Chapter 100

Chapter 100


Stopping in the kitchen to grab some bottles of water, we went out to the barn together. I unlocked the side door. Inside the lights sprang to life as we stepped across the threshold.

“Are there creepers watching us now?” I hadn’t looked for new cameras last night. My retinas had been burned out by the blinding motion lights. Glancing around, there weren’t any that were obvious. But in barn, there were plenty of places to hide them.

He snickered. “No. They aren’t being monitored at the moment. You have to set up the app.”

I looked at him with a lip furled up. He shook his head at my reaction. “You can set when it’s monitored. Even just go in and turn it on when you leave. You have complete control over them.”

“Thank you.” I smiled at him as I moved around him. Skirting around Betty, we turned down the walkway that the stalls were off of. The first one was used for storing outdoor tools and the bigger power tools. Across from it was moonshining paraphernalia. Guess that answered the question of if Pops still had a still out there. Or this was spare equipment.

VD saw me looking at it and shook his head. “He took down the still a year or so ago.”

“Would that be about the time he stole the portal book from the witch?”  He just nodded. Yet another thing he had done in preparation of bringing me back, one way or another.

“Don’t even think about firing yours up again.” He sounded all cop like. I told him in all honesty that the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. Until now. Not that I told him that part. Might be more fun to start brewing and just not mention it to him. I needed to find out if brewing it was illegal or only if I distributed it.

We went to the next stall. It was empty. Filthy but empty. Sighing, I went to find the broom and dust pan that I had seen in the tool stall.

We spent the next half hour cleaning out the stall. When it was clean enough for storage, I put the broom and dust pan back. Then unlocked the sliding door to pull Betty out of the way. I didn’t want to risk her getting dinged by the movers.

I’d just parked her on the gravel between the manor and the barn when the moving truck came around the corner. VD helped them get the truck backed up to the barn doors. It was too tall to fit inside them. Leaving him to handle it, I pulled out my phone. Which was still off. Shoot. I had forgotten to turn it on last night.

As it came on, the sounds of multiple kinds of notifications filled the car. Impatiently, I waited for it to finish it’s boot up process. Text after text came through. Voice mail notifications wouldn’t stop dinging. Guess me turning off my phone after storming out had created a panic. What felt like an eternity later, it finally was silent.

Ignoring all my messages, I launched the web browser. Scrolling, I found a local glass repair place that could come out today to fix Betty’s window. After setting up the appointment, I went to see how things were going with the movers.

Inside, VD had them just putting everything in the stall we had cleaned out. As they started to carry my living room furniture in, I had them leave it in the main part of the barn. I went and got the broom and dust pan again.

VD followed me further down the walkway to the office. He nodded in approval when I started sweeping in there. He moved the old flimsy desk out to the hall. A few minutes later he came back with a rake. Its handle was wrapped with a towel. He used it to dust the walls and knock down all the dirt dobber nests. Paying close attention to the secret tunnel mechanism and door. Smiling in approval, I finished cleaning the floors as best I could.

Then we went to find the movers. We asked them to put the living room furniture in the office. Except the electronics. Those didn’t tend to fair well in non climate-controlled conditions. Oh. I was going to put a flat screen in the kitchen and my room. Pops had never let me have one in my room as teen. For once I laughed at the thought of him rolling in his grave. Yeah, I was going to hades.           

I rearranged the office to be more of a lounge space with my living room furniture. No idea if the room would ever be used, but now it would be suspicious if I had to use the secret tunnel. If I got bored, I could always come out here and really clean it. Most of the cobwebs and nests were gone but, it was still a room in a barn.

Getting a notice that the repair man was here, I went out to where I had parked Betty. A service truck with multiple panes of glass attached to it was parked behind her. I got him set up to fix my poor Camero. Poor girl. I’d have to get her detailed to make it up to her.

While he was working, I went back into the barn to check on the progress of the movers. Peeking into the back of the truck, I saw it was pretty much empty. Guess it’s easy to unload when everything is just stacked into an empty room and no obstacles.

VD and I stood off to the side watching the movers finish, casting glances at the guy working on Betty occasionally. We didn’t speak as everyone finished up. I signed the waybill to indicate my belongings had been delivered in good condition. The movers waved and pulled out of the drive, heading towards the highway.

Turning, I found the repair guy rolling the window back up. I went over to him and signed the necessary paperwork for him to be on his way. Happily, I pulled Betty back in the barn. My soul felt a little less ragged now that she was repaired.