Midnight in Brussels (5 page)

She had a knack for decorating that could make meager and inexpensive décor look expensive and appealing. At one time she’d even thought of going to school to become an interior decorator. That was back in Arkansas before she quit high school and married Arlie. She’d flipped through an Architectural Digest at the drug store and couldn’t believe how some people lived - the extravagant furniture and artwork they had in their homes. She read the stories about the designers and their lifestyles. It had overwhelmed her and made her wish for her own palatial home. She hadn’t thought about those times until lately, when she and Paula were going from store to store, shopping for furnishings for Paula’s new house, and now for her own little home.

“I love my cottage!” she exclaimed aloud and began laughing. “I do love my little cottage, I do.” She poured another glass of wine for herself and then began eating her salad. “I love my cottage.”

Chapter 7

A month had passed since Amanda had moved into her quaint cottage—as she continually referred to it. The exterior walls were covered with grey, weathered redwood shingles from the foundation to the roofline, and the steep roof was covered with slate shingles - just like she’d seen in one of the travel magazines.

Her landlord had given her permission to plant climbing pink and yellow roses around the lattice work on the front stoop, and ivy along the street side of the building. Although it was co-joined to two other cottages to the right of it, it felt like a detached unit to Amanda. She had a front and back door with shingled porch covers and stoops, a lawn, and windows on three sides. The west side of her place bordered the sidewalk that ran along the street, the front faced north onto the courtyard, across from the units looking back at her.

She’d added bargain accessories in her three cozy rooms that she’d found at vintage, used, and antique stores in Bakersfield. She spent hours browsing and finding items she wanted that appeared to cost more than what they did.

Paula couldn’t believe how dazzling the small one-bedroom haven had become. “It’s incredible, what you’ve done here,” she said as she came through the door held open by Amanda. “Oh, look at that!” She went over to the mantle and touched a lacquered porcelain orange and white Chinese dog. “Where the hell did you find this?”

“At that place over there on Eighteenth Street. You know, where we got the love seat. Are y’all hungry yet? I’ve made us some sandwiches.”

“You know me, I’m always hungry. This baby eats as much as I do.”

“Okay, I’ve set it all up for us.” She walked towards the tiny kitchen as Paula waddled behind her.

“You sit over there.”

“Oh, hon! This is so pretty. Flowers in a vase. And look at these plates. They’re new, ain’t they?”

“Look on the back; they’re genuine bone China from England. Found them at the Ross store.”

“I just can’t get over the change in you in just this short time.” Paula picked up half a sandwich from her plate. “I mean, you have a job, and Frenchie says you’re really good at it. She loves you, too, you know. Says you remind her of herself when she was young and stupid about men. Ain’t that funny? I don’t see Frenchie as ever being stupid about anything. I wish I had one-tenth of her clothes and jewelry, she’s a dang fashion plate, ain’t she?”

Amanda’s face brightened. “One of these days I’m going to make her a pretty dress.”

"Now that would be downright nice of you to do, Amanda. Anyway, like I was sayin’, here you’ve got this place to live in with all these pretty things. It just blows my mind how you’ve adjusted.” She bit into the sandwich and kept talking as she chewed. “I don’t think I could pick up and start all over again like you did if something happened to Drake and I lost everything. I couldn’t do it. I’d just die. I know I would.” She reached for her wine glass. “Let’s make a toast to your new life.”

Amanda happily reached for her glass.

“To women all over the world: may they be as happy and as lucky as we two Conroy sisters are, Amanda.”

“Well—”

“No, I mean it. What more could you want, Amanda? You’ve got everything you need. Well, maybe a car would be nice, but that’ll come next.”

“I was just going to say, I’ve been looking at cars.”

“Now, hon ... I wasn’t supposed to tell you this, but Drake is going to give you a car for your birthday. So don’t y’all go out and get into any debt. Just wait till your birthday.”

“I don’t want Drake to buy me a car, Paula. I’ll buy my own. I’ve been saving my money. It won’t take me much longer to get the money with what I got for the trailer and all. I make pretty good tips.”

“Now, you know how Drake is when he sets his mind to something, there ain’t nobody gonna change it. And you know we got tons of money, what are sisters for if not to help each other when we can? So you just put that money in your travel fund. How much have you saved up for that trip you want to take?”

“Well, with the money that’s left from the sale of the trailer and what I’ve saved from paychecks and tips, I’ve got a little over $6000 for the trip and $600 in my car fund.”

“Well I’ll be damned! That’s nearly $7000, girl! How much do you figure you’re gonna need for that trip anyway?”

“I’m figuring on about $10,000.”

“Whew! That’s a lot of money, girl! I don’t how you do it. Figuring out all that stuff. But then you’ve always been good with numbers.” Paula continued with a mouthful of sandwich. “I sure couldn’t do all that figuring.”

Amanda placed another half sandwich on Paula’s plate. “Well, I figure if I take that much, I can stay longer if I want. I’ve been reading up on Belgium at the library, the costs and everything. And I got on the computer last time I was there and found the Bruges website. There’s a lace-making school there, Paula. They give classes that last a week for beginners.”

“You’re thinking about taking a lace-making class?”

“Yes, I am. It’s fascinatin’ how they make those intricate designs. Here, let me show you some pictures.”

Amanda went to a book case and pulled out a book on lace making. “I got this here book at Goodwill, it has everything in it. I figure I can just take a basic class and see if I like it or not first, or if I can even do it. There aren’t many lace-makers out there anymore.” She handed the book to Paula. “They’re even offering free classes to school children so the art won’t die. Bruges was one of the first originators of lace.”

