The Demon Conspiracy (24 page)

18

SATURDAY MORNING
MANNERS

GRANNY

Granny Price had worked at
Mike’s Pub for a week and was getting used to coming home after
three in the morning, especially on the Friday night shift. She’d
done bouncer work before, and Mike’s place was typical. She’d
broken up two fights and tossed out an obnoxious drunk who kept
spilling his beer on people he didn’t know. Basically it was
another day at the office, only this weekend she got her first
paycheck. She could finally give Angie and Chris rent money and not
feel like a moocher. She was thankful to have the work, especially
when her labor skills were somewhat limited. But a vague inner
torment had churned in her gut since she’d started the job and
tonight she finally figured out what the problem was. Because of
her late-night hours she rarely saw her new family, and she
missed
them.

The revelation had come as a complete shock.
Before Matilda had transformed into Granny, she’d looked out for
herself and had done everything her own way in her own time. She’d
spent most of her life as a confirmed bachelorette who’d gotten set
in her ways and wouldn’t tolerate intrusions from family or
friends. When she eventually figured out how selfish she was being,
the loneliness set in. Soon after that she suffered an emotional
breakdown. It wasn’t easy to admit she’d been a worthless mother.
At that point Matilda knew something had to change in her life or
she was going to die alone, her heart ruined by guilt.

That’s when she decided to find her family
and give them a try. Now that she knew them the family bug had
bitten her. She really liked the kids and she wanted to connect
more with Angie and Chris, too. But because of her work hours she’d
hardly seen them since they met. It was kind of a slap in the face,
really, because in a way, her life hadn’t changed. Here she was
living in the same house with the family she wanted to know, but
their paths rarely crossed. She was asleep when they went to school
or work, and they were asleep when she got off, except for Chris,
who spent way too much time in the basement and not at work. He had
to be running out of sick days. She wanted to speak with Angie
about it, to find out if everything was okay between them, but she
saw her daughter about as often as she saw the kids, which was
practically never. The few times they did meet, especially
recently, Angie had been upset and distant. Something had happened
to Chris and Jon during some cave adventure, and Granny knew
nothing about it. Kelly had told her it was a long story. Matilda
decided to take the time to hear it out, every last word.

Matilda
,
when you wake up
you’re going to talk to everyone in this house
until you’re completely caught up with all the good
stuff
.

She had a plan and decided to set her alarm
clock an hour earlier than the usual one P.M. It wasn’t a big
difference, but the kids weren’t in school and Mike had closed the
bar because of plumbing problems that couldn’t be fixed until
Monday. She had a rare Saturday night off, so there’d be plenty of
time to become reacquainted with the family. First she needed a
good night’s sleep, because nobody wanted to be around Matilda
Price when she hadn’t slept enough. When she was tired, she could
be downright dangerous.

Granny washed down a peanut butter sandwich
with a glass of warm milk and dragged herself to bed. She was eager
to see her family, but right now she was exhausted and
nothing—absolutely nothing!—would get her out of bed before
noon.

PARRISH

Dr. Parrish arrived at his old house a
little after seven in the morning and began unloading tools and
lumber right away. He noticed Angie’s minivan was gone next door,
which meant they’d probably left early for the chess tournament.
Good, their place was empty. He would have liked to see Kelly play,
especially after she trounced him three times in his classroom, but
he didn’t want to bother anybody with his noise.

Parrish carried a bulky miter saw with one
hand and a stack of eight-foot-long trim under his other arm. He
set everything on the porch and wondered if anybody had broken into
the house while he’d been gone for the last two years. What if all
the materials he’d left inside had been stolen? He hoped not, that
would cost a fortune.

Returning to the truck he
felt a twinge in his shoulder and glanced back at the porch. The
mitre saw wasn’t
that
heavy. He rubbed the sore spot, then realized he’d let
himself go weak. That settled it. He could either get back to the
gym soon and start working out again, or just admit he was getting
old.

