The Mill River Redemption Read online

  Rose kept her hands close to her chest to avoid touching the jar. She could see how the contents left a film on the inside of the glass. There was no telling what was actually inside it.

  “Uh, thank you, but no,” Rose said. All the warm feelings she’d had talking with her son vanished. “I know accidents happen, but you really are an idiot if you think that people actually want these potions you make, or that they actually work. Because of that crap you brought to my mother’s wake, her remains were ruined. We couldn’t even salvage any to have a proper burial for her. So, you can keep whatever the hell is in that jar.”

  Rose took a last look at Daisy’s shocked face and closed the door firmly. She didn’t care if she ever saw that weird little woman again.

  CHAPTER 10

  1985

  A FEW WEEKS AFTER SHE HAD SAVED EMILY’S HAIR FROM Rose’s scissors, Josie awoke before her alarm clock rang. Her sleep had been fitful, so it was almost a relief to get up. She looked at the new navy suit hanging in plastic on her closet doorknob. She’d bought matching pumps, too, and she was grateful to have gotten the whole outfit at clearance prices. Trying to control the nervous energy that flowed through her, she took a deep breath and went to wake the girls for school. Today, she had an interview at a real estate agency in Rutland.

  Josie moved automatically through her morning routine and got the girls off to school. With Rose on the bus and Emily safely at St. John’s, she raced back home to get ready. It felt strange, wearing such a formal outfit, along with hose and heels, but she didn’t dwell on it. She wanted to get to Rutland with plenty of time to find the Circle Realty office and collect herself before the interview.

  Of the many offices to which Josie had written, only one had responded positively to her inquiry about a possible trainee position. Circle Realty was a small agency in the southwest, floodprone area of Rutland City that locals referred to as “The Gut.”

  As she drove into Rutland and down the street where the office was located, Josie felt right at home. True, there was nothing fancy about the houses and shops she was passing, and the few people walking outside were dressed plainly. But, there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. These are just regular, hardworking people. The Gut reminded her of her old Bronx neighborhood, and it was certainly far nicer than many areas in the Bronx that she used to avoid.

  At precisely five minutes before ten, Josie pushed open the door to the Circle Realty office. A small bell rang to signal her entrance. Inside, the front room smelled of old coffee, mildew, and the moist, steamy odor of radiator heat. The gray carpeted floor creaked beneath her feet. An unattended receptionist’s desk and a freestanding coatrack were to her left. On her right was a small seating area and a table that held a pot full of coffee, a stack of Styrofoam cups, and a bowl of individual packets of sugar and creamer. A closed door directly before her presumably led to other offices.

  For the moment, she was the only one in the room.

  Josie hung up her coat. She smoothed her skirt and removed a small piece of lint that was stuck to one of her sleeves. She was wondering whether she should sit down when the door in front of her swung open.

  “I thought I heard someone come in,” a man said as he entered the room. He seemed to be a few years older than she, maybe in his mid-thirties. He had black hair and dark brown eyes and wore a black and white houndstooth sport coat. “I’m Ned Circle. You must be Josie.” Ned held a piece of cold, half-eaten pizza on a napkin in one hand. He wiped his other hand on the side of his pants leg and extended it.

  “Yes,” Josie said as she shook his hand. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise. Come on back,” he said, motioning to the open door with his pizza. “Oh, and I hope you’ll pardon my late breakfast. I meant to finish before you got here, but one thing led to another, you know how it goes.” He took a bite of pizza and continued talking. “This is from Ted’s, by the way, the pizza place up on State Street. Best in Rutland, hands down. I’ve got a few pieces left, if you’re hungry.”

  “Oh, no thank you,” Josie said, as she followed him into an office. She was slightly put off by Ned’s casual manner and greasy handshake.

