SM owns twilight, I own my mistakes, and a secret passion for Jasper.
Chapter fourteen.
Seth Clearwater and his two friends came rumbling into the driveway at seven thirty sharp.
I laughed to myself; his truck was even older than Bertha, by about twenty years! It had obviously been done up, with lots of fancy paintwork, extra chrome fittings and big, fat tyres. Seth really must have loved his truck, and had spent a large amount of time, effort and money fixing her up.
Seth and his two buddies were smiling brightly and piled out of the cab, like a bunch of excitable puppies. They couldn't have been any older than sixteen. I didn't mind, it was actually easier to handle younger guys, and particularly if they wanted to make a good impression.
I guess they would be close with Jacob Black, coming from the same tiny community down the coast at la Push. I didn't want to think about Jake right now. I needed them to help me clear out the garage and work out what should be sold, and what could be thrown out, or donated.
Each of the young guys came and introduced themselves, Seth had driven his his truck and took the lead, Colin was next who must have been about Seth's age, and then there was Brady, who I guessed must have been only fourteen.
"Ok fellas; let's go see what I want you to do."
I explained about my car and the freezer of fish, and then showed them the rest of the stuff, which was cluttering up the garage.
They eyed the chaos, stacks of dusty, messy piles, who knows what could be hidden in there in the gloom and dirt?
My guess was not a whole lot...but then again, I was interested to see exactly what Charlie had squirreled away in there, over the years. I might be pleasantly surprised after all! Here's to hoping I would have a nice surprise, and not something horrible.
"Have any of you guys got leather gloves? I don't want you to hurt yourselves, and I want you to wear some strong boots, to protect those bare feet too. Why are you wearing shorts in this freezing weather anyway? Aren't you cold?"
They looked at me like I was talking another language... and shrugged.
"We don't feel the cold, we're tough." Seth bravely said puffing out his chest and crossing his arms.
"I get that Seth, but let's see if I can help you to at least protect your hands and feet. Just do it for me, it will give me a little piece of mind, ok?"
I chuckled, somehow I was using Carlisle's technique, to get people to do what I asked...by letting them think they were doing me a favour!
I searched, and found what I was looking for; Charlie had never thrown a pair of boots or gloves out in his life. I gingerly pulled out all of his dusty boots, and then a box of gloves, and let the young fellas try them on.
"Give them all a bash first, to make sure there are no spiders hiding down inside them; you never know what's made their home in them!"
They dutifully knocked the dust and dirt off the items, and gave the boots a good peek before they tried them on.
"Actually these aren't in such bad condition, why don't you keep them? Are the boots about the right size for your feet?"
They mumbled and looked at the big leather, police-issue boots on the ends of their long, skinny legs.
"Hang on; I think Charlie kept some police-issue socks and some other clothes in here too."
There were thick wool socks, as well as sweaters, rain jackets and woolly, knitted hats and scarves, for the times Dad went fishing; I also found some waders and long rubber boots.
The teenagers giggled as they tried on some of the clothes.
They were a bit big for them, but I was pleased their feet fit the boots when they added the socks, and so did their hands in the leather gloves. At least they would be somewhat protected.
"Seth, do you think it will rain for the next two days? It would be perfect if we had a little fine weather for the garage sale."
They looked at the sky, dawn was just breaking.
"How about we sling up a large tarpaulin in between the trees, garage and house, and then the gear for sale can be protected from any rain?" Seth asked.
"Yeah, you can never really tell what its going to be like in Forks, hopefully it might stay dry for us. I think putting up tarps is a great idea Seth, can you three manage that for me?"
They nodded.
"Ok there are several large tarps over in that corner, and some strong rope near it. How about you find a couple of the biggest ones to rig up a shelter and I'll go make you three some breakfast and juice?"
Their smiles were huge, at the mention of food. They agreed to set up some cover for the sale items and quickly got stuck into it.
Seth looked at me anxiously as I was leaving.
"Umm... Bella?"
