Please Hold – Chapter Seven
Author's Note: Thanks to all the folks following this story and to those of you who reviewed – I understand if you don't. I have bad habits in that department myself. We should all think happy thoughts about Mrs. Harris – she owns all this after all. Also thanks to Merry for the help! (I did some more tinkering after that – so my mistakes are mine).
Speaking of my mistakes, I finally was able to go back and fix some things wrong with the earlier chapters. You can go back a see if I caught them all, if you're into that sort of thing. :)
Four months ago…The day after meeting Amelia
The following morning, as we waited for the truck, Waldo Paul showed up – he was Andre's brother. He also had a driver bring over a rental car that was ours for the duration of the visit and for the trip home. He seemed like a man that was handed the very dirty end of the short stick more times that seemed statistically possible. As an albino, he already had some problems in life – add in an older brother like Andre and I try not to imagine the hell growing up must have been. Life and time had not been kind to him. He handled it with a shaky almost grace. He explained that while the furniture, mattress, and linens had been ruined – along with several clothing and personal items that were left out or in open drawers, there were a number of items that were in good condition – mostly clothes and some jewelry and they were in a different container in the shed. He added that there was also a very nice painting that had been "a part of the incident and resulting crime scene" and he had sent it off to be cleaned. He offered to have it sold or look into having it put into a museum if we decided we didn't want to keep it. It seemed like he hesitated for a few minutes. "I also have several photographs. They were in albums or behind glass in frames. I have those ready as well." Gran and I both thanked him. He noted that he'd put most of Andre's estate in a charitable trust and to let him know if there were any causes that we felt could benefit from the money. While Waldo never said nor implied anything, I got the feeling, later confirmed by Mr. Cataliades, that the Leclerq family was aghast at the situation. They wanted nothing from Sophie's estate. They just wanted to make sure the funds wouldn't encourage another Hadley onto the scene. While I was angry at that assumption, I had to admit – sleeping with a married woman behind her husband's back was not on my to-do list, nor did I think it would ever rise in popularity.
After the truck came and took away the crime-scene-in-storage, Waldo left – giving all of us his business card. Gran and I had a cup of coffee with Amelia. We reluctantly climbed back in the car. Gran had an eleven o'clock appointment to tour her possible new home.
Cedar Grove Senior Center, the independent living place, was really nice. It was an old converted plantation on Tchoupitoulas Street in the Garden District – I could tell Gran really liked it. I think she was excited to not have to cook breakfast when she didn't feel like it, but still live an old historical place. We wandered around after our tour guide – we kept losing her because Gran would stop and visit with so many of the residents. It seemed like a nice place and we could afford it if we got enough for rent on the farmhouse.
As Gran was meeting with one of the directors of the place, she blindsided the both of us. "I read on your website that you are looking to hire a new activities director. What does a person like that do?" Gran – on the interwebs? I thought I would never be shocked again – that's what I get for thinking never. As I pondered this, Gran had talked herself into two month of probation with reduced rent – with opportunity for an interview and hiring at the end of six weeks. Apparently it was a position split between the neighborhood community center and a few independent living facilities in the area. I tried to keep up with the conversation – it turns out that staying cooped up in your house with no contact with the outside world is bad for you even if you are retired – especially if you are retired. So the community group and a few churches had scraped together the funding for the job, trouble is, there weren't many good applicants, and the residents seemed to hate them.
"Of course they do!" Gran laughed. "You're hiring all these young folks to harass old fogeys to get up and out, but the only young people they want to be around are their kin or their friends' kin. Also – a Saint's game? What earnest young man's idea was that? All the noise, crowds, walking, and standing – I'm surprised you actually got that many people to sign up. You let me have this job – I'll get them out and about." I knew that this would be great for Gran. It would keep her busy, engaged in life, and out in the world. The world could use more people like Gran in it.
After explaining some of the ideas she had, I was ninety percent sure she'd have the job in a month with the interview as a formality. I also realized that Gran was moving to New Orleans, whether I liked it or not.
I excused myself from the room. I sat on a bench in the empty courtyard – it was nearly four o'clock, so I imagined most of the residents were getting ready for dinner. Did I want to move? Why should I stay in Bon Temps? The only thing holding me there was Gran, Jason, and the farmhouse. When we told Jason what we were thinking, he'd said "I figured you would need to get out of here for a while – it'll be good for you Sook. Might be good for Gran too. She's buried too many people living here, hell, so have you. Get out there, live, and see the big city – just don't do anything I would do." I'd laughed at that. "Seriously Sookie – I'll come visit ya'll, just get a real good pullout couch in your new place. I can help whoever lives here look after the place – you can always come back and visit too. Maybe help me fix up our old rooms into proper guest rooms." I'm not sure if Gran had told him to say that, I decided that Jason probably didn't realize his decent big brother stripe was showing.