  “Here we go,” Ned said. They had entered a crowded, disorganized office. Ned sat down behind a desk covered in papers and a paper plate full of hard pizza crusts. He motioned for Josie to sit in a chair facing the desk as he quickly slid the plate into a wastepaper basket. “Sorry about the mess,” he said. “My secretary quit three weeks ago, and I’ve been trying to keep things afloat by myself.” He picked up two papers neatly folded together on top of the chaos—Josie’s letter and résumé. “Now, Josie … wait, is it all right if I call you Josie?”

  “Yes. May I call you Ned?”

  “Please do. So, Josie, tell me why you want to become a real estate agent.” Ned took another bite of his pizza and stared at her while he chewed.

  Because my savings are running out and I need a job, something that will let me keep my two babies fed and clothed and warm. Josie looked Ned squarely in the eyes. “Because I would enjoy helping people find the perfect places to live. I also have extensive sales experience.”

  Ned looked down at her résumé. Josie followed his gaze, watching as his eyes swept across the page.

  “You sold jewelry.”

  “Yes.”

  “What makes you think your skill in selling jewelry will translate to real estate?”

  “If you know the product you’re selling and can read people well enough to match them with the product they’ll buy, it doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to sell diamonds or real estate or anything else. You’ll be successful.”

  “Hmm. Your résumé says you’re from New York. If you don’t mind my asking, what brought you to Vermont?”

  “I have family in Mill River. I moved up here with my daughters two years ago, after my husband died.”

  Ned stopped chewing. “Oh, I’m sorry.” Flustered, he paused for a moment, seeming to struggle with what to say next.

  “Perhaps you could tell me a little about your agency?” Josie asked. “And also a little about what you’re looking for in a trainee? I’m scheduled to take the licensing exam in a few weeks.”

  Ned jumped at the chance to change the subject. “Of course. Well, I’m a solo broker and have been since I opened Circle Realty about a decade ago. I grew up here in Rutland, in this neighborhood, actually. I’ve done all right, although the market is tough now with interest rates being what they are. To be completely honest, I wasn’t really looking to take on a new agent when I received your letter, but then Marsha quit—she was my secretary—and she really kept things organized. The fact that you’re aiming to get your license is a real plus.”

  Ned took one last bite of pizza and dropped the crust in his wastepaper basket along with a few others. He looked at her with an innocent expression as he waited for her reply.

  Josie blinked. Had she heard this man correctly? She swallowed, trying to phrase her next question as politely as she could.

  “So, Ned, what you’re telling me is that you’re really looking for a … a new secretary?”

  “Well,” Ned said slowly, “I was thinking that you could start as a secretary, since I’ve got a lot of things that need sorting and filing.” He motioned to the papers that were stacked and strewn about his office. “It’s the slow season, anyway, so you could study for your exam once the place is tidied up. After you get your sales license, you could try showing a few houses. And, just to prove I’m a nice guy, I’ll even give you a listing to get you started. It’d be a good test to see what you can do. If you can find a buyer for it, well, I’d make you a permanent agent. If you can sell as well as you say, it would work out well for the both of us.”

  After so much preparation to become a salesperson, Josie had half a mind to tell Ned where he could get off, but a very calm, practical thought emerged through her disgust. If she started as a secretary, she would not be expected to work on comm
ission. Here was a chance at a small, but regular, paycheck, something that would help stretch her savings. She would be able to study for her exams at least part of the time she was at work, and she might be able to hit the ground running with a sale once she was licensed, if Ned really did give her a listing of her own.

  “I have a few questions,” Josie began.

  “Shoot.”

  “I’d consider starting as a secretary, but my girls are still very young, in first grade and nursery school. Since I’m all they have, I need to be there for them when they’re home. Would you still be willing to hire me if I could work only part time for now, during the mornings, when both my girls are in school?”

  Ned looked at her with his mouth scrunched up. Josie realized that she had made the right decision in revealing why she had come to Vermont. It was obvious that Ned was trying to balance his sympathy for her situation with the need to have a full-time employee to clean up his mess.

  “I suppose that would be all right,” he said finally. “But at only part time, I couldn’t provide benefits. It would have to be a straight hourly position.”

