Whispers on the Wind

This is a work of fiction. No real people, places or events were used. Copyright ã 2011 Plot Roach.

Whispers on the Wind

By Plot Roach

Regina paused at the gate of the old Victorian house, like she did almost every day that she walked past. Unlike some of the earlier days of her life here in this city, she was not in a hurry. She let the trees whisper to her through the brief breeze and the dappled sunlight. She watched the gnomes, frozen in play, frolic along the clean cut grass that edged the cobblestone walkway. Various statues were surrounded by multicolored plants spewing forth life and fragrances in a multitude of delight. And, as always, the wooden lady looked down upon her kingdom from her perch near the roof. She smiled benevolently at those who passed below her. Regina always smiled back.

“Look, I don’t care what they’re offering for the place. If they don’t have what it takes, they’re not going to get the house.” A woman said, slamming closed the front wrought iron fence and bending to pick up a plastic wrapped newspaper. Regina’s heart sank. So the place is up for sale after all, she thought. It will never be the same if the new owners take down all the ornaments. “I want to talk to them personally, not take your word for it, Mitch. I need to know what kind of people are going to get my mother’s place.”
I should be going now, Regina thought, yet still could not break herself away from the conversation. It would be like abandoning an old friend in a time of need.

“Do I know you?” the woman asked, glaring at Regina. Somehow she had lost track of the woman talking on her cell phone.

“Uh, no ma’am. I’ll just get going.”

“No, wait.” the woman said, taking off her sunglasses and giving Regina a once over. “I do know you. My mother said she knew you. Said that you and she would talk almost every day.”

Regina blushed. “I talked with her off and on when she tended her garden is all.”

“No, you did more for her than that, whether you realize it or not.” The woman said. “My name is Kathy, by the way.” she held out her hand and Regina reluctantly shook it. “Do you live around here?”

“Not really. I mean, not anymore.”

“Which is it? The ‘not really’ or ‘not anymore’?”

“It’s just that…Well…I kind of lost my home, and I’m in between right now…So…”

“Do you stay at a friend’s home or do you go to the shelter?” Kathy asked.

Regina looked down, feeling about three inches tall and definitely feeling the need to move on. “Don’t feel bad about it, crap happens and we do the best we can. Don’t let anyone make you feel less of a person for it.” Kathy said. “Now come sit in the garden with me and I’ll get us something to snack on while we talk.”

“Why would you want to talk with me?”

“Because you did what my mother’s children could not: spend time with her towards the end of her life. She appreciated it, and so do I.”

Regina resisted the urge to run away after the woman went into the house. You might as well stay, she told herself. You never know where your next meal will come from. And from somebody who doesn’t look down on you.

The woman returned with a tray filled with sandwiches and glasses of lemonade. “I hope you don’t mind warm drinks” Kathy apologized. “I didn’t realized that the electricity had been turned off and some of the things in the fridge have gone bad.” They ate for a while in silence, peanut butter and seedless strawberry jam on wheat bread. Butter cookies and graham crackers on the side for something sweet. Kathy began to tell Regina about her mother’s life. How this had been the first and only home her parents had ever lived in. And when her father had gotten a promotion and was forced to move to this city, he arranged for the family home to be moved as well. “I have such fond memories of the place.” Kathy sighed.

“Then why not keep it for yourself?”

“I move around a lot and I don’t have a big family of my own. It would just turn to dust waiting for my return.”

“It’s such a shame that you have to sell it. I hope the next owners don’t destroy its magic.”

Kathy tilted her head to the side, as if measuring what Regina had just said. “Tell me what you love about the place.”

“Well, look. I mean, it has a magic all of its own. And not just from the statues and the plants. It’s like fairies live here. And her-” Regina said, pointing to the wooden woman, “She looks like she’s the queen of them all. And it‘s silly, but there are times when I think that she could whisper to me if the wind blew in the right direction. Maybe on some winter night when the moon was full and the stars danced around her like the fairy folk.”

