The Bee Charmer (Sweet Treat Series Book 2) (3 page)

“I’ll see if I can but I know it won’t be a problem for me since it’s dealing with family. Do you want to come and pick me up or we can just meet up that way?”

“I’ll come and pick you up and we can ride there together. At least I can get a break from work and Chris.”

Pamelia chuckled, “Well, let me know what time you want to come.”

“Actually he said he wants us there by noon, it won’t take us more than two hours to get there and all, so I’ll come and get you around eight thirty or nine.”

“All right then, I’ll talk with you later on in the week.”

“Sure thing sis, love you bunch,”

“Love you too, goodbye.” She hung up and continued eating her soup, thinking about times with Aunt Marlene and Oak Glen.

When Pamelia got back to work, both Mr. Steiner and Virginia were heading out for their ‘lunch’ as Virginia came over and told her, “Beware of Mr. Dawson, he’s been on the war path again.”

“When isn’t he on the war path?” She quipped as the couple walked out of the office.

Soon, Elizabeth came from the back as well. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes. I’ve got to run a few errands.”

“Of course, I’ll see you then.” She went on with answering calls and sending off calls to Mr. Dawson but it was a call from a woman she’d sent over to him that really seemed to ruffle up his feathers.

He made his way up to her desk, puffing like a steam engine, with a look in his eyes that showed his anger even more. “Who in the hell told you to send me a call from Mrs. Belle,” He was fuming so much he was turning a bright shade of candy apple red.

Pamelia stared at him as if he were crazy. “What are you talking about?”

“You gave me a call from that stupid woman who has been trying her best to sink her nails into my son. I told Elizabeth that I didn’t want a call from that woman!”

“How was I supposed to know to not give you the call from her in the first place? Elizabeth never told me not send you a call.”

“Elizabeth has plenty more sense than you do at least she knows what the hell she is doing unlike you who are just an absent minded idiot!”

“Now wait just a minute Mr. Dawson, don’t you dare go off on me because of something that I wasn’t told about in the first place.” Pamelia hammered back at him. She was tired of his constant tirades at her. There was only so much that one person could take and she’d taken it from him for too long. “I don’t understand you, you have never gone off on Elizabeth, or Virginia, since I’ve been here but you feel obligated to go off on me constantly.”

“Because you are nothing more than a—”

“Stan!” Mr. Jones came in before he said another word. “What the hell is wrong with you? I can hear you all the way in the back for Christ sake man.”

“You need to tell this stupid girl who doesn’t know how to work the damn phone much less follows simple damn directions. I don’t know why in the hell you even bothered to hire her because she can’t do a God damn thing to save her life! If you know how to answer your cell phone, how hard is it for you to answer the damn phones here at work? Maybe you don’t want this job?”

“Stan, I’ve talked with you about your constant belittling of Pamelia. Did Elizabeth tell you about not accepting the call from this person?” Mr. Jones asked her.

“No, she didn’t.”

“Of course, she’s going to say that to cover her own ass. Listen, I don’t have the time to be bothered with your troublesome stuck up self Pamelia. Just make sure next time to not screw up!”

All Pamelia could do was gawk at what just happened and what had been said by him. He was getting worse by the day and she was getting sick and tired of his constant badgering tirades against her. “Mr. Jones, I really and truly don’t know how much longer I can deal with him. He’s been doing this crap to me for years now, and I don’t see it getting any better.”

“I’m sorry Pamelia, Allen and I have both talked with him about his behavior towards you and told him that he needed to stop because we would lose you. We’ve even told him about getting anger management classes because there’s something else wrong with him and he’s not telling us. Listen, while Elizabeth is gone, just write down his messages and when she comes in give her the messages to give to him,” Mr. Jones whispered to her.

She nodded her head. “Oh, and I need to ask for Friday off because my sister and I have to go to Oak Glen for the reading of my Aunt’s will.”

“That’s fine. We’ll see you back here on Monday then.”

“Thank you sir,”

Chapter Three

O
ak Glen had a population of a little over five thousand people. Their destination was that of the office of Mr. Joseph Millan, Attorney at Law. When they drove through town, Pamelia noticed that even though things had changed, most of Oak Glen had remained the same. The Candy Kitchen was still there but it looked a bit updated on the outside as people were sitting along the front and the side of the building.

“Do you see his office?” Veronica asked as they slowly went along the main road. When they finally came to Colfax Avenue, the street they’d been looking for, Veronica turned onto it.

Pamelia began looking at the numbers on the mailboxes. She suddenly remembered that when she was growing up Colfax was nothing more than homes but now, it seemed more businesslike instead. “I think that’s the place right there.” She pointed towards a red brick bungalow with a wraparound white porch and a handicap ramp.

They parked right along the curb, got out and made their way up along the wooden steps.

An older lady, probably in her sixties sat behind a desk. Her hair was teased up like those ladies back in the sixties would wear their hair. She wore glasses with a prescription that probably no one’s eyes could handle. They literally looked like the bottom end of Coca Cola bottles. “Why hello there, how can I help you?” Her voice sounded as if it had gone through a cheese grater it was so rough.

