Changing Seasons. Summer V, part 2.

Summer V, part 2 “I know it’s Saturday and all, but I still kind of feel like a kid again, sneaking into the playground! All we need is Ludo Meithers here and it’d be the four of us again, up to mischief.” “Hey, we was never getting’ up to anythin’ too bad! Just harmless pranks.”
Bess smiled at Tom Tench’s quick defence of their younger selves.
“Just harmless little things like puttin’ frogs into people’s desks…and pretendin’ we was ghosts in the bank manger’s garden…” “Pure as the driven snow, that was us,” Artie agreed. “Leastways, no-one ever proved anything against us.”
“This hopscotch grid is still in the same place. How many times must it have been repainted? Bet I can still beat you both!” “I’ll take you on,” Old Tench said enthusiastically. “Bet you I can beat you.”
“Bet you can’t,” Bess said, watching him critically.
“You know what?” Artie said. “I still kind of feel like Miss Kirk will appear from nowhere and ask what we’re doing here when there’s a perfectly good park across the road.”
“Or say that seein’ as we’re here, we can help her an’ get washin’ all them windows. Lost a whole day to that we did, one summer. Remember?”
“Teachers shouldn’t be in school in the holidays.” The park across the road had seen better days.
“Now this is kind of sad,” Artie said. “The school – that felt cheerful. This is…well, it makes me feel kind of old when I look back at how it used to be.”
“We could improve it though,” Bess said thoughtfully. “All of us together – everyone, I mean. I reckon everyone here for one day could get loads done. And then a painting party – Clara could head that up – and the whole place would be transformed.” “We could do something about these gardens too,” Artie said.
“Useter be real pretty, they did,” Old Tench agreed. “I remember sittin’ here with my Mary tellin’ her she was as pretty as the roses. Tell you somethin’ good though – come over there with me.” “So what we looking at?” Artie asked.
“Flowers,” said Old Tench simply. “Ain’t been none here for years. But since folks started comin’ back, since the children started gardenin’ over there at the school – I’ve been noticin’. Birds is comin’ back. There’s more insects. I reckon the birds is spreadin’ the seeds. And all the waterin’ folks is doin’ too – there’s more stuff growin’ up now outside of folks’ gardens.” “I’ve been watchin’ this happen, watchin’ them spread. They’ve gotten right over to here now. From the school, I reckon.”
Bess looked down at the flowers by her feet. “They’re kind of like a message aren’t they? Like a promise that things can grow again, can be rebuilt. Re-found even.” “Not much left to show that this was the old fairground, is there?”
“Sure ain’t,” Old Tench said in reply. “We had good times back then, didn’t we? I allus liked the fall one best. Somethin’ to look forward to after bein’ stuck back in school for a while.”
“No-one could beat Ludo bobbing for apples.”
“I know – he had a real knack for it. Tried to scare Bess here with the haunted house first time she went to it. She ended up scarin’ me, droppin’ peeled grapes down my back!”
But Bess wasn’t really listening. She was looking across the road. “What happened to the library?”
“Lee Popeman Enterprises, that’s what!” Old Tench was quietly angry. “Course, it happened after you and Joe was gone. First they bought it from the town. All secret-like. Then they sold all the books as would sell, threw the rest in a skip, sacked the librarian…she rescued all the ones she could. Mostly old ones – them’s the ones as is in the library now. Then they started wreckin’ it.” “That’s when everyone started figurin’ that company weren’t up to no good at all. that’s when everyone started refusin’ to sell anythin’ to them. Any company that’ll destroy a library – they ain’t on the side of the angels. That’s why people started wantin’ to hold them to account for all that pollution. Pushed a lot of the waverers over against them.” Old Tench paused.
“An’ I guess that’s why I decided to stay and make them go on payin’, even if only in a small way.” Archie went to the doorway and looked at the wreckage of what had once been a fine building. A bit awe-inspiring as he remembered it: all high oak bookshelves and a lot of hush. But it had been destroyed on purpose and all the books taken away. Lee Popeman Enterprises had been trying to take the heart out of the town. “Well, I reckon Clara’s done a real good job on this house,” Artie said to Bess. “That Clara, she’s a real worker.”
“I’ll just go check iffen her garden needs waterin’,” Old Tench called over his shoulder as he went round the back of the house. “And Clara’ll be havin’ neighbours too,” Old Tench said. “I hear as she’s plannin’ to move into her house real soon. Nice to know there’ll be others livin’ nearby.”