I decided I could give New Orleans a try. It's not like I'd have to break a lease to leave. I waited for Gran and on the way back to the hotel we planned our next steps: pack the house and find a tenant. I'd need to get a job once we got settled, but it would be okay. We decided to sell my old clunker and get some more work done on her car. We could share it. She wouldn't need it all the time and I could wait until I was established and had a job before I picked anything out. There were also several colleges and universities in the area. Maybe I would just work part time and get my bachelor's degree. We decided to leave that night and start getting ready. We called Jason and he said he would put in for a few days off at the end of the following week so he could tow a trailer down and help us move. I called Sam too – he said he knew of a couple of folks looking to rent a house and would help us draw up a lease and he said to call Greg Aubert to make sure our insurance was right for having renters.
As we drove home, Gran was bubbling with excitement and plans. I asked her about using the internet to research the facility and she said that Mrs. Albanese, the librarian, helped her to look it up. It was another idea she had for the "old folks" (as she called them) – find someone with the computer know-how, but the patience to let them learn. Most computer people, I knew from experience, got exasperated with the non-tech savvy and took over the keyboard. Marcia Albanese wasn't a tech geek by any stretch, but she did know how to make feel comfortable. She was also one of the best understated hostesses I'd ever met. That was just one of her ideas. We passed the drive talking over her other ideas. Gran wasn't too into sororal groups like The Daughters (The Daughters of the Confederacy). She was more interested in the real history, active in groups like her Descendants of the Glorious Dead and the Civil War Trust. She even had contacts with several historians around the state. Thinking on it, I couldn't think of a better thing for Mr. Paul to use his brother's money for – helping seniors, building community, restoring and exploring historical places. I'd be sure to call some time when Gran was away.
By the time we had our coffee the next morning, Sam was headed over with some lease applications. Mr. Aubert called and asked us to come by around ten-thirty to fill out all the new paper work. Jason had called the night before – he had a line on moving boxes and would bring them over after lunch.
Everything worked for the move – it made me nervous. No problems with setting up or transferring utilities. No one was angry that we were leaving. We found great tenants in my good friend Tara Thorton and her new husband, JB du Rone. They were expecting a baby soon and wanted to get a bigger place. I knew JB would do everything he could to keep the house in shape and Tara felt more at home in the farmhouse than she ever had in her own childhood home. Jason's friend Hoyt talked to a mechanic friend – he traded the work on Gran's car for the title to mine.
A few days later, Tara came by for lunch. We went through the house with Gran – deciding what needed to go on the truck, what could stay, and what should probably go away – sold, charity, burn pile. There was some room to store things we weren't sure about in the attic and in the storage shed behind my new place. Amelia said she just needed room to store some lawn equipment. After I saw the shed, I realized she met outdoor furniture and a grill, not lawn mowers and weed whackers. I couldn't really imagine her mowing anyway – she must hire the work out.
I already had ideas for my new place. I would be rearranging a lot of things there. The second bedroom would be just that – a bedroom instead of an office. Alcide had bought me a nice laptop for Christmas while we engaged and I decided I liked it better than Hadley's big desktop. I could set up my small desk in the living room and have the extra bedroom for guests or maybe I could rent out the room. Amelia said that I could do whatever I'd like to in that department – so long as I filled out the correct paperwork and let her run a background check. She said she'd already run one on me – a credit report too. Nothing showed up on either one – no record, no credit, no surprise. Gran had taught me not to buy things I couldn't afford. The mortgage on the house Alcide and I bought together had been my first loan. Tara agreed with Gran that I should by a new bedroom set after I moved – my own private hideaway where I could relax while I built new memories and a new life. I let myself be persuaded. Alcide had not slept in the set in our master bedroom, but it had been picked out with both of our tastes in mind. One of the first things I decided when he died was that if he was never going to sleep in that bed, I wasn't either. For this new home, I wanted a sanctuary, something tranquil. I'd looked around online and found a few things I liked – I'd start looking in earnest after we moved down. I could sleep in the day bed in the smaller bedroom in the interim. The apartment would be getting a lot of new furniture. I'd sold most of what was in my house and Gran was going to donate lots of her things. Hadley's decorating style, like that of her clothes, didn't suit me, so I decided to splurge a little. In the meantime, there were several things to go through and get rid of or sell. I was the most irresolute about the floor full of shopping bags – items from the last shopping trip Hadley and Sophie ever took. I pushed that out of my thoughts – Amelia had said she would help me take care of it. I decided to take her at her word.
The waves of good luck kept coming. I was tossing salt, knocking wood, and praying it would last – it was time for me to catch a break. I tried and mostly succeeded at not worrying about how long it would last.
Author's Note: Do you believe in luck? Destiny? Or do you think we all blaze our own trails in the universe?
