Fading With Time

Chapter 5

Plans in Motion

                When Elizabeth pulled up to her house, she was surprised to see Jan sitting on her steps waiting for her.  Curious as to what was going on Elizabeth got out of the car and approached her.

                “What brings you out?”  She asked her startling Jan out of her thoughts.  Smiling Jan stood up brushing off the seat of her shorts.

                “Came out to see what you were up to today.”

                “Nothing much.  I was just about to call Clayton for Dewy’s phone number.”  Jan raised her eyebrow at her words.

                “I heard he was hitting on you the other day.”  She commented lightly.  If Elizabeth hadn’t been watching her, she would have thought she was just making small talk.  The sharp look in Jan’s eyes told a different story, however.

                “I’m not looking to hook up with someone new.  I would call Elliot, but I don’t want to disturb them after just bringing the new baby home.  I need a contractor’s help though and Dewy is the only other one in town that I know of.”  Jan’s guard dropped at Elizabeth’s explanation.

                “He is a pretty trustworthy guy.  Keeps to himself mostly.  If he has an interest in you though, I’m not sure I would trust him alone with you.  What are you needing done?  Maybe one of the guys could help instead.”  Elizabeth laughed at Jan’s offer.

                “I want to have an outbuilding put in.  I’m having my family’s belongings moved down here and I want to have somewhere close to store them.”  Elizabeth breezed through her explanation with nonchalance trying to hide how much it meant to her.  Jan saw right through her act however and pulled out her cell phone.  Elizabeth gave her a questioning look as Jan called someone to come out.

                “What was that?”  Elizabeth asked as she headed into the house after Jan got off the phone.

                “I called Dewy.”  Jan shrugged nearly running into Elizabeth who had stopped to turn and face her.

                “If you had his phone number the whole time why didn’t you just say so?”  Jan chuckled at the incredulous look Elizabeth was giving her.

                “I told you I would prefer to be here when he comes out.  And this way he doesn’t have your phone number either.”  Elizabeth shook her head at the logic.

                “You guys are overprotective.”  Jan shrugged her shoulders as they moved into the house.

                “It’s better to plan for something in advance even if it never happens.”  Elizabeth couldn’t argue with that. 

                Elizabeth dropped her keys on the coffee table before leading the way through the house.  Coming to the end of the first floor A large solid oak door greeted them.  Jan watched as Elizabeth unlocked it jiggling the handle to get it open.  The door was rather stuck shut and she didn’t know if it was from disuse or if the wood had swollen in the humidity.  Jan offered to give it a try.  Elizabeth moved out of the way watching as Jan gave the handle a good yank to test it out.  She braced a foot on the wall next to the door for leverage and used all her body weight to pull with.  Knowing that it could end badly Elizabeth moved to stand behind her just in case.  Jan got a tight grip and threw herself backwards using her leg to push at the same time.  The door flew open causing Jan to stumble back into Elizabeth.  Instead of catching her friend as she had planned, she was knocked off balance sending both of them sprawling across the floor.  Elizabeth lay on the floor staring up at the ceiling waiting for Jan to get off of her so she could get up.  Jan sat up staring wide eyed at the door then looking over at Elizabeth who had sat up as well.

                “We tell no one about this.”  Jan stated as she picked herself up off the floor.

                “Agreed.”  Elizabeth concurred as the two of them dusted themselves off.  Jan inspected the door swinging it back and forth on the hinges.

                “I think we should have Dewy check this out too while he’s here.  With as much effort as it took to open it, I don’t think we’ll get it back shut.”  Elizabeth looked at the door in question nodding her head in agreement.  She really had no idea if that could happen, but she was willing to let him look at it anyway.  If he could keep it from getting stuck again it would definitely make it easier to open from now on.

                “There’s no screen door.”  Elizabeth pointed out just noticing the absence of one.  She was hoping that she could open up both doors at night to send a cool breeze through the house.  Without a screen door attached however it would make it difficult to do and keep the wildlife where it belonged.

                “You can ask him about installing one when he looks at the door.  He may have to rebuild the door frame first before that can happen.”  Jan’s observation shocked Elizabeth.

                “That’s a thing?”  Jan looked over at Elizabeth in amusement.

