I had to be very careful about that part, trying not to let it slip to Hal that she has amnesia. Hal did pick up that we were avoiding something, but he was good enough to not bring it up. He did ask later, and all I could say was that it wasn't my place to tell him. He accepted that answer, but I don't think he liked it. People have a funny reaction to secrets that they know are being kept from them. We'll have to see how this plays out.
Candace was quiet most of the day. She was very animated while we were at the gym, and I could see that she had been feeling cooped up lately and was happy to get out at all. She had had fun during the tubing party and was still going on about it. She did make sure Hal's black eye was doing better, and was pleased to see that it was almost gone.
But as we dug in to Eli's rooms, she got very quiet. I'm not sure she recognized a lot of the stuff we were looking at. Some of it I didn't recognize myself. Hal was able to point out that one of the boxes was packed full of M.R.E.'s. Though he was surprised to find they were more than five years old. He said they might be edible, but they wouldn't be good, and suggested we throw them out.
There was another box that was quite heavy. We opened it up to see what it contained and found stakes and horseshoes. Candace seemed scared to touch them, I think she was worried of getting tetanus or something. I didn't know what they were, but Hal said it was game that could be set up in the yard.
There were piles and piles of old magazines, for guns, outdoors, National Geographic, farmer's almanacs, and newspapers. A collection of knives, cavalry swords, machete's, and of all things beanie babies. The gun cabinet was locked and we had no clue where to find the key. Candace was suggesting we break our way in, but Hal mentioned that it might not be safe. Instead he helped us move it because it was placed directly in front of the rooms closet. In that we found uniforms, fatigues, coats, and a pile of cinder blocks.
Above the rack was a shelf that we needed Hal's help to reach. There were two boxes stuffed full with letters. Most of them seemed to have been sent by his mom, but we even found a bunch sent by Sam. I suggested we let Sam have them and that he could get the rest back to his parents. Candace nodded.
Seeing those letters made me think of Efe. I should write him more. Much more.
There was so much more than I can list here, we even excavated a perfectly good coffee table that was desperately needed in the living room. Under it was a statue of a bull dog.
We spent a good three hours working on things, organizing them and moving stuff into the garage. I didn't realize it, but Eli had a '69 mustang parked in there. Candace said she only ever went in there to use the freezer and hadn't ever looked under the tarp. She didn't seem to understand why Hal and I were thrilled to see it. It looked in great condition, the tires were low, and the dash was sun baked. There were rust spots in places, and it looked like the trunk had been replaced. But for the most part, it looked like it was in great shape.
While we were in there I asked about Eli's tools and the stuff he had stored in the garage. Candace said she hadn't thought about it, but since we were going through his rooms we may as well go through the garage too. After all we had already done though, this'd have to be done some other time.
We were starting to get hungry though and Candace called Sam to see how things were going on his end. He said a client had showed up yesterday with a particular request and it was taking him longer to complete the order than he had thought. He apologized saying dinner would be late. I knew I needed to talk to Candace alone though so I asked if it would help if someone could do the shopping for him. Sam thought it was a great idea and said he could send us a list. So I asked Hal if he could do that while Candace and I cleaned up for dinner.
With Hal gone I figured we could be more candid about Candace's amnesia and asked how she was doing. Candace seemed fine, but I think the letters got to her. She pointed out that he'd saved letters from his parent's, from Sam, but after everything we'd looked through, she didn't find anything saved from her. I didn't have any good response to that and just hugged her and held her for a bit.
Once she'd calmed down, I raised the subject of Jane Doe. Candace hadn't heard anything, so I had to explain that Jane Doe was a name that was often given to women who's identity was unknown. In this case it was because like Candace, the girl had amnesia. I suggested that at the very least, they might be able to give each other company with shared experience, something the rest of us couldn't understand.
Candace seemed open to that idea, but asked if Jane wanted to meet her. I said we won't know until we ask. Still, she wanted Sam's approval. I accepted, these were her terms, I don't have to like them. She said she'd talk to Sam separately, she was still wary about anyone else knowing about her amnesia. Meaning after Hal got back we didn't speak about it again.
Dinner was good though, Hal was blown away. He'd had no idea how good a cook Sam was. Even more so, he recognized the dish as having roots all the way back to the Celts. He said in one of his anthropology classes he came to understand the importance of food in culture. Since then he'd always wanted to see about trying any ancient and exotic dish he could find. He was well versed in the names of dishes, but hadn't yet had the chance to really find out what they were.
After dinner though we showed Sam what we'd done. He was impressed with our work and asked if there was anything else that we might need his help to move. The gun cabinet we were only able to move so far, so between him and Hal they got it situated against the wall in a far more convenient spot. Sadly Sam didn't have any further clue about where we might find the key. Though he did think he could break the lock if no key was ever found.
Sam did inform us that Eli's mustang was something he'd always wanted growing up. After he'd come home from the service he bought the one in the garage and spent a great deal of time fixing it up. The rear doors had been replaced and repainted along with the trunk. We found new siding and trim to replace the rust spots that Eli had never gotten to. And I guess the engine had needed a lot of work but was one of the first things Eli got to fix. Sam even knew where to find the keys and after opening the garage he started it up. I could feel the cars deep rumble all the way into my soul, it was a beautiful sound.
Finally we delivered to Sam the box of letters we'd found. He sat down on the couch and started going through them quietly. We left him be while we busied ourselves doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. At one point though I looked over and saw Sam crying. Even now my heart goes out to him.
Before we left, Sam did clean himself up to hide that he'd been crying, and he thanked us for the letters and for helping Candace. He said his parents would be happy to get the letters back. Candace was good enough to offer that if they wanted to come over, they could go through Eli's stuff and claim anything they wanted first. Sam appreciated that.
By then it was late, so Hal drove me home. Tomorrow I'll be going back to work.
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