  “I understand,” Josie said.

  Ned nodded and continued. “That’s not to say you couldn’t work more hours when you’re able to. I’m not so worried about phone calls and such as I am getting files and paperwork in order. I trust that you’d be extremely efficient during the hours you’re here.”

  “I assure you I would be,” Josie said. “And just so I understand you correctly, if I sell the listing you give me, I’d have a job as only a salesperson, and not a secretary?”

  “My word is my bond. In fact, if you sell the listing, I’ll even let you keep a hundred percent of the commission from the sale. I’m a pretty nice guy, you know.”

  Josie stared into Ned’s smarmy face and managed a small smile. “I could start as soon as this Friday, around nine o’clock?”

  “Excellent,” Ned said. He flashed a toothy grin as his dark eyes lit up. “Between now and then I’ll get your tax paperwork ready and write out everything we talked about, and the commission structure, too, just so that there are no misunderstandings.”

  “All right.” Josie rose from her chair and extended her hand to Ned. When he clasped it, she noticed that his hand didn’t feel quite as greasy as it had earlier. “Thank you, Ned, for giving me this opportunity.”

  “No thanks necessary, Josie. Hey, I’ll see you out.”

  They exited Ned’s messy office and came back into the front room. Josie hesitated at the front door before stepping outside. “I just thought of one more thing,” she said.

  “Yes?”

  “The listing you said you’d give me … you already have one in mind?”

  Ned smiled again, this time without showing his teeth. “Indeed I do.”

  “Would you mind … well, to be honest, I’m curious. Would you mind if I drove past it to take a look?”

  “Ah, no, not at all. Wait just a sec, and I’ll get the address for you.” He disappeared back through the door and returned quickly with a small piece of paper, which he handed to her. “It’s not far from here, and I just put the sign up in the yard last week. Be warned, though, the place is by no means perfect.”

  Josie looked down at the paper and back at him. “No house is perfect, Ned.”

  “True, true. But, some are more perfect than others. I was being honest when I said this listing would test you. See you Friday morning.” He smirked a little before leaving her alone in the waiting area.

  Josie looked at her watch and grabbed her coat. If she hurried, she could get a look at the property that was to be her first, very own listing before she had to pick up Emily.

  Once back in her car, she found the street on Ivy’s map and started out. Reality was finally hitting her. She had a job. It wasn’t a great job, and her new boss was … well, she didn’t even want to start thinking of words to describe Ned lest she ruin her increasingly happy mood … but she had a job!

  In a few minutes, Josie had driven back through the center of town. The address scribbled on the paper Ned had given her was for a house on Gleason Road, and that street was easy to find. She hadn’t gone very far down Gleason when she saw the Rutland City Landfill looming on the right side of the road. She passed City Dump Road, the street that served as the entrance to the landfill, and she slowed the car as a sinking realization developed in the pit of her stomach.

  Just beyond the far corner of the boundary of the landfill stood a tiny ranch house with a Circle Realty sign in the yard. Quickly, she turned into the driveway and stared at the little house that faced her.

  It was painted an old, dingy brown, and the shingles on the roof were streaked with mildew and tattered. The white Circle Realty sign gleamed by comparison, and Josie couldn’t believe that the house had been inhabited anytime recently. The driveway, or what she could see of it, was full of cracks, and a half-rotted wooden fence ringed the yard. Josie got out of her car, but she was afraid to go peek into the darkened windows of the house because of what she might see.

  The worst part about the property, though, wasn’t even on the property. Perhaps fifty yards and a thin row of trees separated the backyard from the chain-link-fenced perimeter of the Rutland City Landfill. Josie stood, fighting back tears, as she listened to the constant rumbling of trucks and bulldozers working the heaps of trash. A pile of scrap metal was visible in the distance through the leafless trees. When the wind shifted, it carried with it the pungent odor of garbage.