“They’ve made a good start on the outside,” Bess commented. “Is this Lucie and Leo’s house?”
“No, Amber ‘n Rafe’s. Lucie ‘n Leo’s is next door. Artie, I’ve got an idea about this here estate…” Bess left them to it and went to look next door. Amber and Rafe had been repainting in the same colour. Leo and Lucie had obviously had other ideas. Can’t blame them, Bess thought. That pink’s not a very nice colour. Someone had planted flowers already – Lucie, Bess reckoned, with her artist’s eye for her surroundings. It was nice to think that Clara would have neighbours. Clara’s life had been lonely enough before she came here. “So this is my kinda idea,” Old Tench said. “These here are genuine Sears catalogue houses. I figure as people’d find them interestin’ too. We could tidy up the gardens, ‘n this one we could make into a kinda show home.”
“Why this one?” Artie asked, following Old Tench up the steps.
“Cause it never got altered none. Bathroom’s still out in the back yard. Old Jack Pettigrew never saw the need for an inside one ‘n neither did his son. Young Jack never changed a thing ‘bout the house either.”
“Never changed his clothes neither from what I remember!”
“’Cept on Sundays, ‘n then old Ma Watson’d get his dirty washin’ from the week afore. She took in washin’ for a few of the single men as worked at the factories, remember?” Bess headed for the kitchen and couldn’t believe her eyes. “I don’t think anything’s been changed in here since the house was built!” “I don’t think anything’s been cleaned or painted either,” she went on. “But I think you’ve got a good idea there, Tom. It’ll be another reason for people to come and visit. How’s Rafe and Leo getting on with tracing the former owners? Either of you know?” “Can’t say as I’ve heard anythin’,” Old Tench began,but Artie interrupted him.
“Now I do know something! I saw that Leo yesterday – returning my address book, and yours too, Bess – and it seems like they’ve tracked down just about everyone, what with the names and addresses we had between us, and then ones that other people had. So they’re on to looking at valuations now. It’s like they said: most people had given up all hope of getting anything for these houses, so anything’s better than nothing. They've bought the two they're going to live in, so that kind of gives a starting price for the others to be measured against as well.” “And that’s Minnie’s latest. It’s going to be a souvenir shop and the bathrooms for the gas station all in one,” Artie said.
“Smart,” Bess agreed. “So the kids need the bathroom, see the souvenirs…”
“Drinks as well, in a chiller cabinet,” Artie added. “She knows what’s what, Minnie does.”
“And she’s planted trees on the street too, put flowers by the shops.”
“Even been prettyin’ up the gas station,” Old Tench added. “Take a look. And she ain’t even runnin’ that.” Minnie had added flowers there too. It had been Clara, Lucie and Leo who’d restored the outside of the petrol pumps – and Lachlan and Frank who’d restored their innards.
“They figured as they wanted to keep the vintage look,” Old Tench explained. “Leo and the rest of them, they’re goin’ to run this place with Marcus ‘n then sell it on once it’s thrivin’.” Appropriately enough, they finished up at Minnie’s shop. Bess started chatting to Chas – mostly about Sal, but she was keeping a grandmotherly eye on Chas as well. Old Tench was debating buying a magazine, and Artie and Minnie were filling in the gaps in each other’s knowledge.
“So I was chatting to that Leo yesterday and he says they’re going for a Spring opening…”
“Amber was in two days ago, buying paint by the gallon. They’re planning to move into their new houses any day now. Then they can really get finished off up at the gallery without trying to live there at the same time. She was saying they all need some studio space up there, and then they’re hoping to rent out some more…”
“They’re hoping that they’ll be able to get some more artists moving in as well – maybe on to the Arbuthnot estate…”
“I guess we’re all going to be real busy round here getting everywhere tidied up for Spring. I’d better get Dan started on the last of the shops on this street. And see if Chris and Caleb have got time to do a bit more gardening…” I stayed, Old Tench thought. I stayed just so that company’d have to keep payin’, keep providin’ clean water and free power, ‘n they couldn’t be wrigglin’ out of their obligations. But now look what’s happenin’. ‘N it wouldn’t be happenin’ without I’d stayed. Reckon that was one real good decision I made there.

The magazines are by Sandy at ATS 3
The kitchen stove pipe is by Cyclone Sue at TSR.