A Big Life in a Small Town (Bellingwood #2) (10 page)

"We'll be there," assured Vera. "I'll get him out of the house somehow."

"Thank you again for everything," Polly said.

They left and headed back for Bellingwood. Henry said, "Would you mind calling Doug Randall? He and Billy are going to help us get all of this upstairs. Let them know what time we'll be back and they'll meet us there."

Polly made the call and smiled as it rang. She missed having those boys around.

"Hey Polly! Are you there yet?" Doug answered with a question.

"Nope, it will be about forty-five minutes. Can you and Billy come over to help? Henry said he talked to you about it."

"We'll be there! I heard Obiwan got caught in a trap this morning. Is he okay?"

"Wow. Nothing gets past you, does it!" she laughed. "He's doing fine. If you want to get there early, Sylvie's in the kitchen and Jason and Andrew are upstairs in the apartment with him. I know they'd all love to see you."

"Okay. We'll see you later." He disconnected and she giggled.

The phone buzzed in her hand. It was a text from Lydia.

"Supper tonight? Andy wants you to see her house. Bring bread. 6:30. Can you set up your big boy/little boy babysitting adventure so Sylvie can come too?"

"What's up?" Henry asked.

"Lydia is in hostess mode again. We're having dinner at Andy's."

"I told you! Never a peaceful moment."

Polly texted back.
"I'll talk to Sylvie and Doug. If everything is works out, I'm there! With bread!"

“Even I know it’s strange to see a farmer driving his planter through town in January,” Polly said. She was bouncing her feet on the floor of his truck, with her hand on the door handle. They’d been driving much too slowly for her taste and traffic had been too heavy for Henry to pass the guy as they entered town.

He finally turned into her lane and Polly jumped out of the truck as soon as he parked, "I'm going upstairs to check on Obiwan and I'll send Doug and Billy down to help."

Henry nodded and went over to help Jimmy maneuver his truck to the front of the building. Polly dashed inside and up the steps to her apartment in time to see Doug and Billy coming out of her apartment.

"We heard the trucks come in so we're going downstairs. Do you want to unlock the room for us?" Billy asked.

"Sure! Thanks. I guess I was only thinking of getting to my dog. How's he doing?"

"He's doing fine. When he wants attention, he licks at his paw and looks at one of us. He's a smart dog, figuring that out so quickly," Doug laughed.

Polly walked to the back room and triggered the lock open with her phone, then went back to her apartment. When she walked in, she saw Andrew sitting on one end of the couch and Jason on the other end. Obiwan was stretched out between the two of them with his head in Andrew's lap, his left paw with its bright orange wrap hanging piteously off the side of the sofa.

"How's everything going?" she asked.

"It's cool, Polly," Jason said, standing up with an empty glass and heading for the kitchen. Polly took his place on the sofa and leaned over to hug her boy. Obiwan barely moved his body, but turned his head to nuzzle hers as she relaxed on top of him.

"You poor stupid dog, you. Ya scared me to death this morning."

"I think he's going to be fine, Miss Polly," Andrew said in an attempt to reassure her.

She sat back up. "I think you're absolutely right and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you hanging out with him today." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet, slipping out two five dollar bills. She handed one to each of the boys. "Thank you very much for taking care of my boy."

"We love it!" Jason said. "You have great television up here and we can play games
, too."

"How was Luke today?" she asked, spying the cat on top of the refrigerator.

"He played with me a lot!" Andrew exclaimed. "He even got the hang of the fishing pole."

"That's terrific," Polly said. She heard commotion in the hallway. "I need to make sure they know how I want the furniture arranged. I'll be back." When she opened the door, she turned around to see Jason slip back into the space she vacated and smiled.

