At first glance, you could almost see the charm in it; but that was only if you glanced and turned away. If you stared too long, you couldn’t help but notice that its grace had faded like an old quilt that had gone from soft and worn to ragged and unusable. The house was simple in style, a box with large windows and dormers that rested on the steep roof. The left side sagged, almost touching the ground while the rest of the house rested on brick pillars. Stretching across the entire front was a porch, netted in a screen littered with so many tears and holes that every bug on the island could have nested there. The rusty tin roof revealed layers of paint, once green, once black, from a time when someone had cared for it. The house was a gallant old lady who had planted herself on the sandy soil and weathered the years as best she could.
By the time I made it to the rotten steps, Vincent was already halfway back to the cab – clearly he didn’t want to stay here. Ben took a seat on my portable kitchen somewhere between us both and chuckled to himself, probably expecting a fight.
A large black crow peeked his head out of a hole in the screen and cawed to announce the arrival of a wrinkled hand that pushed open the creaky wooden screen-door. There stood the tallest female creature I had ever seen, draped in a multi-flowered muumuu. She tugged on what should’ve been a knee-length dress to keep it below her crotch. Her wrinkled limbs jutted out of every opening in the apparel. Her hair, gray from age and gold from the sun, folded neatly on her shoulders like a long-ago contestant in a Miss America pageant. You could tell that she was once pretty and stately but like with her house, time had taken its toll. She smiled and the wrinkles deepened and shot toward her clear blue eyes. I knew right away that I would like her.
“Welcome, I’m Louise. I thought you said it was a couple, Ben.” Ben motioned to the noise of a lost Vincent clearing his way out of the thicket.
“Vincent!” I called and the noise stopped. “Hi, I’m Sadie Vaughan, and that’s my husband, Vincent, doing a little exploring.”
She laughed and cracked a knowing smile. “Husbands!” The crow above the door squawked and Louise reached in her pocket and pulled out a handful of seed. The crow swooped and rested on her hand. “This is Tina and this is really her house.” I could not believe she let that nasty animal land on her hand, its beady black eyes evilly peering at me, between pecks at the seeds. I like animals, but this seemed a little bit out of the ordinary. “How many days are you planning to stay?
“Tonight for sure.”
“I bet you’ll be here a week. I’ll give you the weekly rate per day, I‘m so sure of it.”
Vincent had made his way out of the bushes and pulled out his wallet.
“Hello, I’m Vincent.” He tried to be nice, but it was easy to tell he’d be back in the cab the first chance he got.
“Just pay when you leave."
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