Willowcreek; Within The Roots

Part Fifteen ─ A Bad Omen

          With Evie's help, Caleb managed to cut the cleaning time in half. Even with her questions and pressing, he was finished by two o'clock.

     That meant he still had time to run the errands he'd put off earlier in the day.

     Oh how he regretted telling Evie that.

     "If I can convince my dad, can I come with you?" she asked, handing him the broom she'd been using.

     "No."

     The way she pouted up at him made Caleb feel instantly bad, but he knew there was no way Sean would say that she could go with him into town. Not in a million years. And he'd rather avoid the glare, like it was his suggestion for her to ask in the first place.

     No, he didn't need it.

     Standing by the backdoor of the kitchen, he honestly had not expected to be the only one who said no. Caleb couldn't believe that Sean had so readily agreed. She hadn't even needed to try and convince him.

     Two 'please's and that pout she'd flashed him earlier and Sean sighed, nodding his head in agreement. Caleb wasn't spared the glare, however, nor the stern warning to make sure he brought her back in one piece and definitely before it got dark.

     His grandmother stood at the door, a dishrag over her shoulder, as the two got ready to climb into the car and go. Evie was obviously excited, her fingers tapping together as she held tightly to Ludo's collar.

     "He's not coming, too," stated Caleb, managing to avert his eyes before Evie could pout at him. He was not going to be played by that again. "He'll have to stay, Evie."

     "Mrs. Garroway, talk to him, please?" she requested and Caleb made eye contact with his grandmother, silently begging her not to betray him. The glint in her eyes was proof that she'd have much preferred a granddaughter. 

     Traitor!

     "Come on, love, take him with you," his grandmother said, Caleb groaning in response. "Hey," she hissed at him, the dishrag hitting the back of his head.

     "Grandma!"

     "She can't very well leave him, no one is here to keep an eye on him." But that sounded more like she had things she wanted to get done without the dog under her feet. Ludo had picked out all of his favorite people, Caleb had noticed that already, and when Evie or himself weren't there, it was his grandma the dog followed.

     "He'll be a good boy, I promise," Evie smiled at Caleb, opening the backdoor of the car and patting the seat, Ludo bounding in. 

     The car was going to smell like dog drool and farts, he just knew it.

          Driving to town took about twenty minutes by Mathis Road. But with all of Evie's questions, her incessant talking, and Ludo panting in his ear, the time dragged out.

     But he did notice that Evie kept glancing out at the passing trees. As usual, they looked half dead. He had grown used to it, their gnarled branches and blackened bark no longer caused the kind of nightmares they used to. However, every now and again, one snuck up on him.

     He didn't know what she was expecting to see, considering there wasn't much out this way aside from the ruins of the old Haversfield house. Of course she asked him about it. He didn't have that much to tell her, because there really wasn't that much to know about it. Even his grandpa didn't know much.

     "The Haversfields were one of the area's most affluent families," he told her, just about as much as he knew. "But they lost all of their money one way or another, ended up selling their land to the people who owned Willowcreek and I don't know what happened to them after that."