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"Why?"

She heard the unspoken How? and told herself it didn’t matter that he didn’t knohat she could do Or hardly mattered

"Because it deserves better than this Because I think Janet Hardy deserves better than this And because I can I’ve been flipping houses for almost five years noo years pretty much on my own I know none of them was on the scale of this, but I have a knack for it I’vethis for profit?"

"I e my mind in the next four years, but for now? No I never knew Janet, but she’s influenced al about this place pulled her here, even at the end So way from what you’ve known," Gavin said "Not just the miles, but the atmosphere The culture The Shenandoah Valley, this part of it, is still fairly rural Skyline Village boasts a few thousand people, and even in the larger cities like Front Royal and Culpepper, it’s far and away frouess I want to explore that, and I want to spend more time with my East Coast roots" She wished he’d be pleased instead of concerned that she’d fail or give up Again

"I’m tired of California, I’m tired of all of it, Dad I never wanted what Mom wanted, for me or for herself"

"I knoeetie"

"So I’ll live here for a while"

"Here?" Shock covered his face "Live here? At the Little Far, which is what this’ll be for a few days anyway Then I can rough it inside for a while longer It’ll take about nine, ten ht At the end of that, I’ll know if I want to stay or ure out what to do about it then But right now, Dad, I’ for a moment, then draped his arm around Cilla’s shoulders Did he have any idea, she wondered, what that casual show of support meant to her? How could he?

"It was beautiful here, beautiful and hopeful and happy," he told her "Horses grazing, her dog napping in the sun The floere lovely Janet did so herself when she was here, I think She came here to relax, she said And she would, for short stretches But then she needed people-that’s ht But now and again, she came out alone No friends, no fa those solo visits"

"You met Mom here"

"I did We were just children, and Janet had a party for Dilly and Johnnie She invited a lot of local children Janet took to me, so I was invited back whenever they were here Johnnie and I played together, and stayed friends e hit our teens, though he began to run with a different sort of crowd Then Johnnie died He died, and everything went dark Janet came here alone more often after that I’d climb the wall to see if she was here, if Dilly ith her, when I was hohts on I spoke to her a few tione Nothing here’s been the sah "And so does she You’re the one who should try to give it to them You may be the only one who can"

"Thanks"

"Patty and I will help You should come stay with us until this place is habitable"

"I’ll take you up on the help, but I want to stay here Get a feel for the place I’ve done some research on it, but I could use some recommendations for local labor-skilled and not Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, landscapers And just people with strong backs who can follow directions"

"Get your notebook"

She pushed to her feet, started inside, then turned back "Dad, if things had worked out between you and Mom, would you have stayed in the business? Stayed in LA?"

"Maybe But I was never happy there Or I wasn’t happy there for long And I wasn’t a coh," he said with a smile "But I didn’t hat Dilly wanted, for herself or for me So I understand what you meant when you said the sa else"

"You found what you wanted here"

"Yes, but-"

"That doesn’t ht"

FIRST, CILLA SUPPOSED, she had to figure out what it was she did want For more than half her life she’d done what she was told, and accepted what she had as what she should want Andfro it off as if it had happened to someone else

She’d been an actor before she could talk because it hat heranother child-one as so much cuter, smarter, sweeter than she was herself When that went away, she’d struggled through what the agents and producers considered the aard years, where the as lean She’d cut a disastrous hter album with Dilly, and done a handful of teen slasher filrue-sohteenth birthday, Cilla thought as she flopped down on the bed in her motel room A has-been, a what-ever-happened-to, who copped a scattering of guest roles on TV and voice-overs for coettable BShe’d been clever about feathering that nest, and using those eggs to allow her to poke her fingers into various pies to see if she liked the flavor

Her iven, and her therapist ter curve

Whatever you called it, it brought her here to a fairly crappy hotel in Virginia, with the prospect of hard, sweaty and expensive work over the next several et started

She flipped on the TV, intending to use it as background noise while she sat on the luh her notes She heard a couple of cans thud out of the vending host sounds of the TV in the next rooh the wall

