“Hey.” The front door opened, and Archie poked his head outside. “I thought I heard the garage door go, but then I wondered because you never came inside. What are you doing?” He picked up the shopping bags.
“Don’t look in there!” I warned him, shaking off my worries. Right now, with Archie, I was safe. “I have to wrap those!”
He laughed. “Oh, okay.”
I gave one last glance to the snow people before going inside the warm house.
Christmas Eve was a perfect package wrapped in a red bow. Just me and Archie eating dinner together, listening to Christmas songs by a warm fire. We never made it to the church candlelight service, as the snow continued to fall heavily outside our windows. Six to eight inches were predicted by morning. I put the snow people out of my mind for the evening.
Archie and I exchanged presents; we didn’t want to wait until tomorrow morning. Gorgeous diamond stud earrings for me and woodworking tools for him. We cuddled under our seven-foot Douglas fir teeming with white lights and various baubles of silver and gold.
Now, well past midnight, we were cozy under a fuzzy blanket, drinking hot chocolate and munching on Christmas cutout sugar cookies.
“This is everything I ever wanted,” I remarked, licking a bit of whipped cream from my lip.
“It’s pretty good,” Archie replied, staring at the fire. “Better than I imagined.”
“You weren’t sure about moving here at first, were you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not really. I never wanted to live in the country, but now that I do, I like it. The school is great, but I wish Robin was still here.” There was a wistfulness in his voice.
“So do I,” I replied, searching his face.
We sat in quiet peacefulness for a bit, draining our hot chocolate, remnants now sitting in stained cups on the coffee table, and drifted off to sleep, both warm under our large fuzzy blanket.
The next morning, I woke up before Archie. I sneaked out from under the warm blanket, grabbed the tray of used mugs and cookie crumbs to deposit them into the sink. Wind howled outside. The trees blew from side to side with its force as it whipped around the branches. I peeked out the kitchen window to a fairytale world covered in icy, white snow. Snow hung on the barn, the trees, and the power lines. Hopefully the power wouldn’t go out today, although we did have a generator for short-term use. I was about to turn away from the window, but I noticed footsteps in the snow going around the perimeter of the house. Not a full footprint impression, due to the strong winds swirling the snow, but footprints, nonetheless.
I hurried over to the back door—more footprints, slowly being dissolved by the wind, around the corner to the door and then out the door around the other side of the house. I grasped the handle and turned. It wasn’t locked. The door had been unlocked all night. Damn it, Archie. He was supposed to check all the doors before we went to bed.
I stomped into the living room, where he was already awake.
“Come look at this,” I said. “You never locked the back door last night. There are footsteps around the house. Someone could be in here.”
“Show me.” He quickly jumped up. “We should have put security cameras in. I knew we should have done that.” He then pulled on boots and grabbed a coat from the laundry room.
“You should have locked the stupid door!”
“Sorry, I’ll check it out,” he said. “Then I’ll check the house. Why don’t you make some coffee?”
I sighed and watched him go out the door. I got the coffee going, and he was back in a few minutes.
“Okay, looks like the footsteps go down the driveway, but no car tracks and not many footprints left either with this wind,” he reported, taking off the boots and coat. “So, it looks like whoever was here did leave, but I’m going to check the house now. Every part.”
And he did. From attic to basement and every nook and cranny in between and found nobody and nothing unusual. Thank goodness.
We drank coffee at the kitchen table as the wind howled outside. Little pieces of ice patted against the windows. Archie took an English muffin out of the toaster. He smeared butter on it and put half on a plate for me. I watched the butter melt into the muffin before I took a bite.
“I’m sorry I didn’t lock the door,” he said. “I’ll feed the chickens. Why don’t you take a shower?”
“Okay,” I agreed. We finished our muffins and mugs of coffee, then went our separate ways.
I was irritated by the presence of the footprints and that he hadn’t locked the door, even though he apologized; but the house was clear, and the doors were locked now. I guessed I needed to check to see if they were locked every night; I couldn’t trust him to do it.
I went upstairs, brushed my teeth, and put the water on in the shower to warm up. I heard Archie come inside for something and then the door slammed shut downstairs as he went to feed the chickens. I walked into our bedroom and opened my underwear drawer. A white box lay atop my underwear. A red ribbon was wrapped around it.
I glanced around the room. I was alone. I opened the ribbon, allowing it to fall to the floor.
I lifted the lid of the box.
A delicate gold heart locket was inside. Almost the same as the necklace Dream got me many years ago.
The necklace I lost in the canyon.
THIRTY-EIGHT2017
The Commune
Dream
It had been a weird week for so many reasons. Sunny had been going off with Raindrop for private chats several times, which was unlike her. They did talk, but I wasn’t sure what all the privacy was about lately. My gut told me it was nothing good. The purchase of the property next door was supposed to be finalized next week. Fire paid cash for it, so that shortened the paperwork and overall settlement time, much to Jim Bob’s delight. I hadn’t toured the house yet, but had walked to the edge of Raindrop’s property and checked it out. It was a one-acre lot with a modern ranch-style home, smaller than Raindrop’s house, with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. A kidney-shaped pool in the backyard with a well-landscaped area around it. A big swing set to the left of the property. I wasn’t sure who would use the swing set, although two family members were pregnant, so it would probably be needed at some point.
After the purchase of the property, Brother Jim sparked with ideas about buying more real estate in the area, particularly anything attaching to the current locations. His vision was a complex built on many acres of land, owned by Listening Lark to facilitate all the family members.
The complex would have a cathedral, a gym, pool, and sauna. There would be a communal eating space and a bunk house for those members without a permanent housing assignment, mostly a place for new members until sleeping arrangements were made.
His plan sounded wonderful and expensive. I was sure he had some future family members lined up with the money to finance all of his dreams. Who knew how far Brother Jim could take Listening Lark? I was happy to be along for the ride.
Venus moved into Raindrop’s house. She shared a room with Harmony, Willow, and Star. She was a yoga instructor and led the morning yoga that week on the outdoor deck. She was a very good instructor and very wonderful to watch in every position. My attraction to her engulfed me.
