Chapter 44 - Life

“Michelle?” Cam called out as soon as she got back from town. “Chelle?”

She moved from room to room in search of her wife, and with each open door, found an empty room. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she found Michelle’s number and called it.

It answered after several rings. “Hello, darling.”

“Oh, hey, where are you?” Cam said quickly. She was excited and could barely stand still.

“Over at Nicole’s, why?”

“Okay…um, can you come home?”

Michelle began to panic. “Is everything alright? The twins? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, no, it’s all fine, nothing’s wrong, I just…I need you to come home.” Cam’s voice was urgent but not panicked, so Michelle relaxed, until another thought popped into her head.

With her voice lowered, she husked, “What do you want me to do, Camryn?”

Realizing where this was headed, Cam laughed. “Not that, perv. Just…I’ll wait, but if you can come home as soon as possible, I’d be grateful. I have something to show you.”

Closing the call, she set about fixing herself a drink, some fancy juice you mixed with water that Kate insisted was the best thing to be drinking if you wanted to remain hydrated and get all the right vitamins. Cam didn’t care about that – it just tasted good – and she swigged down a glass of it a few seconds.

By the time she had washed the glass and put it away, Michelle was walking in through the front door. “Hold it,” Cam said, walking towards her and grabbing her car keys from the dish as she passed. “Let’s go.” She turned Michelle by the shoulders and pointed her out of the door again.

“Where are we going?” She frowned when they reached the car.

“You’ll see when we get there,” Cam answered with a grin, clipping her seatbelt into place as Michelle finally climbed in beside her. “I know you love surprises, so quit pouting.”

Michelle couldn’t keep it up and smiled. “Alright, drive on.”

Cam took turn after turn until they were out and into the middle of nowhere. Trees and undergrowth lined what was laughingly called a road. The bumpy track meant they were slowing down.

“You remember I went to that old mill with Lucy the other week?”

Michelle vaguely recalled something about it. “Uh huh.”

“Well, I was thinking about it, and then I had a lot of other thoughts and, well, I bought it.”

“You bought an old mill?” Michelle quizzed. “Are you out of your mind?”

Cam turned to face her quickly and grinned before her eyes turned back to the road. “Now, that could be argued, I guess. I’ve done a lot of crazy things in my life; however, I think this might be one of the best ideas I’ve ever had.”

As she stopped speaking, the old building came into view, looming up in the clearing, surrounded by the wilderness. The car came to a halt and they both climbed out. The first thing that really hit Michelle was just how quiet and peaceful it was here. There was the gentle sound of nature like you would expect, but that was it.

“It really is beautiful,” Michelle acknowledged as she took it all in.

Cam grabbed her hand and excitedly ran towards the door, its hinges squealing as she pushed it open. “So, hear me out, right?”

Michelle nodded. “Okay.”

“Imagine this…” She walked forward, and Michelle questioned which of them was actually the actress. “Right here, would be the reception area. And here….” She continued to walk into the large open space that once housed machinery and workers. “This would be a studio, and another one on this side of the hall.” She jumped to an imaginary room before looking upwards. “Above here would be seating for the auditorium, and through here…a stage! There would be dressing rooms and storage space for props obviously, and to the side…” She pointed to her right. “…we’d have some kind of refreshments area.

“Cam, what are you talking about?”

Running back to Michelle, she grasped both of her hands. “I’m talking about The Hamlin Academy. A school for performing arts.”

Michelle was dumbfounded. She looked around at the empty shell of a building, and then back at Cam. “You bought this to create…”

“A school, an arts school,” Cam said eagerly.

“For me?”

“Yeah…I thought.” And suddenly it struck Cam that maybe this wasn’t what Michelle wanted at all. “I just thought…”

“It’s amazing,” Michelle said, “but it’s so big.”

“Yeah, so, what I was thinking – but it’s totally up to you, of course – but what I thought was… You know, obviously…”

Michelle laughed and put her hands around Cam’s face. “Take a breath, sweetheart.”

“Sorry, I just…I’ve spent ages on this, and I’ve been dying to tell you.”

Michelle kissed her slowly. “You’re perfect, you know that?”

Nodding, Cam blushed. “Hmm-hm. So, I was thinking that it could double up as a theatre. You’d have the space to take on students and do your own stuff, but the theatre could be rented out and bring some excitement to this town. A bit of culture...and we could kind of work together.”

“How so?”

“Well, I’d run the bar and organize events.”

“Let’s do it.” Michelle clapped her hands excitedly, her face lighting up as she moved into kiss her wife.