Chapter one: The Brand New Fixer Upper

  The jittering of the ancient car traversing a gravel road jolted Nia out of her hour-long nap into the world of heavy metal and her mother’s projected voice following each word as if it was apart of her. Nia settled at the familiar scene. Sometimes it felt like Nia’s whole life was her, her mother, and a new adventure. They’d tried allowing other people into their little world, but no one ever really stuck.

  Nia had an entire album full of people from all over the world and half of them she couldn’t remember their names anymore.

  “There it is.” Her mother called turning down the radio. Nia pushed herself up ducking forward to see. The house was larger then their last and even more disheveled. Everything was dulled greys and browns and deteriorating fixtures, yet Nia could see blooming color hiding behind.

  Nia saw a headache. Nia saw an adventure. Nia saw them staying for a while.

  Nia braced herself as her mother swerved into park shifting her back and forth. Her mother was swirling out of the car and opening the back door grinning a smile that was brighter then a hundred stars offering a hand. Nia didn’t hesitate to smack her own into her mother’s hand and followed the tug out into the world.

  “So Baby Bear, what do you think?” Her mother asked glancing at the house. Nia looked and hummed crossing her arms.

  “Is it going to fall in on us?” Nia asked dryly. Her mother huffed and cocked her brows in that way that was always equally offended and amused. She brushed back the strand escaping her fleeting ponytail. Her hair was really too short to be confined but it didn’t stop her mother from trying to tame it. She didn’t grow it out because she claimed it always looked like straw.

  Nia though thought it looked like gold. Gold that set green gem eyes. The one thing Nia inherited from her mother.

  “I will have you know young one this house is perfectly stable.” Her mother offered primly. The creaking. Screeching and eventually crashing to the ground with a satisfying crack of the very last shutter though punctuated Nia’s point perfectly. Her mother’s mother closed pursed then she grinned.

  “Alright it’s another fixer upper.” Her mother relented and Nia was pulled into the infectious laughter.

  Her mother’s passions all revolved around fixer uppers. May it be properties, furniture, clothing, businesses and relationships. If something wasn’t pristine but had potential her mother found it brought them to it and built it up to it’s full potential. Her mother was good at it. Nia hadn’t found anything her mother hadn’t been able to fix if she had enough resources.

  Nia’s mother’s eyes were bright and ready and willing to jump into this.

  Nia was ready to jump with her.

  Even as Nia did realize the truth of a life of fixer uppers.

  She saw so many beautiful things, watched things grow but they didn’t usually stay. Houses would be filled with laughter and warmth, with memories of others while they found something new. Her mother would take thrifted clothing, fabrics and accessories and make memorable pieces just to sell most of them on a website, and if her mother had her way under undervalued. Furniture her mother would spend ages refurbishing just to look at it and decide it didn’t fit their vibes and would find someone who would appreciate it more. Businesses she’d get involved with, get them back on their feet and sell her connection back to them once they were settled. And she’d get involved with a new love interest listen to their worries. Look into their soul and guide them into their dreams and once they were on the path and they no longer fit she’d smile while sending them off.

  Nia’s mother was always saying that it was often hard for someone to recognize their own worth. Nia looked at her mother. Which was why Nia set the prices for her mother’s work now. Her mother was beautiful and took initiative, new how to manage things, was always their for Nia. But Nia didn’t think that her mother ever saw how amazing she was.

  But Nia did. Nia was her mother’s biggest fan and her mother was her biggest fan.

  Her mother circled and opened the trunk and tossed her a bad of basics. The moving trucks with their forever things would be there later.

  “Nia. Why don’t we…” Mom started then trailed looking past the trunk door down the winding drive. Nia shifted nearly falling over to catch sight of what her mother saw.

  A man walking with flourishing bounce striding down the driveway. He wore mostly black, his hair was long and swirled into a haphazard ponytail that rivaled her mothers. He held a cane but didn’t use it twirling it absently as he walked.

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  “Good evening.” He breathed. Her mother shifted crossing her arms her chin jutted out and her eyes cooled in the way they always did with unannounced strangers. The man’s polite smile didn’t falter, though his gaze darted quickly over the house. “I am Darius Beodulf, my sons and I live with my brother about a mile down the road. I heard you were moving in and thought I’d come introduce myself.” He offered. Mom responded with a pulled unfriendly smile.

  “Keina Marn and this is my daughter Nia.” Her mother offered.

  “My sons are around your daughter’s age.” The man offered. Nia perked at the mention of other kids. Nia loved doing anything and everything with her mother but she also liked going on adventures her mother would smile at but showed no interest in.