Even poor Veronica grimaced once she heard her talk.

“We are here to see Mr. Millan, I am Pamelia Stewart, and this is my sister Veronica.”

“Please wait right here, he’s been expecting you.”

As the old woman got up from her chair, Veronica rolled her eyes and cringed while she tried her best to stifle her laughter.

“You can come in ladies.”

Both of them followed in behind the other as they saw an older man sitting behind a large mahogany desk. He stood up and he was about the same height as Pamelia, which was five eleven with a cowlick of brown hair tossed over to his right side and was in need of losing some pounds, but he did have the kindest look in his eyes “Why hello ladies, please come and sit down. Would you like something to drink maybe some water or tea maybe,”

“Oh, no sir, thank you,” Veronica told him as Pamelia also declined.

“Well, let me get the file here…” He went into a drawer, pulling out a manila folder along with a CD disk and began to walk over towards a large screen television that was hooked up to the wall. “Your Aunt had made a video will.”

“A video will?” Pamelia smiled because that’s just how Aunt Marlene would do things, completely out of the norm.

Once he popped it into the DVD player and pressed a button to close it, he grabbed the small remote and walked back to his desk. He pointed it towards the player and tapped on a button as the two women looked back at the screen.

“Is this on?” Aunt Marlene came into view as she sat in her large red armchair.

Pamelia felt her throat tighten a bit when she saw her sitting there. She looked all dolled up, her hair, which at one time was long going all the way down her back was balding from the chemo. She wore her pearl earrings and necklace along with a black turtleneck that made her look regal. Even though she’d lost so much weight due to the cancer, she still looked the same.

“Hello Patty Pat and Dimples. I hope that you both are very well and enjoying yourself like I know you are. Well, I know that you are probably wondering why I have you here today to listen in on my will like this. You’ve both known me to be a bit eccentric so I thought up this little thing to get you here, so that you both could have some time to yourself from work and all. Now, if Joe has everything ready, we will begin. My darling Veronica, I leave you my priceless recipe book with all of my dinner and lunch recipes in it. I know that you’ve always loved it when we all cooked in the kitchen together and plus, I know some of those recipes will be winners at your restaurant. I know Margaret would have been proud of all you’ve done. I am also leaving you twenty five thousand dollars to do with as you please.”

Veronica looked over at Mr. Millan as he handed her the leather bound book with tattered edges as well as an envelope that was sticking out from the book itself.

“Patty Pat, my darling girl. I know that you will love this. I leave you my pearl earrings and necklace that I know you use to always ask me about wearing. I would tell you that you couldn’t wear them until I thought it was time. Well…now it’s time for you to have them for your own. I also leave you twenty five thousand dollars along with my home.”

Pamelia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She got her Aunt’s home?

“Now, I did leave some things in the house that I know you loved so much but I did give the rest of my belongings to some families that I knew needed it the most. But the most sentimental things I left for you are in a small storage unit. I know that you’ve always loved my home and I know that you loved being here in Oak Glen. You can make a new life for yourself here. The home is all paid for, so there’s nothing more for you to do except to move in when you feel like it. I love you both so very much and I’ll make sure to say hello to your momma while I’m up in Heaven with her. Hell, we’ll probably end up by the pool sipping on drinks and enjoying the sunshine.” She giggled.

The sweet sound of her chuckling made Pamelia tear up while Veronica grabbed the tissue box from off the desk for them both. “I can’t believe she did that.” Pamelia sniffled.

“You mean the video?” said Mr. Millan.

“Oh no, I knew she would do something crazy like a video. I just never thought she would give me her home.”

“Well, my dear…” He pushed a large manila folder towards her. “…It’s all yours.”

She grabbed hold of it and inside was a bunch of papers as well as the keys. Turning it up, the keys came out into her hand and she saw that they were still on the same keychain that she and Veronica made for her when they went to summer camp. She showed her sister the keychain…they both sat smiling and crying at the same time.

Once they collected their things as well as themselves, the two went to their Aunt’s home, which was now Pamelia’s.

When they pulled onto the gravel driveway, a sense of nostalgia came over her when she saw the baby blue bungalow with white shutters. The porch looked so bare, Pamelia thought when she got out of the car to really look over the house. She always remembered Aunt Marlene would have plenty of potted plants adorning the porch, which was her job to water them when she was told. She also remembered how they used to run around the front yard, having little tea parties on a blanket with the cute little china tea set that she bought for them to have at her house.

“I wonder if it’s still here,” Veronica walked into the yard as Pamelia followed not too far behind.

“You know it probably is. I don’t think she would have cut that tree down.”

Then sure enough, there was the tree, still standing big and proud over in the corner of the yard. When they looked along the trunk, they saw their initials still carved deep within it.

“Can we put our initials in the tree Auntie?” Pamelia asked when she was only nine years old.

Her and her sister watched her looking over the tree and then back at the two. “I don’t see why not. Let me go and get the knife.” She smiled and walked away.

