Rooms: A Novel (7 page)

Yeah, maybe God had come through. Or Micah might simply be turning into a certifiable whacko.

A peal of thunder rolled over the house just before a flash of lightning filled the room. Micah didn’t bother to look up.

But it was over, right? He’d faced his mom’s death, and that was enough. Done. He’d never have to go there ever again.

If only more of him believed it.

He fumbled in his pocket. Yes. He pulled out his cell phone and called the one person who might have a clue about what was going on.

CHAPTER 11

Hello?”

“Rick, it’s Micah.” He stood with his forehead pressed against one of his picture windows and watched the ocean churn.

“Hey, buddy.”

Micah didn’t say anything. Telling someone his house was alive wasn’t something he’d been trained on in the corporate world.

“You there?”

“Yeah, I . . . need to talk.” Micah eased over to his river-rock fireplace and stared at the smooth stones. “About my house. And God.”

“Okay.”

Where to start? Not with the house or the memory room. He didn’t even want to talk to himself about it. Start with the God-stuff. “I think it’s time to check Him out again. Maybe. A little bit anyway.”

“
Star Wars.
”

“What?”

“Episode V,
The Empire Strikes Back.
Yoda. ‘Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.’”

“You’re quoting Yoda?”

Rick chuckled. “Truth is truth whether it comes out of the mouth of God or the mouth of Baal.”

“Pretty profound.”

“That’s not mine; it’s George MacDonald.”

“Who?”

“Not important. Want to tell me what happened?”

“Yeah. But not sure how much I want to tell.” Micah glanced at black ashes in the fireplace hearth. Good time for another fire.

“Say as much as you want to. But don’t say less than that either,” Rick said.

By the time flames dodged around three red cedar logs up the chimney, Micah had told his friend every detail except the scene with his mom. About the shrine room, the painting room, the memory room, his crying out to God and how it ended with God’s presence surrounding him.

“What’s going on with me?” Micah said.

“You really need me to answer that question?”

“Yeah.”

“God is grabbing your heart, drawing you back.”

“Not sure I want to be drawn back.”

There was only silence on the other end of the phone.

“So, was the memory room my imagination? I went back the next day, and it wasn’t there. C’mon. Am I having hallucinations or just losing my mind?” Micah stood and walked back to the place in the hall where the memory room had been. “God might be in this, but I don’t want to be in my own house anymore.”

“Einstein felt, at most, man had attained 1 percent of the possible knowledge of the universe. Do you think it’s possible God is able to do unexplainable things with the 99 percent we don’t understand?”

Micah sighed. “Maybe.”

“Then trust Him.” Rick cleared his throat. “But I will admit, if that room was for real, it sounds like you have a fairly extraordinary house. And I’d guess this is just the beginning.”

“Great.”

Micah hung up and threw a few things into his Adidas tote bag. He wasn’t going to spend the night. The house was extraordinary? Try freak show. It was time to head for Seattle. Get back to a world of sanity and order. A world he could control.

||||||||

The next week at RimSoft proceeded like clockwork. Every meeting. Every phone call. Every software test.

Late Thursday afternoon he went to his office window and watched little beads of rain scurry down the pane like ants on their way to a picnic. His team was working like a Swiss watch—precise and efficient. It was the best of times. RimSoft had just announced a 23 percent rise in sales for the quarter. The week before a vendor handed him a Seattle Seahawks suite. Another gave him an Italian cruise for eight friends and him aboard the
Wind Surf
anytime he wanted to go. And market share for each of their products was climbing.

Micah paced in front of his desk and tried to feel like a little kid at Christmas again. These were grown-up presents few ever found under the tree. He should be thrilled. He sat at his computer, and a few seconds later a satellite image of Cannon Beach filled his screen. After a few minutes of staring at his house from above, he shot an e-mail to Shannon giving her the Italian cruise. She would enjoy it much more than he would.

He scratched the back of his head and stood, then continued pacing. What was wrong with him?