  “Tell them that if they want they are welcomed any time.” Mom offered nodding. “Now though. We have just arrive and were on the road for a while, I have a million and one things to do. So I will see you later Mr. Beodulf.” She offered before ushering Nia inside. Before that though Nia was almost positive she saw the eyes on the cane glow and caught the man looking hesitant to leave.

  “Darius, please call me Darius.” He insisted.

  They spent the rest of the afternoon choosing rooms, getting them well enough set up for a few nights. Checked on what the house had and what they’d have to manage with the camping stuff. They retrieved groceries in town and had dinner. They tried to open the attic with various levels of force but interestingly it didn’t budge. Which was why Nia was set on having the room closest to it on the third floor.

  After Nia settled in her choice her mother picked a room on the same floor. Nia always chose her room first when there were multiple rooms. She’d asked her mother why once and her mother had answered that she wanted Nia to be able to have her own secrets, adventures, and privacy but she wasn’t yet comfortable with her baby being on a different floor then her.

  The houses had an entry way that smelled wet and was covered in cracks and tears in the wallpaper and stained everywhere Nia could see. Each room had double doors separating them from the others. The kitchen was large and was probably the most intact looking room. The floors were mostly wooden but strangely had a round circle of stone tile in the entrance no where near where anyone would expect. The second floor had an opening to look down to the entrance the most notable thing being the large chandelier that had only one glass cup left on any of the branches.

  The four rooms still had furniture placed like someone had only just been living there. It felt more like walking through a museum then the other houses they’d been in. And the rooms on the third floor were much the same excluding the library room that looked as if nothing had touched it in years and the attic which lay a mystery.

  The gardens were the only place that her mother mentioned that there was a requirement for someone to maintain but Nia wondered why some areas of the house looked more maintained then others. Or why in the little alcove before the attic it seemed to be the only place that furniture was removed. Furniture had to have been there though dust outlined what could be bookshelves and some sort of bench seat maybe.

  If anything this house would be very interesting to explore, Nia thought to herself as they made their rooms. First off, beds. Mom never trusted mattresses that already were somewhere so they had the fun of tossing them over the balcony to the first floor. Before bringing up their cots, dressing them in their bedding.

  Her mother’s bedding was made by hand and was decently old and warn, it was the start of a beautiful image of a peacock that was abandoned after Mom ran out of the needed thread for the feathers. The pillows that her mother matched with it were also handmade, older warn but at different levels and none of them matched. Nia’s mother was always a variety of colors, patterns and designs. Her mother’s spaces were often cluttered and disorganized. She set up a board in the hall way with her drawing of the various rooms where they’d pin ideas and plans for the structures. A sewing machine would arrive on the moving truck, her sewing kit was placed in the area she’d use as her sewing corned, a box of art stuff was placed in the sun area of the room. Her mother would create more and more sectioned areas for different hobbies that wouldn’t cross into other areas but would be scattered one every nearby surface including the floor.

  Nia’s room never took as long as her mother’s. Her bedding was also handmade but was frequently replaced. Her current bedding was different shades of green with bears of all kinds embroidered across it. She had a pillow in a plainish green and one that was literally the shape of a bear. All to match her collection of bear related things.

  It seemed her fascination with teddy bears had started cute. She got a new one every new place they moved then though the fascination grew. Cute bear figurines, realistic bear figurines, realistic bear pictures. Books on bears. At some point Nia noticed her mother’s bafflement at her set, bear interests but taking it in stride fueled the collection and calling her baby bear.

  She now didn’t bat an eyelash by her categorized box of bear claws and teeth.

  Nia couldn’t exactly start when she became so interested in the esthetic of bears and the habits and biological structures of them but why seemed rather simple to her. Bears were terrifying, so terrifying that most wouldn’t want to go face to face with one but they also did such stupid things.

  Like get their head stuck in a cooler.

  Or spend and evening playing in a baby pool.

  Or evolve to be so lazy that they don’t repopulate their species.

  Nia placed each of her present collection in a satisfying placement before looking through her survival pack. Which was a satchel with various things her mother helped her put together for any type of exploring she may come across. It was too late that night but tomorrow held possibility.

  Nia’s mind revolved around bears and adventures as she fell asleep that night.

  Nia woke thinking she heard a voice in her room. She sat up and looked around seeing nothing there. Then she heard a rattling and swooshed to the side of the bed to witness a tail disappearing under her bed.

  Mouse?

  Nia slid out of her bed and looked under for the creature. There was no mouse but she did noticed a raised surface under the bed. Sitting back on her heals she considered. She though knew it was far too late to move furniture without waking her mother. So Nia settled back in her bed and went to sleep.