Chez Stinky (3 page)

Kat had visited her Aunt Abigail in Alpine Grove when she was a little kid. According to family lore, Abigail had moved to Alpine Grove and married a man she referred to as the Lumberjack. The couple had big plans to drop out of society and become self-sufficient. They were going to build their own house from trees harvested from the land, grow their own food, and raise their kids on the property located outside of the small logging town. Unfortunately, about halfway through the construction of the dream log cabin in the woods, the Lumberjack decided that he’d had enough of the whole back-to-the-land idea and left. Abigail never said much about him and Kat only knew about the Lumberjack at all by piecing together her mother’s oblique references to him over the years.

Apparently, Abigail had been a resourceful person and found a way to finish off the house so she didn’t freeze to death the winter after the Lumberjack went on his permanent road trip. Kat knew that Abigail had loved her little bit of paradise in the woods and had managed to create the little farm-ette she wanted. Kat had fond memories of sitting in the warm kitchen with soup, made from some of Abigail’s many canned goods, bubbling on the old white propane stove.

Kat walked toward the lawyer’s office. How had Abigail managed to survive all these years? (Not to mention feed all those animals!) Her family had lost touch with Abigail for reasons unknown. It was probably one of those terrible family secrets that her mother liked to keep. For whatever reason, Kat hadn’t seen her great aunt since she was about seven or eight years old.

Kat opened the door to the Law Offices of Lawrence Lowell and found a slender well-dressed man sitting at a desk.

“Mr. Lowell? I’m Kat Stevens.”

The lawyer looked up from his pile of papers, “Oh, like the musician? The one who converted to Islam?”

Kat sighed. “Yes, just like that. Except I spell my name with a K. And I don’t plan to change my name to Yusaf any time soon.”

“Sorry, you must get tired of people asking that. How are you? Was the drive up here pleasant?”

“I’m fine; thank you for asking. Can you tell me more about my aunt?”

The lawyer shuffled through the papers on his desk and extracted a folder from the bottom of a stack. “I have the information right here. Please have a seat.”

Kat pulled the chair closer to the desk and sat down. She watched as the lawyer rummaged through the folder. He was wearing a nice suit and was a fairly attractive guy. With his short brown hair, he seemed to be going for the clean-cut yuppie look, which was probably a novelty in a town like Alpine Grove, where flannel shirts and jeans were the norm. He glanced up at Kat and she scanned his face. His dark eyes were unusually close together, which made his long face seem even longer.

“As I told you on the phone, your aunt Abigail decided to leave her property to you. Her main concern was that her animals be taken care of and live out their lives in comfort. She has named Louise Johnson the executor of her estate. Louise will determine if you are fit to take care of the animals.”

“But what if I don’t
want
to take care of her animals?” Kate said. “I do have a life elsewhere. Am I supposed to just drop everything, quit my job, and take care of my aunt’s animals? How would I earn a living?”

“Well, you may not know this, but your aunt was very—shall we say—cautious with her money. She had a considerable amount of savings amassed and led a simple life. She didn’t spend much. Apparently, she had an inheritance from 50 years ago and she invested wisely. She never touched the principal, so now it’s a rather large sum of money.”

Kat stared at the lawyer and noticed his cuff links had green and red stripes on them, like an Italian flag. “You have got to be kidding me. What you’re saying is that Abigail was a cheapskate and it paid off for her financially?”

“Well, no one really knew about the money. She never even told her ex-husband, which was probably a good thing.”

“You know about the Lumberjack?”

“Yes, Abigail told me about how she ended up living here in Alpine Grove. She was a wonderful storyteller, and I handled her affairs for a number of years. We became quite good friends. I miss her.”

Kat ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it away from her face. “You probably knew her a lot better than I did. I think the last time I saw her I was eight years old. I used to love coming up here. She was always the fun relative. I never really understood why I couldn’t come back.”

“Your aunt certainly remembered you. She always said you had a kind heart. But she was also a smart lady and knew that she hadn’t seen you in a long time. So that’s why she has put the money into a trust and enlisted her friend Louise to monitor the situation.”

“What situation?”

“You have to make a choice, Kat. Abigail realized that you may have other things going on in your life. If you opt to live here in Alpine Grove at the property and take good care of her animals, you get all the money and obviously the property, too. If not, you can find the animals good homes and sell the property yourself. The money that is in the trust will be disbursed to a number of charities that Abigail supported. And every new home you find for the animals must be approved by Louise. To be honest, Abigail loved her dogs and cats desperately. They were her family; she wanted someone she trusted to take care of them, so they could all stay together.”

“So why doesn’t Louise take them? She and Abigail were friends, right?”

The lawyer shifted in his chair. “Louise is allergic to anything with fur. Although she and Abigail spent a lot of time together, Louise almost never went out to the property.”

Kat was at a loss for how to respond to all this new information. She looked into the lawyer’s dark brown eyes. “So what’s next? I honestly don’t know what to do here.”

“I can take you to visit the property. You can see it and meet all the animals. I haven’t been out there in a few years, so I’m not sure what condition it is in.”

“Condition?”

The lawyer nodded his head. “Do you remember anything about the place? It may not be in exactly the same shape it was the last time you were there. Abigail was not well for a while and Louise told me that although she had assistance, the place was getting to be a bit much for her.”

Kat shrugged her shoulders. “Okay, you’re right. It definitely sounds like I need to go out there for a visit.” Kat looked out the front window at a happy-looking couple holding hands as they strolled down the sidewalk. The serene picture seemed a stark contrast to the sick sinking feeling she had in her stomach. What on earth was she getting herself into?

