When the Fireflies Returned Read online

  Driving the scooter out of the garage, she steered it cautiously down the driveway and turned out onto the road. Her foot pressed down on the accelerator and pushed the machine into high gear. She was flying. A grin exploded from her lips and she giggled out loud like a child.

  The breeze on her face, containing a pungent tang of mustard that to her was the true presage of autumn, invigorated her. It felt good to be speeding down the street instead of hobbling along like an invalid. She could almost kiss Silas for showing her the joys of scooters. She should have gotten one years ago, but her silly pride had kept her from buying one any sooner. Only decrepit old coots used scooters, or so she had thought. Well, these days, she no longer cared what other people thought; not since her near-death experience two years ago in that creek where she almost drowned and nearly died. These days all she cared about was living her life to the fullest...or what she had left of her life.

  Myrtle and her scooter followed the road for a while and then she veered off down a dirt path that wound through the woods. It was a huge short cut that would make her trip so much quicker. It’d been years since she’d walked it, but she was sure it would still be there.

  As she and the blue beast chugged through the forest, she breathed in deeply. Grass. Leaves. Trees. Ooh, she loved the woods. Well, as long as it was daylight and the ghosts were sleeping. They didn’t much like to come out in the sunshine.

  Whistling an old song she’d known as a girl, she let her mind wander and, as it had a lot in the last few weeks, it reminisced about the cruise she and Irma had gone on at the beginning of September. It had been a memorable one. Probably one of the best ones she’d ever taken. And no one had fallen off the boat and died. That was a plus. The five-day river voyage had been short, but fun. The boat had glided along the river, stopping at various sites of interest or historical value. She and Irma took advantage of some of them, and some they didn’t. These days Irma got tired awfully easy.

  The cruise’s food, especially the extravagant midnight chocolate dessert bar every night, had been exceptionally yummy. And Irma...well, Irma had gained herself quite the admirer during their trip. There’d been this old codger, name of Herman Leddbetter, who had recognized Irma as the woman, when she’d been much younger and still unmarried, he’d once had a crush on, and he’d latched onto them the whole five days. What a coincidence. It was a small world after all.

  Myrtle had to admit Herman had been a real gentleman and, Irma told her on the second day, he was extremely well off. Retired from a brokerage house where he’d been a senior partner, he was a widower, youthfully spry for his age, amiable, handsome with crinkly gray hair and bright green eyes. He had the kind of charismatic personality that drew people to him. The man laughed a lot; never complained about anything, and was so generous. He insisted on paying for everything when they were on their off-boat road trips. Presented them with little gifts, flowers or scrumptious pastries, whenever he met up with them in the mornings. He was so happy to just be with them.

  Over the course of their days together, Herman had developed a renewed fondness for her friend, Irma. They couldn’t get rid of him. He had shared a table with them at their meals and went along with them, to be their protective escort as he called it, when they took their shore jaunts. When she and Irma had rented electric scooters at all of them, he rented one also and joined them in their explorations. The three of them had a ball and had become good friends.

  And as they’d parted company that last morning, Herman had gotten Irma’s and her addresses and telephone numbers. He’d said he would be in touch; wanted to come visit them. But Myrtle knew what he really wanted was to come visit and court Irma. Funny how life had a way of going around in circles. Sometimes one ended up just where one had begun. Old friends, old beaus sometimes showed up in a person’s life again.

  Myrtle lifted her face up to catch the wind.

  Herman had kept his word. He’d been coming to see Irma often since the cruise. Driving down from his home an hour away to take her to dinner or out for a day’s excursion. He’d attended Glinda and Kyle’s wedding, coming as Irma’s date.

  Myrtle was happy for Irma, reuniting with Herman. Imagine, at her age, Irma had a beau. Good for her. Could be there might be another wedding in the near future. Nah, Irma was too old to be getting hitched again. She’d said that often enough on the cruise every time Myrtle had teased her about Herman’s romantic intentions and where they might lead.

