face.
“Nice braids,” Stebbs said.
“Shut up.”
Their visitors stayed through the evening, and Lynn brought some of the larger wood chunks inside to set upended to use as chairs. The four sat in a comfortable circle near the stove while they ate their supper, topped off with some peaches that Stebbs had brought along mixed with snow.
“It’s kinda like ice cream,” Lucy said, juice dripping down her chin.
“Kinda,” Stebbs answered.
“What’s ice cream?” Lynn asked.
“You poor deprived child.” Eli shook his head in mock despair, earning a whack on the back of the head from Lynn. She had found herself making excuses to touch him all day. Lucy had coaxed her out on the ice, and even though her balance was good, she’d slipped more than once when Eli was nearby. He always caught her neatly and propped her back on her feet, much to Stebbs’ amusement.
“I wish you had your guitar, Uncle Eli,” Lucy said, once they finished their peaches. “I’d like to hear a song.”
“You know, it’s funny, I forgot to grab it when the police kicked down my door and arrested me.”
Lucy crawled into Stebbs’ lap. “Do you have a guitar down in your secret basement?”
“No, little one, sorry,” he answered, smoothing her hair. “Wish I did.”
“I think there’s one in the attic,” Lynn piped up, to everyone’s surprise. “Seems like I’ve seen one up there.”
Lucy bounced up and down on Stebbs’ lap. “Go check! Go check!”
“I’ll come with you.” Eli stood with Lynn and followed her up the stairs after grabbing a flashlight. Lynn opened the door into the kitchen.
“I haven’t been inside a real house in a while,” Eli said, flashing the light off the walls. “Almost feels funny.”
“It’s weird, sometimes when I think about it,” Lynn said. “This is my own house, and I never use it. Mother grew up here, her dad was raised here too, but all I ever see is the basement.” She didn’t add that having Eli beside her in the upstairs should feel weird too, but it didn’t.
“You never come upstairs?”
“Rarely. The bathroom here on the first floor is set up so that we can use it, and Mother stored a lot of stuff in the attic. But mostly no, we stayed in the basement.”
“Why’s that?”
“Easier to heat in the winter, stays cool in the summer. Only one access door and the windows are too low to the ground to pose much of a threat. Anyone tries to come in those we’ve got an advantage on them. The windows here on the first floor are a good eight feet long, at least four to a room. Impossible to defend.”
They walked through the dining room and into the living room, where Eli looked at the windows in question. “It’s such a waste,” he said. “I know it’s a smart decision, staying downstairs. But this is a beautiful old house; you’ve got all this space and these high ceilings. In the city, even in the nicer part where we lived, there’d be ten people living in a space this large.”
Lynn shuddered at the thought and led him to the curved staircase. “I had a bedroom upstairs for a while. I remember, kinda, what that was like. Attic’s here, watch your step.”
The door opened onto a narrow staircase that led up into a gabled room. Eli followed Lynn up the stairs, flickering the light in front of her so that she could see. “Look at all this stuff.”
The walls were lined with furniture, old bulky antiques that had once filled the downstairs rooms. Steamer trunks were against one wall, tightly rolled area rugs leaned against the other.
“Mother moved most everything up here a long time ago,” Lynn said. “She figured anyone foraging for stuff would look in the downstairs windows and think our house had already been emptied of anything useful.”
“Who would steal a piano?” Eli asked, striking one lonely key that rang out through the small attic.
“Nobody, probably. But Mother didn’t want to take the chance. Everything up here meant something to her, and she didn’t want to see it go up in smoke for someone’s firewood, or one of her great-grandma’s rugs used for a blanket.”
“Makes sense, I guess.”
“I think maybe she was hoping someday life would be normal again—her kind of normal—and that she’d put everything back the way it was supposed to be. Like sometime in the future, when we wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not two people could defend the living room.”
“That sounds nice,” Eli said sadly, trailing the light over the furniture. “What’s in the trunks?”
“Old clothes, mostly.” Lynn kneeled down next to one of them. “This is where I got Lucy’s clothes and shoes from. It’s my old stuff. Bring the light over here.”
Eli followed and Lynn spotted the guitar case, propped behind one of the trunks in between a secretary desk and an old rocking horse. “Knew I’d seen it recently,” she said. They made their exit quietly, leaving the relics of a safe past behind them in the dusty darkness.
They’d found the guitar, but the trip had been in vain. Eli strummed the chords, and Lucy made a nasty face. “Ugh. What’s wrong with it?”
“Out of tune,” Eli said, running his hands along the strings. “I can tu—”
“That’s a disappointment, and no mistake,” Stebbs said as he rose to his feet. “Can’t tell you the last time I heard music. I best get going. I’m sure I’ve lost the fire, but I can probably stir up some coals yet, if I get back home.”
Lucy bounced up when Stebbs did. “Can I come with you? I want to play witch.”
“It’s all right with me, if it’s okay with Lynn.”
“You got a gun on you?” Lynn asked.
“Course,” said Stebbs.
“It’s all right with me then,” she said, somewhat reluctantly. “You listen to Stebbs crossing the field, Lucy,” she warned as the girl zipped up her thick coat. The child nodded solemnly and took Stebbs’ hand.
“You two have a good night,” Stebbs tipped Eli a wink as he went up the staircase.
“Slick old guy, isn’t he?” Eli said to Lynn when she came back from locking the door behind them.
“What’s that?”
Eli ran his fingers over the strings once more, letting their discordant music fill the basement. “I can tune this up in a few minutes, if I want. I’m guessing Stebbs knows that as well as I do, but he slid on out of here and took Lucy with him so we could be alone.”
Lynn blushed and blurted out the first thing that come to mind, which wasn’t the best choice in the moment. “How is Neva?”
“She’s all right, I guess.” Eli said, avoiding Lynn’s eyes. “It’s hard, you know, being stuck in a small space together for a long time. That’s part of the reason I came today; I think she needed some time alone. I wanted to see you too though,” he added quickly.
“I’m glad you came,” Lynn admitted.
“Really? It’s not easy to tell with you.”
“I am glad.”
“Good.”
“Lucy seems happy,” Eli said.
“She misses her mother. I know it didn’t show today, but she was so excited to see you and thrilled to be outside. At night though, she cries after she thinks I’m asleep.” She didn’t share with Eli how torn she felt, lying in her own bed and listening to the quiet mourning. The basement gave them so little privacy, she wanted to allow Lucy the peace to cry alone. And some nights Lynn’s cheeks were wet as well, her own mother near in her mind.
“Will Neva ever be ready to take her back?”
“Do you want her to?”
Lynn leaned back against Lucy’s cot and shut her eyes. “No. But she’s not mine to keep. I know Neva thinks
