The Remedy House

Sydney handed me the hair tie she was holding and I took it from over her shoulder, braiding the last of her thin blonde hair before tying the band around it to keep it in place. “There you go,” I announced in a cheerful voice and she took a step forward, reaching behind her to touch her newly braided hair before she smiled at me and replied, “Thanks Ally.” I gave her a smile in return from where I sat on the edge of the front porch of the house, watching as she said a quick bye and turned to run in the direction of town to join the other two children already there playing on the playground.
“Bye,” I answered then quickly called after her, “And don’t forget to stay at the playground, don’t wonder off into Mrs. Ryan’s garden again!” She didn’t yell back any kind of reply to the order, only kept running left of the house towards the town, and I sighed lightly as I watched her for a few seconds before I noticed a small, old, rusted red car driving in the opposite direction towards the Arderly House. The small car drove down the faded old road until at last it arrived and came to a stop in front of the house, the engine turning off then followed by Barry opening the driver’s side door and climbing out a few seconds later.
“Afternoon, Ally,” He called towards me with a big smile as he waved at me, then shut the car door behind him and walked up to the porch of the house explaining, “Just went and picked up some groceries that your Gran asked for.” I nodded understandingly as I stood from the porch to go over and unload the groceries, not thinking much about it since I usually made a point to help take them inside.
At the sound of Barry laughing I turned back from walking towards the car to unload the many brown paper bags to find he was watching me, saying after a second, “You don’t have to unload everything yourself.” However, when I insisted I was perfectly fine with doing the chore and continued towards the car, he laughed again before he replied in a reasoning voice, “I’ll go find someone to help you unload everything then.” I listened as he walked into the propped open front door, disappearing into the house in search of someone to help me unload everything from the car.
Despite the assistance that Barry assured me was coming, I continued on with the task and opened the door to the back seat of the car, reaching inside and grabbing two of the paper bags filled with various foods and other items and then taking them into the house. I walked with them through the front room and the hallway then into the kitchen, setting them down on the counter to unpack and put away later. I’d made it all the way back to the car and grabbed another two bags to take into the house before I turned around and ran right into someone standing behind me, causing me to almost drop the bags of groceries to the ground.
“Oh I’m sorry,” I apologized quickly, balancing myself before I glanced up and saw that it was Rory, the help that Barry must have sent to unload the groceries, standing before me with his same blank expression and dark eyes. He didn’t say anything but took one of the brown paper bags from me, turning around towards the house to carry it inside to the kitchen. I stood where I was for a second by the open car door watching as he walked away, then felt a smile replace the puzzled expression on my face I quickly walked after him towards the house.
“Thank you for helping, Mr. Rory” I said cheerfully as I ran up and stopped to walk beside him on his left, still grinning up at him as we climbed the few steps to the pouch and walked into the front door of the house. Once again he didn’t say anything in a return and didn’t even look over at where I was next to him, though I didn’t mind and kept talking with him even if I was sure that he had absolutely no interest in what I had to say.
“Barry usually goes to the grocery store in Ballon every few weeks to buy food, since we only grow a few things in our garden and we don’t raise any animals to use for meals,” I informed as the two of us walked from setting the bags in the kitchen back through the house and to the car, him walking a little ways ahead of me with his hands buried in the pockets of his jeans looking as though he wasn’t listening and simply wanted to finish unloading the car so he could be done with it.
“Since there’s so many people living here we use a lot of food,” I continued as we reached the car and he ducked down into the backseat and pulled out two bags, carrying both of them back to the house as I grabbed another two and followed after him. He continued to ignore me as we brought in the bags of groceries from the car, retaining his usual stoic expression and not acknowledging whenever I said something. I’d been convinced that we would finish unloading the groceries from the car and then put all of the food in its proper place in the kitchen in silence, and then he would continue on with his day, having not said a single word to me through out the entire process. However, as our newest tenant had a way of doing ever since he’d first come to the Arderly House a little more than a month ago, Rory surprised me once again.
