Four

Part Four : Pine cone takes a rest

   Just short of two weeks later, Fran and Morris were back in their apartments. Dwight laughed when they told him about the truck. He said Virginia would be glad to get a new truck or car since she didn’t like driving the big truck. Onslo decided he enjoyed being at the senior center and moved out of his apartment before the demolition was even started on apartment D. He told Fran it was up to her to rent out his old apartment. He was going to will her the building since his son didn’t want it and she was now officially the manager. Fran was grateful to Onslo since he said she could have all the rent money from apartment A, she just had to find a tenant first and no longer needed to pay him rent, he’d just live on what he was getting from Morris for apartment C and savings.

   They decided to plant a garden where apartment D once stood and instead of a wooden fence they put in a six foot tall, painted black wrought iron fence. This would allow the garden maximum sun too. They made plans to tear out the old cracked pond then to put in a small pool, a soaking tub or scrap the whole pool idea and just put in some grass before next summer.

  Fran was able to sell a lot of things that were crammed into her apartment at the thrift store. Fran and Morris used the pine cone to rearrange the store before Dwight and Virginia got back from their week long vacation. Morris helped direct her while Fran used the pine cone to move things. She really hoped they would be okay with how it looked. Virginia was relieved to see everything so organized, after so many years of having the thrift shop, some things had gotten out of control. They noticed an increase in customers right away.

         After what had happened at the bank local news interviewed a lot of people and wrote several articles. Morris read the news, on his laptop, out loud to Fran in his kitchen and they were surprised to find out about Todd and Jackie. Todd’s truck had been smashed the day before just like the ATM machine Penelope destroyed. They were still not sure how Penelope tied in or ended up with the pine cone and purse but they were even more amazed that she figured out how to use them.

    Reuben from apartment D stopped by to collect what he could. He talked to Onslo and said that they were moving out of state to stay with a family member while Hazen healed from his gunshot wound. Onslo wished them well on their journey. That was the last anyone seen them.

    The pine cone and purse were put into a curio cabinet with a lock. The key for the lock was worn around Fran’s neck on a purple ribbon. The next morning, after thinking about their safety, Fran put them inside a square box with lots of newspaper and covered the whole thing with a cloth. She wrote a little note on the box in case she never seen it again. She decided for safety reasons it was best to keep it locked up and only used in an emergency. There it stayed for many years, forgotten. Fran put other valuable trinkets on top of the box for her granddaughter when she was older.

   Onslo died on a Tuesday a few years later. He had gotten remarried to one of the ladies from the senior center. Fran and Morris had visited him the day before. He told them he was going home and to no longer worry about him, he was going to be alright. The apartment complex now belonged to Fran. She rented apartment A out to one of Jess’s coworkers.

    Jess married a fireman named Andre, she met him on a call and they had a daughter, Heidi, two years later. They visited Fran often. Morris moved out of apartment C and left the country for a better job offer. He sent postcards to Fran from all the places he traveled. She got sick one winter and never recovered. Jess moved her into their house to try and help her get better but she never did. Jess began the slow process of going through her mother’s belongings. Fran died the day after Valentine’s Day. She received her last postcard from Morris the next day.

     Jess and her husband planned the funeral, they invited Morris. It had been more than twenty years since Jess had last seen him. Morris planned to fly in and Jess arranged for Andre to pick him up at the airport. Jess insisted that he stay with them, it’s what her mother would have wanted.

     “I thought you said he was an older man.” Andre said to Jess as he entered the kitchen upon returning home with Morris. Jess looked at him puzzled.

    “What do you mean?” Jess asked. Andre walked her to the window. “Well, would you look at that?” She could hardly believe what she was seeing.

     Outside in the street was Morris, playing basketball with the neighborhood kids and their daughter. He looked exactly as Jess had remembered him and still wearing wild, colorful clothing. He was at least eight years older than her but had not aged any in all those years. The couple walked out to the front porch and sat on the swing together. Morris came over to greet Jess.

     “Hey, darling! Good to see you, sorry it’s under such terrible circumstances. Your mom was such a great lady, I’m really going to miss her.” Morris said as he walked onto the porch to give Jess a hug.

   “So glad you are here. Sit. How was your flight? I wish you could have come sooner. Ma was asking about you.” Jess said as she looked Morris over. She couldn’t understand why he looked the same. He didn’t look like he had plastic surgery or any other type of anti-aging techniques done to him. He sat in the chair across from them.

    “I’m glad to be here, My flight was okay, never enough of those tiny bags of chips and nuts though.” He let out a laugh. “I was so caught up in my work and other things, I know I should have made the time.” He let out a heavy sigh. Heidi joined them on the porch.