  Yet, she reminded herself, her friend didn’t have a grandniece to live with and care for her; didn’t have a sometime boyfriend as Myrtle had with the retired art historian Richard Eggold. Myrtle didn’t see Eggold that often, they were more friends than anything. It was convenient, though, to have him available to accompany her to places when she felt like having a companion. Thinking on her and Eggold’s friendship, she knew she should telephone him and see how he was doing. It’d been some time since they’d seen each other. Perhaps she could invite him to go out to lunch or something, catch up on things, while Glinda and Kyle were gone. Yeah, that was a good idea. She made a mental note to herself to do just that. Call Eggold. Soon. Perhaps tonight when she got back home.

  TAKING ONE SHORTCUT through the woods after another, the blue beast ate up the miles between her house and Lucas’s and, before she knew it, she was coming off the path and turning onto the gravel road that was Suncrest. The scooter struggled a bit on the loose pebbles but kept moving forward as long as she went in a straight line and kept her speed down.

  She arrived before what used to be the old Theiss house, but was now Lucas’s home. In the last month Lucas and his friends, Frank and a group of townspeople, had already done a massive amount of work on the house. The collapsed front wall had been repaired; the basic structure itself had been stabilized. The crumbling well had been boarded up and the rusted swing set had been carted away. The rotting porch furniture was gone, as well. The yard had been cleared, cleaned and landscaped. Now there was a sea of well-trimmed grass where weeds and strewn trash used to be. Myrtle had to admit the place no longer looked like a haunted house. Now it looked like someone’s home. Which it was.

  Lucas, Frank had reported to her, was working on the interior. He’d scrubbed everything down; swept the floors and shampooed the old furniture. Next on the list Lucas was going to paint all the interior walls and then the outside. Myrtle and Irma had set up a Go Fund Me page when he’d first been released from prison, and it had raised so much money, his next step, he said, would be to buy new furniture and appliances. Lucas was determined to make the house a home again. His home. The man had been living in the building for weeks, turning his late father’s roomy downstairs study his temporary bedroom with a corner section set aside with a chair and desk; making it comfortable. He didn’t want to sleep in any of the bedrooms on the top floor because they’d belonged to people he’d loved so much and who were long gone. For now, he said, he couldn’t bear to go up there. In time he would, just not yet. His plans were to eventually deal with those rooms, making them guest rooms or sitting rooms.

  Myrtle had been inside the house one day last week and she had to concede Lucas and his friends were doing a bang-up job of it. Inside it already looked nothing, nothing, like the spook house it had once been. Myrtle couldn’t wait to see what the dwelling would look like when Lucas got done with it.

  Then the random thought occurred to her: Good thing Abigail had painted those haunting canvases for that big city art gallery before Lucas had come home and started renovating the place. That’d been convenient timing. Lucas’s house, outside and in, was healing as he was healing. Myrtle thought that was a good thing. Lucas was no longer what he had once been, either. So that was a new beginning for both.

  As she halted the scooter and switched its engine off, she saw Frank’s truck in the driveway parked next to Lucas’s truck. It was nice of Frank to be helping Lucas fix up the place. But then Frank was a nice man. Besides assisting with the renovations, he’d ai
ded Lucas in other ways, too. He’d helped him secure a job at Luke William’s hardware store, Nails and Bolts, and helped him buy an older but dependable truck. But then everyone in town was trying to help Lucas Theiss to reclaim the life that had been stolen from him. Forty years in prison for a crime, the killing of his family, he hadn’t committed, made some people believe he was owed a lot more. Lucas deserved as much support and kindness as the people of Spookie could give him, and they were giving all they could.

  It was Lucas who strolled out to greet her. “Hi there, Mrs. Schmitt. You’ve come by to see how much more we’ve gotten done on the house...since the last time you visited six days ago? Right before the wedding, wasn’t it?” There was an affable grin on his face, his soft brown eyes had flecks of gold in them picked up by the sunlight. His clothes and skin were covered in smears of dirt and white paint splatters.

  These days he looked tired but satisfied, Myrtle mused. He wasn’t a bad looking man. He had to be at least six foot something; nearly as tall as Frank when they stood beside each other. His gray hair had grown out some and now brushed against the base of his neck. She didn’t care much for his prison tattoos, but she’d gotten used to them, because underneath there was a humbleness and an inner kindness in the man that Myrtle, as well as others, recognized soon after meeting him. He could be funny, as well. He liked to tell jokes and make people laugh. Clean jokes mostly, though Myrtle was sure that with the menfolk his jokes would be quite a bit bawdier. Forty years in prison did not a boy scout make. But Lucas was always the gentleman with her.

