The Problem with Dreams

Chapter 16 - A Private Celebration

Greg smiled when he saw her expression. This was the exact reason he'd wanted to bring her here for the first time on their own. He waited for to take it in before saying anything.

"You built our house," she whispered after she'd stood there a full five minutes just looking at it.

"Do you like it?" Greg asked.

Susan turned to look at him with tears in her eyes. "Our very first house ... .you've rebuilt it?"

"I tried ... with some modern updates," Greg told her.

"And that is the reason for the forest," Susan recognized. "I can't believe it," she said as she leaned against him.

"Are you alright?" he asked with a slight chuckle.

"I ... I don't know," Susan said breathlessly. "Is it the same inside?"

"More or less, updated though, like I said. There's glass in the windows and modern appliances in the kitchen ... and even a bathroom, which we never had, but essentially  ... yes, it is," Greg told her.

Susan nodded as she kept staring at the structure, as if she expected it to disappear.

"Do you want to look inside?" Greg prompted.

"Okay," Susan said and she allowed him to lead her up the front steps.

The rocks forming them had been cemented into place and didn't wobble the way the original ones had. Greg was right, it was the same ... only with modern improvements. Greg fitted a key into a lock on the front - another thing they'd never had - and escorted her inside. There was one difference which came to her immediately. The entire wall opposite the front door had wall to wall, hip high windows, looking out on a magnificent ocean view ... something their original cottage had definitely never had.

"Our original house was down in a little valley," Susan recalled.

"I remember," Greg assured her. "We also didn't have all these windows. As I remember, the back wall was solid."

"It was," Susan confirmed. "We didn't have any windows located opposite each other to keep down the drafts. That was such a problem in those days, but the fireplace you built us in the center really helped."

Greg nodded. The fire place in this house was exactly where the original one was and he knew from her expression Susan recognized it for what it was. She went over to it and sat on the knee-high hearth. The rocks were cold to sit on, but they were hard and felt real.

"I can't believe you did this," she repeated for the second time that day.

"Are you sorry I did?" he asked curiously as he sat down beside her.

"No," Susan whispered. "This is wonderful Greg ... but it's all such a shock."

"Take your time, Susan. The cottage, as I've been calling it, isn't all that big. You have plenty of time to look around," he told her.

Susan nodded as she got to her feet and began to look more thoroughly around.

The main room they were standing in had the high ceiling she remembered from their past, and there were stairs to the side of the fireplace that went up to the loft along the wall with the front door. It looked clean enough to serve as living space now, but originally it had been used to store food, up high off the floor where it wouldn't get wet. The original floor had been earthen, Susan remembered, but this one was made of beautiful stained hardwood. She walked around to the back of the fireplace where her first kitchen had been and encountered a fully modern version, complete with stove, microwave, refrigerator, and dishwasher. It even had a sink, something that would have felt like a luxury in the original house.