"Yes Seth?"
"Have you got any spare hair ties, the guys and I don't want our hair to get all dusty..." he looked sheepish, and blushed.
"No worries, I've got heaps, any colour preference?"
He shook his head, but Colin and Brady both said 'black' at the same time.
"Ok so...no pink hair ties then, got it!" I chuckled and went inside to get started on their breakfast.
I came out with a tray of fried food, a big pile of toast, a carton of juice and three glasses. I looked at their handy work.
"That's a nice job you've done there fellas, come and eat."
I sat down the tray and they came racing over.
"There's a tap over there, if you want to wash up first."
I pointed to the side of the house. They scrambled together, in a wild tangle of long limbs and rinsed off the worst of the dirt. Coming back, to leap onto the food, virtually inhaling it, like they hadn't eaten in weeks.
Rufus came out of the back door tentatively and sniffed. He hadn't spent much time outside before, so he was torn between exploring and playing it safe.
"Hey Rufus, come and meet some new friends, come on, don't be shy," he looked out at the three young men and raced out of the open door, flew over to me and up onto my shoulder. He purred loudly and rubbed himself on my chin, to show them that I was already claimed.
I chuckled. "So guys this is my kitten Rufus, and he thinks he owns me, don't you baby?" I scratched his head, and his purring got louder.
The three, who had demolished all the food in record time, smiled at me and Rufus doing his shoulder-balancing trick. I handed out three, sturdy hair ties...in black, they pulled their hair into low ponytails quickly.
"I'm great at braids, if you want me to plait your hair for you...any takers?"
The looks on their faces cracked me up! I must have suddenly reminded them of their mothers, or big sisters. They shook their heads together silently declining my offer, hoping against hope, that I wasn't going to mess with their long, satiny locks.
It didn't take long to us make a big dent in the garage chaos. There was a lot more good and useful stuff than I had previously thought, which was good in a way, but didn't really solve my problem of the lack of storage. I could keep my car and the good stuff in the same small single garage.
I thought I should keep the best tarps and the nicest rope, and some of the better looking, intact tools, the rest of it could be sold.
I made a small pile of the things I would keep, and told Seth.
He suggested putting up some shelving to store items, up off the garage floor and still leaving plenty of room for me to park Lucia. What can I say, he was a genius!
There were still some mystery boxes at the very back of the garage, and Angela was yet to come over and see what she wanted to add to the items for sale.
"So Seth is there anything here you want to have first dibs on?"
His eyes lit up, "I would like that bed frame, chest of drawers, the rope and some of the tarpaulins, they would come in handy for my new business, carting things to the dump for people."
"That's great, so how about you take the stuff you want, back home now. Then it won't get mixed up with the sale tomorrow. I'll go through the last of the boxes, if you'll drag them out for me into the light."
"Really, I can have this stuff?"
"Yeah, if you want to work out a price, we can come to some sort of arrangement."
"How about I work one day for free, to pay you for the stuff."
"I guess, but the money you make might be useful for you. How about I give you the stuff you want, if you take everything that remains here after the sale, and do with it what you want, sell it on eBay, take it to the dump, or give it out at a pot latch, as long as I don't have to deal with it, ok?"
"That's great, I can do that!"
"And then if you like, I might have some more paid work, for you and your two amigos, like painting the house, mowing the yard and knocking out some internal walls in the living room. It will be much harder work, and I'll only offer it to you if you think you are up to it, and will do a good job."
"Sure, we could do that couldn't we guys?"Seth asked Colin and Brady.
"I only ask, that you make sure that you get the ok from your parents, and that it doesn't interfere with any of your school work, ok?"
Colin nodded and asked me in a quiet voice, "Er... Miss? Are you going to do anything with that?"
He pointed to the roof truss of the garage. I squinted and finally saw what Colin was pointing to. Perched up high in the gloom, was a really large surfboard, it looked like it was made of wood, not like the modern white foam and fibreglass boards that you see nowadays.
