by Lesley Crewe
She turned to go. “Gee, thanks. I never thought of that.”
“Ask Aunt Hildy. Her whole life’s been an adventure. Mom said she had more secrets than the CIA.”
Faith’s ears perked up. That was actually a good idea. Too bad it required being outside and sitting with two old broads. Oh, well. Maybe writing a book required some personal sacrifice. Perhaps if she suffered for her art, she’d get a book deal.
Fifteen minutes later she found herself out in the garden. The old dears sat in Adirondack chairs under the oak tree, deep in conversation. Never in a million years did she think her aunt would find anything in common with their neighbour, but there they were, as thick as thieves.
Aunt Hildy put her head back and laughed at something Mrs. Noseworthy said. Faith felt a chill for an instant. She looked just like Mom, or what her mother would’ve looked like had she lived into her nineties. A deep loneliness engulfed her. It wasn’t fair. Her mother was soft and Aunt Hildy was hard. The wrong sister had lived as far as she was concerned.
She joined them and listened to them prattle on about everything under the sun. She took notes while they talked. After a while her aunt looked at her.
“Am I that interesting, that you must write down every word I say?”
“Oh, you should,” Mrs. Noseworthy said. “Your auntie is very clever. Very clever indeed.”
“I want to write down some of your stories. Something to pass along to the family when…”
Hildy put up her hand to shade her brow. “I croak?”
Mrs. Noseworthy slapped her knees. “That’s a good one, Hildy. Don’t croak too soon. I have to find out what happened in Ethiopia.”
Faith leaned forward. “Ethiopia? What about it?”
Hildy sat back in her chair and looked up into the tree. “Those were some of the best digs of my life. Ancient worlds. Treasure. Secrets. Everything a mystery. All the best digs solve mysteries. Who they were, how they lived and died. It’s fascinating stuff.”
She wrote furiously. “Did you ever find treasure?”
“I found lots of treasure.”
Faith looked up to see if she was teasing. “Really?”
“Really. There are all kinds of treasures in one’s life. People, places, experiences. It’s everywhere.”
Disappointed, Faith said, “Oh. I thought you meant jewels and coins and stuff.”
“That too.”
Mrs. Noseworthy clapped her hands. “What fun. Imagine knowing someone who has a treasure chest.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t have a treasure chest. She didn’t bring it with her in her luggage, at any rate.”
Hildy brushed away a fly. “I have a treasure chest. It’s hidden in the house.”
“Okay. Whatever you say.”
“You’re free to believe it or not. It doesn’t matter to me.”
Faith’s scalp tingled. “Are you serious?” She squinted at her aunt and again tried to guess if she was joking.
Their elderly neighbour wrung her hands. “You should be careful, Hildy. Someone might come and take your treasure.”
Aunt Hildy spoke to her as if she were a child, instead of her peer. “I don’t think so, dear. And even if they did, they’d never find it.”
“And why’s that?” Faith asked.
“My whole life’s been a game of hide-and-seek. I play it very well.”
After the ladies went indoors, Faith stayed where she was, hardly believing what she’d just heard. What luck. Elsie thought Aunt Hildy’s stories might be worth something but what Faith discovered was even better. What was her aunt thinking, talking about a fortune hidden away in the house? She must be senile, or as daffy as Mrs. Noseworthy.
Faith sat outside for a long time and pondered the situation she now found herself in. No one else knew about this treasure or they’d have said something by now. Her aunt clearly didn’t need it because she was rich already.
Come to think of it, how did she get so rich? Archaeologists don’t make a lot of money. Maybe she kept some of the priceless items she unearthed. Maybe the great Aunt Hildy was just a common everyday thief.
Faith had a decision to make. Live the rest of her life in someone else’s attic, go nowhere and do nothing, or take a chance and find this treasure and use some of it to better herself. If she had her own place and could afford new clothes, maybe she’d be able to meet a man. And once she met a man, she’d be happy enough to write a book and then she’d be famous. Since Aunt Hildy probably stole this treasure anyway, what harm would it do to have something good come out of it?
