Chapter 3

It had been four months since I had a chance to see Lindsey and Marie. Jean parked in Ashley's driveway and walked across the lot toward me. She was lugging two small cases which I assumed held clothes.

The girls hung back behind their mother. Jean spoke just before she reached me. "Go on girls, give your father a kiss and a hug. He hasn't been near you for a long time. Make him glad to see you."

I could have killed Jean. She was acting as if it was my fault I hadn't been a father to them, when all along it had been her that had kept us apart. "Hi kids, my you have both grown. You've got prettier, too. Hey, we have a lot to talk about. Now before your mother leaves, do you have her phone number in case you want to call her? Lindsey you will be having a birthday while you are here and I'm giving a party for you. Would you like to invite your stepsister and two stepbrothers to your party?"

"No, Becky didn't let me go to hers and the boys are mean to us."

I looked at Jean, and she mouthed, "They are not." I wondered.

"You will come won't you Jean?" She played one type of game, but that wasn't mine.

"Thank you, Milo. Yes, I was hoping you would let me." She turned to the girls. "I'm leaving now. You be good and do what your father tells you. If you need me, call me. Now give me a hug and I'll see you on your birthday."

I think Jean wanted to stay around, but I wanted to get reacquainted with my two kids. "Okay guys, I bet you would like to see where you will be sleeping. Come up and see where I live and where you will be staying for the next month." I took the girls up to my apartment. Their eyes were going everywhere drinking in the sight of their temporary home.

"Did you make the stars, Daddy? They are pretty."

"Yes, some of them, but the lady that owns this place helped and she made the moons in the corner. Pretty neat, huh? Come see your bedroom. I decorated that all by myself because I knew you were coming and I wanted to make it as nice as possible."

"Daddy it is fabulous. Are the beds gold? They look like it."

"I wish they were, but they are brass and shine like gold. People like them because they go with all colors. Look at the wallpaper. See the little blue bells. Now look up at the ceiling. See the blue bells in the plaster?"

"But they aren't blue. How can you say they are blue bells?"

"Not yet. I didn't have time to have them colored. They will be by the time you go home."

"Goody, it will be awesome."

"Do you want to see my room? That one has roses in it."

"Sure, I guess."

Later I asked if they would like to see what I had planned for Mrs. Winslip's grotto."

"What is a grotto?" asked Marie.

"A grotto is a hidden place that is private. Sometimes there are statues encircling it. This one for Mrs. Winslip is going to have shrubs all around it and a gazebo right in the middle."

"What is a gazebo?"

"It is a little building usually in a garden or on a corner of the lawn. A lady can go there and think and sometimes if she has a lover, they meet and steal a kiss when no one is looking."

"Are you ever going to steal a kiss from Mrs. Winslip? Mom says she is awful homely, so I guess not, huh?"

"No I guess not, kiss her I mean. As far as what your mother says about her being homely, you remember Uncle Calvin? He fell in love with her and they got married. Then he died and she is very sad about that. Uncle Calvin was my very best friend and he saw her as beautiful and that is why he married her. I think she is beautiful too."

"If you think she is beautiful, then maybe you will marry her. It would make Mom awful mad though. She is mad you are even working for Mrs. Winslip. Why is that?"

"I don't know. You will have to ask your mother that. Now, what am I going to feed you for lunch? Do you like sub sandwiches? For dinner tonight I'm making my world famous chop suey."

Lindsey said, "I like subs, but I am awful sick of chop suey. We have that all the time. The only time we have something good is when Mom gets the check from you. Then we eat good for about a week and then it is chop suey again."

"Can't you cook a roast beef like you used to do? I beg Mom to cook one, but she says it is too expensive to feed seven mouths on beef. Mom's husband has asked her too. She says she will if he will give her the money."

"Marie, don't you call Mr. Burgess Dad?"

"No, we don't want to and besides I heard him tell Mom we couldn't, because we weren't his kids." I let it drop and could understand now why the kids from two families had trouble coexisting.

It was nearing lunch time and we decided to walk down to the deli. We were just strolling along admiring the beautiful estates as we walked by. We were about halfway to the deli when an older lady (60s) came down the walk and waved her handkerchief at us. "Lindsey, go ask the lady what she wants."