Jimmy and Doug were carrying the dresser into the back room and Billy was carrying drawers up the steps. She could hear Henry and Sam talking at the bottom of the steps, but followed the dresser. She had a flash of insight. Each of the rooms needed a different name. This would be the Walnut Room ... that seemed appropriate. Once she figured out the decor of the middle room, she would name that and since the front room was still kind of hurried, she wanted to spend more time thinking about it. The boys put the dresser down in the middle of the room and looked at her expectantly, so, she pointed to the inside wall and they put it into place. Billy set the drawers in front of it and Polly began pushing them into their slots. Each drawer was a different size and had a specific way in which it fit. She ran her hands across the top of the dresser and smiled. She hoped people would appreciate the exquisite beauty of the set.

Henry and Sam came in with the chest of drawers and she had them place it between the tall windows at the back of the building. Walking over to touch that piece, she realized what a beautiful view any tenant would have in this room. It looked out over the wooded creek bed and in the winter without the leaves on the sycamore trees, she could easily see beyond them into Dan Severt's fields. The fullness of the leaves might make that a little more difficult throughout the rest of the year, but it was always going to be pretty.

Billy made another trip in with the two chairs and luggage stool. He set them down in front of her and took off for another load. Before too long the room was filled with furniture and everyone stood looking at her.

"What do you think, Polly?" Henry asked.

"I think you deserve lunch! On me!" she said.

"Well,
fine, but what do you think of the placement?" he asked.

"For now, it's good. It isn't perfect yet, but almost. A few dark oriental rugs in here will work nicely. I'll ask Lydia to help me find rugs and bedding. Can you believe this?" She swirled around the middle of the room. "All of this beautiful furniture in one place."

Billy said, "Doug and I couldn't believe what we were seeing when we pulled it off the truck."

"Whoops!" Henry exclaimed. "Just a minute. I'll be right back." He left the room and took off down the steps.

"Will you let me take you uptown for lunch?" Polly asked.

"I'm in," Sam said. "How about you?" The others nodded in the affirmative.

Polly pulled out her phone and dialed a number. "Hey, Sylvie?" she said, when the woman answered. "I know you're downstairs, but do you and Jason and Andrew want to go to Joe’s Diner with us for lunch? It's on me today."

She listened as Sylvie protested. "It will take less than an hour and then you can come back to your work and you should come up here and see this furniture!"

Sylvie agreed to come up and that the boys might want some lunch and they hung up. Billy opened the secretary and said, "Hey, look at this!"

There was an envelope with four antique skeleton keys taped to the underside of the desk top. He passed them around and using his, opened the glass fronts of the top of the secretary. Doug opened the shoe closet and Jim fit his into the curio cabinet. Sam took the last key and slid it into the lock of the top drawer of the dresser.

"That's way awesome, Polly," Billy said. "Here, you're going to want these." He drew one of the chairs up to the desk, sat down and pulled open a small door in the center of the insert. Slots on either side offered room for papers and mail and four small drawers at the bottom of the desk insert finished the look. Billy opened and closed each of them. "This is really cool! I've never seen anything like this."

Polly said, "My grandmother had an old desk like this, but it didn't have the top curio cabinet." She pulled out the far left drawer. "There were always stamps in this drawer and in the next she kept pencils and pens. The slots were always stuffed with letters and mail on this side, but on the right side, she kept some of her fancy writing paper. The other drawers had scissors and office supplies. Wow, I'd forgotten about that until you pulled this open. Think of all the letters that might have been written from this desk. I wonder what else will be written from here in the future."

Henry and Sylvie walked in together. He was carrying the box Vera Lucas had thrust at Polly before they left.

"Oh, Polly!" Sylvie exclaimed. "Oh, Polly!"

"I know! Can you believe it?" Polly gushed.

"I can't. This entire set really stayed together all these years?"

“I got it from its original owner and they never broke it up. But, can you believe it?"

Henry unpacked the box, pulling out the pitcher, then the basin. They had very simple lines and were porcelain white with gold trim around the rim of both the pitcher and basin. The black handle on the pitcher offered a striking contrast.

"Under the far bedside table," Polly said. "That's where it belongs." She picked up the pitcher and he carried the basin over to where she pointed. "Thank you," she said.

"Well, now I have a lot of work to do this week to finish this room before our next guest shows up. But, really ... are you ready for lunch?"

