Author's Chapter Notes:
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“How was the beach? Was it fun?”Emily asked Michael eagerly as they ate lunch on Monday. She was stuck in the apartment all weekend with her mother, various babysitters and the radio, her mother didn’t like her going outside as much, there were a lot of dangers in the city, much more than the farm. She always wondered about Michael and how much fun he was having.
“Oh it was great”Michael said with a huge smile. “I made huge sand castles, my aunt bought me a nice train, I played in the water, we had picnics, I ate lots of salt water taffy…and fish, the sun was shining really bright, I didn’t want to leave”
“I wouldn’t”Emily said,”You look darker, you got a tan?”she asked him. He nodded. He was going to ask her how her weekend was but Nicky interrupted.
“We’re done eating now and we are going to play some ball. Come on”he said. He never understood why Michael liked talking to that Emily girl so much.
Michael sighed a little, he liked playing ball but he loved talking to Emily more. However, he was afraid to tell the other boys that, they would laugh and call him a girl. That’s the last thing he needed,”Im going to play ball, want to watch?”
“Alright”Emily said with a shrug as she followed him to the playground
“Hurry up Mikey!”Nicky called to him and he ran ahead. Emily started to follow when she heard someone call her. It was Abigail.
“Did you want to play hopscotch with us Emily?”Abigail asked her.
“Well…I was going to watch Michael play ball”Emily started to explain. Abigail looked at Sasha Steel, who was standing next to her, and giggled.”What?”she asked
“Why do you play with boys all the time? You are always with Mikey”Sasha said, she walked over to her and whispered,”Some of the girls in class think that you want to be a boy since you play with them so much”
“Really?”Emily asked
“Why do you?”Abigail asked,”They are dirty. They smell too”
“Mikey doesn’t smell”Emily defended her new friend. Abigail and Sasha looked at each other, Emily didn’t like the look they had.
“Are you going to play with us or not? Or are you going to be just a stinky boy?”Sasha asked her
Emily looked back at Mikey. He seemed fine, the girls were probably right. She does play with him a lot but why not? But she didn’t want the girls to think she wanted to be a boy, it seemed some of them already believed it. “Im not going to be a stinky boy’’she said as she walked over to where they drew the hopscotch board on the ground,”Now how do you play?”she asked them
“You don’t know how to play hopscotch?”Sasha asked her with wide eyes
“Boys don’t play hopscotch”Abigail said
“We didn’t play hopscotch on the farm, we just played with animals and climbed trees”Emily answered Sasha’s question, ignoring Abigail.
“Farm? Ive never seen a farm around here”Sasha said to her
Emily figured that, what was with these city kids? None of them have seen a farm in their life. “I used to live on a farm in Philadelphia. I just moved here before school started”
“What kind of animals did you play with?”Sasha asked her
“All of them, cats, dogs, chickens, horses, goats-“
“I love horses!”Abigail said.
“Me too”Sasha said in reply.”Gee your lucky”
Emily just shrugged,”So how do you play?”she asked them. They showed her how to play and they were much nicer afterwards, even though Abigail did make a few ‘stinky boy’ comments now and then. But they were fun to play with. Michael noticed that Emily wasn’t watching them anymore and was playing with Sasha and Abigail. He couldn’t help but be jealous, it seemed that they were having a lot of fun. She couldn’t have fun with him too?
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Kit giggled as she ran over to Rita and sat behind her in her assigned seat,”HE told me to give this to you”she said as she put a piece of paper on her desk
Rita rolled her eyes, she knew exactly who HE was. It was Clayton Millner. He was quite dorky and he had a crush on her. He has had one since last year. She didn’t like him at all, he had huge glasses, he always had boogers in his nose and he was a boy after all. He wasn’t even nice to her. He always pulled her hair or threw something at her. “Open it”Kit pleaded to her
Rita sighed and opened it up. There was a big red heart on it and then under it, it said in bad handwriting…bad spelling too: Can yoo play with me afder skool? Then there were boxes next to yes or no. She shook her head as Kit laughed,”He spelled school wrong!”
“Shhhh”Rita said as Mrs. Burnett, their teacher, entered the room. She put the piece of paper under her desk and took out her handwriting book. She glanced to her left and saw Clayton looking at her, his eyes pleading for an answer. She looked away.
