#1 White Pine - Peine Ban (Part 2)

White Pine: Part 2

As I drew my gaze away from the narrow hall Grace continued "I have a month to get this place ready for re-opening, and as you can see I need all the help I can get." She gestured again to the blank walls bordered by simple woodwork.

"Are you offering me a job?" I interjected, still in shock at the property she now owned.

"Lord, nothing gets around you." She laughed, tucking one of her many braids behind her ear. "Our first reservation is July 4th," Grace paused, glancing up at the walkway then back at me. "So yes, I am offering you a job." She repeated my words from before.

"You're absolutely insane." I threw my arms gesturing toward the high ceilings, yet I couldn't stop the smile that crept onto my lips.

"And you're not?" She countered. "Look I'll rent you one of the cabins, and by opening I'll have a few others workers together. What have you got to lose? I bet you a hundred dollars the cabin is nicer than your apartment." She tilted her head knowingly, raising her eyebrows while doing so.

Leave it to Grace to be so straightforward. I pursed my lips together trying to hold back another smile. "And the cake?"

"No cake until you give me a decision birthday girl." Grace teased as she grinned back at me.

She already knew my answer.

"Where are you going to get all the furniture?" I asked trying to stretch out my obvious acceptance.

"Borrow some here and there, you draw right? You could put some of your stuff up for decoration. You got anything colorful? Something that says 'home'. Like that one you've got in your apartment, you know of the Koi fish. Something that makes people want to come in the door."

I knew exactly which painting she was talking about. It was one that I had tried to recreate of my mothers and never got around to throwing away. Grace found it stashed in a corner one night when she'd come over for a late dinner after work. I tried to explain that I wasn't a painter, but Grace had none of it.

I followed her through the doorway at our left. Grace fumbled for the light switch to illuminate the room as she spoke. "You think you could do that May?"

With the click of a switch light filled the room and I had to hold back a gasp. The space was larger than the main foyer, and just as bare yet it felt comfortable rather than eerily empty. To my left a fridge twice the size of mine towered a full foot above me as it snuggled next to a double stove.

A kitchen, and judging from the open floor just a few feet away a dining area as well. Windows that I saw as I exited the car were much grander up close as they lined the wall facing toward the gravel path and green space. I squinted in the darkness to make out the outline of one of the cabins. It did look bigger than my one room apartment. My gaze trailed up to the moon who's light appeared like a crystal pond nestled among the grass.

A voice behind me cleared their throat and I whipped around to meet Grace's deep brown eyes. She looked serious. More serious than I had ever seen her. I glanced around at the B&B. I knew from our long talks that Grace had always wanted a child but was never in the right circumstance to have one. Recently she'd taken up the joke that she would adopt me if she had time to finish the "god blessed paperwork". Looking around at the bare walls in need of care, I realized what the Bed n' Breakfast meant to her, this was her baby.

"Get us a few paintings? I mean I'll pay you... eventually." She waved her hand dismissively, a mischievous grin returning to her face.

"What an encouraging statement to hear from your future boss."

"So you're in?" She grabbed my hand excitedly.

"Only because you really seem to need the help." I shrugged nonchalantly although I found my own adrenaline levels rising as I thought about a chance to be involved in the rebirth of this building.

Squealing Grace immediately enveloped me in bear hug.

"I can't wait to tell you all about my plans," She released me and went to one of the many wooden cabinets lining the walls to retrieve the cake she'd promised me along with two forks.

We sat on the kitchen island, our legs swinging over the sides of the marble top while we ate.

"I suppose I have a few paintings we could use," I conceded. I knew my mother's artwork was exactly what Grace had in mind, but it felt odd imagining them here. "But just for a loan. Until you find other artwork." I finished quickly taking another bite of the chocolate cake.

"Deal." She replied placing her own fork into the middle of the cake. "This is where the best bits are." She wriggled her eyebrows as she dug out a small hole in the center of the dessert.

We stayed at the B&B until early morning, planning and making lists of things that we needed and more importantly how to acquire the majority of that list for free. My mother's paintings, or 'my paintings' in Grace's eyes were on the top of the list. I am not sure if it was because of the lack of sleep or the overall adrenaline rush Grace and I shared from planning, but I felt anxious about sharing my mother's art work. I was about to give a bit of my mother away. The paintings would have a new home, one in which they would no longer be private property. They would no longer be mine, available to anyone who stepped inside the doors of White Pine Bed and Breakfast.

As Grace drove me back to my soon to be former apartment I wonder if that is what she wanted. Isn't that why artists paint? To share their work? No - or at least it doesn't start out that way- folks create because they want to, not because others will them to. And aren't those the best parts of life? The actions that are internally motivated.

Absent mindedly I placed my palm over the silver locket I'd found in Unit #16. Maybe that was why I agreed to loan Grace my mother's paintings. I would never know what she wanted, and now it was my choice. I, like the paintings, was one of her works of art. While I was not ready to release myself from her mystery, I could start with my brothers and sisters of paint.

I wasn't giving my mother away, I was sharing her.

To think if I hadn't.

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Hope you all enjoyed May's inner conflict with sharing her mother's painting - there is more to come!

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