Public Purchase - Part Six

A small stone wall wraps around the entrance to the clearing, the older woman bringing the pickup truck to a stop close to a cute little wooden gate. Flower beds and trees dot the landscape beyond the fence, creating an extensive garden in front of a rustic stone cottage sitting beyond.

With a click of her seat belt the older woman turns to climb out of the driver's seat, pausing for a moment to look back at me with a more serious expression.

"Come on, we have to get this thing planted before Sammy gets home" she states, hoping down to the path below before stretching a little. "Besides, you and I need to have a talk. Don't think you can just take over for Aurelia without any ground rules."

I sit in the large and heavily worn seat for a moment, my hands fidgeting with the hem of my lime green polka dot sundress as I try to wrap my head around what the dark haired woman had said. I blow some of the red hair from my face, the gears inside my skull whirring as I find the sudden thrusting of myself back into living under a parent's thumb difficult to parse.

Suddenly, a loud thumping rings through the cabin of the pickup, the loud drumming causing me to jump with a loud squeal.

"Come on!" barks the dark haired woman, opening my door as she continues to hammer the roof of the vehicle. "I carted this thing into the truck without Aurelia's help, you can at least help me get it to the house."

With a twist and a shove against the seat I launch my short and slender form from the seat, staggering forward awkwardly as I find my legs reaching the dirt road beneath me far latter than expected. Before I can tumble over I feel an arm wrap around my chest and under my arm, the firm supporting brace keeping me on my feet.

"I swear to god..." wheezes the older dark haired woman, reaching up with her free hand to adjust her glasses and rub the bridge of her large nose. "I know Lia was clumsy, but can you just try not to earn any more scars today. That's already going to be awkward to explain to Sammie" she mutter, licking a finger and rubbing it over my eyebrow as if to try and rub off the thin cut in my eyebrow.

I shudder as I feel the spit against my face, my body lurching back with wince as I immediately smack my elbow into the back of the pickup. Yelping in pain I quickly begin to rub my arm, the upper arms squeezing my soft and supple chest.

"What did I just..." groans the older woman, sighing to herself as she cuts off her own train of thought.

"I know, I know..." I whimper, tears welling up as I feel my funny bone twinge and ache. "I don't know what's wrong with..."

"Full of beans..." the older woman mutters, her voice turning to a chuckle as she watches me hop on the stop and rub my arm vigorously. She walks up to me before moving past, striding around to the side of the truck as she begins to lower the sides of the bed. "Sammie always said Aurelia was at least fifty-percent bean. I thought she had attention deficit disorder or some other kind of..."

"I... What!?" I squeak, whipping my head around with such speed it disorients me as my face is filled with a mane of coppery hair. "Are you..."

"Oh, right..." the older woman muses, not even listening to me as she begins to speak. With a loud metallic clang the side of the pickup truck slams down, the older woman reaching over to the sideways tree in the back before untying and shuffling it towards the edge of the truck bed. "I'm Meredith by the way, Meredith Daniels" she states, smirking as she highlights our matching last name.

Following Meredith's lead I shuffle closer, moving my hands over to some of the thicker branches before tugging the tree towards the edge of the truck. My arms strain, subtle yet trained muscles flexing in my back and arms as I find my fit young body easily helping the large woman in adjusting the tree's position.

"Good girl" Meredith coos, bending down into a squat as she prepares to take the heavy end of the tree wrapped in burlap and soil. "Just need to get it to the front yard. Get your grip, okay...Three...Two..." she explains, beginning her count as I quickly wedge myself amongst the branches and brace my diminutive hands as best I can against the trunk.

Without even reaching one the older woman slides the tree from the vehicle, the weigh immediately hitting my tiny body like a tonne of bricks. Despite it however I somehow manage, my body dropping into a small squat as my thighs and calves flex with a surprising amount of unseen power. Shouldering the truck I strain to watch Meredith firm up her own grip through the leaves, my hat falling to the ground as I  twist and wriggle my head.

"Okay!" calls the older woman, lifting her leg partway through a stride. "Aaaaaand STEP!"

As Meredith dumps the bottom of the tree into a hole in the front yard I feel the weight rapidly lift from my shoulders, a yelp escaping my lips as I feel my earrings snag and jostle against the quickly shifting leaves and branches.

"Careful!" Meredith snaps, her face dropping as she looks down at her feet for a moment. "Sorry, sorry. Thank you for the help" she sighs, reaching for the truck of the tree as she wriggles it into place. I take a step back, ruffling my hair as a few leaves and twigs tumble free. My stomach grumbles, a heady reminder that I hadn't eaten all in anticipation for the surgery and Aurelia had likely done the same.

"Um... No problem" I meekly mutter back ,nibbling slightly at my lip as I try to think of a way of asking the next question without sounding like some helpless child. "Uh... Could you tell me where the kitchen is?" I ask, looking around the front yard as I avoid the awkward eye contact to come.

