Awakenings (Elemental Series - Book 1) (11 page)

Chapter Nine

Bringing Mom and Dad home
Discovering a familiar comfort
Learning of new love
Approving

I
opened my eyes, sat up, and took a look around me once my grogginess wore off. Seeing Aunt Grace’s home, Mom’s home, for the first time had a profound effect on me. I was happy and sad all at the same time. I should have been able to share this moment with my mom. Dusk was setting in.

The house was a Cape Cod. A white picket-fenced veranda wrapped around the entire house. The exterior was made of dark brick with a hint of cream stucco decorating the three window frames which poked out from the second floor. Dominating the front yard was the oldest looking oak tree in existence. Its branches were long and crooked. They reminded me of outstretched arthritic fingers. Each finger was jam-packed with the largest, most breath-taking green leaves I’d ever seen. I yawned, stretched, and looked around the rest of the yard. Hudson and Jen carried boxes into the house and Aunt Grace was kneeling beside me by the car door. I looked at her and smiled.

“Jacey, Ria’s favorite place was in that oak tree right there in the front yard,” Aunt Grace said, pointing to the tree.

“All of this—it looks like her,” I said, and immediately thought,
what a stupid thing to say
. “Her get green initiatives make a little more sense to me now. She was always so passionate about the environment and seeing where she grew up, it all adds up now.”

“I find myself thinking the exact same thing on a daily basis. It does look like her, and by the way, definitely not a stupid thing to say,” she said, smiling.
I caught onto the fact I hadn’t said ‘stupid thing to say’ out loud, I just thought it. By now, I was expecting things to be-somewhat inexplicable.

As I got out of the car I realized I’d fallen asleep with Mom and Dad’s urn in my lap. I held onto it with one arm and grabbed Aunt Grace’s arm with my other hand. She closed the car door and we both headed to the trunk to get all of our stuff. I grabbed a suitcase and kept the urn in the other arm. Aunt Grace grabbed a bag and one suitcase. She shut the trunk and we walked up the front step.

A gust of wind came up and caught my breath as I approached the house. I stood there unable to breathe for a second or two, holding Mom and Dad’s urn tight into my chest. I looked at Jen, Hudson, and Aunt Grace, waiting to see if they were experiencing the same thing I was. From the looks on their faces, they weren’t. They continued on with what they were doing. I was the only one standing like a statue in the front yard. I closed my eyes but somehow I could still
see
everyone around me—like an out of body experience. The gust came back. This time it wasn’t just a gust of wind. This time it was tangible. It came up and stopped, lingering right in front of me.

It was full of color. The same ones from my room back home. Absent-mindedly, I reached out in an attempt to touch them. As I did, the colors, reached back for me. When we touched, I experienced a surge of emotion that was almost unbearable. The gust of wind, it was Mom. It was as though she was welcoming me…
home.

As soon as I realized it, the essence of Mom swirled around me, as if her spirit was trying to hug me.

“Jacey, are you coming?” Aunt Grace asked. Her voice brought me back to the real world. My heart was racing. I opened my eyes and the gust left. It seemed as if I had been standing still for at least a few minutes, encompassed within the warmth of my Mom moment. When I looked at the others, I could see no one else was aware of what had just taken place. It seemed no real time had passed. For lack of a better description and fear of sounding like
Star Trek
it was as though I’d been in some kind of… time warp.

“Right behind you, Aunt Grace,” I replied.

My breath caught yet again once I was inside the house. It smelled like home. It was full of musky pine aromas and had a welcoming feel. The entrance was a large open space with a whole array of different colored large flat rocks for flooring. There was a large walnut-colored bench positioned to the right of the entrance to sit on to take off or put on shoes. Behind the seat was a huge mirror framed in the same wood which made up the bench.

Directly across from the bench was a double door closet made of the same dark wood. The entire main floor of the house was visible from the main entrance.

“Jacey, put the bags down here. We’ll go out and help Jen and Hudson with the rest—” Mid-sentence, Aunt Grace stopped. She placed the bags and suitcase she’d carried in on the floor to the left of the entry and came to me. She placed her hands out in a gesture to take my parents’ urn from me.

“Is it all right if I take this and put it over there?” She pointed towards the living room-dining room area. I nodded and looked over to where Aunt Grace was headed. Separating the rooms was a huge double-sided stone-faced fireplace with a beautifully carved wooden mantel.

“I think it’s the perfect place to put them,” I said.

Aunt Grace took the urn and walked over to the mantel. She placed it in the center.

There was a huge bay window in the living room which overlooked the side yard of the house. It reminded me of Mr. Silverman’s office. The light coming in flowed through, glistening off the symbols of the urn. The light hit it in just the right way to make the engravings flash like diamonds in the sun.

“After we get everything inside I’ll show you around the rest of your new home,” Aunt Grace said placing her arm around my shoulder.

“I’d like that.”

“Yes, Jacey, it does look a bit like Mr. Silverman’s office,” she agreed.

I looked up at her, not missing the detail that yet again I hadn’t said anything out loud. We went outside to Hudson’s truck in time to help him and Jen move my trunk.

“Hey, you guys need any help?” I asked, watching both of them. I still hadn’t forgotten that the two of them seemed to be quite comfortable with one another.

“We could use a little help here. What in the world did you put in here, Jacey?” Hudson asked as he pulled my trunk to the tailgate. “It weighs a ton.” He grunted as he tried to lift the trunk on his own.

“I knew we wouldn’t be going back, so I pretty much packed everything I could get into it,” I said as I grabbed an end to help.

“Not to mention we both had to sit on it to close it,” Jen said with a laugh.

“No kidding,” Hudson replied.

