Ending ELE (ELE Series) (9 page)

Tony passes me a sideways glance
and smiles. Grabbing my hand in his, he starts walking again. I look back at the others who are with us and notice my dad and Carrie carrying on what looks to be a very interesting conversation. Carrie lets out a huge laugh and my dad smiles, a genuine smile… one that I haven’t seen in a very long time.

Tony sets my brother down. Sabby runs over to tag
Lillie and they run around us as we walk, playing their own game of tag. They can’t run very far because of the snow being so deep. Lillie and Sabby alternate being ‘it’ every few seconds or so.

I look at everyone around me
. Even in the snow, they all seem to be in pretty good spirits. Then I bite my lip because I know from experience that things just can’t be going this well for this long. Something is bound to happen soon and it’s going to discombobulate us all. Call me a pessimist, or a glass half-full kind of girl… but I’m just keeping it real.

Tony squeezes my
hand, bringing me back to the present. Instinctively, he can tell that something is up. Thankfully, he doesn’t ask questions or search my mind for answers.

After a few more minutes of
walking, Tony stops. “The cabin should be around here somewhere.” He looks around the landscape for a moment, lost in thought, trying to put the pieces together with what he saw from the binoculars back in the cave.

I try to look around but I didn
’t even see what he pointed out in the binoculars, let alone any sign of a dwelling place in this area.

We walk a few more steps before Tony shakes his
head, looking perplexed. “No, I think we passed it.”

“
I didn’t see any signs of a cabin,” Alec says, scratching his head.

“
It’s very well hidden, at least from what I remember. We need to look closer,” Tony answers while he turns around and starts doubling back.

We walk slowly
, examining the landscape around us carefully. After we walk a few hundred yards, I make out something from the corner of my eye. I look a little closer and find something sticking out of the snow. It’s small, red, and out of place. I wade through the snow so I can examine the little piece of red metal. My knee hits something in the ground just below the red flag-looking thing. I reach my hand out and gingerly touch the piece of metal. It takes only a second for me to grasp what this is. I start brushing snow off around the metal and find that it’s screwed into the side of a brick base. I push more snow off the structure to find the black mailbox door.

“
A mailbox,” Tony says simply.

I turn and smile at him
, then I look back at my dad. The memory of the few times I was allowed out of the house in the years prior to Project ELE, comes flooding back to me. I would walk with my dad each evening out to the mailbox. Together, we would take the mail from the box and place it in a sterilized bag. He would sometimes leave a letter or a small package in the mailbox for the postman. My dad would then allow me to raise the small, red flag that tells the postman that there’s outgoing mail to be picked up. I always felt so official raising the little warning flag. It’s strange thinking back on it now. I used to breathe in deeply on those short trips outside. I’d try to take in all the landscape I couldn’t see from my windows. I used to wonder what life on the outside would be like if we didn’t have to stay indoors all the time... Now I know. Sometimes I find myself longing for those times of simplicity—when even if everything
wasn’t
all right in the world, in my child’s mind, it was.

Tony puts his hand on my shoulder
and gives it a squeeze. “The house must be down that way just a little,” he states.

I
begin to notice that the trees are spaced out in a way that tells us they line a trail, or a driveway. With the snow covering everything, those telltale signs are hard to spot. Walking around the mailbox, we gesture for the others to follow us. We walk a few yards before we see the outline of a fireplace breaking out from behind brush and overgrown trees.

“
This is the place. This is it!” Tony says excitedly. He starts walking quickly towards it—a man on a mission. The closer we get, the more we can spot the features of the huge log cabin behind the vegetation and under the snow. It’s just not noticeable from the road but up close, it’s very much a house. Great camouflage—perfect for our situation.

There isn
’t an entryway on this side of the house. We walk around it to the back and find the porch. It wraps around the side of the cabin and is covered in snow. This side is much clearer and easier to see. Windows cover nearly every inch of the home along the porch. I turn to see the view that the owners must have built the house to capitalize on. Mountains for as far as you can see line the landscape, looking perfectly majestic in all their glory.

“
It’s unlocked!” Claire calls.

I turn to find Connor and Claire hustling inside
with Lillie. “Wait, shouldn’t we check it out first?” I yell.

“
Nothing’s here,” Tony tells me. “I don’t know how I know that, but I can feel that this place is empty and has been so for a while.” He holds out his hand for me to take.

I nod my head and take his hand.
If it’s good enough for Tony, then it’s good enough for me. Together, we follow the others inside.

The
cabin appears to be much larger than it looked on the outside. The windows give it plenty of natural light. Ceilings that soar up to a large skylight give it a grandiose appeal. Alec and Marya start pulling the white dust covers off all of the furniture. The rich, leather furniture and high-end accessories tell me that this home belonged to some people that were quite well off.

“
I wonder who lived here,” Mayra says in wonder after she pulls a dust cloth off a large china cabinet filled with silver and fine china.

“
I don’t know but I hope their propane tank is still in working order,” my dad calls from the other side of the room. He’s standing next to a gorgeous, double-sided fireplace that divides the living room and formal-dining room. River rock covers the outside of the fireplace and reaches all the way to the ceiling, giving a warm accent to the room. My dad flips a switch next to the fireplace. Nothing happens. He grabs a long lighter from the mantel, lights it, and places it over the gas logs. A second later, the gas catches flame and the fireplace lights up the room with an orange glow.

