Chapter Two

Ebony’s first impression of her grandparents ranch house was exactly the same as it had been when she was a five-year-old little girl being dragged there by her parents – huge, run down, and dusty. Rather than a wide expansive lush green lawn surrounding the ranch house, there was dirt and a few tangled weeds that were brave enough to push their heads up above the hard packed earth.

The house itself was even worse. It looked as if it had been built in the 1800s and hadn’t had a repair since then. It looked like a tinderbox ready to explode. The roof was sagging on one end, the porch was in disrepair and some of the windows were boarded up.

“This is it?” Ebony looked at the ranch house with obvious distaste. There was no way she was going to sleep in that disaster waiting to happen. She would rather sleep outside – far away from the ranch house as possible.

Jay grimaced a little and nodded. “Yeah, this is it. It needs a few repairs—“

“A few!” Ebony screeched, staring wide eyed at him. He could not be serious! The ranch house needed to be torn down, not repaired. It was awful! “Jay, you have to be kidding me. This place is not safe for anyone to sleep in. Just look at it. The roof looks like it’s going to fall in at any second.”

Jay rolled his eyes and made no comment, instead, dragging her heavy luggage towards the house leaving Ebony only the option to follow him. With a heavy sigh Ebony kicked at a clod of dirt with the toe of her sneaker and follow after him. If she needed any more reassurance that her time here was doomed she need look no further.

The inside of the ranch house was a bit better, but not much. Her grandmum had very keen decorating taste – for the 1970s… The kitchen was done in a pale pastey yellow and avocado green. Ebony wrinkled her nose. If she had to eat in there every day she would be loosing a lot of weight. The rest of the house was just as bad. Even the couches were very dated.

“So where’s my Grandmum?” Ebony finally asked after scanning the house thoroughly for any signs of life beyond hers and Jay’s. The only other living creature she had seen was an old hound dog that looked like it had even less life in it than the house did.

“She and Jared had to take Ved to the hospital this morning. That’s why I had to pick you up.” Jay stated softly.

“The hospital?” Ebony’s skin began to crawl at just the thought of having to go to the hospital. When she had struggled with several severe cases of illness and had to be hospitalized more times than she could remember.

“Yeah, Ved is,” Jay hesitated, studying Ebony thoughtful with his sensitive dark eyes. “Well, he has some problems. That’s why we’re here.”

“Oh.” Ebony’s brow furrowed. “So you’re not here because you’re parents are paranoid freaks who think you’re going to die of the virus?”

Jay shook his head, a sad expression flitting across his face. “I only wish.” He murmured so softly that Ebony had to strain her ear to hear what he had said.

A sudden wash of sympathy slipped over Ebony as she studied Jay. “Hey, it’s going to be okay.” She subconsciously reached and grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently. “If there’s anything I can do for you, just ask, okay?”

Jay looked up at her and met her comforting gaze, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Thanks.” He murmured, removing his hand from Ebony’s. “Come on. I’ll show you your room.”

Ebony spent the next several hours getting her things set up in her room. It was on the second floor of the ranch house. Jay’s was directly across the hall, and Ebony would have blushed if anyone knew how happy that made her. The room was decorated all in pastel pink and white – two of Ebony’s absolute least favorite colors.

She let out a long sigh, flopping down on the thick pink and white comforter that matched perfectly with the lacey white curtains with delicate light pink trim. “I’m going to go nuts here.” She muttered, rolling over on her stomach, grabbing the fluffy pillow and pulling it down so she could rest her head on it.

She lay in that position for several minutes, allowing her mind to travel back to her home in the city. Java and Siva would be flying out any time now. How she wished she could have gone with them, but her parents didn’t think she was old enough to fly. She snorted at the thought. “Old enough to fly. I’m only a year and a half younger than Siva.” She grumbled.

“You know, talking to oneself is the first sign of insanity.” A gentle voice sounded from Ebony’s doorway, followed by a soft knock.

Ebony whirled around, sitting up on her bed and looked up at the elderly woman she had called Grandmum all her life. She was her mum’s mum, and it was obvious that both her mum and her grandmum were young mothers.

“Grandmum!” Ebony squealed with false enthusiasm, springing to her feet and running over to where her grandparent stood. She threw her arms around her neck and gave her the hug that all grandparents expect from their grandchildren.

“My Ebony, you have grown so much.” Her Grandmum astonished, looking down at her. Though Ebony was only 5’1” she had always been very short as a child and passing five foot was quite an accomplishment. “You look wonderful.”

“You do too.” Ebony lied, taking note of the fine lines and wrinkles that lined her Grandmum’s face. “How’s Grandpa?”

Her Grandmum nodded, shrugging her shoulders a little in a fashion that reminded Ebony very much of her own mum. “He’s well. We’re both so excited to have you here with us. Have you found everything to your liking?”

Ebony had to bite her tongue to keep from blurting out that she felt the house was just awful and her room was ugly. Instead, she just smiled a weak smile and nodded. “I’m a bit homesick, but the place is great.”

“Homesick, already?” Her Grandmum looked down at her sympathetically. “Well, we’ll see what we can do about that. Are you hungry?”

“Hungry?” Ebony’s eyes went wide, her stomach rumbling at the mere mention of food. “I’m famished!”

“Well, good. You need to get some meat on your bones.” Her Grandmum inspected Ebony’s physique and frowned like only a grandmother could.

Ebony chuckled for the first time since arriving at this desolate place, following her Grandmum out of her room and down the narrow stairs to the dinning room. She was looking forward to eating her Grandmum’s fabulous cooking and even more so getting another look at the handsome Jay.