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Reluctant to tear herself away from her work, she rose and went out to greet him. The back door of the car opened and Ish jumped out. ‘I’ve had the best time. Thanks Mrs D!’ he shouted before racing inside.
‘Thanks so much for having him.’ She chatted to Sam’s mother through the front passenger window, keeping her filthy hands behind her back. It was a quick chat as Sam’s mum had to rush away to an appointment. Suited her perfectly. Returning to the deck Ish played with the dogs and she made lunch. Listening to Ish talk about his time with Sam, she kept glancing at the rocks, her mind coming up with a range of potential scenarios. It was so irritating she didn’t know what she was dealing with! Patience had never been her virtue. Best to move onto something else.
‘Okay, kiddo, want to help me pull out the kitchen?’
‘Yeah!’
Showing off their muscle as a team of two, they enjoyed the splintering of old timber as it lost its secure footing against the wall. It was hard yakka and Ish stood behind her and helped her tug out the fittings. Together, the cabinets around the sink came out quickly and were dumped into unruly piles. Halfway through ripping out the tall cupboards lining the long wall opposite the beautiful open bay window, there was a crash and jangle of something hitting the floor.
Something small and heavy rolled into the four corners of the rectangular room. Ish chased after them and collected a handful of coins. ‘Aw, gross, Mumma!’ he exclaimed holding up his hands that were now black. The coins were filthy.
‘Wow! Ish, look,’ Ava examined them in turn. ‘These say liberte, egalite, fraternate. They are French coins.’
‘Cool. This one has a hole through its middle,’ he said as he held it up to his eye.
Ava scraped away the dirt to reveal the number five on the one she held. ‘And the date is 1912! Incredible. This one is a bit tarnished but larger than the others and has some sort of leaf on it. It’s worth two francs.’
‘How much is that?’ Ish asked.
‘Like two dollars sort of.’ Holding up another one it was stained gold with ten cente written in the middle and decorated with some sort of emblem around the edge. ‘These must have belonged to the original owner. What a find!’ She jumped on the spot. ‘Can you get some hot soapy water and clean these for me?’
The smile on his face dropped. ‘Do I have to?’
‘Either that, or you can clean up this mess?’
With neither choice holding appeal, he wandered out. Ava replaced her dust mask and peered in the remainder of the cabinets still attached to the wall. The corner of yellowing lino that lined the base of the cupboard stuck up in one corner. Ava lifted it and circled a small section into a roll and threw it onto the floor. She’d dispose of the mess properly when the room was a bare canvas.
Reaching back inside her fingers dragged on something else, hard and sharp
-edged. Pulling over a chair, she climbed higher to get a better view. Gently, she pried whatever it was from the bottom of the ledge. It was a small and rectangular postcard displaying a gorgeous image of a young woman wearing a large bonnet and holding a bouquet of flowers. The next was a woman pulling on a shoe, standing half-dressed in a bedroom. Both were black and white and faded with age.
Poking her head further inside, she extracted a few more. Rifling through them quickly she saw they were romantic poses of couples in a garden and on a swing wearing old-fashioned formal clothing. The women were in long dresses and the men in suits with stiff collars and heavy coats.
From the far back, Ava retrieved a handful more, those depicting images of war. Men in uniform holding guns, walking through valleys and fields, marching through villages.
It was a motley collection and Ava plonked down onto the chair to consider them properly. They were all French if the language was demonstrative of their origin. She flicked over to the back of some of them, hoping to find descriptions but they were blank. As she fanned though the postcards she sneezed in quick succession; the dust rising from the cards and penetrating her mask.
Her thoughts returned to the previous owner, the soldier. What was he doing with these cards and why at some point did they end up lining his kitchen cabinets?
Coins and postcards … what other treasures would she find hiding in these walls?
Ava moved her gaze around the kitchen and into the rooms beyond, as if the past might jump out and surprise her. An odd turn of phrase that she wished she hadn’t used. History was everywhere, wasn’t it? Remnants of people’s lives left behind, puzzles to solve and this place was certainly working out to be a doozy. Outside and in. She could never have imagined the secrets she might be unlocking … well that she hoped she was unlocking. And now she had a keen desire to learn as much as possible about the original owner.
From now on, she’d need to be more careful to ensure nothing of historic value was ruined or lost.
Ava had a sudden urge to tell Noah of her finds; the thought came out of nowhere. But then, she had no friends and no one else to talk to, so was it really so strange? He’d always seemed interested in restoring this house to its former grandeur. Would that extend to knowledge about its inhabitants and the mystery within the acres of land?
But he wasn’t here for her to gauge his interest. Two days had passed and he hadn’t shown up or called to say he wasn’t coming. Not that he had to. In fact, she’d told him he didn’t have to come every day, that he must have other stuff to do sometimes. It appeared he did.
Ava was torn. Should she continue with the kitchen—she was desperate for work to commence on a fully functioning kitchen—or go where her heart was calling her, the history centre and try to find out more about this soldier. Or, at the very least, see if she could contribute to what she imagined was an already established collection of artefacts from the region and the history of their returned soldier scheme.
‘Ish, want a milkshake in town?’
He raced back in. ‘Yeah!’
A short time later, Ava stopped outside the Bellethorpe Historical Centre in a small building attached to the Anglican church. Ava didn’t need to try the door to know it was locked. The sign advised it was open one day per week but didn’t say which day! Bugger. What a disappointment. She was desperate to speak to another history buff.
‘Do they sell milkshakes here?’ Ish asked.