One thing was sure: She wouldn’t tell Elsie. She’d be horrified and get all holier than thou. But she’d tell Juliet because this was too big to keep to herself. Juliet would help her find it and wouldn’t be judgmental. Of course, she’d have to give her some of it, but that was okay. They needed to stick together. They’d been left out of their parents’ will, the house going to Elsie. True, Elsie had uprooted her own family to move in and nurse their parents through separate bouts of cancer, but it still hurt to have been so overlooked.
Faith put her head back against the lawn chair and let the breeze wash across her face. Hopefully, the winds of change were finally blowing her way.
At about the same time Lily walked into her classroom, Elsie and Crystal walked down Spring Garden Road on their lunch hour. It was a blustery day. Hair whipped around the faces of people as they walked down the street, some striding quickly, obviously on a mission, while others meandered, window shopping or checking out the menus on the doors of the restaurants that lined the street.
Elsie always loved to see the day-care workers escort their small charges up the sidewalk. Each child held on tight to the communal rope as they headed toward the Public Gardens. It seemed like only yesterday the girls were that age. She and Graham would take them to feed the ducks and stop for gelato on the way home.
All those precious days disappeared when she wasn’t looking.
Despite the brisk wind, they stopped for fries at the local chip wagon, and sat on the stone wall that ran along the sidewalk amid a legion of sparrows and fat pigeons. She had no business eating greasy fries, but if ever a day called for fattening food, this was it.
“So,” Crystal said with her mouth full. “How was the first night with Aunt Hildy?”
Elsie shook her head and swallowed before she attempted an answer. “Terrible.”
“Let me guess. She gave everyone a mouthful and nobody ate the great dinner you made.”
She looked at her friend. “You’re psychic.”
“I’m not psychic. You’re just predictable and your aunt’s a tyrant.”
Elsie dipped a fry in her ketchup. “I can’t win. No matter what I do, nothing ever changes.”
Her friend snorted. “And nothing ever will change unless you stand up for yourself.”
“Oh, brother. Not you too.”
“Graham’s right, Elsie. You never should have let her move in.”
She threw her cardboard container in the nearby trash can.
“Don’t talk to me about Graham.”
Crystal threw her container too. “What did he do now?”
“Can you believe he made a date on the phone right in front of me?”
She threw her hands up to her cheeks. “Oh my God. You mean a forty-two-year-old man had the audacity to make a date? Call the National Enquirer, this is news.”
Elsie stuck out her tongue.
“Fight fire with fire, then. There’s no reason you can’t date too.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I plan on bonking the first guy who walks down the street.”
Crystal looked behind her and burst out laughing.
“What?”
“Don’t look now, but here comes Harry Adams. He’s wanted to get in your drawers for years. Guess it’s his lucky day.”
She turned and, sure enough, there was Harry strolling down the street in his cop uniform, bigger than life. She’d known him since high school a
nd often ran into him because of work. He was a great-looking guy but he knew it and that had always bugged her.
“Jesus,” she yelped. “Hide.” She threw her purse up over her face but it was too late. Harry had spied her and was barrelling over.
“Hey there, Miss Social Worker. How’s it going, now that I hear you’re sort of a free agent? Graham’s one stupid guy to let you out of his clutches.”
There was nothing for it. She couldn’t run down the street. That would be too obvious.
“Hello Harry.”
Crystal gave him a big smile. “Hi Harry. Don’t tell me you’re still single? A nice-looking guy like you?”
He literally preened and winked, “Have to keep the ladies happy, if you know what I mean.”
Oh barf. Elsie tried to get Crys to look at her, but she refused, content to smirk up a storm.
“Well, now that Elsie’s available, maybe you should call her up.”
Elsie wanted to beat the face off her.
Harry put his hand through his dark hair. “I think that’s a great idea. I’d love to take you out for dinner Elsie, or even for coffee. We can catch up on old times.”