  “Hi Lucas,” she spoke, climbing off the scooter, then unsnapping and grabbing her cane from the side of it. “Only six days, huh? It feels longer.” She flashed him a smile. He smiled back.

  Staring around, she couldn’t help herself and whispered, “Seen any ghosts since you moved in? Been visited by any of your dead family? Have they been bothering you any?”

  A strange look settled on the man’s face. “No. I believe they’re gone. Really gone. Now anyway. In heaven, each one of them, where they belong. It gives me great peace of mind to imagine them there, all together. Content. Smiling down at me because the truth finally came out.”

  He paused, peered up at the house and around the neatly trimmed yard, and went on in a pensive voice. “The first night I spent here, though, I thought I heard mom and dad whispering behind their door; the girls singing Beatle songs, laughing, and giggling like they used to do in their old room. They all sounded happy at last. I think they approved of what I’m doing to the house. Mom always liked to see her house pretty. Often since that first night I’ve felt them around me, felt their love. But slowly over the weeks, as I’ve grown happier myself, I’ve sensed them less and less. I feel as if they might be gone now. Since I’ve been proven innocent, set free, and have come home, my family has finally been released, too, to move on. The house feels somehow different. No longer haunted.”

  “Good,” she muttered, patting his arm. “All is well that ends well, as difficult as it was to get here. And I’m glad to know the house might be ghostless now, since I, of all people, know how spirits can disrupt a person’s life.”

  “Do you want to come inside,” he asked, “and see what Frank and I have accomplished since you were here last?”

  “I sure do. That’s why I came by.”

  “As well as looking for company, right? You miss Glinda and Kyle, don’t you?”

  “I do,” she came clean. “But I’m also over the moon for both of them. They’re so happy now and that tickles me. They’re such good people. They deserve to be happy.”

  “I agree. Good people. Anyway, come with me and I’ll show you what we’ve done.”

  Lucas took her free hand in his and walked with her to the front door. It was a new front door, all shiny and oyster colored with an oval of leaded glass in the middle. Very stylish.

  The broken porch step had been the first thing Lucas had fixed. He’d said he didn’t want anyone tripping over it and hurting themselves.

  “I hear you got a job at Luke’s hardware store,” Myrtle remarked. “Good for you. How do you like it?”

  “I like it. I’ve only been working there a week or so, but Luke is patiently teaching me everything I need to know to be a competent hardware guy. It was generous of him to give me a chance. Not many jobs for an ex-con, even an educated, innocent one. It’s different, but so far so good. I see it as a first step for me to inch back into the working world. I really want to get a position as a social worker one day, working with newly released prisoners, aiding them in finding jobs, and fitting into society again. I more than understand what they’re facing; what it’s like for them reentering the outside world after being locked up behind bars for years. I have applications out. It’s a waiting game, though. But right now, I really needed to jump into the current and learn how to swim. I needed a job. Any job. Luke’s is perfect for now. I’m meeting people, learning things, and making money. Working makes me feel part of society. It feels good.”

  “Oh, you’ll do fine. I can tell. And I just know you’ll eventually get that social worker’s job you want. If you’re patient. Someone will give you a chance and hire you. You’d be a good fit. By the way, how is Luke doing? I haven’t been in his store in months. Kyle or Frank usually takes care of the hardware buying stuff for us.”

  “Luke is doing all right. He’s a little distracted at the moment, though. We’ve had some major plumbing problems in the store, clogged pipes, and he’s had to hire plumbers to fix it. They’re digging up the underground pipes behind the store as we speak. It’s turning out to be a major headache. There are mountains of dirt piled up behind the place and holes excavated everywhere in the rear property. A real mess, not to mention it’s going to cost Luke a fortune to take care of it all. Plumbers and backhoes aren’t cheap.”

  Myrtle shook her head. “Poor Luke. I know how much trouble leaky pipes can be. I had a problem similar to that once years ago at my old house. Plumbers are really expensive. Hope it isn’t too bad.”

