Ashes to Asher

 

There is an old saying that no good deed ever goes unpunished. An even truer one teaches that no construction job ever goes uncomplicated, and so it was with the work being done on Emil's house. At the first inspection of the work, the code enforcement officer of the county pointed out that the electrical system of the house was dangerously out of date and that the entire home had to be rewired before the project could be completed. The second-floor addition had been framed, but the existing wall between the bedroom and the new space had not been removed yet and the interior work in the kitchen had not been completed as the new appliances had not arrived yet. This meant that all of the interior wall surfaces in the house had to be removed so that the proper electrical outlets could be installed in the proper places. One outlet in the entire living room was certainly not sufficient. The kitchen cabinets would also have to be removed and put back into place after the wiring was done.

"Perhaps you could stop by the diner for a cup of coffee as a thank you for coming all the way up the mountain road for this," Asher offered the inspector.

"I cannot be bribed to make this go away," the inspector sneered. "I entered it on my tablet, not on paper, like in the old days. It's already filed in the county office."

"I had no intentions of bribing you, sir," Asher corrected him. "I merely want to offer a reward for your dedication to your job. Why I can't imagine what could have happened if that old wiring had shorted out and caused a fire. I really want to thank you for bringing this to our attention."

"You actually truly want to thank me?" the man repeated in confusion.

"We certainly do," Emil agreed. "I fell in love with the style and beauty of the place, and never even thought of such details. You are a hero for helping save such a showplace of historical architecture."

"I don't get called a hero very often," the man admitted as he let Emil and Asher lead him down the street to the diner. "Oh, I've wanted to be able to come in here for years. It always smelled so delicious when I passed by."

"You've been to town before?" Asher asked him.

"I will confess something here, gentlemen, although it may cost me that cup of coffee," the man started. "I visited that house frequently when I was a child. Albert Heinrichsen was my grandmother's brother."

"You were Old Man Heiney's nephew?" Asher blurted.

"I've got to remember that name for him, not that he would have ever claimed me," the inspector snorted. "He always said I was too soft, and being raised by a single mother with no husband was sinful. You have no idea how hard it was for me to go back into that house today where I spent so many miserable summers."

"Hold up, we're about the same age," Asher said as he stopped just inside the diner to stare at the inspector. "How come I never saw you around or met you."

"Uncle Albert never allowed me out of the house when I stayed with him," the man said. "He said he would not tolerate me falling in with the 'reprobate rapscallions' that he claimed ran amok all through town and the canyons around it as well from all accounts."

"I resent that," Asher protested. "Robert and I were neither reprobate nor rapscallion."

"No, you were perfectly normal somewhat spoiled boys who hid feral cats in people's mailboxes, and skinny-dipped in the creek every chance you got," Miss Moony laughed from her usual booth. To the inspector, she smiled and said, "Welcome back to town, Bertie."

"Moony Eveningsky, is it really you?" he gasped in near shock.

"Miss Moony, do you know everyone in this state?" Emil asked the old woman teasingly.

"Only the ones that matter," she replied as she stood and gave the inspector a hug. "I'm so happy to see them coming back to town now thanks to you." She pulled Bertie down to sit beside her in the booth and gave Emil that particular motherly look.

"Yes, ma'am," Emil said quickly and sat on the other side of her table.

"I met Bertie when he ran away one summer night," she smiled as she remembered aloud. "Poor darling walking down the street crying in his pajamas. I couldn't help but call him into the hotel my parents still owned at the time. I treated his injuries and helped him get in touch with his mother. My father went and had a talk with Heiney that night, and the next day, the house was inherited by Heiney's nephew Jacob, Bertie's mother's brother."

"Did your… Are you saying that your father…." Asher stammered.

"The village council, which included Barney and your father as junior members, and headed by my father at the time, ruled that Albert Heinrichsen had passed during the night of natural causes," Miss Moony said quietly. "No questions were ever asked. Well perhaps Jacob did when he moved in for about a year, but your father, Asher, and Robert's father had a talk with him and he moved out of the house, and put it up for sale a few months later."

