Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
I push myself to my feet. A few minutes ago, I was feeling pretty crushed by the idea of actually putting all this stuff away and moving it over to Stefano’s house. Now, I’m thinking it’s possible.
Not fun. Not good. But doable, with Emily’s help.
“It’s, uh, not good in here,” I say sheepishly.
We get to work. Mostly, she gets to work ordering me around. Which isn’t normal for me. I like to be the one giving out the jobs. But today, this is what I need. Somebody competent and bossy to get the ball rolling.
And before I realize it, most of my clothes are put away. Emily forces me to make a donation pile, which is much bigger than I’d like, and when I try to argue, she only shakes her head and crosses her arms sternly over her chest.
“You’re moving into a man’s house, Charlie. You think he’s going to have the closet space for all this stuff?”
She’s got a really good point. “I’ll take over a spare room.”
“My mother always said, cluttered closet means cluttered mind. We’re going to trim you down and get you cleared up in no time.”
“I think your mother was a sadist,” I grumble, but in the end, Emily wins the argument.
When the bedroom’s done, we move to the bathroom. That goes much quicker. Boxes pile up at the front door waiting for the movers. Emily carefully tapes them shut and marks them with a Sharpie, which hadn’t even occurred to me. I was too busy with self-pity to think about labeling.
Once we’re in the living room, the task doesn’t seem so daunting.
“Did your mother teach you all about this organization?” I ask as we’re picking through my things.
“She raised me and my three brothers all by herself.” Emily shrugs slightly as she callously puts my porcelain cow in the do not bring box. “She was sort of forced to be as efficient as possible.”
“Wow, four kids all alone? That must’ve been crazy.”
“Imagine how I felt. I was the youngest.” She smiles fondly. “My brothers were a big help, but you can probably picture what that was like.”
“Three strapping young lads acting all overprotective of their baby sister?”
“Exactly.” She pauses, fingers playing over a small decorative brass key. “We were jammed into a three-room apartment. You know, about the size of your suite, actually.”
A little guilt buzzes in my stomach, but I push it away. I’m a Westbrook, born into privilege. I got used to having more than other people a long time ago, and Emily doesn’t seem like she holds it against me. Not like I asked for all this.
“Sounds like it was hard.”
“Hard but good. At the time, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. But now I wonder.” She puts the brass key in a box, much to my great relief. “Life was simple, you know? I had my older brothers and my mom to look out for me.”
“Where are they now?”
“Back home in Pittsburgh.”
“I didn’t know you were a Yinzer.”
“I hide it very well.”
“Well, maybe you can make a trip out there. I mean, it’s not that far away.”
“Sure, maybe.” But she doesn’t sound convinced, and she quickly changes the topic back to the job at hand before I can ask her more.
We move like that, one object at a time. Emily’s tough but fair. In the end, my place is nearly finished when there’s another knock at the door. I give her a look, but she only shakes her head.
“I wasn’t expecting more help,” she says lightly, taping a box closed with a sharp snap.
I open the door and stare in surprise. My grandfather’s in the hall smiling at me like he always comes to visit like this.
“How’s the packing going, my dear?” He cranes his neck to look past me. “Seems like my gamble sending Emily down here paid off.”
“Come inside,” I say quickly, stepping aside and helping him through. Grandfather’s still perfectly mobile, but he’s an old man now. I guide him to one of my chairs and he sinks down with a satisfied sigh. “We’re making good progress.”
“Hello, sir,” Emily says respectfully.
“Would you mind giving us a moment?” His eyes twinkle kindly, but I know the old man better than that. In his later years, he’s been leaning into the grandpa persona harder than he ever did before, and it works for him. He can lull fools into believing he’s soft and gentle.
I know my grandfather’s full of nothing but pure steel.
Emily hurries into the bedroom, leaving me alone with him. I take another chair, perching on the edge, feeling off balance and worried. In all the years I’ve lived in this house, Grandfather’s come to see me only once. And that was when he offered to make me his heir.
I’ll never forget how I felt that day. It was like I’d won the lottery. I knew my life would change, but I had no idea how much. After Grandfather made it public, my own parents despised me, and I was treated differently by the staff. I was set apart and held at bay, like I’d suddenly contracted some horrible communicable disease.