A Glimpse of the Dream, Page 2

  The Early Years

  Teagan

  My palms began to sweat as the car pulled up in front of a stone building; it wasn’t very big, but it was intimidating. A new school.

  Mrs. Marks turned from her spot next to the driver, whose name I learned was Sam. “You’ll be fine, Teagan. I know it’s scary, but you’ll adjust and maybe you’ll even make a friend or two.”

  My throat worked as I attempted to keep myself from bursting into tears. I hated this, every bit of it.

  “Come on, Teagan,” Kane called as he climbed from the car. Starting fourth grade in a different school midyear was not going to be fun. At least Kane was in the same school as me, even if he was a sixth grader.

  His head poked back through the open door. “Come on.”

  “Bye,” I said to Mrs. Marks and Sam.

  “See you after school,” Mrs. Marks said, her voice kind, her smile encouraging. Dragging myself across the seat, I climbed out, but my feet refused to move me any farther. Kane grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward the building.

  “You’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Kane said.

  Easy for him to say. The smell of chalk and disinfectant filled my nose as soon as I stepped through the front doors. My stomach was already churning with nerves, and the added scents didn’t help. Continuing down the hall, we stopped just outside one of the classrooms.

  “Mrs. Texler is very nice, so relax. When the day is over, they’ll call for car riders first—that’s us. I’ll meet you out front. You’ll be fine. And after school, I’ll take you out for something to eat. Mrs. Marks gave me money and cleared it with the office that we’ll be walking into town after school.”

  I took a few deep breaths as Kane yanked the door open for me. He seemed to know I needed reassurance, so he smiled. “Ice cream after school.”

  Nodding, since words would not come, I stepped into the classroom and every eye turned to me. Mrs. Texler rose from her seat at her desk and walked around to join me. Her hand on my shoulder felt surprisingly comforting, her smile reassuring.

  “Class, this is Teagan Harper, she will be joining us for the rest of the year. Please make her feel welcome.”

  And they did. I think the other students knew what had happened to my parents, because everyone in class stopped by my desk to say hi. And even though I still had butterflies in my belly, I wasn’t as terrified.

  When the bell sounded for the end of the day and the lady over the speaker called for car riders, I didn’t run from the room like I thought I would that morning. For a first day, it had been pretty okay. Stepping outside, I looked around for Kane. When I saw him, something moved through me, an emotion I’d never felt before. He was talking to a girl with long brown hair and big blue eyes. She was older—his grade, I was sure. Kane leaned against a tree, laughing at whatever she’d just said.

  I supposed I should have realized that he had a life, friends outside of Raven’s Peak. Now that school was back in session, he’d probably start playing with his friends and forget about me. That hurt, though he was two years older than me. Why would he want to hang with a little kid? My feet moved a little slower at the thought, because I wanted him all to myself. He was my only friend so far. Selfish, that’s what my mom would say. I was being selfish. And just thinking of her sent tendrils of pain through my chest, squeezing so hard my eyes burned.

  Turning from Kane and his friend, I started down the path toward home. He should take his friend into town for ice cream. Yet I hadn’t gotten very far when I heard Kane calling my name. He appeared at my side, breathing hard from running after me.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Back to the house.”

  “I thought we were going to get ice cream.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I know I don’t. I want to.”

  “But what about the girl you were just talking to?” I said.

  Absently, he glanced behind him. “Camille? What about her?”

  “Don’t you want to go with her?”

  “No.” He said it as if it were obvious. The feeling in my belly eased. “The parlor makes the best sundaes. We’ll get one and share.”

  “Okay.” I sounded almost giddy—I was happy he wanted to get ice cream with me.

  His eyes found mine and he flashed me a smile. “And then you can tell me all about your first day of school.”