"Uncle Jacob came to visit with my mother after that," Bertie spoke up. "They never had a very good relationship, apparently, but he showed up apologizing to her and to me without really saying what he was sorry for, and then he left. Mom found out he did away with himself that night. He left a note saying stuff about what Uncle Albert had done to him as a kid, nothing sexual, but nothing good. He said he couldn't live with all of that in his head anymore. When Mom got the money from the sale of the house, we moved to the state capital where she met a contractor who became my stepfather, then later adopted me. He taught me everything I know about inspecting houses. I took his name after the adoption, Miss Moony. Ironically, I'm still Bertie, just like you called me that night, but now instead of Albert, I'm Bertram. Bertram Seville, used to be junior, but Dad died and I've got a son now, so I'm the senior now and he's the junior."

"I am so happy for you," Moony gushed and kissed him on the cheek.

"I really feel badly for you, Emil," Bertie told him. "Rewiring the house is going to be a terrible expense, but I swear it is a good idea besides being a necessity to meet building code."

"I told you, I'm glad you brought that up, as I would never have thought about it," Emil assured him.

"I'm rather surprised Dane didn't tell you about it himself," Bertie frowned. "He should know better."

"Then I will confess." Everyone turned to see the contractor in question standing in the doorway of the diner. "I did know the house would have to be rewired, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell you, Emil. You were so excited about the house, and I just couldn't bring myself to give you bad news that expensive, so I let Mr. Bert here be the bad guy."

"Dane, if you don't find some backbone, you're going to be in real trouble one of these days," Bert said with a sigh. "And I don't mean with my office. If that sweet boy of yours finds out you can't say no or give bad news to other cute guys, he may start to think you're not faithful to him."

"I swear it's not like that," Dane blurted quickly. "I just hate seeing such happy excited guys all sad and brokenhearted."

"Then let me tell them, you big dork," Jackson snapped from behind him, making Dane jump in surprise. "Now, get your butt inside so we can have lunch, before we start a lot more work on this project. Mr. Bert, do you think you could teach me a bit more about the less artistic parts of construction so this big teddy bear will have someone on his team that isn't afraid to give a homeowner bad news?"

"I think that can be arranged, Jackie," Bert laughed.

"Not telling people the whole story is no good way to do business, Dane," Asher told the young man.

"Not letting working men pay you for their meals isn't either," Dane replied.

"Fair point, so how about a deal?" Asher returned. "No more freebies on either side. You can wait for the free meal when the house is finished and we have a party to celebrate."

"Sounds like a good plan," Dane agreed with a smile.

"I hope your sister will be able to come back for the party, as well," Emil told Jackson. "And you, too, Mr. Seville. That is, if you want to come back. I will understand if you don't."

"I'm pretty sure that by the time four gay men get done with the house, all of my family ghosts will have vacated the place," Bert laughed.

"Mr. Bert!" Jackson blurted.

"If you guys thought you were fooling this old man, you better think again," Bert laughed. "You don't work with as many architects and interior designers as I do and not learn a few things along the way."

 

*****************

A few weeks passed by and the new kitchen appliances had arrived and been stored in the garage with the office furniture and the kitchen cabinets as the rewiring was done. It was a peaceful Saturday and everything would start being moved back into the house the following week. The upstairs addition to the master bedroom had been enclosed, walls and roof, so now all that was required was the interior finish work. All of the new outlets were in place and the downstairs walls completed. The bathroom tiles that had been painstakingly notated and removed were finally back in place, but that had been the last thing accomplished the day before. The rest of the second floor still needed drywall and surfacing. None of that prepared any of the residents in the village for the three events that would surprise them over the weekend, however.

First came the rumor that the gas station and convenience store just at the edge of town had been bought out by a different national chain. The store was no real competition for the grocery store in town, but it was the best, and only, place in town to buy gasoline. After driving the mountain road in a large rental truck, Emil was no longer as scared of driving it in Lilac, his own vehicle. It also helped that he was making fairly regular trips to the city to get more furnishings and pick out wall and floor materials for the house remodel. He was aware that the store had sold to a new chain, but he was completely unprepared to walk into the diner one evening for dinner and see Jase and Dantae sitting in a booth eating the meatloaf dinner eagerly.

"Dude, if my mom ever comes to visit, you can NOT tell her I said this, but this is so much better than hers," Dantae was gushing to Asher.

