“Why in the world with all that money, would you buy this?” My mother Nancy asked, incredulous, standing in front of the new unfinished house for which I had just paid $650,000.
“Are you kidding me! This is my dream home! Look at the potential! I’ve been manifesting this for years. It’s even territorial style. I think the three acres is amazing…just what I wanted for the kids to be able to run and play.”
“Couldn’t you manifest a property that was done. I have to say I was a little envious of the gorgeous house you were going to be able to buy…but this…”
“Mom, you can’t get land like this downtown. Seriously, unheard of.”
“Okay…if anyone could make it beautiful, I’m sure it’s you dear.” She tried to soften her tone, but I was already reading her thoughts as she turned away to tour more of the property.
“I know what you’re thinking…it’s like Lorton.” Mother chuckled and turned back towards me.
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but I do find it odd, Amany. It’s like you’re attempting to recreate the past. There’s not even a working well.
“Come on, Mom! No way.” I laughed back at her. “There’s one big difference…money. There’s not a problem we can’t fix here.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I’m not naïve.” She raised one eyebrow, “Are you sure about that?”
“Seriously? I’m not a child. I know what I’m doing. I’ve taken care of that gigantic house in La Jolla for nine years and the renovations on the Manhattan condo taught me a lot. I can do this!”
She started walking again towards the back of the house. We passed a pile of melting adobe bricks; the plastic tarp had blown off, leaving them exposed to the elements. We rounded a lovely grove of old Elms before she saw the back porch I knew she would like.
“Now, here…finally I can see why you like it. I do like the tin roof and the porches. Will there be shutters?”
“Yes, I’m thinking a nice sage green to match the roof.”
“I’m sure you’re right…nothing could be like Lorton. I just remember thinking that same thing about the beautiful acre of lawn and the surrounding oaks. Being charmed by that old apple tree with its bitter little apples. I never foresaw the problems that lay ahead. I’m sure it’ll be different for you. You always seem to find a way to get what you want.”
“That’s true. Let’s go inside,” I urged.
She hesitated.
I pulled on her arm. “Mom, you just said, it’s not Lorton.”
“Is there part of an old house here?”
“No. There was an old adobe without electricity that was all burned out. It was deemed not historically significant so the previous builder knocked it down. Which is amazing because he didn’t have to deal with old walls and low ceilings, no having to keep to some old footprint where the closets were tiny. Come on, it’s pretty cool inside.”
I pulled her in through a boarded up French door that I’d opened previously. “Watch out for the glass.”
We crossed over the threshold and stepped over the broken glass from s windows that had been vandalized before they were boarded. The house was well lit from the insane amount of sky lights. The concrete floor was bare but there was some trash and debris and lots of old bird’s nests and droppings littered the floor.
“We call it the bird house.”
“It’s neat to see the adobe walls exposed,” she said giving into the house’s potential.
We explored the lay out of the house and the tentative placement of the rooms that had been roughed in with two by fours. The fireplaces were all in with beautiful herringbone brick work in the fireboxes. Large rough-hewn barn beams from New York anchored the ceiling where traditionally pine vigas would have been, a more modern update. The house was large about 3,500 feet.
“It’s really neat honey. There’s a lot of work here. But I guess it will be exciting to pick just what you want for all the finishes.”
“Yes! I’m so excited. I can visualize everything. We’ll need to work with an architect to tweak the floor plan a bit to fit us. But I just know it’s gonna be amazing.”
I hugged her to get her enthusiasm up and she smiled for me, but as we walked up the road back home we were both silent; our thoughts tethered to a dark past. We followed an unspoken code about Lorton. Never speak of it too much for fear of whatever it was noticing our energetic trail, perhaps it might follow us. We had relaxed a bit since it was bulldozed, but still what good could come of it.
