ANOTHER CLUE

-Dis/Claimer-

x x x

. Chapter Five .

Red-faced with embarrassment and carrying armfuls of blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags, Riley and Carolyn walked beside each other with their faces down as they made for the house. Abigail insisted that Ben stop laughing as they took up a good twenty minutes freeing them, but she even gave into a small laugh as they began to walk away. Riley felt utterly betrayed.

The two of them walked the length of the yard not saying a word. They only looked at each other once, and from the way they did, it almost seemed apologetic. Possibly to each other, but Riley wasn’t about to call everything off. He still didn’t like her that much. Her attitude sucked, and her sarcasm was at the top of his ‘Things That Annoy Me’ list. But although she had many turn-offs, he did find out that she could speak normally. A part of him almost hoped that she was sorry for her behavior, but he wished he could extract this conscience when he knew that was getting way too ahead of himself.

Carolyn? Sorry?

He found that hard to believe for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with the way she treated him since they had met the day before.

But this morning was different. He could not argue with that. She had been almost tolerable. Probably only because she was in a situation she needed help getting out of, Riley thought sourly.

But, despite the rude comments running through his head, Riley walked up to the door, opened it, and motioned for Carolyn to go in first with his head. She didn’t scowl, remark, or laugh; Carolyn simply looked at the ground again and moved inside with her bundle of things. Riley walked in next behind her, and she had stopped to wait for instruction on what to do with her things. Riley came up beside her and stopped with a surprised look that she had waited for him.

“What do I do with all this?” she asked.

“Is it from Ben’s closet?” Riley asked.

“Yeah.”

“Um, just take it up there and put it back.”

“Could you help me?” she asked. Riley’s head snapped around in shock, and Carolyn’s shy face suddenly became determined and level again as he had known it. “What?” she asked sharply.

“Nothing,” he said, his eyes going big. “You’re just… asking for my help… after you’ve been… a completely pleasant person…”

“Shut up,” she said.

“See!”

“What?”

“You tell me to shut up all the time!”

“Maybe because I don’t want to hear you speak.”

“But you want my help, is that it?”

“Yes! I don’t know where this stuff goes!”

“Well if you’d stop being insufferable and stop using people!”

Carolyn recoiled a bit, thinking of the painting and the lie. Little by little, it was starting to bother her for some reason, but she ignored it and still argued back. “Hey, I wanted out of there, and you did, too,” she said. “So I don’t want to hear it.”

“Well finding a closet, I promise, will be much less challenging,” Riley said heatedly. “There’s on about thirty of them scattered across the house, and seeing as you’re the housekeeper, you should know where they all are… It can’t be that hard to find Ben’s Closet of Everything.”

Carolyn huffed angrily as Riley walked away towards the staircase and started up it. In the back of her mind, his comments sort of made her think that Riley knew something about her disguise, but she couldn’t think that. It would deteriorate any chance they had of redeeming the Howe name. Plus, she wanted some treasure, too. After all of this stupid time and energy she put into useless things around this manor and arguing with Riley, she better get some treasure, or she just might have to eliminate Ian.

She started marching right after him with loud clicks from her sandals crossing the white tile of the kitchen. Then she followed Riley up the stairs, her eyes intent on the back of his head with hatred. When Riley reached the top, he turned to the left towards his room, but Carolyn stopped, trying to remember where the closet was that Ben had taken her to the night before.

“Oh yeah,” she said boredly. Reluctantly, she had to follow Riley again. The damned closet was across the hall from Super Geek’s room.

Riley was mad. He was very mad. Not only had she used him, she was now following him. He knew he shouldn’t have gotten too far ahead of himself. She was just a bad person. That simple. He couldn’t not wait until she left this house for good, but something told him that having her around until the next college semester began was not going to do wonders for him or his patience.

When he reached his bedroom door, Carolyn turned around and threw her armload down on the floor and opened the closet. Riley kicked open his door and watched her fold up the blankets and sheets viciously. He tossed his things onto his bed from the doorway as she now tried to roll up the sleeping bag by herself. It was funny at how frustrated she was getting. He started to laugh.

