4: Farmhouse

Mr. Stanley was old, small, slightly stooped and  wears a full dark glasses with a thick frame. Just as how I imagined him to be, he held his head in his hands when he saw me in front of him, maybe he got the idea with my puffy red eyes.

“Please sit down, Miss Morrison,” he said and rose to her seat, I sat on the left chair. His office was simple as the solicitor he was, with brown wooden walls, a tall shelf with thick hardbound books and a huge table that separated me to him it was awkward that I saw myself here at seventeen.

“Do you want something to drink? A coffee, water maybe?”

I waved my hand successively. “I just came here to ask why my dad became like that.”

Mr. Stanley looked like he was surprised but behind that façade, he knew it too well, I don’t need to add more description on that, I want to know why’s that -- he knew the reason my father who’s not my dad decided to be a jerk and dropped a bomb at the worst moment possible.

He rested his back and pulled something in his drawer. “It’s because of this.”

It’s a piece of paper scribbled with words and bear’s my mom’s name and signature at the right end of the paper, the other one was a birth certificate with my name on it and the box for the father was left blank.

“Miss Harriet Morrison, Mr. Richard ask me to compile this beforehand, the first paper is about the will of your mom and the second is your real birth certificate.” He gave me the papers and I reached for them with my both hands.

“I’m guessing he knew about this already and decided to say the truth to you.”

Tears found their way to drop on my cheeks without my consent. All along, I treated him as my dad, I remember he held me as a child in his arms and raised me to the air but because of this piece of paper that moment broke down into many pieces, my mother’s name, Elizabeth Artha Carter was written as my mother, my father was a dash meaning unknown. “I know I should have shown you this before you turn eighteen, but in this case, Mr. Richard consented it, and if you read the first paper on top of that…”

Somehow, his voice became low and I had a hard time listening to him, I can’t digest what he was saying, my father, though he was strict with me after I turned ten, I remember he was present whenever we held a sports day in my school together with my mom, they’ll participate on sack race and we walked hand in hand to the car cheerfully and now I’m seventeen I found out he was not my biological father because mom died.

What will happen if mom’s still here? Will she stop dad from telling me? Was he planning to tell me that as soon as mom died? This was too much for a seventeen-year-old like me, you know. Now I found out the reason why mom hide my birth stories, my twin siblings had theirs with matching scrapbooks and baby clothes and pictures, Andrea’s crib was still in the attic, it was bright pink with a lot of ruffles and red circles, her mini pillow and the dress she wore for her first birthday was still there, mom said she threw mine’s away because that’s a long time ago, seven years wasn’t a long time! Was it because she's afraid that I would accidentally find out about my birth?

“… Do you know about the legendary wolf living at the end of the forest? I believed that’s just about there in that forest.”

The legendary wolf again, I guess the whole town wasn’t an exception to tell tales about it, even Mr. Stanley was hook about that story, my family doesn’t talk about it but I think they had an idea, they know about it, they just don’t tell that story to their children. But now that mom died and I found out that my father isn’t my real father I guess it’s time to hear that story.

“Miss Harriet.”

I squeezed my armchair when Mr. Stanley snapped his fingers at me. “I’m sorry, my dear, I know this isn’t the right time to discuss this with you but I believed there’s no other time to tell, now that Richard broke this out.”

He picked up the paper I believed was on top of my birth certificate but I didn’t bother to look at it and flew it away. “Your mother left you a farmhouse in the middle of the woods.”

That raised my left brow, I looked at the paper and tried to comprehend that it was a copy of mom’s will. Of course, she has one! But wait, she left me a farmhouse?

“Andrea and Ashton will have a portion of the house after they turn eighteen, you, however, will inherit a farmhouse.”

Now I remember, mom was arguing with Richard before she ran out to her car, was they talking about her hoarding or about this?

“Did Richard knew about this?” I gave him a look and he suppress his lips, he reached for my hand that held the paper and rubbed it. The name rolled in my tongue like salted caramel, it has an airy aftertaste, I always called him dad, but now I think I should use myself on saying his first name. Because as he said: we’re strangers.

“I guess they’ve discussed it before? I'm not sure, dear.”  He gave me a smile that lowered my gaze to my hand, there was a big thick, and dark key that was comfortably wrapped in my left hand. “That’s the key to the farmhouse.”

That ends my meeting with Mr. Stanley, he gave me a copy of mom’s will and a map of the town with the forest that has an ‘x’ mark within a bunch of trees.

I don’t know if I should go home, Richard doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore, his snide remarks tell how much he wants me out of the house. So, I was left wandering, I passed my school and the road where mom had her accident, there wasn’t anything but a yellow tape around it that indicate there was an accident here before.

I guess behind me, I want to give what Richard wanted and lived in the farmhouse I inherited, I guess mom was nervous that as soon as she died, Richard would tell me to leave so I got a place to stay.

But why at the end of the woods? This town; even though it’s a little old and dramatic and always cold, has all the things a community would need to prosper. Apartments and little houses. I couldn’t remember mom telling us that she has a farmhouse in the middle of the woods. Heck, I wouldn’t even know she has a will prepared if Mr. Stanley didn’t tell me.

I pulled the map from my pocket and stashed the paper away from my bag, I studied the ‘x’ mark and trailed it out with my pointing finger to where I was, I just passed the school, now, I need to go to the forest, I walked mindlessly from left to right until my pointing finger reached the ‘x’ mark.

I raised my head from the map and was astonished by the huge house in front of me.

It’s like a mid-century modern home with a lot of landscaped plants and shrubs around it, the roof was color grey and has this fresh look that’s like it was renovated recently, a steel thick metal was horizontally inclined to the house, like a nineteen-sixties two-storey home with stucco finished and a lot of wood designs. I don’t know if it's because of the elevated porch or the two pivot doors waving at me to come that I decided to lift my foot on the ground and walked up to it. Was this the farmhouse I inherited from my mom? If so, I’m in love with it!

I passed the front porch steps and followed the pavement that leads to the front door. I pulled the key that Mr. Stanley gave and twist the knob open.

“Who are you?”