Henry groaned in his sleep.
Thump thump thump thump thump
He opened his eyes slowly. They focused on the fireplace that was now extinguished from last night. He didn't know what the time was, he couldn't make out the hands on the clock that sat on top of the fireplace mantel. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. It had stopped snowing and the sun had come out.
"I suppose I should take a look..." his thought was interrupted by the thumping he heard in his sleep. Only now, it was clear that someone was knocking at the door. Henry got up and proceeded to the front. As he came closer to the door he could see the head of a man with blonde hair and piercing eyes standing on the porch. He was pretty unsettling looking, especially with those eyes, they almost seemed to glow, and Henry suddenly felt uncomfortable with the idea of opening the door.
With the door cracked open just enough to talk to the man, he asked him if he could help him.
"I'm looking for Henry Banks."
Henry didn't know what to make of the fact someone was looking for him, here, of all places especially since he hadn't been in the town for more than 12 hours. He then had a sudden thought that this may be the father of one of the boys he had told the pizza kid to call if they had a problem with them staying away from the house.
"Who's asking?"
The man sighed a little, "I'm Jeff Monogan. I was instructed to drop off a delivery for Henry Banks today."
Henry opened the door a little more and saw that the man was in a nice grey suit. He was actually very well put together.
"A delivery?"
"Yes, sir."
"What kind of 'delivery'?" Henry was still a little cautious as he stepped out on the porch with Jeff and closed the door behind him. Jeff cleared his throat, "That," he said pointing to the driveway, "delivery."
Henry looked to his left and saw a silver SUV.
"What?" he asked Jeff.
"The vehicle. I was instructed to deliver it to you today."
"By who?" At first Henry thought it would be Mr. Tumwater that had sent the delivery since he was the only one who knew Henry was here, and would be here, today.
"I was not told by whom," Jeff stated, "It's actually been at our garage for a while now, and we were instructed to come here on this day to deliver it to you."
"But," Henry tried to wrap around his head what Jeff had just said, "...how? What?"
"I just need you to sign this form so we can put it in our inventory that you have received the delivery."
Henry took the clipboard from Jeff and signed the paper while still glancing sideways at the SUV.
"I don't understand how you guys would know I was here today. I just arrived here last night and I just learned about this place a few days ago." He thought more, "you must have at least seen the person who left me this car, right?"
"No sir," Jeff went on, "we were actually notified of this delivery by mail months ago. There was an anonymous letter sent to our lot with a check for the amount of this particular vehicle. It stated you would be arriving in Moonlight Falls yesterday and we were instructed to deliver the vehicle to you today. This is all I know, sir."
Henry scratched his head.
"The vehicle is yours," he handed Henry the keys, "enjoy! And have a good day!" And with that Jeff headed to a second car that was waiting for him on the side of the road in front of Henry's house. Henry went back in the house, threw on his coat and came back out half expecting the vehicle to be gone, but it wasn't. There, directly in front of his porch stairs, sat the silver SUV shining in the sun. Henry was stunned by it and stood on the porch, for what seemed like hours, staring at his new toy.
How was it that the delivery men got a letter from an unknown person that knew Henry would be here months before Henry, himself, would know?
So many thoughts swirled his head, he could feel himself start to get a headache, and his stomach, once again, let him know it was time to get some food.
"Well, let's take her for a spin, I guess." he thought, "now that I've got wheels, I should get to know my way around since I'll probably be here a while."
The driveway was big enough that Henry was able to turn around near the garage doors. He pulled out of his driveway and headed toward the big clock tower, which he assumed must be the heart of the town. Hopefully, he would be able to find some shops to get necessities.
It was easy to get confused. He was able to find the clock tower, that wasn't a problem, but there were no shops near it like he had hoped. The town seemed deserted. He looked at the clock on the SUV's dash, "10:30 A.M". He drove some more before he finally saw what looked like a small grocery store. Having almost passed it, he slammed on the brakes, but quickly found himself sliding sideways past the store.
"Shit! Shiiiiiiiit!"
The SUV stopped, facing in the direction Henry had just come from. He was breathing heavily, and his grip on the steerwheel was so tight he could see his knuckles turning white.
"Let's not do that again," he said to himself, "mental note...vehicles cannot stop on the dime in snow." He gulped hard before taking his foot off the brake and gently applying pressure to the gas. He was thankful he hadn't crashed into a tree, a building, or heaven forebid, another person, but he was even more happy that there was no other cars on the road at the moment to beep at him to get his ass moving. He crept up to the store, which was now on his right, and pulled in. The parking lot was small, so small that it probably only accomodated four or five cars. The owner also hadn't had the lot shoveled or plowed, so getting into a parking spot was a little bit of a challenge, but nothing like what he had just been through with trying to get the car to stop. After shutting off the car, he hopped out and looked at the store. The town, the store, everything was so quiet. He hoped the store was open, or at least going to open soon. As he walked to the door, he noticed lights on inside. He pulled the door and went inside.