                “That’s a thing.”  She confirmed.  Elizabeth stared at the door as her mind boggled over the idea.  The more she pondered it though the more she realized that she could have a new door put in if the whole thing would have to be ripped out and fixed anyway.  Both of them looked out the door before stepping out and it was a good thing they had.  The boards on the back steps were rotted and would have given way under their weight once they stepped on them.

                “I don’t think we’re going out this way.”  Jan pointed out before they both moved back away from the door so Jan could shut it the best she could.  She had been right in thinking that the door wasn’t going to reclose Elizabeth noted.  Jan shrugged her shoulders before walking away.  At least they had managed to wedge it into the frame enough that it wouldn’t just be left standing open.  Elizabeth lead the way back out the front door and around the side of the house.  Once they were standing in the large back yard Jan looked around in amazement. 

                “They must not have come out here very often.”  She pointed out as the two of them looked from the rotted steps, to the broken patio, to the overgrown yard itself.

                “I think its been a long time since anyone bothered to care for the back of this place.  There’s actually a stone bench, a couple of sheds and who knows what else at the back of the property.”  Elizabeth informed her while pointing at each spot she had found them in.

                “How did you find that out?”  Jan asked her genuinely curious how she had discovered them if they were so overgrown.

                “The night that Lauren talked me into ghost hunting in the willow grove.  We started out together, but I could have sworn I heard someone calling me.  I made the choice to see who else was out here and ended up stumbling into my back yard.  I almost ran right into a few things while searching.”  Elizabeth waited for Jan to chastise her for chasing after the woman in the willow trees after she had asked her not too.  Instead Jan simply made a humming noise as her face became guarded to hide what she was thinking.  Before Elizabeth could investigate that further Jan moved off in the direction of the back of the property.

                “So, where exactly were you thinking of putting the storage building at?”  Jan asked effectively changing the subject.  Elizabeth walked past her moving to the corner opposite of the two sheds that were already there.

                “I was thinking over here.  Close enough to the house that I could run electricity to it without much hassle.  At least I hope so anyway.”

                “Hence the need for someone in construction that can tell you if that’s plausible or not.”  Elizabeth nodded in response.

                “What will you do with the building after your done going through all your family’s things?  I’m assuming you’ll probably only keep the stuff that means the most to you.  Things like that you don’t pack back up to store but display for sentimental value.”  Elizabeth gave it some thought while she tried to decide how large of a storage shed she wanted.

                “I guess I could always use it to store things like patio furniture and summertime items when the weather turns cold.”  Jan chuckled at that drawing Elizabeth’s attention to her.

                “You do know it doesn’t get cold enough in this area to snow or freeze right?”  Elizabeth’s eyes widened in shock.  She hadn’t really thought about weather conditions when she was looking for somewhere to hide from her pain.

                “Well poop.  I don’t know what to use it for then.”  She admitted causing Jan to burst out laughing.

                “If you go big enough you could always have it turned into an outdoor pool once your done.  You could have plumbing put in while its being built or have the property surveyed to see if there’s a way you could tap into the natural springs.”  Elizabeth pondered this while looking at the area once again.  The idea had merit, but the building would have to be a lot larger than she had initially anticipated.  It was probably for the best though since her family had a mansion full of items that would be on their way to her in a week’s time.

                “I hope it can be finished by the time everything gets here.”  She absently said as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth.

                “We can ask Dewy how long something like that will take.  If you have to for now you can always put them in the house until its done.”  Jan offered trying to relieve Elizabeth’s anxiety.

                “The house isn’t big enough to store everything.”  Elizabeth confided bringing a gasp from Jan in reply.

                “How much stuff did your family own?” 

                “We lived in a mansion that had 35 rooms total.”  Jan whistled while looking the house over again.

                “You’re right it won’t all fit in there.  Hopefully when we tell Dewy what’s going on, he’ll have a suggestion for us.”  The two women were drawn out of their discussion when they heard Dewy calling from the front of the house.

                “We’re out back!”  Elizabeth answered back.

                “Let’s hope he has some good news for us.”  Elizabeth agreed as they waited for Dewy to clear the corner of the house.