Caroline almost knocked me over when she realized what I was doing. She seemed more happy and excited than I was about it. I was surprised that she had not already heard the plan for me to move back in with her. After all of the excitement was out of the way, my mother urged Caroline to get back to work on cleaning the living room.
Johnny was sent in from outside to help me carry my bed back up to my old room. The bed was really heavy and I wasn’t very much help for poor Johnny. We both struggled up the stairs because of my lack in strength and height. I apologized as I stopped to lean against the wall.
As soon as we were still he seemed to check around for anyone that might be listening. When it looked as if he was sure there was no one he said, “Find a reason for you and Caroline not to go to The Fair. Get the stomach bug or something. Whatever you have to do, you two cannot go. Dad’s planning on taking all of us the day after tomorrow. So tomorrow night before bed you should start to fake some symptoms. You know this is important Emily, or I wouldn’t tell you to do this.”
“Why Johnny? And what about you?” The door to the cellar opened just as I finished asking the last question and, of course, it was our father. He seemed to be able to somehow sense when he was least wanted and always seemed to show up at that time. Of course, as far as I knew he was never really wanted around by any of us children.
“I thought Johnny might need a stronger hand with that bed than yours. Move out of the way Emily. Go help your mother with dinner or something.” He grabbed my shoulders and almost pushed me past him up the stairs.
How was I ever going to talk Caroline into pretending that she was sick so she wouldn’t be able to go to The Fair? She was so excited about the idea of going. I knew if Johnny was warning me to do whatever I had to do to stay home that he knew that Dad had something truly wicked planned for that day. Would our father even accept Caroline and me both being sick as an excuse for staying home? Or would he force us to tag along either way, sick or not?
I had to think about this and plan it well. It sounded like it was very important that I got this right and didn’t screw it up. Maybe I should really make us both sick somehow, or at least Caroline, so that it was more believable and I didn’t have to convince her to fake it.
Then Julie spoke to me again. “I have a great idea to help you.” I didn’t fight the voice or stop her, but instead listened closely to all that she had to say. I would have to wait until just before dinner tomorrow to carry out her plan though. It would work to keep Caroline and me away from the Fair, I was sure of that. I wished that I could find a way to keep Johnny home too, but I knew the plan wouldn’t work for him. I wondered what Johnny knew. What could my father possibly have planned now?
My mother was outside gathering eggs. “Do you need any help with dinner tonight?”
“Maybe. I thought I would make a broccoli and cheese quiche, French toast, bacon, and sausage. We haven’t had breakfast for supper in a long time. You can go in and start frying up the bacon if you will.”
Mom was inside and already preparing the quiche by the time I started to actually fry the bacon. She started talking more to herself than to me it seemed, “Tomorrow night we’re having pinto beans for supper so we’ll have to start soaking the beans tonight.”
When I heard that I was glad that tomorrow night Caroline and I probably wouldn’t be able to eat dinner because we would be too ill. I hated pinto beans and Dad always made us sit at the table until our bowls were completely empty. There was usually crying involved on pinto bean nights, not by me anymore, but because of Caroline and Eric. Now there was only Caroline left to cry.
Dad and Johnny both came bounding down the stairs and into the kitchen. Dad spoke to me, “Okay, your bed’s all set. Now you just have to get everything situated. Go do it now. Your mom can finish making dinner on her own.” Wow, there had to be another reason behind getting the house in shape and moving my bedroom back to its original place, especially if my father was going to let me skip out in the middle of helping Mom fix dinner.
I was so pleased to have all of my things back in my old, familiar bedroom. For now I was alone in here. Caroline was still downstairs cleaning the living room spotless. I felt almost as if I was skipping out on everyone by being up here just sorting my things. But Johnny and Caroline both knew that I was only doing as I was told and would get punished if I didn’t listen.
My mind wandered, as it had a tendency to do when I worked. I wondered if this was the room that my mother shared with her little sister years ago or if this had been my father’s room. At some point I would ask one or both of my parents these questions. I just had to pick the perfect time to do it.
My stuff was all back in its proper places finally. It didn’t take that long at all once I got started. My clothes were all back in my drawers in the dresser, I had put clean sheets on my bed and a clean pillowcase on my pillow, Julie was tucked neatly under my blanket on top of my pillow, and my story writing stuff was back in my nightstand. I took my dirty sheets down to the washer and threw them in, hardly believing that I had slept down in this dark, musty place just last night.
It was time for dinner when I had finished everything I needed to do to get my room in order. I loved French toast with sausage. I didn’t care much for the quiche, but I had to take at least a small piece. It was one of Dad’s many rules.
Our father talked excitedly while he ate about taking us all to the State Fair on Friday, the day after tomorrow. Caroline screeched for joy at the mention of it. I knew I had better pretend to be thrilled as well so I said, “That sounds like fun. I’ve always wanted to go to the Fair.”
