Moving Forward
T he sisters carried on their argument in silence. Not having mouths was no impediment to their ability to communicate through a variety of hand movements and facial expressions to convey their feelings.
Lala watched in consternation wondering what else she might do to end the arguing.
Remove hands? Remove their faces? But she didn’t like those options because she was fond of the old dears, and she didn’t know if she would still be if she took away their sweet crinkled faces with their blueberry blue eyes.
Besides, she didn’t know if she’d the power to accomplish such a feat.
Letitia entered the dining room and she, who had been magically banished by the sisters’ father into invisibility, expressed no astonishment to find their mouths missing.
“I was wondering why it got so uncommonly quiet out here,” she said, wiping her hands on her apron.
“And may I say it’s nicely peaceful. Now, don’t scowl at me, Miss Bay, I’ve had years of you and Miss Bunch bickering.
Lala, might you help me with the dishes while they quietly sort out their issues? ”
Lala nodded and followed Letitia into the kitchen and was provided a towel for drying dishes.
Letitia plowed her hands into the sink of steaming water and started scrubbing away.
“You’re not angry with me?” Lala asked. “For what I did?”
At first Letitia did not answer. The steam loosened a curl that dangled over her forehead as she rinsed a bowl.
She passed the bowl to Lala to dry and said, “First, I will tell you how good it is to be seen and heard again, and I have you to thank for undoing that blasted spell. What Professor Berry did to us, to render us as mute and invisible, was careless and unconscionable. To not be heard or seen for so long was personally devastating. I cannot express the depth of isolation it caused.”
Lala could see that. No one to talk to, no one to see your mere existence. It might be fun for an hour or so, but not for years.
“It is my feeling,” Letitia continued, handing Lala another bowl, “that Herschel did not die of natural causes, but that he could not endure the isolation.”
Lala pondered her meaning. The handyman, Herschel, had been unable to live with the isolation, and with no resolution to the problem in the foreseeable future, he took his own life to end his torment.
She was of two minds about this. The first was that killing himself was an extreme reaction, and second, he was perfectly entitled to take matters into his own hands.
During their otherwise festive celebration, she had observed how sad the sisters, Letitia, Rolph, and Farnham had been when they made a toast in Hershel’s memory.
Lala concluded he had been a good man who was liked, and even loved, by those who knew him, and that he was not one to make such a decision lightly.
The condition of invisibility was, as Letitia explained, devastating, and so it must have been for them all.
“It is a terrible thing to lose a significant part of your life to being unheard and unseen,” Letitia said, “and it wasn’t just us who suffered. I know how Professor Berry’s guilt over one imprudent spell tortured him for the rest of his life. He worked endlessly to reverse it, alas to no avail.
“At first I was so angry he had done this to us, and I tried to torment him in small ways. I would not clean his chamber, or sometimes I’d put ashes in his bed.
I used wash water for his tea, and moved his things around so that he thought he was losing his mind.
” Letitia paused and chuckled. “I did not have the ability to make him pee tadpoles, but I certainly did what was in my power as an invisible person.” She sank a pot into the rinse water.
“He never got angry and always treated us with utmost kindness, and he really did try to find a way to restore us, all the way to the end of his life.
“After he passed, the sisters asked if we would stay with them. They continued to research spells to free us, and even consulted the Fiori more than once, but they, too, were unsuccessful.”
“What did you do?” Lala asked.
“I had a choice,” Letitia replied, “to be angry all my days, or to move forward with my life. I was not brave enough to follow Herschel’s path.”
“You moved forward?”
“Yes. I grew accustomed to my condition, and the sisters made it possible to be ‘heard,’ even if not directly.
Seven Chimneys is a good place to live—that never changed, and I did not wish to leave the sisters in case they found a solution.
They were always good to me, and the only way I thought I could survive in the outer world was by sneaking and thieving.
Here I have a proper and law-abiding occupation with regular wages.
“But now I look forward. This is my second life, my second chance of being my full visible self. There is no sense in looking at the past, at the years robbed from me.” Then she muttered, “I will miss cooking in the nude, however.”
They finished washing and drying the dishes and put them away in silence, giving Lala time to digest Letitia’s words.
“So you think Miss Bunch and Miss Bay are angry with me,” she said, “for taking away their mouths, because mouths are important to a person.”
“It is not my place to say,” Letitia replied, “but they will undoubtedly have a thing or two to say to you whether they have mouths or not. You should be aware there will be no sipping chocolate served if they’ve no mouths to taste it.”
The words sipping chocolate were all Lala needed. Immediately she unknotted her spell. However, when it came time to return to the dining room, she was overcome with trepidation. How angry with her would the sisters be?
When at last she crossed the threshold bearing the pot of chocolate, Letitia right behind her with cups and spoons, she was met with silence, and not because they lacked mouths. She faltered and stood unmoving, gazing at the ladies who gazed right back at her, their expressions unreadable.
“Come along, dearie,” Letitia told Lala, “before the chocolate cools.”
“Ooh, sipping chocolate,” Miss Bunch said, once more animated. “Just the cure for what we’ve endured.”