  “Let’s go. Murder waits for no one.” Mrs. Marks was in rare form that evening. We were all heading to the library, because it was time to play our monthly game of Clue. She was Miss Scarlet, of course, dressed in a red gown, her hair up like it usually was. She was carrying one of those cigarette holders, minus the cigarette, because smoking was a “dreadful habit.” Her first name was Veronica, but she never let anyone call her that. I often wondered why, because she wasn’t stuffy or overly formal. It felt odd that she preferred Mrs. Marks, especially since I didn’t think there was ever a Mr. Marks. I had asked Kane if he knew the reason, but he didn’t know either.

  Mr. Clancy was Colonel Mustard; Mrs. T was Mr. Green, dressed in an eighties leisure suit. I was Mrs. Peabody. Mrs. Marks found me the ugliest tweed suit with old lady shoes to wear, and not even Mrs. Marks wore pumps like the ones she forced on me. Kane was Professor Plum in an ascot and khakis and a corduroy jacket with patches on the elbows. He was not happy. In the months since I had come to live at Raven’s Peak, he and I had become inseparable. Mrs. Marks and the others often teased us; if you saw one, the other was surely close behind. Despite how close we had become, I grinned at his discomfort, because he looked ridiculous.

  “I hate that I have to wear an ascot. Only Fred from Scooby-Doo can pull that off. I look like a dork.”

  “You are a dork, Kane. Deal.”

  His head snapped in my direction. “Careful, Teagan.”

  “Or what? You’ll lecture me to death?” Having recently turned ten, I’d just learned the word “lecture” and, since he was Professor Plum, I thought I was being very clever.

  He started for me, but Mrs. Marks stopped him. “There will be no bloodshed until the game begins. Now, everyone must assume their positions. Once the lights go off, it’s action. Does everyone remember their parts?”

  Mrs. Marks loved this, loved mysteries and whodunits. I enjoyed watching her enthusiasm for the game. It created lightness in the sad circumstances.

  “I have just polished the candlesticks, so if one of them is the murder weapon, I would appreciate that whoever uses it cleans it,” Mr. Clancy said. He was trying to sound serious, but I saw the way his lips turned up on the one side. They really were the strangest group of people, and yet Kane had been right: they were a lot of fun.

  “Well, we’ll have cake when this is all done. Nothing works up an appetite like murder,” Mrs. T suggested.

  “You can say that again,” Kane agreed, but he was looking at me, and I had a terrible feeling he was the murderer and I was the victim. The look he was throwing at me was sinister.

  “All right. Remember, only the murderer knows who the victim will be. As soon as the lights are out, make yourself scarce, because even if you’re the target and you’re about to die, your murderer should have to work for it. If you’re the victim, be sure to scream loudly, so we can find your body, and then the game begins.” The lights went out. “Action!” Mrs. Marks called.

  I took off, almost running, but I felt Kane behind me gaining with every step. I reached the kitchen before he caught me, his arms coming around me and pulling me back against him.

  “Sorry, Teagan.” But he didn’t sound sorry at all.

  I laughed through my entire death scene because Kane’s method for killing me was to tickle me to death.

  Walking down the sloping backyard of Raven’s Peak, I glanced back at the huge house—although, “house” didn’t even seem to be the right word. The place was just that big. Grass and trees wrapped around the property, and then it just dropped off as the ocean met the land. It wasn’t a long dr
op, but even still, it was scary. A set of stairs, with railings on both sides, led down to the beach below. Raven’s Peak sat on a point; a walkway had been carved into the cliffside, curving around the point as another way for people to get to the beach. Taking the walkway, I started down. The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks was music to my ears. White sand, that I bet felt wonderfully warm in the summer, met the cliff, but only for a small stretch. In the distance, the water crashed up against the cliffs, the sight violent but pretty.

  Walking along the beach, I held my coat closed tightly around me. Though spring was coming, it was still cold. I looked out at the island that sat just off the beach. It wasn’t very big, maybe the size of a couple football fields, oddly shaped, and about a half mile from where I stood. There were trees—I could see them even from my distance. I wondered how it had formed there, so close to the mainland and yet off on its own. It seemed like it would sink if anyone ever stepped on it.

