Changing Seasons. Autumn V, part 1.

Autumn V, part 1. “I see you’re practising your bare-chested sculptor look,” Amber said mischievously. “I like it.”
“Humph. You’ll be sorry for that comment later.”
“Promises, promises…” “What are we doing today? Straight over to the studios?”
“No,” Rafe said. “Town Hall first.”
“That’s such a grand name for such a basic building!”
“Nevertheless, that’s what it is. Or Town Hut if you prefer.” It was more of a Town Hut than a Town Hall: there was no getting away from that. It was on the site of the previous town hall (remodelling courtesy of Lee Popeman Enterprises) and there was a reason for it being just exactly there. “I just need to put some updates in for Molly ready for when she’s next here. I don’t know how we’d get all this dealt with and sorted without her help.”
Amber was looking at the (sorted: don’t touch them!) piles of letters on top of the old card index boxes.
“If we hadn’t decided to buy all the houses on the old Arbuthnot Estate…”
The replies had trickled in piecemeal, along with changes of addresses for other people which they’d followed up. And then the letter from Georgie Rivers. “Your letter reached me because I’m at my grandfather’s house while he’s in hospital with pneumonia. I can’t speak on his behalf. But I can tell you something that might help you…
…and one of the stories Grandpa Geo used to tell us was the story of how he saved the town’s records from the wreckers, how he sneaked into the town hall one night and moved all the paperwork down into the bottom basement, him and Ludo Meithers when they’d begun to realise what That Company (he always spat those words out with disgust) were up to…”
Amber wandered downstairs while Rafe typed away briskly. This was the top basement, and they’d had to do a bit of excavating to find it, and a lot of clearing away of soil and rubble and a fair amount of making good. But when they’d found their way into the top basement (luckily the stairs had been good solid fireproof ones) they’d found the locked door into the bottom basement and the treasure trove of records and history. From what Amber could see, it was getting steadily sorted out and organised.
“Nearly finished,” Rafe called and she headed back up the stairs. “There, I’m done,” Rafe said. “Molly should be able to make sense of all of that. Let’s head for the studio.”
“You going to take your shirt off to work?”
“Grrr!” I am so sick of all these ugly rooms, Molly thought as she put a couple of books back onto the very temporary bookshelf.
“Hey, you look nice,” John said, coming into the room and hugging her appreciatively.
Yes, Molly thought, because I couldn’t stand the thought of putting on those grubby, paint-stained clothes one more time. But she didn’t say that.
“Thank you. I’m working in the town hall today and I realised I wasn’t going to get messy.”
“I will be though! Irrigation system for the orchard, maybe some painting if there’s time…” “You’re looking real pretty Molly.” Bess saw more than just the clothes: she’d seen Molly getting tireder, more short-tempered. She’s beginning to run on empty, Bess thought, and there’s not a lot we can put into the tank round here. But let’s do what we can.
“Don’t hurry back. Richard and Janet can help me pick fruit and get it ready for the jam making. Go and visit someone after you’re done at the town hall. You deserve a day off, way you’ve been slaving away here like a good’un.” Molly’s eyes were pricking with tears as she cycled away, past the thriving orchard and the newly fenced and greening up nicely pasture. Cattle in the spring, Bess said, and we’ll start the cheese making up. Bess’s kindness, her compliments had made her more aware of how dreary she felt life was at the moment. Marianna and Blake were both in the town hall when she arrived – Marianna because she’d stopped by to drop off the mail Lachlan had picked up in Newborough yesterday, and Blake because he’d seen Marianna’s bike there and stopped by for a chat.
“I can’t believe how many letters we’re getting as a town,” Blake said.
“Enough mail to qualify for a weekly delivery if we had a post office to drop it off at,” Marianna said. “Next stop, our own post office. There must have been one once. I’ll ask Old Tench.” “And if we’re going to get our own post office,” Marianna went on, “I’ll have to clean out our mailbox. For all I know, it’s got a bird’s nest in it. Either that, or it won’t open at all. What are you up to today, Molly? It’s so good of you to do all this paperwork and archive-sorting.”
