Page 9 of The Spotted Cottage By the Sea
When the moment passed, Patty wiped the tears from her eyes and put the car in drive. “Fine. I’ll show you what’s happened, you stubborn old mule, and then you’ll understand.”
Sheila sat back, a smile on her face. “Took you long enough.”
Six
They drove east on Turn Point Road, a short six-minute trip through Sheila’s memory. The winding roads were unchanged, as were the bowing trees and stunning glimpses of the ocean between the leaves.
How could it have been eighteen years since Patty and Ray told them they’d bought the property? It made no sense. Time never made sense to Sheila anymore; it felt like decades had slipped between her fingers.
Still, it had happened. At the time, Patty and Ray had been working on a cruise ship and the captain, whom Ray had befriended, sold the land to them at a bargain.
“You two young kids have dreams,” he’d said.
They were 63 and 62.
It was the year Sheila’s youngest, Emma, was born, the year Brian said in no uncertain terms that her returning to work would ruin his career and, subsequently, all their futures.
She could still see the pleading look in his eyes, how he’d bounced little Emma in his arms, desperate to get her to sleep, desperate for any of them to sleep.
Patty made a turn onto her driveway and Sheila could see the cottage in the distance, sitting not a hundred yards from the water. The tea shop was close, just off the driveway, with a small gravel parking lot behind it. It too had a view of the water, and its pea gravel patio stood empty, umbrellas for the tables wrapped and faded from the sun.
Ray had come up with the idea for the tea shop’s name – The Briny Brew. As much as Sheila hated it, she had still helped him paint the wooden sign he’d wanted for the front.
Speaking of – it seemed to be missing.
“Did you rename the tea shop?” Sheila asked.
Patty shook her head.
“Where’s the sign?” She leaned forward, studying the structure. There were no cars in the parking lot, and it didn’t look like any lights were on.
“Are you closed today because I came to visit?” Sheila asked.
Patty kept quiet until she reached the parking spot behind the cottage. She turned off the car with a sigh. “No, honey. It’s not because of you.”
Before she could ask any more questions, Patty got out of the car.
Sheila followed her and took a closer look at the cottage. It wasn’t a large house, though it had always served Patty well. Two stories tall, it had enough bedrooms to cram them all in for birthdays and Christmases and Mother’s Day brunches, always with a spectacular view of the sea. When the girls were young, they’d build bonfires on the beach and sit roasting marshmallows under the starlight, and when they had gotten older, Patty insisted on hosting birthdays and graduation parties on the beach.
As warm as her memories of the place were, she could admit this was one area where time hadn’t stood still. The cottage’s pale sea foam paint had peeled in strips and chunks, exposing the gray wood beneath. Bushes and grasses had overgrown the pathway to the house. Weeds edged every corner, and the little mailbox stood crooked, like it had been knocked over and never put quite right again.
“You can see why Brian was tipped off,” Patty said, shaking her head. “A neighbor called him and ratted me out. Told him the house looked abandoned.”
“It doesn’t look abandoned,” Sheila said, her voice going too high to be truthful.
“Don’t try to use your kindness on me, Sheila.” She sighed. “You know, I’ve never been obsessive about landscaping or how thingslooked, but this has gotten out of hand, even for me. The neighbor told Brian it looks like a spotted cottage from the water with all the paint peeling off.”
Sheila turned to Patty, but her eyes were fixed on the cottage. Surely, she didn’t see the weeds or the peeling paint or the drooping roof.
She saw something else – the dreams she and Ray had had together, dreams stolen away when Ray died.
Sheila knew a thing or two about futures being stolen away, about dreams dead and gone. When Brian had told her he wanted a divorce, the perfect plans they’d created vanished overnight.
It made Sheila question everything. Had their life ever been real at all if it could disappear without a trace? It felt like she’d lost her bearing in the world then. She used to have a clear image of her life, of her future. She used to know where she was going. It all disappeared in an instant, on the whim of a man looking for himself.
“So what?” Sheila said. “We need to get someone out here to paint it. Big deal.”
Patty turned, her eyes solemn. “And whatever else we can’t see. Honestly, I’m afraid to look.”
