Chapter One, Episode Nine - Big Girl Pants - Situationally

May 14, 2020

Update, Review and edit:

This took more reading, not just of this post, but back tracking to match up details. The biggest example was the reason Dez was in jail. Initially it was because of a bank robbery. This post identified that it was border issues. There were few typos, all have been fixed.

As I go forward in my reviews, it will be interesting to see if I recognized these inconsistencies and how I dealt with it. My hope is that I complete these updates for each episode daily, however sometimes I don’t have time! Very confusing in the increased down time foisted on us all because of pandemic restrictions.

Big Girl Pants

Desperanza was determined to maintain her sanity, worried that she was fast losing touch with reality while in her sister’s home. 

Only nights before she had been alone. She had no knowledge of her sister’s life or location. Any friends or colleagues had retreated into their own tiny bubbles. Her ill thought out ‘bank robbery’ had forced her into a bubble with iron bars - or was it something else? Where was the silver lining? Was there a silver lining? Her jail cell, small and cramped, had only a bench to sit or lie on. ‘Sergeant Eye Candy’ changed it all for her. Yes, he was extremely good looking and a nice guy, but he found her sister. Her older sister Emelina, who lived in a world so different from her own, had come to her rescue. Emelina’s home was completely opposite from that dark, cold jail cell. Dez remembered gasping at the spacious and well appointed kitchen. Tall cupboards. A long, heavy plank servants table in the room’s centre. Gleaming large appliances ~ refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and deep freeze. She had walked open mouthed to the refrigerator and opened the shining door. It was stocked full of fresh fruits, vegetables and meats, as did the freezer. The whole kitchen had taken her breath away. Dez was suddenly wide awake. Any memory of the cold jail cell vanished. “I could live here forever.” Did she really say that out loud in front of the sister? Emelina, that she hadn’t seen in years? In that early morning, this beautiful, well stocked and appointed kitchen definitely did not feel as small and cramped as that cold concrete jail cell. Dez felt like she could finally breathe. 

Dez had only been here for a number of days, not forever. She and Emmie had only been cooped up in the kitchen for just over a week. But it felt like forever. She hadn’t known whether she would like Emmie any more or if Emmie would like her. She hadn’t known if they’d even get along, but she had had to stay there. This stupid pandemic was to blame and the bug that was causing it was so small it was invisible to the naked eye. Dez guessed that was why that Digby guy called it an Invisible Menace. Last night, she and Emmie had shared a pizza. Cook’s meat pies were delicious but Dez couldn’t eat one more bite. She wanted ooey gooey cheese and a crispy crust. But even that didn’t satisfy her

Dez had to get out of the shrinking kitchen walls ~ and by herself. Several times, she and Emmie would go outside together, still maintaining that six feet of distance between them. Sometimes more. They had gotten quieter and quieter. Their lives were so incredibly different. Emmie had become this high and mighty society person. And who was she? A failed artist whose apartment was locked up. She couldn’t even get any of her things until after the pandemic was over. And why was she in jail that night when Emmie picked her up? She was getting a headache trying to figure it all out, knowing she should stay, wanting to run away and on the verge of tears again…Again! 

No. This cannot happen. I will not let Emmie see me bawling like a baby. She used to tease me when we were kids when I cried at nighttime. I won’t let her pull her princess stuff on me anymore. It’s time to get my big girl pants on and get outside. 

~~~~

Emelina was in her room reading one more book. She didn’t hear Dez put her jacket on and sneak out the door and closing it quietly behind her. The tiny click of the latch was hidden by classical music streaming from Emelina’s door. Emelina sat up in her chair, her book on the table beside her. It’s so quiet in here. It’s always quiet, but it seems…quieter. Picking up her book again, she curled up in Digby’s big wing chair, pulled a throw over her feet and continued to read from Pandemic Policies for Charities. Emelina was very involved with community charities so thought it may be interesting. Published two years before this particular pandemic, she had promised that she would read it. She bought a copy when it came out, but never did find the time to read it. Slowly the book dropped into her lap, her head leaned against the chair’s wing. She dozed. The back door slammed. Emmie dropped her book, her feet tangled in the throw. Trying to stand up she almost fell, her feet both numb, but she steadied herself on the arm of the chair. “Dez. Is that you?”

“Yes, it’s just me. I had to get out for a walk. I was going stir crazy in here.”

“Why didn’t you call me? We could have played another game of Canasta.”

“I didn’t want to call you. You are part of what’s driving me crazy! But I’m ok with you now. I just needed some fresh air and real alone time.This isn’t my house and I don’t have any of my things. You’ve been really really good to me, but you are my sister…….Old sibling rivalry stuff!

And, I remembered why I was in jail.”

“I was going to ask you about that but decided  you’d tell me if you wanted to. So do you want to?’

“Well, it was like this. I had been down in Seattle with this pandemic thing hit. I didn’t know that Washington State was hit really hard and fast, so I just got in my car and went on my merry way back home. I got stopped at the U.S/Canada border. The border guards were all dressed in …what do they call it….protective gear. A couple of them wore masks. When I was asked where I was going, I just told them ‘to my sister’s house. It’s a surprise visit - she doesn’t know I’m coming.’ I didn’t tell him that my sister hadn’t seen me for at least 10 years and didn’t even know if I was still alive. The officer in charge, a big guy with a walrus moustache said ‘Well Miss….Miss Eliot is it? Give me her phone number and we’ll surprise her right now.’ It’s a good thing I had your phone number and that you hadn’t changed it. I would really have been hooped then. “

“But what about why you were in jail?”

“Be patient. I’m getting to that part. So then he tried to call you but there was no answer. Walrus Moustache called over one of the other uniforms. ‘Kenny, take this woman into Hartley for the night. We’ll impound her car and her sister can pick her up as soon as she can.’ I was really p.o.’d. I had no idea what was going on. So then he gets all ‘ma’am’ with me. He explained about the pandemic and the border rules that were constantly changing. He said he really didn’t know what to do with me except send me to jail. Then, when I got to the jail this really gorgeous piece of……..I mean this very clean cut looking officer took over. He apologized for ‘providing you with such cramped quarters’ and then he started researching your phone number. I tried to tell him it was on my cell phone in my purse that they confiscated but he seemed to have more good looks than good sense. So….that’s my story about why I was in jail. My brain got all fuzzy getting stuck in here, with my best big sister, green tape on the floor and having to wash my hands every time I turned around.”

“I’m glad it was nothing big. I would hate to think I was living with a dangerous criminal! ............Look, I have been trying to read, but fell asleep while you were out. I’m going to make myself some tea. Do you want some or can I push the buttons on that coffee machine for a cappuccino or latte? By the way, Dez, I cheated. I used a pretty butterfly sticker on the calendar ~ I didn’t draw a thing.”

“I have noticed that in a cramped space 
one’s thoughts too tend to be cramped.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky,  The Insulted and Humiliated