“I know you want to visit with your friend. I have friends, too.”
Luna squinted in the dim light of the bedside lamp. “You do?”
“I think it’s a good thing to have a friend outside the house.”
“But it’s against the rules. You just said—”
“I met my friend at the mall, when I was shopping alone. Leo doesn’t know. Neither do the sisters, and they can’t know. That’s the thing about having a friend outside the house. It has to be a secret. Do you understand?”
“Yes!” Luna rushed to give her a quick hug, adding, “Love you, Mama!”
“You can’t tell anyone about it. It’ll be our secret.”
“I won’t. I can keep a secret.” Luna knew that was another thing friends did for each other. “Can I meet your friend? What’s her name?”
“Maybe someday you can meet. Someday when you’re allowed to leave the house like the other sisters.”
“Do you think . . . Will Leo ever let me out?” Luna looked out the window into the blue-black night punctuated by a few squares of light from the windows of neighboring houses. She ached to get out of this house. Sometimes she recognized that there would be danger beyond these walls. She had seen violence in movies, and occasionally she heard the squeal of a car’s wheels or an ambulance’s siren to remind that things could go very wrong. Leo said the world was full of Volde-morts. He’d had the sisters watch all the movies so that they could be grateful that he protected them from all the bad things. But Luna saw the world beyond their house as a Hogwarts academy where most of the students had good hearts and only a few were mean and devious. At least that was what she wanted to believe.
Mama was also staring out the window, watching, as if the blue darkness soothed her. “Your time will come. He can’t keep you in this house forever.”
“He says I’ll never leave. That I’m going to be next in line to take over the housekeeping chores here.”
“What?” Mama’s spine straightened as she drew in a breath. “You’re only ten years old. How could he say that?”
Luna shrugged. “That’s what he told me. Next year, he’s going to start sending Sienna to work at the hotel, so I can take over—”
“Listen to me.” Mama’s breathless whisper scared her, though she wasn’t quite sure why Mama was suddenly alarmed. “If he ever says that again, you just nod and go along with it. Let me work it out with him. But I promise you, that’s not going to happen. I won’t let it. Do you understand?”
Luna nodded.
“Things are changing.” Mama slid off the bed and pulled the blanket closer around her shoulders, though the room wasn’t cold. “Changing too fast. I need to think.” Staring at the floor, she walked to the wall, turned, and paced back.
“So when can I hang out with Hazel again?” Luna didn’t really care about taking over the chores, as long as she was allowed to have a friend.
“Not for a while. You can’t get caught over there again. I can’t protect you when I’m not here, and it breaks my heart when he locks you in the attic and I can’t help you. Promise me you’ll behave while I’m at work.”
With one last look at her friend’s house beyond the fence, Luna turned away from the window and went back to her own bed in the corner. “I promise.”
“Now go to sleep.” Mama huddled under the blanket like a guard, her gaze moving from the window by her bed to the bedroom door. “You need to help with breakfast tomorrow.”
Most mornings Luna set the breakfast table and sometimes made toast or poured juice. Natalie insisted that everyone pitch in around the house, and Luna didn’t mind if she wasn’t too sleepy. “Okay, Mama.” Luna slid in under the comforter. Most nights she didn’t pull down the sheets because it was too much trouble to make the bed in the morning. She felt under the pillow to make sure it was in place, its worn corners and smooth cover a comfort to her. Although she was too old for the book now, sometimes she read it over when no one was watching. Harold reminded Luna of the possibilities beyond her window. Right now, if Luna could draw one thing with a purple crayon it would be a giant slide that would take her straight from her bedroom window to Hazel’s side porch.
Opening her hand in front of her face, she took one last look at Hazel’s message before closing her eyes. Hazel loved her. Somehow, Luna would find a way to hang out with her again. And if Mama met Hazel and her mom, Nicole, she would realize how a friendship could save you. Maybe, if Mama came over one day, Hazel’s mom would let them stay, not just for lunch, but overnight, for a while. Or forever. Hazel’s mom was so nice, she would definitely say yes.
