11 ~ September 1921, Typical days

It had been a short month since Isha had been hired, or adopted.

She was now at home as if she’d always been there; by the side of the Herson ladies for seemingly years.

For her, that summer had been a short one. The sound of rain on the morning came back too quickly.

She still treasured that daily life, realising how precious it was in her heart and mind.

The new clock in her room woke her earlier than the rest of the household. It made only a very few deep metallic sounds, as if a large bell was gently tapped in the middle of the room.

And so, although still feeling a little fuzzy, she had enough will and warmth to raise heartily.

She would go in the dark to the lavatories, and then the bathroom next, to set herself up and ready for duty.

She had no set uniform, since both sisters didn’t really care about it. Isha was therefore wearing a plain dress and a common apron over it when needed.

Her hair was not long enough for a bun, but she could tie it just barely behind her neck now.

Her face reflected by the mirror seemed a little older when she was still slipping through the morning shades. The light was too dim to show her youth and early smile.

She had a last fleeting thought about her last dream, with something warm, like a seaside and sunshine earlier in Summer maybe. And then she went on her way downstairs.

~

Somewhere along the morning work, before the mistresses and the sun would wake up, there was a floating cloud within the house, and that translucent shade brought a mood of fair sleepiness. Everything seemed softer and muffled in the morning shade.

But then Isha was lighting a fire in the kitchen, and the glow suddenly ate all nearby ghosts with its first shriek of life.

Isha calmed the flames a little, and put some water to heat and boil above it. Her tiny hands came softly over some kitchen tools that she grabbed firmly. She yawned a little still, and looked at herself a little again, in the dark reflection coming from the windows. She smiled slowly again, at this kind illusion.

A new day was beginning nicely.

~

Lately, Rose’s dreams always ended the same way, with the sight of someone’s back. Always the undefined sight and presence of someone she probably knew but couldn’t quite recognise, as she approached them from behind.

And then, when the light came, it was Isha waking her up at the usual time; and the sight was soon forgotten.

A lingering anxiety of trying to reach someone vanished as soon as the day began.

Until the next night.

Isha greeted her politely and left her with the curtains now opened, and a warm dark tea on her table.

The drink was a small ritual to help her fully waking up. She could wake earlier than Blue easily, but needed otherwise some time as well to properly rise and gather her spirits fully. Some time and tea helped her recover composure and full memory.

Once the cup was empty, she simply dressed herself up normally and left the room.

Downstairs, the breakfast awaited her along with Blue, who didn’t wait for her sister to start eating. They greeted each other a little plainly and Rose began eating as well.

Here and there, Isha was passing by to take care of the service. A little further on the table, Isha would gather the collected post, although on this day it had meant only one letter.

The amount of post received had thankfully steadily decreased over time, and they were reaching the point of expected normality. It pleased Rose greatly.

Blue made fun of the lack of replies Rose would need to write, implying Rose would become lazy.

Rose smirked at the remark, implying they both knew wo was the laziest one nonetheless.

Rose didn’t exactly dislike how Blue could sometime act teasing since her return.

Definitely more than a return, it had been a revival. No, it was really more than that.

Looking cautiously at her, Rose thought again her return was even more than a resurrection. All thanks to Esther they would say...

The gleefully teenager eating heartily next to her, making fun of her sister, it was infinitely more lively than the previous Blue had ever been. She had been a child constantly suffering from absences and memory losses, making communication often nearly impossible.

Blue was an all new persona in a way now. The blue rose finally had bloomed after years of waiting. A fateful Spring and Summer had changed everything.

She was now truly alive, unlike ever before. And Rose loved her all the better now, even though she always had before.

Rose realised she had been staring at Blue’s face for too long when the young one made a face to her, as if telling her to stop.

Rose smiled and stood up to break her static posture. The day could continue to unfold.

After a few transparent words easily forgotten, Rose left the place.

The corridors lights were colder, oddly unfriendly to see; but she was in her domain and could walk without paying any attention to them.

She reached her office and went in, leaving the heavy wooden door open behind her. From there, she couldn’t hear anymore anyone if the door was shut, and the room was a little cold.

