An Inheritance

Chapter 20

This is ridiculous!  I’m sitting here nervously waiting for Sam just as though I was going to my first Prom.  Lauren had been scolding herself the entire day.  She had always felt confident in herself that she was an attractive youngish woman who showed herself to be calm and collected, no matter what the circumstances.  Yet she was a bundle of nerves trying to pass the time until Sam arrived.  Glancing at the clock again, it read 4:18, two minutes had lapsed since she had last checked it, and 12 minutes until Sam should show.

Lauren had gotten up early and had tried to occupy herself with the normal morning routines, but nothing kept her from thinking about the date with Sam, it even crowded out some of her trepidation over her mother’s letters.  How had she gotten herself into this?  Now knowing it was he her grandmother had referred to in writing down her husband’s name in the family bible, everything seemed to have changed; especially since Sam knew what her grandmother’s expectations were. 

Right after breakfast she had searched her shift robes for something to wear.  Sam had said it was strictly jeans and shorts for the night, but nothing she had seemed just right.  She looked at the pile of laundry she had accumulated over the past week and acknowledged there was probably something in there that would do. 

Stripping the bed of the linens, Lauren gathered all of the laundry and stuffed it into the two baskets she had found.   She remembered a launderette in the strip mall a few miles down the road and she headed for it.  Reflecting on how her condo had its own washer and dryer, she could now sympathize with her grandmother at how inconvenient it was not to have them. 

Although it was early, there were a few women with their clothes already in the machines and Lauren was glad to have a chance to chat with them and keep her mind occupied as she did her own laundry.  As time went on there was a constant stream of women coming in and so additional conversations to be distracted by.  When it was time to leave, Lauren was feeling much more relaxed and realized that, at least in this instance, it was better not to have had those modern conveniences.  Getting out and talking to new people, was exactly what she needed.    

Getting back to the cottage, she was careful to avoid even looking toward the paisley dressers. Every time she thought about those last letters, her chest got heavy and she felt drained.  So she steered herself to fill up some of the time with household chores.   Abigail was not in a very helpful mood and insisted on jumping on the bed as Lauren was trying to make it.  Every time Abby was shooed off, she’d jump back on, frustrating Lauren to no end. 

Finally grabbing her and laying down on the half-made bed, they cuddled and Lauren stroked her black and white fur.  “Oh, Abby, I’ve been neglecting you lately, but there are just so many things pulling at me.  But I know you’re always here for me.  Tell you what, why don’t we have lunch, then if you promise to stay right near me, we’ll go out to the cemetery.  I’ve been wanting to start plotting those crypts.”

Leaving the bed only partially made, Lauren went into the kitchen and made a special lunch for Abby and a salad for herself.  Then grabbing a copy of the family tree she had made from the bible, along with a pad of graph paper, she and Abby headed for the cemetery.

Abby was content to lie on the stone bench as Lauren walked around the cemetery, matching the names from the bible to the inscriptions on the crypts.  When she came to her grandmother’s she put her hand on the metal plate bearing her grandmother’s name.  She closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the metal against her skin, a warmth that seemed to bathe her in ripples of calmness.  It was a peace she hadn’t felt since before reading her mother’s letters.  With her eyes still closed, she could feel and hear the land around her, whispering, yet amplifying every sound.  Buzzing  insects, singing crickets, bullfrogs croaking combined with the murmur of the breeze through the trees, the nearby splashes of something entering the water, and the various birds making themselves known.  Lauren smiled as she opened her eyes and pulled her hand away.