“I feel wonderful about leaving the frantic, crime-filled city behind,” Angela said as they left the restaurant and approached their vehicles. “At this point I don’t care if I ever go back.”
“I don’t know,” David joked. “I’m going to miss hearing sirens, gunshots, breaking glass, and cries for help. Country life is going to be so boring.”
Both Nikki and Angela pummeled him in mock anger.
For the rest of the trip Nikki joined Angela in the station wagon.
As they drove north the weather improved. In Boston it had been hot, muggy, and hazy. By the time they crossed into Vermont it was still warm but clear and much less humid.
Bartlet appeared serene in the early summer heat. Flower-filled window boxes adorned almost every sill. Slowing down, the Wilsons’ two-vehicle caravan crept through the lazy town. Few people were on the streets. It was as if everyone were napping.
“Can we stop and get Rusty?” Nikki asked as they neared Staley’s Hardware Store.
“Let’s get a bit settled first,” Angela said. “We’ll have to build something to keep him in until he gets housebroken.”
David and Angela pulled into their driveway and parked side by side. Now that the house was officially theirs they felt even more awed than they had on their initial visit.
David climbed out of the truck, his eyes glued to the house. “The place is lovely,” he said. “But it looks like it needs more attention than I realized.”
Angela walked over to David and followed his line of sight. Some of the decorative dentil work had fallen from the cornice. “I’m not worried,” she said. “That’s why I married someone who is handy around the house.”
David laughed. “I can see it’ll take some effort to make a believer out of you.”
“I’ll try to keep an open mind,” she teased.
With a key they had been sent in the mail, they opened the front door and stepped inside. It looked very different without furniture. When they’d seen it before it had been filled with the Hodgeses’ belongings.
“It has a dance hail feel,” David said.
“There’s even an echo,” Nikki said. She yelled “Hello” and the word reverberated.
“That’s when you know you’ve arrived at your proper station in life,” David said, affecting an English accent. “When your house has an echo.”
The Wilsons slowly passed through the foyer. Now that there were no rugs, their heels clicked on the wide wooden flooring. They had forgotten their new home’s enormity, especially in contrast to their Boston apartment. Aside from a few pieces of furniture they’d agreed Clara would leave behind–a stool, a kitchen table–the place was bare.
In the center hall just before the grand staircase an imposing chandelier hung. There was a library and dining room to the left and a huge living room to the right. A central hall led to a spacious country kitchen which stretched across the back of the house. Beyond the kitchen was the two-story clapboard addition that connected the house to the barn. It had a mud room, several storerooms, and a back staircase leading up to the second level.
Returning to the grand staircase, the Wilsons climbed up to the second story. There were two bedrooms with connecting baths on each side and a master suite over the kitchen area.
Opening a door off the central hallway next to the master suite, they climbed a narrow staircase up to the third level where there were four unheated rooms.
“Plenty of storage,” David quipped.
“Which room will be my bedroom?” Nikki asked.
“Whatever room you want,” Angela said.
“I want the room facing the frog pond,” she said.
They went down to the second level and walked into the room Nikki wanted. They discussed where her furniture would go, including the desk she did not yet own.
“Okay, you guys,” Angela commanded. “Enough procrastination. Time to unload.”
David gave her a military salute.
Returning to the vehicles, they began to bring their belongings into the house and put them into the appropriate rooms. The couch, the bedding, and the heavy boxes of books made it quite a struggle. When they were finished David and Angela stood beneath the archway leading into the living room.