She prayed the sidewalk would open up and swallow her. She wasn’t sure who to kill first, Crystal or Harry. She looked at them with desperation and tried to think of an excuse to leave, but then remembered how Graham had humiliated her the night before.
This was the solution. Harry was a nice guy, in spite of his showing off, and at least she knew him. Who better to go out on a date with? She didn’t want to cruise bars and pick up a stranger. Yes. Harry was just the ticket. Graham wasn’t the only one who could make a new life for himself.
“Sure Harry. Call me.”
Elsie was pleasantly surprised when she got home from work a few hours later and found Faith humming in the kitchen while she made vegetable soup.
“Whose house it this?” she teased. “Where’s my sister and what have you done with her?”
Faith opened the fridge and looked in the vegetable crisper. “Oh, hardy har har. Do we have any mushrooms?”
“They’re in a paper bag.”
“Oh yeah, here they are.” She took them out and shook them into a colander.
Aunt Hildy and Dahlia were at the pine table. One browsed through a bridal magazine while the other did the New York Times crossword puzzle with a pen. Her daughter pushed the magazine across the table. “What do you think of this?”
Hildy held up her chin to look down the end of her nose at the picture. “Merciful God. Does that say eight thousand dollars?”
Dahlia sighed and touched the picture with her finger, outlining the dress “But isn’t it beautiful?”
“It’s obscene. Eight thousand dollars, for a piece of cloth?” She took off her glasses and looked at Elsie, “You wouldn’t be foolish enough to agree to such nonsense, surely?”
She picked up the mail. Nothing but bills. “Of course not.”
Her daughter pouted. “Mom. I have to have something nice. I’m not saying it has to cost that much, but…”
Hildy spoke up. “Why not wear your grandmother’s wedding dress? It’s in one of the trunks upstairs. It’s ivory lace if I remember correctly. Very tiny. Very pretty.”
Faith tossed the cut up mushrooms into the soup. “I’ll look for it, if you like.”
Dahlia flipped through more pages. “Well, I’m sure it’s lovely, but I’d really like my own.”
“I saw the most beautiful dress of all.”
They turned to look at Aunt Hildy.
“Whose was it?” Dahlia asked.
“A girl. She never married though.”
“Why not?”
“Her young man didn’t come. He couldn’t.”
“That’s awful.”
“Mmm.”
“What did the dress look like?”
“It was simple. It’s about the love, my dear. Nothing else.”
The three of them exchanged glances. Unbelievable. Aunt Hildy talking about love.
They were brought back to earth when the screen door slammed.
Elsie called out. “Is that you, Lily?”
Dahlia squealed. “Oh my gosh, I forgot to tell you. I coloured Lily’s hair today. Wait until you see it.”
Elsie went weak with relief. “Bless your heart.”
Lily floated into the kitchen. “Hello.”
She shone, as if light poured out of her skin.
No one moved.
“Lily?” her mother finally croaked.
“Yes.”
“Honey, you look wonderful. I love your hair.”
“Yes.”
Aunt Hildy piped up. “Who is he?”
“A boy.”
Dahlia squealed again and clapped her hands excitedly. “Who? Don’t tell me you’ve found someone already. I must be really good!”
“Eli,” Lily whispered as she continued to float across the kitchen, down the hall and up the stairs.
Faith stirred the soup. “For God’s sake, let’s invite him to dinner. This one, I’ve got to see.”
It was a rare and wonderful thing to see Lily so happy. The women in the family were anxious to see the boy who’d worked such a miracle. So a week later, Eli came for dinner.
Elsie rushed through her day, bought some nice wine and hurried home to help prepare the meal. Once again, Faith was in the kitchen cooking up a storm.
Elsie laughed. “Has a culinary fairy cast a spell on you?”
Her sister looked up from mixing an apple crisp. Her thick salt and pepper hair was caught up in an elastic and one roller sat on the top of her head. Her cheeks were dusted with flour. Elsie thought she looked better than she had in years. Maybe she was coming out of her depression. Elsie had prayed long and hard for that to happen.