Carolyn looked up, her hair flying around. “Would you stop it!” she shouted. Riley tried not to laugh more even though she deserved it, but instead he just took the sleeping bag into his own hands and rolled it up. After having Carolyn’s eyes almost shoot heat rays at him for thirty seconds, the sleeping bag was rolled, and he handed it to Carolyn with a big smile.

“Here you go,” he said.

“Thought you didn’t want to help me?”

“I didn’t, but that as pitiful.” He turned away and began to laugh again. “But uh… yeah. That was pitiful and I’m leaving now, so don’t ask for my help anymore.”

“You know, I wasn’t using you in the tent,” she said stubbornly.

Riley stopped in the doorway. It had to be another trick.

“Then what do you call it?” he asked, turning around. He came face to face with her, waiting for an answer, and just as she opened her mouth-

“Riley! Carolyn! You up there?”

Carolyn shut her mouth and shot him a look as he arched his brow. She turned to go for the staircase, but she looked back at Riley. “I call it beneficial cooperation,” she murmured in a low voice. Riley became confused at this new term. He followed her to the top of the stairs.

“So basically you were using me?” he clarified.

“No,” she hissed, now going down the stairs.

At the bottom, Ben and Abigail were waiting for them so that they could leave. Carolyn looked up trying to mask her frustration with the man behind her that was looking quite disgruntled as he trudged down the stairs behind her. Abigail looked over at her husband a little unsure of leaving them to watch the twins when they weren’t getting along.

“I’ll handle this,” Ben whispered to her. “Hey.” Carolyn and Riley looked up from the middle of the staircase. “We’ll just be gone a few hours. By then, you think you can have the tables set up and decorated, the pool cleaned, and some of the outdoor lights set up?”

“Sure,” Carolyn said. Riley imitated her for a split second before advising himself against while Ben and Abigail were looking right at him.

“And occupy the kids with something,” Ben said. “Maybe have them put the chairs around the tables or something small.”

“Don’t let them get into the food,” Abigail said suddenly. “That cake took us about an hour and a half just to decorate.” Riley and Carolyn looked over at the countertop where a very large American flag cake was sitting. It had the words ‘Happy Independence Day’ written in the white stripes of the flag and looked wonderful. Riley and Carolyn nodded in understanding.

“Okay, they’re out in the yard now playing in the tree house,” Ben told them. “We’ll be back around noon.”

“Take care,” Abigail said.

“We will,” Carolyn said with a polite smiled. Riley only rolled his eyes as the large front door across the manor closed.

“Oh please…”

Carolyn’s face turned now that the Gates had left. She looked back at Riley. “Oh, shut up and help me move the tables.”

“Stop telling me to shut up, Barbie,” he muttered.

“Super Geek…”

x x x

Moving tables was just as exciting and enraging as the cocoon thing in the tent had been. The giant, long wooden tables could not go outside unless the patio sliding glass door had been removed all together, so Riley had to get handy with the screwdriver really fast to remove the other door from their path. The three tables were big enough to seat about twenty-two people each, but there were only about sixty people attending. They moved the tables into a three-sided square, and they moved a few shorter tables outside to put the food on later. Carolyn was throwing brand new tables cloths on them with patriotic patterns stitched into them, and she began laying the china out after that with the children following with bundles of silverware in cloth napkins.

As they did this, Riley moved in and out of the house with assorted wires and equipment being set up on the actual dining room table that was of good size. Carolyn watched him bring out his computer and hook numerous things into it. She became curious and stopped setting out plates for a moment as she watched him open the notebook, hit a few buttons, and proceed back into the house. He stopped short inside the door and suddenly came out carrying a huge speaker. She accidentally let her mouth open seeing how large it was as he set it on the ground off to the right end of the table.

