A Series of Unfortunate Events

Chapter 31

Finally, they were on their way home. It had been a sad parting with Grace and her family. Sharon and Andy promised to send people their way for the hospitality and kindness they had been shown. They had even suggested the women consider changing their venue from a bed and breakfast to more of a health spa for people recovering from various illnesses. Sharon's breathing issues had disappeared while staying there and Olivia's too. Grace had looked thoughtful and said she'd consider it. They had hugged and promised to stay in touch. Then they asked to square their bill with her, but she said it was all taken care of. This was surprising since they hadn't paid anything yet. No matter how much they entreated her to tell them who had paid for them, she wouldn't tell. She just said that she'd been sworn to secrecy, but that it was a collaborative effort and wouldn't say anything else. They hugged everybody and were hugged back by everybody, and then they were on the road.

Sharon and Rusty took turns sitting in the back with the baby. It was Rusty's turn to be in the back, as they were turning into their new neighborhood. Sharon had closed her eyes and had dozed until she felt Andy's hand squeeze hers. "Hey, Sweetheart, open your eyes we're home."

She opened her eyes and was treated to the sight of their new home with her children and parents sitting out front waiting for them, in the rattan porch furniture they had bought for them. Sharon took in the house. A brick red u-shaped stucco rancher, with a front porch that had a railing and it was wide enough to have porch furniture. Like the original mold house, it had three bedrooms and three baths but this house had a fairly large study, which could be used as another bedroom. In fact, had been made into a nursery for Olivia. It also had lots of windows, a pool and a patio in the backyard was a beautiful pool area and a fireplace/grill. It also had a detached garage with an apartment above it. It was shaped a little differently than the mold house, with two wide ends and a living room, dining room, and kitchen area in the middle of the two ends. The master bedroom, bath/laundry room, and nursery were on the west end of the house, while the other two bedrooms and baths were on the east end of the house.

The people that had the house before, had left the patio furniture, which consisted of four rattan chaise lounges that sat next to the pool on either side. A rattan sofa and two chairs with a bold red, and cream polka dot design on the cushions, which were arranged in front of a barbecue pit/fireplace structure. The plants were drought resistant like the ones at the mold house, had been.

After greeting Sharon, Andy, Rusty, and Sharon's mother had scooped up Olivia to cuddle. Sharon's parents and children took them in the house to show them what they had accomplished that week.

Sharon blinked back tears of joy and a little sadness. Joy for being in her new home a lot sooner than expected, and sadness because she hadn't been able to be as involved in putting it together as she would have liked. She inspected each room, gratified to see that her family knew her well enough to know how she would like them arranged. Each room had the furniture from hers and Andy's combined households, except of course the nursery. All it had was a bassinet, in it. The furniture that was for the nursery at the Lewises, was still in the moving van. Eileen wouldn't allow them to bring it in the house.

Eileen took Sharon, Andy, and Rusty to show them why. Sharon hadn't really known what to expect, but it wasn't what she was seeing. There was an old Jenny Lind crib emphasis on old, also a dresser and a changing table. Plain and unadorned in any way. It looked as if it had been acquired from a goodwill store, which wouldn't have been bad, in and of itself, but it hadn't been cleaned up or refurbished at all. The paint finish on all three pieces was scratched, gouged, and filthy. On the crib, there was grime on the metal pieces where the spindles were attached to the frame. It was an unholy mess. Sharon's eyes were huge in her face, she looked at her mother in question and her mother looked apologetically at her. "I'm sorry dear. This is what we found at the Lewises. We couldn't even get it apart, so we just brought it the way it was. We didn't do anything to it because, well quite frankly I wanted you to see what shape it was in and let you decide what to do about it. We didn't even bring it in the house. We were concerned that it might harbor bugs. It was the last thing we brought."

Sharon blew out her breath and looked at Andy with a raised eyebrow. He immediately understood her unspoken question and answered it. "Why don't we give this back to whichever goodwill store it came from and buy her another set?"

She shook her head negatively. "Well, while buying her another set is a given, as far as this set goes, even if we were to give it to goodwill, it would have to be cleaned first. Frankly, I'm not sure if it can be, but I agree, we can't put her in this, not only is it beyond filthy, it's not safe the spindles are too far apart. I wouldn't be surprised if the paint was lead-based, we'll have to break it apart and take it to the dump. I wouldn't want it to be used for some other child. Honestly, given how proactive Jim was about drawing up papers for custody of Olivia in case of an emergency, I can't believe the Lewises would treat their only grandchild like this! Rusty?" She turned to find him behind her. "Why didn't you tell me her furniture was like this?"

"Well, I guess it wasn't anything new to me," Rusty said, a little shamefaced.

