All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) Read Online Free PDF Page A

been so long since I've been in the
country." Polly said.
    "That's hilarious!" Lee laughed. "I
suppose I would have answered the front doo r
just like I do the back door, but now
that you've been here once, you never have to use the front door. You're a
friend."
    "I'll see you another time, then!" Polly
said and opened the door to her car. As she sat down and turned the key, it
occurred to her she still hadn't gotten a good answer. It wasn't going to be
any easier the next time she had to go to someone's home.
    Polly backed down the driveway and out onto the main
road. If she hurried, she would have time to stop at the Post Office before
lunch. The building got quiet during the
lunch hour and she liked having some of the foremen and contractors show up at her kitchen
table to tell her what they’d been doing
during the morning .
    Her dreams were all coming true. It seemed like life
couldn't get any better.

Chapter
Three

    Heaving a sigh, Polly
dropped into a chair in the kitchen. She was going to have to get more furniture
pulled upstairs. She didn't have a comfortable chair anywhere. It was either
stand, sit in the kitchen or lie down in her bed, unless she was driving
somewhere to get something for someone. Now that she li ved here, her days seemed long and the nights were
short , which was strange because outside , the nights were long and days were much too short . She was never
ready for the sun to set so early in the evenings.
    They still had a
great deal of work to do on the old
bathrooms upstairs. They were completely gutting the rooms and would turn each
of them into a spa bathroom.
    Painting these upstairs classrooms had been an
incredible feat. Fourteen foot ceilings weren't an easy reach, but she knew she
needed to keep going. This was one part
of the renovation she could do and she
wanted to not only make decisions, but be part of the work .
She knew it might seem strange to some , but before she chose the paint for a room, she tried
to imagine the room filled with children as they learned from their
teacher. Each room seemed to tell a story and she was happy with how things had
turned out.
    Henry had been busy. The rooms upstairs were framed and trimmed and bookshelves built into the walls. He shaped each of the pieces in a class room on the main floor and then took them upstairs for installation. His two young assistants, Jimmy Rio and Sam Terhune , were more than willing to traipse up and down the steps all day.
    The week had been long. Electricians and plumbers were
working on the lower level trying to get everything in place before drywall was
hung. They had two more weeks before that was scheduled, but they had been all over the place
every day of the week.
    As she sat staring out the window at the broken down
playground, her cell phone rang. She sighed. There was no more room left in her
mind to make another decision, but knew if someone had a question, it was her
job to come up with an answer. She didn't recognize the phone number, so
offered a tentative, "Hello?"
    "Hi Polly, it's Lydia Merritt. How
are you doing?"
    Polly shook her h ead.
She pulled the phone away, stared it, took
a deep breath, then came back to the conversation.
    "Hello, Lydia! I'm doing alright. How are you?" She felt badly that her voice didn’t sound energetic,
but that was all she had left.
    "Well, I'm probably doing better than you, dear. I
haven't had a building full of workers all week. Are you exhausted?" Lydia
asked.
    "Honestly, Lydia. I really am. Times like this I
wish I had a bathtub, a soft chair and someone to rub my feet."
    "I have a bathtub and a soft chair and I could probably
be talked into rubbing your feet, but I suppose you might not want to be around
anybody at all this evening."
    Polly wasn't sure how to respond. She hesitated before
answering.
    "I don't know if I have the energy tonight for
people," she said.
    "I didn't figure you would. Whenever you get up,
check outside your front door. I left you some