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“What other spirits? Your grandmother has lived in this house for fifty years.”
“But her parents before, and their parents before that.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand and with the other held it out like he could stop time. “Let me get this straight. You’re scared your great-great grandparents are going to get mad at you for knocking a hole in the wall to fix a pipe that will cause more damage to the house if left unfixed.”
“Yes!”
“You do realize how ridiculous that is, right?”
“Says the person who doesn’t have to sleep here tonight.” Her friends made fun of her for the outlandish thoughts that she had at times, but this one was completely justifiable. It’s not like she was insisting aliens were going to come out of the wall and take her back to the mothership. This thought came from a very good source. Reality TV.
His lip quirked, and he shook his head. “Tell you what… If you have any ghost visitors tonight, you give me a call. I’d love to meet them.”
“Don’t you know anything about ghosts? They won’t want to meet you. They’ll just torture me and try to scare me enough to get me to leave so they can continue living their afterlife within the familiar, untouched walls.”
“You’re stalling.”
“What?”
“You heard me. You’re stalling. You are so afraid to change anything in this house that you are stretching so far for an excuse that you’re going to pull a muscle.”
“I do yoga. I can stretch pretty far.”
“Still stalling.” He pointed to the wall. “Do it.”
“But what if I hit something important and make an even bigger problem?”
He inhaled deeply. “Isla, hit the damn wall.”
She lifted the sledgehammer and positioned herself in front of the yellow wall. It was bright and cheery and reminded her of summer sunshine. It was as if the wall was an embodiment of everything Grandma was. But just like Grandma, it might have looked good on the outside, but on the inside, it was breaking down.
She couldn’t save the woman who introduced her to Amelia Bedeliaor who kissed her booboos when she was a child, but she could save her house.
With a deep breath, she swung. The sledgehammer made contact with the sheetrock and slammed a hole right through it. Debris billowed out around the hole as she drove the sledgehammer into the wall once again.
“I think that’ll do,” Nolan said and stepped forward just as she brought the sledgehammer around one more time.
“Geez!” He jumped out of the way as she made contact with the wall again. “Are you trying to kill me?”
She shrugged. “Sorry. I got a little carried away.”
“What would the spirits think?” Her eyes widened, and Nolan laughed. “I’m kidding.” He reached for the sledgehammer. “Here, give me that.” He placed it against the counter and shone his flashlight inside the wall. “Looks like this is the problem.” He pointed to a copper pipe and a small slit within the metal.
“How do we fix that?”
“We’re going to cut the broken pipe out and solder a new piece back in.”
“We? I’m not even sure I know what soldering is.”
“Time to learn.”
“Don’t we need, like, special equipment?”
“Yes, which is why we’re going to the store now.”
She appreciated that he was helping her out, but surely, he had better things to do. “I don’t want to keep you from anything.”
“You’re not keeping me from anything. Milo has a packed schedule today, Connor’s at the pub until tonight, so I’d just be finding ways to fill the time.”
