Early Spring 02 Scattered Leaves Page 4

  stockings. What were they doing there now? It was

  only August.

  The stairs creaked and moaned as we ascended,

  and the railing shook. I looked back and saw that

  Felix was eyeing it with some concern and caution. "Don't lean on it." he warned.

  When we reached the second landing. Greataunt Frances paused and gazed about, as if she was

  trying to remember where my room was herself. Then

  she smiled and started down to our right. Because

  there were no windows in the hallway and the

  chandeliers in the ceiling were unlit and also missing

  bulbs, it was so dark that I felt we were walking

  through a tunnel of shadows. I could barely make out

  the few pictures hung along the way. They were

  depictions of country scenes, men and women riding

  horses with dogs trailing along. There was a picture of

  a lake with a young woman looking out over it as if

  she was waiting desperately for someone.

  I wasn't watching where I was going, so I

  nearly screamed when Miss Puss charged past me,

  grazing my lower leg and shooting ahead into the first

  open doorway.

  Great-aunt Frances paused there and turned to

  me.

  "This is it," she said. I wondered if she had seen

  the cat go in.

  I stepped up beside her and looked into what

  was to be my room. My heart bobbed like a vo-yo in

  my chest. There was a very large bed with a heavylooking, dark oak headboard and footboard, but the

  bed obviously had been made hastily. The bedsheet hung too far on one side, and the pillows were stuffed too tightly into their cases, making them look bumpy and too rounded. There was a dull, cream-colored comforter with thread hanging from its edges. It appeared to have been tossed over the bed at the last moment. Grandmother Emma would have fired Nancy if she had made a bed like this. I thought, And our minder, Miss Harper? She would have had a heart

  attack and Ian wouldn't have had to poison her. Curtains dangled limply around the two large

  windows, one to the right and the other to the left of

  the headboard. There were no shades to stop the

  morning sunlight, and the grime around the corners of

  the casings, the moldings and around the shelves on

  the wall to the left announced that the room was in

  desperate need of housekeeping. There were cobwebs,

  too, in every corner of the ceiling. Whereas Ian would

  call Grandmother Emma's house a museum of

  antiques, he would surely call this house a museum of

  dust. No one had been sent to greet us at the door, but

  didn't Great-aunt Frances at least have a housekeeper? Again. I looked at Felix. Now he looked like he

  would break into tears leaving me here. He was

  paused just behind me, shaking his head gently. I

  looked around the room again, at least pleased to see the small desk and chair even though they were both quite scratched. The desk was a little like the one I had back at the mansion. I'd sit there and do my homework. To the right of it was a large dresser that didn't match the bed. It was a much lighter shade of

  wood and a different style. It, too, had scratches, "Here's the closet," Great-aunt Frances cried

  and opened the closet door to reveal clothes on

  hangers tightly stuffed against each other, squeezed in

  to fit. "Oh, dear." she said, realizing there was no

  space for my clothes. "I forgot to take my things out.

  This was once my room," she said, smiling. "But

  maybe some of those things would fit you. I tell you

  what. You take everything out and try anything on

  and choose anything you want, okay? And what you

  don't want we'll have Lester take to the Salvation

  Army, unless it fits his granddaughter,"

  After she said that a tiny buzzer went off, and

  she raised her wrist so quickly that I thought

  something living in the closet might have bitten her,

  but she was looking at her large-face watch. "Oh, dear me, dear me. It's time for Hearts and

  Flowers. I never miss it. Never, never. I'll leave you to

  get organized." she added and hurried past us, out the

  door and down the corridor, Miss Puss crawled out from under the bed and looked up at us. Then she shot

  past and after Great-aunt Frances.

  Felix finally lowered my bags to the floor. He

  sighed deeply and shook his head again as he looked

  around the room.

  "Yep. Mrs. March would sure be surprised." he

  muttered. He approached the dresser. There were old

  photographs in frames, a dark wooden jewelry box

  and two ceramic angels on it. After he ran his hand

  over the dresser, we could see the top was crusted in

  dust.

  "That daughter of Lester Marshall is supposed

  to be caring for this house. That was the agreement

  she made with your grandmother when Lester asked if

  his daughter and her daughter could move onto the

  property. Looks like she's got some back rent due." he

  added. "I'm going to go have a word with her. by don't

  you look around and see what you need before I leave

  for Bethlehem," he added. "I'm just afraid I'd set your

  grandmother's recovery back a decade if I described

  all this to her." He tightened his face and straightened

  his shoulders. "I'll handle it myself.

  "Damn," I heard him mutter as he turned and

  walked out.

  I stood alone, feeling as if I had been deposited in someone else's nightmare. Felix wanted me to see what else I needed? I needed my family back. I needed to go home. For a moment I debated whether or not I should just run out after him and cry for him to take me home, but what would that do to

  Grandmother Emma? And to Daddy? I'd be the cause of so much more trouble. And then, of course. Ian

  would be disappointed in me.

