Chapter 21
The girls rose late the next day, having returned from their night out in the wee hours of the morning. Emilia welcomed the fact she was still in her twenties when she woke. Whistling a happy tune, she put on the scrunchie and the contact lenses in her eyes to complete her young persona.
Still in their nightgowns, they prepared breakfast with what little they could find in the house.
There was no cereal in the house and no eggs, but there were rusks to lather margarine and honey on. Emilia and Chloe went for those, while Elise chose one of the two small tubs of yoghurt in the back of the fridge. She poured a generous spoonful of honey in the tub as well as a sprinkle of cut up walnuts, which she magically produced from inside her shorts pocket.
Emilia didn’t even ask. The fact they had nightgowns presented another puzzle, of course, but by now she was resigned from trying to shed light on any of these mysteries.
So, instead, as they began to eat and drink coffee or herbal tea, Emilia opened a conversation about her gift. Not that she was complaining, but she felt very unsure about going out like this in daytime. What if she switched out of the blue while out? What if anyone saw her?
The girls assured her that she’d have plenty of time once she felt dizzy, to get to a private place to sing the song and stay young.
Esmera had said the same thing. Emilia had no option but to trust it was going to be okay. After all, what was the alternative? Stay in all day and only go out at night? What good would that do? Besides, gifts were to be enjoyed, and she might as well dare enjoy hers fully.
Their plan for the morning involved a quick run to the supermarket, then a swim at the local beach. The girls teased Emilia that she might meet Stefan again, this time in her younger form.
They were still teasing, Emilia shrugging her shoulders, her mind whirling with more images of Andreas rather than those of young Stefan, when there was a knock on the door.
‘Emilia! It’s me, Popi! I brought you tomatoes from my garden. You in?’ echoed from behind the closed door.
What followed was pandemonium. All three girls sprang from their seats as if scalded.
‘Shoot! I forgot she was coming this morning!’ said Emilia under her breath.
Elise’s eyes widened. ‘Don’t worry. I have just the thing!’ Without explaining what she meant, she went to the fridge to extract the last remaining tub of yoghourt and returned to the table with catlike speed.
While the other two watched, mystified, she opened the tub and picked a large amount with the cupped fingers of one hand.
Emilia backed away instinctively when Elise shoved her yoghourt-filled hand in her face. ‘Hey! What are you doing?’ asked Emilia, and, as if on cue, another knock echoed from the door, this time more loudly.
‘Emilia? Are you in there, darling?’
‘Yes, yes! I am here! One moment! I… I am not dressed!’ shouted Emilia without thinking. ‘Oh no…’ she whispered. What have I done? Now I’ve spoken she’ll never go away!’
‘Don’t worry!’ piped up Chloe. ‘Just let Elise camouflage you. You’ll be all right.’
‘Camouflage me?’ asked Emilia, her brow etched. She turned then, to look at Elise’s hand that hovered near her face still. Yoghourt dripped from between her fingers, falling to the floor. ‘Hey! You’re making a mess!’ she said, reaching for a napkin.
‘Forget the napkin!’ said Elise, and when Emilia met her gaze, she saw her suggestive smile and finally understood.
‘Wait a minute! You want to put this yoghurt on my face?’
‘Do you have a better idea? Because, let me tell you, girl, if you don’t hide that impeccable young skin from her, she’ll take one look at you in broad daylight and will know something’s not right!’
Emilia looked at Elise for a moment, then at the yoghurt in her hand still dripping on the floor, making a mess, then back to Elise, who was now shaking her head at her, her brows raised. ‘Girl, I am here to help you. Why won’t you trust me?’
Emilia felt ashamed to hear that. She used to be more trusting when she was young. ‘Of course! I am sorry…’ she whispered, then raised her head and closed her eyes. ‘Do your best. I trust you.’
Elise applied yoghurt on Emilia’s face as fast and as steadily as she could while Chloe giggled.
‘Emilia? Are you all right? I am starting to worry!’ echoed from the door.
Emilia shouted back, ‘I am fine, Mrs Popi! I’ll only be a moment!’
Looking satisfied with her effort, Elise took a step back and nodded firmly.
Emilia turned to Chloe, who offered one of her cute dimpled smiles and whispered, ‘You look perfect!’
Emilia made for the door but Chloe hurried behind her to remove the scrunchie from her hair. ‘There!’ she said. ‘Don’t forget! Only Lia wears her hair in a ponytail! Emilia does not!’
‘Oh no!’ shouted Elise. ‘We forgot the contact lenses! You need to take them off! She can’t see you with green eyes!’
‘What? No! I just put them on for the day. And I have no time to remove them now!’
Their exchange was intense, albeit in hushed tones, so Mrs Popi couldn’t hear. The three of them had now retreated back to the table for the same reason.
