The Secret of Zormna Clendar by Julie Steimle (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

from upstairs, passing to the outside.

Jennifer followed her out there. She had never been in the backyard before. But she now saw that Zormna had strung out most of the rugs and drapery on the lines, going from one side of the far fence that encircled the yard to the other. The rest was ordinary lawn that would probably have to be mowed.

The washer banged, rumbling out of balance.

Dropping her load on the grass, Zormna ran back in and kicked at the machine.

“Hey!” Jennifer ran back, yanking open the top of the washer. Reaching in, Jennifer pulled the sheets back around the center drum. “Just balance it out again!”

Zormna rolled her eyes, but nodded.

Jennifer went back to vacuuming. 

Kevin arrived at ten forty-three with his father’s tool box. He hefted it with a manly nod to Jennifer in the living room then directly went into the kitchen to replace aerators and peek at the plumbing. To be civil, he also nodded at Zormna when he saw her rush by with another laundry load. This time it was blankets from an upstairs bed. Shaking her head with an up-rolled gaze when she saw him, Zormna nodded back as she hurried outside.

He exchanged a look with Jennifer before he went back to work underneath the sink. He sneezed.

“It is really dusty in here.”

Chuckling, Jennifer turned off the vacuum.

Strolling into the kitchen, she smiled at her boyfriend. His hair was tousled to the side. A smudge of dirt rubbed along his cheek where he must have brushed something off his face. When he looked to her, his eyes sparkled.

Yeah… Her mom was right about one thing. A man looked manlier when working.

*

Zormna emerged from the backyard entirely covered in dust. It was grimy and unpleasant, but getting it all out of that house was satisfying. Dust was the bane of human existence, and unfortunately everywhere. A thorough body-scrubbing would be required once all this was done.

As she looked once to the living room, Zormna noticed the vacuum standing lonely in the center of the carpet. Most of the carpet dust was gone, but certainly not completely. Had Jennifer gone home?

A giggle echoed from the kitchen.

Following the sound, Zormna passed through the room to the kitchen doorway.

Kevin was leaning back against the counter. His arms were around Jennifer, strategically placed. Both were nose to nose, lips to lips, grinning in between kisses.

“Oh, please.” Zormna moaned and turned to go to the stairs. “If you two did not come here to help, go home.”

They both groaned peevishly as she left. But she did not care. Mischief in the kitchen was not needed nor helpful.

The vacuum started up about a minute later.

Once done with shaking out the big things for the laundry, Zormna went back out to check up on the progress on the outside. The boys had already started to paint over the old blue with the paint from the garage. Todd and Mark had written things on the wall in paint, most of them insults at each other, but Brian was up top in the gable corner filling in the wall smoothly. Down below, Jonathan was touching up the white trim. He grinned when he saw her.

“How goes the work?” Zormna called up.

Todd and Mark hastily smeared paint over the words on the wall. They shifted their bodies to hide the mess.

“Fine,” Brian said.

“Hey,” Jonathan called back, “Could you bring out something to drink? We’re completely parched.”

Zormna nodded. She smirked at the other boys as she went indoors for water. It was only fair since they were doing the work as they had promised. But as she went in, her eye caught on that annoying pest, Darren Asher. He was watching them all from a side window. Ignoring him, she continued on after water. It was best.

When she returned with pitchers of water and cups, the boys descended from their respective ladders like carrion birds. There had been a passing crowd of curious people on the sidewalk all day. Brian waved at the passersby who watched them. The other boys took it in stride.

Mark examined his cup wryly. “You didn’t have anything else?”

Shrugging, Zormna peeked once at the little girl now staring at them from the Ashers’ yard. “No. I don’t exactly live here. The house has been empty for two years—according to everyone.”

Jonathan snickered, taking a cup with a peek at the old couple that had now paused on the walk. The elderly man squinted at them, then whispered to the woman in a large flower-print dress standing with him.

Todd nodded, then switched to shaking his head with a chuckle. “Of course. We should have remembered that.”

Leaning near, Brian nudged him in the side. “We’d better order in something for lunch.”

“It’s cheaper to do a food run at the store,” Todd said. He then got up to do just that. “Anything you guys want?”

“Cokes,” Mark said.

Jonathan waved for attention. “Deli sandwiches. And make it kosher for pity’s sake.”

“Ice cream,” Brian said then elbowed Mark in the side, “And something non-carbonated.”

“Drink your water.” Mark jabbed him back.

Todd looked to Zormna. “What do you want?”

Blushing, Zormna shrugged. “I trust your judgment. Just make it something that does not require a fork.”

Grinning widely, Todd nodded. “Will do.”

The elderly couple had moved on. But now a handful of kids stood on the sidewalk, watching Todd hop down the grass to Jonathan’s Volkswagen Rabbit. Some kids were dragging baseball bats and carrying mitts to Pennington Park. The kids got out of his way, but continued to stare up at Zormna. She could see from their wide eyes that they recognized her resemblance to the former owner of the house.

Zormna returned indoors. There was still a lot of work to be done.  