“Carolyn!” She stopped staring and looked back at Sally who had been tugging at her shirt. Both twins still had a lot of silverware in their arms, so she quickly began to lie out the plates again. But she still watched Riley out of the corner of her eye to see what in the world he was doing.

He went inside and retrieved another large speaker, setting down on the other end of the table on the ground. He went inside a third time and brought out a small speaker, setting on top of the larger one. He did it a fourth time with another smaller one. Suddenly, when Carolyn looked down, she had realized that she had no more plates. The twins behind her had no silverware left either, so she scanned the table. A plate was at every spot. She was glad to have it out of the way. Now she could see what Riley was doing.

But first, she had to get rid of the kids.

“Charlie, in the living room on the sofa are boxes of little Fourth of July party favors your parents are giving out. They have a red, white, and blue star with three sparklers coming out of the top of it. Everyone needs one at their plate for when the fireworks go off, so could you and your sister be dears and set them out for me?”

“Sparklers?” Sally asked excitedly. “Do we get some?”

“Of course,” Carolyn said. “You see, there’s a little candle inside of the star, and it will be lit for when everyone arrives. And then when the fireworks go off, everyone can just pick a sparkler out of the star and light it. See? When we light them, they’ll be red, white, and blue.”

Sally smiled in amazement as Charlie got a determined look on his face. “Never fear, Miss!” he said. “It’ll be done fast as lightning! Away!” As they ran across yard, Carolyn let a laugh escape her.

At least now they had something to do…

She looked up and began to walk over to Riley who was standing and watching his computer intently has he clicked, hit, and typed various things quickly. She walked up to the table, and he spoke to her before even said a thing.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“What are you doing?”

“Setting up for tonight. Duh.”

“Setting up what?”

Riley looked up at her incredulously. “Lady, you cannot have a party of any sort without good music.”

“You’re going to play music from your computer for tonight?”

“Beats hiring a DJ…”

She tried to sneak a peek over the top of his computer, but Riley quickly shut it before she could see it. Carolyn scowled as he lifted it back up to continue.

“No way,” he said. “I’m not gonna have you commenting on my music, too.”

“You know, we still have things to do,” Carolyn said shortly. “We have lights to throw into the bushes, the fireworks need laid out…”

“I can twist the lights through the yard in about an hour, and the fireworks I won’t need to set until about ten minutes before they go off. Besides, with you here to help me, I can get it done in half the time.”

“Oh, so now you’re using me?” she asked.

“Beneficial cooperation,” he said with a smirk to her. Carolyn’s face became somewhat dark.

“Would you please just leave the computer for later? We need this stuff done before Ben and Abigail get back. Your music can wait for an hour.”

“No, because when Ben and Abigail get back, I won’t get a moment’s rest until it’s time for me to go get changed for tonight,” he said. “Trust me. Everything will have to be perfect, especially if Abigail’s hosting it.”

“She’s big on that?”

“Huge,” Riley said, adding more songs to the already long playlist. “You should’ve been here for the third Christmas party we had living here. One hundred and six people and only eighty party favors. A half hour before the party, I was wrapping candy canes together so fast with Abigail I feared for my own life.”

He looked up at her, and she actually smiled a little. He sort of liked it when she smiled, even if she was a troubling person. He looked back down at his computer before she could look at him directly.

“So do you want to hurry up and help me?” she asked.

Riley looked up again. “Promise not to start anything?”

“I don’t make promises,” she declared.

“Alright, then… only if I don’t have to listen to you whine, complain, remark, or be sarcastic. Deal?”

“Whatever,” Carolyn replied reluctantly, leaving the table to go get the boxes of lights.

Riley shook his head, continuing to form his playlist until she got back.

x x x

More work was involved that just throwing the lights in the bushes, however. They had to weave them in, and before they could do that, they had to make sure every string of lights worked when plugged in. The system of one hundred and sixty-two strings of red, white, and blue lights strewn throughout the bushes that enclosed the yard were all illuminated when plugged into the extension cord, and both Riley and Carolyn agreed that they had done a satisfactory job (yeah, they had actually agreed on something). The twins approved greatly once they had seen them. By the time they were finished with the lights, a good two hours had passed. Riley looked at his watched, stunned.

