Ivy finds an answer

Heat lightening skittered across the sky,  Ivy sat sweltering in the attic.  She never wondered why she was sitting here, rocking in her old rocker, looking out a dirty attic window, opened as far as it would go, two fans  swirling up bits of dust, waiting to wave back.  For years now, she sat there through bitter cold nights, and summers heat watching the seasons change, and waving goodnight to people.  What started out as something to fill the blank hours after Will's death had become a tradition.  There were more "wavers" now than ever, some just turn their lights on and off, and Ivy replied in kind.  Over the years, many things changed about her happenstance tradition, though she still carried her lantern,  because the attic light was furnished with a new lightbulb long ago, and turned on promptly and 9PM and off usually before 10:30PM. HER reckoning that it was a strange, and almost humorous reason to start wearing a watch after all of these years.   Would this prove to be her legacy?

But tonight it was just too  hot, and she decided to retire early. Once at the bottom of the steep wooden steps, Ivy put her lantern on the hall table , next to the phone, the message light blinked, she  wondered if it was Ford, but it was Tecla. It Had become her custom, her tradition to call her  late in the day,  they would talk briefly and then sayI "Goodnight Johnboy". If she called now she would wake her.  Tecla got up with the rising sun and went to bed the settingsun.  The window at th end of the hall glowed faintly with the last rays of the sun causing Ivy to muse about the length of days near the Solstice.   How  could someone be ready for sleep when it wasn't dark  required a lot of  rationalizing, or   hard work all day.

The pelting rains and rolling thunder during the night were dulled by the droning of  fans, and Ivy awoke to a bright  and almost chilly world.  Birdsong  filled the clear, crisp air. "Nature is miraculous and confounding"  she said to Mr. Chips  as she uncovered his cage.   After pulling back the draperies and fastening the ties to hooks Will had carved  in a lily of the valley design for her , she paused to look out the kitchen window at the dewy webs on the grass and the raindrops that hung onto the old rosebush.  A "seven sisters" rosebush had been there when they bought the house, her mother dug up a part of it, which like the parent bus never bloomed.  On the day of her Mother's funeral , she and Will were leaving for the service, she made him stop the car, so that she could cut some of it's blooms.  Afterward  they stopped at her house , and fragrant blooms also greeted them there. Jolted back  to the reality of her kitchen, she saw a headlong toward her house.    Fearing that the girl was being chased by someone, she immediately opened the back door, only o be greeted by Skye, wearing a leash, and a very out-of-breath young girl, with a haunting resemblance to someone.  "Come  on in, Honey come on in!!"  "Is someone chasing you?"   "No, No." sputtered the girl,  "Sit down here, and catch your breath."   Ivy felt as if she was channeling Tecla.  "Would you like some homemade grape juice? made it myself, from the grapes by the creek."  The girl nodded.  

The girl quickly regained her composure and said, "Are you Ivy?"  "That's me."  Ivy replied.  "I'm Beth, and my Grandpa wanted me to tell you that his flight was delayed.  He couldn't get you on the phone, your phone must be out of order."   "Pleased to me you ,Beth."   Beth said "Look at Spud he thinks he lives here."