IWAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISEDto see two pickup trucks parked in the driveway when I finally arrived at Elijah’s Landing. I saw Second Chance Restoration emblazoned on the sides of both trucks and was grateful that Willis recommended a company that responded so quickly. Madge and I climbed out of the car and I waited patiently while she sniffed the yard until she found just the right spot to relieve her bladder.
“Good girl.” I patted her head once she returned to my side. We crossed over the threshold and took note of several guys with clipboards making notes. “Hello,” I called out and they all turned to look at me. The oldest man in the group tucked his clipboard beneath his arm and walked over to greet me.
“Hi there. Are you Noah McKinney?” He extended a hand after I nodded. “My name is Mack Henry and I’ll be the foreman on your job. I’m really sorry about what happened to your home, but we’ll get her back looking as good as new.”
“How bad is it?” I asked nervously.
“It could’ve been a lot worse if your neighbor hadn’t been a quick thinker by shutting off the main water valve.” He gestured for me to follow him. “The little shits cut a water line in the bathroom which caused it to flood out into the hallway. We brought in the huge fans they use in water restoration jobs to dry out the area and see if anything can be salvaged. If not, the walnut floors will need to be replaced.”
I could hear the large fans running as we approached the hallway. Rather than walk on the wet floors, I stood at the end of the hallway and assessed the damage I could see. I saw the discolored and disfigured floorboards and had serious doubts that they could be salvaged. “What’s the chance the flooring can be salvaged?”
“Maverick is convinced that they need to be replaced, but he agreed to let our head carpenter, Alex, give restoration a chance. Alex is my brother and a master carpenter. I can promise you that if we can’t salvage the flooring you won’t be able to tell the difference between the original pieces and the replacement pieces once Alex is done.”
I could only focus on one word that he said. “Maverick?”Could it be my Maverick?
Mack pulled a business card out of his shirt pocket and handed it to me. My heart thumped painfully in my chest when I saw Maverick Rodriguez listed as the owner. It was my Maverick, but he wasn’t really mine anymore. “He’s the owner and was the first to arrive at your house this morning. He’s very good at what he does, Mr. McKinney.”
I schooled my expression to look casual when I asked, “Is he here?”
“I’m sorry, but he had to finish up another job.” I was trained to read people and I could tell by the slight hesitation in his voice and the way his eyes shifted away from mine that he wasn’t telling me the truth. The question was why was he lying? “Let’s head upstairs and I’ll show you the rest of the damage. It’s mainly cosmetic and won’t…”
Mack continued to talk, but I was no longer listening.Maverick didn’t want to see me. He intentionally avoided me and his foreman lied to cover for him.Those were the thoughts that kept repeating themselves in my brain as I followed Mack up the stairs. Those thoughts reminded me of the hurt I felt when Maverick snuck out of my bedroom in the middle of the night and never reappeared. He didn’t show up to say goodbye to me the following morning like he had in all the years past. I was sad, but I chalked it up to him having a prior commitment with his family that he couldn’t get out of and forgot to mention. Then the first letter I had mailed him after I got home was returned to me by the post office. I called Aunt Minnie right away and she told me about them moving suddenly in the middle of the night.
Heartbroken. Crushed. Devastated. Those were words I’d use to describe how I felt, but they still wouldn’t adequately explain my emotions during that time. As if history was repeating itself, I felt that same stabbing pain in my heart as I experienced then. A hand on my arm pulled me away from the painful memories. I saw concern on Mack’s kind face and I realized that I hadn’t hid my feelings very well.
“I promise that this will all be a distant memory once we’re done.” He thought my sorrow was because of the damage to my house and not the memories of his boss that had haunted me for over two decades.
I finally focused on the graffiti on the walls and cringed when I saw the crude red spray paint on the creamy ivory walls. It was then that I felt the slight shift in the atmosphere followed by a chill in the air signaling that Elijah was present. I could feel his discontent as strongly as I felt my own. Some punk had come into our home and dared to taint the beauty of it.
“Were any other rooms vandalized upstairs?” I was thinking of my old room at the back of the house. I didn’t want the last place I had spent time with Maverick to be violated and was relieved when Mack told me which upstairs bedrooms had been vandalized. My old bedroom and the master bedroom had not been touched.
“The neighbor told Maverick that the kids were frightened by Elijah himself.” Mack rolled his eyes, which told me that he didn’t believe the house was haunted.
“Whatever the reason, I’m grateful that it wasn’t worse.” I released a frustrated sigh.
“Me too. We’ve got the plumbing repaired and the water turned back on. Jessie checked the electrical and everything is in good working order. A temporary replacement door will be installed until the new custom door can be replaced. That reminds me,” he snapped his fingers, “do you have a picture of the original door so we can have the new door made to match?”
“I have photos on my laptop in my car. Would you like me to print them?”
Mack shook his head and said, “You can email them to Maverick and he’ll take care of it.” He was completely unaware of how his words affected me. What would I say in the email to him? Pretend like I didn’t recognize his name. Pretend that it was okay that he had avoided me? My mind began to draft an email to him.
Dear Maverick,
Attached you will find a picture of the original front door at Elijah’s Landing. It’s doubtful that you remember it from when we were kids, as you preferred to climb through my bedroom window, fuck me, wait for me to fall asleep, and then climb back out into the night without so much as a goodbye.
Spirit fingers,
Noah
Yeah, that would go over like a lead balloon. I’d just keep it plain and simple in attempt to avoid any awkwardness. It suddenly occurred to me that Maverick might have been trying to do the same. My heart wanted to believe that he didn’t plan to avoid me for the entire job and he was only trying to give me time so I could be prepared when we did meet again. I wanted to think that his absence was an act of kindness - not cowardice.
“I’m going to head back downstairs and make sure we have everything finished that we can today. Tomorrow is a new day and we’ll be here at 8:30 a.m. to get started. Alex will know in the morning if the floors can be salvaged or if they will need to be replaced.” Mack patted me on the back and left me alone upstairs.
I walked into the hallway and stared at the closed door to my old room. I stopped staying in that room the final two summers I spent in North Carolina. Minnie never asked questions, because I was pretty sure she already knew the answers. I chose the master bedroom to sleep in when I came here to lick my wounds after Justin and I broke up. At the time, I told myself I was the master of the house and it was only fitting. I refused to acknowledge that I simply didn’t want to remember the way I hurt when I woke up alone that morning twenty-two years ago.
I laughed drily and shook my head at my ridiculousness. So much time had passed and we had both moved on from the sixteen-year-old boys we used to be. I had loved again, although never as intensely, and I was sure he probably had too. Maybe my adult relationships lacked the combustible chemistry that I had with Maverick, but they were founded on good judgment and not the highly charged emotions that horny teenagers feel.
I felt a cold draft along my back and it felt like Elijah was giving me a gentle nudge toward my old room. Damn pervert probably watched Maverick and I getting naked every chance he got. The irony wasn’t lost on me that the ghost of my great-great uncle was pushing me to face my own personal ghosts.