“Ben and Abigail are back in twenty minutes,” he said, looking up at the yard. “We have to work double time now. I still have to put the door back on the house.”

“And the pool needs swept,” Carolyn said with a hint of exhaustion.

“And the chairs aren’t out yet.”

“And the rest of the banners still need to be hung up.”

“And my play list isn’t done yet!”

“Forget your play list!” Carolyn said. “Put the door back on the house!”

Riley nodded and ran off towards the house while Carolyn went to gather the twins to make them help her move sixty chairs outside to the three giant tables in record time. About thirty-seven chairs later (approximately fifteen minutes), Riley let out a frustrated grunt. Carolyn looked up.

“What?” she asked quickly. She even ran over, thinking her might be hurt. But he wasn’t; he was just spinning around in a circle in panic. “What, what?” she asked urgently.

“I lost a screw!” he said.

“What!” she began scrutinizing the area with him, but they could not find it. “Will it be okay without it? Will they be able to tell?”

“No, I don’t think,” Riley, said, looking at the doorframe above him. “Half of this might collapse when the door opens, but that’s okay.”

“Oh, just get a screw out of something else!” she said.

“Like what?” he asked.

“Oh, there has to be an extra screw lying around the house somewhere!”

“Oh yeah? Well I guarantee Ben and Abigail will be back before you get done on the first floor!”

“Well at least I’m trying!” she retorted.

“You’re not making sense!” Riley shouted

“What’s so senseless about trying to find another screw!”

“We don’t have time! We’ll have to use something else!”

“Like what!” Carolyn asked.

“I don’t know!”

There was a silence from their yelling as they panted, out of breath. They looked at each other, very tired.

“Why were we yelling?” Carolyn asked.

“I don’t know,” Riley said. “I honestly think it’s just because we’re used to it.”

“I’m to tired to yell,” she said, sitting down on the wicker swing on the porch to catch her breath. “Or be sarcastic. You have made me so angry for the past day and have me all worn out from yelling and… running through woods and staying up late… and getting tangled in a ball of sheets…and making me fall into a pool…”

Riley sat down beside her, also short of breath. He wiped his brow. “That was an accident,” he forced out with a cough. “And for the record, you’ve worn me out, too, along with those two.” He pointed to the twins who were still setting out chairs. Carolyn closed her eyes and laid her head back.

“I still hate you,” she said. “Just so you know that.”

“I… hate you, too,” Riley said. He looked up at the door after finding the strength to and sighed. “What are we gonna do about the screw?”

“We?” Carolyn asked skeptically.

“Okay… what about the screw?”

“Do you have any glue lying around?”

“Yeah, there’s a bottle in my back pocket,” Riley said. His head suddenly felt light and dizzy, so he let it fall to the chain that suspended them from the ground. Carolyn moaned from beside him.

“Would you be serious?” she asked. “Or do I have to use chewing gum?”

Riley looked up at the door and then back at Carolyn. “I think bubble gum would work better,” he said. Carolyn’s eyes narrowed.

“Well I guess we’re just going to sit here until you decide to tell me what we can use to fix the door,” she said. Carolyn crossed her arms and leaned back in the swing. Riley looked over at her tiredly.

“I’m telling you I have a whole thing of bubble gum up in my room,” he said. “And it’s the baseball players’ kind, too. Really sticky and hard when it dries.”

“You’re delirious,” Carolyn said.

“Maybe,” Riley admitted. “I think I’m dehydrated from yelling at you.”

“Water sounds good right about now,” Carolyn said longingly as she looked out into the space in front of her. “With ice and a lemon slice…”

“And a bendy straw,” Riley added. Carolyn looked over at him but decided that it did sound good.

“And the little umbrellas,” she said. “Like the ones in the coconut cups they drink out of down in the Caribbean and Bahamas in the sun while they sit on a beach and do nothing. That sounds good.”

