The Remedy House

Weeks passed by much the same as they usually did, and the initial excitement and curiosity surrounding Rory coming to the Arderly House began to fade and before long things were as if we had never even had a new tenant check in. All of the gossiping about the man in room 3C dwindled more and more until it finally disappeared completely and people began to forget that there was even someone staying in the room. As the days continued to pass even I had to remind myself that Rory had checked in and was in fact still here, since after the first day he’d arrived I’d had yet to see him since.
He spend the entire day in his bedroom with the door locked, only ever coming out at night, in the early hours of the morning when everyone was asleep, or when no one was on the third floor to walk to the restroom nearby. If I happened to be awake at night when he left his room, I’d lie in my bed and listen to the door open and the creak of a loose board in front of his door, then his quiet footsteps move across the hardwood floor, sometimes hearing the shower turning on before I drifted back to sleep. I’d imagine some of the tenants who’d completely forgotten about him suspected it was a ghost making all of the noise, though maybe to a certain extent he was like a ghost, a man who, though he was living amongst us, was hardly there and nearly impossible to see.
The morning after I’d found the container of leftover food empty outside Rory’s door, I’d made it a ritual to set aside some food from each meal for him to eat. After I’d finished eating I’d grab one of the many wooden eating trays that tenants could use to eat in the living room, set the plate or bowl on it along with silverware, a glass of water, and a napkin, then carry it up the flights of stairs to the third floor. After setting the tray down on the floor in front of room 3C, I’d knock then call, “Your food is here, Mr. Rory,” before walking away and back down the stairs towards the kitchen. I never witnessed him actually open the door to his room and take the tray of food inside to eat, though when I returned back upstairs later I’d find the tray set back outside, the food eaten, ready to be taken away much like the container of food I’d left the first night.
All of this continued on throughout the month of March, a time of two an a half weeks, and I’d began to think that Rory planned on staying his entire time at the Arderly House in his room, never leaving it’s confined space until they day he finally decided to check out and leave. However, I’d been walking up the set of stairs to the third floor to fetch something from my room when I noticed Gran standing left of the stairs having a conversation with Nell, one of the tenants she was closest with, in front of Nell’s room. She smiled at me as I came up the stairs, still talking with Nell, though turned her attention suddenly from the conversation to the sound of a bedroom door opening somewhere on the third floor. I followed her line of sight curiously as I continued to climb up the stairs, surprised when my eyes landed on the same thing she was looking at: the door room 3C being opened.
I reached the top stair and watched along with Gran and Nell as Rory, seeming intent on making an undetectable and brief leave from his room, walked quickly out of his door and in the direction of the bathroom a few feet away. Thought he was interrupted and jumped at the sudden sound of my grandmother calling to him happily, “Oh Mr. Rory, I’m glad I managed to catch you.”
Despite his attempts to discreetly leave his room for a trip to the restroom, he stopped immediately at the sound of Gran’s words and turned to look at all three of us standing there, his eyes moving quickly towards each of us like he was a cornered animal. Gran, who appeared to not notice the tenant’s strange behavior, walked from Nell towards him as she continued explaining, “I’ve been meaning to remind you that the monthly rent is due on the first, 200 euros-” before pausing suddenly, thinking for a second then laughing to herself and saying, “Oh, I’ve forgotten you’re from the U.S., you wouldn’t have any Irish currency, would you?”
Rory, his face still clouded with a strange expression at being caught out of his room, didn’t say anything as she laughed again at her mistake, and instead glanced around the floor until Gran spoke again. Her tone of voice had changed from before as she concluded simply, “Well then, I suppose you’ll just have to take up jobs here at the house to pay for room and board like some of the other tenants. You can start tomorrow morning, then.”
She smiled at him, not appearing to notice the frustrated expression on his face, and then turned to walk back to where Nell stood by her bedroom door, frowning as she chided Gran saying, “Really Ada, you should stop letting tenants cheat you out of rent by working instead, it isn’t right…” to which Gran replied simply, “Oh, nonsense…” with a wave of her hand. I stood at the top of the staircase for a few second after the conversation had ended and Gran had gone back to talking with Nell, finally glancing over to Rory who still stood in between his room and the restroom, wearing a puzzled look as be began to take in the fact that he’d have to begin leaving his room to work in order to continue staying at the house. I smiled timidly at him as I walked left from the top of the stairs in the direction of my room, though he didn’t return it and walked back into his room, the trip to the restroom having apparently been forgotten.