Lindsey walked up and spoke for a minute and then came running back. "She wants to talk to you, Dad. Something about doing some work for her."

"Hello Ma'am."

"You're Mr. Burns aren't you?"

"Yes I am."

"I'm Mrs. Thomas Brown. Mrs. Hamlin over on Bellevue Avenue is a friend of mine. I was complaining about not being able to get anyone to prune my shrubs. She said, and I could see it myself, that you did a wonderful job on Mrs. Winslip's front yard. Would you consider doing mine for me?"

"Gee, my two girls are here for a month and I want to be with them as much as possible. I really don't have the time right now. I don't have anyone to leave them with if I did work."

"That is a problem. How about if I hired the girls to work for me in the house while you work outside? How long will it take to make my yard as neat as Mrs. Winslip's?"

"More than a day I'm afraid, and I wouldn't want to do it that way anyway. Say three half days. That way I can work and pick up the trash and get rid of it the same day and still have time to be with the girls. I'll work tomorrow afternoon and then come on Monday and Tuesday of next week. I have a gazebo being delivered this Friday a.m. and I want to put in some shrubs around it in the afternoon."

"That will be fine and you say the trash and clippings will all be picked up for the weekend. That will just be so great."

We got our sub sandwiches and Karen, the cashier, exclaimed over the girls just as I knew she would. When we came out Marie asked why everyone liked me. I told her I didn't know, maybe because I liked people back.

"Why doesn't Mom like you then?"

"I can't answer that. I thought she loved me and then she didn't. That happens sometimes. I do love her for one thing though, and that is she gave me two wonderful daughters that I love with all my heart."

"You won't wait so long to see us again will you Daddy? We missed you awfully."

"No sweetheart, I'm sure from now on I will be able to come and get you anytime I want. Now we have some grocery shopping to do. I promised roast beef and roast beef you're going to get."

When we returned from the grocery store I said, "Let's go find something to cook this in. I saw some kettles and pots downstairs in the storage area. It will be like a treasure hunt." We found what we needed and after cleaning a cast iron kettle of some surface rust, I seasoned it and then rewashed it again. After the second seasoning I put the shoulder roast in and browned it with some real butter. Then I took two quarts of water and added some onion soup to it. When it started to boil I turned the fire under it down low and let it slow cook. "Some people like a richer gravy than what this will make so they use less water the first time and let it boil out and brown down again. I don't."

"I like the way you make it, Daddy." Today I could do no wrong and it was a wonderful feeling.

When I was putting the potatoes, carrots and onions in the pot with the roast, I said, "Girls, would you go out where Mom parked her car and wait for the lady that parks in the driveway. When she gets out of her car just say, 'Mrs. Winslip, the Burns family requests your presence at dinner.' If she gives you an excuse you can tell her that your Uncle Calvin would want her to come. She will have to come then."

"Is she a nice lady, Daddy?"

"The very best."

I could hear Ashley and the girls jabbering away coming up the stairs. "Hi Milo, I think I was shanghaied. Gee, what smells so good?"

"Hi yourself, Ashley. It is something the girls haven't been getting very often. I'll tell you about it sometime."

"The girls tell me they have a job working for Mrs. Brown. You will continue to work for me, won't you?"

"Of course I will. I'm working for her tomorrow afternoon and Monday and Tuesday half-days next week. I need someone to watch the girls some of the time and this is a way to get that done. Oh, the gazebo will be here early Friday morning. I had to arrange for a small crane to place it. I'll be planting shrubs around it in the afternoon."

"That is okay I guess. I am taking Friday afternoon off. The museum curator is coming to look at the paintings. You can stop long enough to open the box. I gave you everything in the garage. I'm still saying they belong to you."

"No way."

"What are you and Mrs. Winslip talking about, Daddy?"

"Mrs. Winslip wanted to give me all the stuff stored downstairs. I found a box with some paintings in it and I think they are valuable. I gave them back to her even though she thinks I should keep them. They belonged to her family so it is only right that I give them back."

"But what if they are worth a lot of money?"

