Then the Lowells were ready to reciprocate. “You’ll be the first,” Nancy said to Ruth. “In honor of all the help you’ve given us.”
Ruth felt such excitement as the appointed hour approached that her hands were actually trembling. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes glittered. She patted her hair into place one last time.
By the time she knocked on the Lowells’ door, her heart was pounding so she could hardly breathe. She tapped twice on the wood of the door and then laid her hand gently against it. It was her tree!
The door opened, and Ruth yanked her hand from its surface. She felt for a moment that her greed must be evident, but Nancy ushered her right in. She had seen nothing.
Later, over drinks, Ruth waved her hand to include the entire house: “This is just marvelous,” she said.
Nancy was pleased. She reached to take David’s hand. “We like it, too. It’s everything we ever wanted.” They looked at each other and smiled.
They had misunderstood. Of course the house was beautiful. But it was more than that. “I’m told that all this is from one tree,” Ruth said.
“Well,” said David, “we had to stretch it some. But most of it is that old cedar.”
“We felt so guilty,” said Nancy, rearranging the appetizers to make them more accessible to Ruth. “That giant must have been standing since the beginning of time. I’m so glad we were able to use it.” She got up to look out the front window. “Your gardens are so lovely, Ruth. You must give me some pointers on landscaping this place.” She adjusted a fold in the curtain and returned to her seat beside David.
“Well,” Ruth said, replacing her glass on the little table beside her chair, “I have to thank you, and gardening tips might just be the way to do it.”
“Thank us for what?” asked Nancy.
“I’ve lived here fifty years. I’ve had that big cedar beside me all that time.” She saw David look at Nancy: he thought Ruth was going to complain. “It was there when my husband died.” She paused, remembering the rough presence of the tree during that horrible time. “I never thought that I would actually get to be inside my tree. That’s why I have to thank you.”
Nancy, relieved, turned to David. “Isn’t it lucky we felt as we did about the tree? Someone else might have just cut it into firewood.” She turned back to Ruth. “Oh, I’m so happy for you!”
Ruth didn’t hear. Her attention was fixed on the blank wall at the end of the room. Seeing her preoccupation, Nancy started to explain that they still had some way to go before they were completely finished decorating.
Ruth interrupted. “Would you excuse me for a moment?” she asked. She got to her feet, looking down at the startled couple but still seeing the empty wall in her mind. She brushed aside their questions and started for the door. “I’ll only be a minute. Just stay where you are.”
Inside her own house, she removed the framed needlepoint sampler from the wall of her living room. It would do perfectly. It was copied from an old museum piece and contained Ruth’s name as part of its design. It had taken the better part of a year to complete.
She rushed back, clutching the intricate piece of work. “Here!” she said, thrusting it at the couple. “A housewarming gift. For your wall.”
Nancy took it from Ruth’s hands. “Oh, Ruth,” she said. “It’s lovely! But it’s yours.” She looked closer at the gift. “It must have taken months to complete!”
Gratified, Ruth resumed her seat. “It did,” she said. “And it’s yours. I won’t take it back.”
Nancy held the needlework against the surface of the wall. “First thing tomorrow,” she said. “We’ll hang it, and it’ll be the focus for whatever we do to this wall.”
During dinner, Ruth learned that the Lowells had moved from an apartment in the city. “This is our first real home,” said Nancy. “The first place to have actual earth around it.” She dabbed at her mouth with her napkin. “That’s why you’ll have to teach me about gardening.”
Ruth smiled absently. She was preoccupied. She wanted to live in the cedar house.
Later, snug in bed, Ruth admonished herself for her greedy thoughts during dinner. Covet not, she thought. She drifted down into sleep while her needlepoint stood guard.
“Well, Ruth,” said Vera, snapping the flowered cloth to cover the wooden table on the deck. “How was your dinner with the new neighbors?”
Ruth opened the screen door with her elbow, juggling the silver and the plate of pastries. “It was nice,” she said putting her load in the middle of the table.
Vera went inside to get the rest of the tea things. She brought the pot and cups back with her. “They look like nice people,” she said. She filled the two cups. “And it was certainly kind of you to give them that sampler I’ve always admired so.”
Ruth sipped at the hot beverage, ignoring the arch tone. “Nervous,” she said, with the air of one who has just found the answer to a bothersome question.
“What?”
“Nancy seemed nervous.” Ruth took a bite of pastry. “She was jumpy the whole time.”
“Well, of course she was!” said Vera. “She was meeting a new neighbor.”
“No, it was more than that. She was nervous. And her husband — a traveling salesman, he said. But he doesn’t travel.”
Ruth leaned across the table the better to confide in Vera. “He’s home every night. Traveling salesmen are supposed to be gone for weeks. Isn’t that right?” She reclined in her chair, measuring the effect of her words on Vera. To her disappointment, they had little impact.
She went on, thinking out loud: “They moved here from the city. She’s nervous, and he’s not what he says he is.” She waved her cup at Vera. “Maybe they’re smugglers!”
Vera laughed. “Really, Ruth!”
“No, think about it, Vera. There’s a lot about drug smugglers in the news these days. And it’s always young people, living in city apartments or in nice neighborhoods.”
Vera, still laughing, shook her head.
Ruth snapped. “It’s a possibility, Vera. That’s all. It is something that might be true.”
Vera, realizing she might have overstepped herself, quickly agreed. “Oh yes, Ruth. I never said it wasn’t possible. I just meant that it seemed so unlikely. They are so nice looking and all.”
Satisfied, Ruth looked back at the Lowell house, thinking that if they were drug fiends they would get caught and sent to prison and she could buy the house.
She closed the door behind David’s retreating back and considered just how wrong a person could be. Nancy had been attacked, he’d said. “It’s been over a year, but she’s still jumpy about it. That’s why we moved out here.”
He asked her to keep an eye on the house. “It’s getting to be my busy season, and I’m going to be away from home a lot more. I’m really sorry to impose on you, Ruth. But I’d feel a lot better knowing that someone was sort of watching out for Nancy while I was gone.”
Of course she agreed to keep an eye on the place next door. She felt it to be the least she could do, given the uncharitable thoughts she’d had about her new neighbors. That afternoon, seeing David leave, Ruth put a note on their door inviting Nancy to dinner.
Nancy smoothed her napkin down beside her plate. “That was delicious, Ruth. Just excellent.” She sat for a minute, watching Ruth’s pleased smile. “David asked you to keep an eye on me, didn’t he?”