House of Fallen Trees

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Drinks forgotten, the three of them trudged down the stairs while outside darkness was quickly descending. It seemed that within a matter of minutes, the day had grown sullen and windy. The sound of trees swaying and lashing against each other could be heard in every room they entered.

“I hope we don’t lose power,” Rory said when they’d returned to the living room, an absolutely enormous space with a stone fireplace large enough to burn an entire armchair without taking it apart.

A pale floral patterned divan sat beneath the front bay windows while a matching lounger rested next to the fireplace. A single end table, carved out of a huge hunk of driftwood stood in a far corner, an antique oil lamp atop it. Other than these few items, the immense room remained empty.

“Most of the other stuff was beyond saving,” Rory said, sitting down on the divan. “Moths or other bugs had gotten into it.”

“Mice too,” Saul said, yawning. “Nesting inside the guts of the furniture.”

Karen felt a twinge of alarm. “The beds upstairs?”

Rory waved away her distress. “All the mattresses and bedding are new, don’t worry. The rest of the beds are original though.” He stopped, tilted his head as if listening intently to the wind outside, then added almost to himself, “Sean really loved the Captain’s bed. As you saw, it’s obscenely large.”

Karen agreed. “Yeah, you could probably sleep four or five people in it quite comfortably.”

“They wouldn’t even knock elbows,” Saul laughed.

Karen sat down beside Rory, stretching her legs out in front of her and scrunching down a bit. “Sounds pretty nasty outside.”

“This is nothing,” Saul told her, taking the lounger. “A real wind storm will scare the crap out of you around here.”

“Yep,” Rory agreed. “With any luck, we’ll have one while you’re here.”

She laughed. “Thanks a lot. I don’t really think I need to have the crap scared out of me though.”

The statement made her remember the dream, if that’s what it had been. The strange phone call. How afraid had she been then? Not very…at least, not at first. Not until her computer had grown a mind of its own. If there was one thing she was grateful for here though, it was the lack of phones.

And she couldn’t deny feeling safer in the presence of men. She was pretty sure a lot of women would find that to be offensive, and it probably was, but a lot of women would also feel the exact same way she did. There was no denying that having a guy around made a woman statistically safer. And so, as was often the case with some things, two had to be better than one.

Though, if she was losing her mind, she doubted these two would be able to do much to save her. Especially not Rory. He seemed a tad insensitive, more like a macho guy than Sean had ever been. It occurred to her maybe that was what Sean had been attracted to in the first place. Rory seemed so self-assured, so confident and as far as she knew, those qualities had not exactly been running rampant in Sean. He’d been quiet, shy until he was comfortable with a person, much more involved with the arts than she was back when they’d been growing up. Sean used to be a musician, studying piano and guitar, and as a teenager he’d had a garage rock band called…Damn, she couldn’t remember. Something Catalyst. She smiled at the memory of their dad always yelling at Sean and his two band mates to “Quiet the hell down!”

“Care to share?” Rory asked, startling her. “You were just staring off into space smiling.”

“Oh.” Her smile widened even as her face grew warm with embarrassment. “I was just thinking about Sean. He used to be in a band when he was in high school. I can’t for the life of me remember what they called themselves though.”

“Euphoric Catalyst,” Rory said without hesitation.

“That’s it! Wow…they were pretty terrible.”

Rory laughed. “He told me they were pretty good. He had an old cassette tape of a practice or a show or something. He wanted me to listen to it, but I never did.” His voice dropped an octave. “Now I wish I had.”

She knew how he felt and reached out to squeeze his knee. Rory tried to smile at the gesture, but then, before any of them knew what was happening, his eyes welled up with tears which spilled down his cheeks to drip off his chin.

Just the sight of him in that state made Karen want to weep herself.

Saul shifted uncomfortably and began to study the ceiling.

“I’m sorry,” Rory sniffed. “I thought all my crying was over. It’s just that…”

“What?” Karen asked.

“You really do look like him. You have the same brown eyes, the same smile.”

She almost apologized, but realized how ludicrous that would sound. Rory went on. “In a way, it’s great having you here. It’s like having a piece of Sean back. But in another way…”

She nodded. “I know.”

“Fuck!” Rory shouted suddenly, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “So much for being a brave little soldier.”

At this, Saul chuckled and Karen gave him a confused look. “It’s something Sean used to say,” he explained. “He said his dad…I mean, YOUR dad…would always tell him to be a brave little soldier when he was a kid.”

“Ah.” Karen smiled a little at the memory. “He did used to say that. Every time we fell down or got in a fight with a neighborhood kid or had a nightmare.”

“That’s what he told us,” Rory said. “No offense, but from what I’ve heard your dad was kind of a dick.”

“There’s really no ‘kind of’ about it,” she replied. “He was a major dick when we were growing up. He’s mellowed out over the years, though.” Both men laughed at this and Karen was relieved Rory had stopped crying. The last thing she wanted was for her presence to be difficult for him.

“I’m hungry,” Saul announced, jumping to his feet. “Let’s see what we can forage up, shall we?”

“Yes!” Karen also rose. “I’m starving.”

“We don’t have too much fresh food,” Rory said. “But we have plenty of canned and dried goods. Soups, cereal, oatmeal, stuff like that.”

“Canned soup sounds like the perfect thing right about now,” she said. “Anything to get rid of this chill in my bones.”

“Amen,” Saul said and led the way through the house towards the kitchen and a hot meal.