That weekend he stayed in Seattle to break up his routine. That’s what he told himself. Reality was the house had spooked him into staying in town. Maybe Rick was right; God was in it. But maybe his dad was right, and Archie had built a haunted mansion that would eventually kill him.

Micah played basketball on Saturday, then took himself to a movie that night. He should have seen it with Julie. Why didn’t he ask her? She was smart, beautiful, and perfect at those cocktail parties where she always seemed to meet just the right people to bring them more contracts worth millions. An ideal business partner in the boardroom and on the schmooze circuit. They were perfect for each other. And they looked great together on the cover of
Fast Company.
Perfect couple. Perfect life.

Next month they’d be featured on the cover of
Wired.

He tried to care about being on top of the world, but the emotion flitted away like a startled hummingbird. His life with RimSoft and Julie was a movie set. Picture-perfect buildings from the front, every blade of grass in place; but when you went around the back, there was nothing but two by fours propping up a facade.

||||||||

Monday morning Micah walked through Schmitz Park, a lush green paradise even longtime Seattle residents sometimes weren’t aware of. Earmarked in the early 1900s for preservation by the city, it boasted long, winding paths running from the north side of Alki Point almost two miles south into the heart of West Seattle’s residential district.

In the center of the park, he sat down and gazed at the massive maple tree above him. A seedling whirled slowly down, back and forth like it was on an invisible string, till it landed on his knee. A feeling of peace flavored with hope and adventure settled on him. An emotion he never felt in Seattle anymore. One he felt almost constantly in Cannon Beach.

After roaming the trails for a few more minutes, he called Shannon.

“You’re not at the office,” she said.

“I took a walk.”

“A what? A walk? You took a walk?”

“Yeah. In a park.”

“Instead of coming in to work?”

“Yes.” Micah ambled toward his car.

“The temptation to ask why is bubbling out of me.”

“Don’t.”

“Then at least tell me if you came to any great conclusions about life, liberty, and the pursuit of software.”

“Actually, I did. And because of those conclusions, I need you to check and see if Julie’s free for lunch today. Or for an afternoon meeting. And if that’s booked, then dinner or breakfast and so on.”

“My internal radar says big change is coming.”

“Yeah.”

“Should I notify a disaster cleanup crew about the meeting?”

“Not a bad idea.”

||||||||

At one o’clock he walked toward Julie’s office with his heart ticking at least a few beats faster than normal. It wasn’t every day you dropped a nuclear bomb on your partner’s desk.

She didn’t look up as he walked in.

“We need to talk, Julie.”

“Okay.” Her eyes stayed riveted on her computer screen. “Are we still on hold? Or are you ready to give me an answer?”

“That’s what I came to talk to you about.”

“So this is the official breakup?”

“Not exactly.”

She stood and walked toward him, drumming her fingers on her arm in a staccato rhythm.

“I’m going to start working from the beach for a while.”

“You’re what?” Julie’s eyes narrowed. “One more time, please?”

“I’m going to split my time between working down there and working up here, mostly down there. Work fewer hours.”

“You are not seriously saying this.”

He leaned in toward her. “Yeah, I am, Julie. I am seriously saying it.”

She stalked to the window, then whirled to face him. “You’re insane. Look around you. It’s not the time to kick back. You think you’re going to telecommute? Yeah, that’ll work great. It’ll infuse the stockholders with massive confidence. Once the press gets a hold of it, I’m sure our sales will go through the roof. Plus it’ll suck the last breath of life out of our relationship.” Julie turned back to the window. “All I wanted was a ring.”

“I’m not breaking up!” Micah said louder than he intended. He rubbed his hands on his pants and glanced at the ceiling, as if it would give him the right words. “I just need to get away from here, do some thinking down there.”

“What will you think about? This company is your life.”

She was right. His entire identity was wrapped up in the company, which made his choice both crazy and exhilarating. What did he have in Cannon Beach? Memories he didn’t want to face, a seriously bizarre house that nearly killed him, and a friend twenty-three years his senior. Where was the draw in all that? Yet there was a draw. Deeper and more alive than anything he’d felt in years.