  What had started as a day of promise and hope was ending in frustration and despair. Josie leaned against her car, trembling. As she often did when she was worried or upset, she reached up to touch the gold locket around her neck, the gift from Ivy that now held tiny pictures of Rose and Emily. She thought of Tony, too, wondering how she would be able to keep her promise to him. How would she ever manage to build a career and earn enough to support her girls when the first obstacle in her path was literally a mountain of trash?

  As she stared at her first listing-to-be, Josie felt her despair turn to anger. She had come too far and had too much at stake to turn back now. She was shocked that Ned could be so cruel as to give her this listing, that he had the audacity to describe it as some sort of gift from “a nice guy.” Josie gritted her teeth.

  For Rose, Emily, and Tony, she would go forward.

  She would launch a successful career in real estate, even if she had to do it by finding a buyer for a dump of a house that also bordered on a dump.

  And finally, she would show Ned Circle that he had vastly underestimated her.

  CHAPTER 11

  ON THURSDAY MORNING, AS AGREED, ROSE KNOCKED ON Emily’s front door. Several sheets of paper were folded in her hand. She gripped them tighter as she heard barking and then footsteps approaching.

  Emily opened the door and stared at her for a moment, restraining her large dog. She had a pair of safety goggles pushed up on her forehead, and her face was dripping with sweat.

  “I brought my list,” Rose said, holding up the papers. “Shall we get it over with?”

  Emily nodded. “Back up, Gus,” she said as she held the door open.

  Rose stepped inside the house. It was a little larger than the one she and Alex were sharing, but more sparsely furnished and very tidy. “You’re unpacked already?” she asked. Emily’s dog came up and began sniffing at her, and she raised her hands to avoid coming into contact with his cold wet nose.

  “I didn’t bring much,” Emily replied, “and there wasn’t a lot in here to begin with.” She grabbed the dog’s collar and pulled it toward the back of the house. Rose followed at a distance.

  “What’s with the goggles?”

  “I do stained glass,” Emily said, pointing into a room off to the side as they passed. “I was just cutting pieces for a new design.” Rose caught a glimpse of a large worktable covered in small tools and bits of glass in various sizes and shapes.

  Emily picked up a small stack of pap
ers in the kitchen and continued out the door onto a small deck. As Gus rushed past them, Emily took a seat at an old aluminum patio set and looked up expectantly.

  “So … I didn’t find anything over here that jumped out at me,” Emily began after Rose had sat down. She spread the list out on the table. “I went through every room and even the garage, but nothing’s out of the ordinary. It’s all just basic house stuff—furniture, dishes, books, tools, and a few drawers and boxes of assorted junk.”

  Rose nodded. “My house is the same way, although I got more of Mom’s old staging furniture than you did. There’s a bunch of boxes from Ivy’s, too.”

  “Well, maybe that’s something important. You having more furniture, I mean. Maybe one of the clues is—”

  “What, a chair? Or a lamp, maybe?” Rose interrupted. “No way. Mom would’ve picked clues that had some sort of special meaning for her and for us. I was trying to think of stuff that happened while we were growing up.”

  “How about something having to do with the kitchen?” Emily said. “It’s where we all hung out most of the time. Mom loved to cook, even though she was usually too busy to do it. And, do you remember what happened that one time with the dishwasher?”

  “Yeah,” Rose said. Despite her feeling so uncomfortable and awkward at having to interact with Emily, she felt the corners of her mouth curve up into a smile. She hadn’t thought about the dishwasher incident in years, but for one fleeting moment, her mind skipped over all of the guilt, the blurred hangovers, and the painful, gaping hole in her life that had been left when Emily cut off all communication with her. She was her nearly eleven-year-old self again, clutching her sister and squealing with laughter as they both tried to keep from falling on the slippery kitchen floor.

  In that one instant, Rose had an overpowering urge to reach over and grab Emily’s hand. She would squeeze it and beg for forgiveness. Or maybe words would be unnecessary, and she would somehow convey through their connected hands the love that she tried to forget. Maybe, somehow, she could find a way to repair Emily’s heart and restore their relationship.