To Start Another Fire

He had thought he had gotten away from all the mysticism. Perhaps when Joey had been younger, he had found it all fascinating. His great aunt’s crumbling estate in the thick of nothing in Louisiana had once been where his family gathered.

It was a money pit though, disintegrating slowly onto the useless plot of land it sat on. Nothing grew there, nothing changed, and no one in the family wanted to inherit the problem. He had been a child the last time he had laid eyes on it and had forgotten about it, sure that some bank had seized the property by now, till he got a call from his lawyer.

“What do you mean it was left in my name, Robert, I’m not even her direct descendent!” It was uncouth to raise his voice. After all, Robert was but the bearer of bad news. Yet Joey could not really believe what he was hearing. His great aunt had been married, had children, and those children had grandchildren. Why in the fuck was this left in his name? It was preposterous. He was rather sure he had maybe spoken to his great aunt once or twice in his life.

“That cannot be legal. I don’t want it!” He was aware he sounded like some petulant child, but this was no time for family bullshit. He did not even live in Louisiana. He had escaped the south completely with his big move to Michigan for university over ten years ago. Though the freezing winters had been difficult to get used to Joey found that he felt at home there. Yet nothing in life was free. That fancy college degree had come with loans. Seeing as how he had quite stubbornly set his sights on a political science degree that took him nowhere but more debt in law school, he was waist-high in payments.

He was just starting his career as a law clerk in this firm. He could hardly afford his shitty little studio apartment. How the hell was he supposed to pay for a house in another state? “Can I sell it?” he asked, voice lacking any hope. He knew the answer before Robert spoke. It had been in the market for sale for endless decades with only one buyer coming and the deal never going through.

“Robert, listen, do me a favor. Call that buyer. I will sell that house just to break even on its own debts. I’ll meet you there this weekend. Yeah, I know its short notice! Yeah, alright. See ya.”

He was met with an oppressive heat that curled the ends of his dark black hair as soon as he stepped out of the airport doors. He had never been made for a place like this. His white pale skin blistered in the noon sun. He could already feel himself sweating through his t-shirt. It was what it was. Robert had come through and had found the potential buyer. This was going to be a tricky sell.

Sprucing himself up a bit, he donned a different t-shirt and made his way to the car rental shop. A taxi would not take him to the middle of nowhere. Besides, he wanted to drive himself so he could leave only when the deal was done.

It was an ominously long drive but he found himself remembering the way. He had expected a ruin of the already rickety house of his memories and that was exactly what he got. As he came upon the lopsided gate that in theory kept out trespassers, but he was sure a strong gust of wind could tumble down, dark brown eyes took in the mess he had inherited.

All the windows were nailed shut at the discolored shutters. The paint had long since tarnished and the garden around it had grown wild. What a sad little place.

Coming up into the overgrown driveway he could smell the dust and decay. God, was it even legal to attempt to sell this place? Parking, he got out of the car and noticed there was but one other person there who was not Robert. The man that stood before the house leaned upon an old blue truck that, though in infinite better condition than the house, still looked like it belonged in a junk yard.

Joey had an uneasy feeling but there was not much else he could do but go and greet the man. “You must be Anderson. Hi, I’m Joey.” When the man turned to face him, Joey felt his breath hitch in his throat. He was met with striking blue eyes. The man was older than him, at least by fifteen years, but his salt and pepper hair suited his comely handsome face.

Just as he was telling himself that it was no use to crush on a man he was trying to swindle from the deep south, he was met with a brilliant smile that melted away his thoughts. “You can call me Andy. You know I’m really glad you reached out.” Joey nervously shook the man’s outstretched hand. “I got to be honest with you…I’m not really interested in buying this piece of shit.”

“Oh? So, we are both wasting our time?”

There it was, that insanely stunning smile again. Joey could kick himself for how it made his heart beat wildly in his chest.

“This is my grandmother’s journal. She had written about this place and I think once you read it you will understand why I’m here.”

It was a little black notebook, leather bound, the pages frayed yellow at its edges. It seemed to be a diary from the year 1927. Though handwritten, the penmanship was still clear and legible. And what a story it was.

