Page 76 of A Light in the Dark
“Show me your basement,” Joel requested. “I have my work phone, so I can do the preliminary work before you do your installation, and that’ll simplify the process.”
Unlike Madeline’s home, which only had a trapdoor in the floor, I’d gone through the hassle of having an actual stairwell installed, and I guided him to the door, disguised to be a closet in the hallway. I grabbed the flashlight from the shelf I’d installed, turned it on, and descended into the darkness, shining the beam on the place for the bathroom.
Joel came down, and he whistled at the cavernous space. “This is larger than your actual house, isn’t it?”
I moved the beam in the direction of my garden. “It goes right to the neighboring houses.” After a moment of thought, I pointed the light at the ceiling where the garden was. “Can you charge me a fortune for shoring that part?”
Joel checked his phone. “It’s already shored, so no. I’m going to have to refuse that request. There’s a contractor note that they shored the ceiling of this basement due to it not aligning with the house, and it was done as a bonus installation to save them time, effort, and aggravation later. And if it gave out, we’d be on the hook anyway. You paid for the basement shoring, so it’s not your problem we had to do the ceiling.”
“I really like that contract. It is my friend.”
“It really is. You want a bathroom. What else do you want down here?”
I pointed my light at the fireplace area, which was already rigged for everything except the final chimney, which would run up along the wall near where my house connected to the neighbor’s up the hill. “I left that part of the garden undone, but the idea was to install a brick grill outside and a fireplace down here, with the chimney serving both.”
That caught the attention of both men, and my boss scampered into the basement to go have a closer look at the space.
After a few minutes of discussion with my boss, Joel turned to me and said, “You’ll invite us over to visit, right?”
“That depends on if you know someone who can help make that idea a reality.”
“Our flutter has at least six people capable of doing this, and five of them are certified with my company. I’ll probably get the whole lot of them helping with the project. I want to get the sixth one certified, but she has to have a base number of jobs that exceed our standards. This job is complicated enough to possibly get her on the certified list. And the rest of the space?”
I pointed across to the other side of the basement. “Two bedrooms there. The rest of the space will be a crafting area and a reading area. The fireplace will be on the side with the reading area.”
“Might I recommend a small bar so you can read with a drink?” Joel pointed at a spot near the designed fireplace.
“Sure. I don’t drink much, but having fancy non-alcoholicdrinks while reading would be pleasant. I’ll have potted roses situated throughout this area.”
Joel pointed at the ceiling. “Hanging plant lights will be required.”
“Along with strong, manly men who can move those roses down the stairs.” I herded them up back to the main floor, closed the door behind me, and hunted for my purse, keys, and phone, all of which I’d need if I ended up paying a visit to the hospital. “I want a fancy chair for my basement, nice floors that are pleasant when barefoot, and a crafting station.”
“The hardware store will have your flooring options, so let’s start there,” Joel suggested. “We can then make the rest up as we go. Just give me a minute to give Lois a call and send her the recipe for Elenora’s death cobbler. Let’s not take any chances.”
“Next time, wear gloves,” my boss suggested.
“I think I will. But hey, I got a really nice baking dish for my trouble, and she even paid for the bill.”
“That doesn’t make her any less crazy, but at least she’s a considerate crazy. Also, why aren’t you reporting her to the police?”
“I never thought I’d literally experience someone trying to kill me with kindness. I have to respect that level of dedication. And do you think the police would even believe me if I told them my neighbor had spent the last four or so years of my life poisoning me? And Ilikedit.”
“We need to work on that part of things,” he muttered. “You are not supposed to like when someone poisons you.”
“Apparently, the way to my heart is through my stomach, and I have a taste for strangleberry. I could live without theothers, though—although I will admit some of them are pretty tasty.”
“Until they kill you.” Joel glared at me.
“Don’t you glare at me. You atethe entire thing. I recognized she’d included poison and only ate enough to meet the basic requirements of being polite.”
“She has you there,” my boss said, and he gave Joel a push towards my front door. “Let’s just get going, and we’ll all meet at the hardware store so we can get flooring. Please limit your squabbling. And Valerie? He squabbles when he’s upset something has happened to someone he likes. Just stand your ground. He’ll work through it eventually.”
I snickered at my boss’s advice for dealing with my neighbor. “I think I can handle one little luna moth for the ride to the hardware store.”
“At the very least, wait ten minutes until you have any symptoms, okay?”
“While I can’t control that, I’ll try.”
