by Jamie Ott
~~~
Despite the wreck of papers she needed to get to that Saturday, Lin decided to go shopping with Mara. That night was the winter soiree at Blesswell Court. Since the party required ball gowns and tuxedoes, everyone in town would be at the Glass Towers, that day, getting fitted.
Lin stood at the entrance to the quarry and looked about and, not seeing Mara, decided to go ahead inside.
The wind was all daggers that day. Many were already there having lunch under the umbrella tables. Heat lamps went full blast, here and there. People sat wrapped in shawls and thick coats and chatted. Some even held forks and knives and cups with their gloved hands. Waiters walked quickly about, shivering as they scribbled their orders onto pads.
The Glass Towers were so called because they were made out of thick enchanted glass that was more than bullet proof. Locals said that not even a comet could destroy them. It looked like an ice castle under the cloudy gray sky. A few sun rays glittered across the surface and spun the colors of a rainbow back out into the air. The center between the two towers was shaped like a large dome.
She walked the path through the quarry and up to the thick paned door which looked like it could weigh well over 300 pounds, yet opened with barely a push of the metal bar.
Inside the towers was a warm brightly lit entrance hall that looked like any mall across America, except that the walls were shiny thick glass. Lin was amazed at how even though the walls were glass, she couldn’t completely see into the shops or straight through to the outside. Instead, she saw blurred shadows of people standing about. Above her, the color of gray bled through the ceilings and walls, making her feel like she was in the sky.
Lin was excited to finally get a chance to see the towers because she was tired of the same old shops in downtown Blackthorn.
On her walk through the right wing, she passed various shoes, dresses, and novelties shops. Everything she could possibly need was there, such as Shoes, Shoes, Shoes and Samuel’s Fit for Formal, where Mara said they should look for dresses.
Lin was super relieved when she nearly walked past a coffee shop.
“Hallelujah,” she said.
In need of a warm up, she took two steps back.
Lin always loved the fresh burst of coffee aroma in the air upon entering a shop. Eagerly, she followed the scent all the way to the register line.
In the shop, Lin noticed various faces she’d seen throughout the community but had never met. For instance, she saw the girl from the town meeting, Mrs. Shoester’s daughter.
The girl was squirrely but cute with a tiny pointed nose and shiny brown hair. She looked ulzzang yet slightly odd as she sat there in her light blue skirt with white knee high socks and dirty brown Mary Jane shoes. She wore a thick, baggy dirty brown mohair sweater.
Something about the girl gave Lin a strange vibration. When she looked up and caught Lin looking at her, she felt like she’d seen the girl before. After a moment, it came to her: She looked just like her grandmother’s childhood photos. She had the same squirrely nose, eyes slanted toward the outer corners, and red gradient lips. Come to think of it, her grandmother pretty much looked like this when she died. She had not a single wrinkle, and until the day she died at 165 years old, still managed her own garden, kept her house clean and made her own dinner. Of course, Lin never told anyone her grandmother lived so long, for they’d never believe her. Despite the girl looking a little off in the head, from her, she got the same impression she often got from her own grandmother, which was age beyond that of her face and agility.
The girl, quickly, looked back down at her magazine. Her hands shook as they turned the pages. Even with her head at a down turned angle, one could see her blood shot eyes and the dark circles beneath them.
Lin continued to observe the girl’s features and, in a way, she reminded her of herself. She wondered what the possibilities of their being related were. But as the girl used the back of her hand to wipe her snotty nose, Lin brushed the thought from her mind.
When Lin finally made it to the register and ordered her drink, she took another look and caught the girl watching her back.
Lin decided it was time to try and make a friend out of this girl. Somehow, she felt sorry for her because she seemed a nervous wreck.
The girl watched Lin approach.
“Hey there,” she said, trying to sound chipper.
“Hey,” the girl said flatly.
“I thought I’d come and say hi. I noticed you at the town meeting, and I have to say that you look, incredibly, like my grandmother did when she was a child. You don’t have any family in Buffalo, do you?”
The girl just stared at Lin with a dead pan look in her eyes and face.
“I’m Lin. I’m a curator at the Historical Society.”
“Yes, I know. Everyone knows who you are.”
The girl spoke through extremely stiff lips that hardly moved. Despite her extremely red eyes, she had the largest most piercing blue eyes.
She looked at Lin in such a way that kind of frightened her. Lin couldn’t hold her smile which faded from her face. She wanted to walk away but she decided to try and friendly up to the girl one more time.
“I hope you’ve heard good things.”
She tried to smile again.
The girl looked straight into Lin’s eyes, wiped her sniveling nose with the back of her shaky hand. All the while she made a terrible suction noise as she tried to force air through her nostrils.
Repulsed, Lin beat back a grimace, and asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You’re being watched.”
“Excuse me?”
But the girl couldn’t answer because she was distracted. Her eyes turned glassy and started to revolve around the room, like the eyes of an owl cuckoo clock.
Lin continued to watch the girl for a moment longer.
“Get out of here,” she said to no one in particular.
The girl appeared to be staring at the wall to their left. Then she stood up from her seat. As she made to leave the café, a gust of wind blew into the shop. The girl’s hair fluttered in the blast of air and revealed one of the girl’s ears, which came to a funny little outward point.
Lin watched her walk out and didn’t seem to hear the barista when he called her name.
A woman tapped her on the shoulder and said, “They’re calling you, I think.”
Feeling embarrassed, she simply said, “Sorry.”
“Don’t listen to the Shoester girl. She’s a little strange.”
“Poppy, Poppy Craig,” the woman extended a black leather gloved hand.
Despite Mara telling her that Poppy was a rude and arrogant woman, Lin’s first impression was that she was very polite. Also, she was a very pretty woman with tan skin and large, dark brown phoenix shaped glittery eyes.
The woman wore all black and her hair was twisted up into a neat bun.
“Lin Helewise.”
“I know who you are,” she said with a warm and even voice.
They looked at each other for a moment, “Well, it’s nice to meet you.”