"Wow, I had no idea that was there! Can you see if you can get it down Colin? Maybe use the ladder to reach it? Be careful, don't fall!"
Colin nodded. Seth and he set up the ladder and gently pulled it down from its hiding place in the roof timbers.
Apart from the thick dust and obvious age, it looked like an old, handmade board, from the early days of surfing. It was around ten foot long, and as Colin dusted it off, I smiled.
I'm pretty sure Charlie never surfed. This board may have been much older than my Dad, perhaps his father had surfed in the nineteen forties or fifties? I guess that would explain the tropical shirts from around the same era, that Charlie had held onto, in his wardrobe.
"Colin this board could be quite a valuable collector's item, will you like to help me list this on eBay, or a similar surf memorabilia site, and we can see how much it goes for? I'll give you half of what we sell it for, how's that for a deal?"
He smiled and readily agreed, looking proud to have spotted it.
"Colin, do you surf?"
"Yeah I love it! I've been saving up for a new board, and I can't wait to get the one I want. I really want to get a six foot six, rounded pin tail with quad fins...it's such an amazing board! One of the local shapers in Port Angelus is keeping it aside for me, when I've got the money."
"Well that's cool"...I didn't understand half of what he just told me, even after hanging out with biology students who surfed, for the last four years.
"I want to thank you for spotting this old board up there in the rafters! I was completely oblivious, thanks!"
He smiled shyly.
"Why don't you all load up Seth's stuff, and wash up and come inside for some of my brownies? I need your opinion, as to whether they taste any good."
Of course they all loved the brownies so much, that they quickly demolished the whole plate full.
I chuckled and waved goodbye to their truck, piled with Seth's horde of my Dad's old furniture and gear.
I looked around at the hundreds and hundreds of fishing mags, trophies, nets, poles, sinkers, lures, spools of nylon fishing line and thousands of lethal looking fishing hooks. Then over at the pile of jackets, hats, scarves and waders.
There were some broken rusty tools, and assorted other broken, dusty items. A wicker picnic basket, some weathered folding chairs, a moth-eaten canvas tent, a few old blankets and rugs.
I pulled some flat items away from the side of the garage wall and was surprised that these were paintings...very dusty but paintings none the less! I took the first one out into the fading light to look at it more closely... and was impressed, this painting I held looked like a water colour of the local forest and the nearby river here in Forks.
The wooden frame around it was wide and simple, without patterns or paint. I couldn't yet see a signature, but it may have been disguised by all the dust laying on top of the glass.
I put it down and went to get the others.
What I discovered made the hairs stand up on my arms. These five water-colour paintings, were apparently created by someone, who signed their name C. Swan. Could my Dad have actually painted these? Or were these paintings another relative's art?
Tears came spilling over, trailing down my cheeks.
These were painted around Forks and La Push. All were landscapes delicately and beautifully executed, in light flowing colours.
Gently brushing the dust off with a soft rag, the glass and frames cleaned up nicely. Well these were definitely coming back into the house! I don't think they would ever be sold in my lifetime. I needed to go through Charlie's journals to see if he ever mentioned the paintings and if he painted them.
Why would they have been stored so haphazardly, in the garage?
Maybe Renee might know something about them? I could ask her by email, talking to her on the phone, just made me angry. She still wanted me to come down and keep her amused in Florida...fat chance of that ever happening!
Angela came home from work and we chatted about setting up the sale and where we should place our handmade signs to attract buyers. I told her that Seth and his friends could probably help her if she had any big things to cart over to my yard.
I asked her to look at the paintings; she was intrigued with them too. I snapped some photos of them and sent an email to Renee, asking if she knew anything about them.
I sent another email, with the same photos to Esme; I knew she would be interested. The Cullen's collected art, and were keen on the work of local artists. Maybe she knew of C. Swan, and his or her work?
As it got dark, I decided to quickly go through the boxes Seth had pulled out for me, what I saw freaked me out.
