“Look, Em.” Dez had been pawing through her toolkit. What she really wanted was a certain screwdriver but she found an old roll of green tape. She almost pushed it aside, but smiled and held it out to her sister. Abandoning their project of repairing Dez’s cupboard doors, Em took it from her. She laughed and pulled the last piece of tape from it. “Where do I put this Dez? I guess nowhere….those days are long gone.” When the sisters had been isolated together at the beginning of the pandemic, they watched videos about pandemic protocols. Dez had set safe zones keeping them as separate as possible. Finding rolls of green masking tape in Martha’s office had helped to solve the problem. Em sat crosslegged on the floor in front of the cupboard she was working on. “I stayed in Digby’s office and you stayed in Martha’s office. For two weeks we decided we had to keep our distance from each other. That video about what to do with groceries was a bit of overkill, but none of us knew anything about the virus.” Dez found the screwdriver with the Phillips head and started work on the upper cupboards. “These haven’t been worked on for years! Martha must not have noticed that they were loose.” She stopped midway and, almost lost in thought, she said “Do you remember us sitting on the floor colouring? Like we were a couple of kids. That was fun.” Emelina, on her knees, was back at work on her part of the project. “You know, Dez, we should have painted these doors first. They look like they could use some freshening up.” She sat back on her folded legs. “We really did get to know each other again didn’t we? Do you think we ever would have found each other again if we hadn’t be thrown into that situation. I know that so many - too many - lost their lives, lost loved ones - that I almost feel guilty for our good fortune.”
“Funny about life, isn’t it? I don’t know that we would have even looked for each other. My life was tough, going one job to the next, always scraping to pay the bills. If I had thought about it, I just assumed that you didn’t really care where I was. Maybe we just hoped we’d run into each other some day. But I don’t think so. We didn’t part of the best of terms.” Dez got down from her step ladder and was going to put water on for coffee. “Want tea or coffee, Em? And we need some lunch. We’ve been at this all morning.” After rummaging in her refrigerator, she closed the door. “Not much in there Em. “Would Cook be mad if we descended on her for lunch?” Em stood, took her work gloves off and put her jacket on. “When has Cook ever been angry about feeding anyone? Come on. I think today was a soup making day, and if we’re lucky she’s been making sandwiches for Samuel.” Tools away, Dez put her jacket on, dug in her pocket for her keys and went to the door.
~~~~~
Martha’s half of the duplex had become Dez’s home over the last couple of years. Em had hired her to take care of the orchard so that she would have employment. When Martha and Digby married, Martha’s half of the duplex was empty. Brigitte had lived in it for a while before she went off to university. Brigitte, Emelina’s care giver for many years, was separated in the pandemic, forcing out of her doldrums. After lockdowns had ended, there was an attempt for a time to give Brigitte a different job description, but university called the young woman away. Not long after, Dez decided that driving back and forth from Hartley wasn’t to her liking. She moved out to the Estate where her life settled into the Estate living.
Neither of the sisters in a hurry, they wandered over to the orchard. “Our trees look so much better since you’ve been taking care of them. I really wondering if we needed them. Didn’t really know what to do about it.” Dez reached up and plucked a stray apple from the nearest tree. “The pickers missed this one, or it wasn’t ripe when they were through.” Crunching down on the striped apple, juice squirting into her hand, she had to stop talking. But not long. “It’s been a gift that I would never had expected, Em. I did tree planting years ago, but having a whole orchard to myself! I would never thought it possible. And an apiary - I knew nothing about bees except that they made honey. That was an interesting project - and still is. Samuel and Matt have taught me so much in such a short time.” Em had found another apple, almost too high up to reach, but standing on her tiptoes, she managed to get it. “Digby is the one that has taught me about orchard management from the financial end.” She stopped and looked up at the manor house and back at the garden where she could see Samuel harvesting the vegetables they’d soon see in the house. “We’re pretty fortunate aren’t we, Dez? Never knowing where each other was, not really thinking about it, here we are. Working together. Sharing some of the same space.” Em voice caught in her throat. With her free hand, she put her fingers under her eyelids to catch escaping tears. Dez put her arm around her sister. “You are so right, Em. The pandemic was an awful, terrible time for so many. Here we are, grateful, happy and together.” The afternoon sun shone across the Beaufort Estate. “Let’s get that lunch, Em.”
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
~ Thornton Wilder
