“But…”
“Payable in advance of course.”
“But, what about my work here at the store?”
“It will still be here in a few days. Aren’t you due any holiday? And a shopping trip is really essential for me anyway. This is the only suit I brought, and It has this gaping hole in the knee. People seem to think it looks odd too. Somebody called me a ‘Beat Nick’ but that’s not my name…”
Katie giggled “Ok, ok, I’ll see what Mr. Fisher says…”
Harland continued “and somebody said ‘Nice hat, gramps.’”
Katie let loose with an unrestrained laugh that began in her belly and rang out through the bookstore until her sides ached.
Alvin Fisher rolled out from behind a bookshelf and said “Heh?”
*****
Katie stood in front of a mirror in the changing room of a dress store and did a little twirl. It was a classy black number that plunged dangerously at the front and hugged her body in all the right places. She had never even touched anything so luxurious before, but this was going to be hers. And the shoes!
Katie exited the changing room and found Harland and the sales assistant. “Is this one ok?”
No response.
The sales assistant dug her elbow into Harland, who’s jaw snapped closed before stammering “Yes, that’s wonderful… you look beautiful.” Then to the sales assistant “Can we take it as is? No need for wrapping, we’re almost running late.”
“Certainly sir.” The sales assistant trotted off to ring up a sale.
“Wait.” Harland called her back, “The lady would like her old things in a bag.”
“Yes, sir. Ma’am” The sales assistant gathered Katie’s old dress and shoes and re-trotted off to ring up the sale.
“Did she call me ‘ma’am’?” Katie asked.
“Yes, I think so. You want me to slap her?” Harland grinned.
“I don’t think that will be necessary!”
Harland laughed “I’ll go pay, then we can get going. I hope you’re as hungry as I am!”
Katie watched him go. He was looking… perfect. She couldn’t think of a better word for it. Katie had shown him to a respectable menswear store, where the owner had measured him up on the spot and found a suit that fit him. Now it showed off just how broad his shoulders were, the sleeves and legs were just the right length. They had given his bowler hat to a homeless man.
Harland returned with the bag of her old clothes and offered his arm to Katie, “Ready?”
Katie accepted it and they left the store together. Katie looked up at Harland as they walked and couldn’t help but smile, it was all so wonderful, just like being whisked away from everything, even if it was only for a moment. Harland looked back and a smile of his own played across his face.
“What? Do I already have food on my face?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
“That really is a nice dress, everybody is going to be jealous of me this evening,”
Katie felt a warmth spread to her face, a feeling that was becoming all too familiar around Harland and hoped it didn’t show. Not too much anyway. Harland continued.
“but I’m sure I saw something just like it in the window of Belmont’s, just a few doors down from your bookstore. You sure we couldn’t have just gone there?”
Katie felt the warmth beat a hasty retreat from her face.
“They don’t like me there… the owner’s daughter, Sara, once came in and bought some books. She was so friendly, she asked if I would like to come out with her and her friends that night. I was so happy… she was the first real person I met in this city of my own age.”
The sad look, always lurking just under the surface, returned to Katie’s eyes. She decided she might as well go on as she had started the story.
“I turned up to where she told me to meet them. They were all there, but when Sara saw me, she just ignored me. I said hi, but she didn’t really respond. One of her friends asked who I was and Sara said I was one of the sons from ‘Fisher and Sons’ and that she hadn’t asked me to come. I left and heard them laughing as I went. I think she saw that I didn’t have an expensive dress, or jewellery and then understood how poor I was. Being the daughter of a dress store owner, she never wanted for that kind of thing.”
Katie looked away and sighed. “And that’s the story about my best friend. I’m sorry, you hardly know me and I’m unloading all this on you.”
“It’s ok. That Sara sounds like a real…bitch.” Harland said. An older couple walking in the opposite direction looked positively scandalised by Harland’s language, but Harland seemed oblivious to it. Katie thought she should be scandalised too… but she felt somewhat validated instead.
From up ahead came some tantalising smells, pushing thoughts of Belmonts out of Katie’s head for the time being. A bright sign read “Deckland’s”
A man in a dark suit opened the door for them and they entered into the restaurant. Katie looked around the large room, with tables spread out around a central dance floor. Some small-time local band was just setting up their equipment on a raised area just in front of the dance floor. The restaurant was far from capacity, they were having an early dinner after all, but she saw expensive dresses and the glitter of gold and diamonds at every table. The city’s elite dined here, people who would drop her yearly salary on a bottle of champagne and then spray the contents into other people’s faces in celebration.
A snooty looking man at a podium asked if they had a booking. Harland gave his name and they were shown to a table, quite secluded from any other diners, but Katie was sure it would fill up by the time they finished. Their waiter asked if they would like anything to drink while they perused the menu. Harland suggested they share a bottle of wine and Katie agreed, though she had never had wine before.
Katie looked at Harland over her menu, and felt her heartbeat quicken. The whole day, yesterday too actually, felt like a fairy tale. Do princes really come and rescue damsels in distress? Or was this a trick similar to the one Sara Belmont had played, only far more elaborate? She wasn’t sure. Katie smiled at the confused look on Harland’s face. Harland looked up and smiled back.
