October to October

{Chapter Eight}

    Lauren spent the whole day with Jake as planned, and it was wonderful. It felt like old times, she thought although it wasn't especially romantic. They went out for breakfast, and they went to the lake to have a picnic where they ran into Monroe and Hope who were there taking pictures of the autumn leaves. They spent the rest of their day hiking on the trails with their friends, and after they all went out to dinner. 

   Afterwards Jake and Lauren drove around the city, and they talked like they had when they first started going out. She felt peaceful as he dropped her off at home, and she kissed him. It had been a great day, and they hadn't fought once.

  The next morning Ruth was ignoring Lauren. Ruth didn't speak a word at breakfast, and she ignored Lauren when she asked if Ruth wanted a ride to work since their Mom had Ruth's car. Instead Ruth called Alex as she cleared up the breakfast dishes, and then she went outside on the porch to wait for him. 

  Lauren shrugged to herself as she she went to finish up some school work. In the afternoon she went out back to hang up the clothes since their dryer was on the fritz. She sighed as she looked at the three big tubs of clothes. It would take at least a half an hour. She was exhausted still from her long day with Jake, and she decided she would take the clothes to a laundry mat instead. 

  As she lugged one of the tubs of laundry to her car; she saw Joan walking down the street with her headphones on and carrying a large bag of groceries in a tote. Joan was wearing a vintage looking gray dress with a red cardigan over it and purple leggings. She was also wearing her usual green sneakers too. 

  "Hey!" Lauren waved.

  "Oh hey," Joan said taking out her ear buds. "What are you doing?"

  Lauren guessed she must look quite weird tugging a laundry tub across her driveway. "Oh, I'm going to take some clothes to the laundry mat. Our dryer is broken, and we're not getting it fixed until tomorrow."

  "Oh, well I have a dryer," Joan said as she hitched her bag up on her shoulder. "You can use mine if you want."

  "Really?" Lauren asked. "That would be awesome. I wasn't looking forward to driving across town."

  "Sure," Joan said as she put her bag down to help Lauren put the tub of laundry in the car. "I'm just going home to cook lunch so we can eat if you want, and we can wait for the clothes to finish."

  "That sounds much better than my idea."

  The girls loaded the three tubs, and then they drove down the street to the Joan's house. Lauren was excited to go inside and see what Joan had done with the place. At least from the outside the place looked the same although Joan cleaned up the yard except for the leaves, and she repainted the porch. 

  The girls lugged one of the tubs, and Joan's bag up the sidewalk and through the large double doors that had been cleaned and the hinges repaired. Inside Lauren was stunned. Joan repaired the wood floors, and the large great room with the old fire place was decorated sparsely but with a few vintage pieces that Joan had clearly chosen with love and care. There was a small green sofa, and two matching arm chairs with different colored pillows.

  "It's not done yet," Joan said as they stood in the entrance room, "but it's getting there. I didn't want to get a ton of furniture I'd just have to get rid of so I'm waiting until I find stuff I really like. Henry and I lived at yard sales this summer."

 "It looks amazing," Lauren said in awe. "It's exactly what I would have done with it."

  Joan smiled. "The dryer is in the basement. It's a little creepy down there I have to warn you. Henry thinks we should give ghost tours on Halloween next year. I told some of the kids at the party where I lived, and they were full of stories of people that apparently died here."