  “Nice, isn’t it?” I hadn’t heard Kane approach, so I jumped a few feet in the air when he spoke.

  “Kane!” I smacked him on the arm.

  “Sorry, I thought you heard me coming.” He turned his face to the sea. “Mrs. Marks owns that.”

  “Really?”

  “I’m going to swim out to it when I’m older. When I’m a strong enough swimmer.”

  My eyes went wide. “You’re going to swim out there?”

  “Yep.” His focus turned to me. “You can come.”

  “I can’t swim.”

  I couldn’t lie. I wanted to swim out there with him, but I was afraid of the water. “When you’re ready, I’ll teach you to swim. Deal?”

  I could do that, when I was ready. “Deal.”

  “Dinner’s ready.”

  We started back to the stairs. “Did Mrs. Marks have the steps and walkway added?”

  “The steps. The walkway was done when the house was built back in the day. Pretty neat the way they carved it right into the stone. I like taking the steps, they’re scarier.”

  “I like the walkway.”

  “Then we’ll take the walkway. Mrs. T is making potpie for dinner. I love her potpies.”

  Since I hadn’t yet had one of Mrs. T’s potpies, I couldn’t comment, but since everything else she made was the best I’d ever tasted, I couldn’t wait. I wondered if Kane’s obsession with food started after he’d come to Mrs. Marks’s to live. I could understand that if it were the case. “You and food. Do you ever think of anything else?”

  His smile was just a bit wicked. “Sometimes.”

  “You’re not going to share what else in your world could possibly compete with your love of food?”

  “I shouldn’t need to share it, I think it’s pretty obvious,” he replied.

  In response, my body turned warm all over and my heart rolled in my chest. Could he possibly be talking about me?

  He answered my unasked question. “On the Kane’s scale of likes, you are neck and neck with food.”

  It didn’t sound like a compliment, but knowing Kane as I did, it was the highest compliment he could give. He looked a bit uncomfortable, and I knew he was feeling it too when he changed the subject. “You doing okay?” His question surprised me. As did his steady stare. Maybe studying me was a better word, since he looked like Mrs. T looked when she was reading through a problem in my math book.

  “About my parents?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I miss them, but when I think about them, I don’t feel like I have to cry as bad as I did before.”

  “That’s good.”

  “What about you? Are you still sad when you think about your mom?”

  His head turned away, and I think he was trying to hide tears. “She left me, and I don’t know why, so it’s still as hard now as it was then.”

  I reached for his hand, and his closed tightly around mine. “I’m sorry she left you, Kane, but in some ways I’m not.”

  His head jerked to me with tears in his eyes. “Why did you say that?” He sounded mad.

  “Because if she hadn’t, we probably wouldn’t be as close as we are.”

  I watched as his anger faded and a little smile curved his mouth. “Looking at it that way, I’m glad for it too.”

  Mr. Clancy was sitting in the kitchen having tea when I came home from one of my walks on the beach. Kane was off at the boatyard, shadowing Mr. Miller to learn about boat building, a dream of his. He had invited me to join him, but the few times I had previously, I could tell he felt as if he needed to entertain me. He didn’t, of course, but that was Kane’s way. Mr. Miller was willing to apprentice Kane, so he needed to focus on that, not me.

  “Teagan, would you like a cup of tea?”

  I never drank tea. My parents had been coffee drinkers, but I was willing to give it a try. It smelled good. “Okay.”

  With the skill of someone who did it often, he poured the fragrant liquid into a china cup. “Milk? Sugar?”

  “I’ve never had tea,” I confessed.

  “Have a touch of sugar.”

  Seemed like a good plan to me. “Okay.”

  He smiled at me as he prepared my tea and then studied me as I took my first sip. It was delicious. His smile turned even wider. “Good, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s a special brew I get from Harrods in London.”

  “Tea all the way from London. Fancy.”

  Mr. Clancy winked.

  “Can I ask you something?” I asked.

  “Sure.”

  “How long have you worked here?”

