I would like to thank SouthPacific for his editing work on this story, his offer to edit this story was very much appreciated. Any errors in this story are mine and mine alone.
*****
I had been up since just before dawn and, considering it was still dark, I hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. To be honest, mind you, I wasn't looking. I had heard Tessa moving around, so I had her breakfast ready as her bare feet padded down the stairs.
"Daddy, who does the car belong to?"
Tessa was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she walked into the kitchen. My daughter looked at me like I knew what she was talking about, then rolled her eyes and tilted her head towards the kitchen door as I followed her into the day room. It was now light enough to see to the far end of the clearing, where a dark colored saloon car was parked against the barn. Not much else could be seen, since the barn stood fifty yards from the house and the car sat in the shadows as the sun's rays came up on the other side of the barn.
Leaving Tessa to eat her breakfast, I wandered over to the car. As I closed the gap I couldn't see the driver's seat, so I guessed that someone had pulled it down to sleep. My guess was proven correct when I got close enough to see a woman's head sticking out of a blanket. Her eyes opened before I got close enough to knock on the window, and she got out to meet me as I passed the front of the car.
"I know you!" I exclaimed. "You're Savannah Gordon."
The woman looked more intensely at me, recognition failing her, and I knew why. I held out my hand but all she did was watch me do it.
"You have me at a disadvantage, mister. Who are you?"
I smiled, and I think that pissed her off as well.
"Martin Holdsworth. I recognize you from all the pictures that the Gordons had around the house when I bought the place."
She rested against the car as she absorbed the information I had given her. It was clear to me that she knew nothing of what happened. What saddened me the most was that a complete stranger was about to tell her the truth. As Savannah followed me towards the house, Tessa came out and sat on the porch with her breakfast on her lap, watching us move around the back.
Other than open the gate to the family cemetery I said and did nothing. Savannah knelt in front of the graves of her folks. She mumbled something, more to herself and her folks than to me, but she did notice the flowers on both graves.
"My daughter Tessa: every Monday, Wednesday and Friday she comes home from school with flowers for both graves, and has done since we've lived here."
I'm not too sure how much she heard. I suppose if I was where she was now my mind wouldn't have heard all that much either. Savannah lifted herself from her kneeling position and stood in front of me, the sadness clear to see. I recognized it from burying Connie just over two years before.
"How did they die, and why did you come to own the farm?"
Once again I did the thing that seemed to piss her off and smiled. Holding the gate open for her to exit the cemetery, we walked towards the house as I explained that the boiler in the basement was old and simply had had too many repairs done to it instead of being replaced. Both her folks simply went to bed one night and never woke up. Since there was no will, their bank took possession of the farm to cover outstanding debts and I bought it days after it came on the market.
"I was brought up in a small town myself, Savannah, and I respected everyone's wishes. I put a shipping container in the barn and moved all your folks' personal possessions into it. There is only one key and I will give you that as soon as we get into the house."
Even I could see she was on a slow boil, so I continued before she had a chance to say anything.
"No one knew where you were. Your folks told everyone you worked for the Government, but that's all they told anyone. I wasn't about to go through their possessions, so I stored everything. The rest of the money for the farm is in the bank in town under your name."
Tessa watched as we got closer to the house. The day was a lot brighter now, and it was plain to see my daughter sitting with her mouth hanging open, watching us as we stepped onto the porch.
"You're the lady in the photos."
Savannah stopped and knelt next to my daughter. Her hand slowly came out and held onto Tessa's.
"The flowers are lovely. Thank you for looking after my folks like that."
I went indoors and they both followed. Tessa washed up her bowl and headed upstairs to get changed. Savannah sat at the kitchen table, and her eyes scanned the room before they settled on me as I placed a key in the middle of the table.
"The Sheriff tried to find you, Savannah. Old Hank phoned a friend of his at the FBI. He checked a couple of other agencies but came up with nothing; you seemed to have literally disappeared from the face of the earth. Marsha Turnbull took over the funeral arrangements, and almost the whole town turned up."
Although her head nodded, I'm not sure how much she actually heard. When I stopped speaking she just leaned across, picked up the key, and walked out. I watched her walk to her car and, seconds later, pull away. The school bus came by half an hour later and our day resumed its normal routine.
It was the weekend before we saw Savannah again. Tessa called me from out front as her car pulled up by the barn. She got out and walked over to us.
