Chapter 14: Musty

It was twilight when we pulled into my driveway. I turned to Toby to thank him for dinner, but before I got a chance to speak, he commented, “I guess your mom decided to return early.”

My brow furrowed. “What?” I peered around him at the empty parking space next to us, then scanned the empty garage. “No, she’s not home yet.”

“Oh. My eyes must be playing tricks on me,” Toby stated, shaking his head. “I thought I saw someone peeking out the front window when we pulled in.”

While he unloaded my scooter, I scanned the house for movement and was startled when he piped up behind me.

“Your scooter has a few scraps, but it should still be in working condition.” He paused when he saw the frightened look on my face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s not you,” I assured him as I reached over and squeezed his shoulder. I couldn’t help but toss another apprehensive glance at the house. His eyes followed my gaze.

“Do you want me to do a walk-through?” he offered.

“I don’t want to impose…”

“It’s not an imposition,” he asserted. “We can do a walk-through together. It will go much quicker that way.”

I smiled weakly and nodded. “I would like that. I just don’t want to keep you longer than I already have.”

“All you’ve kept me from is a night of video games and raiding my parents’ fridge,” he assured me as he gently guided me by my shoulders, lending me the courage to walk into the rambling structure.

“We should start at the top and make our way down,” he announced as we stood in the foyer.

“Do we have to go all the way to the top? The third floor is infested with black widows, and since the exterminator was here today, they may not be too pleased.”

“We can avoid the floor with the angry spiders,” Toby agreed, offering me his hand so we could ascend the steps together.

As we ascended to the second floor, I began turning on the lights while Toby investigated the closets and peeked under the beds.

I was a little shy when we reached my room, but I resisted the urge to stop him as he rifled through my clothes and gawked at my massive shoe collection.

He knelt beside my bed, but before he lifted the covers, he glanced up at me. “Is there anything under here that I should be concerned about?”

“No, I haven’t stored any secrets under my bed for ages,” I said. “It was never a viable hiding spot. It was always the first place my mother would check if she thought I was being sneaky.”

“Mine was wise to my ways as well.” Toby grinned as he lifted the mattress sham and resumed his sweep. “Ah-hah!” he proclaimed. “I have found something!”

“What?” My mind scrambled to imagine what he could have discovered.

“Some onions wearing a babydoll dress.” He reappeared with my straw doll in his hand.

I threw back my head and laughed. “That’s a straw doll!” I cried, leaning forward so I could take it from him. I dusted her off and put her on the shelf.

“You have a strange taste in toys,” Toby said.

“I bought her at the apothecary shop,” I clarified, sounding a bit defensive. “She’s supposed to provide protection and promote good sleep.”

“She did clear my sinuses…,” Toby said. “So, what do you do, lie in bed and sniff her all night?”

“No!” I swatted his arm playfully as we continued our walk-through.

“Whose room is this?” he asked as we reached the yellow room.

“I’ll do this room,” I was quick to offer. “It’s my mother’s, and I don’t think she would appreciate it if I allowed a stranger to go through her things.”

“A girl who plays with ugly dolls and loves her mother?” Toby gasped. “Dharma, I think you may be my dream girl.”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself,” I warned him. “Those are my best attributes.”

I did a quick sweep of my mother’s room and allowed Toby to go into the pink room alone.

“This room has been having electrical problems,” I said as I hit the switch, “so don’t freak out if the light suddenly goes out.”

When we reached the blue room, I showed Toby the servant’s stairs.

“They’re so narrow,” he observed. “Did they want the servants to fall and break their necks?”

“They are narrow because most of the servants were women,” I said, recalling what I had read. “I was disgusted as well, but as it turns out, there is nothing vindictive about the design.”

“I doubt you would be singing the same praises if you had to use them every day,” he said, shaking his head and closing the door.

With the upstairs secure, we went back downstairs.

The first room Toby checked was the guest bathroom next to the main room where my mother was setting up shop.

“There is nothing under the sink except for spare toilet paper,” he proclaimed as he paused to assess my mother’s studio. “What did you say your mom did for a living?”

“She’s a licensed doctor who focuses on holistic medicine,” I informed him proudly. “And if you call her a quack, I will never talk to you again.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Toby threw up his hands defensively. “But I feel I should warn you, people in this area are skeptical of natural cures.”

“It’s okay, we are quite used to it,” I assured him. “Actually, a small group of my mother’s former coworkers attempted to get her license revoked when they heard she was opening her own clinic. Thankfully, their efforts failed.”

I wanted to kick myself for oversharing, but Toby put me at ease, and I couldn’t seem to help myself.

“I’m glad they failed,” he told me. “But, in a professional sense, isn’t promoting holistic solutions a risk?”