     “What’s going on?” Jess asked her daughter. “Did you meet Morris yet?”

     “Yeah, he was showing us some basketball tricks he knows.” Heidi said as she sat down in one of the chairs on the porch and let the basketball she had been carrying roll away from her.

     “Go get washed up for dinner. We are just waiting for the timer to go off and it’ll be ready.” Jess said to her daughter. Heidi disappeared into the house. “Did you need help with your things?” She then asked Morris.

     “Already done.” Andre answered for him. He had set Morris’s bags in their guest room. Oddly enough the same room Fran lived in then died in the week before. Jess had already made Andre take the mattress to the dumps and buy a new one. They heard the oven timer begin to buzz. Jess jumped up and went into the house. “Shall we?” Andre asked Morris as they got up and followed Jess into the kitchen. The table was set and filled with dishes of food.

    “Did you do all of this?” Morris asked Jess. He had not seen this much food since he had gone to a large Thanksgiving Gathering at a friend’s commune.

    “Oh goodness no! Mother’s friends have been stopping by and dropping food off for the last three days. I hope it stops tomorrow after the service or we’ll all gain weight.” Jess said with a chuckle. Andre grabbed a pitcher of ice water from the fridge then sat at the table. Morris sat next to him. Heidi came back and sat at one of the remaining chairs. Jess pulled a roast chicken from the oven and set it on the table.

    Jess sat at the table and they began to dig in. Jess tried telling Morris who had brought what dish of food over but realized it didn’t really matter.

    “This is all so good. Who did you say made this casserole? I’ll have to get the recipe from her tomorrow.” Morris asked as he scooped himself another helping. Jess couldn’t believe he was still so fit with how much he ate.

    “Janet made that.” Jess told him. Andre gave her a look. “I’m getting around to it. Morris? Did my mother ever express to you the things she wanted to leave you in her will?” This question caught Morris off guard. “Her apartment still has so much stuff in it even though she sold off a lot of it, she kept collecting too.”

    “No, darling, she never did say anything about that sort of stuff. In fact, I don’t think we actually talked much in the last three years. I sent her postcards still, she asked me to continue doing that even if we no longer spoke. She said they were for Heidi.” Morris smiled at Heidi when he said this. “It was getting too difficult for her to write me anyways, I was always on the move.”

    “That’s okay. She left a will and you are named in it.” Andre told him. “We can go over that tomorrow.” He said as he put another forkful of macaroni salad into his mouth. He had food all on his mustache.

    “Grandma left me this key.” Heidi said as she pulled out a purple ribbon that hung around her neck with a key on it. “She told me I get the collectibles but the box is for you.” She shrugged her shoulders at that.

    “We don’t know what the key goes to.” Jess told Morris. “Maybe we can go over to grandma’s place and see if we can find it after we eat. I’m sure Morris would like to see the old place.”

    “You know, I really would. Living next to your mother, I had some of the best years of my life.” Morris said as he remembered the parties and gatherings they had. “I think the last party I attended was just after your wedding.” Both Jess and Andre nodded that they remembered. Morris helped Jess clean up after dinner. Heidi had homework to finish while Andre fell asleep in front of the TV. They left him there when they left for Fran’s apartment.

   The building looked the same as Morris remembered it. A lesbian couple now lived in apartment C. They had two small children so they fenced off the garden area from them play in and not worry about falling into the pool, but not much else had changed.

     Jess unlocked the door then allowed Morris and Heidi to enter first. There wasn’t as much stuff as Morris had expected. Jess told him that for the last two years she had been selling things or giving them away. There were two boxes marked with his name, mostly filled with vintage clothing and knick-knacks from the 60’s and 70’s. He folded some of the clothing that he really liked and placed it in a bag he found in the box too.

    Heidi and Jess looked for the locked box that belonged to the key. They tried a jewelry box but it didn’t fit plus the key for the box was taped to the bottom of it. Heidi tried the door locks too, none of them worked.

     “Maybe it’s one of the curio cabinets.” Morris suggested. Fran had several, she collected so many little knick-knack art sculptures over the years that they were all over filled. Jess and him moved several boxes to the other side of the room so they could get to the cabinets easier. Heidi tried the key in every lock she could find. It finally opened a bottom drawer, inside were two small gold figures and several other rare collectables sitting on a clothing. She pulled them each out and wrapped them in newspaper then set them inside a empty cardboard box to take home with her.

