“You can.That’s what the other crew has been working on.The upper level will be finished in about a week.I know that the bathrooms are finished as well.I got the report on them being finished up just this morning, and that’s what brought me out here.I was going to call you when I got here to tell you.”The two of them went up the lovely stairs, and he marveled at the banister.“I love how you had this put in.I wish I had thought of it.The natural wood looks really good, and it blends into the house very nicely.You did good for your first house.”
“It’s going to be my only house.That’s why I got something this large.In the event I ever find a wife, and she wants to have children, I want to be able to raise them in this house so that they’d have a forever home too.”He said he’d like it if he were to find himself a wife.“I’m not looking.I’m notnotlooking either, but for now I’m happy to be building a house and dating once in a while.People have gotten really strange around us since we all have money.It’s like they’re out to get something for nothing.”
“That’s not true of everyone.I hope you know that.”He said that he did.“Good.You’re much too young and a new millionaire to be jaded this soon.You should date more.I know you’ll find that people will just be happy that you’ve gotten out from under the farm and are doing well.”
“I guess you’re right.”He looked through the six bedrooms and was amazed at how close they were to being done.They were painting the rooms for him, and he was glad that he’d just gone with white on all the walls.He could always change it out later, but for now, the neutral color suited the house.He and David headed to the master bedroom.“I went all out in here.I wanted this to be someplace that if I ever got a wife, she’d be happy to spend time in here.It’s why I went with the big windows so that we could see the forest behind the house in the fall months.Just look how beautiful the trees are now.”
The floor-to-ceiling windows were beautiful.They were going to have light-darkening blinds on them so as not to keep them awake when the sun came up.There was a gas fireplace in the room for those colder nights, and enough room that they could have a television and a couple of chairs in the room if he wanted.He was looking forward to getting into his house and making it a home.He thought that he could sleep in the house tonight if he wanted.
They toured the rest of the house until they got in the way.With so many people working, there were people everywhere.Once they were outside and in the back yard, he could see that the pool was finished and that the concrete decking around it was all but finished.He sat down on the deck on one of the wire wheels and thought about what had happened when he’d been out here before.
“I didn’t think this part would be done before spring.I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me.”He said it was his pleasure.“It was more than that, and I think you know it.You’ve been a great role model for the six of us, and I wish every day that you and Alice had been our parents.If I have any children, I want you to know that they’re going to know you as Grandma and Grandpa.”
The tears from the older man startled him, and he told him he was sorry if he’d upset him.He’d not, he told him, but made him feel like he was on top of the world.After several hugs and him telling him that he loved him, Gleason had to wipe at his own tears.The man had done so much for them that he was happy to have him as a friend.
His own father had never beaten them, but he certainly made it known that he could.The night that he killed their mother, it had been a bloodbath.Even to this day, he had nightmares about what had happened.While they were all in the room, their biological father had beaten their mom nearly to death, then strangled her with her own belt.After she was dead and the police were on their way, he decided that he was going to chop her up with the chainsaw, and might have gotten a start on it before the police had arrived if not for the fact that it wasn’t starting.The worst part was the part that gave him nightmares today was that they’d been making strawberry jam that day, and with all the blood mixed into it, none of them ate any kind of red jam or fruit since then.He’d killed her because she’d told him no, he couldn’t have his drunken friends over for a party, as she was busy.None of them hadever gone to see him in prison before or after his death.
After David left the site, he hung around for a few hours more just looking at all the work being done.By the time he’d left, the living room was finished, and the kitchen only needed the stove and refrigerator put in before it was finished.It amazed him what money could do for you when you had it to spare.
~*~
Hailey liked Rosie.She didn’t ask her questions about her life, and they got along well when they were making pizzas.Everyone seemed to know her, too.Which was both good and bad.She would introduce her to everyone who came in, too, so that they’d know her as well.She felt like if she ever wanted to talk to someone, she’d be the one to do it with.She’d no more tell on her than she would her husband.Who came in a lot too just to see his pretty wife.
She was still living in the greenhouse.No one had come by to do anything to it, for which she was grateful.It was warm at night, and she had a good place to sleep.It wasn’t the most comfortable of places to sleep—she’d been sleeping on bags of soil—but it served the purpose that she needed it for.What she wouldn’t give for a real bath or shower.There was warm water at the place, but only a hose for her to use as a shower.
“Wylie is coming to have dinner with me.I’ve not worked nights before, so this is a change for the two of us.”She said that she could cover things until they got too busy.“Thanks.I knew I could depend on you.You’re very sweet.”
