Chapter 3 #2
There was no fruit on the pizza that night.
They preferred the Papa Dino’s special, basically a supreme complete with olives and anchovies.
It was delicious, and filling enough that they didn’t need dessert.
Which was just as well, because Ellie wasn’t sure just how well she could rein in her sister’s excesses as they discussed their plans over the next few days.
Katie’s ideas pinged like pinballs, shooting out as new options to explore.
Good thing Ellie had had a lifetime of learning to discern that her sister’s verbal expressions of wanting to go here or do that didn’t always mean she actually wanted to do those things.
Instead, she knew to keep Katie’s focus on the main thing—their adventures to an op shop to find vintage clothing to wear for the art deco murder mystery evening on Saturday night.
“What do you think of this?” Katie asked the next morning, the red sequined dress draped against her.
“It’s pretty. And your colour.”
Katie grinned. “I’m going to try it on.”
“Go for it.” Ellie gestured to the next stall. “I’ll go look at the books.”
“Of course you will.” Katie rolled her eyes, but Ellie shrugged, leaving her to it.
So what if she was on a quest to complete her collection of Georgette Heyer books? She had nearly all of them, all in the Old Masters print editions that looked perfectly beautiful together.
She wandered through Blackheath’s old picture theatre, now transformed into a treasure trove of vintage stalls, selling everything from jewellery to books to records to vintage clothing and homewares.
A scan of the books showed only a couple of Heyers, and none in the edition she was looking for.
A perusal of the prints showed no Ghibli prints either.
Oh well. One day. In the meantime, the quests could continue.
By the time Ellie returned, Katie was preening in front of a long mirror. “Don’t I look fabulous?”
“You look great,” Ellie said sincerely.
Her sister, never short of personality, seemed to have finally found a dress that matched her for sparkle.
“Come on. You should try this one on.” Katie tugged her to a hanger.
Ellie’s breath caught. The dress was a nude one-shouldered sheath, stitched with an overlay of gorgeous peacock feathers in an intricate design that rippled up and over one shoulder and descended to the knees. “It’s stunning.”
“Right? And look at the blue in the feathers! You wouldn’t even need to dye your hair. It’d match perfectly.”
She was sorely tempted to try it on, then glanced at the price tag. Coughed. “Yeah, as amazing as that is, the price tag is way out of my budget.”
“Oh, forget being sensible for a moment and just try it on.”
“I’m not about to spend hundreds of dollars on a dress I’ll only wear once.”
“Who’s to say you’ll only wear it once? Go on. Try it on. Please?”
Maybe she did play it safe too often. She sighed, picked up the hanger, and moved to the changeroom.
Two minutes later, she stared at her reflection, touching the cross at her neck, the gold and fake diamond necklace one she rarely removed.
Whoever had made this dress knew exactly how to accentuate a woman’s figure without revealing anything inappropriate.
She looked amazing. Most unlike her regular self at all.
“Have you got it on yet?” Katie called.
“Yes.”
“Coming, ready or not,” Katie called, then swished open the curtain. Then gasped. “Ellie!”
“It’s a bit different, isn’t it?”
“It’s incredible! You look so good! I never thought you could look like this!”
Ellie’s lips lifted wryly.
Maybe Katie noticed, because she instantly exclaimed, “Not that I mean you usually look bad. But this isn’t at all like what you usually wear.”
“You’re right. It’s not me.”
“Oh, but it is! You need to buy this dress. It fits you perfectly, like it was made for you. And it’ll be perfect for tomorrow night.”
“I’ve already got something—”
“A cheap polyester thing from a costume shop like a million other people will have. Nobody else will have something as amazing as this.”
Ellie fingered one of the blue strands of sequins. It was pretty, but alas, “It costs far too much.”
“I don’t think so. It looks like a genuine vintage piece. Here, let me see the price label.”
Katie pushed Ellie down to peer inside the back, and whistled. “Whew. It is a lot.”