All three girls appreciated there was no time to remove the lenses. Chloe hurried to the bedroom, returning swiftly with Emilia’s sunglasses. ‘Here! Wear those!’
‘But, that’s ridiculous! Why would I wear sunglasses in the house? And while wearing a face mask too, if I may add!’
‘We’ll think of something. Now, put on the glasses and open the door!’ Elise urged her and, with the same breath, she asked Chloe to return to the bedroom and close the door. ‘I have a reason!’ she said, and Chloe obeyed immediately.
Emilia put on the sunglasses, feeling ridiculous. Finally, she opened the door to find Mrs Popi on the doorstep, head tilted, looking very concerned. Her expression changed dramatically in a split second, once she took in fully the image of Emilia.
‘What on earth?’ she muttered, then entered through the door without waiting for Emilia to fully step aside.
Emilia felt the woman’s elbow slide past her ribs on her way in. To her surprise, Mrs Popi made straight for the table, leaving a bag of tomatoes on it before sitting on one of the chairs. She eyed Emilia with compassion while the latter sat down numbly at another chair.
Mrs Popi acknowledged Elise, who also sat at the table, with a curt nod of her head, then turned to Emilia, looking concerned. ‘What’s going on, Emilia? Are you sick? Shall I call a doctor?’
‘Sick? No, of course not. I am fine!’
‘But your friends told me you had a bad migraine last night. And today I find you wearing sunglasses in the house. How can you say you’re all right? And… What is that white thing on your face? Is it yoghurt? Do you have a rash?’
Elise tittered. ‘No, that’s a beauty mask. I made it for her.’
‘Oh… What for?’ said Mrs Popi, giving her a funny look.
‘Ugh… to make her beautiful?’ said Elise, making air quotes and pouting, her tone suggesting she was about to add a resounding ‘Duh!’ but, gladly, she didn’t.
‘What about the sunglasses? Is that a beauty cure too?’ asked Mrs Popi, seemingly unaffected by Elise’s lingering pout.
Elise exhaled loudly. ‘No… The sunglasses are—’
‘A precaution!’ exclaimed Emilia, cutting Elise sort. ‘You’re right. I had a migraine last night and it’s gone now, thank goodness, but I still feel a slight headache coming on. So, I thought I’d be careful. There’s a lot of light streaming in from the window as you can see…’ reasoned Emilia as she pointed to the open kitchen window.
‘Oh… right…’ grunted Mrs Popi, though she still didn’t look half-convinced. She threw a glance at the corridor, then to the far side of the living room where the sofa was unmade. ‘Where are the other two? I don’t see them.’
‘Oh! They went to the bakery to get bread,’ said Elise, shaking her head. ‘Three women and one little girl in the house and none of us remembered to get some yesterday. Silly us!’
‘Bread?’ said Mrs Popi, squinting her eyes to the size of button holes. Honestly, that woman could make anything sound suspicious.
‘Yes. Bread,’ replied Emilia, matter-of-factly.
That seemed to throw Mrs Popi out of her suspicious phase. She let out a sigh, seemingly a breath she had been holding all this time for some reason, because it relaxed her features at the drop of a hat. ‘Well, you’ll enjoy my tomatoes with fresh bread if you make a salad for your lunch. They are delicious. So sweet! My cucumbers aren’t doing so well this year. But I’ll make sure to bring you some another day if I have some.’
‘No problem. Thank you,’ said Emilia, smiling tightly, and hoping the woman would take the hint that the conversation was over. The yoghurt felt velvety on her skin but rather cool. She was starting to feel like her features were freezing. Plus, a tiny blob had crept down her left brow threatening to close her eye shut. She hoped to get rid of Mrs Popi before she had to excuse herself to remove it.
‘So… I’d hate to keep you, Mrs Popi. I know how busy you can be, what with minding your grandchildren and all…’ said Emilia, slapping her knee, hoping Mrs Popi would make sounds about leaving.
The elderly woman served her with a prolonged stare that made Emilia feel uncomfortable. For a few terrible moments, she felt like her eyes were boring holes into her soul.
Suddenly, she broke into a laughing fit. ‘You girls today! You have no sense! In my youth, we girls used to apply olive oil on our skin. These face masks you buy nowadays contain all sorts of nasty chemicals.’ She pointed toward Emilia’s face, then her own eye and added, ‘And, from the looks, you’re about to have a stinging eye! Go right now and wash that away! It’s bad stuff and it’s about to fall into your eye, girl!’
She stood, much to Emilia’s delight, and made it to the door in a hurry. She opened it, then turned to add, ‘Apply olive oil next time. Once a week. I was a beauty when I was young, you know. Never used anything else. My face didn’t start to wrinkle up noticeably until I was way into my sixties.’
Mrs Popi gave a little wave and closed the door. As soon as she did, Emilia ran to the bathroom, while Elise burst into laughter as she called out to Chloe to come out of hiding.