Military uniforms, lay carefully folded... and apparently in good condition, with layers of mothballs and brown paper, in one wooden box.
Another wooden box held a bunch of different swords in their scabbards; one looked like it was possibly a sabre.
The third box contained some leather belts and other items used on uniforms, and a tightly folded, American flag.
I needed to keep these boxes away from the sale, in order to do some further research. Who owned them? Where did they come from?
Charlie was never in any of the armed forces, but were any of my other ancestors? How old were these, and would they be of historical value to anyone?
The dark had set in now, but I didn't feel happy leaving the boxes and old surfboard out on the lawn. I didn't feel confident moving them by myself either, so I just covered them over with some extra tarps, and hoped they weren't stolen in the night.
The house and garage were a hive of action this morning. The Cullens both rolled up, with some items they wanted to sell too, and insisted helping me and Angela out. Angela got Colin and Brady to drag some nice chairs over, along with lots of scatter cushions, posters and books, lots and lots of books!
Esme bought over some slightly used electrical goods, model cars and floor rugs.
I showed the Cullens and Angela, the mystery water-colours and military gear, and Carlisle looked at me with new eyes.
"You can easily research your family connections to military institutions Bella, they often have databases online, but the local history society would be able to assist you too, especially if you have early family connections to this area." Carlisle said.
"Ok, I want to keep these under wraps for a while, they are a real mystery." I pointed to the wooden boxes, which I had Seth bring inside for me, first thing after he arrived this morning.
"Good idea Bella, and before it gets too busy, I want to apologize for Jasper's outburst the other day. I had a long talk with him. It was mostly my fault for never fully explaining everything to our family... about just how sad Essie and I have been for the last decade, trying so many times to have a baby and failing, as well as how devastating Esme's hysterectomy was for her, last year."
"It's not up to your family to push their opinions on to you Carlisle. I do kind of feel sorry for Jasper, after he demanded that I explain my reasons for being a surrogate. I think I may have broken him. He left here really over-whelmed, even sort of in shock after I said what... I said."
"Yes well, he was shattered that you called him out, on his forceful questioning of your motives in this. I have to say that you have gotten well and truly under his skin, and made him question a lot of things that he has always taken for granted."
"I seem to always cause havoc in your family, I'm sorry Carlisle."
"Hey don't you ever apologise for who you are or what you've done! I'm proud of you. Jasper is a young guy who's always had it too easy and has people throwing opportunities and money at him all the time."
"But ..."
"No buts Bella, both Rose and Jasper need to recognize that what they have, is very different to what most people in the world have...they are privileged and have been spoiled because of it. I'm sorry to admit that I've been a party to giving in to their whims and wants, especially when they were children. Essie and I were keen to have children of our own and the twins were somewhat of a substitute. The same goes for Edward, Esme's nephew, he is just as demanding... expecting us to pander to his every whim."
WOW! He really laid it on the line.
"Please just accept my sincerest apologies for Jasper jumping to the wrong assumptions Bella and causing you so much distress. You don't need the extra stress; pregnancy is trying enough as it is! Still feeling morning sick?"
"Yes, but I've come up with a novel solution to it avoid it though. I make up a thermos of boiling water, and sit it next to the bed, with a mug and tea bags before I go to bed, and make up hot ginger tea first thing in the morning. I also have a plate with some dry, salty crackers. That way I can settle my stomach before I get out of bed, and avoid all of the vomiting."
Carlisle's eyebrows rose.
"So other than feeling bloated and tired a lot of the time, and having sore boobs, it's all good!" I chuckled.
"Well, let's make sure you don't overdo it today! Why don't you sit down and I'll ask you the prices, if someone wants to buy something ok?"
"Are you sure you don't have any doctoring to do, rather than hanging out here and selling off my Dad's old stuff?"
"No I have the day off today and I've been missing hanging out with you Bella, you make my day brighter. I'm jealous of Esme coming here and seeing you so much. I loved those pies you baked by the way, the pecan pie was divine! You have quite a gift when it comes to cooking."
