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“Ten thousand apparently, but I am thinking they are also including the people in the ground,” Charlie softly answered so Zoey wouldn’t hear the last part.
“Yeah, I highly doubt that many live here now. There’s what, twelve businesses that looked still open so far?”
“The lawyer said the last mayor was involved until he started to get too old, and things slipped through the cracks. There are not a lot of younger people within the population. He said everything we needed to know about the town would be at City Hall. He also said that it used to be a tourist hotspot.”
“I can see that. The area is beautiful, but you gotta get some younger people down here to open shops. This could be a great place for young professionals looking to open their own shop and get a house for cheap. There are farmlands, but it doesn’t look like the crops are doing much. The soil is rich; it would be great for farming. Again, though you just need to get new people here.”
There was a huge amount of potential for Rose Falls; it just mattered how Charlie wanted to transform it. It was going to be a lot of work, but it would be well worth it once it was completed, and the town started to look and function like a town. It was going to take a lot longer than a year, but again that was on Charlie.
I felt my stomach roll, and I moved my hand over to it. I had no idea why I wasn’t feeling well anymore. It came in waves. Sometimes in the morning I felt horrible, even getting sick, but then it would pass. Sometimes I would be fine during the morning, and then in the late afternoon I felt terrible. I couldn’t figure out what was going on with me, and I was really hoping it was from stress and just living so rough for the last five years. I was also eating more, and that could contribute to it as well. I hadn’t gotten used to eating regularly or larger portions. Now that I was, it was only natural that my stomach was having a harder time to adjust to the change. I would need to start eating smaller meals, and maybe that would help me out.
We finally pulled into a driveway of what I had to assume was our new home. It was in need of some serious work, and that was just on the outside. I could only imagine what the inside looked like. That oddly made me excited. I loved renovations, and I couldn’t wait to get started on it all.
From what I could see of the outside, the grass was overgrown, and there were a lot of weeds that we would need to take out by their roots so they wouldn’t regrow. The house was filthy. The siding, wood from what I could see, had been white at one point in its life, but now it was a mixture of brown and yellow from the dirt in the air. There were plants growing out of the gutters, and a handful of window shutters were literally hanging on by a single screw. The roof would also be questionable, but hopefully the plumbing and electrical was all up to code.
“Wow! Look how big it is!” Zoey said as she bounced in her seat.
I guess it was a bit bigger than the previous house. It did have that old country house look. It was two stories, and there was a wrap-around porch on the bottom and a wrap-around balcony on the second floor. We would have to make sure the door from Zoey’s bedroom could properly be locked. The land was huge from what I could see. There were a lot of possibilities for it.
“It’s something,” Charlie said as he parked his truck and turned it off. I could tell he wasn’t too happy about the appearance, but it was all cosmetic work as long as the bones were good.
“It’s amazing. There’s so much character to it. Did you ask about the plumbing and electrical? Are they up to date?”
“It was inspected just after the previous mayor passed away. Everything is up to code, and the roof was checked out. There was no structure damage to the house or the foundation. It’s just very ugly.”
“I think it’s perfect,” I said with a warm smile as I got out, and Zoey quickly followed me. A second later I heard Charlie getting out, and he was joining us as we went towards the front door. He unlocked the door and opened it as we all walked in.
The inside matched the outside perfectly. It was covered in dust, and everything was very old. There wasn't any furniture that had already been taken care of which was good. That would be one last thing we didn’t have to deal with. The floors looked like original hardwood floors, and they looked like they were white oak.
“This is perfect to you?” Charlie asked, skeptically as he looked around.
“These floors are white oak. Do you have any idea how rare they are? Not to mention expensive nowadays. These look to be in great shape; they just need a sanding and a fresh varnish on them to bring them back to their former beauty. Not to mention the fireplace and the front bay windows. Sure, it’s ugly, but you have to see past all of that and see the true character of the structure,” I said as I turned to take it all in. It was a fabulous house, and I knew by the end of the year it would look completely different.
