Rose was excited about her new sewing room but she just remembered that she wanted to call Joyce. She trotted down the stairs and went into the living room. She picked up her cell phone and called her cousin Joyce. This time Joyce answered.
“Hi, cousin Joyce, this is Rose. How have you been?”
Joyce told Rose about her all about cousin Jean’s surgery and her uncle Paul’s business failure but she didn’t have a lot of information on uncle Ralph. She said that he tried to open up a ceramic shop and sell his work, but it didn’t work out. Joyce said that her grandma used some of her money to help Ralph with the business too.
“Joyce, there’s a lot of uncle Ralph’s stuff here… Do you know where he might be now?” Rose asked.
“Living with your grandma is the last place that I know of,” Joyce said.
“Well, thank you, cousin Joyce. It was good to talk to you,” Rose said goodbye.
“I just don’t understand why no one knows where he is,” Rose put her cell phone down.
All of a sudden there was a loud crash down in the basement. Rose ran into the kitchen and opened the basement door. She turned on the light and slowly walked down the steps. She looked around as she got to the bottom step. The one shelving unit with grandma’s canning jars was down and broken glass jars all around it.
“Why did that fall? It seemed like it was on steady ground,” Rose stood there and looked.
She grabbed the broom that was down there and swept some of the glass to one side. The wood shelving unit was a little heavy but she managed to move it out of the way. She picked up the jars that didn’t break and packed them into a box that was down there. Then she swept up the broken glass and dumped it into the trash can. The unit stands just over six feet tall and is solid wood so she might need help standing it back up. For now, she carefully moved it out of the walkway and let it sit on its side by the other unit.
She made sure that there wasn’t any more glass on the floor. Then she looked at the area where the shelf was originally standing. It seemed flat and level as she thought.
“Grandma, if this is you doing this I don’t know what you want,” Rose looked into the air.
Rose grabbed the trash bag and carried it up the stairs. She shut the light off and closed the door. She opened up the back screen door and set the trash out onto the back porch. I need a drink, she thought. She picked up the teapot and put more water in it. She turned on the stove burner and set the pot down. From the cupboard, she took out one of the teacups and put it on the counter. I can’t believe that shelf fell over like that, she thought.
Just then her cell phone rang. She walked into the living room to answer it. It was cousin Joyce and she remembered something. Joyce told her that her grandma told her that Ralph and she had a huge fight and he moved out and in with some old girlfriend of his. Somewhere in Arizona.
“Hmm, well, that’s a start. Thank you, Joyce,” Rose put her cell phone down.
Rose walked back into the kitchen and picked up the teapot just before it was going to whistle. She poured the hot water into her cup and put the pot back on the stove. Rose took out an Earl Grey teabag and put it in her cup. While letting her tea steep she stood there and tried to think if she ever heard of this girlfriend's name in Arizona. But nothing was coming to her.
She slid the sugar jar over to her cup and put her two teaspoons into her tea. She took out the teabag and threw it away. With her cup in hand, she walked into the living room. Rose gazed out the bay window and tried to remember if uncle Ralph ever said anything about a girlfriend. I don’t remember uncle Ralph ever saying anything about a girlfriend, she thought.
She sat down on the sofa, took a sip of her tea, and just gazed out the bay window.
Please join me again for more of: Rose’s Ghost.