Joey had never known anything about his Great Aunt Delilah besides that she had built this house. The diary confirmed that as Andy’s grandmother, Fiona, told of hiding something of great value inside the house. It was a sapphire broach which Andy said would nowadays be valued at $20,000 dollars. Yet that was not the part of the story that touched something inside Joey. The way Fiona wrote of Delilah, of how she had wanted to run away with her and live a life “unencumbered by society’s rules” …

“They were lesbians!” he exclaimed, grinning before remembering where he was and turning to look cautiously at Andy.

“Yeah, you got a problem with that?” Andy asked, arms crossing over his chest.

“Ha, no, I am far past my days of living in my own closet, thank you.” He was pleasantly surprised by Andy’s response and noted the curiosity in his eyes as he seemed to look upon Joey in a new light.

“Let’s go find this broach.”

Joey knew his great aunt had been married, had children in that marriage, and had only left this place when she was too old to take care of herself. He wondered what she had been holding on to. As he walked into the perilously creaking house though he realized he needed to concentrate on the task at hand.

“It says she hid it in the floorboards of Delilah’s bedroom. That means we have to somehow get up those stairs.” He licked his lips nervously at the thought of climbing rickety stairs in a crumbling house. Yet as Andy’s hand slipped into his he found himself guided up.

“Honestly, if you wanted to kill me, Andy, you did not need such an elaborate story. You easily could have tricked me with a dinner and movie.”

Andy’s laugh was low in his chest, “Come on, you big baby, if you fall through the floor I will catch ya.”

They both made it up without issue, and stepping carefully on the floorboards, tried to determine which one the broach was hidden under.

“I mean I know there is the obvious answer, that there was not much choice in those days, but I don’t see why Delilah did not go with Fiona. Do you think it was an unrequited kind of thing?” Joey asked. He had never hunted for hidden treasure before, but he supposed he wound know the right creak of a loose floorboard when he heard it.

Andy was more meticulous as he got down on his hands and knees, tapping on floorboards and pulling up a few he must have found promising. “I don’t know but…Joey, I think this is it.”

Throwing caution to the wind, Joey all but ran over. Carved on the floorboard were two initials D.E. and F.T. Excitedly, Joey helped Andy dig the floorboard out. There within a tin box lay. Joey picked it up carefully and pulled the lid. The broach lay shining brightly. Next to it lay a letter. Joey was delicate as he pulled the letter open.

“Dearest Fiona,

I write to you with only heavy regret in my heart. I have spent my life wishing to be by your side. Would that I could go back to that rainy afternoon when you asked for my faith in you. Yet then I had thought I already belonged to others. My heart always remained only yours.

When I found your broach I wondered why you left it here for me after I broke your heart to pieces. Was it to remind me of what I had lost? Was it to give me something beautiful to hold on to? I could have used the money to spruce this place up, to start a new life elsewhere, but what life would be good enough without you in it?

I hope one day after I am gone you find this letter. I hope you use this broach to start another fire like the one that still burns in my heart for you. More than that, I hope that you and I will be reunited in heaven. Forgive me my cowardice. I surrounded myself with material things, with this house that falls apart around me now, and none of it was ever good enough to fill the hole left in my heart at your departure. I love you.

May we meet again in a more forgiving time,

Your Delilah”

Tears blurred his vision as he finished reading. Andy too seemed stunned to silence for a moment. He placed the broach in Joey’s hand, closing his fingers around it. “This is your inheritance. You should keep it.”

“It was meant for you grandmother. You should keep it-“

“It’s all bullshit. This place it just…it was never enough. Never made up for what they both lost.” Andy was pacing, a dangerous thing to do in a house so decrepit, and Joey reached out to put a hand on his arm to stop him.

“There is something I need your help with, Andy.”

Robert had left endlessly angry voicemails in Joey’s phone ever since the weekend had ended. He understood why, setting a place on fire and watching it burn to the ground was illegal even if you owned the property. As soon as Joey had read Delilah’s mournful letter though he had known what he wanted to do with her old house.

Andy had fuel in the back of his beat-up truck and the two of them covered the crumbling estate in the gasoline before setting it aflame. It took all night for the fire to burn through everything till only the foundation, charred and unrecognizable, remained.

The good thing about being in the middle of nowhere was that no one called the cops on their arson. He understood why Delilah had left him this house. Perhaps she had heard of how out and proud he was or perhaps she had thought he was the only person that would ever understand her. Either way, when he and Andy went to cash in on the money for the broach they did so together.

As far as first dates went, he doubted anything would ever top the story of how he started his fire with Andy.