None of his friends knew it, but Parrish had
been a terrific athlete in high school and college, playing
football and throwing the shot put and discus in track. In his
youth he’d had tremendous power and speed, but now, at age
fifty-six, he had trouble recalling exactly how powerful and how
fast he’d once been. He could still remember his forty-yard dash
times and the distances of his throws, but the feeling of extreme
fitness was pretty much gone.

Parrish leaned on the hood of his old red
Toyota pickup truck and studied the run-down house. When he and
Colleen had purchased the place they couldn’t wait to fix it up and
move in next to their friends, Angie and Chris. But when Colleen
got sick, they forgot all about the house. And when she died,
well—

This was the first time he’d seen the place
since before the funeral. The memory brought back vivid images of
his wife dressed in her blue jean coveralls and red baseball cap.
Something about that outfit had really attracted him. He hung his
head sadly. He’d never find another woman like Colleen.

In spite of his sadness, seeing the old
place again brightened his spirits. He stood up straighter than he
had for the last two years with a new look of determination on his
face. If he remembered correctly the hardwood floors needed
refinishing and tile still had to be laid in the kitchen and
bathrooms. He also had to put underlayment in the kitchen and trim
out the bedrooms. He shook his head as the jobs came back in a
wave. He needed to make a list.

Twenty minutes later Parrish had made up his
mind what to work on first. As soon as he got started memories of
his late wife arrived in a flood. At one point he broke down and
cried. But he gathered his emotions, wiped his eyes and forced
himself to keep going. Soon enough the hard work made him forget
about his grief, at least temporarily. His primary tools of the day
were the loud, screeching miter saw, an air hammer, and a claw
hammer. Parrish actually enjoyed the noise because to him, noise
meant progress. He was amazed at how much progress one person could
make when he had the right tools.

GRANNY

Granny rolled over in bed and squinted
sleepily at the ceiling. What in the world

woke her up? She normally slept like a dead
person, so it must have been something really loud and unexpected,
like a jet engine or an atomic bomb going off. She lay there a few
minutes, pondering the possibilities and slowly drifted back to
sleep.

Suddenly, a power saw screamed from the
house next door. Granny nearly leaped out of bed. She squeezed her
eyes shut and tried her best to ignore the irritating sounds.
Moments later a mind-piercing, rhythmic hammering occurred, which
was followed by another blast of that
fingernail-on-a-chalkboard-screeching saw. She reluctantly opened
one weary eye and glanced at the alarm clock. It was only half past
eight.

“No way. Somebody needs a lesson in Saturday
morning manners!”

Wearing only her tattered gray warm-ups,
Granny left the house and walked barefoot across the dew-sodden
lawn. She passed an old, red pickup truck and marched up the front
porch of the house next door. She knocked, perhaps a little too
hard, as the force cracked one of the stained glass panel windows.
Several pieces of glass tinkled across the floor inside. A moment
later the door flew open.

A huge man towered over her, his face red
and sweaty from work. She glared up at him fearlessly, daring him
to say a thing about his stupid broken window. They stepped toe to
toe, both ready for a fight.

“You broke my window!” he said angrily.
“What’s your problem, lady?”

“What’s
my
problem?
What’s
your
problem? You’re out here at this ungodly hour makin’ all that
racket! Some of us work late, you know! I need my
sleep!”

In her anger and readiness for a fight, she
hadn’t really looked at him. All she knew was this big lout was
keeping her awake. Either he remedied the situation, or there was
going to be trouble. But when she met his gaze for the first time,
determined and angry, something quite unexpected happened.
Matilda’s anger melted in a sudden, measureless moment. She covered
her mouth with one hand, completely surprised by her new feelings,
but also to stop herself from saying anything else that would upset
this big, beautiful man. She didn’t want to admit it, but she’d
fallen in love with him at a single glance. If her heart hadn’t
turned to jelly, she would have been embarrassed.

