The room had many pieces of large, antique furniture. A dining set. A couple of dressers. Bedroom side tables. Boudoir lamps. Several cloth-covered chairs. A rolled-up rug. It was as if he had gathered every large piece, everything that could be considered expensive at all, or family heirlooms perhaps, and had put them all in the same room.

  There was minimal space to maneuver between two wide, short dressers acting as a barricade closer to the doors.

  On the far end of the room was another fireplace, framed on either side with windows. Near the fireplace, there was a small circle of space for a cozy corner of living. A recliner and a television on a small side table was set up and clearly used recently. An ashtray sat on a second side table closer to the recliner. The ashtray held the butts of a few cigars. Near it was a collection of beer and soda cans. Some of the cans were on the floor, neatly lined up as if waiting to be removed.

  “I usually just fall asleep in the chair,” he said. “And then the couch near it, sometimes.” He waved us on to continue the tour.

  Behind the stairwell following the hall, we came to a large pair of French glass doors, although they were covers with sheer curtains. Beyond the door was a neat little separated space consisting of a bedroom to the left, a central hall area that held a closet, a large round table and a stacking set of washer and dryer unit in the center, and a second closet under the stairs, and also a large bathroom with a standing shower. While there were not a lot of rooms in number, every room felt expansive, even the hallway was wide, and the ceilings were tall.

  This rear space also had its own exit door to the back, another glass door but outside it was dark and there wasn’t much to be seen from where we were. This door had a double bolt and a padlock on the inside.

  “There’s another porch right there,” Grandfather said. “And it connects to the kitchen. I just keep it locked up since there’s already so many exit doors on this other side of the house.”

  Paranoid about people coming in through there. He probably had enough trouble guarding the front doors on his own.

  The bedroom in the back was the smallest room, even compared to the downstairs bathroom. It held a double bed, already made up with a quilt and pillow. There was a dresser, an armoire, and at the foot of the bed, an old side table and it held a small, old TV. There was just enough space to get around the furniture to get to the actual bed, but it could easily fit two people.

  “See,” my grandfather said. “I only come into this space to use the bathroom. They set it up for me to sleep in here but I just end up falling asleep in my chair way better. So you pretty much have it to yourself. Just don’t mind me coming in for the bathroom. And if you’re using it, well, I’m a man. I can use the porch.”

  I tried not wonder how many times he might have bypassed going to the bathroom to simply utilize the porch.

  “There’s another bathroom upstairs between the two bedrooms,” he continued. “If you prefer that one. But like I said, it’s not really ideal upstairs right now. I can’t promise the plumbing is even working up there. I haven’t tried it recently.”

  “This is just fine,” Gabriel said quickly. “We can’t thank you enough for letting us stay.”

  My grandfather checked his pocket for a large, flip phone, and he checked the time. “Not nine yet, but you came a long way to get here, right?”

  “We are a little tired,” Gabriel said. “And we hope to get into town to look for work starting early in the morning.” Gabriel pressed a palm to his forehead. “I forgot to even ask. I can pay a little rent. How much would you want?’

  At this, Grandfather Brian waved his hand. “No need. No need at all. It’s not a bother.” He put his phone away and jerked a thumb toward the bedroom. “I wasn’t using this space anyway. You don’t cost me any more to be here.”

  With that, Gabriel suggested we get our luggage from the car. We’d packed just a couple of bags each, and one little rolling suitcase so we could carry in the thicker bits of winter clothes we would need. Gabriel also brought in his guitar.

  When we had brought it all into the living room to take to the back bedroom, Grandfather looked at the collection and laughed. “Is that all you got?”

  “All we have, yes,” Gabriel said quickly.

  Grandfather immediately blinked rapidly. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to offend at all.”

  Gabriel seemed surprised to hear him apologize. “Oh no, I was just... yes, this is everything. We like to travel light.”

  My grandfather noted the guitar. “Which one of you plays?”

  Gabriel raised a hand, but he looked at me. “I mean, not that you couldn’t learn.”

  “What do you play?” he seemed genuinely interested.

  Gabriel picked the guitar up, sat on the bed, and he strummed several cords before he started playing a familiar pop song for a few bars and then stopped.

  Grandfather Brian bobbed his head a little. “You’re pretty good. You play in a band?”

  “Used to,” Gabriel said. “Occasionally.”

  My eyebrows popped up. I’d heard some of them played but I hadn’t thought of them actually playing as a band in public. “I’ve never heard you play.”

  The question had come out before I could catch myself.

  Gabriel smirked, and brushed some of the longer strands of blond locks away from his forehead. “I guess you haven’t. We just did some covers on occasion. Me and a few friends of mine.” He winked at me.

  I’d heard they got Kota on the drums. Who else played music? Victor made sense. And Mr. Blackbourne... But a guitarist and violin and a drummer? It made me wonder if anyone else played music and how they sounded.

  My grandfather chuckled at us. “To be young and learning the new things about each other. Those were the days.”

  I bit my lower lip gently. He said it like he missed those days with his own wife, who wasn’t living with him now.