While unearthing all the sheets and blankets that needed washing, Zormna had discovered a smaller vacuum in a closet next to the laundry room. It had a mostly empty bag. Seeing it gave her an idea. After switching another load from the drier to a table to be folded, and from the washer to the drier, Zormna grabbed the vacuum and went after the cobwebs. She also tackled the dust on the furniture and walls, using the long extension tube. Jennifer joined her in dusting after she had vacuumed the entire house once.

Todd returned with the food some time after noon. He lugged out of the car foot-long submarine sandwiches, sodas, and popsicles—which Zormna responsibly reimbursed, despite Todd’s feigned protests. Todd wanted to be a gentleman. She could see that. But the food cost a lot more than he had anticipated. Everyone working converged upon him with arms in the air and cheers. As they sat on the grass to eat, some of the neighborhood kids gazed at the food longingly. But Todd shooed them away. The little girl from next door was the only one that stayed. Her eyes followed Zormna the way a cat watched a fish in a bowl.

Jennifer sat with Kevin on the front steps. They murmured together, still somewhat amorous. But Zormna lingered with the four boys on the grass. The boys laughed and chatted while Todd took pictures. They kept joking about putting something up on YouTube, though Zormna was not aware of what exactly.

Truth was, her body ached and her mind wandered. It had been a while since she had done so much cleaning. The last time had been…when was that? Zormna mused over it while eating this new sandwich that Todd had pressed into her hands. It had been ages really since she had been punished with KP. All that scrubbing by herself in the bathrooms.

Now, looking over the grass, seeing the weary yet happy friends around her, she wondered at it.

Friends.

It was a strange feeling, really.

Sitting among friends.

Jennifer was more right than Zormna had liked to admit. She never did have a whole lot of friends. Not ever. And she knew it was mostly her fault. People either were competitive with her, resented her, or were envious of her. And those who had said they wanted to be with her really didn’t want to be with her. They wanted to be with the image of her. Which was why she always was so prickly with other people first off.

It was also why she had so few friends but many admirers.

Were these boys her friends? Were Jennifer and Keven her friends? And was this quiet, easy-going sort of existence all she had to look forward to for the rest of her life? This kind of place with this kind of people?

It wasn’t an altogether bad thing. Just…different.

“Ready to start again?” Brian asked, wiping the sandwich crumbs off his lap.

His pals groaned together.

“Let us rest a little longer, please!” Mark protested.

But Zormna promptly hopped to her feet and slapped Brian on the back with a grin. “We only have a little bit to go before we’re finished.”

The boys perked up, sharing looks.

Todd nodded, sighing. “I’m ready to start again.”

And he heaved himself off the grass, going back to the ladder. The house was nearly two-thirds painted then anyway.

Mark and Jonathan squared their shoulders and marched back to their ladders to fill up the remaining blue patches they had left.

“Just remember her promise,” Jonathan reminded Mark. “We’ll get to use the house for a party some time.

Nodding, Mark picked up his paint brush.

Jennifer and Kevin shared another look. They watched Zormna pass through the front door to continue her cleaning. With a sigh, they followed her in.

Darren joined the little girl next door, calling her in to lunch.

*

Two o’clock in the afternoon, Todd and his pals had finished the entire outside. They stood on the lawn admiring their work. Rubbing their shoulders and necks they called for Zormna to come out.

She jogged to the sidewalk then peered up.

“Perfect.”

The four boys grinned. The place never looked better. Even the watchers on the sidewalk agreed.

Mark stretched his sore shoulder, rotating his arm as he rubbed the painful spot.

“We’re done for the day,” Jonathan said. She notice that he had turned away to go before Zormna could ask for them to help inside.

Brian exhaled also. Nodding while massaging the muscles on his neck, he said, “Yeah. We can come back to finish some other time. I’m beat.”

Blinking up at their work, which was neatly done—including where all the words Todd and Mark had written, now smeared flat and indistinguishable from the rest of the paint—Zormna sighed. “Of course. I did not expect you to stay all day.”

Their smiles hitched up again. All four boys wished Zormna well, Todd among them. He collected the mower to push it towards Brian’s house. Brian did stay, however, to help her gather all the paint cans. They dumped the empty ones into the trash and stored what was left in the garage for later use. When he left, Zormna returned to the house.

Kevin walked out the front door at the same time, carrying his father’s tools.

“You are leaving too?” she asked.

Kevin lifted her eyes and nodded. “Yes. I need to get back home for a dinner party my folks are having. I gotta wash up.”

“Thanks for helping.”

He blinked at her, mildly startled.

“Thanks for helping me,” she said again.

Kevin’s mouth curled into a faint grin. He stepped down to the walk, waving. “Don’t mention it.”

He loaded his things into his car on the curb.

Zormna went inside the house.

The vacuum leaned against the wall. And though the place could use another vacuuming, everything was significantly less dusty than before.

In the center of the room surrounded by boxes, Jennifer was sorting out things they could get rid of in a garage sale. The house was way too full of useless junk, and Jennifer had insisted.

However, Zormna returned to the kitchen. She had been cleaning out two-year’s worth of dust off the fancy dishes she had found in the high cupboards.

They worked in silence, now that the boys had gone with the radio.

“Hey, Zormna, c’mere,” Jennifer called to her.

Wondering what was up, Zormna came into the room with the finely crafted