“So…are you?”Kit asked her
“No I cant, we have ballet after school remember?”Rita whispered to her and Kit nodded in agreement,”Besides, he doesn’t like me”
“Yes he does, he wants to kiss you”she said and giggled
“Eeew”Rita said as she wrinkled her nose up. “I know he doesn’t like me. My Daddy likes my Mommy very much and he never pulls her hair or anything. Hes just lying”
Kit shrugged,”My mom throws things at my dad sometimes. They like each other…I think”she said,”Hes gonna give you another note tomorrow”she said with a giggle
“I know”Rita said
“Ms. Brewster? Ms. Andrews? I don’t want to change your assigned seating”Mrs. Burnett scolded them and they immediately shut up.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“I have graded all of your pictures of the great outdoors and I am very impressed. There may be a few future artists in my classroom”Mrs. Honeycutt said as she passed back their art pictures that they drew and colored last week. There was a huge red check and smiling face on Michael’s picture and he smiled. He drew the beach with water, sand, a castle, birds, fish, the sun and blue sky. It was very colorful. He looked at Emily’s picture, it was of a farm. There was a house with grass and animals around it.
“Is that your farm?”Michael asked her. Emily smiled at him and nodded.
“Is that your beach?”she asked him. He nodded, then had an idea. He handed it back to her.
“Keep it”he said
“Why?”she asked him
“Because Im giving it to you, as a present. You have never seen a beach before…now you can see one”he said
Emily smiled at him. “Oh thank you Mikey”she said, she then gave him her farm picture. “Keep it since you have never been to a farm. I will take you one day”she said
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
While the children were listening to the radio, Salomi decided to get back to her chores from earlier that day. The weather was getting cooler and she was putting all her summer dresses back in their boxes to save for next season. She also brought her winter and fall clothes out of their boxes and hung them up. She took out one of her favorite dresses and hung it up and she noticed something fall to the floor. She saw that it was a piece of paper and picked it up, she flipped it over and it was a photo. It was taken at Gatsby’s party 9 years ago. There were a whole bunch of people that she didn’t remember and in the center were her and Gabriel, he was obviously drunk because he decided to kiss her cheek when the picture was taken. Salomi remembered that and smiled, in the picture she was beaming and quite tipsy, but next to her was Darla and Leon. Leon had one arm around her and another around Darla, looking very happy and Darla had a pursed smile. Salomi never noticed before but she knew that it was a smile that Darla would put on if something was wrong. Something had to be definitely wrong, because a week later she killed Leon. Tears welled up in her eyes and started to fall. Why? Why couldn’t she have seen it sooner? How could she let that happen? Why?
“Mommy? Whats that?”a voice said behind her and she jumped. She turned and it was Michael. “Mommy? Why are you crying?”
“Oh nothing sweetheart”Salomi said as she wiped her tears quickly.
“Who are those people in that picture?”he said as he sat on the floor next to her. “Is that Daddy? He looks silly”
“Yes, he was in a silly mood that night”she said
“Is that you? You look happy, your hair is short”Michael said with a gasp, his mommy looked so different.
“Yes that was the style back then”Salomi said, she grew her hair back after the incident, the ‘bob’ was just another reminder of Darla.
“Who’s that?”he asked as he pointed to a girl.
“I don’t know”
“Who’s that?”he asked as he pointed to a man with a champagne glass, he seemed to be the drunkest one in the picture
“I don’t know”
“Who’s that?”he asked as he pointed to a woman who was on some man’s back as if he were going to give her a piggy back ride and the way Gatsby’s parties were, he probably did.
“Huney I don’t-“
“Who’s that?”he asked as he pointed to Darla
“That’s Darla, she…..was a friend of mine”Salomi said quietly
“Why isn’t she your friend anymore?”
“She did something really bad. Something that I cant say”Salomi said and Michael frowned since that was his next question
“Where is she now?”he asked her
Salomi frowned and took the picture from him,”She’s dead”she said. Which wasn’t a total lie. Darla was in Chicago at the Cooke County Jail, shes been there for 9 years and hasn’t heard from her since. She was dead to her.
“Is that why you are crying?”he asked her
Salomi nodded,”Why don’t we go back into the parlor now?”she asked him as she got up. She put the photo in the pocket of her apron as she followed him into the parlor where Rita and Dahlia were still listening to “Annie”. He obediently sat next to Dahlia and listened and Salomi went into the kitchen and got herself a glass, she then opened a cabinet and poured herself some gin. She put it back in the cabinet when Gabriel walked into the kitchen,she looked at him with surprise.”What are you doing here?”she asked as she put the glass down
“I live here remember?”he said with a smile as he hugged her and gave her a kiss,”What kind of welcome is that for a husband who has missed his wife most terribly?”