The front garden is a delightful mixture of wild and well-maintained. A clear and slightly winding cobble stone path traces a wavy from the now open wooden gate to the large and thick wooden door of the cottage with wild grass filling the space in between. Small stone circles act as the dividing line the garden beds and the wild local grass, the rocks often times painted with various small pieces of abstract art that leave a muddle yet colorful image in my blurred gaze.

Wildflowers and tree erupt from small raised mounds of dirt at the center of each of these circular beds, the bright blues and reds blending together into a watercolor smear thanks to my poor vision.

I'm snapped back to attention by the older woman as she slams a shovel into the ground, a displaced pile of dirt slowly getting poured back into the hole the citrus tree now filled. "Right" she sighs, inhaling deeply as she pours more soil into the hole and sweats from the physical exertion under the overbearing sun above. "Inside, just to the..."

With another slam she buries the shovel deep into the remaining soil, roiling her narrow shoulders back as she takes a deep breath and wipes some sweat from her face. "You know what? It's been... what... thirteen years? But I'll make you lunch, my sweet little Lia" she coos, still a little out of breath as she kicks a little bit of soil into the hole to at least cover the top of the roots.

I watch slack jawed, unsure how to answer as Meredith walks up to me and then past as she paces her way towards the front door. She fishes around in her pocket for a moment, adjust the orientation of something before pull free a large and ornate metal key Rust clings to the handle, the ring at the end having been bent and damaged over time. Meredith slides the key in and twists it with a harsh and strained jiggle, a loud click and thud soon following as she lets out a relieved sigh.

"I swear, the day this thing breaks I'm making Sammie buy something made within the last hundred years" she mutters, grasping a large and heavily discolored handle before easing the door open.

As the older woman shuffles inside I stand back for a moment, looking up at the large cottage before me. The gray stones that make up the wall appear far older than the have any right to be, the oddly shaped and overtly natural rocks making up the exterior being gathered and placed long before quality control was a thing. 'Pick a stone, place a stone' mentality was likely the cause of the strange bulging shape of the exterior, with the newly placed render doing a lot to hold the whole thing together.

The door was a part of a flat-ish section of the home, large metal hinges holding the massive and incredibly heavy slab of wood in place. The wall bulges out to the right, forming what appears to be a rounded bubble of stone that spreads out around to the side of the home and beyond my view. A thatched roof sits overhead, the dry plant matter having been relaid at some point since the building was originally constructed.

"Lia!" Meredith barks, the stern voice of the older woman snapping me back to attention as I skip into the house and pull the door closed behind me.

Wooden beams stretch out overhead, a set of white rendered walls wrapping around them to the left and sealing off the otherwise open plan cottage into two discreet rooms to one side. Both doors are shut, the more modern designs and handles seemingly being a bit of Meredith's inspiration.

A large bay window sits at the other end of the home, an L-shaped sofa and two arm chairs sitting beside it with a coffee table between them all. Each look old and antique, scuffs and scratches marking them each as reclaimed items of furniture. Another separated section sits to the right, smaller and more narrow to act as a washroom or something similar connected to the backyard beyond.

I watch as Meredith walks into the kitchen to my right, the circular bulge playing home to an oddly shaped kitchen. It looks like an octagon, with benches trying their hardest to form a circle using only square blocks. A tiny sink and stove top rest on some of the counter tops, the red varnished hardwood sitting atop maroon cabinets.

"So..." Meredith mutters, washing her hands before drying them on a dish rag. "What do you eat?" she asks rather dryly, her tone sounding almost academic in nature. I cock an eyebrow in response, my gaze meeting hers.

"Shouldn't you know..." I begin to ask, the woman stopping my sentence in its place with a look.

"I do know... I'm just out of practice" she grumbles, placing a hand on the countertop before drumming her slender fingers against it. "Give me a minute" she mutters, opening and closing cabinets as she looks around for what she had on hand to even make a meal.

My gaze slowly drifts as well, slowly falling to a small wine rack resting atop the counter at the far edge. With a giddy grin I point at that, a knowing smirk soon forming on my lips.

"Can we start with that?" I ask, Meredith whipping around to look at what I'm pointing at. Her hands quickly fly to her hips before she twists back around, her gaze narrowing behind her glasses to a glare.

"Aurelia Marigold-Prim..." she begins to snap, her shouting of my extended name coming to a stop as she bites her lip and her eyes drift up in thought. "I suppose... You do have a fully formed... well at least the part that counts for present purposes..." she mutters, walking over and pulling a bottle of red from the top of the rack.

"Okay, we can share" she states, pulling two glasses from one of the open cabinets. "But one, I need to hear more about my new daughter, and two..." she states, placing the glasses