Jase saw Emil first and squealed out, "PURPLE MAN!" He jumped out of his seat and ran to hug Emil.

"Emil, it's so great to see you again," Dantae grinned and took his turn hugging their friend.

"What are you guys doing here? Has Danny seen you yet? Is this a vacation?" Emil blurted question after question without giving them the chance to answer.

"No vacation, we're moving here," Dantae told him as he dragged him to their table. "You never told us your grandpa hottie was such a good cook."

"You also never told us your grandpa cook was such a hottie," Jase giggled. "I totally get your crush now, even if he is so not my type or a of a."

"A of A?" Emil questioned.

"Wow, you are so out of touch, you two are a perfect couple," Dantae laughed.

"A of A means age of attraction," Jase explained.

"Did you guys just say you're moving here?" Everyone at the table turned to see Danny standing with his mother beside the table. "Mom, these are the guys that helped me load the truck for Auntie Em."

"We helped him?" Dantae whispered with a snort. Jase kicked him under the table. "Oh, that's right, we were just the backup muscle. The kid whisperer here did all the hard work."

"Yes, he did, and yes we are," Jase smiled as he yanked the boy into the booth beside him. "We liked you and Auntie Em so much that when we got the chance to get hired as the manager and assistant manager of the new Circle J, opening soon right down the street, we jumped at it. When they learned that we already knew some of the people in town, we were guaranteed the spots."

"I'm so glad you don't have to work for that idiot and deal with his horrible wife anymore," Emil told them sincerely.

"Yeah, definitely will not be missing her face every day," Dantae said with a shiver.

"We are going to miss our family, though," Jase said a little sadly.

"Well, you got family here now," Danny piped up. "I claim you both as the big brothers I never knew I wanted until I met you."

"Aww, you sweet little rainbow sprinkle you," Jase cooed and hugged the boy tightly.

"That new family definitely includes me, too," Emil smiled as he hugged Dantae who was seated next to him.

"Do we get to call you Auntie Em, too?" Jase teased and poked his tongue out.

"Don't push your luck," Emil growled in reply, but then he grinned and started laughing, so no one really believed his threat.

"So, you're staying at Miss Moony's?" Danny asked excitedly.

"We're at a quaint little b and b kind of hotel just up the street," Dantae answered.

"That's Miss Moony's," Emil confirmed. "I'm still there as well. The remodel of the house got sidetracked a bit, but Dane, he's my contractor, assures me it's right on schedule now for all the work that has to be done."

"We have no idea where we're going to live yet, actually," Jase informed them all.

"Well, now that just won't do," Barney spoke up from his usual booth. "Do you boys think you can manage a little yardwork in addition to your jobs at that store?"

"Well, yes sir, as long as it's not too intense because we will be working a lot of hours at the store as salaried employees instead of hourly," Dantae answered.

"Just a bit of mowing," Barney replied. "I've long since given up on the flower beds my mother had around the place. The point is, I've got an apartment above my garage out back. Just an efficiency, mind you, all one room with a tiny separate bathroom. I'm sure we can work out a deal for rent and maintenance that I need help with from time to time."

"That does sound like a good start," Jase agreed.

"We've got a bit of time while the store is remodeled, so maybe we could get a jumpstart on some of that maintenance," Dantae pointed out.

"Well, now I appreciate the enthusiasm, but you might change your mind when you see the place," Barney cautioned. "My last tenant was quite a few years ago. Left me for a jail cell, he did, the rotten young heathen."

"Uncle Barney, you don't have to make it sound like I'm the criminal," Constable Jimmy laughed. "I wouldn't call my room at the office a cell, since I can lock it from the inside."

"Semantics," Barney scoffed. "It was a cell before we put drywall over the bars."

"I think I missed part of that story," Jase said in confusion.

"Don't worry about it," Emil told him. "I'm sure anyone in town here will be happy to catch you up to speed."

"Well, I say we go see the place now that we've finished eating," Dantae said with a smile.

"I just got here, so speak for yourself," Emil laughed. "You'll be fine as long as you don't look out your windows toward Barney's A Frame, especially after dark. He and Miss Moony are a bit of an item," he added very quietly so only they could hear him.

"Right, first thing on the shopping list: black out curtains," Dantae mumbled, looking rather green in the face.