Salomi smiled,”Im sorry but…don’t you have a show tonight?”
“I did, but it was cancelled”he said
“Oh Im sorry”Salomi said to him,then she gasped,”They fired you?”
“Oh no, my show has been cancelled but it will be back. We are going to be performing for Franklin Roosevelt”
“Governor Roosevelt?”she asked him.He nodded,”Well huney that’s wonderful. I voted for him you know”
“So did I”he said,”So they cancelled my shows until Im done with this one and then I’ll be back in business”he said excitedly.He then saw the glass on the counter,”Oh is that water? Im thirsty”
“Oh no its-“she started to say but he already grabbed it and took a huge gulp of it. He made a face and set it down. He looked at her. She sighed,”Its gin”
“I know”he said to her,”Why are you drinking?”he said sternly
“Its nothing-“
“Whats wrong?”he asked her. Salomi hasn’t drank as much as she used to but she never drank at home, unless something was wrong.
“Nothing! I cant have a drink every once in awhile?”Salomi asked him
His face softened,”Sorry, you just always said that…you wouldn’t drink around the children…I just figured there was something wrong”he said as he gave her another hug.”If you don’t want to tell me that’s fine….I mean I am getting another bonus soon and I did buy you something”
“Are you blackmailing me? Theres nothing wrong. What did you get me?”Salomi asked, eyes and smile wide. Forgetting all about Darla.”Come on”
Gabriel smiled when he saw her get excited,maybe there wasn’t anything wrong. He couldn’t stand waiting either and took a box out of his pocket. Her eyes widened when she saw it,”Open it”
She opened the box and there was a diamond necklace with matching earrings. “Gabriel! Diamonds? You must have spent a fortune!”
“Yeah probably”Gabriel said with a shrug.”But I will be getting that and much more in the next few months don’t worry”
“Im not”Salomi said happily as she held it up, she then turned around so her back was facing him and handed it to him,”Put it on me?”she asked him. He smiled and moved her long dark hair out of the way, he pulled on it a little and she laughed,”Don’t pull my hair”
“You weren’t complaining when I did that last night”he said and she laughed and put her hair up for him, he put the necklace around her neck and latched it closed. She put the earrings in and ran to the bedroom, past Rita who was listening at the door. She was confused. Daddy pulled Mommy’s hair and she liked it? That just proved her whole Clayton idea wrong. Eeew. Then Dahlia screamed in delight and so did Salomi, but not as loud, as she saw how huge the diamonds were.
“Mommy’s a princess!”Dahlia said loudly
“Gabriel, they're huge!”she said
“I want to be a princess too!”Dahlia said loudly
“Dahlia not so loud”Salomi said to her
“Have no fear! Im going to spoil you children rotten!”he said as he gave toys to them. Rita got a doll that was dressed like a ballerina, Michael got his own baseball and Dahlia got ballet slippers.
Dahlia frowned,”I want a doll!”
“You should say thank you Dahlia”Salomi said to her, even though she gave a wondered look at Gabriel
“Im thinking that if we put Dahlia in ballet classes, she will be more disciplined”he said to her,”Just like you hoped”
Salomi smiled at him, she was touched that he was still thinking about that. “That’s a great idea”she said,”Thank you”
“I WANT A DOLL!”Dahlia said as she pointed to Rita’s
“Oh so I guess you don’t want this tutu that goes with it?”he asked her as he held up a leotard, tutu and tights.”I swore that you told me you wanted to be a princess or something or other”
“Oooh! GIVE ME!”Dahlia shouted
“Say Please Dahlia”Salomi said to her
“PLEASE!”she shouted and Gabriel gave it to her. Salomi shook her head as she helped Dahlia try on the tights, leotard and tutu and helped her with the slippers. Then Rita showed her how to rise on her tippy toes and spin around. Salomi couldn’t help but smile, Dahlia looked adorable. “I hope this idea of yours works”
“It will, she starts tomorrow with the other beginners”Gabriel said,”Once we get her settled I want Michael to take classes too”he said and winked at her
“You cant be serious”Salomi said with a laugh as she looked at Michael, playing with his trains.
“Hey, girls love men who dance. The male ballet dancers at the theater have many female fans”Gabriel said to her and she laughed. She forgot about the wild and crazy Darla and focused on the wild and crazy Dahlia.
*____________________________*