He grabbed the other end of the trunk opposite to me, surprised at the weight as we took it into the house. We had both vehicles emptied within half an hour.

“Who’s ready for a tour to see where your rooms are?” Aunt Grace asked.

“I am,” I said.

We all followed Aunt Grace through the house. From what I’d seen so far, you’d think I would have been prepared for the rest of the house, but I wasn’t.

We went into the living room. The main focal point was the double-sided fireplace which Mom and Dad’s urn was situated upon. I sighed, knowing a home like this was something I’d always wanted our family to have. The dark wooden furniture was placed strategically throughout, allowing the fireplace and the bay window to be the focus of whoever sat in the room.

The flooring was polished wood, a couple of shades lighter than the furniture. There was a huge, plush area rug in the center, its deep gold laced with hues of purple and red. It completed the room, pulling all the furniture and fixtures together into a place of comfort and serenity. We walked past the fireplace and entered the kitchen.

In its center was an island. Its base was made of wood and its top of gleaming white granite. Surrounding it were six high-backed bar stools. The cabinets which hung over the double sink and counter top were made of the same deep rich wood we’d found in the other rooms. The fridge and stove were oversized and polished white, resembling something you’d expect to find in an old farmhouse.

Off to the left was a kitchenette with four chairs. We walked past it and stepped down into a sunroom. It ran the length of the back of the house. There wasn’t a solid wall in the room other than the ceiling. The entire room was windows, floor to ceiling, with a clear unobstructed view of the backyard. The sun was sinking in the far left corner of the yard, allowing me a quick glimpse outdoors. The yard itself seemed to go on forever. The grass looked like a golf course, pristinely cut and deep green in color. Bordering the grass were large leafy maples, birch, and evergreen trees. The yard looked like one you’d find in a storybook, something I knew my mom would have thrived in.

In the far right corner of the yard was a huge oak tree with a swing hanging from one of its large outstretched branches. A light breeze outside was moving it slightly. As I watched it sway, I could visualize Mom and Aunt Grace playing there as children.

“Your Mom and I would play for hours on that thing. She’d always be the one who’d want to push the limits. Me, well, I was the cautious one. Never going too high, just high enough so I knew if I fell off, I’d be all right. Your mother, though, was always the one who tried to see how high….” Aunt Grace trailed off into her own thoughts.

I turned away from the backyard spectacle and looked around the room. It only had two oversized recliners and an old piano off in the far left corner.

“Breathtaking, isn’t it?” Aunt Grace asked.

“Yeah, it’s more than I ever thought it would be,” Hudson said.

“The yard has grown in quite a bit since your Mom was here. The furniture, well, most of it was here when she was, but some of it is new. I’ve refurbished a lot of it,” Aunt Grace said as she looked around the room. “There’s more, do you want to see it?”

We jumped with anticipation and followed her out of the sunroom and to the right. There were two sets of stairs. One headed upstairs and the other into the basement. We chose to go downstairs first.

“There are three rooms upstairs, and a large room in the basement. It has its own entrance. I was thinking Hudson may like that,” Aunt Grace said as we descended into the basement.

Instantly, I saw Hudson was bowled over by the offer.

“Yeah, I would like that. Thanks, Aunt Grace,” he replied.

The basement had the same homey feel as the main floor. The entire area was open. There was a large flat screen TV on the far wall. It was encircled by a beautiful leather sectional. There were two doors off the basement on either side of the entertainment area. We went left first and found a laundry room with a lot of storage space and a door which led to the backyard. We then went to the other door.

Inside the door to the right was a small kitchenette with a small living room area. In behind the sofa was a room divider and behind it was a completely furnished bedroom.

“So, what do you think?” Aunt Grace asked.

Hudson was speechless.

Aunt Grace and I made our way out while Hudson looked around the room. I kept an eye on him and Jen as I passed by them. When I did, I noticed Hudson had reached out and tapped Jen’s thigh with his hand.

“This is your home now. I’m very blessed to have my family back where they all belong,” Aunt Grace said.

“I’m blown away. Thank you Aunt Grace.” Hudson said turning with Jen and following Aunt Grace and I upstairs.

We took the stairwell to the upper portion of the house. At the top of the stairs there was a long hallway. It was as comfortable and beautiful as the rest of the house. To the left, or front, of the house, there were two doors, and to the right, or rear, of the house, there were two doors.

“The last door on the right is the bathroom and the first door is my room. It used to be my parents’, your grandparents’, room but when they moved out, I moved into it. The first door to your left was my old room and the last door was Ria’s room. I haven’t changed a thing in either one of them.”

We went into Aunt Grace’s old room first. I felt like I was walking into one of my dreams. It literally mirrored the room with the beautiful wooden dresser adorned by the large mirror outlined in flowers with the crib which Mom had been staring into and screaming. The same crib was positioned in the far right corner of this room under the window. I walked in and went straight to it. At first, I was scared to look into it.

I took a deep, steadying breath and looked down. To my utter relief there were no screaming babies in it. I again felt the gust of wind come up, engulfing me within its embrace. Hudson, Aunt Grace, and Jen were all in the room, but weren’t feeling or seeing the same things I was. I didn’t dare move. I somehow knew if I did, Mom would leave. I stood staring out the window with my hand in the crib while the gust enveloped me. Aunt Grace brought me back.

“Jacey, you ready to see Ria’s old room?”

The gust left, flowing through the double door closet on the far wall of her old room.

“Let’s go.” I went back toward the hallway. Before I could leave her room, Aunt Grace stopped me.

“Jacey, did you notice the double doors in this room?”

“I did. It’s the closet, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Why don’t you go take a closer look?” Aunt Grace suggested.