“Yeah Daddy, you just have to see what’s underneath,” Zoey agreed, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the face that Charlie made. He wasn't too happy about the state that the house was in, but I was confident by the end of the night he might feel a bit better. Once all the dirt was cleaned up.
We all traveled all over the house to check it out. The rest of the house matched downstairs. The white oak went throughout the house except for the bathroom and kitchen. They both had broken up tiles. There were two bathrooms, one powder room on the first floor, and a full bathroom on the second floor. The master bedroom also had a full ensuite as well as a massive walk-in closet. The house was amazing, and even though it was going to take us well into the night to get it all cleaned up, the work would be very much worth it.
“What should we do now?” Zoey asked us once we finished checking out her bedroom.
“Well, we have power. I think we should check the fridge and make sure it is cold. Then we should unhook the trailer and head to that grocery store that we drove by. We are going to need a lot of cleaning supplies, and we can get some food for the next few days. If we focus on the most important areas to get cleaned up first, then tonight we can all get into bed without breathing in dust. Sound good?” I asked as I turned to look at Charlie. I knew technically he should have answered, but he really did look like a deer in the headlights right now. I figured he might appreciate just being told what needed to be done so he had tasks that he could focus on.
“Yes, I agree. Why don’t Zoey, you and Maya go and check to make sure the fridge is working, and I will unhook the trailer and we can head out,” Charlie said, sounding confident for the first time since we had pulled up to the house.
“Looks like we got a plan,” I said with a warm smile as I wrapped my arm around Zoey’s shoulders.
We all made our way out, and Charlie headed outside while Zoey and I headed into the kitchen. The fridge was old, like it was green old, but I was relieved that it was cold inside, so it was working. I wouldn’t know about the stove until we tried to cook anything, but it was electric so there was a good shot. We both headed out and saw that Charlie was just finishing up getting the trailer unhinged from the truck. I got Zoey back into it, and I climbed in and grabbed some paper and a pen and started to write down a list of what we needed. By the time Charlie got into the truck, Zoey and I had a decent list going. We had already been on the road for five hours today, and it was looking like it was going to be a long night.
Charlie
Icouldn’tbelievethisday was finally here. It had been a long night, a long ass night, and I was exhausted, but we had managed to get what was needed done. We had spent a good seven hours cleaning the house. Zoey and Maya had started with Zoey’s room so we could get her all set up and not have to worry about her not having a place to sleep last night. I worked on the bathroom upstairs. There were a lot of broken tiles and glass. I didn’t want anyone cutting themselves, especially Zoey in the middle of the night. From there we worked on our bedrooms and then the rest of the house. We had all been filthy by the end of it, and we had managed to get showered and some dinner. I went and picked us up some pizza, because there weren’t many options and nowhere delivered.
This morning had been a bit of a blur with getting Zoey ready for her first day at school. Maya helped her pick the perfect outfit while I got breakfast and her lunch put together. Zoey had ended up on her black denim shorts that she paired with her new Naruto shirt. She had even gotten a new backpack and lunch bag with her favorite character on ‘em. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about her. She was a sweet nerdy girl, and I had no idea what the other kids at the school would be like. The school was not very big. The principal had said they only had three hundred kids in total, and it was smaller than her private school. I was hoping that meant she would fit in and find someone to be friends with.
Her principal, Ms. Appleton, was nice. She was very happy to be meeting the new Mayor and his wife. She had only met me, because Maya waited in the car. We would be signing our contract today which meant I handled all of Zoey’s parental needs and she was just there in her life. I was already starting to see how that was going to be more difficult than I had anticipated. Zoey was already getting attached, and I had no idea how to prevent that from continuing to happen. It wasn’t that I had a problem with Maya. If she was going to live in Rose Falls until she turned grey and died, then great; they could have a connection. Zoey could really use a positive female figure in her life to help her. However, I didn’t think that was what Maya had planned for the rest of her life. I had to try and minimize the amount of time they were going to be spending one on one.
“How did it go?” Maya asked once I returned to the truck.
“Good. She seemed excited to meet her classmates. There are only three hundred students roughly in the whole school.”