Lala hastily set the pot on a trivet and backed away. Miss Bay, who often seemed to have a sour expression, gazed balefully at her.
“I am not sure chocolate will ameliorate our suffering,” she said.
“Suffering?” Letitia said. “For not even an hour’s time?” She clucked her tongue. “Try decades, my lady.”
Miss Bay looked unmoved. “Sit down, child,” she told Lala.
Lala obeyed right away, and Letitia served the cups of chocolate. When she finished and started to leave, Lala said, “Please don’t go.”
“My girl, you will have to face the consequences on your own, since what was done was of your own doing.”
Lala watched longingly after her as she left the dining room. Then, unable to meet the sisters’ gazes, she stared into her chocolate.
“You should drink it before it cools,” Miss Bunch said softly.
Lala took a sip, but it did not please her the way it usually did. In a small voice, she said, “I am sorry.”
“Eh? What’d you say?” Miss Bay demanded.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I took your mouths away.” Her words were met with silence. “I wouldn’t blame you if you were to take a switch to me, or torture me with a hot poker, or turn me out.”
Miss Bunch’s cup clattered onto its saucer. “Torture? Turn you out?”
Lala nodded. “My grandmum switched me if I was bad. She tortured and killed anyone else who displeased her.”
The sisters exchanged gazes.
“Torture and killing?” Miss Bunch said in dismay.
Miss Bay snorted. “Sounds a little harsh if you ask me.”
“My grandmum said,” Lala replied, crinkling her forehead as she tried to remember the exact words, “it was to instill discipline and loyalty among our people, and to punish our enemies. I got to help sometimes.”
The sisters took their time to digest this information, as well as more sipping chocolate.
“You’ve no enemies here, child,” Miss Bay finally said, “and we do not treat our people, or anyone, that severely. Remember our talk about tadpoles versus nose bopping?”
Lala nodded.
“Good. Keep remembering it.”
Miss Bunch then said. “What on Earth makes you think we’d turn you out, child? Giving you extra chores is perfectly reasonable, but we’ve no plans to turn you out.”
“You don’t?” Her heart leaped. “I’ll do anything you say.”
“I daresay you will,” Miss Bay said.
“I know I was naughty,” Lala replied. “I won’t do it again.”
“Or anything remotely like it,” Miss Bay said darkly.
“I promise.”
“That is the thing,” Miss Bunch told her. “We rely a great deal on trust and honesty in this house. Do you trust us, child?”
“Oh, yes.”
Miss Bunch nodded. “We, in turn, would like very much to trust you, but if you do things like removing body parts, it inspires a certain level of doubt and dis trust. Do you understand?”
Lala thought over the concept of trust. After a time, she replied, “I think so. You want to know that I won’t do anything hurtful to you.”
“To us or anyone undeserving,” Miss Bunch said. “What you did was mean and hurtful to us, and we will not tolerate more like it. We would have expected that after you saw how grateful the servants were for being restored to their natural existence, that what you did to us was very unkind.”
Mortified, Lala said, “I never meant to be hurtful.”
“I believe you, child, or at least mostly. You must have had some reason for committing so drastic a spell.”
“You were arguing so much,” Lala replied. “It scared me.”
This time it was Miss Bay’s cup that clattered onto its saucer. She’d a chocolate mustache across her upper lip. “But we always argue.”
Miss Bunch nodded in agreement.
“What was different this time?” Miss Bay asked.
“This time you meant it,” Lala said. “Usually, you don’t. This time you were hurting each other, and I thought it was all over.”
“What was all over?” Miss Bunch asked.
“My nice time here at Seven Chimneys. I thought you were so mad that it would not be the same, and that maybe you would send me away.”
This time Lala thought they were surprised by her words.
“We were rather sharp with one another,” Miss Bunch said, “and yes, worse than usual.”
“Child,” Miss Bay said, “it is not uncommon for sisters to argue, and sometimes they hurt each other while doing so. Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment it is intended to hurt feelings. But then we cool off and get over it, and apologize and go on as before. We have lived with one another in this house for much of our lives, and here we remain in one another’s company.
Seven Chimneys is as it has always been. ”
“You will leave only if you wish to,” Miss Bunch said, “and if we can trust you not to cast harmful spells.”
“You can trust me,” Lala said, anxious for the sisters’ approval. “I promise.”
“Very well,” Miss Bunch said. “Then you shall assist Letitia with her chores for two weeks beginning in the morning. Do you understand?”
Something about the sisters’ demeanors penetrated the girl’s mind. They were both kind and stern, and wise, but now she felt something else. There was a tension just below the surface that was serious and powerful.
And just like that, the tension dissipated and the old ladies gazed at her with kindly smiles.
“Good,” Miss Bunch said. “Get ready for bed and I will be in to check on you.”
Lala obeyed and ran up the stairs to the east gable bed room, eager to stay in the sisters’ good graces. While it seemed they’d no intention of using corporeal punishment to correct her behavior, she did not want to disappoint them again.
It was odd, but that forbidding aspect of them, hidden just beneath the surface, reminded her an awful lot of her grandmum.