“I’ve been thinking a lot about these chairs today,” Lola said, pushing one of the many scattered dining room chairs into a patch of sunlight. There were many styles of chair in the room, but the one Lola had was one of the old ones, part of the fancy original set from when the dining room was decorated in 1929 and all the furniture matched. They were made of deep cherry wood, with backs carved into stylized flowers. Some of them still had the threadbare original cushioned seats, covered in yellow silk with a pattern of silvery birds.

“I’ve been trying to think of a way to get these chairs refinished and reupholstered,” she said, testing one of the legs. “It would probably only cost a few hundred dollars.”

“A few hundred dollars?” Scarlett said, settling herself in one. They creaked, too.

“Maybe a thousand. Or two. But I think it’s important. They’re really good chairs, and I feel like we need to make a good impression right here, on the doorstep. If people come in and see frayed fabric…well, people notice.”

“We could put them in the basement if they look bad,” Scarlett said.

“The solution for everything isn’t ‘put it in the basement,’” Lola said.

This had been the solution for as long as Scarlett could remember, but she didn’t care enough to argue the point.

“That’s true,” Scarlett said, picking at the threads. “It never works in horror movies. The thing always escapes and eats you. Or someone finds it and then you have to kill them. And then you have two secrets in the basement. Basements are bad.”

“I’ve researched this,” Lola said. “After Mrs. Amberson told us about the man who designed this place, J. Allen Raumenberg. We could be sitting on a fortune, literally. He was a really famous designer. The pieces are just in such bad condition. If we could get them fixed…”

“You’re probably right.” Scarlett held up her hands in surrender. “But we can’t afford to.”

Lola sank down in the chair opposite Scarlett.

“I know,” she said. “I just can’t help thinking about it. This place could be a showpiece. A good cleaning, a little fixing…it’s not even that much money in the grand scheme of things.”

“Every amount of money is a lot of money when you have no money.”