A Family Affair

by Marilyn McPherson

Chapter Sixteen

  Some weeks later, Ellen was enjoying a morning coffee with one of her new office friends Ryan. They had worked together on a project a few weeks earlier and quickly become friends. Ryan was studying the new summer range of Satinol lipsticks that had just arrived. He was young and funny and very gay. He called her “sweetie”, which she liked, and he made her laugh with the way he talked, and the stories he told about the people working at Satinol.

  A knock was heard on Ryan’s office door.

  “Come in,” said Ellen, giggling at Ryan who was applying lipstick to himself. He was puckering his lips and pretending to be a woman.

  “I have your mail, Ellen,” said a shy young man who entered her office. “I heard you might be in here.” The same young man had delivered Ellen's mail for the past two weeks, and Ellen suddenly felt guilty and silly for not remembering his name.

  He seemed amused by Ryan’s antics too.

  “I'm so sorry,” Ellen told the man. “What's your name again?” she asked tentatively.

  “Cameron,” the man replied, handing her a neat pile of letters.

  “Sorry, Cam. There are just so many people here. I find it so hard to remember all the names.”

  “It's okay, don't worry about it. Looks like more fan mail today,” he said pointing to the letters.

  “Thanks, Cam, see you later,” Ellen called out as he left the room, writing the words “Cam” and “mail” neatly on her writing pad. “That ought to help,” she told Ryan.

  “All right my sweetheart! I'm off too for a meeting.” Ryan wiped his face clean and handed Ellen a neat pack of the new lipsticks to take home.

  “Bye, Ryan,” she told him light-heartedly.

  Ellen looked over the new lipsticks. This was one of the best perks of her job. She and Chloe had now accumulated a large collection of makeup at home and it was getting better every week.

  Soon after he had left, Ellen left for the central lounge area to skim through the letters. They were generally short and friendly notes from young girls, however one of the letters looked a little different from the rest. It was addressed to 'Tom Bradley's young girlfriend, Satinol Cosmetics', and appeared to have been hand-delivered. It looked a little creepy to Ellen, but she read it first, anyway.

  Dear girl

  I am planning to slip this note to one of the boys getting out soon, as it would never get through them nannies who reads our mail. Anyway, I hope it finds you.

  You don't know me as we have never met but I have a piece of information that you need to know. The only other person who knew this information was killed – killed because she knew too much. I was speaking to her before she was killed, so I could be next. I hope not.

  You were adopted as Col was too young to be a mother. This is understandable. The makeup guy, Tom someone is your father. Col says you are dating him. She wasn't happy about this!!! She thought it was disgusting. You should respect your mother's view. In fact, I think it is disgusting too. You should hook up with someone who is not your father - I will look you up when I get out. You can get to know me better. Your mother's name was Colleen Watson. We hear about all the murders in here. The makeup guy probably did it. When I get out of jail, I will kill him, maybe. Don’t show this letter to the coppers.

  A friend

  Ellen sat looking at the note in her hands for quite a while, trying to work out what to do with it. She wanted to take it straight to Tom and have him tell her that it was just a sick joke. Of course she wasn’t adopted. Of course Tom wasn’t her father. Of course Tom didn’t kill anyone. None of it made any sense. Ellen decided to show it to Chloe first, to see what she thought.

  Ellen made a frantic call to Chloe's desk which promptly brought her friend to her side within minutes.

  “Sweetie, are you okay?” asked Chloe, as she walked towards Ellen. “You sounded a bit frantic on the phone.”

  “I'm not okay, Chloe. I received this in the mail today,” Ellen said, thrusting the note firmly into Chloe's hand.

  After quickly scanning through the note, an expression of amusement came onto Chloe's face. “Well, Elle, this person is obviously crazed. I think we should frame it for kicks. It makes absolutely no sense,” laughed Chloe as she screwed the note up and threw it into the nearby trash can. “Why aren't you laughing too?” she asked realising that Ellen still looked shaken up.

  “Why would someone send me something like this? I mean, I'm not even adopted!” said Ellen, thinking through the facts, and retrieving the note.

  “People are completely nuts in the city. The man is obviously in jail right? So let's just hope that he stays there.”

  “What happens if he tries to hurt Tom?” said Ellen weakly, not liking the thought of anyone being hurt, especially Tom. “Do you think that we should give this note to Tom's security, or maybe even to the police?”

  “Hmmm.” Chloe thought about it briefly. “Yes, I think we will need to give the note to security, but first, I think we should find out if there is any truth in this matter.”

  “What do you mean, truth?” asked Ellen tentatively. “There's no truth to find, is there?”

  “Well, first thing is first. Let's ask your parents if you're adopted.”

  “I'm not adopted, Chloe! You know my parents, remember,” Ellen insisted.

  “Ah huh, but remember how we always used to joke about your being adopted when we were little?”

  Ellen did remember of course.

  Chloe went on, “Because both your parents have red hair and freckly skin, and you have dark hair and olive skin.”

  Ellen must have looked very concerned because Chloe came over and gave her a quick hug. “Look, Elle, I don't think you’re adopted okay, really I don't. I'm sorry for upsetting you. But you've been saying for ages that it's about time we went back home to visit the folks. Let’s do it this weekend. If there's no truth to this part of the crazy letter, then there's no truth to the rest of it, and we can just forget the damn thing ever arrived. And we don't want to bother Tom unless we have to. He's really busy at the moment, and it just wouldn't be appropriate.”

  “I think Tom would be very interested in this letter,” said Ellen, annoyed at her friend for thinking otherwise. “Because he cares about me.”

  “He just has a lot of important meetings today, and I don't think that we should be bothering him with crank fan letters.”

  Ellen was thoughtful for a moment. It did make sense. “Okay. I guess the folks might get a laugh out of the letter too. They might know what we should do with it too.”

  “It's decided then!” exclaimed Chloe. “Now I have to get back to my desk in case Tom needs anything. But I'll see you tonight okay. We should hire a movie and order pizza like we used to. Bit of a “girls’ night in”. What do you think?”

  “I can't. I have plans with Tom tonight.”

  “Oh, you do?” Chloe sounded a little disappointed but smiled in any case. “I don't feel as if we get to spend very much time together anymore.”

  “I'm sorry,” said Ellen. “But we'll hang out this weekend, okay?”

  “Ellen, what will happen to your job here if the two of you break up?”

  It was a ridiculous question. “Why would you ask that?” Ellen found herself feeling a little defensive.

  “Because I'm concerned about you, that's why I would ask,” responded Chloe sternly. “Relationships don't last forever. Tom knows a lot of women, a lot of models. I know because I updated his address book yesterday.”

  “Listen, you don't need to worry. Everything is going perfectly between us, except for this letter and all.”

  “I'll try not to worry, okay. I just don't want to see Tom get hurt.”

  Ellen looked at Chloe, surprised by where her loyalty apparently lay.

  “I mean, I don't want either of you to get hurt, of course.”

  “Sure.”

  Chloe was already standing up, ready to leave. “Listen, I have to get back to Tom, in case he needs something. I
probably shouldn't have left my desk like this,” Chloe said, trying to sound cheerful as she quickly left the room.