She went back into the living room and picked up a throw pillow from the sofa. “I’d like to learn how to do tapestry, too. Look at this here.”

Paula took the pillow and felt it, unzipped the cover and looked on the back side of the tapestry. “I would imagine you wouldn’t have to go all the way to Belgium to learn how to make lace and weave tapestry, if that’s all you want.”

“But it’s not all I want. Here, let me show you this magazine I bought yesterday. It’s all about Belgium, a travel magazine.” She went to the table in front of the love seat and picked up one of the travel issues that were stacked high on it. “Look at this.” She opened to a pictorial spread of Bruges.

“Oh, my goodness!” Paula exclaimed. “Will you look at them waterways right up against the buildings? These pictures look like paintings, don’t they? Something you’d see in a museum.”

“That’s the main reason I’m going. It looks so beautiful and peaceful. And all the streets are cobbled - you know, made of stones, like in medieval times. Did you know that’s what cobbled meant?”

Paula frowned. “No I didn’t. You’re sure learnin’ a bunch of stuff these days.”

“Well, I don’t know about that.” She giggled. “Actually most of the architecture there is medieval. It says that right here. I looked up ‘medieval’ and found out what it means. It means the same as the Middle Ages. Did you know that?”

“No, I didn’t. I thought middle ages was when people get to their fifties and sixties. I sure didn’t think it had anything to do with that … that medieval stuff.” Paula gulped some water.

“Well, it says it was a period of time way back between the fifth and the fifteenth centuries. Can you believe that? Here we’re living in the twenty-first century and a century is made up of a hundred years.”

“You are so smart, Amanda. I had no idea you knew so much about the big ol’ world out there.”

Amanda shrugged. “I do a lot of reading about it in my spare time. Makin’ up for lost time, I guess. Quittin’ school early probably wasn’t the best thing for me to do. I’m teachin’myself better English, too. ” She picked up a sandwich. But anyway, so that means medieval times began sixteen centuries ago. That’s sixteen hundred years! Can you imagine that? It just boggles my mind” She took a bite. “And Bruges has buildings and streets that go back all the way to that time. You know, sometimes I feel like I’ve already been there, it seems so familiar to me; I’m drawn to it. Have you read anything about past lives, Paula? I’m reading all about that, too.”

Paula stared at her younger sister in wonderment.

Chapter 8

It was nearly ten p.m. Saturday night before the Christmas holiday. KC’s Steakhouse was all decked out with colorful decorations and the waitresses were wearing blinking Christmas pins and wore holly and mistletoe in their hair. Amanda had made a circular crown of holly and was wearing it. No mistletoe. Her hair was curled and pulled up to make a nest for the holly on top of her head.

The room was still crowded with partygoers and regular patrons, all the tables were taken and both bars were full of merrymakers. Amanda had four tables to take care of, one of which was occupied by Richard Miller and a few of his business associates.

“Amanda, may I please have another double Scotch?” Richard called out to her as she was heading towards the lower bar.

She nodded and sighed. That meant they were going to be sticking around for awhile. It wasn’t like she didn’t know it would be busy tonight, but she was tired and wanted to go home. Not only was it busy because it was Saturday, but because it was the Saturday before Christmas. Everybody and their brother would be out tonight, one last fling before the family holiday. Starting tomorrow she had four days off in a row - first time in the six months she’d been working at KC’s.

She couldn’t believe it’d been only a year since Arlie had disappeared. It seemed much longer. She’d been thinking about him off and on all day and wondered how she’d feel if one day he would walk in and want to take her back to Nevada. After all, they were still married. The thought frightened her, mainly because she loved her new life, and she secretly hoped he wouldn’t come back until she’d at least gone to Bruges and done everything else she wanted to do.

Besides, there was Richard to think about now, although she felt guilty looking forward to seeing him every other week at KC’s. He’d become a regular and always made it a point to sit at one of her tables.

But nothing was going to stop her from going to Belgium. Nothing and nobody.

The previous Monday she’d gone to the courthouse and applied for a passport and had her picture taken for it. It excited her so much, she went out and bought a new outfit and treated herself to dinner that night at a new Italian restaurant that had opened downtown. She felt as if she was in another world already, a far cry from the rundown trailer house out in the middle of the desert in Nevada, never going anywhere, never dining out, and especially never having a new outfit to wear. She was proud of herself for being able to do it all on her own.

Since she’d been in California, she’d dined in some fine restaurants. Drake and Paula had made it a point to take her to all the best ones in town. But she knew the bubble would burst one day when Arlie came back, if he wasn’t dead. She felt guilty about wishing he were dead, for she definitely couldn’t see him living in her cozy cottage with all her pretty things. She knew he wouldn’t fit into the delicate, feminine world she had created for herself. Again, it made her feel guilty to wish he were dead or that he wouldn’t come back until she went to Bruges, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to see how other people lived in other parts of the world, and she knew she wouldn’t get to do that if she were with Arlie.

Amanda and Paula’s mother, Inez Conroy, had never been anywhere to speak of, either. Born in the Ozarks, died in the Ozarks. She’d died of leukemia before her two daughters had reached their teens, although many felt it was heartbreak more than the leukemia that took her. Inez’s husband, the girls’ father, had disappeared right after Amanda was born. So after their mother had died, the girls were raised by their grandmother till she passed when Amanda was twelve and Paula was fifteen. After their grandmother died they lived on their own, taking care of themselves in their grandmother’s house. When Paula turned sixteen she and Drake got married, but they stayed with Amanda until she married Arlie when she turned sixteen. Then they all moved west. Amanda and Arlie to Nevada, Paula and Drake to California. Both girls had wished their mother had been alive to go with them.