    Morris knew the last time he seen that drawer open, the pine cone and purse were put in there. Where had they gone? He didn’t want to seem eager to have their box so he said nothing. He knew they hadn’t gone far. It was getting late. The funeral was in the early afternoon the next day and Morris was still tired from his long journey. They locked up the apartment and went back home. Morris went straight to bed when they got back to Jess’s house.  

   It rained the entire day. The funeral was soggy. Morris did not realize that Fran was so well known and loved but because she had walked the neighborhood, talking to everyone as they walked by, had garage sales, sat on their porches,or played in the streets, Fran had become well known by a lot of people. At Fran’s request, people donated money to archaeologist, instead of buying flowers for the funeral. There was not a dry eye, everyone missed her.

   Andre and Heidi went home first. Jess and Morris stayed behind to thank everyone. More food was given to Jess to take home. When they got home they sat watching TV while eating the food and not talking much. They were all tired from the long day. It was a good thing that tomorrow was Sunday so they all could have a chance to relax before going back to work and school. Morris planned to go to visit friends while he was in town.

   The rain cleared up early sunday morning. Andre and Jess decided they needed some alone time and went for a long drive. Heidi was still asleep when Morris woke up so he decided to do some work on his laptop. He went downstairs to the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee. It was so peaceful in their house. Morris felt very welcome and at home with Jess and her family but he missed Fran. He still felt bad about not coming to see her sooner.

   The kettle began to whistle. Morris poured the hot water through the coffee strainer. Something upstairs made a loud crashing noise. He stood for a moment listening then decided he should go see if it was Heidi and if she needed any help. Morris stood outside of Heidi’s bedroom door.

     “Hello?” He called out as he knocked. “You okay in there?” He listened.

    “Uh! Yeah! Don’t come in! I’m.. uh. I’m not dressed!” Heidi yelled back to him. Then there was a second loud crash. Morris opened the door. Heidi was there in her pajamas and robe with the pine cone in one hand and the purse in the other. The rooms furniture was all over the place, on it’s side or upside down. It looked like a tornado had hit the room.

     “You’re mother is going to be mad.” Morris said with a laugh. “Gentle. Think it first. Go slow. Start with something lighter. Your grandma was a natural with it.” Heidi pointed the pine cone at a mess of papers on the floor. “Tell it what you need them to do.” Morris said and she nodded.

    “Stack neatly.” Heidi said to herself quietly as the papers moved together into a stack on the floor.

     “Excellent.” Morris said. “Now fix your bed and have it make itself.” She did as he said, saying it to herself quietly. It worked. The bed gently rotated itself back and set down without making a sound then the sheets and blankets tucked and wrapped themselves around the mattress as if invisible maids did it.

    Heidi turned towards the dresser and fixed it next. It had fallen forward and everything was spilling out now. She pointed the pine cone and instantly the dresser righted itself, the clothing folded on it’s own and set into the drawers that then closed. She slowly spun around the room putting everything away and reorganizing everything. Morris just stood, leaning in the doorway as the room came together.

    “What else can I do with this?” Heidi asked. She had a wild look in her eyes that Morris had seen before. This made him uncomfortable. How had she gotten hold of the pine cone and purse? It was buried in the curio cabinet, unless she had taken it some time before. Morris had noticed it’s box when Heidi fixed the bed. It was under there now, with something written on top of it.

   “Maybe you should just put it away for now. It could be dangerous in the wrong hands.” Morris said calmly but Heidi took it to mean that she was the wrong hands.

    “What do you mean? You don’t know me! My grandma left this for me!” Heidi said to him as she pointed the pine cone at him.

    “You don’t want to do that.” Morris said as he looked her right in the eyes. He could still see the crazy across Heidi’s face. He held up one of his hands. He was still wearing matching rings on each middle finger. Heidi screamed and walked towards him. The handle of the purse broke and fell out of her grip. It hit the carpet and rolled onto it’s side.

    “What happened?” Heidi yelled as she threw the pine cone at Morris. He caught it then grabbed Heidi and hugged her tightly. She passed out in his arms. He scooped her up and set the pine cone down on the desk. He laid her down on her bed and covered her with a big knit blanket. He picked up the pine cone, broken purse, and retrieved the box under the bed for it.

    He looked at the lid. ‘For Morris, the best friend I ever had’ was written in Fran’s handwriting. The box had also been taped shut but torn open since he had last seen it. He went back into the guest room and packed his belongings. He put the box, with the pine cone and purse inside of it, into his backpack. He decided to leave a note for Jess and Andre thanking them for their hospitality before he left. He checked in on Heidi, she was still sleeping.