  "Open your suitcases, unpack and settle down,"

  I could hear him whisper.

  I put the bag of his letters on the small desk.

  then I went to the dresser, but when I opened the

  drawers to put in my things. I found they were full of

  socks, underwear, and blouses. Actually, nothing had

  been removed to make room for me. When had Greataunt Frances learned I was coming? Hadn't she had

  any time to prepare? What was I supposed to do? I

  took out a blouse and held it up. It was small enough

  to fit someone like me. I thought, I probably could fit

  into some of her old clothes. This had definitely been

  her room when she was a little girl, and from the

  looks of it, no one had been in it since. I wondered

  where she slept now

  I condensed her things to make room for my

  own things in the drawers. How fortunate it was that I hadn't brought all my clothing. There would simply be no room. When I finished unpacking. I realized Greataunt Frances had not shown me where the bathroom I was to use was located. There was none in the room, as there was in my room back at the mansion. I had to put away my bathroom things. Where do I go? It can't

  be far, I thought and went out searching.

  The first door on my right opened on another

  bedroom. There was a similar-size bed, but this one

  wasn't even poorly made. The blanket was tossed

  back and dangled off the side, and the four pillows

  were all over the bed. It looked like the bed a person

  having
a terrible nightmare had just slept in or had

  tried to sleep in.

  I gazed around. This room had an oval area rug

  under and around the bed. It was a light shade of ruby,

  but splotched and stained, with a few rips along the

  edges. I saw that a dish had been put there for Miss

  Puss to lick out the remains of something,

  Clothing was strewn about everywhere, as if

  someone had gone mad and torn everything out of the

  closets and drawers and flung them in the air. Just as

  in the living room. I saw dishes and glasses with

  caked, old food. They were on the vanity table, the

  vanity table chair and the bedside tables. The windows in this room had shades, but one was inoperative and hung on a slant. On the dresser to my left. I saw a picture I recognized. It was similar to a picture I had seen in one of Grandmother Emma's old albums, a picture of her and Great- aunt Frances when they were both young women. Great-aunt Frances was

  by far the prettier one back then. I thought.

  I turned to a door across the hall and found the

  bathroom. When I looked at it. I hoped there was

  another. It was barely bigger than the powder room on

  the first floor of Grandmother Emma's mansion. The

  right sink faucet had a slow but continuous drip that

  had long ago discolored the basin with streaks of rust.

  Over the counter beside it were an open tube of

  toothpaste with toothpaste dripped around it, a

  toothbrush, a hairbrush fill of hair, pieces of soap and

  an open bottle of antacid. There were articles of

  clothing, panties, slips and socks scattered on the floor

  and over the sides of the tub. A blouse hung from the

  shower curtain and looked like it had been soaked in

  water and soap and then just left there dripping. Whoever had done it hadn't noticed it would

  drip on the floor and not into the tub.

  The cabinet over the sink was open. Inside, the

  shelves were crowded with all sorts of over-thecounter medicines, loose Band-Aids and another tube

  of toothpaste without a cap. A bottle of cough

  medicine had spilled as well, the liquid sticking to one

  of the shelves and dripping down to another. It was

  hard and discolored. It had obviously spilled quite a

  while ago. Why hadn't it been cleaned up?

  When I looked at the tub and the shower. I saw

  they weren't in much better condition than the sink.

  The tub also had rust stains and a ring around it, from

  when it had last been used. perhaps. There was a

  damp washcloth crimpled in it and a bar of soap.

  Along the far side were jars of bath powders lined up,

  two without caps.

  Was this to be my bathroom. too?

  I hoped not and quickly walked out and to the

  other side of the stairway, where there were two other

  rooms. The first door was closed, but it wasn't locked.

  I opened it and looked in on a very nice bedroom. It

  had a canopy bed with a lighter shade of wood for the

  headboard, posts and footboard. The dressers matched

  and the oval area rug was a pretty shade of light blue

  and in very good shape. Everything was neat in the

  room. There were no articles of clothing cast about,

  and nothing looked out of place. All the articles on the

  dresser were carefully placed. I saw there was another doorway, so I walked in to discover a bathroom in which the fixtures, although not modern, looked

  newer and clean.

  The windows in the room were the ones I had

  seen with curtains and shades when we'd driven up.

  Nothing looked worn or torn. Why couldn't this be my

  bedroom? I wondered. Was it Great-aunt Frances's

  bedroom? On closer inspection. I could see that

  although it was well put together, it still had thin

  layers of dust over the furnishings. It was simply an

  unused room, but the nicest room in the house I had

  seen so far. I couldn't imagine why Great-aunt

  Frances wasn't using it.