"You asked Jacob and Terri Browner to value the farm at full market value, not a foreclosure. You opened the account at the bank that has my name on it with the Mayor and Sheriff present, and deposited all the money that was left after deducting what the bank and Government were owed in debts and taxes."
She hadn't ask me a question, but simply told me something I already knew, so I just nodded my head. Her eyes narrowed and she looked more closely at me. A little air seemed to leave her before she looked once again at the key in her hand. Savannah asked to see the container, so my daughter walked off the porch and placed her hand into Savannah's before both walked in front of me towards the barn.
It was plain to see that my own daughter wanted Savannah to know she understood death. With the loss of her own mother she wanted to extend that bond to one other, the woman walking with her.
*******
The size of the container gave her a hint, but when she opened it she still took a step back and slowly shook her head.
"Jeez... This is going to take me days."
For a ten-year-old, Tessa was ever the pragmatist. She tugged on Savannah's sleeve until she pulled her eyes away from the contents of the container.
"Then stay. I have a big bed; we can share."
I quickly tried to deflect Savannah having to give an answer. "Honey, I think..."
Savannah knelt in front of my daughter. Tessa wasn't about to give in so quickly.
"I watched Daddy spend a week getting all your stuff in that box. You need somewhere to stay, and I'm strong so I can help you."
Her shoulders lowered slightly and our guest nodded her head a second later.
"OK, but you need to bring tissues so we can both have a cry when we do this."
Tessa bounced up and down, clapping her hands at the same time. It was an odd sort of bond they had between them, and since the death of her mother Tessa hadn't really been close to any woman other then my sister. Yet now a person we only knew from the folks in town, and from pictures that had hung on almost every wall in the house, had pulled more out of my daughter than anything I had managed to do in two years.
When they looked at me all I could do was nod my head. I wasn't about to get in the way. Hell, I had tried a moment ago and was overridden, so perhaps this could be a healing process for both of them.
"I'm going back to the house to make you two some cold drinks. I will also swing by every fifteen minutes or so to see if you need me to lift anything heavy out of the container."
Both nodded, although it seemed to be an automatic reflex since their attention was already on the first box in the container. By the time the first drinks came out a few feet of the inside of the barn already had furniture on it. Savannah thanked me for the drinks and pointed to the first box they pulled out of the container for me to place them on. I stood and watched for a while waiting to see if I was needed. I'm sure my daughter remembered I was there; at least, I hoped she did.
A couple of hours later Marsha Turnbull pulled up outside the barn, waved at me sitting on the porch, and came to join me. This was the happiest I had seen Marsha in all the time we had been here.
"She came to my house in tears. Savannah even told me what you had said to her, and cried in my arms the rest of the morning. I've known that girl over twenty seven years, Martin, and didn't think anything could faze her. She was coming home to stay, Martin - she put her notice in with that job of hers in the Government and was coming home."
Both of us knew how that ended. It just didn't feel right that a perfect stranger should tell someone that her folks were dead. I could understand why Marsha was the first person she went to see afterwards. Marsha leaned over and gripped my hand really tightly, causing me to look at her.
"This is a small town, Martin, and we all know why you're here. What Tessa does with those flowers she buys on the way home softened the blow of her folk's death. We all understand loss in some way, shape or form, Martin - perhaps that yours and Tessa's is still fresh to you both helped her in some way."
I squeezed Marsha's hand a little to let her know that I understood, and pointed to the barn, telling her that Savannah and Tessa were sorting through her folks' stuff in the container.
"Savannah phoned me an hour ago and told me, and even that she had a helper. For a moment I thought it was you until I heard Tessa's voice in the background. Thank you, Martin, if for nothing other than being you. It seems that you were in the right place at just the right time for her."
Marsha leaned over and kissed my cheek before getting up and walking to the barn. Half an hour later a truck pulled up, and two men took a double bed and a wardrobe away. It seemed to be a conveyor belt of cars and trucks after that - men and women would go inside and bring something out, and maybe tie it down before leaving again. I replaced the jug of lemonade and ice twice more: both times I asked if they needed me, but no-one said they did so I left again.
As it started to get dark Marsha came out of the barn, followed by the girls. They locked the barn, and both hugged her before she got in her car and drove off. I sent them both upstairs to shower while I got dinner out of the oven. As I was about to call up the stairs for them both, they came down. Tessa was in her usual PJ's and Savannah in an over-sized tee shirt, shorts and legs - damn long legs!
"Daddy, what are you staring at?"