“Can you pronounce anything on this menu?” he asked.
Katie laughed, “No!” then they were both laughing together.
The waiter came back, filled each of their glasses, and left their bottle in a bucket of ice. Harland waited until the water was out of ear-shot then leaned towards Katie conspiratorially. Katie grinned and leaned towards Harland.
“We need to come up with a plan for this situation.” He said.
“What situation?” Katie asked, furrowing her brow.
“Well, here’s what I have in mind. When the waiter comes back and asks us what we want, I’m just going to point at something. I suggest you do the same. This way we present a united front and don’t have to worry about these hieroglyphics on the menus anymore. I’m sure everything is very nice.”
Katie leaned back and took her first sip of wine. A tingly sensation started in her mouth, down her throat and into her belly, then began to spread out through her body.
“Ok.” She said “I think that will work.”
The waiter returned in a few minutes with a white cloth over his sleeve and a notebook in hand.
“Are we ready to order?” The waiter asked
Harland raised his hand like a schoolboy, Katie bit back a giggle.
“I am!” he said “I’ll have this, please.”
The waiter peered down at where Harland was pointing.
“Uh… very good, sir. And for the lady?”
“Me?” asked Katie.
The waiter raised an eyebrow, looked at the third, empty, seat at the table, then at Harland, then back to Katie.
“Yes?” he said, hopefully.
“Oh. I’ll have this please.” Katie pointed and the waiter looked then wrote her selection down and left.
“Did he call me ‘lady’?” she asked
.
“Yes. I think it’s probably part of their employment contract that they call the most beautiful woman in the room ‘lady’.” Harland answered, like it was quite obvious.
Katie looked around the room at the selection of platinum blondes with movie-star looks, diamonds glittering at their ears and necks, then looked back down at herself. From her angle she looked down at the double swell of her breasts, partially exposed by the risque neckline and could see her chest jump slightly with every beat of her heart. She raised her eyes back to Harland and felt a sense of unwinding within her. Knots of pain in muscles she didn’t know the name of began to ease off within her body, and she breathed easier. She felt warm. She didn’t think it was the wine.
*****
Katie awoke in her bed with a slight headache. She stretched and rubbed her eyes. She’d had the most wonderful dream, there was this amazing man… she tried to fall asleep again and slip back into the dream but couldn’t and opened her eyes again.
She looked at the expensive black dress hanging up on a hook on the wall and tried to think how it had gotten there. She awoke slightly more and realised that it wasn’t a dream and picked up a pillow to smother herself as she squealed into it with unashamed joy.
Katie thought back to the previous night and tried to pick a favourite moment. Was it the conversation? Katie had told Harland about growing up on a farm, Harland had told her about growing up in the city. His childhood had been so different to hers. Was it when their meals had arrived? Katie would never forget the moment when the waiter had come back with a huge fish for Katie and an Ice Cream Sundae for Harland. They’d managed to keep straight faces until the waiter left, then laughed until they couldn’t handle it anymore. Harland had shared some of her fish, and she had shared some of his sundae. She had never felt so full in her whole life. Was it the dancing? The band had turned out to be really good. Katie had pressed her head against Harland’s chest for the slow songs and listened to his heart and breathing as they slowly made their way randomly around the dance floor. His big strong arms were all around her and she felt so safe.
No. These were all good things, but the best was after he had walked her home, and they stopped at the front gate. Harland had looked down at her, and she up at him. He had slowly leaned down with his lips slightly apart and pulled her closer to him. Their lips had touched and he had kissed her. Softly at first, but growing in intensity, his hand slid up from the small of her back up into her hair and Katie felt his tongue gently touch her own before he broke away.
Katie had stood there, open mouthed and breathing heavily when he said “Goodnight, Katie West. Don’t forget, you’re my guide tomorrow, I’ll be here at 9am.” Then he had walked away into the night.
“Don’t go…” she had whispered.
But he was well out of whisper range by then. She didn’t remember getting back to her room, but Katie would have been surprised if her feet touched ground at any place between the gate and her bed. The flowers Harland had given her had apparently begun the night held close as she slept, but now all that remained were a multitude of scattered petals and a ragged looking bunch of stems on the floor. A shame.
Still, today she was going to be his guide to the city. She was going to show him… she had no idea what, actually. Katie looked at the clock, it was almost 8:30am, so she jumped up and rushed to the sink with mirror propped up behind it that served as her bathroom. Frantically, she brushed her teeth and washed her face, then looked at herself in the mirror. Her reflection looked different somehow, like it wasn’t even the same face that had been staring back at her since she had acquired this mirror. She liked the new reflection and blew it a kiss.
Turning back towards the room, she looked for the shopping bags from yesterday. Aside from the black dress she had also acquired a more practical set of clothes for her role as a guide. The shopping bags weren’t there. Where could they be? Had Harland not given them to her, having carried them for her all night? Katie could think of no other explanation. Hopefully he would remember them when he came back.
