I'm back with this! Enjoy. It'll be a slow update ><

SUMMER SEVENTEEN XI

I GO TO lunch at New Clairmont an hour later. I know Mummy will not tolerate my absence after I missed supper last night. Grandad gives me a tour of the house while the cook sets out the food and the aunts corral the littles.

                It’s a sharp place. Shining wood floors, huge windows, everything low to the ground. The halls of Clairmont used to be decorated floor to ceiling with black-and-white family photographs, paintings of dogs, bookshelves, and Grandad’s collection of New Yorker cartoons. New Clairmont’s halls are glass on one side and blank on the other.

                Grandad opens the doors to the four guest bedrooms upstairs. All are furnished only with beds and low, wide dressers. The windows have white shades that let some light in. There are no patterns on the bedspread; they are simple, tasteful shades of blue or brown.

                The littles rooms have some life. Soo has a Bakugan arena on the floor, a soccer ball, books about wizards and orphans. YoonYul brought magazines and an MP3 player. They have stacks of Yuri’s books on ghost hunters, psychics, and dangerous angels. Their dresser is cluttered with makeup and perfume bottles. Tennis racquets in the corner.

                Grandad’s bedroom is larger than the others and has the best view. He takes me in and shows me the bathroom, which has handles in the shower. Old-person handle, so he won’t fall down.

                “Where are your New Yorker cartoons?” I ask.

                “The decorator made decisions.”

                “What about the pillow?”

                “The what?”

                “You had all those pillows. With embroidered dogs.”

                He shakes his head.

                “Did you keep the fish?”

                “What, the swordfish and all that?” We walk down the staircase to the ground floor. Grandad walks slowly and I am behind him. “I started over with this house,” he says simply. “That old life is gone.”

                He opens the door to his study. It is as severe as the rest of the house. A laptop sits in the center of a large desk. A large window looks out over the Japanese garden. A chair. A wall of shelves, completely empty.

                It feels clean and open, but it isn’t Spartan, because everything is opulent.

                Grandad is more like Mummy than like me. He’s erased his old life by spending money on a replacement one.

                “Where’s the young lady?” asks Grandad suddenly.

                “Tiff?”

                He shakes his head. “No, no.”

                “Taeyeon?”

                “Yes, the young lady.” He clutches the desk for a moment as if feeling faint.

                “Grandad, are you okay?”

                “Oh, fine.”

                “Taeyeon is at Cuddledown with Tiff and Minho,” I tell him.

                “There was a book I promised her.”

                “Most of your books aren’t here.”

                “Stop telling me what’s not here!” Grandad yells, suddenly forceful.

                “You okay?” It is Aunt Carrie, standing in the door of the study.

                “I’m all right,” he says.

                Carrie gives me a look and takes Grandad’s arm. “C’mon. Lunch is ready.”

                “Did you get back to sleep?” I ask my aunt as we head toward the kitchen. “Last night, was Minho up?”

                “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Remebr, the Jungs are all in denial.