Julie lifted her palms. “Let’s pretend I agree to something that idiotic and pretend you’re not breaking up with me. What would you do with your extra time? Learn to fly a kite? Start painting again? Cook?!”

“Maybe.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

What
would
he do down there? He could only take beach runs and hang with Rick for so long. Three weeks and he’d go nuts. His life had been so ordered and driven for so many years he wasn’t sure what to do next. Free time? What was that? His iPhone was almost grafted onto his body. Between his to-do list and Shannon’s reminders, every moment for the past six years had been filled with goals, appointments, setting vision for the company, and worlds to conquer.

Julie sighed, walked over to Micah, and took his hands. “It’s just me. Let’s talk. No partnership. No RimSoft. No stock options. Just me before we gained the world.”

They stared at each other, Micah trying to tell her with his eyes why he needed this. Julie asking with hers how he could put the kingdom they’d sweated blood for on hold.

“I need to be there. Stay a while. Figure some things out.”

“Figure what out?”

“I don’t know. God maybe.”

“God? Are you kidding?” Julie pulled away and scowled. “I thought you gave up the Jesus-freak thing back in college.”

“This place, it’s . . . I’m drawn to it. I need to . . . I want to, find out . . . Come with me to Cannon Beach.” He looked into her eyes. “See what God is up to down there.”

“Wow. The ‘God told me to go’ argument. Insurmountable. And completely whacko.”

“Come with me.”

Julie closed her eyes. “You know that old Robert Frost poem about two roads diverging in the middle of the woods? You’re going down one road; I’m headed down the other.”

“Julie, no.”

She leaned toward him and kissed him on the cheek. “Good-bye, Micah.”

||||||||

Micah made it to Cannon Beach by five o’clock, the emotion of his talk with Julie completely faded by the time he arrived. He stopped at Rick’s to gas up before heading to the house. As Devin stretched his undersized dough-boy frame over Micah’s BMW to clean the windshield, Micah snuck up on Rick who was bent over the engine of a late-model Nissan.

Micah slapped him on his side and kept moving around to his right. “Hey, buddy!”

Rick straightened, almost whacking his head on the car’s hood. “What’re you doing here this early in the week? RimWare handing out sick days?”

“RimSoft.”

“It’s not RimWare? That would be a great name for your company. Rim
ware,
soft
ware.
Get it? You’re sure it’s not RimWare?”

“Pretty sure. Always been, always will be RimSoft.”

Rick stared at him for a few seconds. “Right.” He motioned up the street, and they walked onto the sidewalk and strolled toward a small park fifty yards north of his garage.

“Made a decision,” Micah said once they reached the park and could see the ocean.

“Yeah?”

As Micah explained his plan to work part time from Cannon Beach, a smile formed on Rick’s face.

“You’re not surprised.”

“The draw of this place can be powerful.” Rick’s grin grew.

“Tell me how you knew. I’m serious.”

“So am I. This place can be a magnet for certain kinds of people at certain points in their lives.” Rick folded his arms and turned toward the sea.

“There’s more to it than that.”

“You’ve got it all—looks, youth, money, fame, career.” Rick motioned wide with his arms out toward the water. “But a long time ago you had more. A lot more. You had the Lord. So much of Him in fact, you knew the other things on the list didn’t matter. Maybe He’s torching the list.”

“Maybe I don’t want it torched.”

“Your choice. Choose wisely.”

Micah gave him a crooked smile. “C’mon, Rick. Don’t hold back, no time to be shy here. Say what you really think.”

Micah laughed, and Rick joined him as they trudged back to Rick’s garage.

“Breakfast at the Fireside on Saturday?” Rick asked as Micah got into his car.

“Absolutely.”

||||||||

Rick watched Micah’s BMW till it crested the hill and vanished from sight. “And so, Mr. Micah’s even wilder ride begins.”