Rose sorted out the post and took the ones she would work with, along with a book and her wallet. Without much more emotion behind the daily routine, she then went to the front door, set herself ready to go and left the house.

She nodded goodbye at Isha whom held the door for her and gave her a polite goodbye as well.

~

The scenery outside of the house was lighten by an infinite number of shades of grey. The skies were covered by fast moving clouds, which made the soft light of morning cold and changing.

A few steps further, she could see that most of the front yard was reflecting the sky. Just like in some childhood memories, the water from the previous rains stood so still there, and on such a huge area, that it felt as if most of the front yard was a hole to another sky.

Walking for a short while between the sky and its reflection on the ground, she reached the darker forest path.

After a few steps within the darkness, some lights shyly made their way through the forest to reach her sight. She knew the way by heart and were every stone and tricky root could be, even if they were hidden for a short while.

Following the skies and the darkness, the usual road, and its endless mud.

A few steps further, if she couldn’t see the town yet, she could eventually hear the church bell, or some vague and incomprehensible town life sounds.

Her shoes flicked through the puddles and the mud, staining a little the back of her dress.

The sun was rising along her quiet walk into town.

~

Crossing half of the town peacefully, Rosemary reached her shop. It was now growing slightly out of place, in a time where it seemed to her no one was still really interested in stuffed animals or collections of fairy tales, whether for children or adults.

Although she knew her family business had leant heavily on the occultist trends of their times, fictions for adults in this scientific and superstitious golden age. That wasn’t a side of the business she had been keen to rekindle however.

Along her way she thought to herself how it somehow felt that the people she met on the streets looked sadder than in her other recollections. As if something deeper and darker than the town fire had occurred, and was still looming and oppressing everyone’s minds.

They all looked a little pale.

Finding then herself alone in her empty shop, she couldn’t help but feel a little blue. Some details of her daily routine appeared now absurd or pointless. She had more ledgers to update than she even had daily clients lately.

Most of the days now, no one entered this little shop at all. Since she was not holding a pub, they were far fewer regular customers for books or toys. And as the town was small, not many people were passing by that street itself on a daily basis.

She was considering at times opening a pub instead. Although these books and ledgers were a remaining connection to everyone her family had known in the past, making it hard to give up lightly.

This day was a common one and she spent it alone, bored out of her mind and feeling blue.

She had pleasant moments with every meeting with people entering the shop though.

She was kind and amiable. She was altogether very calm and cheerful with them. The potential clients entering there felt that warmth and generally were charmed meeting her.

Old people, children, adults, people to soften and appease, or people to advise and guide. Some people just curious, nervous or shy.

Rose had a natural aura, softly seducing every one without exception. People on their way out could be chatting about what they liked in that shop, and even things they didn’t think they would want to discuss. There always was something putting them at ease and inciting them to open themselves.

It could be the slender woman herself making an impression, or the old fashioned style of the shop. Or the surprising way she had to cautiously write everything in her heavy ledgers. The name of the visiting person, even if they didn’t buy anything, so she could remember next time what they were looking for. Everyone was at least that important to her. More than keeping tracks, it was keeping some links that motivated this doing. She could sometimes see relatives of a previous customer coming in this way, and kept some social links alive though this paper.

Occasionally, foreigners passing by were coming to town, to meet her. Some of her parents’ friends did come to visit from time to time. The days were different then, as she invited them to chat longer with tea, and more memories to share. They never had any big news to share, only the little things of life, and a curiosity to her parents’ fate.

Some people had been pursuing the same goals in the past, or the same fantasies as Rose would put it to Blue later.

The Spiritism groups had all long disbanded anyway, but that was where their parents had met many of these friends.

The strangers shop, as it was sometimes nicknamed by the townsfolks Rose heard, this day didn’t welcome any couple of foreigners with thick accent. This day was plain boredom, and Rose had nothing more to do than keep everything clean and updated.

She soon had done everything she could have, so she picked up another project that had floated her mind quite some whiles.

She sat at her desk, picking up her nicer pen, and she started to write.

She tried herself at writing again, a little more of the recollection of Mary-Esther’s story as she heard of it.