One small purple crayon could draw a million possibilities.
CHAPTER 19
The next day as she made her way briskly through cleaning her rooms at the hotel, Glory Noland carried the seed of worry that had been difficult to swallow in last night’s whispered conversation.
On the desk in 218 a five-dollar bill was wrapped in paper from the hotel notepad with a child’s drawing of a duck saying: Thanks! So the woman with the two little boys had checked out. Glory rolled the bill into a thin coil and tucked it deep down in her bra. Perfect timing. She was going to need to make a purchase at the mall today and every dollar helped in her Luna fund.
In more than nine years of cleaning hotel rooms, Glory Noland had learned a few tricks of the trade. If she cleaned the same rooms and left little prizes behind, people were sometimes shamed into leaving her a tip. That meant giving them extra coffee packets, little creamers from the front lobby, and especially a washcloth shaped like a duck, a sort of washcloth origami, along with a note that said: Have a ducky day! That was usually the clincher—the duck—since it made people think she’d spent extra time for them, which she had. And sometimes it was a big hit with fans of the Oregon Ducks, one of the state university teams.
Of course, she would have gotten in big trouble if Leo or Natalie ever found out what she was doing. Wasting money on coffee and Mini Moos and clean washcloths, which she snuck home in batches and crafted in her room, sometimes getting Luna to pitch in.
The housekeeping tips were the only funds she had for herself and her daughter, and though she had to give some up to Natalie to get away with skimming away the best tips, she was saving up for the next adventure. With Luna turning eleven in a few months, things were changing way too fast for Glory to control. The changes had alarmed Glory at first—Luna’s rounded, firm bottom, her swelling breasts. Glory hadn’t seen it coming, but in the blink of an eye her little girl was turning into a woman. The other night, Glory realized her daughter needed to start wearing a bra. In a few months, she would no longer be safe.
Worry brought a sour taste to Glory’s tongue, and she swallowed hard and tried to switch gears. She would have liked to fill one of the plastic cups on her cart with water and wash down her worries, but it wouldn’t be good if someone saw her slacking. She’d be done soon enough, climbing into the van specially outfitted for Natalie to drive, then filing into the mall for a late lunch. She needed to think positive. Leave the bad; focus on the good—one of the mantras of the sisters.
There had been good things, so many good things, that came out of the house. Leo and the sisters had lifted her up when she’d been at her lowest, providing food and shelter and company. And love. In their way, they had tried to love her.
When she’d first joined the sisters, they had brought her back to life. Although she hadn’t realized it at the time, she’d been dehydrated and probably malnourished, suffering from sleep deprivation, grief, and stress. Georgina had fed her chicken broth and homemade dumplings. Laura had read to her. Rachel had played her cello, filling the air with classical music that pulled Glory’s mind from her personal pain to the collective consciousness of sorrow. Natalie had signed her up for the SNAP program—food stamps—and put her on the payroll of the hotel. “But I don’t know how to get food stamps. Don’t you have to wait in line or go for interviews?” Glory had asked. Natalie had assured her tha
t there was nothing to worry about. “We’ll handle all of it for you, your food stamps, your paycheck. You’ll always have food and a wonderful place to live; we’ll see to that.” Grateful, Glory had burst into tears, and the kind but stern Natalie had patted her hand as she waited for her to calm down and sign the papers.
Working quickly, Glory balled up the linens, snapped a fitted sheet open over the bed, and moved around the mattress. Top sheet and pillowcases, blanket and comforter. She had to move methodically, staying in step to finish on time. Although Leo rarely came to the hotel to manage, Natalie was usually in the office, doing accounting, and she was a numbers person, expecting everything to tick like a clock. Glory usually managed to finish her rooms by three, unless she had to clean up after a very piggy person.