“Too much.” She restrained a sigh. It was a pretty dress. And seeing it was unlikely she’d ever marry and need a wedding gown, she’d probably never spend more on a dress than this one.
“You only live once,” Katie wheedled.
“But you can’t do everything.” She withheld a sigh and turned around. “Unzip me?”
Katie did not bother withholding her sigh as she obeyed. “Do you have to be so sensible all the time?”
“It’s part of my DNA, I’m afraid.” She shut the curtain and slipped reluctantly from the dress.
“Humph.” Katie sighed beyond the curtain. “We obviously don’t share the same DNA.”
While technically not true, it was easy to see why Katie thought that.
And why everyone else might think that too, as she changed back into her clothes, then stared at her reflection.
Old jeans, a brown heavy woollen jumper she’d chosen for warmth rather than style, seeing it didn’t do her figure any favours.
Yep, that dress was a momentary aberration in her life.
What was she doing, fantasising that she was Cinderella?
But still, wasting hundreds of dollars on a dress she’d wear a couple of hours at most?
She could never justify the expense. She’d feel guilty about all the mouths that could be fed for the cost of this one, old yet beautiful dress.
She replaced it on its hanger, then undid the curtains and found a smile.
“Come on. We’ll need to leave soon if we’re going to make our high tea. ”
Katie’s eyes lit. “Ooh, I almost forgot!”
As was so often the way. How Katie could survive without reminders and alarms, Ellie didn’t know. What Katie would do without her guiding the way, she didn’t want to know.
Ellie placed the dress back on the rack, eyed it one last time, then turned resolutely away.
Some people were born to have adventures and be the star of the show, while others stood on the sidelines ready to prompt them with the lines.
And all her life, despite her blue hair, she’d known what role was hers.
Her lips twisted. Good thing she was one hundred percent okay with that.
“Ethan, have you got the Larbow file ready?”
“Here.” He handed Gordon Phillips, his boss, his file, which didn’t even earn him a jerk of the chin acknowledgement before he exited.
Ah, Gordon. Master of the non-acknowledgement.
Not that Ethan expected a medal for doing his job, but a little cordiality wouldn’t hurt, even if the legal world wasn’t known for warmth and kindness.
Still, given the stress floating around the office, and the legal implications surrounding the plastic refinery case, he could understand Gordon was feeling pressure.
Ethan returned to his computer and worked through the notes he’d been given after the last council meeting.
For some reason, the council had not sought to fight the plastic refinery that wanted to move into a small country town to “fill the air with pollutants” as some of the protestors maintained.
The notes from the recent meeting weren’t extensive, but enough to suggest there was something at play here that required further investigation.
Not his job per se, but still, as someone who had enjoyed time in that part of the world, he had no desire to see it succumb to a rich offshore company’s goals to recycle plastic.
It needed to be in the right site at least, which definitely wasn’t only two hundred metres from people’s homes.
Still, how he approached that—let alone found time to do it—was something he’d need to squeeze into the tiny free moments his work schedule permitted.
Not for the first time, he wondered about the wisdom of working here.
Overworked, underappreciated, and despite what most people thought, underpaid.
He could be describing youth work, but at least with youth group there was a tangible result, and teenagers didn’t mind sharing their feelings.
Of course, some clients were overly transparent in sharing theirs, but that was often due to stress.
Sometimes thanks to drugs or lack of sleep.
He lived for those days when it felt like his work actually made a positive difference in someone’s life.
Several times over the years, he’d contemplated shifting gears and going to work in a branch of law that had more tangible results.
Perhaps like his friend Aidan Quinn, who worked with victims of domestic violence and sought to get them safe and, where possible, recompensed.
Or even working as a youth pastor. But his father had been adamant that “no son of mine will work in a career like that,” so he’d refrained.
Keeping the peace and thus maintaining the relationship was sometimes worth the daily toll of stress-filled hours.