“She was all gussied up!”
Samuel had just brought in the next load of tomatoes from the Estate garden. Cook was having trouble keeping up. “Who was all gussied up, Samuel? Put those on the table. I’ll have to get to them later. They’ll be just fine there.” She dried her hands on her apron. “What am I going to do with them all? One end of the freezer’s full, I’ve canned sixty quarts of tomatoes, and there a bin-full of fresh ones in the fridge - both of them. The pantry and here in the kitchen. I hope you have some for yourself? ~ and Martha……” Cook ran out of breath. She supposed her next big cook would be tomato sauce. There just wasn’t enough people around the old place to use them all up. She wiped her face with the stained hand towel she kept handy. “Now, tell me, Samuel about this gussied up person.” Cook sat down with her tea gone cold. Samuel grunted “I would if you’d let me get a word in edgewise, Elizabeth.”
“All right. I’m listening.” Samuel pushed one box of tomatoes over and sat down. “Miss Dez. Hair all shiny and a different colour ~ with stripes. Long sparkly finger nails. Face all made up like she was going on the town. ……Is there any coffee?” Before Cook could answer, he was up at the coffee machine muttering… ‘new fangled darn thing, but it makes good coffee.’
“How did you know it was Miss Dez if she looked like that?” Cook thought he was probably seeing things. He was always mistaking people for others. “She came out of one of those fancy places and went straight to her little red car. Hightailed it out of there like someone was chasing her.” With coffee and some cookies he’d found in the cupboard, he sat down again.
“Well, she could have lent her car to someone else. What kind of a fancy place did she come out of?” Samuel thought a minute. “You know. Where women get fancy hairdos. Go in looking like a thundercloud; come out all smiles. I called to her, but she was in such a hurry, she didn’t hear me.” Cook was smiling. “Why Samuel Forrester. I didn’t know you paid such close attention to women and spas ~ that is the ‘fancy place’ she left, wasn’t it?” Samuel almost blushed at Cook’s suggestion but he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.
Crunching gravel signalled a car pulling up. Shortly the back door opened and closed. “Miss Em? Is that you?”
“Yes Cook, I’ve just come from town and I think I can help you with…….” She hesitated when she saw Samuel and his tomatoes……. “the tomato deluge we have. But, first, I have a question. Has my sister been out here at anytime when I’ve been out? I can’t seem to get in contact with her.”
Cook and Samuel looked at each other. They shook their heads in unison. “We’ve not seen her at all.” Samuel added “thought that was strange, but we’ve both been pretty busy.”
As they talked, Emelina took out her cell phone and dialled Matt’s number. “I still have it in here from when he was assisting Dez with the orchard.” Holding it to her ear for a moment, she listened. “Matt, this is Emelina Crawford-Beaufort. Please return my call when you get back. I am looking for my sister.” She sighed, touched the ‘stop’ icon. “Only a message. Matt is away until next week and will ‘return my call’. I am worried.”
Samuel hesitated. Elizabeth nodded to him and whispered “Tell her that you think you saw her.” He stood up. “Miss Em?” Nervous, he cleared his throat. “Yes, Samuel?” Distracted with worry, Emelina barely heard him. “Ma’am, I think I saw her.”
“You did? Where? Samuel please tell me.”
“Don’t know the name of the place, but it’s in Hartley.” Elizabeth interrupted. “Tell her what you told me, Samuel. She may be able to tell you the name and know where it is.”
“Yes, tell me Samuel! I really must find her. If she wants me to leave her alone, I will but I have to know she is all right.”
~~~~~
Dez was at the end of her workweek and the end of her rope. “How do I take care of all this?” Looking in her mirror, her hair looked foreign to her. “I can’t just wash it and run my fingers through it, let it dry on its own. If I break a nail how do I fix it - maybe I’ll just cut them all off. That’s what I’ll do. Drip dry hair and cut my nails off. They’ll have to fix me up again on Tuesday. I’ll ask for a new hair style……..but right now, I’m exhausted.”
An hour later, after eating leftovers from when, she couldn't remember, a hot shower, Dez settled into her bed. As she was falling asleep she mumbled “Maybe Em will help.”
“Everything that happens to you matters to me.”
~ Cassandra Clare, City of Fallen Angels
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