  Satisfied that we were settled in, Grandfather Brian took a step toward the living room. “I’m feeling like another piece of fudge. Chica probably wants one, too.”

  The dog followed him out.

  I shared a look with Gabriel but didn’t dare speak out loud. Even when it was clear that he was out of hearing range, I didn’t dare say anything.

  This was it. We were here.

  Now what?

  ♥♥♥

  It took at least another hour before we were really left alone, as Grandfather kept coming back to talk to us as we unpacked and checked out the room. He’d cleared out anything that was in the drawers to dump onto a table in the parlor. It was mostly old clothes and blankets. Gabriel organized our things into drawers so we were settled in.

  Meanwhile Grandfather let us know that he owned over two hundred acres of surrounding property. He’d had more at one point, well over a thousand, but over time, he’d sold most of it and had finally settled to the number he had now.

  “I lease the land,” he said. “If you’re around long enough, you’ll see. Some of it is farming. They come by with the big tractors and plow.”

  “What do they grow?” Gabriel asked.

  “Corn, mostly,” he said. “Although some years, it’s soybeans. It might be soybeans this year, too. It’s usually every few years. Every once in a while, they switch to canola. And then the pastures, they’ll bring horses. This back pasture behind the house, they’ll let their horses come here for the fresh grasses. And since the edge of the entire thing is surrounded by forest, it’s a good spot to give them some shade during the hotter months. It doesn’t pay as well as the farmed land, but it’s nice to see horses on the property again.”

  There had been horses. I wasn’t sure why, but I was excited to possibly see horses in the back field.

  He also mentioned there was a housekeeper. She came once a week to clean the house, cook a few meals that were ready to go for him and to check to see if the dog needed anything. She was a good deal of company to him, and he talked about her with a great admiration.

  “My wife comes by every once in a while, too. Usually to drop off groceries,” he said.

  “You don’t go to town?” Gabriel asked.

  “No,” he said. “I can’t drive a car anymore. Stupid pricks at the DMV said I can’t. But I’ll take the tractor up the road sometimes. There’s a tiny little hovel of a town, where the post office is. There’s a bar and a stupid expensive little shop up there. Better my wife comes and brings what I want. I used to go with her, but I get irritated when she takes too long to shop.”

  The way he said his wife, it was clear they were still married, just living apart. There was no way to ask him how that happened. At least not yet.

  With that, and some more talk from Gabriel to thank him, tell him again about our story, a little about ourselves, and then express how tired we were, Grandfather Brian finally left us alone in the room.

  There hadn’t been much chatter in the earpiece, but once Grandfather was gone and we had been able to actually shut the door, I heard Nathan’s voice.

  “We’ll go back to the RV. We might try to scout a place nearby to park it. Luke’s outside as your back up until we get back. He’ll stay in the barn and watch the house and will listen.”

  There wasn’t much more to do than to settle in for the night.

  Terror was the only emotion that crept in on me the longer I was in that back room as the sudden pressure of meeting my grandfather and being here started to fade.

  I tried not to show it to Gabriel, because I didn’t want him to know how close I was to asking if we could leave. I knew it was my nerves. After our ‘show’ of introducing ourselves, my bravery faded fast. There had been a lot that happened. I excused myself to use the bathroom to give myself a moment.

  Once I was in there, a flood of tears escaped me. Stress relief was the best way to describe it. Scared, too. My grandfather seemed so unstable, that his wife and child stayed away from him. Yet, there was something about him that made me sorry for his lonely state of living. Slowly selling off his property over time for income, while leasing the rest. Alone with a dog and then a robbery. He had been an easy target for robbers as an old man living by himself with no other homes in view. It all was terribly tragic.

  And perhaps because I knew he lost a daughter many years ago, I felt worse for it still. Was that what drove him to isolate himself?

  Or had he always been like this?

  I couldn’t imagine what it might have been like growing up here. His erratic behavior, had it gotten better or worse over the years? Waving a rifle at his own son, barricading himself in the front room... I didn’t know what to make of it all.

  It took me a while to get myself together. Quickly, I washed away tears and scrubbed my face hard all over. There was no reason to worry Gabriel about what I was thinking. Energy had drained from me completely, so I didn’t want to make any conclusions just yet.

  At least we had a good reason to leave during the day. And a timeframe to leave when we were ready.

  The biggest part was done. We were inside the house. It would give us plenty of time to talk to him, to learn what we needed to, and maybe even explore the house to see if there was anything about me here.

  When I returned to the room, Gabriel had turned the light out, but he used a side table lamp so I could find my way into the bed.

  Gabriel assisted me with getting a towel to cover the pillow so any of the temporary coloring in my hair wouldn’t leave a stain, untie my shoes, and then present me with pajamas.

  I was going to say something when Gabriel shifted a finger to his lips to suggest being quiet.

  “Not tonight,” he said gently, and his fingers gently reached out to me, brushing across my forehead to move across a lock of hair. “Just rest.”

  Within moments, he had me crawl into bed with him, and held me, massaging a little at my back.

  It was like he knew the secret to get me to fall asleep quickly, and it worked.

  Every Step, I Realized How

  Morning didn’t make me feel much better. When I finally got enough energy to wake up, the best I could do was to sit on the edge of the bed.