"Doesn't matter Marie, I couldn't take them. I just wouldn't feel right about it."

"Even if it made you rich?"

"Yes Marie, even if it made me rich. Sometimes it is better to have friends than to be rich."

"I've heard you say that before, Daddy. Can we at least see them?"

"Ask Mrs. Winslip. They belong to her."

Ashley smiled at Marie and Lindsey. "We will all be here and you can see them. Someday, if they are what your father thinks they are, we may go to a museum to see them. If they aren't, at least we can display them in the house."

"Enough of that, kids. Saturday is the fourth of July and that means parade--big parade. I want to go down and stand in front of my old restaurant and watch it. I want to speak with any of the people that used to work for me. That is if any still work there. Does that sound like fun?"

"Yeah! Is Mrs. Winslip going with us?"

"I think she will. We are all going up to camp in the afternoon and spend the night. We might as well go to the parade and go on from there as it is on that side of the city. Besides there is room enough in Uncle Calvin's old jeep and we will go in that. We might just get through the mud hole now. It has had two weeks to dry up."

Ashley and I did the dishes and cleaned up. The girls had preempted the sectional and both were zonked out. Ashley was getting ready to leave, but I asked her to sit awhile and have a cup of tea with me.

"Milo, how do you do it? You haven't seen your kids for four months, and yet they have been here only a few hours and it is like they were with you all the time."

"I know and I was worried about that. But they were almost literally ripped from me and we all want to reconnect and get back the way we were. Now I have to worry about them returning to live with Jean. I was going to ask you about the support I pay. It is supposed to be used for their welfare. Jean is using it to feed her new spouse and family. Can she do that?"

"Probably as long as she gives Lindsey and Marie reasonable care. If she doesn't deny them the basics, she can get away with it. Why, what did they say?"

"One of them just said that when my check came they all ate good food for about a week. The rest of the time they ate chop suey and cheap stuff."

"I don't think you can do anything about that. How could a family have separate menus? At least they are eating well part of the time."

"I guess so, but it doesn't seem right. Lindsey said the boys were mean to them. If you gain the girls' confidence, maybe you can find out what that is all about. If it is anything, Jean will say I pumped them for information. I want to be able to deny that I did."

"Okay. They will be here for a month. I can do that. Now I want to ask you a question? Why are you taking work from outside? I don't mind, but you are working for me."

"Ashley, unless you come up with much more for me to do, I will have finished your work in about two months--three at the most. Mrs. Brown needs some work done and she knew of my situation through Mrs. Hamlin. I need to work all the time to pay my rent. I can't do a lot of things here early in the morning because it is an exclusive neighborhood, and there is a noise ordinance. So your work may be extended out for awhile, because I want to stay in my home as long as I can. I love it here you know."

"I want you to stay in your new home too. Do what you think is right, but you don't need to feel pressured about the rent."

"Ash Baby, we have had this conversation once before."

"I know, I know. Damn Milo, you are pricky. Okay, go ahead and manage things the way you need to. You always seem to come out right."

"I'm so afraid you and the people around here are going to think I am taking advantage of you. I need to bring myself up to where I can have confidence in myself again and I am not going to do it on the backs of my friends. Can you understand me?"

Ashley looked at me trying to decide what to say. "It is the same with me. You did me a favor and apparently I have done one for you. Let's ease up on each other and just be friends. If you feel I am encroaching on the way you want things to be, tell me. I'll do the same with you. We can back off on trying so hard and just be the friends that Calvin would want us to be. Now walk me to the foot of the stairs and put your two lovely children to bed. I envy you having them. I wish they were mine."

I did as she asked, but she was a woman and had the last word. At the edge of the lot as she was leaving, "Milo, I can always reconsider what you are paying for rent you know." She turned and hurried up the path to her house, leaving me to stare after her.

The girls and I had a leisurely breakfast. "We have a lot to do this morning. You know I lived with Patrick and Linda after your Mom and I sold our old house. Well I have something to give Linda to thank her. We'll load it on and take it over to her. She'll love to see you with me."

"Are you sure Dad? We were with Mom at the mall when we met her and she wouldn't hardly speak. Mom cried after she left."

