The Story of Therapy Dog Tails 471
Where Everyone Gets a Dose of Puppy Love
FICTION 36: Colors of the Past 11
Colors of the Past
a novel
W.D. Haverstock
Part One
Chapter Two
“… You can get to know someone very fast sometimes,” Susan said. “Sometimes you just know about a person.”
“Yes,” Melissa said. “Sometimes.”
She remembered a night not long before they graduated. She and Gary were looking for a cab on the street when another couple had passed and she had started to call out George’s name. But she’d stopped when the girl at George’s side looked up, She was short and her hair was dark. Melissa had never seen her before. The girl had looked up and then turned to George and kissed him. Melissa had watched as he had leaned down to her and kissed her back.
“Sometimes you can see it right away.”
They walked around to the south side of the house. From here they could see a street with another large house hidden behind a row of tall bushes. A light was burning in a tiny third floor window.
“The center of town is just a few blocks over there,” Susan said and pointed to the southwest. “I hope you have a chance to look around before you go home. This is a beautiful town. I can tell you all the places to shop.”
“Is that where the boys are?”
“Yes, it’s not far.”
“At least that’s where they’re supposed to be.” Melissa held the cigarette close to her face. “It must be one o’clock. I made Gary promise not to keep George out late tonight. He’s supposed to call when they get back to George’s house but you know how they are when they get together. I hope they haven’t forgotten that they’re not two college boys anymore.”
“Maybe he called,” Susan said. “We’ll ask Katie when we get inside.”
“Does George live far from here?”
“No, it’s just a couple of miles or so, in Wilmette.”
“Is that where you’re going to live?”
“Yes.”
“Is the house as beautiful as this one?”
“None is as beautiful as this.”
Susan turned back to the house - to the dark brick of the front facade and the ivy-covered walls to the east, to the dormer window that had always been hers and that opened over the trees in the back, to the vine-covered chimney that rose above James’ library and to the dark, empty windows toward the front, windows of rooms that had never been occupied in the time that she had lived there.
“The Wilmette house is very nice, but I’m going to miss this place,” Susan said. She had studied the building as carefully as she’d studied the portrait of her mother and father. “I know that this house is the reason I’ve always thought myself lucky - this house and my uncle. I’ve always loved this house and thought it the biggest, most beautiful and mysterious house that could ever be.”
“It certainly is beautiful.”
“See that window back there? That’s my room, where I used to be afraid to look out at night because it was so dark and quiet.”
Melissa followed Susan’s words with her eyes and smoked the cigarette.
“This window over here,” Susan said and indicated the first window around the corner from her own, “is Uncle James’ bedroom.”
The window was smaller than the others. Drawn tightly behind it were thick, red curtains.
“Those near the front are the guest rooms. The two in the very front of the house are the room that would have been my parents’, but to me it has always been just another room. I’ve never been able to imagine them there. Nearly all of the photographs that my uncle has were taken outdoors. Even now it’s hard for me to imagine that they ever really lived in this house. It’s difficult to imagine sometimes that they ever really lived t all.”
The two young women walked slowly round to the front of the house and went inside. To the right was the sitting room and in front of it a wide staircase. To the left was the dining room and behind it the kitchen. Between was a long hallway that led to James’ library in the back of the house.
“I’ll ask Katie if Gary called.”
Susan went into the kitchen. The light was off but even in the dark the room felt neat and clean. She could feel Katie’s presence.
“She must have gone to bed,” Susan called softly back to Melissa. “I hate to wake her.”
“She couldn’t be asleep yet,” Melissa said.
“I’ll check.”
Susan walked through the kitchen and tapped on the door in the back. “Katie? Are you asleep?” she whispered through the door.
The door opened. Katie stood just inside wearing a long, white nightgown and a white scarf tied in a knot at her forehead. “No, Miss, not just yet. What is it?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, Katie. I just wanted to know if anyone called while we were out walking.”
“No, ma’am. The phone hasn’t rang since early this evening.”
“Thank you, Katie. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Katie waited at the door as Susan went back through the dark kitchen. But as Susan stepped into the hallway, she hesitated and then looked back. Katie stood across the room with her hand on the doorknob. “Is everything all right, Katie?”
“Yes, everything’s just fine,” Katie said and a wide grin spread across her face. “I was just thinkin’ how fast you growed up and what a pretty bride you gonna make tomorrow when you walkin’ down that aisle with Mr. Heins right there at your side. I hope you don’t mind my sayin’ it, Miss, but I just can’t help it. I wish your mother could be here to tell you right.”
“Nobody could say it any better than you,” Susan said. She rushed back to where the older woman was standing and threw her arms around Katie’s neck and started to cry.
“There now, I didn’t mean to make you go and do that, Miss Susan,” Katie said and patted Susan on the back like a child. “I want you to be just as happy as that little girl always followed me around the house. Do you remember that?” Katie laughed. “How you used to be gettin’ into things whiles I was tryin’ to do my work and you wouldn’t want to do nothin’ but get in the way when you was just tryin’ to help.”
“I remember,” Susan said and looked up into Katie’s face. “I remember how you never let it bother you. You always found time to do whatever you had to do and to spend a little time with me, too. Of course, I remember.”
“And I remember what a happy child you was, how you hardly ever would cry and always had a big smile on your face like there wasn’t nothin’ wrong in all the world.”
“Maybe there wasn’t.”
Katie sighed and held Susan close. “Well, maybe there wasn’t but that’s just how I want to see you now, with the big little girl’s smile on your face.”
Susan smiled through her tears and kissed Katie on the cheek. “Thanks for remembering, Katie.”
“All right, then. Miss Kendal must be wonderin’ what’s keepin’ you. You go ahead on now and wipe your eyes. I’ll see you soon enough in the mornin’.”
“All right, Katie. Good night.”
“Good night.”
As Susan wiped her face and walked back to the front of the house, the door to the library opened and James appeared.
“Susan,” he said and started toward her with a large book under his arm. “I was just coming out to see if you’d gone to bed. I’ve got something I want you to see.”
As Susan waited for her uncle, the door to Katie’s room clapped shut. At the sound, Susan turned and saw that Melissa was no longer standing in the hallway.
“Don’t you think you ought to try and get some sleep?” James said as he kissed her on the cheek. “I’m sure Mrs. Kendal will understand.”
“I was just about to go to bed, Uncle James, but I’ve been having such a nice talk with Melissa. Somehow she makes me see things in a different light.” Susan smiled and took her uncle’s hand. “Or maybe things just seem different tonight.”
“Things will never be the same. Where is Mrs. Kendall?”
“She must have gone into the front room. That’s where we’ve been talking.”
“Then let’s go in there. I want to show you a few photographs before you go to bed. I’d forgotten about these myself.”
As they walked toward the front of the house, Susan put her arm through her uncle’s. “Did you see us, Uncle James?”
“See you?”
“Yes, Melissa and I were out walking and we could see you through the window in the library. You were going over something on your desk.”
“So you were spying on me.”
“Not deliberately. But you stood up, just in front of the window. We thought you were looking right at us. Didn’t you see us?”
“No,” James said, “I couldn’t see a thing. I guess I was thinking about something.”
“It was just too dark.”
In the front room, Melissa was standing near the grandfather’s clock. She turned when she heard their voices. “Susan,” she said, I was just looking at some of these photographs. They’re really very good ….”