  I was worried about seeing Grandfather again face to face. I was a bit shy and I understood that side of me, and it won out over any desire to get to know him or anyone else here for the few minutes I spent sitting still. Energy was hard to regain. I just wanted to hide in the room, and then sneak out, never to be seen again.

  It wasn’t realistic and I knew that wasn’t really what I wanted to do. It just felt like what I wanted in the moment.

  Gabriel had left the bedroom. Alone, I took my time getting up, finding clothes, making the bed since I was the last one in it. I made sure to put in the colored contacts in place, so I wasn’t surprised if my grandfather came to the back room.

  While I had the opportunity to do so, I opened drawers and the wardrobe just to see what was in them.

  The small collection of rifles hidden in the back of the wardrobe behind an assortment of coats was mildly disturbing. There was flag folded in one of the drawers. Most of what was in the corners in the room were in boxes and I didn’t have the guts yet to go through them.

  Looking for anything about my mother or about me might take time. We’d eventually have to go through it all.

  Guilt seized me, imaging my grandfather catching me snooping. He’d probably think I was trying to rob him.

  Technically, I would be if I found items that were about me. That made the guilt worse.

  Eventually, I put myself together with makeup as Gabriel had shown me and everything I needed to look different than I normally did. I wasn’t as good as Gabriel was, but the result was I looked different, which was good enough.

  When Gabriel didn’t return before I had any more excuses to linger, I forced myself to leave the bedroom. I tiptoed around, not wanting to wake Grandfather up if he was still sleeping.

  Voices floated out of the kitchen.

  When I finally summoned enough courage to enter, Gabriel hovered at the sink, washing a frying pan. There were pancakes, a collection of bacon and a pile of scrambled eggs in plates nearby on the counter.

  Grandfather sat by a nearly empty plate at the small kitchen table. The dog had planted herself near him, and then came to greet me quickly with a wagging tail.

  “Well look who shows up,” Grandfather Brian said. He was wearing the same clothing as last night, though they were even more rumpled now.

  Gabriel sent me a short wave and then dried the pan, showing it to my grandfather. “Where did you put these again?”

  “The housekeeper has taken to arranging things how she likes in here. I don’t mind. She cleans it, she can organize it.”

  Gabriel set to work trying to find a place to put the pan. I came to the counter, looking over the breakfast.

  Grandfather got up with his plate and lumbered over to the food. “Help yourself,” he said, though he used his hands instead of the spatula provided, and picked up bacon, pancakes and eggs to put onto his plate. He took them to the table again, layering on a thick helping of syrup on everything.

  I hadn’t realized how hungry I was, so I gathered food onto a plate that Gabriel produced for me.

  Gabriel, thankfully, came with me to the table and sat down, although he wasn’t eating. He provided the conversation. “So what were you going to do today?” he asked my grandfather.

  “Same old, same old,” he said. “Try to catch a game on the television. Or might try to take a walk around the farm. I can give you the tour.” He waved his hand outward, toward the woods surrounding one side of the property that he could see through the kitchen window. “There’s an old chimney out there you should watch out for. Kitchens used to not be attached to the houses, you know?”

  “How old is this place?” Gabriel asked.

  “At least a couple hundred years,” he said. “Probably since before the war.”

  “Civil?” Gabriel asked.

  “No, the revolution. I don’t have any proof, though I’ve been told my ancestors have been in this house since at least the twenties. But I have a feeling Sorensons have been on this land since the beginning.”

  I listened as I ate while Grandfather talked about how his grandfather had been a horse breeder, until it got too competitive as he got older and he could live off of leasing the land easier than he could raising horses himself. It wasn’t until Grandfather Brian took over that he started to sell some bits of the land off on occasion when even leasing the land didn’t leave as much of an income as before.

  “And now my son and wife will probably take this over after I die. They’ll probably sell it. I don’t blame them. It’s just a little sad to see the property go.” He waved his fork over his plate, still with a slice of bacon, a pancake and some egg left. This caused the dog, who had been watching expectantly, to make a little whining noise. As if remembering he had a dog at all, he put his plate on the floor. Chica went to work cleaning it immediately.

  “They don’t want to live here?” Gabriel asked him.

  It shocked me he could ask so easily, but it was part of what we needed to really know. I held my breath, slowed my eating to listen to this part of the conversation.

  “No. My son lives in the next town. And my wife, she loves her house in town. Absolutely adores it. She works at the YMCA, you know? She loves it. Loves the kids. Used to be a schoolteacher.”

  Simply listening to him talk... part of me wondered if he would ever tell us about my mother without prompting. However, I was hearing everything about family that I had never known before. It was strange, I was eager to listen, like somehow I could find some connection I hadn’t known was there.

  “Maybe we should go introduce ourselves to your wife,” Gabriel said. “I’d want to be sure she knew we were here, so she isn’t surprised. We could stop by her place in town if you give us the address.”

  “Sure,” he said. “And you can tell her to add more bacon to the grocery list. I could call, but she’ll have me fighting with her in seconds and then I forget what I’m calling about.”