"She wasn't mad at you. She was just upset that your Mom and I weren't together anymore. You'll see I am right when we get there."

Patrick wasn't home, but Linda was. Lindsey, with Marie right beside her, rang the doorbell. I stood back and grinned as Linda opened the door and squealed as she gathered the two into her arms and hugged them to her. "Oh, I have missed you guys so much. Come in and tell me all about yourselves."

"We can't stay Linda. I came over to bring you a thank you present."

"Not the hall tree? Oh my god, you didn't did you?"

"Yeah I did. You visit with the girls and I will bring it in." I said we had to be going after Linda oo'd and ah'd over her present. "We will get together next week. I have one more thing to do this morning and the girls have to work this afternoon."

"What do you mean work?"

Lindsey explained and said she and Marie might even get paid for it. This made Linda laugh.

I went to the rental store and rented a portable stump grinder to remove the roots of the five trees that I had cut down. I needed to get them out before the gazebo was delivered tomorrow morning. It only took an hour and by eleven-thirty the girls and I were having a sandwich and a bowl of soup. At exactly noon we presented ourselves at Mrs. Brown's door ready to work. Value for the money, I had rented a hedge clipper to do the hedge and shape some of the shrubs.

Mrs. Brown took the girls inside and I set to work. It took almost as long to pick up the clippings as it did to do the trimming. I tried to keep my progress balanced across the width of her estate as I worked. I wasn't coming back until Monday and this was a holiday weekend. Oh, crap. Monday would be a holiday, because of the weekend. Well I would mention it and if she didn't mind I would work anyway.

At two forty-five, Lindsey came running out and said Mrs. Brown wanted me to come into the house. I went around and entered into the kitchen. She was pouring me tea as I entered and had some little sweet cakes sitting beside the cup. "Daddy, these are scrumptious."

I had never heard the girls say scrumptious and it struck me as funny. When I stopped laughing Marie said, "Why are you laughing? Mrs. Brown said they are and I think they are too."

"It's just that I hadn't heard that word for many, many years."

It was Mrs. Brown's turn to laugh. "That kind of dates me doesn't it? It is a word not used too often now. Mr. Burns, if I'm not prying, what is this great treasure that you found and gave away?"

"I don't know for sure and the girls shouldn't have said anything. As long as they did, I suppose it is all right to tell you. Mrs. Winslip gave me the contents of the building where I am living. I was looking it over and there was a large wooden box in the back under a lot of old furniture. I unscrewed the top and found that it had some paintings in it.

"I pulled up one from the middle section and it was signed by an artist named Eakins. I have never heard of him. The second one was signed by Wyeth. I've heard of him so I figured they might be valuable. I closed the box up and told Ashley--Mrs. Winslip about them. She said she gave me everything in storage, but I said I couldn't accept the box of paintings. She is having someone from the museum come tomorrow afternoon and look at what the box contains. Mrs. Winslip and I used the word treasure in front of these two kids of mine and they think maybe I shouldn't have given it away."

"Why did you?"

"Because Mrs. Winslip has been very generous in giving me employment and providing me with a place to live. You see, her husband was my very best friend and I miss him almost as much as she does. If I took advantage of her, then it would be like taking advantage of my friend."

"You are very quixotic Mr. Burns."

"What does that mean, Daddy?"

"It means I am a romantic and unrealistic. I think the way Mrs. Brown used it was a compliment."

"I did, indeed I did."

"In that case would you like to come tomorrow afternoon and see the so-called treasure when the box is opened?"

"I'd love to."

"Good and if you would be so kind, would you drive around and give Mrs. Hamlin a ride so she can see too. I'm afraid she can't walk across the lot. If you give her a ride, it will be only a few steps for her."

"I certainly will."

It was nearly six when I went to retrieve my little workers. They were all smiles and each carrying a shopping bag. "Daddy, we earned ten dollars for helping Mrs. Brown and she gave us each a present for when we grow up and get married."

"Mrs. Brown, that is too much."

"No, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and these are things I was giving to the Salvation Army. As far as the money, they ran and ran and saved me innumerable steps. I will see you tomorrow and I will have Mrs. Hamlin with me." What could I say?

