Page 13 of The Seven Rings
“He kept track of you, and he left all this to you not just because you were his twin’s daughter, but I think because he liked what he saw. He trusted you.”
“He’s got other notes here and there. My engagement announcement. He adds:Could and should do better.”
Cleo’s laugh was sharp and wicked. “Points for Collin.”
“When I started Visual Art by Sonya? He’s writtenGoing places.”
“He got that right, too.”
“I feel, doing this, seeing this, I’m getting to know him a little. The thing is, Cleo?” She swiveled in the chair to look down at her friend. “We’d have liked him. Me, Mom, you. We’d have liked him.”
“Son, we do like him.”
“You’re right. Okay.” She let out a breath, swiveled back. “Okay. Let’s keep going.”
They went through another file, then another as time ticked away. When it struck her, Sonya stopped, sat back.
“We haven’t heard from Clover since we started. We’re going through her son’s things, through his life, really, file by file.”
It came from the music room, from the old Victrola.
Cleo lifted a finger.
“I know that one. My grand-mère sings it. ‘God Bless the Child.’ It’s Billie Holiday. If you ask me, she’s talking about Collin, and I guess your dad. But you, too, Son.”
“But she doesn’t want to be right in here while we do this. And that’s okay. I keep getting a clearer, better picture of him, and doing this adds to it. This file here? It’s a list of nonprofits he gave to annually. We’re going to keep that going.”
They spent nearly two hours at it, reading, printing, separating, boxing.
“Even though we’re keeping it, I’m going to wipe the hard drive. Meanwhile, the shelves. You should go over all that, see what you want to keep, if anything.”
“I’ll Cleo it up some, maybe shift some things to other rooms. But I’m loving that brass sextant, and that old time and tide clock. The truth is, I’ve got a fondness for him, and I’ll like having things that he liked in here.”
Clover went with Hall & Oates and upbeat with “You Make My Dreams.”
Cleo patted the phone in her pocket. “Well, he sure helped make mine come true.”
Sonya put an arm around Cleo’s shoulders, and felt, for a moment, all three of them connected.
“I’ve got another idea. The cabinet there.”
“It’s wonderful. I’d use it unless you want it somewhere else.”
“No, it’s perfect in here, but right now it’s full of photo boxes, and they’re full of photos or newspaper clippings, things he printed out from articles. I haven’t gone through them all yet. We’ll store them somewhere else for now. But later?”
Sonya went to the tall, beautifully carved cabinet, opened both its doors. She took out a box at random, set it on the desk.
“A lot of snapshots, and some more formal portraits. Spans decades and generations, from what I can tell.”
“I bet he planned to organize all of them by category at some point.” Lifting her hands, Cleo spread her fingers. “Who doesn’t have a project like that waiting for the time and the mood?”
“Exactly. More photos stored in the attic. So we could make a gallery. Go through them, pull out the best, go back as far as we have. A Poole family and friends photo gallery.”
“I’m liking that idea.”
Green eyes flashed determination with some defiance mixed in.
“And, when the time comes, we use the Gold Room. After we evict Dobbs, I still wouldn’t want to use that room for guests. It’s just… I just don’t. But a room, that room, dedicated to photos, and you know we’ll find tintypes, and probably miniature portraits. If there are any family members we can’t find, maybe we can reproduce portraits.”