“
Sweet!” Connor says. He takes Claire and they sit in a large, oversized chair next to the fireplace. Connor rubs his hands to get warm and Claire snuggles close to him.

I smile when I see
Lillie walk up to them. Her freckled face looks a little unsure, but when Connor pats his leg, her face lights up and she climbs into the chair with them. They sit together like a small family. Claire says something that makes Lillie giggle. Lillie shows Claire how one of her front teeth is loose. Claire and Connor both appropriately ooh and ah and congratulate her on her upcoming loss of her first tooth, promising her a trip from the tooth fairy.

“
This kitchen is drool worthy!” Carrie calls out from another room. “And it has a gas stove!” she exclaims.

I walk past the formal
-dining room that has an exquisite chandelier hung low over a long, mahogany table that sits at least twenty. Several dust cloths cover large paintings in the room. The kitchen is just beyond it. I walk into the room to see Carrie gushing over the industrial-sized, stainless steel appliances, the tall, cherry-wood cabinetry, and the black, granite counters. The kitchen island has a pot rack hanging over it, filled with expensive copper pans and pots. Colorful, yet tasteful dishes are displayed in some of the glass front cabinets, giving a splash of liveliness to the room. A small kitchen table sits in a nook that has bay windows facing the mountains. “It’s beautiful!” I tell Carrie.

She smiles with excitement.
“I’ve only seen kitchens like this in magazines or on those fancy cooking shows. I’ve always wanted to have one.”

“
Well, now you have one,” my dad says to her.

“
This place is hardly mine,” she says with a playful pout.

“
I don’t see anyone claiming it,” my dad tells her.

She grins.
“I could sleep in here.”

“
That wul hurt your booty, Ms. W,” Sabby says to her.

She gushes at him
, then continues perusing the cabinets and drawers, oohing and ahhing over the fancy gadgets and appliances.

“
Check this out!” Alec calls from the other side of the house.

Tony and I walk together back through the living room and near the front door. A staircase leads to the top level of the home and another long hallway leads to a door just behind the staircase. Alec is inside the room behind the stairs. I walk in to find a fancy office and library. It smells like leather and cigars fr
om a long history of smoking indoors. You can tell the room definitely belonged to a man. Dark browns, blacks, and greens make up the furnishings. A spiral staircase leads to an upper level of the library. A tall ladder connected to a track in the ceiling allows someone to access the books that are up high.

Connor runs into the room and jumps on the ladder. He goes sliding across the length of the bookcase.

“You’re such a dork,” Alec jabs.

“
Proud of it,” Connor says as he leans away from the ladder like Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Claire climbs up the spiral staircase and examines the books up top.
“Boring. These are all medical and science books.” She climbs back down.

All of us busy ourselves snooping around at the gadgets and odds and ends on the shelves and on top of the desk.
Connor picks up a pipe, puts it in his mouth, and pretends like he’s studiously smoking it.

“
Elementary, my dear Watson,” Connor says with a mock puff.

We all turn to look at him in confusion. What a totally random statement, even for Connor.

"What?" He pulls the pipe out of his mouth to speak. "My dad collected classic novels. You've never heard of Sherlock Holmes?"

We all shake our heads in unison.

"Well never mind then." He happily raises the pipe back to his lips and we all return to our search.

Another
, smaller fireplace is next to the desk. Marya walks over to it and starts pulling the dust cloth off a framed picture above the mantel. A second later, the cloth drops to the ground and she gasps.

I look over at her. She
’s trembling and staring with wide eyes at the painting. I look up at it and something lurches in my stomach. My heart begins beating double time as I stare at the portrait in horror.

Connor lets the pipe drop from his lips and he spits several
times, like it had some sort of disease on it.

Tony comes to my side and puts his arm around me to lend me his strength.
“I had no idea this was his house.”

I can
’t avert my eyes away from the oil painting of a family dressed in pristine clothes with serious expressions. The Hasting’s family. Dr. Hastings stands shoulder to shoulder with his late wife, whom I never met in person. In front of them, sitting in chairs, are Candy and Zack. They are the only two people in the portrait to have a somewhat smile etched on their faces. Their eyes are their natural color and they look younger, like this was painted several years prior. I shiver, realizing that three of the four people in that painting are no longer living. “This is the Hastings’s home.” I say the obvious with a tremor in my voice.

“
I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.” Tony pulls me closer to him.

I shake my head in disbelief.
“You couldn’t have known. What are the odds though?” I ask.

“
A million-trillion to one,” Connor interjects.

The tension is thick in the room. Marya, having
recovered from her shock, begins covering the picture up again. Claire jumps in and helps her.

My heart finally begins calming once the picture is no longer in view. I want to leave this room. I kind of want to leave this house but we
have taken up so much time finding it already and it’s not like the owners are coming back. Plus, Tony had a vision of us here. It’s technically safe and an ideal location for a hideaway. I try shaking off the creepy feelings.

Connor is the first to g
et back to snooping around. “That’s why he has all these science books.” Connor looks at the books on the wall again. Then he turns around and leans back against the bookcase. “Ahh!” he yelps as the shelf he’s leaning against begins moving backwards.

Claire grabs his arm just in time to keep him from falling
down when the bookshelf mysteriously opens up a panel in the wall.

We all inch closer together around the secret chamber Connor
discovered. Alec goes back to the desk and rummages through the drawers. He comes back with a flashlight and shines it inside the dark abyss.

The s
tairs lead downward toward some sort of secret basement. “This must be the basement from your vision,” I tell Tony.