The next morning, just as Gran had instructed him to do, Rory left his bedroom and climbed down the stairs, arriving at the entrance to the kitchen just as I was cleaning up the dishes from breakfast. He’d wore a plain white dress shirt only partially buttoned over a white t-shirt, despite the fact that he’d be working all day, and his expression was still reserved and cold as he entered the room. He seemed uncomfortable to be there by the way he glanced around at the kitchen, like he was certain he didn’t belong there. At the sound of his footsteps I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him while washing on of the many plates and bowls people had used during breakfast and said, “Good morning, Mr. Rory,” with an enthusiastic tone, though he didn’t give any kind of reply back.
“Oh, there you are Mr. Rory,” I heard Gran say happily as she walked from the dining room towards him, giving him a friendly smile as well before she glanced back behind her towards the dining room and called, “Barry!” After a few seconds, a large man with thinning blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and a round face with a large smile on it came through the door way, standing next to Gran.
“This is Barry,” She explained after looking back to where Rory stood, “He takes care of the garden and some of the maintenance around the house, he’ll show you around and give you something to do.” She looked up at Barry and gave him a grin, and he smiled down at her then nodded before turning his attention to Rory, who continued to stand quietly next to them in the center of the kitchen.
“Nice to meet you,” Barry announced in his usual loud, cheerful voice, sticking one of his large hands out to indicate a handshake, then grabbed Rory’s hand when he finally offered it and shook it roughly, finally releasing his hand after a few seconds and leaving him with a surprised, shaken expression. “Don’t worry about not having a job to do around here,” Barry explained to him afterwards, “there’s always something that needs fixing, isn’t that right Ally?”
Barry glanced over to me, Rory following suit soon after with the look of surprise from the strong handshake still on his face, and I nodded as I leaned back against the kitchen counter and dried the last of the plates from breakfast, knowing for myself just how much always needed fixing around the Arderly House. Barry gave a hearty laugh then put his hand on Rory’s shoulder, ignoring his slight flinch at being touched, then began to led him towards the door out to right side of the house on the wall parallel to the entrance, left of the fridge where the garden and a small storage shed were.
“I hope everything works out alright,” I thought out loud once the door had closed behind them, turning back to face the counter then grabbed the last of the cleaned dishes to put them up into the drawers or cabinets where they belonged. Gran pausing at the doorway from the kitchen, turned back and laughed lightly then replying, “He doesn’t talk much, but I still think he’ll do fine working with Barry,” before she left the room, leaving me to finish cleaning up from breakfast.
Throughout the day after I had completed all of the cleaning from breakfast I’d find Rory, under the instructions of Barry, all around the property of the house performing various tasks all in order to pay for room and board at the Arderly House. Nailing down the board in the living room floor that tenants had been tripping over for weeks, repairing furniture that had been broken or had fallen apart, replacing boards on the outer part of the house that had come loose, all as payment to Gran for giving him his room to stay in. Each time I happened to see him working around the house he had on his same familiar frown and never said a word to any of the other tenants as he worked around them, keeping to himself much like he had during the first few weeks after he’d arrived.
The other tenants took notice to Rory the more they spotted him working around the house on the random tasks, a few of them having to think back for a moment before they recalled the day he’d arrived earlier in the month. Regardless of how little he liked to smile and how persistent he’d been in keeping himself away from everyone else during his time at the house, most of the tenants had already began to accept him into our makeshift family before the day was over.
About an hour before dinner was to begin, I’d been asked to bring out tea to the back porch of the house for a few tenants who were sitting outside enjoying the rare sunshine that had managed to break free of the clouds that had been suppressing it the entire day. At the front of the Arderly house was a small, aging porch that was just as old as the house was, but the back porch had been built a little over ten years ago, was in better condition, and was much larger than the front porch. At the end of the hallway between the staircase and the entrance to the kitchen, there was the back door that led to the porch that I pushed though with the tray holding the teapot and tea cups, leaning back against it to shut it before I set the tray down on a nearby table out on the porch.