Sharon bowed her head overcome with anger toward the Lewises and the other Sharon, but then she looked up at him and said with a voice raw with emotion. "Yes, I know that your life before you came to me was… quite different, with substandard living conditions, but you've lived with me, how long? Six years now? You are quite familiar with my standards and this does not even come close," she said pointing to the offending set. "I can't believe you didn't mention this to me at some point over the last four months since your sister was born?" Her voice rose showing how perturbed she was.

"What would you have done?" he asked curiously. "I mean really, she wasn't your responsibility then." Sharon gave him a Darth Raydor glare. "Look, I'm sorry. I guess I just didn't think too much about it, we have had a lot going on, you know and as you know, Bel… Olivia was born really early, before my other mother and the Lewises had time to shop for a layette for her. Then, they didn't expect her or my mother to live and when they did, Linda brought this stuff up from the basement. It belonged to Donald and then Gary, I guess she intended to redo it, but she never got around to it and as far as I know, Olivia never slept in it. She was in a bassinet in that room but never slept in the crib."

She sighed with relief on that score. "Well, that's good news. Hopefully, the bassinet, was at least clean?" Sharon asked hopefully.

Sharon's mother led the way back to the nursery and showed her the bassinet. It was pink and white, with three tiers of white ruffles and trimmed with pink eyelet lace. "Now that, I can vouch for. After seeing the condition of that crib, I cleaned the bassinet from top to bottom, whether it needed it or not. Everything is cleaned and pressed. I also went and got some more supplies. They were low on diapers and other needed items."

"Thank you, Mama. Thank you, everyone, for everything." Then she led the way to the living room to sit on the leather sofa from Andy's house. She was already tired. Andy sat behind her and she leaned against him. Her mother sat next to them still holding Olivia. Sharon smiled at her mother holding her newest grandchild. She and Livvie were quite taken with each other. Olivia kept staring at Eileen and then at Sharon. Eileen O'Dwyer was an older version of her daughter, only with a short sassy haircut that she had allowed to become white with age. She was almost the same height as Sharon, with green eyes that were lighter than her daughters. They had been just as deep a green as Sharon's at one time but had faded with age. Eileen was still a very strong woman, although she appeared to be slightly frailer. Otherwise, they resembled each other quite a bit, which is why the baby kept looking at Sharon and Eileen. Apparently, deciding that the new but familiar face was okay, Livvie patted her new grandmother's cheek and Eileen kissed her neck and blew raspberries into it. This caused Livvie to giggle. A deep throaty, slightly hollow sounding giggle. This was new, Olivia had just started to giggle, right before Sharon's ordeal at the psych ward had begun, but then she had stopped when Sharon had disappeared and her, Olivia's symptoms had returned. Hearing her laugh again, made everybody laugh as well. Everyone was glad she was starting to become a happy baby, especially her big brother.

Watching all this, Emily finally cleared her throat and said, "Well mother, what do you think? Is the house arranged like you would have arranged it?"

Smiling Sharon answered her daughter. "Yes, you all did a lovely job. Everything is where I would have put it. Thank you all."

Ricky chimed in, "We didn't paint any of the rooms yet. We wanted you to pick the colors and let us know which walls to paint." They were all familiar with Sharon's style of decorating, with at least one strong colored accent wall, surrounded by lighter colored walls that complimented the accent wall, but they wanted her to be as involved as she could be. With her recent bout of chemical-induced pneumonia, after the bomb explosions, it wasn't wise for her to be part of the painting process, but she could let them know what her preferences were, color wise.

"Actually, I think we can let it go for now, at least for the time being. The family that we bought from painted all the rooms before they left. With the exception of Olivia's room which is rose and cream, it's mostly neutral colors, that I can dress up with stronger bolder colored drapes and other accents. Besides, I want to... hmmm, get a feel for the house before I redecorate." She said, leaning her head against Andy's collarbone and closing her eyes.

Ricky smiled widely and leaned over the back of the of the sofa. "In case you don't know this, that's Sharon Raydor speak for, I don't want the house painted until I can be in the thick of it working along beside you, and being in control," he said sardonically.

Everyone including Sharon laughed. "You've got that right my darling boy," she said with one eye open. "You think I don't know what happened the last time you and your sister painted your own rooms when I was on one of my seventy-two-hour reporting cycles?" She turned her head to address Andy, "black and pink paint everywhere! I mean everywhere! They ruined four of my best towels trying to clean up whatever mess they made. I'm not sure how they managed to get the two colors mixed up, but they did. I kept finding these dark spots under the white paint in the hallway closest to their rooms and all along the hallway." Sharon pointed a finger at her older kids as she scolded them, "you can bet I'm not letting you near a bucket of paint or a paintbrush unless I'm there to supervise."

"Mom, it was an accident! We were kids and it was a long time ago," Emily whined.

Sharon's eyes teared up as she looked at her daughter tenderly. She swallowed trying to hold back tears of nostalgia. "I know, but it seems like just yesterday."

