, even the weeds and the outbuildings bulldozed flat. She arranged for Tempe Painting to paint the barns and the silos and make them whole, patch them, and fix what needed fixing. Might as well protect her family’s legacy. Thankful for the work in this depressed part of the state Mr. Tempe got to work with his small crew immediately. She paid him half up front, knowing he would have to buy the supplies and possibly rent the scaffolding to get up to the higher reaches of the buildings. He was surprised that the check cleared without a problem, he didn’t know who Ellen Christenson was, and delighted to be able to feed his family for another month. Hell, with this job and the quote he had given her, a few more months.

  She stopped at the storage rental place and went through it as much as she could. Calling a moving company she arranged for it all to be taken out and her rental agreement to come to an end. Carl, the man she had dealt with so long ago was gone but a similar man eyed her warily as she filled out the paperwork and ended the long-standing agreement. He had never met her but knew of the unit that had been rented longer than any others in their facility.

  “Then you will hold it until my house is ready?” she confirmed with the moving company that had arrived to empty the storage unit.

  “Ayup, you get charged the longer we hold it though,” he informed her.

  “Thank you, that will be fine,” she said as she watched the moving men carefully remove the antiques. They started to make her feel nostalgic as she remembered her mother lovingly polishing them and she turned away to look elsewhere. These were things, they weren’t important and while they had been in her life for a substantial portion, she knew they were mother’s things, her grandmother’s even. They were now hers and she would do something with them, finally. It had been long enough. She had let the past rule her for far too long. It was time to look to the future, after a few more choice things were taken care of.

  “You remember me from the houses you showed me and my partner?” she asked the real estate agent.

  Of course she remembered Ellen Christenson. She was famous in Silicon Valley. Even her partner, that Ryan Mahoney who had died, was memorable. “What can I do for you Ms. Christenson,” she asked respectfully, remembering her from when she bought the apartment in The City and hoping she didn’t remember her gaffe of thinking they were a married couple.

  “I remembered seeing a house that I think you represented in Rolling Hills Estates?” Ellen had remembered Ryan looking at the real estate, it fascinated him. She had no interest in it but he always saw the potential.

  Even though she didn’t represent any of the properties in that section of the Valley, she’d lie through her teeth to help out someone of Ellen Christenson’s stature. “Yes of course Ms. Christenson, were you looking for a particular model?”
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br />   Discussing what Ellen remembered and what her needs were Judy Comella soon had a good idea of what the tech mogul had in mind for a home. She promised to get back to Ellen with what she could find as soon as possible. She lived up to that promise and using her laptop Ellen was soon the owner of a house she had never personally seen other than in pictures, a video showing the place, and still shots. Transferring the funds to an escrow account, she arranged for a two-week escrow instead of the normal month to six months to purchase the house. Satisfied with her efforts, Ellen smiled, knowing her families ‘treasures’ would soon have a home, as would she.

  * * * * *

  “Ms. Christenson isn’t it?” an unfamiliar voice stopped her as she came out of the small motel in the next town as Oakley wasn’t large enough for even a motel.

  Used to The City and having lived for over half her life in California she looked up defensively, ready to punch and run. Standing before her was an older gentleman and she relaxed slightly. “May I help you?” she asked frostily, not used to having complete strangers approaching her except for in business.

  He took off the hat he was wearing and nodded to her. “I’m Mayor Barnes,” he said by introduction.

  She waited for him to continue, not offering her hand, not acknowledging his title.

  “I heard you were in town and staying over here. I’m sorry we don’t have adequate lodgings over in Oakley,” he continued, starting to feel uncomfortable by the redheads penetrating eyes.

  It was then that she began to have an inkling who he was and what this might be about, Mr. Mann was right..

  “What can I do for you Mr. Barnes?” she asked to get to the point. She had some places that she wanted to see yet and hadn’t visited.

  “The City Council asked me to approach you. We were hoping you might help us fix up the town square. We’d like to turn it into a park…” he began to drone on with the council’s plans and Ellen tuned him out.