It was ten a.m. when the crane backed into the driveway. It backed across this end of the lot and close to where the gazebo was to be placed. Immediately a crowd gathered on the street. This was an occasion in this stately neighborhood. I had been promised that the transport would be right behind the crane. As soon as it arrived, it backed right up next to the crane. The sling was already in place on the building. It was zip, zip and the gazebo was up in the air and swinging over one of the trees and into place. It was gently lowered onto the foundation that had supported the original structure.

The crowd of spectators clapped. One man approached me as the flatbed pulled out with the crane right behind it. "Are you the boss of this job?"

"Yes I am." I waited to see what this person had on his mind.

"What concern do you work for?"

"I don't work for a concern. I rented the apartment above the garage there. Mrs. Winslip hired me to clean up her brushed-over lot. She gave me free reign to do what is needed."

"Well you are doing a wonderful job. What else are you doing? This lot has been an eyesore for years, but no one has wanted to approach Miss Nelson about how it looked. Too bad she can't do something about how plain this building looks from the street. We have all of these beautiful estates and then you come to this right in the middle of the block. Well this is an improvement anyway. Tell her I said so."

"You might tell me your name."

"Oh sorry, I'm Ralph Peterson. Did I see you doing work for the Browns?"

"Yes, just a little shrub work."

"More'n a little. Bernie doesn't get things done much. Mrs. Brown has to keep after him. I'm glad he found someone to keep the place up." I thought to myself that this was a typical busybody neighbor. I wondered what his home looked like.

There were still several people around and some kids standing off to one side out of the way. Lindsey and Marie went over to them and asked, "Would you like to play in the gazebo? My dad wouldn't mind."

"Okay." My two, four other girls and three boys went scooting across and into the enclosure. This was the biggest gazebo I could find. It was twenty feet across. Inside there were built-in seats on all eight sides. I could hear the kids chattering away getting to know each other. I had a dilemma. I needed to get to the garden center to pick up the new shrubs I was planting in place of the trees I had cut down and taken out. Just then a young couple about my age and the woman very pregnant, came along asking if I had seen a boy and girl of six and eight.

I pointed to the gazebo. "I think they may be over there. Say, if you have an hour or so, could you stick around, I need to leave to pick up some stuff. I hate to break up the kids as they sound like they are having a great time. Could you hang around and watch them?"

"Sure, we would like to see it ourselves. We will wait here until you get back."

They were slow at the garden center loading my plantings, and I was beginning to worry. I needn't have. When I got back, the kids were still closeted in the gazebo. The husband was waiting patiently for his wife and kids. When he saw me, he asked if I needed a hand unloading the trees.

I did and I drove over to where they were going to be planted and he helped me unload. All I had left to do now was to prepare the bed and pull the sacking off the root system and put them in the ground. Lindsey and Marie didn't even know I had been gone. The couple, Kim and Will, collected their two and I asked the rest of the kids to leave, but said they could come back whenever my kids were here. Ashley heard me tell them this as she came across the lot. Kim and Will were gone before I could introduce them to Ashley.

"You're home early," I said to Ashley.

"Yes. Nothing for me to do and as I am on vacation the next two weeks and needed to be here this afternoon, here I am."

"You didn't tell me you were on vacation."

"You didn't ask. Besides you are very free in inviting people to use my property. I think I'd better be here to protect it."

"You don't mind?"

"No, of course not."

"Good, because I invited a couple of older ladies for the opening of the treasure this afternoon."

"How come?"

"I didn't intend to, but the girls were talking about me giving away some treasure, so I had to explain to Mrs. Brown. As long as she was invited, I thought it would be a good idea to have Mrs. Hamlin come too." I was waiting for the explosion. There was none.

"I'm glad Mrs. Hamlin is coming and as long as they are friends, I'll welcome Mrs. Brown. I suspect that there will be a newspaper man here too. The museum asked if it would be okay. They do everything they can to promote the arts. There may or may not be a story, but the museum has it covered."