"Awww, Mom, don't cry," Emily said hurrying over to the couch to hug her mother. Ricky leaned further over the back of the couch and hugged his mother as well. Then he gave his grandmother a hug because her eyes were full of tears too.

"Geez, what's everybody crying for?" asked their grandfather's voice from the hallway. He had gone to the bathroom in the ensuite bathroom attached to the guest room and had just come back out.

Sharon wiped her eyes. "Sorry, Daddy. Just going down memory lane is all. We were remembering when Emily and Ricky decided to paint their rooms on their own."

"Ahh, yes. I remember that, very well actually." Her dad smiled mischievously.

She asked with feigned surprise. "You do huh?"

"Yeah, well who do you think they called to find out how to get the paint cleaned up? Certainly not Jack!" Richard said, not unkindly.

"Hmmm, would you happen to be the one who told them to use my towels?" She asked.

"What? Good grief, no! I know how you and your mother are about your towels. They called me after they did that. No, I told them to use turpentine, then I thought better of it, because of how flammable the stuff is. I told them to hang tight until I got there. Then I called a friend of mine to fly me out here from San Francisco in his Cessna. Once I got there, I helped them clean up and finish painting their rooms. Then I caught a ride back home, the next day when my buddy was on his way back." He replied smugly.

"You came all the way from San Francisco to help them?" Sharon asked with more tears in her voice. She knew the answer to that question but it never ceased to make her cry. She was touched by her father's unwavering devotion to her and her children.

"Uhh yeah." He scratched the back of his neck like Andy did when he was uncomfortable with what he had to say.

"Daddy, I've always wondered how that all transpired." Sharon gave Andy a secret smile and very slightly inclined her head towards her father meaning, listen to this.

"Well, you know Sharon, you all were supposed to paint their rooms together. Then, you had to cancel because somebody at work got in trouble and you were on a seventy-two-hour reporting cycle. They were mad because it was the second time you had to cancel those plans, so they decided to do it themselves. Ricky wasn't so sure it was a good idea, but he went along with it. Then they got into an argument about the way Ricky was painting Emily's walls." Richard smiled but then got serious thinking of the mess. "Push came to shove and Emily accidentally knocked over the paint can. All over the place, they were really upset and afraid they would make you disappointed in them.

"I knew something had happened and I was pretty sure they couldn't have done such a wonderful job of painting their rooms alone. They don't share your talent. Mama filled me in on some of the details, at least the ones she knew about, and we decided to let it go." Sharon smiled at her mom and they nodded at each other as if sharing a secret. "Aside from the paint all over my towels, it was cleaned up well, for the most part, and I was glad they had you to come to for help. I was also feeling sad and guilty that their father wasn't the one they could go to."

Her father looked at her sadly. "Ahh, Sweet-pea. Jack's failings are not your fault. I hope I've never made you feel they were. The kids probably deserved a tongue lashing from you as well as me, for being impatient, but I decided to take care of that myself. I laid into them good before I helped them."

"Yes, well that was why I decided not to pry too much. I knew enough about your dressing downs from experience, so I knew they were chastised more than enough. I also thought it was sweet that you helped them clean up and helped them paint their walls and even added murals."

Richard smiled at his older grandchildren. "Yeah, we had fun, didn't we? We played music and sang at the top of our lungs. We ordered Pizza for dinner. Then, once we got the base coats painted on, I helped Ricky paint the stars, moons, and planets on his walls. Ballet slippers and ballet dancers on her walls. We had a great time."

"We did Gramps and if we never thanked you for saving our skins, I'll do it know, thank you. We had a great time," said Ricky.

"Yes, Gramps, great memories," Emily said simply, smiling at her grandfather.

Sharon smiled tenderly at them and then became aware that Olivia was gearing up to start crying for her bottle. She went to the diaper bag to get the formula powder and a clean bottle. She made the bottle using the boiling hot water tap filling it a quarter of the way, she added some cool water to cool down the temperature to room temperature, then she added the formula powder and shook it up. Putting a cloth diaper on her shoulder she reached for Olivia, but her mother took the bottle instead. "Let me feed her, Darling. You rest. Besides, we'll only be here a couple more days. I want to get enough of this little munchkin to hold me until the next time I get to see her." said Eileen sweetly.

"You'll be seeing her in November," Sharon deadpanned.

Eileen nodded as she settled the hungry baby in her lap. "Yes, but that's almost five months away. She'll forget me by then and she'll probably be going through stranger anxiety by then too."

Sharon rolled her eyes and sat down between Andy's legs. She cuddled into him and her eyes automatically closed. She hated to admit it but she was tired. She'd slept briefly on the way home, but had a hard time sleeping during the night. She had been too excited to be coming home.

As she lay in his arms, Andy could feel that she was having a hard time relaxing. He put a light throw over her and stroked her hair. "Sleep my love," he whispered in her ear. "We'll all be here when you wake up."

TBC...

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