Temptation Road by Kimball Lee Page B

alright?” Reagan asked.
    “Sure thing, it’s real quiet this time of
year, before the snow skiers come. My girl and I live right down
here on the first floor. Mr. Campion, he owns the place, he fixed
us up a handy little apartment. It’ll be nice to have somebody else
in the house, maybe we can visit if you have the time.”
    Reagan picked up a few of her bags and
climbed the split-log stairs and when she was nearly at the top
Dody called after her.
    “You’re even prettier in person, softer
looking and so fresh and young. Can I ask what you’re doing way up
in these mountains and it’s not even ski season yet?”
    Reagan set her bags on the top step and said,
“I’m looking for a house to buy, a certain house. It’s an elaborate
Victorian on Temptation Road, do you know the one?”
    “Oh sure, the Mary’s house. It’s a big old
mess, but I suppose you got all the money in the world to pour into
somethin’ like that.”
    “Could I talk to you about it, the house, I
mean? Let me just put these bags in the room and I’ll come right
back down, if that’s alright?”
    “Sure,” Dody said. “I gotta tell my friend
about this, I swear he’s gonna think I’m full of it! He won’t begin
to believe you’re here in town and that you wanna buy that old
house. Hell, it might get him to talking after all these years from
the shock of it!”
    There was a tiny bar set up on top of a
wooden barrel in the Inn’s public room. Reagan sat on a worn
leather sofa with Dody and sipped from a glass of cheap wine as the
little girl painted all their finger and toe nails. Reagan looked
around the room and felt like she had stumbled into a lost episode
of Little House on the Prairie, and a bad one at that. It was
sparsely furnished with faded checkered curtains at the windows and
threadbare rugs on the floor, the room and the Inn had definitely
seen better days.
    “Tell me about the house,” Reagan said, “why
is it called the Mary’s house and where is it, exactly? I’m anxious
to see it, and I’m not going to be the DeLuca girl any longer so
try to forget about that.”
    “Oh honey, you’ll always be the DeLuca girl,
can’t nobody outrun somethin’ like that, it’s a big deal, and why
would you want to anyway? I’m always reading about you and seeing
you on the Entertainment Channel, if you’re gonna give that life up
then give it to me for a day! Anyway,” Dody went on, “it’s called
the Mary’s house because of the sisters who lived there since
before anyone can remember, and all of them named Mary this or Mary
that. Go to the end of the driveway and turn right on the other
side of the creek, that’s Temptation Road. Follow it up along the
tree line for a couple miles, when it makes a sharp left you’ll see
a big old house right there at the bend of the road. It’s set back
a ways in a clearing, there’s a patch of garden that goes from the
side yard to the forest. You can’t miss it, but if you go too far
you’ll see the signs that say you’re in the National Forest, just
turn around and come back a ways. The fog gets thick that high up
on the mountain in the evenings and once in a while you’ll run
across a bear so you ought not to go alone. Miss Bess Lamar knows
everything there is to know about that house, and she knew the last
Mary’s, too. Go over to the grocery store later on, her son runs it
so she’s always there. How come you’re buying that old place?
There’s stories about it, you know, so I keep my distance, anytime
I leave this driveway I turn left, I don’t never go up that way.
You just wanting a house in the mountains, is that it? Is your
husband gonna be coming up here sometimes? Lord, I’m a fool for all
his movies.”
    *
    That night Reagan lay in bed with her eyes
wide open, excitement had replaced her fear and she couldn’t wait
to set foot in the house. What Dody said about not being able to
out run her DeLuca girl image rang in her head. The new ad campaign
was