“My mother hasn’t completely abandoned traditional medicine. She will write scripts and referrals if the need arises. She feels that she is the last hope when traditional methods fail. Besides, this is California. I thought there was a large demographic for natural cures.”

“There is—everywhere except for Grandville,” Toby touched his fingers and thumbs together to form a circle. “Here, we are surrounded by a thick forest that separates us from the rest of the state, forming our own little bubble in which we exist.”

Remembering what Maggie had told me about spheres, I said, “Bubbles distort reality.”

“And they have a tendency to burst,” he cautioned as we made our way into the kitchen.

Toby threw an arm out to stop me as soon as we crossed the threshold. “Someone was in here.”

I gazed around at the open cabinets and drawers and released a low, embarrassed chuckle. “That was me,” I said, pushing his arm aside. “I was in here throwing a fit.”

“Ah, so you were angry when you left,” Toby said. “My mom always told me to never drive angry.”

“Yeah, I was throwing a fit over something stupid,” I told him as I rushed around to straighten the drawers and shut the cabinets.

“You seem like a levelheaded girl, so it can’t have been that stupid,” Toby commented as he pushed in a chair I’d left askew.

“It was dumb,” I assured him as I reached into the fridge and offered him a water bottle, which he accepted. “I was throwing a fit because I was sure I heard a man in the background when my mother called.”

“Sometimes kids feel jealous when their parents have adult relationships,” Toby offered. “My cousin did the same thing when his mom began dating again after my uncle and aunt divorced. I think he felt as if his mom had given up on his dad.”

“I did feel betrayed…,” I admitted. “But I didn’t feel like she was betraying my father. I felt like she was betraying ~me~.” I gritted my teeth. “I felt abandoned…I know, it’s childish, I realize that now.”

“Usually when I’m angry, it’s because I’m afraid,” Toby said, leaning forward to squeeze my shoulder. “You already lost your father. You may have been afraid that you were losing her too. And as for feeling abandoned, you are in a new town. I imagine that can be lonely.”

Though I thought I had reached my peak on the humiliation scale, my vision misted. Before I had a chance to dab my eyes, fat, hot tears ran down my cheeks. I turned away to shield my face, but Toby grabbed my hands to stop me.

“Come here,” he said, opening his arms so he could swaddle me in a comforting embrace.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “I don’t know what’s come over me.”

“Let it all out,” he encouraged in a soft tone as he patted me on the back. I let out a muffled wail, then slowly began to calm down. I withdrew slightly.

“You’re really good at this,” I remarked as I gazed into his eyes and realized that his deep-brown globes were spotted with tiny copper flecks.

Toby grinned. “I have a little brother,” he informed me. “He just turned five.”

“So, you have experience with immature children.” I chuckled as I reached for the tissue box on the counter so I could dry my face, then glanced at his chest.

“Here,” I said, offering him the tissue box. “You may need these more than me. It seems as if your shirt absorbed the bulk of my grief.”

Toby offered me a weak smile as he accepted some tissues and dabbed the front of his shirt. “Now that our therapy session is over, is there any other room in the house you would like to investigate?”

“There is a basement,” I revealed reluctantly. “But we really don’t need to investigate. I’m sure the house is empty.”

“If I were an intruder, that would be where I would hide,” Toby pointed out.

I sighed. “I suppose you are right. But we may need flashlights—I think the lightbulb down there is broken. I stepped on glass and cut my foot the last time I was down there.”

“You wandered into the basement in bare feet?” Toby asked, making a disgusted face as he swiped at his phone to turn on the flashlight. I reached into my back pocket and fished out my phone so I could do the same.

“It wasn’t intentional,” I said, treating him to a playful swat on the arm. “I was sleepwalking.”

As we approached the basement door, Toby leaned against it and joked, “Do you sleepwalk around here often?”

I released a polite giggle. “I’ve never been in the habit. My mother says people sleepwalk when they are under stress.”

“I used to sleepwalk into our pantry and eat all of the cookies when I was a kid,” Toby divulged as we descended the steps.

“Really?”

“No,” he laughed. “That was just a lie I told my parents so they wouldn’t be mad at me for eating all the cookies. I don’t think they believed me, but I was a strange kid, so there was room for reasonable doubt.”

“I guess being an oddball isn’t such a bad thing after all,” I remarked as I shuffled closer to Toby in the darkness.

Toby lifted his phone, causing the basement to be cast in looming shadows that I found more unsettling than the pitch darkness.

He paused when the beam of his flashlight located a carton of lightbulbs. “Let there be light,” he said, walking over to the shelf with me in tow.

He placed his flashlight on the shelf while he extracted a lightbulb from the box, then he retrieved his phone so he could locate a socket to install the bulb. Not far from where we stood was a hanging black cable with a bulb socket.