Although Leo was the hotel’s housekeeping manager, he usually stayed back to go grocery shopping and supervise the cleaning of the house while his “team,” most of the sisters, worked at the hotel. At least that was what everyone said. But Glory knew differently. It didn’t take long for Leo to take care of maintenance and small repairs while his favorite sister cleaned the house; those tasks could be accomplished in the first two hours. After that, there was time for other activities.
Glory knew, because she had been Leo’s favorite sister when she joined the house. Later she had learned that she’d pushed Laura out of that spot, but at the time she naïvely believed that she was Leo’s first and only. In that heavenly year, she had felt loved and protected as they’d made love in the twin bed of the room he shared with his sister. “I need to be close to Natalie so that I can help her get around during the night,” he’d explained. “The sisters take good care of her during the day, but it’s too much to expect one of them to assist her all night long. I’m her brother, and I need to take care of her.”
Glory had loved him a thousand times more to know of his loyalty to his disabled sister. It didn’t matter that their time together came only during the day while the others were away, and she didn’t mind sharing him with the sisters when someone was home sick or Natalie needed help getting to a doctor’s appointment. There was contentment in knowing that she would find her way back to his arms. On a normal day the basic cleanup didn’t take her long. She would scrub the bathrooms, mop the kitchen counters and floor, vacuum, sweep, and then search him out. Sometimes she would find him outside in the sun or cold, raking leaves or reinforcing a fence post. Other times he would be inside, replacing a broken hinge or a washer in a faucet. Leo was good with his hands, and he generously applied those skills when the two of them were alone. Most times they didn’t have intercourse; Leo thought that was wrong without marriage. But he’d shown her ways to find pleasure with hands and lips, feather touches and firm pressure.
At a time when she mourned the loss of her husband and her girls, a time when she had not expected to have life again, he had lit the spark of joy deep inside her. They had been the perfect complement for each other, yin and yang, night and day.
But their perfect union was short-lived. A year or so after Glory’s arrival, Natalie was furious to discover that Glory had become pregnant. Natalie demanded that Glory go for an abortion, but at four months it couldn’t be done. In front of his sister, Leo had claimed innocence, turning the blame to Glory, who was accused of breaking the rules and engaging with men outside the house.
Outside the house! Glory pointed out that she rarely left the premises and when she did it was for shopping trips with Leo or the other sisters. In a tense meeting with Leo and Natalie, Glory had stood her ground. “Leo is the father of this child,” she said, her voice croaking with emotion. Maybe it was hormones or maybe it was the memory of being pregnant before—her baby girls!—but in those days she had been constantly on the verge of tears. “We’re going to have a baby. That’s a beautiful thing, a miracle of life. You should be happy about this.”
“You are going to give birth to . . . to some creation of sin. Some dirty thing. No one is happy.” Natalie’s voice was steely and clipped. “We will continue to provide for you, but no one will ever be happy about this.”
“Leo?” She begged for his support. “Please . . .”
But he stared down at the floor, his silence deafening.
She had learned two things that day. (1) Leo wasn’t the man she had thought he was. (2) Although Leo appeared to be the patriarch and great protector, Natalie was the mastermind of the house, the wizard behind the curtain.
The bedside clock indicated that she had seven minutes till the van would leave. Glory vacuumed her way out to the hallway, pulled the plug on the vacuum, and fluffed the pillows on the bed before leaving the room. As she stowed the vacuum and rolled her cart to the storage room, she tried to clear her head of hurtful memories and worries about Luna. Natalie tended to pick up on disturbances, wheedling her way into the tender spots.
Downstairs Glory went out through the hotel’s rear entrance, stepping into a misting rain. She found the van with its door open in its usual spot in front of the hidden camera; it was Natalie’s way of keeping track of sisters who were finished with work and ready to go. Georgina waited inside, slumped in her seat with her eyes closed, her lips moving in a troubled silent dialogue. A ghost of a person, Georgina was said to have escaped a violent husband, though sometimes Glory thought that the poor woman was still suffering his abuses, still recounting terrible encounters in her mind.
“Looks like I made it with some time to spare,” Glory said, climbing in and taking a seat in the back, giving Georgina some space.