“Here’s your tea, Nell,” I said as I filled a cup with tea then walked towards the chair she sat in a few feet away and handed it to her, surprised to find that she was out on the porch when she usual spent a lot of her time in her room, thinking herself above the rest of the tenants in the house. Once I returned to the tray on the table I poured and handed a cup of tea to Kristine, Donovan, and finally Sullivan all sitting around on the porch. Each of them gave thanks and drank their tea thankfully, hardly speaking to another for risk of disturbing the peaceful atmosphere of the evening.
Once I’d finished passing out the cups of tea and walked back to the table the tray rested on, I began to consider pouring a cup for myself and joining them since Gran was making dinner that night, though my thoughts were interrupted when I heard Nell say, “Would you like some tea, Rory?” Being brought back to reality, I looked up from the floor of the porch and in the direction of her voice, having to search for a second before I finally spotted Rory, kneeling in the grass around the porch and replacing a balusters that the children had accidently broken while playing with a ball.
Rory, still frowning though it had lessoned considerably since the start of the day, shook his head lightly without saying a word, not taking his eyes from his work even to glance over as he answered. Nell looked away from him with a shrug of her bony shoulders, taking a sip from her glass before looking at me and saying, “It sure is wonderful to have a young man to do the work around here, these old, washed up men aren’t useful for anything.” I gave a small laugh as Donovan, sitting across from Nell on the other side of the porch, sneered and mumbled and inaudible reply and Sullivan, most likely having not even heard the insult, said nothing and raised his cup of tea to his mouth with his shaking hand.
Not long after, Gran opened the back door leading to the pouch and stuck her head out to announce that dinner was ready, causing everyone to stand and make their way back inside the house to eat. I collected the teacups from everyone and put them on the tray to take them back inside, glancing over at Rory nonchalantly as I did and watching as he walked onto the porch and stood apart from everyone else, observing quietly as the tenants all went inside. I’d imagine he was formulating a plan to sneak away up to his room so he could avoid eating dinner with everyone, though before he could make it too far Barry came up from behind him and slapped a hand roughly on his shoulder, making him jump slightly in surprise.
“What’re you waiting for?” He asked in his same loud voice as he laughed heartedly, “I’m sure you’re hungry after working all day?” Before Rory could give any kind of answer he began to lead him across the porch and towards the door, Barry appearing not to notice Rory’s struggling and protesting. After I’d entered the door with the tray in hand I glanced behind me along with a few other tenants as Barry guided him into the house and though the hallway, all the way to the entrance to the kitchen with Rory struggling to break free before he finally said, “No, its fine I’m not-” only to be interrupted immediately by Barry saying with laugh, “Nonsense, come and eat us everyone!”
The tenants headed towards the dining room to sit down for dinner all paused and glanced back at the doorway to the kitchen where Barry and Rory stood, some of them encouraging him to join us for dinner by saying he’d worked hard enough today and should come and eat. I set the tray onto the counter of the kitchen, watching with a small smile as Rory glanced around at everyone with an expression like he was torn between joining us for dinner or simply returning to his room to continue to avoid everyone.
The pressure from the tenants seemed to of finally worked however, because after a few seconds of debating with himself Rory finally broke down and seemed to come to terms with the fact that the tenants wouldn’t be willing to take no for an answer. With a defeated expression he finally gave a small defeated nod, to which Barry replied happily, “There we go,” with a big grin and continued to lead him towards the dining room as everyone else sat down around the large oval shaped table.
I took my seat next to Gran as Barry pulled up an extra chair for Rory to sit on his right next to Sullivan at the other end of the table, watching as he awkwardly sat down and glanced around at all of the tenants. Despite the fact that Rory was uncomfortable with being surrounded by everyone and he still only spoke about as much as he had the entire time he’d been at the house, he was still welcomed in by the other tenants the second he sat down at the table. That night, and from then on for every meal that was served whether Rory had been initially aware of it, he was the newest member of the makeshift family at the Arderly House.