Page 29 of Meet Me on Greenwood

I had more questions, but Maise was already out the door. I watched Gema for a couple minutes in silence before opening my phone to look at my last big order. Every month the customer asked for something new and bought more than the previous month. I’d been deeply flattered. The client had bought it under her business name, H.H., but I hadn’t bothered to look up who owned it. I’d always assumed she was some fancy art dealer. As I clicked through the website, I began to wonder if it was really a person at all, or a scam artist reselling my work as their own. When I did a reverse search on the P.O. Box, my stomach dropped. It went to an address in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I thought more about the name and did a search of Gema’s business and gasped. House of Helen.

I looked at my older sister, sleeping silently, unable to answer the questions I had for her. My first thought was that it was a mistake, that it was a coincidence the company was named H.H. That could be any company, and it didn’t matter that it happened to be headquartered in the same city where my sister lived. It didn’t mean anything that the art dealer didn’t seem to actually exist, and there were no pictures or mention of the owner. I knew I should be angry. I should feel humiliated that I’d thought I’d done something right, but all I felt was sad because I might never be able to thank her.

13

Gema

Stirred up by Chivalry

Iwoke in the middle of the night to the sound of knocking.

"Hello?" I sat up, yanking the covers to my chest as if they would protect me from whatever was outside. "Is anybody there?"

The knocking sounds stopped, which made it even more eerie. I quickly scanned the room to see if there were any weapons, but the only thing I found was a letter opener on my chest of drawers. Grabbing my robe, I tied it tight, walking on bare feet across the floorboards. I held the letter opener out in front of me as I turned the knob. The house on the other side of the door was pitch black except for lantern light coming from the kitchen.

Standing in the doorway, I scanned the house for movement, but all I could hear were the frogs outside. I swallowed.

"Is anyone there?" I called again. "I have a weapon."

Once I felt brave enough to venture out of my doorway, I walked around the house, searching to see if anything looked like it had been disturbed. Just when I was ready to give up, my eye caught on a trail of wet footprints leading down to the basement.

Turning toward them, I ran straight into something solid.

A scream came out before I could stop it, and then a hand was clamped over my mouth. I bit down hard, driving my heel back.

"Ow! Damn it—"

I spun around, letter opener poised to strike, to see Houston behind me. He stood cradling his hand, his expression caught somewhere between pain and surprise.

"Did you have to bite like a damned vampire? What are you doing out of bed?"

I shook my head. "I thought I heard something. I was frightened."

He pulled out a handkerchief to soak up the blood that was dripping from his hand. "Is this what you do when you have a bad dream?"

"It wasn’t a dream," I said. "I know what I heard.

Houston shrugged. "This house has its oddities. It used to be a plantation," he said looking around warily. "A lot of grieving souls."

"There were footprints." I brought him over to see the wet prints leading down to the basement.

"Those workers are always leaving a mess in the house. I’ll have to give them a piece of my mind."

"I thought you left," I said. Instead of the formal clothes he’d been wearing earlier, Houston was dressed in a pair of work pants and a loose pullover shirt. It looked casual, but not casual enough for sleeping.

"I—" he paused. "I just wanted to check that everything was alright here."

I looked around, noting that Lettie’s sheets on the couch were rumpled, but empty. "Where is Lettie?"

"Right here, child," she said coming in through the back door in a trench coat. "I couldn’t sleep on that couch, so I went for a walk," she said pulling off muddy boots.

I wasn’t sure why, but I felt as if something was out of place, like I was missing something.

"She heard a noise," Houston said.

Lettie’s eyes grew big as she turned to me. "It was probably me. I was trudging through the mud nearby. That, or it was the house settling."

"That’s what I said," Houston confirmed.