Boards had been nailed into the tree to form a ladder.
Seth went up first. The rungs led up to a trapdoor, which he pushed open. Kendra climbed up after him.
Inside, the tree house felt bigger than it looked from the ground. There was a little table with four chairs. The pieces to a jigsaw puzzle were spread out on the table. Only a couple had been fit together.
See, not bad, Seth said. I started that puzzle.
It's beautiful. You must be gifted.
I didn't work on it long.
Did you even find the corners?
No.
That's the first thing you do. She sat down and started looking for corner pieces. Seth took a seat and helped. You never like puzzles, Kendra said.
It's more fun doing them in a tree house.
If you say so.
Seth found a corner piece and set it aside. Think Grandpa would let me move in here?
You're a weirdo.
I'd only need a sleeping bag, he said.
You'd get freaked out once it was late.
No way.
The witch might come get you.
Instead of responding, he started looking more intently for the other corner pieces. Kendra could tell the comment had gotten to him. She decided not to tease him any further.
The fact that he seemed scared of the lady he had met in the woods legitimized his story a lot. Seth had never scared easily. This was the kid who had jumped off the roof under the misguided assumption that a garbage bag would work like a parachute. The kid who had put the head of a live snake in his mouth on a dare.
They found the corners and finished most of the perimeter of the puzzle by the time they heard Lena calling them for dinner.
The Hidden Pond Rain pattered endlessly against the roof. Kendra had never heard such a noisy downpour. Then again, she had never been in an attic during a rainstorm. There was something relaxing about the steady drumming, so constant that it almost became inaudible without ever decreasing in volume.
Standing at the window beside the telescope, she watched the deluge. The rain fell straight and hard. There was no wind, just layer upon layer of streaking droplets, blurring into a gray haze in the distance. The gutter below her was about to overflow.
Seth sat on a stool in the corner, painting. Lena had been creating paint-by-numbers canvases for him, sketching them with expert speed, customizing each image to his specifications. The current project was a dragon battling a knight on horseback amid a fuming wasteland. Lena had outlined the images in considerable detail, including subtleties of light and shade, so that the finished products looked quite accomplished. She had taught Seth how to mix paint and given him samples of which hue corresponded to each number. For the current painting, she had incorporated more than ninety different shades.
Kendra had rarely seen Seth demonstrate as much diligence as he did on the paintings. After a few brief lessons on how to apply the paint, including the purposes of different brushes and tools, he had already finished a large canvas of pirates sacking a town and a smaller one of a snake charmer diving away from a striking cobra. Two impressive paintings in three days. He was an addict! And he was almost done with his latest project.
Crossing to the bookshelf, Kendra ran a hand along the spines of the volumes. She had searched the room thoroughly and had yet to find the last keyhole, let alone a secret passage to the other side of the attic. Seth could be a pest, but now that he had become immersed in his painting, she was starting to miss him.
Maybe Lena would outline a painting for her. Kendra had turned down her initial offer, since it sounded childish, like coloring. But the finished products looked much less juvenile than Kendra had anticipated.
Kendra opened the door and descended the stairs. The house was dim and quiet, the rainfall more distant as she left the attic behind. She walked along the hall and down the stairs to the main floor.
The house seemed too quiet. All the lights were out despite the gloom.
Lena?
There was no answer.
Kendra went through the living room, the dining room, and into the kitchen. No sign of the housekeeper. Had she left?
Opening the door to the basement, Kendra peered down the steps into the darkness. The stairs were made of stone, as if leading to a dungeon. Lena? she called uncertainly.
Surely the woman wasn't down there without any light.
Kendra went back down the hall and slid open the door to the study. Having not yet entered this particular room, she first noticed the huge desk cluttered with books and papers. The massive head of a hairy boar with jutting tusks hung mounted on the wall. A collection of grotesque wooden masks rested on a shelf. Golfing trophies lined another. Plaques decorated the wood-paneled walls, along with a framed display of military medals and ribbons. There was a black-and-white picture of a much younger Grandpa Sorenson showing off an enormous marlin. On the desk, inside a crystal sphere with a flat bottom, was an eerie replica of a human skull no bigger than her thumb. Kendra slid the study door closed.
She tried the garage, the parlor, and the family room.
Maybe Lena had run to the store.
Kendra walked out to the back porch, shielded from the rain by the overhang. She loved the fresh, damp scent of rainfall. It continued to come down hard, puddling around the garden. Where did the butterflies hide from such a downpour?
Then she saw Lena. The housekeeper knelt in the mud beside a bush blossoming with large blue and white roses, absolutely soaked, apparently weeding. Her white hair was plastered to her head, and her housecoat was drenched.
Lena?
The housekeeper looked up, smiled, and waved.
Kendra retrieved an umbrella from the hall closet and joined Lena in the garden. You're sopping, Kendra said.
Lena rooted out a weed. It's a warm rain. I like being out in the weather. She stuffed the weed into a bulging garbage bag.
You're going to catch a cold.
I don't often take ill. She paused to stare up at the clouds. It won't last much longer.
Kendra tilted her umbrella back and gazed heavenward.
Leaden skies in all directions. You think?
Wait and see. The rain will pass within the hour.
Your knees are all muddy.
You think I've lost my marbles. The diminutive woman stood up and spread her arms wide, tilting her head back. Do you ever look up at the rain, Kendra? It feels like the sky is falling.
Kendra tilted the umbrella back again. Millions of raindrops rushed toward her, some pelting her face and making her blink. Or like you're soaring up to the clouds, she said.
I suppose I should get you inside before my unusual habits rub off.
No, I didn't mean to disturb you. Back under the protection of the umbrella, Kendra wiped droplets from her forehead. I guess you don't want the umbrella.
That would defeat the purpose. I'll be in shortly.