Eli's home was not what she expected. Being that he was a single man Lilith had naturally assumed that he lived in an apartment. It might be one with two bedrooms, but an apartment nonetheless. She certainly wasn't expecting a two-story craftsman house in such pristine shape. This was even more surprising since, judging from the age and look of the other homes in the neighborhood, this was not new construction. Someone had put a lot of time, effort and money into restoring the old place. The exterior had been returned to its original look with red brick around the porch and along the foundation of the home. All the trim and columns were painted white, while the rest of the dwelling was grey. Even the detached garage had been given a facelift complete with carriage doors that had black handles and hinges.
"Someone has certainly put a lot of work into this place," Lilith commented as Eli came back from putting his motorcycle in the garage.
"Yes I did, but you might want to hold off on any compliments until you've seen the inside. You may end up disappointed." He was genuinely modest when it came to his construction skills, but there was no denying the look of pride that shone in his eyes at her recognition.
Stepping through the front door, she suddenly understood why he had wanted her to hold off on her praise. The inside was sparsely furnished with tools, pieces of drywall, paint and various other items lying around. Picking up a hammer that was leaning against the newel post, the demoness was reminded that renovation is a long and tedious process where patience is a virtue and one should be prepared to live in an active construction site for a while. Still, Lilith liked what she saw and could see the potential that the home had. The natural craftsman style woodwork was beautiful with areas already restored to their natural red oak color and others simply stripped of paint and waiting to be stained and given a coat of polyurethane. Judging from the areas where the old dirty carpet was torn up, he was looking to see what lay beneath in hopes of bringing back the original floors. So far he had been lucky enough to find the original red oak planks still in good condition.
"Please make yourself at home. You'll have to forgive the mess. I'm slowly trying to fix up the place, but I'm only one man and there is only so much money."
"So, do you work construction or something?" Lili asked.
"I have worked construction before, but I'm actually a welder. When it comes to home renovation I'm what's known as 'passable'. I can frame and drywall, even handle some minor plumbing, but I prefer to let the professionals handle the electrical and a few other jobs around here."
"I'd say you were more than passable."
"Thanks," he answered, the look of pride once more appearing in his eye as he ran his fingers through his thick hair. "But, uh, you just haven't noticed all the mistakes yet."
"Humanity is obsessed with perfection whether it's their looks, beliefs, art or what their hands create," Lili explained as she ran her hands down one of the pillars that separated the entryway from the living room. "There really is no such thing as perfection and it's flaws and differences that make everything unique and beautiful." She turned and smiled at her host. "Take the compliment."
Eli nodded, realizing she was correct. Silently she strolled into the living room and looked around. There was a nice fireplace with a brick and oak surround along with a set of built-in bookshelves on either side of it. There were a couple of car manuals, a novelty book about cats and a fist full of junk mail and catalogs but mostly the shelves were bare. A television hung on the wall above the mantle and across from it was a comfortable looking leather couch and coffee table with the obligatory remote control sitting on it.
"How about I give you the fifty-cent tour?" Eli offered, noticing her interest in the old place.
Lilith seized the opportunity and used it to check every room on the ground floor and basement for anyone who might have followed them and was watching her. She looked into every space where a person could potentially hide and saw no one, nor any cameras. She was so tired of being suspicious and afraid. She longed to feel safe again and not so uncertain. The one thing that made her smile was a picture she noticed on the kitchen table of a little boy about three or four years old playing with some blocks. On the back, she read 'Elijah David Asher'.
"You were adorable," she smiled.
"Yeah, well . . . mom came by to check up on me a couple of weeks ago and left that. She forgets that I'm not a kid anymore," he replied with an eye roll. "Let me show you the upstairs and the room you'll be staying in."
She followed Eli up the wooden staircase, her hand sliding along the smooth oak banister as her feet moved up the treads. At the top, she quickly scanned the landing, her eyes noting each of the four doors and their locations. Staying close to Eli, she was first shown the bathroom with its sterile while walls and matching subway tile. The only pop of color in the space was the sprinkling of black hexagonal floor tiles that broke up the white and also matched the stripe that separated the upper painted drywall from the polished ceramic rectangles below. The room certainly screamed the nineteen-twenties to Lilith and was a masterful restoration.
Returning to the landing, Eli quickly pointed out his bedroom as they passed the door so she would know where to find him during the night if she needed anything. Lili immediately went in and turned on the light so she could look the room over. It was the bedroom of a stereotypical bachelor and quite different from the care Eli had shown in the rest of the house. Her deep green eyes taking in everything, not that there was much to see. There was a dresser covered with keys and other odds and ends to the left of the doorway and his bed was in front of the windows on the opposite wall from the door. The closet door was sitting open and clothes piled in a chair next to a television that hung on the wall. Without caring about his privacy or the presumption of her actions, Lili went through his closet verifying that no one was in there and there were no hiding places. Satisfied, she went back over to her host to continue the tour.