“Where are you going to put your initials at?” she asked her sister.

“I was thinking like right over here.” Veronica pointed to a spot near a notch in the tree.

“I’m going to put it in the middle of the tree,” Pamelia told her.

“Why don’t we put both of ours in the middle?”

“Nuh-uh, I thought of putting mine in the middle first.”

Just then, Aunt Marlene came back out.

“Auntie, Veronica is trying to copy me.”

“I am not copying her.”

“She told me that she was going to put her initials by the notch and I told her I was going to put mine in the middle. Now, she wants to put hers in the middle too.” She pouted.

Aunt just shook her head and smiles. “Now listen both of you, if you decided to put yours near the notch then that’s where it will be Veronica. You know how to press your sister’s buttons,” She walked over to the tree, and unlatched the Swiss Army Knife.

The two young girls watched as she took her time carving their initials into the oak tree, watching every movement of the blade as pieces of bark came off the tree, their Aunt slowly formed the initials to their first and last names. She wiped off some of the extra pieces of bark off and stood back to look at her work. “There now, how does that look?” she asked them as they both walked over to the tree to get a good look.

“It looks great Auntie.” Veronica told her with a smile.

“Now, they will be up there forever.” Pamelia gave her a hug as well as Veronica.

Veronica traced her fingers along her initials. “I remember she told me that she thought she was going to lose this tree but she figured a way to be able to keep it in the yard. Let’s head on inside and see what it looks like.”

They walked towards the front onto the porch, the wooden boards creaked underneath their shoes as Pamelia went to unlock the door and that’s when the stuffiness of the house escaped freely into the afternoon air.

“It looks so empty!” Pamelia exclaimed, and the first thing she did was to go over to the window to open it to let in some more fresh air. “Come and open up another window, it’s so stuffy in here.”

They began to open up the windows, letting the stuffiness slowly dissipate from the room as Veronica went off to look around.

Pamelia gazed around the room, looking down at the dust that had accumulated on hardwood floor. She swiped her foot along it seeing the imprint appear immediately. She could still remember how the room once looked when she last came to visit her, only six months before she passed away. Nothing much had changed within the room since she had been a child.

There in the corner was where a peach antique wing armchair with a high back facing the room. An antique Victorian sofa with a walnut frame, a balloon back and armrest was reupholstered from the dingy puke green that she told them once was a lovely lavender color. Most of her furniture was handed down from family or she would go to the thrift stores picking up this and that to adorn the house. She remembered the small little coffee table in which she had made a doily for decoration and adorned it with small little knick knacks like little statues of couples dancing or birds perched on a tree limb. They were positioned everywhere within the room and often she would play or just look at them from time to time. It was a cluttered mess she remembered her mother always saying, but her Aunt however, thought differently.

Making her way towards the biggest room in the entire house, her Aunt’s room, the first thing Pamelia thought about when she peered into it was the queen size bed that she had. It was one of those beds that stood up really high, so high that she would have this small step to actually get up into it. Her mattress was always soft, so soft that you literally seemed to sink deep into its comfort.

Pamelia never knew where she got the mattress, but it had to be the most comfortable mattress she’d ever slept in. Her aunt never told her exactly where she’d gotten it, even though over the years she would constantly bug her to find out. Whenever they would come, she would have both her and her sister sleep in the bed with her, especially during a thunderstorm when the house seemed to shake. They would all get up under her patchwork quilt, from what she was told was made by Pamelia’s great grandmother from bits and pieces of clothing from family members as well as other pieces she would find. Her Aunt would have them on either side of her as she held them both close. That was when she could remember the smell of her rose petal soap she always used when she took a bath. Listening to her hum some kind of song to calm their nerves through the night until they soon had fallen asleep.

“Hey there,”

Pamelia jumped a bit when she felt her sister’s hand on her shoulder, which broke her out of her daydream.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Oh, it’s all right. Say, you remember that bed that she had?”

“I sure did, I remember she used to tell us, don’t go towards the side because the boogeyman will get you.” They both laughed. “So what do you plan on doing with the house now that you got it?”

Gazing around the room then turning back towards the living room area, Pamelia was trying to figure that out. “If I was to come back here, what the hell would I do for work?”

“Hell, you could just sit around and relax since you have a cushion to live off of now. You could probably find yourself a non-stressful job in town or something. When we go into town on our way back home, you can grab a paper. I know Auntie kept up with the place, so there probably isn’t much as far as repair, the only thing you’ll need to do is just get someone to do the yard work. Just think about it, you can come down here to check on the house during the weekend if you want to or maybe get the lawyer to get someone to come by and check it for you until you decide on what you want to do.”

They heard a knock on the front door as they went out into the living room. They saw an elderly white man, probably in his seventies wearing a pair of jeans and a black and white long sleeved shirt standing on the porch. “Why hello there, I came on over when I saw the car parked in Marlene’s driveway and thought I’d say hello. I haven’t seen anyone over here since they came to move her things out of the house and that was about three months back. I’m her neighbor from across the street, Eric Matthews.”