Dad was still really worked up about it and said through a mouthful of food, “It will certainly be a day none of you will ever forget, I’m sure!” With that statement I had no doubt in my head at all that I would need to do as Johnny had said and make sure that Caroline and I would not be able to attend Dad’s joyous event. Julie’s idea should work perfectly to make sure that we were both too ill to be able to go.
Once dinner was over and Caroline had helped me wash, dry, and put away the dishes we went up to our room. Happy tears formed in the corners of my eyes at the thought of not having to sleep down in the cellar all by myself again. Caroline asked me to tell her one of my stories and that’s when I couldn’t help it any longer and the tears began to fall.
“I’m sorry Emily. You don’t have to tell me a story if you don’t want to.”
I laughed while still sobbing and then said as I wiped the tears from my face, “No, I will. I’m just so happy to be sharing a bedroom with you again. I’ve missed you Caroline.”
I told her a story after we both already had our pajamas on for the night. Then I told her that tomorrow we would have a tea party sometime before dinner, just her and I. We would have some girl time together and use the heirloom tea set Mom had given me for my eleventh birthday. She was thrilled.
I slept more comfortably that night than I had since leaving this room and my little sister about a month or so beforehand. My bed was still the same and still smelled a little bit like the cellar, but it was having Caroline so close to me that made me feel so much better. I wondered what her time alone in this room had been like. Hopefully it hadn’t been as bad as my time all the way downstairs.
Nobody bothered either one of us all night. I woke the next morning feeling well rested and pretty good. Then we did the normal everyday summer things like getting dressed, making our beds, eating breakfast, washing the dishes, and helping Mom tidy up the house before lunch. We would be starting our school lessons again right after the State Fair was over. That was when we always started for the year.
Emily was finally starting to listen to me even though she realized that I wasn’t really her conscious after all. I was so happy and relieved. She needed my idea to help her get out of going to the Fair and I was sure nothing less would work. That man must have something really terrible planned for Emily’s brother to warn her to fake sick or wh
atever she had to do to stay home. I was curious what he had up his sleeve, but I was thankful that Emily was finally going to listen to me and not have to find out. Hopefully she would go through with the plan. If not, I would have to try to take over to make sure that she did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
After we all had lunch and the dishes had been washed I asked Mom if Caroline and I could play for just a short while. She agreed but told me we only had about half an hour and then we needed to get back to helping with the chores. I thanked her and then ran outside, grabbing the cup that she had used to soak the paintbrush I had used in. I left the paintbrush on the sill of the window outside. Then I walked back into the house and upstairs to my bedroom, being careful not to be seen with the cup.
The turpentine dirtied with green paint looked just like tea to me, just like Julie had said it did. Good enough to play pretend with my little sister and make us both convincingly sick. I got out my antique tea set, being careful not to bang any of the pieces together too hard. I poured only a little of the turpentine into the tea pot. I wanted to make us both sick, not kill us.
Once I had everything all arranged neatly on the throw rug in our room I called to Caroline. “Caroline, come have a tea party with me!”
Only a few seconds had passed before I could hear her running up the stairs to our bedroom. We both sat on the floor in front of our tea cups. “Would you care for some tea, madam,” I asked in the best rich person voice that I could come up with.
Caroline giggled and then answered in her funny talk, “Yes please, that would be simply lovely.”
I felt like such a horrible sister for what I was about to do to Caroline. I knew in my head that I was doing it for her own good. Also I tried to keep in mind that she wouldn’t have to suffer alone since I would be drinking the poison right along with her. I forced a smile and then poured us both some of the stuff from the tea pot.
“Cheers,” I said, picking my cup up while holding my pinky out like the proper ladies from my books always did while drinking tea. Caroline followed my example.
I realized almost immediately after I took my sip that this whole idea of Julie’s was probably a terrible mistake. Either that or Julie was really just trying to kill us. Caroline and I both started coughing. It felt like my lips, tongue, and throat were burning and my stomach started hurting worse than I ever remembered it hurting in my life. I began heaving and throwing up right on the bare floor of my bedroom. Caroline was puking now too.
I wanted to comfort my little sister but I couldn’t. I was in too much pain and couldn’t stop throwing up myself. I was trying to decide whether I should go for help or not when I was able. I didn’t know whether this was something that we could die from or not and with the way I was feeling I was really scared that it might be. Then I thought, “Oh well, Julie would be doing us both a favor if we did end up dying. Our suffering would be over once and for all.” I decided not to tell anyone what I had done. Hopefully this would at least keep Caroline and I home from The Fair tomorrow.
When I could I made my way down to the kitchen to get Caroline and I both some water to help wash away the turpentine from our mouths and throats. I was pretty sure none of it could be left in our stomachs. Thankfully no one was around to see the condition I was in at that time. I brought the water back upstairs and told Caroline to drink.