Katie felt a sudden pang of panic. What if he didn’t come back? The New-Katie, the one reflected in the mirror this morning, quickly quelled it. Harland would come back for her, she knew it somehow. For today then, she was going to have to wear something she already owned. She washed from the sink then selected a sensible pair of trousers and a shirt that would accentuate her slim waist. After getting dressed and returning to the mirror she thought New-Katie looked stunning, even in the old Katie’s clothes.
A frenzied knock at the door broke her train of thought, and she jumped a little. Opening the door she was greeted with the sight of a sweating and out of breath Harland, carrying the shopping bags in one hand.
“Oh, thank…” he panted, then handed her the bags and sat down.
“What are you doing, Harland?” Katie asked, utterly confused. “If you were running late, couldn’t you get a cab or something?”
“I…I …” Harland gradually caught his breath. Harland looked at her with what Katie took to be fear in his eyes, as if she had grown fangs or something.
“What is the matter? You’re scaring me!”
“I… was chased by a dog on the way here… Are you ok?” he finally blurted out.
“You were chased by a dog… and am I ok?” Katie repeated “Yes, I’m ok, did it bite you?”
“Uh… no, no I’m fine.” Harland took in a deep breath and then let it out again. “Sorry to frighten you. Do you want to get changed, or do you think you’ll be comfortable in that?”
“I’ll be fine in this, I chose the outfit on the off-chance that you wouldn’t remember the shopping bags anyway. I’ll just leave these bags here and we can get going. If you’ve recovered from your near-death experience, of course.” Harland smiled and Katie threw the bags the short distance to her bed and exited her room, closing the door behind her. Katie lived in a self-contained room in a back yard, detached from the house, this was the room she paid Mrs. Banner board for.
Katie noticed Mrs. Banner looking out the window at her, with child at hip. Katie waved but Mrs. Banner only pursed her lips and drew the curtain.
“Did you knock at the main house?” Katie asked.
“Yes, your Mother told me where to find you,” Harland replied “but she didn’t look happy about it.”
“She’s not my Mom, and no she wouldn’t have. She’s very old fashioned, gentleman callers between the hours of 2 and 3pm only and all that.” Katie said “I told you I was poor, you think I can afford to live in a real live house?”
“Sorry about that, I hope I haven’t caused you any trouble.”
“Don’t worry about it, she’s busy enough with her own kids that she’ll probably forget the, uh, indiscretion by the time I next pay my board.” Katie spread her hands apart and then clasped them together “So, where did you want me to guide you, Mister Real Estate Man?”
“Hmmm, well, I don’t really know where to start. My boss wants to develop near to popular locations for young adults, so I was thinking maybe we could go to your favourite place, wherever that happens to be?”
Katie thought for a moment then said “Well… there’s this fair in town ‘The Tuscini Brothers’ it’s called. It’s not there all the time, but it comes back to the same place every year for a few weeks. There’s rides and stalls, that kind of thing. I don’t know… it is kind of aimed at younger people, but I love it. Does that sound suitable?”
“That sounds perfect, let’s go!”
*****
Katie led Harland by the hand from stall to stall, savouring the feel of him. It was her first trip to the fair this year, and she was happy to see all her old favourites there. It was also the first time she had ever brought anybody with her, because it had always been her private place. It did strike her as strange to think of somewhere so crowded and noisy as private, but somehow in the hustle and bustle, nobody ever noticed her, she was free with her own thoughts.
Harland won her a stuffed rabbit at the stall where you throw baseballs at a stack of bottles. He threw the ball so hard that the bottle on the bottom shattered, leaving its base behind on the shelf, suspiciously unmoved. The owner of the stall threw the prize at them and quickly hung up a sign that said “Closed for Lunch”.
Harland asked her various questions about the area, and then just as they were finishing a lunch of pink cotton candy while sitting on a bench asked a somewhat more difficult question.
“Why is this your favourite place in all the city?”
Katie looked at Harland, then looked away. “Promise you won’t laugh?”
“Of course!” Harland pulled her close with one arm.
“I know exactly why it’s my favourite place, I don’t need a shrink to tell me. When I was around five, a fair a lot like this one set up in the nearest town to my Dad’s farm. My Dad loaded us all into the back of his pickup, my brothers and I, my Mom in the front with him, and we all went. My brothers took the day off school! There was no cloud in the sky, it was almost the summer holidays I think. I got high as a kite on pink cotton candy and ran around like a maniac. My dad carried me on his shoulders when I got too tired, I could see everything! He reached up and tickled me every now and then, when I squirmed he called me a little wiggle worm and I loved him. It was my happiest day.”
Katie drew a half-choked breath and continued.
“I didn’t have a lot of happy days, Harland. My Dad…he… he was a mean drunk. If you saw that bottle opened, you made yourself scarce. One night he came into my room, I pretended to be asleep. I thought I was going to catch hell anyway when I heard that belt come off, but he just stood there, I don’t know for how long. Eventually my Mom did something, and she’s the one that caught hell.”
“I’m sorry, Katie.” Harland said, squeezing her even tighter. There didn’t seem to be anything else to say.
Take All of It September 2019 Page 5