Review, Revision, Edit and Update
It's one thing to find typo's and misspellings, but when a sentence makes absolutely no sense, that is tragic. This is one of the repairs to Estranged. I had obviously, done some cutting and pasting, rewording, and then not re-read the sentence! Not the first time I've made such a faux pas.
I did fix the typos and misspellings. I worked on some rewording for a couple of sentences, which is lost to me now! The changes did not alter the intent of the sentence, but created more showing and less telling.
Estranged
Tales of travel had always fascinated Dez; this most recent tale would be exciting! Emelina, her sister, and Emelina's old friend Jeremy, were now Dr. and Mrs. Crawford. The newly weds had returned from their travel to the mainland. Dez still had the letter that Emelina had left for her to read after they left. She read it again. So pleased for them both, Dez was especially pleased for her sister, although it was bitter sweet. Dez and Emelina had been estranged for over ten years until the frightening pandemic descended like a fog on Hartley and the whole country. Dez chuckled, remembering the night that she had been jailed following a failed ‘bank robbery’. The officer in charge of her case located Emelina Beaufort, alone in her big mansion, her butler and all other staff having scattered into their separate homes on the advice of Public Health. Neither Dez nor Emelina knew whether they would even like each other, but it was the middle of the night and the pandemic was just unfolding. Emelina had been in deep grief for at least four years following the death of her husband, Michael. Dr. Jeremy Crawford had been her husband’s best friend and had also lost his spouse the year before Michael had passed. Dez nodded to her silent living room. “Yes. It is really good for them both, but I’ll miss my sister.”
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Travel had been discouraged on the Island with the continuing advance of the pandemic ~ unless ‘absolutely necessary’. Was eloping ‘absolutely necessary'? No. In the note she left for Dez, Em assured her little sister that they had a large quantity of good quality masks, and would follow all other rules: hand washing and social distancing ~ except when they were alone. And if Dez had been asked she would have suggested that her apartment could be their honeymoon suite. She would just stay out at the Estate and claim innocence about where they really were.
Dez had been the alone in her apartment for several days now, having decided to decrease the amount of back and forth time to the Estate. Her small part-time job with Mr. Jorgensson at his laundry, had dried up as he had let go of all his employees. He only had one or two customers a week now, as in his early business days. He had apologized profusely to Dez and promised he would call her again when his business picked up. She thought of the smell of clean laundry, smoothing and folding shirts and dresses. Picking up the black and white photo of their mom hanging laundry, Dez smiled at young Emmie handing her the old wooden clothespins. In the quiet, she had drifted back to their tiny backyard in their small town.
Dez shook her head clear: “If it hadn’t been for the park across the street I’d have been nuts by now. I get some good walks in, watch the birds and squirrels until I get soaked to the skin.” Her cell phone beeped - a text message from Em. “They’re home!” She picked up her keys, shrugged on her coat and left her apartment for the estate.
“Sharing tales of those we’ve lost is how we keep from really losing them.”
~ Mitch Albom, For One More Day
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