She turned to the girls. "Lindsey and Marie, I think our lunch has cooled off, so we will have to nuke it. You may ask your father to join us. That will show him he isn't boss all the time." She smiled as she said this so I knew she wasn't really upset. We strolled along to her house and I washed up as Ashley set out paper plates and pulled the local KFC's cuisine out of the microwave.

Two o'clock sharp, Ashley's doorbell chimed. The museum curator was a balding, glasses wearing individual with a ready smile. "Mrs. Winslip, I am Walter Gainsborough and you contacted me about some paintings. One you said was an Eakins. Thomas Eakins lived mostly here in the east, but did travel west in 1888 and we assume he painted there too. If there are enough identifying marks on the canvas we might find it is an original and one the art world knows nothing about. I very much would like to see it."

"Of course. Mr. Burns and I will take you across to the property that fronts on the next avenue. We can walk there from here." Just as we came out of the house, a van emblazoned with the name of a newspaper pulled in behind Gainsborough's vehicle. I took the driver to be a photographer from the equipment he hauled out of the van.

The passenger was a female reporter. She was a beautiful example of womanhood and knew it. The woman had everything and everything was in the right place. I had been married to beautiful and I was not impressed. "I'm Miss Trevor. I'm here to do a piece for a Sunday supplement if there is anything to the paintings. Maybe a human interest slant to things too." She was gushing to Ashley and to me. Ashley introduced her to Marie and Lindsey and Miss Trevor immediately ignored them as unimportant.

The photographer was snapping pictures of the house and when we went around the corner of the garage, he started taking pictures of the building we were heading for. When we came abreast of the gazebo he asked me who was doing the work. I just said I was. The shrubs lay there for me to plant later this afternoon. That was my plan anyway.

I was having my problems. Ashley and Walter Gainsborough had gone on ahead. Miss Trevor had latched onto me. The heels she was wearing were making it difficult for her to walk on the dirt path as the spikes sunk into the soil. She was clinging tightly to my arm and her breast brushed against me with every step. It was embarrassing. We were falling farther and farther behind and it was me that had to open the box.

Disgusted, I made the comment, "You didn't come very well dressed for getting a story."

She wasn't through yet. "How would you like to see me dressed, more or less?"

I stopped and faced her. "Look Miss Trevor, I'm beginning to doubt you are a reporter. You certainly don't act like one. There is a story here if you would stop acting like a woman of the streets. My two pretty girls over there should tell you what their mother looks like, and you don't hold a candle to her. Enough of that. Mrs. Winslip is a well-respected prosecutor for the county. She is also a widow. Her husband was killed in Iraq and he never knew that his wife was to have a child.

"That's rough, but that's human interest. Look at that old lady sitting in front of the building that we are headed for. Her family was the first family to build in this section of the city and Mrs. Winslip's family came shortly after. Sure, they have money, but they all have given to society by serving the city in different capacities, just as Mrs. Winslip is doing.

"Now I don't know what these paintings are going to be, but you were sent out to get a story, so why don't we go right along and see what they are?"

Miss Trevor stepped away from me and when she did the heel snapped off one of her shoes. She fell on her cute little butt. She was so embarrassed and looked ready to cry. I reached with my hand so she could stand. I squatted down and removed the shoe that still retained a heel. I snapped the heel off and slid the shoe back on her foot. I picked up the two heels and tossed them into one of the holes waiting for a shrub.

"Shall we continue on and find out if you have a story or not?" Miss Trevor quietly nodded.

I worked for about fifteen minutes moving the items I had used to keep the box hidden. The photographer was busy snapping pictures. Miss Trevor really was a reporter, for I could hear her asking pointed questions. Finally I dragged the box out in front of the garage and used my speed drill to remove the screws holding the top board on.

Mrs. Hamlin spoke to me. "Mr. Burns I remember when Mr. Nelson packed that box with paintings. I was playing with Ashley's mother the day her grandfather said he was sick of them. He wanted landscapes and not portraits on his walls. I can even tell you what the paintings are. I always wondered what happened to the box, but I guess I forgot about it until I saw it just now. I think you will find only four paintings in there. The fifth section has a bundle of lithographs done by a Nat Currier. He later paired up with a man named Ives.