CHAPTER 2: Part 1: Katherine opened her eyes and didn’t know…
Katherine opened her eyes and didn’t know where she was. The ceiling seemed tilted and very close to her head. Turning her head to the side she saw the contents of suitcases exploded around the room. Then in a warm rush she remembered that yesterday she had moved in, and that the stone house was now home. She hopped out of bed like a child on Easter morning. She looked out of the window at a wide field of corn (or was it wheat?) and a bright, sunny day.
Katherine hesitated before going downstairs, and then got dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. She just didn’t feel at home enough yet to wander through the house in pyjamas. In the kitchen, bright sunlight revealed the grime on the large window, and Katherine decided to wash it today. Her wooden dishrack was on the draining board, but things weren’t looking as she’d imagined when she’d first viewed the house. Possibly because she wasn’t completely unpacked yet, and there were no plants on the windowsill.
But her red-checked placemat on the table was cheerful and made her realize that it was time for breakfast. She turned on the cold water faucet and let it run for a while, watching and hoping not to see cloudy or rust-coloured water. It ran cold and clear, and gratefully, she filled the kettle. She rummaged in some boxes until she found her glass coffee pot, Melitta filter and papers, and then reached for the raspberry jam and toast bread.
While waiting for the kettle to boil she went to the back door and opened it. The June sun was warm on her face. She sniffed the air, smelling earth and green and a faint hint of exhaust from the road. It was the kind of day that made her want to be outside. The rolling inside the kettle drew her back in, and she poured boiling water over the coffee. The day stretched before her, full of possibility despite all she had to do.
Her mug in one hand, and a piece of toast in the other, she went meandering outside around the house. Lawn that could use cutting, she noticed, stretched along the house and ended in a tangle of bushes growing so closely together that Katherine couldn’t get through to the front. Going around the far side of the house, she walked inside the row of tall cedars that had been planted on the north side as a windbreak in winter. Here she smelled cool, damp, tangy earth. The grass grew less well here, and again Katherine was stopped near the front of the house by a maze of overgrown shrubs. Someone is going to have to come here with a chainsaw, she thought as she munched.
She looked over at the old farm equipment in front of the stable and remembered that the owner had sent someone to take anything desirable and Katherine had agreed to dispose of what remained. Wondering just what sort of garbage there was, she went over and pulled open the wide door.
At first all she saw was darkness. Light from the door illuminated only a few yards of the hard-packed, damp dirt floor. She stepped inside until she was blocked by a mound covered by grimy, moth-eaten old blankets. Here, the air smelled musty and mouldy, like spaces that haven’t been aired enough. As her eyes grew accustomed to the dark, she noticed sunlight fingering through the vertical spaces between the wall boards, and a rectangular line of light at eye level in the back wall. Stepping nervously around the cloth-covered pile, cautious of mice, she approached the rectangle of light. Dreading splinters, wishing she had brought work gloves, she lightly touched the rough-hewn boards and decided the rectangle of light marked a closed window. She began patting the boards with her palm until she felt a small toggle of wood attached to the wall by a central nail. She moved the piece up to a vertical position and was pleased to see the wooden window slowly swing inside, letting in more light and fresh air.
She looked around the interior. The corners of the stable remained dim, but she could see the contents more clearly. Against one wall stood a pale-green-painted dresser with three drawers but minus a few handles, holding dented cans with streaks of dried paint down their sides. She experimentally lifted the closest one, with yellow paint, and gave it a shake. No liquid moved inside. Katherine guessed the paint would have dried out in all the cans.
A rusting bicycle without a seat leaned against another wall, beside some metal lawn chairs with frayed and torn plastic webbing. Several green plastic flower pots were stacked in a tower on the ground. There was a rake with a broken handle. Metal buckets were piled untidily in a corner.
She returned to the central mound and contemplated the dirty blankets. On a sudden inspiration, she went for the broken rake and used the handle to lift a corner of the covers. When nothing shot out, she flipped the blankets back further, revealing a cardboard box holding damp magazines not old enough to be particularly interesting. Moving to the front of the mound, she lifted a blanket and spotted the wicker she had seen before. She flung off the cloth and to her delight, saw that it was an old armchair, in good shape except for soggy-looking, chewed cushions covered in a layer of dried grass and matted hair. The mess looked a little like a nest.
A last blanket covered a box of glass jars on top of a large, battered wooden box. Some of the jars were empty commercial jam jars with brand names on the lids, but others looked like old Mason jars used for canning and preserving. Katherine picked one up, studying the crown emblem in the glass, when a movement at knee level caught the corner of her eye. Startled, she spun around to see a yellow dog with flopping ears darting out the doorway.
A man was walking toward the stable from the fields, a yellow Lab close to him.
Ch.2, Pt.2: A man was walking toward the stable… » »
A question for readers: Do you prefer to see Chapter 2: Part 1 etc. or would it be easier to have parts numbered in sequence throughout the whole novel, so that Chapter 2 would go Part 7, 8, 9 etc? Let me know your preference!
Gloria, I would like to see Chapter 1: Part 2 etc. throughout, because the scenes jump around a bit. I’m not always sure I’ve landed on the right chapter/part so that would help to know I’m on track!
P.S. Enjoying the novel very much!
Thanks for the reply, Sue. I think you’re saying you would like the Chapter # to appear at the top of each part, all the time. This is an option I hadn’t considered, but it could work.