A
HOUSE TO BUILD A DREAM ON
CHAPTER
SEVEN
Rose
pushed back a stray piece of hair that escaped from her red bandana,
managing to put a smattering of blue paint on her hair which totally
defeated the purpose of the bandana. She backed off a few paces to
view her work, bumping into Emily’s backside. Both of them quickly
turned around with their paintbrushes in their hands and smacked each
other’s face with the kitchen’s new complementary colors.
Once
again, they both burst into fit of giggles. Rose took Emily’s brush
covered with yellow paint from her, stuck it into a small bucket of
water, then added her own brush. “So, what do you think?” she
said a little nervously. Deciding on colors had been a much harder
task than either of them originally thought. Emily would have painted
the entire house in greens and yellows and Rose, well, she once would
have done the entire house in blue but realized after seemingly
endless hours of leafing through color samples that just since the
weeks of moving out of her house and living solo to her new life with
Emily and their upcoming bed and breakfast venture, that something
inside her had changed. With every possibility of using one color
with another, her world seemed to expand and for a while she went a
little mad with potential color schemes.
“What
if we painted Scarlet Red with Outrageous Orange in the bathroom?”
she said when they’d first begun looking at paint and flashed the
two strips of color in Emily’s face.
Emily
stared at her friend for a few seconds before answering. “With
those colors I don’t think we’d ever have need of a laxative.”
She took the samples out of Rose’s hand. “You know, I think we’ve
been cooped up inside the house for way too long. Tomorrow we’re
going on a little outing. Jimmy will be starting on the garage
tomorrow and there’s going to be a lot of noise. I think half the
town is helping him finish the room by our deadline.” She smiled at
the thought of little Jimmy Nelson, who had once been the terror of
the town, being their contractor. In his late 30’s with a family of
three he’d grown into a responsible, trustworthy contractor and
that was a phrase not often associated with contractors. They’d
lucked out when he’d agreed to take on their project. The Nelson
Family Contractors were the best in the town, if not the state. And
when she said half the town would be helping him, she meant that just
about all of his crew were family, all with the same skillful
workmanship and attention to detail that made them stand out above
the rest.
“So
where…..” Rose’s eyes were wide.
“Not
telling,” Emily said with a grin. “You’ll just have to wait
until tomorrow. I will tell you one thing. No casual clothes. We’ve
been wearing paint smattered rags for weeks and we when we do go to
town, we think we’re dressing up by wearing jeans. But for now,
we’ll just clean up this mess we’ve created and order a pizza for
supper.” “Okay, okay. Surprises are good.” Rose frowned for a
second. “I guess.” She hesitated. “But you didn’t answer me.
What do you think of our kitchen? You weren’t too keen on the
French Country blue and yellow from day one. Are you sorry I talked
you into it?”
Emily
smiled. They’d come pretty close to an actual argument over color
schemes. Because of the yellow and green dish set her Aunt Claudia
gave her for a wedding present, and her favorite for lunches, she’d
been adamant over “no blue whatsoever”, but when she discovered
that these colors were to be the next project that she and
Christopher planned for their kitchen before he died, she knew how
important this was for Rose. And they could always use the dishes out
on the porch.
“It’s
absolutely perfect. I can hardly wait to go shopping for some new
curtains, tablecloth and linens to match. All we need is someone
singing “La Vie En Rose” and we’ve got it all.” And it really
was perfect, she thought.
Rose
laughed and picked up the bucket with the paint brushes to clean
outside. For another hour, they wordlessly cleaned up all the
newspapers, checked for any paint smears or smudges until they
finally gave it a ‘thumbs up. “I’m going to myself clean up a
bit. Order anything you like.”
She
looked closely at Rose’s face and although she knew both of them
were having a wonderful time with the renovations, the 30 year
anniversary of Christopher’s death had been a struggle for her
friend. She’d heard the quiet sobs at night, quite often at first,
but gradually lessening until she seemed to have worked herself out
of her grief, and she suspected, a depression of sorts. Rose was not
afraid to shed tears, but she quickly would find something to laugh
about and refuse to dwell on her feelings of sorrow for long. But
Emily knew her friend too well not to know the signs. Her face looked
tired and pinched. Work was a catharsis for both of them, but
especially Rose. However, grief sometimes needed quiet contemplation
before it would leave and her friend only worked herself from morning
to night and then retired to her room. Tomorrow’s little adventure
that she planned would be a welcome treat for both of them.
The
next day Rose and Emily were up at 6 and both dressed and ready to go
by 7. They ate a quick breakfast of granola, sprinkled with
raspberries on the front porch.
“I
don’t know what you have planned, Em, but just the thought of
getting out of town…and I am pretty sure that we are going
somewhere out of town…woke me up with a smile this morning.” Rose
put down her coffee mug. “So am I dressed properly? See any runaway
paint?” She got off the wicker chair and modeled her red and yellow
floral skirt and matching yellow knit top. “And I decided I am
going to start wearing my hats more often.” She picked up the wide
brimmed straw hat with a red ribbon around the middle and put it on
her head “Da Dah!”
Emily
laughed. “Glad the hats are coming out of the closet. Missed them.
And I haven’t seen that outfit in years.” She didn’t add that
it was probably because of Rose’s weight loss. But she had to admit
that she looked great. Diet by grief, always a winner.
“And
you’re looking pretty spiffy,” Rose said. “I’ve always loved
that mauve and pink skirt set. Definitely your color.”
Emily
hustled Rose into the car before she could find a procrastinating
project that would delay their trip into lunch time. She punched in
the address into the GPS and what she thought was the best invention
of the century. Between the two of them they couldn’t find their
way out of a paper bag, but with modern technology, getting lost was
a thing of the past.
Rose
peeked over at the address. “The Boston Museum of Art! Oh, that’s
absolutely perfect. I haven’t been there for years. Where will be
have lunch? I’m not sure if…..”
“It’s
all planned, lunch and dinner. Sit back and enjoy the ride.” Emily
put a CD in, stepped on the gas and together they laughed and talked
about everything, except the house. Emily said that today was their
day off and she meant every word of it.
When
they arrived in Boston, parked the car and walked up the many steps
to the museum, it was not two 60 year old women that opened the
doors, but two ageless friends who felt like the clock had been
turned back that day and life was indeed an adventure.