"Huh, thanks, it all came from my Nanna's recipes; she was famous for her pies and even won prizes at the state fairs every year."
"Well, you seem to have inherited her talent, and the courage and strength to keep going when times get rough, from whoever owned those military officer's uniforms and swords Bella."
"I don't know if those attributes are particularly inheritable traits Doc, but I'll accept what you say, with thanks. It looks like we have some customers rolling up!"
Having the Cullens, Angela and Seth and his crew here, made the garage sale go fast.
I handed over the haggling and prices to Esme and Angela, who firmly stood their ground when I looked like I would essentially give things away for nothing.
I got sent inside, to make some coffee and snacks, so that Esme could work her magic on those customers who wanted everything for nothing. And I happily left her to it.
Carlisle helped me bring some trays of food and drinks out, and he insisted I sit and put my feet up while I drank my tea.
Seth and the guys were happy to hang around, helping as needed when someone wanted to put furniture or awkward objects in their cars. At the end of the day, when nearly everything was sold, and the weather had turned rainy, Seth's dad Harry, came to say hi. I hadn't seen him since the funeral.
I remembered he and Charlie went way back together, growing up here as kids. I asked him to come inside and showed him the paintings, his eyes got teary.
"Oh my, I never thought I would see them again! Your dad, he painted these during his senior year, he was a good artist and won the art prize that year. These were hanging here in the house, but when Renee came and moved in, she decided that she hated them; she said they were too boring and amateurish. She made Charlie pull down his great pride and joy, and stop painting altogether. "
I shook my head, that evil bitch, why did she have to act so cruel towards Charlie? He never stopped loving her. Why did she hate these paintings? They never did anything to her, to deserve such scorn and derision.
"I think she thought that his love of being outside in the open air and spending time alone in the forest, painting...somehow took his attention off her, and painting was his first love, in a way. Your dad was a creative soul, who had his talent squashed by a selfish, careless woman, who didn't see the real Charlie. She tried to make him into someone else, someone he could never be. He wasn't cool and exciting enough, he didn't have a lot of money to splash around, and he was quiet and steady, just like you Bella."
I stood there beside Harry, sniffing the tears away.
"Huh, well I hope Dad doesn't mind me getting upset about things, it was hard watching him die, and I wished so much that things could have been better for him. I'm glad I know who painted these now. I'm going to get them professionally cleaned and put back here, in the house where they should have stayed all along!"
"Harry I want to thank you for letting Seth and his friends come and help me. You don't mind if I ask them to do some more paid work, like house painting and some gardening? I've got plans to open up this room, and make some changes to the living and kitchen area. If I get them properly fitting protective gear, and get Esme to supervise them properly, would you let them all come, and work for me after school and on weekends?"
"Bella, I think it's great! They are all gaining confidence from being here with you. I was so happy to hear Seth rave about your cooking last night, you sound just like your grandmother, who had a magic touch in the kitchen. I was happy you made them wear boots and gloves too. They think that they are indestructible at this age, but injuries do happen."
I laughed, "they were a lot more worried about their beautiful, long hair! I asked them if I could plait it for them, but they looked horrified! Poor things! Now Harry, there's something here, that I was wondering if you'd like to take home with you, its over here."
I took him outside to where I'd stashed some things I didn't want to sell just yet. There I found the creepy, prize-winning, mounted fish that Charlie was so very proud of.
"Harry is this fish something you would like?"
"Oh Bella really? You want me to have it! I remember seeing Charlie land that beauty, it was in the last ten minutes of the last day, of our big state-wide competition. I was so sure I was going to win, but he pipped me at the post and bought her home! I've never seen him so proud, except for the day you were born, and then I believe... he could have just about swallowed the moon up, with all of his happiness!"
That did it for me, I was beyond words and for the longest time, I couldn't talk, I just cried.
I really, really missed my Dad.
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