  Confused. I left it and tried the last door, but it

  was locked. I thought about it for a moment and then

  returned to the stairway. I could hear the television. so

  I descended and walked into the living room. where I

  found Great-aunt Frances sprawled on the sofa

  looking dreamily at the set and following the drama,

  Miss Puss was sprawled on the floor and looked up at

  me, then lowered her head to her paws. Great-aunt

  Frances didn't even notice I had entered. It was almost

  as if she had forgotten my arrival, just the way a child

  might. She was totally absorbed in her show and

  looked like she would cry if I interrupted. I decided to

  wait for the commercial.

  Before it came. I heard the front door forcefully

  opened. Felix stepped in and then stepped to the side

  to permit a tall. thin. African American woman, with

  short hair cropped more like a man's hair, to enter as

  well. Her facial features were childlike, diminutive,

  with a pair of blazing ebony eyes and firm, taught

  lips. She wore a dark blue blouse, opened nearly to

  her belly button. She didn't seem to care that her

  breasts were almost entirely visible. Her jeans were so

  tight that I wondered how she could put them on and

  take them off. I saw she wore no socks with her

  battered old running shoes. Her ankles looked bruised

  and swollen,

  "It makes no sense for me coming here to clean.

  Believe me, ten minutes after I'm gone, she gonna

  turn it back to a pigsty," she whined.

  Felix closed the door by pounding it with his

  sledgehammer fist. He glared at her.

  "And believe me it makes no sense your living

  here rent free without doing the work." he responded. "I do the work!" she moaned. "She ruins it, so I

  just give up. I ain't a slave, you know."

  "You don't decide when to give up," he said

  firmly. "Or if you do, you move off the property" She looked away angrily, her gaze falling on

  me with stinging fury. I immediately thought she

  believed I was the reason she was being chastised. If I

  hadn't come, no one would have discovered how

  poorly she was keeping the house.

  Felix lifted his right hand and pointed to the

  chandelier.

  "No one can change a lightbulb? What's that

  got to do with how Miss Wilkens conducts herself?

  And this doorjamb. Why hasn't it been sanded and

  adjusted? Look at those shades dangling in rooms.

  What about the ones missing from the upstairs

  bedroom? I'm afraid to inspect the rest of the house.

  Minor repairs have been neglected everywhere you

  look here: the porch steps, porch floor, railings, that

  stairway and banister. The place is a disaster and it

  was once a prime property."

  "None of that's my fault. I just agreed to clean

  up. That other stuffs my father's job," she said. He

  was hired to be the property manager, not me." I was shocked to hear a daughter shift blame

  toward her own father.

  Felix grunted.

  "Don't worry. I'll be talking with him shortly.

  Let's first get this place liveable. There's a young girl


  going to be living here now."

  "Well, don't blame me if it turns back to a

  pigsty before you even drive away," she muttered and

  charged past me down the hallway to a closet. She

  jerked it open and pulled out a pail and a mop, glared

  back at us and continued into another room, probably

  the kitchen. I had yet to explore the downstairs. Felix watched her and then walked slowly to

  the living room doorway, where I stood waiting.

  Great-aunt Frances either hadn't heard the commotion

  or had ignored it. She was still transfixed on her soap

  opera.

  "Miss Wilkens," Felix said.

  She just waved at him. He looked at me

  quizzically. I smiled and shrugged. Finally, the

  commercial came on and she turned to us.

  "Oh, are you all unpacked, dear?" she asked. "Not yet. I had to find the bathroom first. Is that

  the one I'll be using, the one across the hall?" "Yes, it is. We'll arrange it together. Now that

  you're here. I'll have to get myself more organized,"

  she said. "I'll have to be more like Emma."

  More organized? I don't see any order, I I

  thought,

  "You mentioned you were going to make her

  some lunch," Felix said.

  "Lunch? Oh, right, lunch. In a few minutes.

  Debbie has just learned that her sister's child is her

  husband's, too, and her husband is in a panic and just

  wandering aimlessly in the city_ . Marcia says he's

  like an amnesiac. They don't know if he's pretending." "Miss Wilkens. I have Mae Betty here cleaning

  up the house. "Oh, wasn't she just here? I can't

  remember."

  "If she was, she forgot some things." Felix said

  and glanced at me. "I'm sure you want it to be in

  better shape than it is. It was once a prime property.

  Mrs. March would have a second stroke if she set eyes

  on it the way it is now."

  "What? Yes." Great-aunt Frances considered

  what he said, and then her eyes widened, "Emma's not

  coming soon, is she?" she asked, obviously terrified of

  the possibility and forgetting what Felix had already

  told her about Grandmother Emma.

  "No, Miss Wilkens. She won't be coming in the

  near future, but eventually, she might."

  "Well, let me know first. I'd like to get her

  room fixed up the way she likes it. She so likes fresh

  flowers in vases on the night tables. No one dares use

  that room but Emma, even though she hasn't used it