While the local news droned on her set, shebathroo out wasn’t a proble out of the motel meant she required the basic facilities Sweaty work necessitated a working shower Pluan to droop Re herself she wanted to be checked out and on site by eight, she switched off the TV, then the light

As she dropped into sleep, the ghosts froh the wall She heard Janet Hardy’s glorious voice lift into a song designed to break hearts

"Perfect," Cillafollowed her into sleep

SHE SAT on the lovely patio with the view full of the pretty pond and the green hills that rolled back to the blue mountains Roses and lilies stunned the air with perfubird, bold as an eht out of cloudless skies to wash everything in the golden light of fairy tales Birds sang their hearts out in Disneyesque har with Thumper any ood ti, beautiful in a delicate white sundress, Janet sipped sparkling lee set, and ready for me to make my entrance"

"And in the bad tied her lovely shoulders "But always a world away"

"You brought that world with you Why?"

"I needed it I couldn’t be alone There’s too much space when you’re alone How do you fill it? Friends, s, parties, music Still, I could be calm here for a while I could pretend here, pretend I was Gertrude Hah she died when I was six and Janet Hardy was born"

"Did you want to be Gertrude again?"

"Of course not" A laugh, bright and bold as the day, danced through the air "But I liked to pretend I did Gertrude would have been a better mother, a better wife, probably a better wo as Janet Who’d reet her" With her head tilted, Janet gave her signature ses "Aren’t you proof of that?"

"Maybe I am But I see what happened to you, and what’s happened to this place, as a terrible waste I can’t bring you back, or even know you But I can do this"

"Are you doing this for you or for rove, all pink and white blossoreen fields, gold and white etched against hills "I don’t see it as a perfect set I don’t need perfect I see it as your legacy toit back, as h my father, from this place I want to know that, and feel it"

"Dilly hated it here"

"I don’t know if she did, always But she does now"

"She wanted Hollywood-in big, shiny letters She was born wanting it, and lacking the talent or the grit to get it and hold it You’re not like her, or ain "Maybe you’re more like Gertrude More like Trudy"

"Who did you kill that night? Janet or Gertrude?"

"That’s a question" With a smile, Janet tipped back her head and closed her eyes

BUT WHAT WAS THE ANSWER? Cilla wondered about that as she drove back to the far And why did it matter? Why ask questions of a dream anyway?

Dead was dead, after all The project wasn’t about death, but about life Aboutfor herself out of what had been left to ruin

As she stopped to unlock the old iron gates that blocked the drive she debated having theain what had been closed off, or would it be a monumentally stupid move that left her, and the property, vulnerable? They protested when she walked them open, and left rust on her hands

Screw symbols and stupidity, she decided They should come down because they were a pain in the ass After the project, she could put them back up

Once she’d parked in front of the house, she strode up to unlock the front door, and left it wide to the loves She’d finish tackling the kitchen, she thought And hope the plumber her father had reco Even if she had to pitch a damn tent in the front yard

She’d worked up her first sweat of the day when the plurizzle-cheeked man named Buddy, showed up He made the rounds with her, listened to her plans, scratched his chin a lot When he gave her what she thought of as a pull-it-out-of-his-ass estimate for the projected work, she countered with a bland stare

He grinned at that, scratched so a little more formal for you It’d be considerable less if you’re buying the fixtures and such"

"I will be"

"Okay then I’ll work up an estimate for you, and we’ll see what’s what"

"That’s fine Meanwhile, how much to snake out the tub in the first bath upstairs? It’s not draining right"

"Why don’t I take a look-see? Estimate’s free, and I’m here for that anyway"

She hovered, not so much because she didn’t trust hiht learn She learned he didn’t dawdle, and that his fee for the small task-and a quick check of the sink and john-h that his estimate would probably come into line

By the time Buddy climbed back into his truck, she hoped the carpenter and electrician she’d lined up for esti out her notebook to tick herwith Buddy off her day’s to-do list Then she hefted her sledgehammer She was in the mood for some demo, and the rotted boards on the front porch were just the place to start