Kat got into her car and waited for Larry to pull out into the street. A dented, salmon-colored, 60s-era Dodge pickup pulled out from an alley in front of her. She was surprised to see the lawyer at the wheel. Who would have thought Larry would be a truck owner? Certainly not the owner of a light-pink truck. He seemed like more of a BMW kind of guy. Who knew?

They drove out of town and a few miles down the road, Larry turned down a smaller, winding dirt road. They passed a red barn with a huge white J on the front and what a tour book might call the ‘remains of a historic homestead,’ which more accurately could be described as a log shack with a caved-in roof.

The salmon pickup turned right down an even narrower road. The two vehicles continued down the road and the trees became so thick the canopy almost made it seem like they were driving through a long green tunnel. Kat turned the steering wheel to dodge a gigantic crater in the road. It was entirely possible she was completely destroying her car. The poor little Toyota wasn’t exactly accustomed to this type of off-road activity. Maybe the lawyer was smart to have that beater pickup after all. Driving on these roads, a BMW would probably leave a trail of 10,000 tiny expensive German-engineered parts.

The trees opened up into a clearing and Abigail’s house came into Kat’s view for the first time in 20 years. The house was set into a hillside and was made of logs sitting on top of a concrete daylight basement. The house was rustic to say the least and quite a bit smaller than Kat remembered. It was also clear that home maintenance may not have been Abigail’s forte.

Years of dirt, weather, and possibly mildew had given the logs a two-tone effect like an old classic Chevy. The logs were significantly darker brown on the top than on the bottom. Below the logs, the concrete daylight basement walls were covered with somewhat shredded tar paper, which gave the house a dingy, ruffled, unkempt look. Clearly, it was not a candidate for one of those luxury-log-home magazine photo spreads.

Kat parked and stepped out of the car. The tinkling of wind chimes and the rustling of leaves from the breeze through the copse of aspen trees were the only sounds. Kat looked up into the tree tops and smelled the sweet fragrance of warm pine trees that wafted from the forest surrounding the house. Abigail’s home may have been out of the way, but it was located in an incredibly peaceful spot.

Suddenly, the tranquil moment was interrupted by a mighty “WOOF!” Something that looked like a cross between a horse, a bear, and a wookie barreled toward Kat. The muscles in her body clenched in fear as her brain scrambled to figure out where she could hide.

Before she could make a move, the beast ran up to her, stopped, sat, and began wagging, creating a little tail angel in the dirt. Kat’s racing heart started to slow down a little. The giant furry thing was actually a dog and not Sasquatch.

Larry said, “That’s Linus, one of your aunt’s dogs. She used to call him Hairy Mess…I think you can tell why.”

Kat said shakily, “Oh my God, he’s HUGE.” The large brindled brownish-tan dog shook his furry head, which caused his ears to flap and his tongue to wave from side to side.

“Yes, he’s big, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Larry said.

Kat reached out her hand toward the dog, who sniffed it and moved his head under her hand so she could more easily scratch his large, floppy ears. She obliged. “Hi, Linus. How are you?”

Linus moved closer and started to lean on Kat’s side. She hoped he wouldn’t knock her over, since she was pretty sure the dog outweighed her by a considerable amount. Thank heavens he was friendly.

A large, egg-shaped woman came out of the house and stood on the stair landing outside the front door. Seeing Linus, she said, “Linus, don’t you want your breakfast?”

Linus perked up his ears, looked up at Kat, and then turned and began trotting back down the hill toward the back of the house.

Kat noticed that although the woman’s skirt fluttered in the breeze, the somewhat bluish curls piled on her head were completely motionless. The woman held up a Kleenex, sneezed into it, and then said, “Hello, I’m Louise. You must be Katherine. Your aunt spoke highly of you.” She waved the tissue frantically and then sneezed again. “Ugh, I can’t handle all this hair! It’s in my nose, on my clothes…everywhere! I’m going to have to take my pills. I hate that; they make me so sleepy.”

Kat raised her hand and waved slightly. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry you had to come out here. Have you had to take care of the animals since my aunt died?”

Larry interjected, “No your aunt’s estate has been paying for pet sitters to come up here three times a day and tend to the animals. Louise is here because I called her this morning to let her know that you might be coming out.”

Louise nodded. “Yes, and I wanted to make sure all Abigail’s critters are happy, too. Everyone seems fine as far as I can tell, although they do seem a bit confused. Would you like me to show you around?”

“If you wouldn’t mind,” Kat replied. “I haven’t been here in a long time. It all looks so…different.”

“Well, your great aunt was not feeling well for a while before she died, so she was moving a bit more slowly than the last time you saw her. Some things have fallen through the cracks over the last few years. But she hadn’t lost her marbles; she was still smart as a tack, right up until the end. I saw her the day before she died and she was talking about planting some things in the garden again.”

Kat looked around and didn’t see anything that looked like a defined garden area. “Where is the garden?”

“Right over there,” Louise said, waving her tissue toward a welded-wire fence that surrounded six-foot-tall grasses. Swaying in a small gust of wind, they looked like they were trying to escape their confinement.

Kat said, “I guess it needs a little work.”

“Oh with just a little rototilling, it would be fine,” Louise said.

The lawyer peered at the area, looking dubious. There seemed to be more weeds inside the fence than outside of it.

Louise turned toward the door. “Let’s go inside and see the house.”

Kat and Larry headed toward the stairs. The steps leading up to the front door were made of plywood that had been covered with what looked like mud-encrusted blue shag carpeting. Kat stepped up on the first stair and the plywood creaked underneath her weight. Hopefully, Linus the gigantic dog didn’t use the stairs much. She turned to say to Larry, “You might want to wait a second before you get on these stairs; I’m not sure how much weight they can hold.”