“That sounds really good,” Riley agreed. He looked up from the patio and met Carolyn eyes. Both of them looked like they were thinking the same thing, which was sort of scary, but they were both too exhausted at the moment to scream at one another.

“This is only a one time thing,” Carolyn said with a level tone

“One time,” Riley repeated seriously.

“Beneficial cooperation for both of us.”

“You got it.”

x x x

“Oh, I hope you’re right,” Abigail said as she and Ben left their car in the driveway and began to walk up to their front door. Ben took his hand out of his pocket and opened the door for his wife.

“I have faith both of them,” Ben said. “I bet you that yard looks great.”

“We’ve only been gone about three hours, Ben,” Abigail said, stepping inside the house. Ben followed, closing the door.

“Trust me,” he said. He put an arm around her waist and guided her towards the backyard. “Riley and Carolyn would have put aside their differences and worked together. They would’ve had to to finish most of the big stuff this morning.”

As the couple approached the back door, they looked outside with a mixture of expressions. There was surprise for the beautiful set up of the tables, speechlessness from the lights in the bushes looking incredibly perfect, and confusion as to why a trail of water led from the pool to the patio. Abigail and Ben looked at their wicker swing somewhat amused.

Riley and Carolyn were asleep, sitting in the swing soaking wet, and had no shoes on. Riley was leaning back into the swing sprawled out comfortably with a tall glass of ice water going limp in his hand while Carolyn was on the opposite side curled in a ball with her knees to her chest. She held a glass of ice water as well, and each glass had a small lemon slice on its rim. Their hair was messy, tangled, and still dripping along with their clothes. Sound asleep and silent they were as the swing tried to move in the summer breeze without much success. A few bubblegum wrappers were scattered near the swing as well. A screw was under the swing, too, and Abigail bent over and picked it up curiously. Abigail smiled up at Riley and Carolyn again, and she felt herself begin to laugh as Ben looked at her.

“Well that’s one way you can clean the pool I guess,” he said with a chuckle.

“Maybe they did sort out their differences,” Abigail said before breaking into a fit of laughter. “Oh but look. Even when they fall asleep they’re as far away from each other as possible.”

“Carolyn looks like she’s trying to save herself,” Ben said quietly. Abigail laughed again.

“Well, they’re wet, holding drinks, and sitting on my swing in the shade,” she finally said. “I think they deserve some rest after this morning.”

“And yesterday,” Ben added. “And last night. They’ve been at it since they met and suddenly they’re sharing a porch swing. I wonder if that’s significant.”

Abigail grinned, and then Charlie and Sally came running over to the porch suddenly. She kneeled down to see them.

“Mommy, guess what?” Sally said.

“What?’ she asked, humoring her.

“We set up the big tables and chairs and sparklers, and Carolyn and Uncle Riley went swimming-“

“So I see,” Abigail laughed. “Do you know why?”

“They were screaming at each other before they went swimming Charlie said. “But they didn’t swim very long. Then they got some water and sat on the swing, and we finished setting up the chairs!”

“That’s great,” Ben said. “And I see Riley’s got his system set up.” Abigail and the twins looked over at the dining room table that had been transformed into Riley’s DJ table with his laptop and four huge speakers. A patriotic banner hung in front of it, too. Ben turned back to his family. “What else did you guys do this morning?” he asked.

“We played Bonnie and Clyde in the tree house.”

“We were hiding the gold we took from the bank,” Sally said.

“Yeah, and we had a gunfight,” Charlie said. “Then Carolyn made us put out sparklers and chairs.”

“And then Uncle Riley and Carolyn looked really tired when they went swimming. They looked sort of sick.”

“Sick?” Abigail asked, a little concerned. “Are they okay?”

“I don’t know,” Sally said. “Maybe after their nap they’ll feel better like I do when I get sick and take a nap.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “Maybe they’ll be normal and start yelling again.”

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