Family Secret

“Whoa.” Samantha Barwick breathed out as she and her sister Loren stared up at the grand yellow house that belonged to their grandparents.

It was no longer the gloriously grand home with a wrap around porch she remembered spending summers at when they were just little girls. Now it was a monstrosity. The yellow paint was faded and peeling, the lawn was overgrown and full of weeds a foot high, and as they climbed the steps towards the front door Loren stumbled forward as a loose board gave way under her foot.

“Maybe it looks better on the in- “Loren began but was interrupted by a shutter that fell to the ground with a loud clatter. “side?”

“This is a nightmare.” Sam sighed pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, mostly to stop the tears from falling.

Loren took her other hand and said, “It will be an adventure.”

“How are you so calm, Lo?” Sam asked facing her sister, unable to stop a few tears from rolling down her cheeks. “Mom and Dad were planning to fix this place up before they got sick. How can we just take that over and not be reminded that they aren’t here?”

Loren pulled her sister into a side hug and rest her head on her shoulder, “Because Mom would want us to and I know it will be hard to remember that they aren’t here, but it will also be so good to remember all those summers we spent here. Remember all the summers Mom told us about growing up here in this house. Think of all the history inside these walls. All the good memories.”

“I’m not sure I am ready for this.” Sam sighed as she reached for the door knob.

She pushed the key into the handle and turned, feeling the lock click. She twisted the knob and gave a gentle push but the door didn’t budge. She and Loren shared a look and with a cock of her eyebrow Loren moved in beside her sister.

“On the count of three?” Loren suggested.

Samantha counted down and on three they both gave a hard shove to the door and the door gave way with a creak.

“Not so bad.” Loren said rubbing her sister’s back as she moved in through the door and into the old home.

Samantha looked around the room as her eyes adjusted to the dark and was pleasantly surprised. This room appeared to only need a coat of paint and a refresh of the wood floors. Loren moved around the room and opened the curtains letting the sunlight come in.

“Maybe open a window to get some fresh air. This place has been closed up for what, six years?” Samantha asked.

“Something like that.” Loren agreed. “I can’t believe Mom and Dad didn’t move down here as soon as they could. This place is fantastic.”

“It’s something.” Samantha mumbled under her breath. Loren was always more optimistic, more adventurous. Samantha was always the one waiting for the bottom to fall out of any given situation.

As she moved further into the house, she found what she had expected to see. The dining room was a mess. The walls had several gaping holes smashed into them, the floor had been pulled up in spots, and the chandelier was hanging from the ceiling by a single wire.

“Dad must have started work at some point.” Loren shrugged as she motioned towards the walls.

The kitchen was in even worse shape. As they moved room to room the walls were cracked and full of holes as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to them. The floors were pulled up in every corner. There was evidence of squatters and a few pests of the four legged variety.

The last straw for Samantha was when she poked her head into the bathroom and found a toilet full of unidentifiable sludge and a smell that turned her stomach.

“Loren. We can’t do this!” Samantha panicked. “This is insane do you realize that? This house is a disaster.”

“It’s not that bad.” Loren explained. “We can do this. I’ve been fixing up old houses for two years and I am telling you we can handle it.”

“Have you seen a house in this bad of shape?” Samantha asked.

Loren’s hesitation to answer said to Samantha that she hadn’t. Samantha let out a nervous laugh. Loren turned towards her sister with a smile and placed her hands on her shoulders.

“It will all be fine. I’ve got a list of things we need to do and all we have to do is start with one room at a time. It will be a great project and when it is all finished you will see. It will be great.”

“I’m glad one of us is optimistic.” Samantha breathed out.

Loren flashed an excited grin and pulled her sister into a hug. Samantha wrapped her arms around Loren and tried to will the dread of what was coming out of her mind.

Three weeks later

The project was going well. It started off pretty rough but Loren and Samantha were enjoying spending time together and sharing the memories they had of the place. They recalled their grandmother’s stories about how it was always better to give than to receive. That she wanted to meet her maker with her ledger full of good deeds and good will.

“Sam!” Loren yelled out to her sister in the other room, the sound of walls being bashed in echoing loudly around her.

The sound stopped and Samantha answered her. “Yeah?”

“You have got to see this!” Loren called out wide eyed as she stared down at the brown paper sack she had just pulled out from the wall she had pulled down board by board.

Samantha came into the room cautiously, “If you brought me in here to show me some dead animal I am going to kill you.”

Loren held out the paper sack towards her sister who gave her a suspicious look.

“Just look.” She laughed tossing the back towards Samantha, who caught it with a twitch.

She looked into the back and her head snapped up quickly, “Where did you get this! Loren!”

“It was in the wall!”

Samantha dumped the bag onto the floor and sat down collecting the bundles of hundred dollar bills and counting them.

“Loren that is $20,000?! What were grandma and grandpa doing with $20,000 hidden in their walls?! Is there more in there?”

Loren flashed a light into the wall and searched around for more. “There’s something….”

Loren reached into the wall and grabbed what she had seen with the flashlight. She pulled out a little black notebook. She pulled the elastic band that held it closed over the cover and opened it fanning the pages out as she glanced through them with a shrug.

“This is grandma’s handwriting.” Loren said as she handed the notebook to her sister.

“What is all this? Names with numbers by them? Was grandma a loan shark?” Samantha asked as she flipped through the pages.

Loren took the book back with a laugh, “She wasn’t a loan shark! The church down the street is in here. These are all names of people they went to church with. You really think our wildly religious and church going grandma would loan money to the church and break their legs if they didn’t pay her back.”

Samantha shrugged with a laugh, “Anything is possible.”

“It would be easy to find out.” Loren said dusting off her hands and shoving the money back into the paper sack. “Let’s take a walk.”

They walked along the dirt road and discussed different theory’s about what activity their grandmother was up to, going into fits of laughter at their more imaginative suggestion of their grandparents being drug smugglers. As they entered the slightly run-down church a sweet old lady approached them with a smile.

“Blessed day to you.” She greeted them.

“To you also.” Samantha smiled.

“I’m Loren Barwick and this is my sister Samantha. Our grandparents...”

“Oh! You must be Millie and Abe’s granddaughters.” She interrupted excitedly. “Oh! It’s so good to meet you. Millie spoke of you both every Sunday and in our ladies’ group twice a week.”

“Nice to meet you.” Loren smiled.

“Alice.” The woman smiled politely.

“Alice. We are working on the house down the street and we found something there and were curious. Our grandma had something written down about the church and we were wondering if you had a fund raiser at some point or perhaps a community garage sale?” Loren asked.

“Not that I can recall.” She said as she had a puzzled look on her face. “Although I suppose she could have kept a record of her donation to the church. You see the church was broken into some years ago and they vandalized the place quite badly. We were left with a lot of damage and your grandparents donated a generous sum to help the church replace the pews and the stained-glass windows that were shattered. Your grandparents were such wonderful and generous people. If our parish members were down on their luck Millie and Abe would always find it in their hearts to help. Sometimes that was giving someone a room to sleep for a few nights and sometimes it was a donation of cash to help them buy groceries.”

Loren and Samantha shared a look and Samantha gave Loren a slight nod.

“We think we found something that belongs to the church.” Samantha said as she handed over the paper sack.

They didn’t wait for a confused Alice to open the sack. Loren and Samantha put their arms around each other, laughing as they headed back to their family home to get back to work.