Page 8 of The Shop on Royal Street
“I already ordered the Uber. It’ll be here in—” She was cut off by the phone ringing on the desk next to her. Before I could explain that the phone wasn’t plugged in and we didn’t have a landline, Melanie picked up the receiver and held it to her ear. “Hello?”
The faraway crackle of energized sound and a tinny, hollow noise that could have been a voice trickled from the earpiece. Melanie’s gaze traveled to the empty wall jack and then slowly rose to meet my eyes.With a smile aimed at Jolene, she replaced the receiver in its cradle. “Isn’t that strange? It must have been some latent stored electricity still in the phone. I know we sometimes have the same problem with an old phone in our house in Charleston.”
Jolene nodded as if this made perfect sense before grabbing the handle of Melanie’s suitcase. “Here, let me help.”
“I’ve got it,” I said. “I’ll wait with Melanie outside.”
“Of course,” Jolene said. “Y’all will want to have some private time.”
They said their good-byes while I struggled to get the suitcase down the stairs and through the front door, adding more than one dent to the already pockmarked drywall. I stood on the sidewalk, perspiring profusely, glad for the extra minute to catch my breath and wipe the sweat from my face before Melanie emerged.
Before she could slide on her sunglasses, I said, “That was your grandmother Sarah, wasn’t it?” To anyone else, asking someone if they’d had a conversation with a long-dead woman on a phone that wasn’t plugged in would have seemed strange. But since I’d known Melanie, “strange” had become one of those terms, like “almost pregnant” and “civil war,” that defied explanation.
I saw the indecision in her eyes as she wrestled with whether to tell me the truth. But we’d made a pact when I’d fled home to Charleston after my disastrous freshman year. We would always be honest with each other. No matter how difficult the truth was to hear.
“Yes. It was.” She looked at me closely. “Are you sure you want to pursue buying that house?”
“Melanie...” I began.
She held up her hand. “You know your dad and I support you in everything you do. But there’s no reason for you to make your life more difficult right now than it needs to be. Especially when there are other options.”
A car drove by, its windows down despite the heat, the heavy thrum of rap music vibrating the heavy air as it passed. “Remember how when you and my dad got together you knew there could be nosubstitute? That’s how I feel about that house. It was meant to be mine.” I shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it.”
Her lips twisted in a lopsided grin. “Yes, well, I’m used to unexplainable things.”
We both turned toward the navy Camry that had pulled up to the curb. Melanie took out her phone to compare the Uber photograph to the driver and then snapped a photo of the license plate. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket as her text arrived. “I got it. Call me when you get to the airport.”
The driver grunted as he hoisted Melanie’s suitcase into the trunk, the back end of the car dipping slightly. Melanie hugged me, and I held on as she began to pull away. “What did your grandmother have to say?”
She pressed her lips together. “I hoped you’d forgotten.”
“Have I ever?”
The driver’s door shut, the engine rumbling and blowing heat into an already sweltering afternoon. “Fair point.” She glanced briefly inside the car as if either wishing to be in the air-conditioning or wanting this conversation to be over. Or both. “She said the house chose you.”
I widened my eyes in surprise. “I told you. See? Everything’s going to be fine.”
She didn’t open the car door, which meant she wasn’t through.
“Did she say anything else?” I held my breath.
Melanie gave a quick nod. “She said to pay attention to the things you can’t see.” Brief pause. “Not all of them are harmless.”
I appreciated her not giving me the “I told you so” look she was so good at. “You knew that, didn’t you? When you visited the house with me.”
She nodded. “But I’d made you a promise. Do you want to change your mind about the house?”
“No.” I spoke without hesitation. As my dad had told me more than once, life wasn’t supposed to be easy. Challenges just made it more interesting. Most of the time.
“I didn’t think so.” Melanie hugged me again and kissed myforehead. “Your dad and I are only a phone call or quick flight away.” She opened the car door, a cold blast of air-conditioning teasing my cheeks. “You’ve got this.”
She slid inside and looked up at me. “Make good choices!” Without waiting to see me roll my eyes, she closed the door. As the car pulled away, she waved from the back window, and I waved back until I couldn’t see the car anymore.
I stood on the sidewalk for a long time, looking down Broadway where the car had disappeared, feeling loneliness, optimism, and fear all at the same time, and wondering why I had ever left Charleston and everything that was comforting and familiar. And safe. Eventually I turned and headed back inside, Melanie’s grandmother’s words reverberating in my head as I slowly climbed the stairs.The house chose you.
CHAPTER 4
Are you sure you want to drive instead of taking the streetcar?”