Laura appeared at the doorway, smiling. “Hello, sisters. Oh, there you are, Glory. Natalie is looking for you.”
“Me?” Attention from Natalie was not usually a good thing.
“She wants to see you in the office.”
Had the guest mentioned leaving a tip? The origami duck made out of a washcloth? There were so many things Natalie could pounce on her for. Please, let it not be the money. Natalie didn’t seem to really like anyone, but Glory knew the woman had a dark corner of her heart reserved for Glory and the child who wasn’t supposed to be added to the sisterhood.
Glory approached the reception area cautiously, prepared to defer to any guests. The sisters had been ordered not to congregate in the common areas or spend too much time talking with guests. “Remember that you’re here to clean and serve,” Natalie reminded them every few weeks. Fortunately, the only guest in sight was an older man browsing the rack of tour brochures by the window. With a nod to Rachel, who was on the phone at the reception desk, arranging a reservation, Glory skirted around the counter and peered into the open office door. The small room was sparsely furnished with file cabinets and a single desk to give Natalie space to navigate in her wheelchair. As she sat there, her eyes focused on the computer, Natalie’s face and golden hair seemed to glow in the light. With her blossom pink lips, true blond hair, and bold cheekbones, she was a beautiful woman if you didn’t know how speckled her heart was. “Dirty thing.” When Natalie had first started using the name for her baby, Glory had been stunned. Later she forced herself to adopt it in her mind every time she looked at Natalie. Dirty thing. My baby is innocent; you’re the one with the charred black soul.
Glory straightened her spine, summoning inner strength. “You wanted to see me?”
“I need you to clean Two-Oh-Seven. Julia is running behind and she won’t be able to get to it.”
“I’ll do it right away, but I’m going to be a little late finishing.”
“That’s fine. You and Julia can walk to the mall when you’re done.”
It was a fifteen-minute walk, and Glory wanted that extra time at the mall today. Besides, it was raining. “Can you wait for us? I’ll be quick. And I’ll help Julia finish whatever she’s working on.”
“We need to leave on time. I have things to do.” Natalie clicked the mouse, closing screens, shutting down.
“But it’s raining,” Glory said, trying not to sound whiny.
“A little
rain never hurt anyone. We’ll see you at the mall.” When Natalie turned her chair toward the exit, Glory hurried out ahead of her. No use pushing the argument. Natalie always won.
* * *
Forty minutes later, Glory and Julia joined the sisters at the food court. With a smile she didn’t feel, Glory declined to take a seat, saying she was too soggy. She got her lunch money from Leo and headed off, saying she was going to dry off in the restroom first.
As soon as she was out of sight of the group she dashed down the escalator, purchased a hot pretzel at a food cart, and shoved large gobs into her mouth as she headed toward the far end of the mall. She was so hungry that the smell of cleaning fluid on her hands didn’t even bother her as she downed the nuggets of dough. Her meager supper of Crock-Pot stew or a sandwich was still hours away, and she had no time for real food if she was going to take care of her errand and see him. Shawn. Her new boyfriend.
Her heart melted a little as she passed by the elegant window of Victoria’s Secret, with its wispy angels holding delicate bras in pink, ivory, and red satin and lace. Some of the bras were adorned with beads and sequins, as if to be worn by royalty. Glory wished she could purchase one for her angel, but they cost way too much.
Glory made her way into a tween store, where she found a section for “bras and bralettes.” It was difficult to judge without Luna here, but she decided on a two-pack of bralettes, one pink, one white, for $17.99. The clerk said they were returnable if they didn’t fit—“Just leave the tags on”—and Glory handed over a chunk of her savings with the ever-present glimmer of worry that she was not saving enough, not fast enough. Not that she received a salary. Natalie doled out a small bit of spending money each week to cover meals from the mall, but the stipend was so small that, even without eating, it didn’t add up quickly. She checked her watch. Just enough time to say hi. Then she had to scoot back to the sisters, before anyone noted her absence.
The Sisters Page 12