Sylvie and Polly went next door to get the boys. Andrew didn't want to leave Obiwan, but Polly assured him the dog would be fine for a little while.

There was plenty of room at Joe's Diner and they gathered tables to make room for all nine to eat together. Henry and Polly sat across from each other and Sylvie put the boys between Polly and herself. Doug was on the other side of Polly and Billy took an end while Sam and Jimmy sat on either side of Henry. Lucy showed up with menus and a tray filled with dripping glasses of water.

"What do you want to drink today?" she asked.

Polly looked up at her and said, "This is all on one ticket no matter what anyone,” she scowled first at Henry, then Sylvie, "says."

"Got it," Lucy laughed. She took their drink orders and left them alone.

Andrew began wiggling in his chair, "What is it?" Sylvie asked him.

"Can I have a real meal or do I have to have a kid’s meal?" Andrew asked.

While Sylvie was shaking her head, Polly said, "It's up to your mom, but I vote for a real meal. What do you want?"

"I want a steak!" he announced.

"Can I have one too?" Jason asked a little timidly.

Lucy had walked up behind the boys while they were talking and delivered their colas to them. "How about a steak sandwich boys? All the flavor of a steak and it comes with french fries."

Sylvie’s eyes filled with gratitude.

"Can we, mom?" Andrew asked again.

She looked at Polly, who said. "Steak sandwiches it is. And I'll have one too! Medium well, right?"

Jason looked at her. "I don't know."

Polly turned to Lucy. "Medium well for the boys and medium rare for me."

Henry said, "What, no tenderloin today?"

Polly laughed. "They serve one of the best, but if the boys are having steak today, I'm having steak." Then she giggled and said to Billy and Doug, "If you want steak, we won't call this the dinner I owe you. I promise."

Soon the table had placed their orders and Lucy went back to the kitchen.

"Sylvie, did you hear from Lydia about tonight at Andy’s?" Polly asked.

"I did and I'd love to go, but ..." and she nodded at her sons.

"On it." Polly turned to Doug, "Would you be up for house sitting duty again tonight?"

"Well, uh ..." Doug hesitated.

"If you can't do it, I'll figure something else out," Polly said.

"No, that's not it," Billy said. "Ask her, Doug."

"We were wondering if we could bring some friends over and play games. The auditorium is done now and we can pull out the tables and set our computers up and it would be great if the boys played with us and we'd take Obiwan out and check on Luke. What do you think?"

Polly threw her head back and laughed. "Of course you can! Sylvie, what do you think?"

Sylvie shrugged. "It's fine with me. Are you boys okay with that?"

Andrew's eyes were huge. "Really? Jase, did you hear that? We get to play games with the guys!"

Jason nodded. He reached under the table and took Polly's hand, pulling her down so he could whisper in her ear. "You're like my own fairy godmother ... if that's what boys have."

She pulled him close and hugged him, then winked over his head at his mother, who smiled.

After lunch was finished, Henry left to take Jimmy and Sam to their homes and Doug and Billy took off to gather their gear and call their friends. Sylvie went back into the kitchen and sat down at the prep table with her laptop.

Polly took the boys back upstairs to the apartment. "I'm going to take Obiwan outside for a bit. We won't be gone long. Can you keep yourselves occupied?"

"We could go with you," Jason said. Andrew slumped down in a huff. "I wanted to watch a movie. You said we could watch Iron Man."

"It will only be a few minutes," his brother replied. "Then we can watch Iron Man."

"I don't want to go outside," Andrew complained. "It's cold out there."

"Look," Polly said. "Jason, you can come with me. Get the movie started for Andrew and he can stay here. We're only going to be gone for a few minutes and your mom is right downstairs. There's no need to argue."

Andrew pulled his coat off and started to drop it on the floor. Then, he looked up at Polly and smiled, took it to the chair by the entrance and set it there. He pulled his shoes off and ran back, then dived into the sofa. Luke had been sitting on the back of the couch and dropped on top of Andrew's lap after he pulled a blanket over himself.