May 31, 2020
Review, Edit and Update
This Episode only required a bit of fixing: a couple of typos and the addition of some detail. Otherwise, a pretty good read.
From Here to There
It was early morning. The sun slanted through the mudroom window, throwing a broad patch of brilliance through the kitchen door onto the well worn hardwood floor. Emmie came out of her room, pulling her blond hair back into a pony tail. Oddly, she wore an oversized grey t-shirt and loose fitting green plaid flannel pants, rather than her silk pyjamas. She had kept some of Mike’s things to wear when she was missing his love and belief in her. Emmie was in deep thought. Mechanically, she put water in the coffee machine, counted out scoops of coffee, put the pot under the spout and turned it on. Resting her hands on the cupboard she hung her head, then straightened her shoulders and looked around. Bread for toast. I’ll have some toast. I need to get Cook back here to make more bread. I think this is the last loaf. Her forehead wrinkled. She wiped her hand across trying to smooth the worry down. She muttered something to herself, whispering so she wouldn't wake Dez. While she waited for the coffee to finish burping and dribbling she put the bread in the toaster. Without looking, she opened the blue cupboard door. A plate. I need a plate for my toast. This one will do. White with tiny blue flowers circling the rim, it was usually reserved for a serving plate. The butter and a knife are right here. Did I get those out? But there’s no jam. Emmie opened another cupboard door and reached for a mug. Before closing the cupboard door, she hesitated and stared into the cupboard as though looking for something. She closed the door gently. The coffee ready, she filled her mug with the steaming aromatic liquid. With her coffee in one hand, she picked up her plate of toast and set it down at the long kitchen table. Sitting down, she smoothed imaginary wrinkles on the table top, looked up and down its length as though she was trying see everyone. All those people she had employed that had shared a meal or just a cup of tea or coffee. Laughing and talking.
“Emmie? What are you doing up so early? It’s just after seven." Dez yawned and stretched.
“oh, hi, Dez. I just couldn’t sleep so I thought a cup of coffee would be nice. When I saw Cook’s bread, I thought I’d have some toast. Did I wake you?”
Dez smiled as she combed her fingers through her long brown curls. She leaned back against the door jamb, knocking the frame of Martha’s precious pictures askew. She straightened it, then with a shiver she said “I’m cold. Let me grab my hoodie. Did you make enough coffee for both of us? That’s actually what woke me up ~ that and the toast. Put a couple of slices in for me, would you?” Dez leaned into Martha’s room, grabbed her deep purple hoodie pulling it over her head. “That’s better. Thanks. That coffee smells so good. Now tell me what’s wrong and don’t tell me nothing’s wrong because I won’t believe you.’
“Where do we start, Dez? I couldn’t stop thinking about everything you said last night. That I hadn’t taken everyone or everything into consideration when I wanted set up something for a couple of health care workers. So they could come here and not have to take the possibility of infection home to their families. How could I ask the rest of you to expose yourselves to satisfy my whim? I still want to do something. I can’t just sit out here and do nothing while you have to work and I’ve got so much.”
“That’s where we start then, Emmie.”
Emmie looked at Dez blankly. “What do you mean?”
“Come on, Emmie, you can’t be serious. What I mean is look at what you have, and I don’t just mean the money Mike left you.” Dez was, in fact, irritated that Emmie only thought about dollars and that seemed to be all she knew. Dez struggled to make ends meet. Had to be real creative many times about what she could do with what little she had. Here was her sister, feeling sorry for herself and not knowing what to do next. But, she would be patient. Her big sister was wrestling with not knowing. Not being in control.
“Really, Dez, I am serious. I don’t know what you mean. I’ve been given or bought everything all my life. Even when we were kids, I got most of what I wanted.” Emmie grinned. “I did have to do a lot of talking sometime.”
“I know. I watched you twist Dad around your little finger. You were pretty good at that. But seriously. Grab your coffee and come with me.” Dez headed up the oak stairs to the second floor.
“Where are we going? Why are we going upstairs? I went through everything up there yesterday.”
“Stop asking questions and follow me. It has nothing to do with the upstairs. Here. Stand in front of this window.” Dez had set her coffee down on the dining room table and opened the curtains that faced west. The sun was sending tentative fingers around the house beginning to light up the scene before them. “Look.”
“Look at what? What am I supposed be seeing?”
Dez had to take a deep breath ~ in fact she had had to take a lot of deep breaths around Emmie this last while. “You’re supposed to be seeing what I’m seeing. The huge garden you have and the land around it.”
“What good is all of that? .,,,,,,,,Oh……I think I get it?” The light was dawning slowly in Emmie’s eyes. “But I haven’t had the gardener and yard man here for ages. I don’t even know if anything got planted. There probably isn’t anything much in the ground yet because it’s only April. I’m not a farmer or a gardener but I think it’s still too early. But I have another question, Dez. What if this Covid thing is over before we’re ready be of any help?”
Another deep breath. This is my older sister, right? Right. And I’m supposed to be the wise one in all of this? “Let’s go back down to the kitchen where it’s warmer. I don’t think you have to worry about this ‘Covid thing’ being over any time soon according to the experts, but if it is there will still be a lot of people needing someone to help them out. What’s important is that you have what so many don’t have, and I’m not talking about the dollars. I’m talking about the land. You have a garden that is only taking up a small part of your 30 acres. If you made a bigger garden….but I’m getting ahead of myself. I just wanted you to see what is right around you.”
“My original idea was to provide at least two beds for healthcare workers to use so they won’t have to go home. You showed me that I hadn’t really thought about it all. And now you start talking about the land? You’ve just made this bigger than even I thought about. Now I really don’t know where to start.” Emmie poured another cup of coffee. “Where I’ll start is where we left off yesterday. I need to talk to Digby, Martha and Cook and see what they think of my idea, and whether we can make it work. Digby will know how to contact the gardener/yardman to see what work he will be starting. I hope and want them all to be well. I’ll see if there is a website, maybe you can help me with that, for volunteers for providing extra beds and what rules need to be followed.” Emmie’s coffee growing cold, she had her notebook and was busily writing all of this down as she talked. Dez just sipped on her second cup of coffee, watching her big sister take control.
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.”
Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go
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