My throat felt like it was on fire, but I needed to give Caroline some important instructions. “Are you okay Caroline?”
“I think so. My throat and tummy still hurt though.”
“Good. Now listen to me carefully.”
I looked away to cough again. Then I continued, “We are going to tell Mom that we don’t feel good and that we are throwing up. She’ll be able to look at us and see that we’re sick. Don’t tell her it was from drinking the tea or I will be in dead trouble. Do you hear me?”
Poor Caroline looked so confused. She was still coughing but managed to reply to me, “Did you make us sick on purpose Emily? Why did you do that?”
I felt terrible. What a mean sister I was to do something like that to her. I knew in my head I had done the right thing. I just wish I didn’t have to feel so rotten about doing it.
“Listen Caroline. I’m sorry I made us sick. I really am. Johnny told me I had to so we wouldn’t have to go to The Fair tomorrow. He told me that something really awful is going to happen there and we had to find a way to stay home. Please promise not to tell on me and act like you’re sicker than you are so we can stay home. Please? I know you really wanted to go, but it’s not going to be the fun time that you want.”
“Emily…,” she whined. Then she stopped and looked like she was thinking hard about what I had said. “What’s going to happen at The Fair that’s so bad that we can’t go?”
“I don’t know Caroline. All I know is that if Johnny begged me to do whatever I had to in order for you and I to both be able to stay home it must be more awful than anything we could imagine. Please do what I asked you to and just trust me.”
“Okay Caroline.”
Her chin quivered and she started crying. I knew she wanted to go tomorrow more than anything and that it broke her heart hearing that we had to stay home. It broke my heart to have to be the one to make her so sick in the first place and then to have to tell her the news that she wouldn’t be able to go to The Fair that she had been so excited about.
I held Caroline in my arms and let her cry. When she was finally through I cleaned up my tea set and put it back in my hope chest in the corner of our room. Then I cleaned up the vomit from the floor. I had to roll up the throw rug and carry it downstairs to scrub and hang outside. I told Caroline to lie down in her bed to rest. I let her know that I would deal with telling our mother that we had the stomach bug or something. She unhappily agreed and climbed into her bed as I left the room.
Mom was in the kitchen now pulling freshly baked bread out of the oven. “Mom, I don’t feel too good. Caroline and I just got sick all over on our floor. I have to clean our rug still. Is it okay if we both skip dinner tonight and just go to bed early?”
“You look terrible Emily! Is Caroline okay or should I go up and check on her?”
“I think she’ll be alright. I think it might be a stomach bug or something. She’s laying down now and that’s what I’m going to do when I’m done cleaning the rug.”
“Oh geez. Hopefully you both are better by morning so you can go to The Fair. Don’t worry about the rug. I’ll clean it. You go get rested up so you can get better.”
“Thanks Mom. I hope we can go too. Caroline’s so sad thinking that she won’t be able to go.” I grabbed another glass of water to take up to our room.
I changed into my nightgown and then drank half of the water in the glass. It felt wonderful on my sore mouth and throat. I offered the other half of the water to my sister. She drank it down as if she were in the middle of a desert and hadn’t had anything to drink in days.
I woke some time later in the night to the not uncommon sounds of my parents yelling at each other. I crept out of bed as quietly as I could and went to listen by my door. I heard only bits and pieces of what my mother said, “Why - - - fake – sick?” They must be arguing about Caroline and me possibly not being able to go to The Fair.
Then my father I could hear more clearly, “I don’t know. You’re right, they probably wouldn’t. We’ll see how they are tomorrow.” He still yelled what he had said, even though he was admitting to being wrong. Realizing that my mother was right and he was not must have made him even more upset.
I really hoped that Mom would still go with Dad to The Fair. I didn’t want Johnny to go if something terrible was going to take place, but I wouldn’t mind having both of my parents out of the house so that I could look through that box of pictures more.
My curiosity was really beginning to get the better of me since the quick look I had taken before. That had only created more questions, but it answered questions that I never realized I had b
efore as well. Besides, I deserved to know what my background was. I would find out early enough tomorrow if I’d be able to do some more looking. I fell asleep wondering what else I might find in my mother’s mysterious box of memories.
Why did Emily always try to go from one bad thing to the next? Why couldn’t she just take the day off and relax without creating any more worries with her little sister? Going through that box of her mother’s was not a good idea, not in my opinion at least.
At least the turpentine thing had worked how I had hoped that it would. I had actually gotten the idea from Emily’s father. I heard him talking to her mother one day about a news story he read. A young girl and her brother had both been admitted to the hospital after drinking turpentine while having a tea party. The story stuck in my head and I was glad because it came in very handy today. I never did find out what happened to the girl and her brother after that though. I guess it was a good thing that Emily and her sister didn’t seem deathly ill at least.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Detached: Book 1 of the Fleischer Series Page 15