Hard Hat Man (10 page)

“How about using the dining room down here to sort the smaller items
?” Jan asked
.
“These big windows let in plenty of light. And we should have water and electricity by tomorrow.”

“
Okay
,”
Laura
agreed. They began
by
removing the dust from the dining room table and chairs.

Laura
swep
t
the floor while Jan began bringing items to the table. It was slow, dusty work, but had to be done.

Jan took a box to the family room and brought several loads of books down to the table where her mother began sorting them into piles. “Be sure to label the boxes, Mom,” she said. “Do you want their family
Bible
?”

Laura
shook her head. “No. I’ve got too much junk already.”

“
Their
Bible
isn’t junk, Mom. It has their family records in it.”

Laura
shrugged,
not
swayed by that argument.

“
Then put it in my box to be saved, okay?” Jan said. “And I’d like some of these crocheted doilies, too.”

“Really?”
Laura
said, turning up her nose. “They’re so old-fashioned.”

“I know. But Aunt Esther and Grandma made them, so I’d like them for a keepsake
,
okay?”

“Suit yourself, dear.”
Laura
wrote, ‘Jan’ on a box and put the
Bible
and doilies
in
it.

As Jan went back to the living room with another empty box, she heard crying. She glanced at the easy chair beside the fireplace and froze. Aunt Esther sat in the chair, crying. This time, she looked up at Jan, sending her a beseeching look, as though asking for hel
p. But she didn’t say anything.

“Mom!” Jan yelled.

“What is it?”
Laura
peered in the door. “What’s wrong?”

Jan pointed at her aunt. “A-Aunt Esther! See?”

Laura
looked at the chair, then back at Jan. “I
mpossible. Esther is dead. I
don’t see anything, Jan.”

Jan took a step closer, then another, reaching out to touch her aunt. But
as Jan’s hand reached her,
she
disappeared.
The chair was empty.
Feeling weak and woozy
,
Jan reached behind her for the sofa.

Laura
quickly took her arm and eased her down
o
nto the upholstered seat.
“Here, sit down. I’ll get you some water.” She went back to the dining room and got a bottle of water from the ice chest they’d brought. “Drink this.”

Jan sipped the water, then insisted, “I saw her, Mom. Esther was crying
just like the last time
. She looked right at me, as though begging me for help.”

“I’m sure you thought you saw her, dear,”
Laura
said, patting her hand. “
But there
is
nothing
in
th
at chair
.
See how dusty it is? If someone had sat in it, the dust would be smudged or gone and it’s not.
You’re
probably just
having
an emotional reaction to being in her house
and having to deal with all the stuff she left behind
.”

“Twice, Mom?” Jan asked. “I’ve never seen ghosts before. And I’m not an emotional person, normally. I’m basically calm and controlled. And I know what I saw.”

Laura
shuddered and glanced around the room. “Well, whatever it was, it seems to be gone, now. So let’s get back to work. It’ll be dark soon.”

“Okay.” Jan rose and moved to the built
-
in cupboards
on either
side
of
the fireplace and opened one door. “There are quite a few photo albums in here. How about
I
just take them home to sort out later?”

“
Good idea.
Those
wi
ll take hours to go through.
Will you have enough room in your little car?
Maybe you could box them up and ship them to your apartment? We won’t have time to go through them all before I have to leave tomorrow.
”

“All right.” With a sigh, Jan agreed.
Th
is project was going to eat up more and more of her summer vacation time.

They worked for a couple more hours
.

As promised, t
he garage
returned her car, complete with new tires, so,
as dusk set in,
they
went back to town, taking a box of photo albums to examine at their motel.
After showering off the dust from their work, they
put on clean clothes and
went to
a different
little restaurant for dinner.

The scents of coffee and French fries met their nose as they walked in. A harried waitress carrying a large tray of food greeted them with a smile and a cheery, “Sit anywhere,” then moved on to deliver her orders to a noisy table full of teenagers.

They found a
table
towards the back and perused the menu stuck in a holder. A few minutes later, a waitress came over and took their orders.

“I can’t believe I’ll be thousands of miles away by dinner time tomorrow,”
Laura
said. “I’ll miss everyone. But this is my job.”

“I know, Mom. I’ll miss you, too,” Jan replied, patting her mother’s hand. “You’ll just have to convince your husband to come back for visits more often.”

Laura
pursed her lips
and sighed
, shaking her head
. “
Carl doesn’t like to travel
.
And it’s not easy for me to get time off the set, either. Screws up their shooting schedule, you know.”

Jan nodded and leaned back for the waitress to set plates in front of them. “Oh, this smells good!”

Laura
eyed the chicken fried steak. “Oh, it does. But goodness, I’ll bet it’s fattening. Why didn’t I just order a salad? I’ll have to diet for a week to make up for eating this.”

Jan smiled at her mother’s comment.
Laura
always said things like that, but seldom followed through. “
Only eat half
,
then. But
Mom, you know you can eat anything and never gain an ounce.”

“Hmm,”
Laura
said with a sniff. “You just never see me dieting. I do it in private.”

Jan raised a disbelieving brow and cut into her steak. No point in arguing with
Laura
. You could never win.

Half-way through the delicious meal, a portly man
in a business suit stopped by their table. “
Laura
, my dear, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

Laura
glanced up and smiled. “Oh, Erick, you silly man, you know my daughter. Jan, you went to school with Erick
Andrews
the year we lived here, remember?
About fifth grade maybe?
Now he’s all grown up and
was your Uncle Horace’s lawyer.”

Jan eyed the man, trying for the life of her to find some resemblance to a classmate without success.
What was her mother up to now? Why hadn’t she mentioned that Mr. Andrews was her former classmate before? Was she matchmaking again? Honestly, this was too much.

Erick seemed to be
having trouble remembering her, too.
“Oh? Then I should remember you.
Please, call me Erick.
You’ve grown into a lovely lady.”

“Thanks
, uh, Erick
.
” Jan shook his hand.

“Would you like to join us?”
Laura
asked.

“Oh, no, I’m
with another client over there,” he said, waving at a table on the other side of the noisy room.
“Maybe we could have dinner tomorrow night?”

Laura
shook her head. “I have to fly to London in the morning. “But maybe Jan could…”

“No,
thank you,
” Jan said. “I’m going to be very busy cleaning out the house.”

“Oh, but you still need to eat,” Erick protested.

“Thanks anyway, but I’m sure I’ll be too tired to be good company after a long hot day of sorting stuff,” Jan said firmly.

“Well, if you change your mind,” Erick said, pulling out a business card and handing it to her. “Or
call me
if any problems come up at the house.”

He ran a pudgy hand through his thinning blond hair, a diamond ring sparkling in the overhead florescent lighting of the restaurant.

Jan frowned. “I thought the sale was complete. Why should there be any problems?”

“Oh,” Erick said nervously, “I’ve been hearing rumors of lawsuits. Seems some of the neighbors aren’t pleased with what is going to be built there.”

“Why not? What’s wrong with more homes and a shopping center for a small town?”

Erick shrugged. “Some say it will hurt the little, older shops that have been here a long time. I’d better get back now. If you need me, just give me a call, anytime.” He sidled away.

Jan frowned at her mother, who was busily eating, pretending not to be concerned. “So you knew there might be more problems with this?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, dear. I’m sure most of the talk is just that—hot air that won’t amount to a hill of beans.”
Laura
gave her a wan smile and sipped her hot tea.

Yeah, right.
Jan’s stomach churned with worry and she pushed away her half-eaten meal.
“We’d better get back to the motel. You have to pack and we need to get some sleep
. Remember,
I have to drive you to the airport early in the morning.”