Right off she knew she’d
blown it. Here was a man—
her
man—the man of her dreams, and his first
impression of her was a brutal, angry old bat with the compassion
of a Nazi storm trooper. She knew he would curse her all the way to
hell, and she would stand by and take it, helpless to stop him or
even to want to. If he hit her in the head with a two-by-four, she
wouldn’t have minded. She almost wished he would, so they could
restart their relationship on even ground. Then she noticed his
expression had also changed. The anger was gone from his voice. His
gaze softened.

“Uh…uh…perhaps I
was
being a bit
thoughtless,” said the man, groping for words. “I’d be happy to
start later in the day. Maybe after lunch?”

“No,” said Granny. “No, really, it’s my
fault. You have a lot of work to do here all alone. I’m being
selfish. I apologize, it’s the way I am. I’m trying to change.”

“Mark Parrish,” said the man, holding out
his hand to shake.

“Matilda Price,” said Granny. “I’m Angie’s
mother. I’m staying with her and Chris for a while.” Out of habit
she squeezed his hand as hard as she could. He didn’t flinch. He
even seemed to hold back so he wouldn’t hurt her. He smiled and
held her hand a bit longer than was required for a handshake. She
was happy to let him.

“Matilda,” he repeated. “Lovely name. Chris
and Angie never mentioned you were staying with them. Uh, would you
care to tour the house?”

“I’d love to, Mark.”

They finally released each other’s hand and
walked into the foyer, careful to avoid any broken glass on the
floor. As she tiptoed around the glass, Granny realized that
nothing else in the world mattered. She could only ponder how
they’d found each other in this huge, often unforgiving world, both
lonely and perhaps a little angry at life. But now life seemed okay
again. Parrish and Granny smiled at each other as he went on with
the tour. Granny remembered how she was dressed and got
embarrassed.

“Oh, my. I’m sorry, Mark. I have to go
freshen up a bit. I haven’t even brushed my teeth. Excuse me.”

She walked off at a faster pace than normal,
leaving Parrish staring after her as she crossed the chilled, soggy
lawns again. A barrage of questions flew through her mind as she
went. Was Mark Parrish fixing up the house because he owned it and
was going to move in? Or did he work for somebody else who owned
it? He’d gotten very polite all of a sudden. Did that mean he liked
her, at least a little? Would he mind some help from a total
stranger?

It appeared there was plenty of work to do
on the house and Granny was just the person to help him finish up.
All at once it became perfectly clear why she’d spent seven years
of her life working construction in a man’s world. She’d done it so
that some day—today!—she could help Mark Parrish work on this
house. Nobody was better suited for the job than Matilda Price. She
knew how to swing a hammer.

PARRISH

Parrish finished placing the baseboard in
the master bedroom and stood up to admire his work. At least he
hadn’t lost any skill while he’d been away. He could still trim out
a house. He set his hammer in a tool bucket while he took a seat on
a portable workbench. Colleen Parrish had chosen all of the trim
and design points of the master bedroom. She’d had a decorator’s
eye combined with incredible good taste. Parrish studied the window
seat they had built together and nodded approvingly. But he wasn’t
just thinking about the window seat.

He sighed heavily. “I’m
sorry, Colleen,” he said aloud. “But I think the time has come for
me to move on. She seems nice, you know? It’s what you wanted,
remember? I don’t know where she came from, but I think she likes
me. I
know
I like
her.”

When he heard a light knock at the front
door, Parrish rushed down the stairs. He opened the door and saw
Matilda Price standing before him dressed in denim coveralls with a
red plaid work shirt and a New York Yankees ball cap. She also wore
work boots and a tool belt with a hammer dangling in the strap.

“Chris had some tools in the garage, looked
like they’d never been used. I’ve come to work,” she said, looking
very pretty with makeup and her hair in a bun. She became a little
shy. “That is, if you need the help.”