“Thanks.”She didn’t know what to say to her other than that, so she walked away.She’d been working nights for the past three days and thought it was better than days.She could sneak off to her greenhouse, where she was staying, and no one ever knew.By the time she was home, however, she was freezing as the weather had turned cold, but she’d warm up in no time once she was there.Seeing the newspaper, she wondered again if the Pennington man who wrote for it was related to Rosie and her husband.There couldn’t be that many of them around other than the six that she knew of, but she did wonder about their relationship.
“Would you like to join us?”She was startled out of her musing when Wylie asked if she wanted dinner with them.“There aren’t any orders in right now, so you could sit down and have a couple of slices with us for a bit.”
“No thanks.I have already eaten.I get to have a salad for free every night, and I take it home with me to eat in the afternoon.”She smiled at the man.“Thank you, though.You two have a nice meal.I’m going to just read the paper while I have time.”
“My brother has been keeping up with the things going on out at theGolden Sheep.He speculates a great deal, but some people agree with him on what’s going on.Do you have any idea what might be going on out there?”Alarms went off in her head, and she had to swallow twice before she could answer him.“I just thought that I’d ask.He does a good job of writing it out in a way that doesn’t seem as if he’s taking sides.I’m all for the theory that there was meth being made on the property and a large cartel came in and decided to shut them down in a permanent way.”
“I heard that too.”She had.From just about anyone who came into the place.Also, fifty people had been killed when the restaurant blew up.It hadn’t, but it did catch fire and burned it to the ground.“Just about everyone has a story to tell, it seems.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.Do you have one?”She said only what she read in the newspaper.“Well, you enjoy it.I’ll tell Ara that you were reading it.He’ll get a kick out of someone actually reading his articles.I think he thinks no one does.”
“I only read the paper when someone leaves it here while waiting for their pizza.”She didn’t want to be a part of this conversation anymore and stepped behind the counter.“You enjoy your dinner with your wife.”
The night that the place had been raided, she’d been about to go through the door.But as soon as she opened it to go in, several police officers dressed in dark suits with helmets on came into the place and rushed her down the hall past the time clock.Had anyone been shooting, she would have beenkilled before the police arrived, and she’d been terrified.While they were looking around for what had happened, Hailey was asked questions she didn’t have answers to and told to sit down on her knees.The officer who had been in charge, a McGee, had been a jerk to her, and she didn’t like him at all.
But he had released her, and that had been his mistake.She hadn’t been back to her place since that night, and she’d not taken her car.She had plenty of money to rent a hotel, but she was trying to lay low.Jamie Sheppard, no relation to her, had told her to be ready to bug out if anything happened.Taking him at his word, she had a duffel full of clothing, money, and food to eat while on the run.And she’d been hiding out since.She didn’t fully understand why she had to hide out, but Jamie made it sound like it was life or death, and whatever had happened had cost him his life.She’d been hiding in plain sight since that night, and no one until tonight asked her about theSheep.
She knew that Rosie had been the former Chief of Police.And that no one cared all that much for the chief who was running the place now.He’d been acting like a jerk since she’d met him out at the restaurant, and her opinion hadn’t changed about him since.The man had a strange way of looking at things, and she avoided him as much as possible while not hiding away.She thought it was funny when he’d come in to get some pizzas for dinner and not have a clue who she was.The woman that he’d been searching for since a week after theSheephad burnt down.
All she’d heard was that he was looking for a woman.No one ever said her name, nor did they ask her if she was the one.The customers would come into the place, say how he was looking for a woman who was a key witness to the murders that had happened out at theSheep,and that he couldn’t find her from the things he’d gotten from her license.
Of course, he’d not been able to find her.She’d been able to get a driver’s license that had a close enough picture of her that she handed to the police that night.Thanks wholly to Jamie.She didn’t ask him where he’d gotten it, but kept it just in case, all the same.She was glad that she had listened to the older man who had done dishes with her for the three years that she was employed there.
After Wylie left, she never got busy enough that she needed the extra hands from Rosie; she set about cleaning the area up.It would be closing time in thirty minutes, and she didn’t want to have to hang around any longer than she had to.Rosie was cleaning the dining room when another Pennington walked in the door.
They all looked like each other.All of them were handsome and nice.This one she didn’t know all that well, so when he ordered a cheese pie to go, she made it up for him.He started talking about theSheepas soon as she started on his pizza.
“My brother has it in his head that you’re the one that they’re all looking for.”She nearly cut her hand off, slicing the hunks of cheese he wanted on his pizza.“I told him that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with that theory, as you seemed like a nice woman.Rosie thinks highly of you.”
“I like her too.”She finished up his pizza and put it in the oven.With nothing more to say to the man, she waited for the pie to come out the other end.He asked her if she’d had anything to do with the things that had gone on out at the place.“I’m not sure what you mean.”