Rose sighed nonetheless, thinking again that no matter how much she preferred being around books than drinks, she might be better managing a pub in the end. She had more ease with handling potential patrons than she had imagining the proper whimsical writing.

~

The doll remains were scattered.

In the ruins of their house and on a few other places. Between the train in which Blue rode with her impromptu foster parents to their demise, to the hospital where she recovered. Esther body was dead and scattered; but she was still held dear by some people.

Could it still be enough to postpone its end? Could faith be enough to keep its promise of life going?

Or could there be something else, left to anchor this wish for real?

Rose pondered, always feeling blue.

~

The clock made a small noise, and it was time for her to settle her current boredom and affairs. She could now close the shop. She hadn’t written many sentences that weren’t completely scratched over and over again. It was an excruciating exercise for her to write something imaginative. That pain still was there.

She had only made a lunch break, going to eat a sandwich at the local pub, chatting far more there than in her shop. And then the afternoon had been more on her own lonely self like the morning.

Now the day was at end, and it was time to close shop and leave, even though she didn’t feel that it had been much of a success.

She finished however she could that sentence she had been struggling over, about Esther’s forgotten leftovers.

She was wondering if something could have been left along the wreck of the train, and cleared like everything else.

If the word train could mean little more than industry and machinery for transportation to most people, to her and Blue, now it meant an incredibly wider amount of things.

Furthermore for Blue, the concept of train was now akin to that of colonial ships sailing to the new world, opening the doorway into the memories of her adventure with Esther in places way beyond their mainland horizon...

Rose exhaled thinly over the ink to help it dry, before closing the cover on top of the sheet she had scribbled on all day long. Closing this, she tried to put the matter behind her as well.

Soon after she was locking the curtains and closing the shop.

And then she was heading home.

It had begun raining and she had forgotten her umbrella. So she kept walking mindlessly, knowing she’d be home soon enough. She was getting soaked to the bones by the rather cold rain already.

Her bun fell and her hair was sticking onto her neck and shoulders, while her clothes grew heavier and heavier as she walked, going slower and slower along the road. The rain wasn’t kind on her, growing harsher.

The puddles along the road were turning to stream. She walked around the deepest ones, only thinking of her home ahead, welcoming, bright and warm inside. She was fondly looking forward to it.

She reached the dark path, where rain mostly stuck to trees and spared her. She hoped someone would wait for her with warm towels in the entrance. A few steps before the opening of the forest to the front yard, a shade came out of nowhere to greet her. A silhouette of a young woman under an umbrella, pitch black against the soft blue and grey light of rainy sky.

The first thing Rose thought facing her, was that something of a nice story could be made out of it as well. Maybe she was meeting a daiûa along her path instead?

She then smiled at Blue as she got closer, without a lamp and without a word beside her thanks.

Blue wet her own clothes trying to keep both of them under the umbrella while crossing the yard.

They reached the door opening before them. Isha was there, and brought up the towels rapidly, seeing how Rose had been soaked mercilessly.

Rose was all smiles nonetheless, no matter how uncouth her appearance now was.

~

A few moments later, Rose was in the utility room to dry herself and change her clothes.

She heard Blue telling her the little salon was warm enough to welcome her.

Once she was done changing, Rose went there, her hair still wet and untied.

Blue smiled and grinned at the unusual sight.

B - Your hair...How bold of you.

Rose only replied with an amused sigh, and sat on the couch closest to the heath fire. The place was filled with yellowish tones and warm enough to rapidly erase all the memories of coldness from the outside rain.

Isha was preparing their dinner. Blue looked mischievous and amused, as if she had planned a trick or a surprise to Rose, or that this rain had been in her plan all along.

Rose was warming her hands and drying her hair now, wondering what could be in her sister’s mind, beginning to worry a little about it. She was staring.

Behind her amused grin, making wonder whether she was planning a trick, Blue though only asked rather kindly.

B - So how was your day?

Rose was a little surprised the question was in the end so plain. Her kindness showed up again, then and she could only reply just as softly, with a growing smile.

R - As usual...

~