“It’s usually Gran or I who cook for everyone, but sometimes other people do it too,” I’d been explaining as we walked back from the house and to the car to bring in the last two bags, each of us grabbing one to carry inside. Rory walked ahead of me and I shut the car door with my side, walking quickly after him towards the house. “Kristine makes dinner sometimes since a lot of people like her cooking,” I informed as I reached his left side, then laughed and said, “Even Nell makes something for everyone to eat once in a while; regardless of how people feel about her, they love her cooking.” He didn’t say anything once again and I glanced up at him as we approached the stairs to the porch asking, “Can you cook? Maybe you can make something for dinner sometime, I’m sure everyone would love it, Mr. Rory.”
Laughing lightly as I glanced ahead towards the house, I didn’t even notice that he had stopped at the top stair of the porch until I didn’t hear his footsteps and paused, looking back with a confused expression on my face. He was looking straight at me, perhaps one of the first times he’d done so since he’d arrived that the Arderly House, and with an annoyed and tired expression on his face he finally spoke, “Would you stop calling me ‘Mr. Rory’?” When I didn’t say anything immediately, too shocked to say anything from hearing him speak after such a long stretch of silence between us, he added, “Just ‘Rory’ is fine, really.”
After staring at him wide eyed for another few seconds, I pushed away my feelings of surprise and grinned widely at him replying, “Of course, I’m sorry that it was bothering you… Rory.” He didn’t say anything back, instead looking away from me and continuing onto the porch and inside the house, and walked after him thrilled that he had finally said something to me that held some weight, not just the general things like his name when he’d first checked in. Rory didn’t say anything else as we walked through the house into the kitchen and set down the last of the bags, though I spoke soon after we began unpacking the bags and placing the items away in the cupboard or the fridge.
“Growing up, Gran always taught me to call people ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ when I don’t know them very well, I guess it’s just a habit to do it now,” I laughed while setting a carton of milk inside the fridge, glancing over my shoulder and pausing to watch as he grabbed a few cans of vegetables and set them into the cupboard on the opposite side of the kitchen. Regardless of how accustomed I was to Rory not saying much, I still couldn’t help but be disappointed when he didn’t say anything in return, and instead reverted back to simply ignoring whatever I was talking about.
After he’d set the cans into the cupboard he turned back to the counter to grab more of the many cans that Barry had purchased, glancing over at me as he did before I looked away quickly, realizing that I had been blatantly staring at him without even making an attempt to disguise it. Realizing how odd I must have looked, I tried to mask the fact that I’d been watching him by awkwardly looking away and searching for something to do so that it seemed I was busy at work, not wasting time looking at him.
I scanned the remaining food on the counter near the refrigerator before stammering, “Um, here are the apples that go in the cupboard-” and grabbed a plastic bag full of red apples resting on the counter. I turned and walked towards him quickly to hand over to him over, though I’d only taken two steps before the bag fell out of my hands to the floor. The dozen or so apples all fell out of the bag, rolling in every direction and settling all around the floor of the kitchen.
“Oh no,” I groaned with embarrassment as I kneeled down and scrambled to collect all of the apples as quickly as I could, not wanting to look anymore stupid in front of him than I already had. I’d been reaching for an apple that had rolled several feet away to my right, however, when I heard a light, muffled laugh and looked up suddenly from the ground, the scattered apples forgotten.
My eyes went up to Rory standing a few feet in front of me by the cupboard who, though he tried to mask it from me with his hand, had a smile on his face and was laughing lightly, a sound that I never imagined I’d ever have the chance to hear. I stared up at him, more shocked than I had been when he’d willingly spoken to me earlier on the front porch, staring at him once again though this time I wasn’t concerned with whether or not he noticed. It was the first time I’d ever seen him smile, much less laugh, since he’s first come to the Arderly House, and had I not witnessed it for myself I would’ve never believed that the tenant who’d spent two and a half weeks locked up in his room refusing to come out was now openly smiling in front of me.
Once he noticed that I was gawking at him his smile faded a little, though he took his hand away from his mouth and leaned back against the counter behind him, looking down at me where I was still kneeling on the floor. I looked up at him and we stared at each other, only making eye contact for a second before he looked away and then continued to put the food on the counters away into the cupboard.
By the time I remembered the spilled apples and successfully gathered them back into their bag and stood back up, Rory had his back to me and was putting away the last of the food into the cupboard. I watched, standing in the center of the kitchen silently, as he closed the door and turned to leave the kitchen, glancing over at me for a second and meeting my eyes before he walked out into the hallway, leaving me standing alone with the bag of apples still in my hands and a silly grin of my own slowly spreading on my face.