Magic In The Walls

The July air was thick and blistering hot when Maddie got the call. Her father had passed in his sleep from a heart attack. It was a tragedy, yet she couldn’t bring herself to shed so much as a tear. Sure, Maddie loved her father. He raised her, kept her fed, gave her a place to live. Really, he gave her what was expected of a parent; the bare minimum. Maddie’s mother had passed from illness when she was six and the rest of her childhood was just the two of them in their quiet and unwelcoming home.

Stepping into the foyer of her forgotten youth she was filled with a warm and familiar feeling. Though it had been years since she lived here she found the corners of her mouth creeping up into a smile.

“I’m home,” she grinned, almost a full body motion as she hugged herself tightly. Her fathers fortune and estate were now hers for her husband and baby on the way. Maddie had promised herself this time she would fill it with love.

In the weeks that followed she had buried her father, moved her family, and purged the house of all her fathers belongings. Well, almost all. In the hallway left of the stairs base, in what was of course the darkest corner of the house, sat her fathers office. Only a handful of times in the span of her life had Maddie been in it. She had convinced herself her father chose to seclude himself in there as it was the only place he could be without her.

On this particular day the weather was that perfect type of summer cool where you could sit outside for hours and feel content. Coming in from her morning walk, Maddie noticed the beam of light shining in the hallway leading to her fathers office. Maybe, she thought, it was time to clean out the office.

She stood in front of the door, her hand hovering over the handle. This should be easy right? She should be able to walk right in? So why was it so hard for her? Perhaps there was still some unresolved pain sitting in the deepest point of Maddie’s chest.

“I can do this,” she assured herself, twisting the handle and pushing open the door.

The office was almost exactly as she remembered it. Her fathers desk, a grainy mahogany wood, sat right in the middle of the room, adorned with a few bookshelves and a single painting but otherwise virtually undecorated. It still smelled like cigars and whiskey. It still was the coldest room in the entire house. Then Maddie noticed something on his desk. A solid black leather notebook. Normally she wouldn’t look through her fathers things, but he was dead so why would he care?

Feeling her body shake with trepidation she sat down in the desk chair and opened the notebook. There in her fathers perfect script read;

Maddie, there’s magic in the walls.

This confused her, what was that supposed to mean? As she flipped through the pages she found that the notebook was otherwise empty. Not being able to make anything of this eerie phrase she stood up and hurriedly left the room. This was just like her father, stealing any semblance of peace even from the grave. Why could he not die as quietly as he lived? Why must he have to haunt her?

At dinner Maddie told her husband about her fathers note, hoping he could help decipher it’s meaning. He didn’t have much to offer, he was much less practical than she was anyway. He assumed it was her fathers way of reaching out to her, his way of saying he wants her to be happy wherever she is. Clearly he didn’t know her father like she did, but it was a nice thought, even though it wasn’t one she would entertain. So Maddie simply let it burden her all the way to the middle of the night. Her husband of course so deep in sleep not even the thunderstorm outside could wake him. As she rustled side to side underneath the breeze of the fan her mind suddenly put something into place. Springing out of bed, she stumbled like a newborn deer, rushing to her fathers office. Throwing the door open, out of breath, Maddie looked to the wall opposite the room's one window. There was a painting of a winged woman sitting atop a daisy in a field of flowers. She had always loved this painting as the woman bared an almost uncanny likeness to her mother. Those few times Maddie had been in her fathers office she had pointed to the painting and remarked,

“You know dad, there’s magic in the walls.” Honestly, she didn’t even think her father was listening, for the most part he would just nod halfheartedly, looking up from his work.

Maddie lifted the painting up, deciding she would move it to the entryway so everyone that entered her home could be greeted with magic. Looking back at the wall she saw that there was a folded piece of paper under the tack that had been holding the artwork up. With an unfamiliar excitement she opened it up to reveal once again in her fathers unmistakable handwriting a note that said;

Maddie, your favorite place is mine as well.

What was her favorite place? It had to be in this home, she thought hard when suddenly she was certain she knew. Into the back living room she ran, snickering as she remembered all the nights her dad would make an excuse as to why he couldn’t sit by the fire with her. She reached her hand into the fireplace, feeling around until she caught hold of yet another note. This one read;

Maddie, your laughter echoes here.

This time she didn’t even have to think, she recalled right away how many times her dad told her to quiet down in the kitchen. How could he not expect to hear everything in a house filled with nothing? She opened the island cabinet, her favorite hide and seek spot. Her father always found her right away when she started laughing and the sound would echo through the kitchen. Peeking underneath the quartz she saw the note she’d been looking for. This time it read;

Maddie, let’s watch the stars from the garden.

At the edge of the garden stood a quaint little gazebo just large enough for a few people to gather. Growing up she would look forward to summer nights as occasionally her father would go outside and they’d look at the sky from the gazebo together. This practice was always wordless and yet those times were always when she felt closest to him. Maddie walked calmly to the garden. Perhaps he was not trying to steal her peace like she had thought. As her eyes circled around the structure she remembered the eternally loose railing that her father swore constantly he was going to fix. Sure enough, tied to the railing was the final note. This was the longest one. It went;

Maddie, It appears that I won’t be here much longer, and if you’re reading this then I’m already gone. I should have probably listened to you all those times you begged me to quit smoking. Your mom always told me I’m too stubborn for my own good.

I really hope that I get to meet my grandson, but I’m not sure how long I have. I want to be better to him than I was to you. I wanted to give you a great life but I think I got caught up in the process. You know how heat lightning looks so breathtaking when it hits the sky? There’s no thunder, just light. It seems so amazing you don’t even realize the damage it can cause until the forest goes up in flames. I think in some sense I was heat lightning. At first glance I gave you the perfect life, but looking back I think I set you on fire. This is easy to say knowing I’m going to die, but I am so grateful to have you. I hope you know that I was always listening, always watching, always rooting for you, even if I didn’t show it. Please promise you’ll do better than me. Fill this house with joy. Make memories worth keeping.

I’ll always love you, Dad

Maddie traced her finger over that last line. He had to have said ‘I love you’ before, yet she struggled to recall any memory of it. It was nice to see it written out, nice to have this fragment of him left. In the end the cancer wasn’t even what took him and in a way she was thankful he was prepared to die. Once more she traced the ‘I love you.’

By now the sun was rising in the sky as Maddie stood in the garden, eyes closed. She thought about all the notes, how her childhood seemed more vibrant standing in the thick of it. Her father may not have been the most sentimental or easy to talk to, but he gave her an amazing life, left her his fortune and his home. He made sure that she would have everything she needed. Really, in his own way he said ‘I love you’ all the time. Maddie grinned, beginning to cry while reminiscing.

She loved her father too and maybe she could have said it more as well.

“Good morning!” Her husband called out, entering the gazebo. “Are you alright?” He asked, noticing the tears.

Maddie just nodded, she was sad but beyond that there was a deep sense of contentment.

“Then why are you crying?” He laughed, slightly confused.

“Because,” she began smiling, “there’s magic in the walls”