Joyce went into Eliza’s room and picked her up and out of her crib. “Here you go, Ellie,” she said. “Good morning, good morning.” She kept her voice pleasant and forced a smile on her face. There was no way she would let this happy child feel her frustration. That wouldn’t be fair at all. Her unhappiness was her own, and she wasn’t going to make a baby feel it too. Besides, her crying would be endless. That was the last thing Joyce wanted at this point.
She set Ellie down in a chair and took up a towel to brush her little hands and face with water from the basin. Then she brushed the little girl’s curls and helped her rub a small cloth over her tiny teeth. She had adopted her own morning routine for the child, and Ellie didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it. She opened her little mouth and displayed her teeth, separating them for Joyce to get the insides of them too. She bounced slightly in the chair while Joyce brushed her yellow curls. She sat perfectly still and closed her eyes while Joyce wiped her face with first a wet towel and then a dry one.
When Joyce was finished, she was rewarded with a big grin and a hug around the neck. Every time Ellie hugged her, Joyce felt her heart melting a little more. She wished that Ellie was her own child and was slowly coming to realize that she might as well be.
“Let’s go exploring today, Ellie, shall we?”
Without having the slightest clue what “exploring” might mean, Eliza jumped up and down and clapped her hands. “Yes, yes, yes!”
Joyce laughed. “All right, let’s go!” She held out her hand, but Ellie held up both arms. “Oh, you are going to get heavy pretty quickly, little one,” Joyce said. “But I’ll carry you for a bit, okay?”
“Up! Please!”
Joyce couldn’t resist her. “Okay, dear.” She leaned down and picked the little girl up in her arms. “I imagine your little legs get tired pretty quickly, don’t they? Although you don’t have nearly as much weight to carry as someone big like me.” She continued chatting, knowing that Ellie wasn’t processing much of what she was saying, if anything. She talked to her as if she was much older than she really was. Apparently, she was smarter than most. According to Anne, she had learned to walk early, and though she didn’t say many words, she was able to read the alphabet and numbers and could understand a few words that were written down on paper, such as “dog” and “cat.” At sixteen months, that was an incredible accomplishment.
“Which way should we go, Ellie? This way or that way?” She pointed down the hallway once she’d reached the second floor. Ellie looked as though she were really thinking about it, which made Joyce want to burst out laughing. She smiled instead and waited, biting her bottom lip gently.
“Dis way!” Ellie pointed to the left. Joyce was glad. She hadn’t been down that way before and was anxious to see what there was to see. There were three rooms on each side of the house. Most of the new construction was on the bottom floor. The house spread out back over the land, and its length couldn’t be seen from the front. You had to round the entire house to see that it had been added on to extensively.
The first door she opened was to what looked like a spare bedroom. On the other side, a floor to ceiling window was covered by long blue draperies. The furniture consisted of a canopy bed with dusty curtains, a side table, a dresser and an area rug. All were covered with a thick layer of dust. She was glad to see that there were no cobwebs. The room was probably only attended to once a month, from the look of it.
She closed the door and gave Ellie a look. “It’s too dusty in there!” She exclaimed. Ellie giggled.
The second door led to a room that looked similar to the first but was slightly less dusty. The furnishings were the same, with the exception of the coloring, which was green as opposed to blue in the first room.
She closed the door and looked at Ellie once again. “It’s too dusty in there, too!” She made a face and the baby laughed.
“Well, let’s try the third one then, shall we?”
When she opened the door to the third room, she was surprised and frightened to see that someone was in there, standing at the large window on the opposite side. When her eyes adjusted to the light coming through the glass, she saw that it was Tom. He turned and looked at her. His hands were clasped behind his back, and he stood there rigidly, with a terribly sad look on his face.
“Hello, Tom!” Joyce stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. This room was not dusty. It was immaculate. The furniture was polished, and the bed looked as though it may have been slept in the night before. It wasn’t Tom’s room. It was filled with flowers, pretty pictures on the walls, a red velvet drapery that was pulled back from the window and held in place with a gold tassel and a soft, silk pink curtain around the canopy bed. “You…you scared me. Are you…all right?”
Tom looked back out the window, resuming the stance he’d had before she came in.
“Do you see that long patch of grass down there?” He asked, pointing.