Toby screwed in the bulb and pulled the cord; suddenly, the room was flooded with dim light.

“It’s a minor improvement,” Toby reasoned.

I scanned the basement. The last time I was down here, I’d been dreaming about the space. I had never actually set eyes on the place, and I was shocked by how accurate I had been.

“This is a pretty sizable basement,” Toby commented.

“And pretty musty,” I added, pinching my nostrils closed.

“Decayed vegetation,” Toby said. “It appears that this was once a food cellar. The stairs were most likely a later addition.”

When I offered him a confused look, he pointed to a short concrete staircase that led to a pair of cellar doors. “When this house was originally built, it was customary to store food underground.”

“At least I know there is another entry if I happen to lock myself out,” I commented.

“Or if you want to sneak out…,” Toby said, giving me a suggestive look.

“That as well,” I agreed, rubbing my arms where goosebumps had formed.

Toby shrugged off the light hoodie he wore, and before I had a chance to refuse, he began to drape it over my shoulders.

He swept my hair back as he adjusted the collar around my shoulders, allowing his fingertips to linger at the nape of my neck, a gesture that sent a thrill down my spine.

“Now you’re as snug as a bug,” he said, his lips so close to my face that I felt his warm breath on my cheek as he spoke.

I tilted my head upward. “We could have gone back upstairs,” I pointed out.

He leaned in so that his lips brushed against mine as he spoke. “What would be the fun in that?”

Instead of responding, I slightly parted my lips.

Toby hesitated, and for a moment I was afraid I had misread his gestures. But then he accepted my invitation, and before I knew it, we were kissing passionately.

Reality suspended. I grasped his waist and drew him closer, my mind swimming as our kiss deepened. His hands crept up the small of my back. I ground my hips against his, signaling my desire.

At my urging, his fingers found the hem of my shirt, but just as they touched my flesh, a voice rang out, causing us both to freeze.

“Dharma? Why is the house lit up like a Christmas tree?”

“Mom?” I cried as we parted and gazed at each other in shock.

Toby grinned and combed his fingers through his hair as I hurried to return his sweatshirt before rushing up the stairs.

“You’re home earlier than I expected,” I greeted my mother as we emerged from the basement.

“Obviously,” she said dryly as she gazed past me at Toby, who could do nothing more than shift awkwardly under her pointed stare.

“It’s not what you think, Mom.”

“You have no clue what I am thinking,” she stated, standing back to glare at me.

That was when she noticed the bandages on my knees, and suddenly her expression shifted from anger to concern. “Dharma! What happened?”

Relieved by her change in demeanor, I quickly summarized my night, ending with our little house inspection. “We need to air out that cellar. It’s pretty smelly,” I advised.

“My aunt is a professional cleaner,” Toby interjected. “If you ever need a deep cleaning, I’ll give you her number. She offers a discount to friends and family.”

“That would be appreciated,” my mother said, wrapping her arm around my shoulders protectively. “And thank you for helping Dharma. If there is any way we can return the favor, please let us know.”

Toby reached over his shoulder and began to scratch his neck. “Well, I have one request, but I don’t want Dharma to feel obligated to say yes…,” he began uncertainly.

After receiving an encouraging nod from my mother, he continued, “There is a baseball tournament on Saturday. It’s just a friendly competition between the Grandville companies. I was wondering if Dharma would like to go.”

“You won’t be playing?” I asked, surprised.

“My dad never enters the store. He says the games are rigged,” he explained. “So, I will be another voyeur in the peanut gallery.”

Though Toby didn’t elicit butterflies in my stomach like Justin did, he had certainly stirred something within me. So, I smiled as I said, “I would like that.”

“I’ll pick you up at noon,” he promised, then turned to my mother. “It was nice to meet you, Dr. Dupree.”

“The feeling is mutual,” my mother said, tossing me a sly look as she shook his hand. I narrowed my eyes at her as I walked Toby to the front door and opened it for him.

“Thanks again for everything,” I said as we parted.

“It was no problem,” he said, treating my mother to a little wave before he crossed the threshold.

Once he was gone, my mother raised a brow. “He seems genuinely nice, Dharma. You are lucky he is the type to stop and help a stranger.”

“Well, we weren’t exactly strangers,” I said. “I met him when we went to the market. He helped me find my shampoo. His family owns Conners’ Market.”

She appeared slightly impressed. “He sounds like quite the catch.”

Though I had just enjoyed a lovely evening with Toby, I was still intrigued by Justin, so I casually said, “I’m not fishing,” then changed the subject. “Do you think we can pick this back up in the morning? I want to hear all about your convention, but I had a rough day, and I’m awfully beat.”

My mother gave me a permissive nod, but something in her eyes told me she was taking a mental inventory of the questions she intended to ask.

That was fine, because I had some questions of my own.