Not really good of me at all, Molly thought. I almost bit Rafe’s hand off when he very tentatively asked me if I thought I could help a bit. I’m loving having something that feels like a job again. “I’m typing up copies of all the replies we’ve had, cross-referencing addresses, trying to trace owners. I need to get a proper map sorted out as well. Rafe’s left me a load of notes for a proper business registry: we’re going to start charging business rates…”
Blake groaned. “Coping with my taxes is bad enough!”
“…though all the money’s going to go back into improving the town to start with. We need to have proper book-keeping though.” Some of the letters were tedious to copy, but this one was more interesting. Georgie Rivers again.
“…Grandpa Geo’s getting slowly better from the pneumonia, but his doctor’s saying a warmer, dryer climate for the autumn and winter would do him good. Well, none of us can afford to send him away to anywhere fancy, but seeing as he still has a house in Two Lakes…so I thought I’d come and check it out in a few weeks’ time, when my sister can come here and stay with him…”
It sounded like someone else might be arriving. We should check that house out ourselves, Molly thought. I’ll go and look at it when I’m done here. Chris and Caleb had done a brilliant job on the outside of The Natoma, Molly thought. I must remember to tell them how good it looks. The inside was going to need a fair bit of work yet – but for now it was about getting everywhere looking as tidy as possible on the exteriors. Which reminded her – the big park clear up was getting closer too. Georgie’s Grandpa Geo had lived at 1, Rose Avenue – Clara’s street, in The Wabash. And this didn’t look good at all. They could at least clear away the rubbish before Georgie arrived. And this didn’t look great either. Well, we could put Georgie up, I suppose, Molly thought. She could have Janet’s bedroom and Janet could sleep on Richard’s floor: theirs were the only two bedrooms that had been decorated. And when Georgie’s seen the house and town, she can decide what to do. Downstairs, the bakery/tearoom still looked as bad as ever, though it wasn’t going to stay like that. Clara and Marianna had definite plans for it! Upstairs, their plans had happened. Don’t hurry back, Bess had said. Call on someone. Well, Clara had been out and so had Amber and Rafe, Lucie and Leo, and she couldn’t be bothered to go all the way over to Annette’s, but actually there was something really peaceful about drinking a cup of tea on her own. In civilised surroundings.
I’d like to come here with John as well, Molly thought. Just John. We’ve been so busy, we haven’t had any time together just the two of us. Minnie dropped off some milk for the fridge from time to time – I must remember to put that back in the fridge before I go, Molly thought – and they ran a tea fund at the shop between them, paying in when they’d used the place. Now that they had the phone exchange, it was possible to arrange to meet up. I should say yes, next time Annette invites me, Molly thought. I’m not tied by small children like she is. If she’s got a space, I should go for it.
A day by herself, wearing something not covered in paint, sitting somewhere nice, and Molly was beginning to get some perspective back. Thank you Bess. You noticed how I was feeling. And tried to help. “You have been busy today!”
“Yep,” Bess said smugly. “And I enjoyed every minute of it. You can take the girl out of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the girl. How ‘bout you?” “You can take the girl out of the town…I had a lovely day today, doing something different, something more like my old life. And I needed it.” Molly paused, thinking hard.
“If I thought things weren’t going to get any better, weren’t going to change round here, I don’t think I could stay. But things are changing. And the children are happy – and so is John. I think there’s more of the farmer in him than he knew. And there’s a lot of people that I really like here. But I needed today’s different. Needed it a lot.” “Frank’s starting on the wiring here on Monday, isn’t he? I think you’ll find that’ll help too. And getting the place smartened up too…can’t say as I’ve enjoyed living in all this dirty paint either. But it wasn’t worth decorating everywhere just to have Frank mess it up again. Listen - I know we were planning to decorate downstairs next, but I think we should do your bedroom instead. Do you good to wake up to something nice, and it won’t hurt us none to just live in the kitchen a bit longer either.”

Most of the office stuff was by CycloneSue at TSR and Sandy at ATS3