“Then we’ll come with you. Unless you’d rather be alone.”
“No, that’s fine,” I said, happy to have the company. I could check out the lay of the land with them by my side. See if some stranger was lurking in the woods. I strode ahead as three pairs of footsteps followed me, crunching on crispy dead leaves and pine needles. I stepped aside and let them catch up, but stumbled, and the girl—the shorter one—caught me by the elbow.
“Watch out, this part here’s a little slippery. I fell flat on my face once.”
I let her steady me. “It sounds like you come here often. Why haven’t I seen you three around before?” I asked, not letting them know I’d spotted them picnicking on the beach a few days before.
“That house that’s yours now?” the boy said. “That was our home. Our entire lives, up until you and your husband moved in, what, some seven months ago, that was our house.”
I stopped walking, stunned, my heart in my throat. The urge to unscrew my Thermos and take a swig was overwhelming. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I had no idea.” Was he kidding me? Was this really true? My memories flurried over themselves as I tried to piece together details about the purchase of Cliffside that Juan had taken on solo.
Juan had told me it was a foreclosure, owned by the bank. I had always imagined that some billionaire hedge fund manager owned Cliffside, or some faceless somebody. But the idea of a family, of children being kicked out of their own childhood home, had never crossed my mind. I hadn’t even asked Juan for details. I was so excited by the idea of owning such a dream house I hadn’t thought to ask. I realized now I hadn’t wanted to know.
“You’re freaking her out, Dan,” the blonde said. “I told you this was a dumb idea.”
True, he was freaking me out. He knew all about who the buyers were—who we were. Who I was. The person responsible for taking their home from them.
“Sorry we bothered you like this,” the brunette said. “We just wanted to see our house. Just felt homesick, you know. But we totally, totally understand why it isn’t appropriate.”
Dan looked down at his feet. “Sorry, my sisters are right, we shouldn’t’ve come, shouldn’t’ve laid all our shit on you. Hey, no hard feelings, give the house a hug from us. Psyched that Cliffside’s in such great hands. You seem like a very cool person.” He leapt over a rock then skipped at a brisk pace down the hill towards the bay. The girls followed.
I thought of the note, the roses. Inviting them in for a cup of tea wasn’t such a bad idea. “Wait!” I called after them. “Listen, don’t go! It’s fine, really, I completely understand why you’d want to visit your old home. Please come back. Let’s all go in for a cup of tea. No crumpets though. But I do have some biscuits. Cookies, I mean.”
They all turned round at once. The girls, as if on cue, beamed at me. “Really?” they said simultaneously.
“Yes, really, you’re welcome.” Their faces were so friendly, and my curiosity, my empathy, and most of all, my yearning not to be alone, won me over.
Seven
We introduced ourselves. The girls told me their names were Jennifer and Kate. Kate was the brunette all dressed in black, her face a little wider, but otherwise they were uncannily alike.
“Twins?” I asked, as we approached the front door.
“Triplets,” Dan said. He too was dressed in black, with a David Bowie T-shirt.
“Gosh, triplets! I’ve never met any triplets before. I saw some in a game show on TV once, and in newspapers, but have never met triplets—grown-up triplets—in the flesh.” I unlocked the door to my house—their house too, once, as it turned out. I noticed my hand was shaking as I held the key. We all walked inside. My heart thrummed with anticipation and excitement. But an undercurrent of doubt tugged at me, too. “Triplets, that’s quite something.”
“Yeah, it sure is,” Dan agreed, gazing at the ceiling and the skylights and scanning the entrance.
Cliffside was pretty much all open-plan, with a fireplace bang in the middle of the room. The vaulted ceilings high, light flooding in from everywhere. There was a long dining room table at one end and giant sofas sprawled out at the other. Windows everywhere. Or rather, walls of glass, only broken up by wide pillars of stone. The view