“Do you know anything about that statue?”

“Only that your mother talked to it when she wasn’t talking to me.”

“My mother hated that statue so much in the beginning. It was on my father’s fishing boat, right at the front. When the boat was damaged in a freak storm, the insurance money he got from it went to pay for the house. Almost everyone was hurt in that accident, and my father should have died. But he clung to that woman and survived. When the boat was demolished, he kept holding onto her and insisted she come to be part of the house as well. Every day he came out here to talk to her, and my mother felt like he was having an affair on her.”

“But it’s just a statue.”

“That didn’t matter to her. He spoke more to that statute than he ever did to her or his own kids. In the end, she was the last one he talked to. He was working in the yard when it happened, he had a heart attack. But rather than go inside and get help, he sat on the bench we’re on now and died with his eyes gazing up at her.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Not half as sorry as my mother. She almost yanked the statue down and burned it in the fireplace. But in the end she felt like the statue might now be her friend, since they both lost someone they loved.” Kathy said, wiping a tear away from the corner of her eye with a napkin. “But here I am, telling you my sob story, when I’m sure that you’ve got more than you can deal with on your own.”

“I’ll leave if you want me to, I didn’t mean to trouble you…”

“No, stay. Tell me about yourself. My mother spoke often of you, almost as if you were one of her children.”

“Then you already know about me.”

“No, she talked about the conversations that they two of you shared, and about how you helped her with little things around the place that she couldn’t do on her own toward the end. Please, tell me about yourself, so that I can see what she saw in you.”

“I’ve lived here for ten years. I came to this city with my fiancé. We always meant to get married, but life got the better of us, always making us either too broke or too busy to do it. We decided to start a family anyway, and we were doing well until my hours were cut back at my job and he got sick. We couldn’t afford the insurance, and I earned too much to qualify the family for free medical assistance. He died six months ago, after a long battle with cancer. In the meantime, I tried everything to get more work to pay the bills. But between medical expenses, the funeral, and everything else in between… I just couldn’t make it.”

“Any what of his family or yours? Couldn’t they help?”

“He was abandoned as a child and was sent from foster home to foster home. As for my family… Let’s just say that I would have preferred my fiancé’s upbringing.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Then, when I couldn’t keep us under a roof and I lost my job, CPS took my two sons, they’re two and five years old now. Evidently the state feels that they’re better off split up and being raised by strangers than by a mother that loves them."

“Aren’t there programs that could help keep you all together and help you get back on your feet?”

“Only when they don’t have a waiting list that lasts for two years… in the meantime they took my kids until I can provide proof of income, housing and other basic necessities.”

“And?”

“I’ve looked for a job, but none will pay me enough to pay all the bills and feed my family. It’s either one or the other, but not both. And the social worker is threatening that if I can’t do the impossible soon, the state will give my kids up for permanent adoption.”

“No, they won’t.” Kathy said. “SHE won’t let it happen.” she said, pointing to the wooden woman smiling from above them.

Regina smiled, still crying. “I would love to believe that, but how?”

“You said so yourself, she’s magical.”

“But how is all the magic in the world going to get my kids back?”

“Her magic brought you to me. I saw you smile up at her as you walked past. You’ve been her friend for a while now. And it’s about time that she returned the favor. As for the house, it’s yours. It’s mine to do with as I please, and I think no one would respect my mother’s garden and her wishes quite like you. So consider the house thing solved. As for employment, I have need of someone in my office. It will be full time work with medical and dental as part of the perks. I’m sure we can find you a licensed day care to watch the children until you can get home in your own company car. And as for getting the kids back, don’t worry too much about it. I’m a lawyer and I think I’d love to rip apart that social worker of yours for not giving you the proper information about your case and about keeping your options from you. You just leave the details to me.”

“And all of this because of the statue?” Regina asked, dumbfounded.

“I think the wind blew the right way and she whispered to me too.”