  “I grew up here. My father used to be the butler when Mrs. Marks’s father was alive. As I do now, he lived here with my mother and me.”

  “You’ve lived here your whole life?” I liked the thought of that, being connected to the same place through your entire life’s journey.

  “Yes. Back in the day, the house was filled with people—immediate and extended family. Almost every room was occupied, but it didn’t feel crammed, just the opposite, in fact. Mrs. Marks had two brothers who were significantly older than her, but we all played together when we were kids. Some of my fondest memories are the days the four of us had our adventures.”

  “Where are her brothers now?”

  “They died in World War II. I remember when the telegram came for Robert, the younger of the two. I’d never seen her father cry, but he cried that day. Only two weeks later, a telegram came for Gerald. The house had always been one of laughter, but after their deaths, a solemnity settled over it and never really lifted until Kane’s arrival.”

  I wanted so badly to know more about Kane, but I didn’t know if I had a right to ask. Mr. Clancy obviously had no trouble reading my thoughts.

  “Kane’s mother worked here. Rebecca kept the house—cleaning, doing the linens. When she learned she was pregnant, she was thrilled and terrified because she was a single woman who needed her job. But there had never been a question that we would all help with Kane so that she could have both. I remember the first day she brought him here. Even as an infant, his eyes were the exact shade of blue they are now. Watching him grow, hearing laughter in the house again, brought life back into this old place.

  “Rebecca leaving took me completely by surprise, because she adored Kane. But she had been a rolling stone in her youth. She had dreams of leaving this town and making a name for herself. I’d thought she had moved past that, but clearly I was wrong. I didn’t know her as well as Mrs. Marks had, though I always had the sense that Rebecca’s decision to leave surprised even her.”

  I heard the anger and censure in his tone, and I had to agree. Leaving your child was wrong.

  “And now you’re here. I’m sorry for the circumstances that brought you to us, but I love watching as you and Kane take up where Mrs. Marks and I left off.”

  Touched, I couldn’t form any words in reply, so I offered a weak smile and took a sip of my tea.

  “Kane Doyle, that’s it, you creep. I am gettin
g you back. That is the last toad you will be putting in my bed.” I heard him laughing, even though I didn’t know where he was hiding in the massive house. I had been living at Raven’s Peak for seven months and for four of those I had found toads in my bed, usually in the early evening when I liked to come to my room and read before dinner. I had named all of them—I was up to Kane 102.

  I really didn’t mind the toads, and I didn’t think Kane was a creep for doing it either. I didn’t know how I would have gotten through those months without him. He had the uncanny ability to know when I wasn’t happy, when a memory of my parents came out of nowhere. He was always there at my side. Most times he did no more than offer a shoulder, but he was always there.

  Even still, I had to get him back for the toads. In the four months since he started with his gross joke, I’d attempted to get even with him: spraying all his clothes with perfume and adding hot sauce to the ketchup, knowing how much he loved that on his fries, but my efforts didn’t deter him. It was time to kick it up. Running to the kitchen, I saw Mrs. T behind the stove creating something wonderful as usual. “Mrs. T, I was wondering if I could help you with making a special dinner for Kane tonight.”

  Her old gray eyes twinkled at me. She knew that Kane and I dedicated our lives to getting the better of each other. “How special, dear?”

  “Well, you know how he loves his potpie. I was thinking we could try a different kind of potpie with worms. Is there a way to do that without harming the worms?”

  Her cackle of laughter filled the kitchen. “That is really gross.”

  “I know. It’s awesome.”

  “Worms in my kitchen? You do ask a lot of me. You found another toad, I’m guessing.”

  “Yep.”

  “Very well, get me the worms, and I’ll whip them up into a pie of sorts. No harm will come to them.”

  “You’re the best.” And then I hurried off to do just that.

  At dinner, we all sat in the kitchen like we always did. Mrs. Marks preferred its coziness over the cavernous space—that’s what Kane called it—that was the dining room. The staff usually ate with us.