  “Me, too.

  “Hey, that was some wedding, wasn’t it?” Lucas changed the subject as he side glanced at her and, over her head, reached out to open the door. “The food was top notch. Marvelous entrees. That wedding cake...whoa! I wanted to thank you for inviting me. I had a truly great time. Everyone was so friendly, warm, to me. They went out of their way to make me feel welcome. I have to tell you, it touched me to the core.”

  Myrtle met his eyes and her smile was tender. “Because you’re a good person. Irma says you always were. Now everyone knows it.”

  Looking at his face, Myrtle thought she could almost see tears in his eyes. My, my, Lucas was such a sensitive soul.

  After prison food, she bet the wedding feast and the sumptuous cake had been amazing all right. Lucas had attended the party at the house after the church ceremony but had been somewhat subdued, sitting back and silently observing everyone, a startled look in his eyes as if couldn’t believe where he was. She’d watched him closely. People had approached and spoken to him; worked hard to make him feel welcome. Looking lost, he’d been polite, answering them haltingly, smiling hesitantly. Now and then he’d replied to their questions with more than a few words. He’d tried to fit in, be accepted, but it had been clear to see he had been uncomfortable. It had made Myrtle sad. But, for him, it was early yet. It would take time, that’s all, and she’d told him so at the end of the night. Be patient. You’re doing fine. She had no doubt eventually Lucas would become one of them again. It was all he truly wanted. To live a normal life in the town and house where he’d been born. Being a smart, empathetic, man he would eventually fit in.

  “But it was a beautiful wedding, wasn’t it, Lucas? Glinda was gorgeous in that gown and Kyle was so handsome. The weather couldn’t have been better. Yes, it was a great day.”

  “It was.” Right before he shoved the house’s door open, he swung around to her. “These last two months have been like a dream to me,
Mrs. Schmitt. A sweet dream. I still can’t believe I’m free. Here.” His eyes glanced at the house and around them. “I can’t believe I’ve been proven innocent after so many years. I never gave up hope, because I knew I was innocent, yet over the years that hope had dulled into a tiny spark and I’d accepted I could die in that cell, still considered guilty. I’d come to terms with it long before. I’m so grateful to Abigail and Frank for freeing me. And since I’ve come home, I’m grateful to everyone for their kindnesses, Mrs. Schmitt.”

  She patted his arm affectionately. “I told you, you can call me Myrtle, son. And you don’t need to be grateful for what should have been yours all along. You’re guiltless. You always were. We’re all ecstatic to have you home again with us. It’s time your life gives you the joy you deserve. More than time.”

  This time the gratitude on his face nearly brought tears to her eyes. He so desperately wanted people to like him. Accept him. “From now on, you’re one of us, Lucas. Don’t ever doubt it.”

  “Or I will be once I get used to being free and in this new century. Once I learn all those new-fangled high-tech devices that have come out since I went away. Sheesh, sometimes I feel like a caveman who has been beamed to the future. iPhones, robots to clean your floors, computers, groceries delivered right to your door, and the cars....” His grin was like a little boy’s on Christmas morning seeing all the gifts under the tree.

  “I am learning, though. Frank and Abigail have helped so much in that respect. Their son, Nick, too. He’s a whiz with the electronics. I now have my first laptop and iPhone,” he patted a lump in his shirt pocket, “and I can actually use them. Kind of.”

  Smiling, he made a mock bow, stood aside, gesturing with his hand for her to enter as they entered into the house.

  The first thing she saw was Frank waving hello to her from the hallway. He was on his knees painting a baseboard. The second thing she noticed, glancing into the living room, was how much work had been done to the interior of the house since she’d last seen it. How much had changed. The archaic television console, the ratty print couch and threadbare rugs were gone. There was a new fat-cushioned sofa, and a flat screen television attached to the wall. A soft blue area rug in the center of the floor. Everything was sparkling clean. The entryway and front room had all been painted a bright white, which made the rooms look bigger than they were. Myrtle had seen the place when Lucas had first moved in and it had been transformed. It looked so livable and homey. Again...no longer a spook house.