Old Growth
“It’s not very pretty, is it Miss? Just an old weed hanging on to that old wall.” Samuel had come to the corner where the old garage had been. There was still a piece of the far corner of the garage that missed the back hoe. He had planned to knock the rest of it down and clean up the yard today. Sun was shining, he didn’t have any planting to do. It was a good day for such an odd job.
“I don’t know, Samuel. Maybe not right now, but if it was in a proper garden. I kind of like it’s little flowers, and their bright red.” Dez had heard Samuel and his wheelbarrow coming so wasn’t surprised to hear his voice. On her sister’s Estate, this was his territory. He didn’t own it, but had worked it for longer than Emelina had lived at Beaufort.
“You want to help me knock down the last of this old place, Miss Dez. After all it was you and I started taking the poor old thing down.” He hefted his sledgehammer from the wheelbarrow, then handed Dez a shovel. “I’ll knock it down and you can clean up after me.”
“Can we save that ‘weed’? Seems a shame that it just get pulled up and tossed away…. Oops, I better get out of the way!” Dez jumped back just as Samuel picked up the sledgehammer into a swing. Samuel let the big heavy hammer drop and laughed. “Miss Dez, I’d never hurt you or anyone! You just looked so serious about that weed. Go on, pull it out. Those roots go so deep that it will probably pop up somewhere else before long.”
Dez breathed a sigh of relief, then she laughed. “Of course you wouldn’t, Samuel.” For the rest of the afternoon, the two friends cleaned up what was left of the old garage. Dez did pull out the plant and put it gently aside. She was going to find out whether it was a weed or something ornamental.
~~~~~
“Do you think Martha and James will be back soon, Cook?” Emelina was at the kitchen table with a stack of paperwork. Sitting down with a sigh, she had opened her briefcase and pulled out the stack clipped together with a turquoise bull clip. Quietly she shuffled through them until she sat back and sighed. “Here, Miss Em. Have some tea. James would tell you that all those bills, or whatever they are, will be dealt with as soon as he’s back in his office. He’ll be glad you’ve kept the place running so well while his brother was here.”
“You’re right, Cook.” Stacking up the bills again, she returned them to her briefcase. “Thank you for the tea, Cook. And for reminding me to just be patient.” She paused and took a sip of tea. “When was the last time James had a vacation? I know Martha took regular vacations, or weekends away before she and James got married. But James has always been so quiet and was always in his office without fail.”
Cook thought a minute. Drank a bit more tea. “You know, I can’t remember a time when he left the Estate. Maybe on his regular weekends off he might have gone fishing from time to time. I only know that because he’d come whistling into the kitchen and hand me a cleaned fish or two.” She laughed. “Or I’d come in on a Monday morning and there’d be a note on the tea kettle ‘Fish in the freezer. Enjoy them.”
“All those years I was away.” Emelina held her cooling mug in both hands, elbows on the table. Elizabeth looked puzzled. “Away? You haven’t gone anywhere since Mr. Michael. Then after Dr. Jeremy came back into your life.” Setting her mug on the table and filling it with warmer tea, Emelina said. “Away in my grief, Cook. Those days are just a blur. If I hadn’t been for Brigitte, I don’t know what I would have done. You kept me fed ~ when I’d eat. Martha made sure the place kept running - and James. You all could have just left me when Michael died and you didn’t. Anyway, I just realized how little I know James ~ or any of you.”
For the next couple of hours, Elizabeth and Emelina sat and talked. Elizabeth talked about her family in England, the letters she and Lily would exchange, her early days before even coming to the Beaufort Estate. She told her about Martha and how the two of them started at the same time, Martha’s daughter and grandchildren. She didn’t say much about Samuel, except to say how pleased she was to get such good produce. She talked about James, but realized that, until he and Martha had married she didn’t know that much about him either. “I’ve learned more about James since his brother was here. I suppose I never saw him as a boy riding bikes with his friends.”
~~~~~
Martha and James were almost home. “Should we stop in to see Elizabeth before going home, James?” She stifled a yawn. James glanced at her quickly, before turning his eyes back on the road. “But you’re tired, dear. Shouldn’t we just see Elizabeth in the morning?” He was looking forward to getting home in the quiet of their little cottage. “The lights are still on in the kitchen. We could just stop to let her know we’re back safely then drive on home. I do want to thank her for all the good food this past week. I’m glad we all went out for dinner ~ you did pay for her dinners didn’t you?”
“Yes I made sure to pay for everyone. Thom insisted on paying for everyone at that Steakhouse we went to on their last day.” He pulled up behind the kitchen door. “We’ll just go in for a minute, Martha. Come.” He came around to her side and opened her door, helping her out. “Oh, James, you are such a butler.” Martha smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek.
“You’re back!” Dez and Samuel had put away their tools, having finished clearing away the remains of the old garage. “Come on up to the house with me, Samuel. The lights are on up there and I’ll bet we can get a cup of tea out of Cook. Do you need to feed Bentley yet?” He looked over at his shack and shook his head. “No, she’ll be all right. A cup of tea sounds just right.”
~~~~~
The late afternoon went into evening. Cook made more tea and pulled out a cold supper while Dez set the table. Emelina pushed aside her briefcase, vowing to leave business until the next day. James insisted that he would be happy to review them right then, so she just set the briefcase on the floor under the table. Early evening went into dark. Food and plates were cleared away. Martha’s yawns became more obvious. James spoke up. “Miss Emelina, I want to thank you for giving me this last week off. Seeing my brother again was a such a very great gift.” He stood and shook her hand. “I must get my dear wife home. We’re both ready to be home and to bed.” He looked around at his companions. His words almost caught in his throat. “You all are my family and we are grateful to have you.”
The kitchen was silent. Samuel cleared his throat. “Time for me to be gettin’ back to Bentley. She’s not had her supper yet.” He got up to leave. “Elizabeth, I’ll walk you home. You leave the dishes, they’ll still be here in the morning.”
“We’ll take care of them, Cook. You go with Samuel.” Emelina walked with her employees to the back door. “We had a good week, didn’t we.”
“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the
happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.”
~ Andy Rooney
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