Forty-five minutes later, Henry exited the shop with five bags of groceries. The prices were so inexpensive, that he loaded up on everything he needed, and didn't break his bank account doing it. The place even had a small bistro inside where he had decided to get himself a latte and croissant before he started his grocery shopping. The woman running the shop was a nice little lady, named June. She was older, maybe in her sixties, and Henry found out that she had been running the shop for about 30 years. Even though he wasn't the type to chat, he enjoyed talking with June. When she learned he had just moved to Moonlight Falls, he was hesitant to mention his house, but him doing so didn't seem to phase June. She just stated that that was a lovely house and asked more about himself. Henry had had such a great time at the shop, that he made her a promise he would stop in again within the next few days. She had also told him where he could find some other shops and pointed him in the direction of the art museum.
After finding his way home, and putting his groceries away, he ventured out to find the shops June had told him about. With her written directions, it was much easier than just driving around and hoping to find something during his drive. He was also getting the hang of driving in snow. His first, and only, stop was a furniture shop that didn't look too promising from the outside. But one step inside proved, to even the most skeptical person, that the store was huge. Two floors and it stretched very far back. Looking around, he noticed some of the furniture that was in the house.
"Welcome!"
Henry jumped a bit. The sales man seemed to have come out of nowhere.
"uh, hi?" Henry finally said after catching his breath.
"Anything we can help you with? We have some very nice pieces here."
"I see that. In fact, a lot of the furniture I see here is in my house."
"Wonderful!"
"Maybe to you," the man's bigger than life smile faded, "but it's not really my taste."
The salesman chuckled, "may I ask, then, why did you purchase it?"
"I didn't," Henry said glancing at a few things, "my father did when he lived there."
"Oh!" The smile was back, "I see!"
Henry glared at him. This guy seemed to be way to happy for his taste.
"Listen," Henry said while rubbing his chin,"the stuff in the house is brand new, and as I stated, not really my taste. Any way I could return it and get store credit or trade it for something a bit more...up to date?"
"Up to date? This is up to date!" The man said making a big gesture like a circus ring leader.
"hmmm," Henry thought for a moment, "what I mean, is, do you have anything modern, or contemporary?"
The man still smiling, shook his head no very quickly.
"Okay. Well, what about returning the items?"
"Do you have your delivery receipt?"
"Oh, uh, no..."
"Perhaps you are in our database, let's go take a look, shall we?" The man lead Henry over to a desk with a computer, "now I'll need the name that was used for the delivery, do you know that?"
"I should hope so. It's 'Banks'".
The man's face dropped into a frown, "Banks,"
"That's right."
"Well, let's see what we can find, hmm?" the man said enthusiastically again. He typed quickly into the computer. "Here we are, 'Banks'. 29 South Falls Avenue?"
"Yes, that's the place."
"Are you sure you want to return those items? I see your father had purchased...."
"Again, they were in his taste. The house was recently left to me, and the furniture is not really what I want for furniture, so yes, I am sure I would like to have those items returned."
The man had Henry fill out a lot of paper work and mentioned that the delivery truck could be there this afternoon to pick up the items. Henry thanked him and headed home.
***
While waiting for the delivery men, Henry decided to take a look on the second floor. He quickly realized how unfinished the house was. The hall on the second floor had been painted and flooring had been laid down, but there were doors missing to rooms, and he had no idea where each room was. He was going to have to contact Mr. Tumwater and ask him if he knew where Henry could get in contact with the contractor. He was about to head back downstairs when he noticed a door to the left. He was a bit shocked to see a door there since the rest of the hallway had none.
Maybe it was because it was dark on that end of the hall, maybe it was because of the unknown behind the door, but whatever it was, it made Henry anxious. He pulled himself together and walked over to the door and opened it.
A rush of cool air greeted his face. He had found the master bedroom. This room, like the others, was not of Henry's taste, but he liked it better than the others. He decided that he didn't want to send these items back.
As he looked around the room, he saw a walk-in closet, and a bathroom which was unfinished. He sighed at the thought of having another room he would need to finish, but at least the plumbing was already set up for him to use.
As he stood there, looking at the unfinished bathroom, he realized that he had unconsciously decided to stay in the house. He was removing the old furniture downstairs, and already planned to have it replaced with furniture that was more of his taste. He took a breath and dialed the number he knew he HAD to dial.
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