“I’m hiding in here so I don’t have to haul furniture all day. Aunt Hildy has Lily’s room in a complete tip. Do you know more packages arrived this morning? As well as a couple of crates. She’s probably got a mummy in one of them.”
“Nothing would surprise me.”
“She talks to herself,” Faith confessed. “Did you know that? I hear her all the time. It’s spooky.”
“She is over ninety,” she said, grabbing a piece of apple and popping it into her mouth. “We think of her as invincible, but there’s been a big change, don’t you find?”
Faith looked pensive. “You don’t think she’s off her rocker…you know…imagining things?”
“I can’t possibly know. She hasn’t been here long enough. I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”
Just then the front door opened and Flower gave an obligatory woof.
“We’re here,” Lily hollered.
Elsie clapped her hands. Faith threw the dish towel she had wrapped around herself on the counter and started out the door but Elsie held her back. “Your roller.”
Faith clawed it out of her hair as they beat it down the hall.
“Mom, Aunt Faith…this is Eli.”
A boy not much taller than Lily stood in the doorway wearing a pair of black slacks and an open-collared white dress shirt. The minute he smiled Elsie knew right away why Lily had fallen for him. His face lit up and his grin was infectious. He shook their hands and gave them both a rose. “Ladies. It’s lovely to meet you.”
Dahlia had Aunt Hildy by the elbow as they hurried down the stairs.
“And this is my Aunt Hildy and my sister Dahlia.”
Eli reached over to hand Dahlia and Aunt Hildy their roses. “More beautiful women. I love this house.”
“It’s so nice to meet you Eli,” Elsie smiled. “Lily talks of no one else.”
“Mom.”
“Well, it’s true,” Dahlia chimed in.
Eli turned to Lily and took her hand. He brought it gently to his lips and kissed it. “It makes my heart happy to know that.”
“Well, young man,” Hildy said. “I’m sure it will come as no surprise when I tell you we’ve just fallen in love with you
ourselves.”
“You can’t have him,” Lily murmured. “He’s mine.”
They had a very jolly dinner. Eli cracked them up with stories about being raised on a hippy commune with his middle-aged parents, who, it turned out, weren’t hemp farmers after all, but a wealthy stock broker and brain surgeon having simultaneous mid-life crises that miraculously disappeared when he was twelve. And so he spent his fragile teenage years trying to cope with living in a penthouse condo in mid-town Manhattan.
Elsie was so happy for Lily. She looked at her face watching Eli’s every move as he chatted and gestured and laughed with them all. Her girls were incredibly fortunate. It was obvious they were both in love. She turned to look at Slater, who’d joined them before dinner, and could see that he was shy around this sophisticated charmer. He laughed at all the jokes and yelled “Far out,” every few minutes, but he looked worried, as if somehow he didn’t quite measure up to the new guy in the family. He seemed vulnerable and, for the first time, Elsie wanted to protect him as one of her own.
Dahlia must have sensed his uncertainty too. She turned to him, took his chin in her hand and mouthed “I love you.” The look of gratitude he gave her for this sweet gesture made Elsie suddenly excuse herself, saying she’d get the tea. She rushed out of the dining room and into the pantry, where she picked up an apron and held it to her face to keep from sobbing out loud.
Later that night, when all was quiet, she climbed the stairs with a mug of hot milk—something her mom used to do when she was out of sorts. As she tip-toed down the hall, Aunt Hildy’s bedroom door opened.
Elsie crept across the hall. “Are you all right?”
“Why are you whispering?” Hildy asked.
Elsie slipped inside the bedroom. “I don’t know. You looked like you were going to tell me a secret.”
Her aunt laughed as she shut the door. “I have lots of secrets. Don’t you?” She motioned for her niece to sit on the bed, while she took the armchair next to it.
“Secrets?” Elsie held her mug against her chest and thought about it. “Not really. I don’t have time for secrets.”
Hildy shook her head. “Oh dear. That’s not very wise. That means you have no mystery, and where there’s no mystery, there’s no magic.”