The Last Maharajan (Romantic Thriller/Women's Fiction) (21 page)

The phone’s bell startled her. Her heart raced in a start. It was eerie to see Belle’s name lighting up the digital display, like some celestial beacon glowing from another plane of existence. She wiped off her face.

“Hi.” She whispered, covering to hide the sound of crying. Her sister spoke with morning in her voice. Enaya wanted to know when she would be coming over. She wanted to make breakfast and it was ready to go and she could put it on the stove right now and, no, she didn’t care if Euly wasn’t ready.

“It’s not like your neighbors will see. You’re socked in by woods. You’re so uptight. How did you get like this?” And, in her statement, Euly got the sense that Enaya also thought about how differently they’d both turned out from one another, how the spread seemed abysmal and out of reach. Yet, her sister was only feet from where Euly now stood, within yelling distance. Euly turned to the window looking out to see if she could spot her sister but she couldn’t.

“Is that your idea of an invitation, an insult to wet my appetite?”

Enaya smiled. She could hear it in her sister’s voice. “Just come over. We can have coffee together and eat. Then, we can look for it.”

Enaya wasn’t a patient woman. She’d never been patient. Euly knew this. Enaya – always the first up at Christmas, the first done with a math test, the first to move out of the house, to move away, to move back – the first born.

“Okay. I’ll be right there.”

As she hung up the phone, she looked out to the frozen pond and could see rings of water that had once beaten against its edges and trees now stiff from icy temperatures. Willows bent under pressure of cold air. She could feel winter seeping in.

CHAPTER FORTY NINE

After her grandmother vanished the diner filled-up with performers – actors, singers, and musicians. They begged Euly to dance.

“I don’t dance anymore.” She told them but they prodded and pressured her to get up and dance with them. She rose up and with one quick move, a step from long ago, Euly said, “Like this?” The performers cheered and applauded to see her aging body move.

She dreamt she awoke in the dream and found she was in bed alone. A very small and frail version of Belle crept into the room and up to the bedside. Euly began to quake and moan as if she were seeing an apparition. She awoke once more in the dream but her mother was still there this time trying to console Euly. She said, “You were crying in your sleep.”

“But mom, you were just here by my bed.” The distorted version confused her.

“No, I’ve only just gotten here.” Then Belle yelled out, “Honey!” Someone else was standing behind her. It was Euly’s father.

“Honey, Euly thinks I was here beside her bed, but I’ve only just gotten here, right?”

“That’s right. Hi honey.” Then they both tried to console her.

She jerked in a start when she woke. The grief felt unbearable.

Euly had the overwhelming feeling that she was swimming in quicksand. She’d drifted off. The phone was ringing again. It was Enaya. It was still morning. Had she missed breakfast? She remembered coming upstairs to wash her face and brush her teeth and had only intended to lie down for a spell.

Euly wondered her mother heard her when she was lying there unconscious. If the dream wasn’t Belle answering her from a place where people can only communicate through dreams – that’s what some Native Americans believed. It seemed plausible now. And, in Belle’s unconscious state – that place somewhere between sleep and death – Euly wondered if people had an ability to hear and comprehend words spoken to them. She hoped so but would never know.

CHAPTER FIFTY

Their mother had always maintained the upper hand with her daughters and now her sister seized the role with ease. It was some odd pecking order like in the animal kingdom but one never spoken of on any TV shows or reading Euly could recall. Enaya took charge where their mother had left off and now she was in her house. It amused Euly to watch as she transformed from the woman she was only yesterday to this newer version. Maybe spending the night in Belle’s home did it.

“I waited as long as I could. Here. They’re not as hot as they were an hour ago.” Enaya wasn’t smiling. She dumped a thick pile of cold eggs onto each plate. Placed four slices of stiff bacon down and poured orange juice into two small pink juice glasses.

“Sorry, I fell asleep.” She scooted in her chair under the egg-blue table. The wooden legs screeched against the wooden floor.

“Whatever.” She stuffed Euly’s last comment in with all the other worthless excuses she’d heard over the years and sat down. “Coffee?”

“Sure.”

“Well, I’m not the maid. Get up and get it.”

“Yes ma’am.” Euly fetched the coffee pot and brought it back to the table. “Want a refill?”

“Don’t set that on the table. It’ll burn.”

“It’s a thermos. It’s not hot.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I got it for her a while ago. You can sit them anywhere, take them too.”

“Sorry.”

“You didn’t know.”

“No. I mean sorry about the ‘maid’ thing.”

“Mom used to say that too.” She smiled at Enaya and her sister took a breath.

“I’m not good at this sort of thing.”

“Who is?”

“You are.”

Euly reached over and grabbed her sister’s hand. It felt soft and weak. “You’re doing fine. We’re both doing the best we can. I know one thing for certain, though.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s time for me to grow up.”

Today was a mix of emotions. She had received another award, an award this time for an essay she hoped to fit into her memoir. Euly was always amused by the randomness of timing and decided to wait to tell everyone until dinner. Dinners with family all sitting around a table were times for happy news. Jimmy would arrive later today and meet up with Enaya. Family would be together.

Geoff left early for golf. He was still hurt, hurt about the Clive incident. She could see it in his eyes. Still, she knew he was getting over it when he wanted to make love this morning. It was the first time in two months. Both of them were being tender to the other – Geoff was because of Belle and Euly, because of Clive.

The dog and cat were fed, the litter box cleaned, a load of laundry in the wash. She wanted to feel excited about the award but couldn’t work up the strength. She knew today would be filled with old memories.

The letter read…

To my most beautiful daughters:

Look for the red star in the heart of my world. It is locked and safe near the well-read
dhurrie
with three boards from the setting sun. The red star holds answers to your questions about life.

One day, you’ll understand we’re all children at heart with dreams and hopes, loves and desires, and memories of a time way back when…

Miracles happen. Look in the mirror.

I love you both more than life.

I won’t ask for forgiveness because I’ve lived my life fully and with zero regrets.

I’ll love you forever, your mother. 5/3/1976.

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE

The instructions were locked inside the a thin nondescript envelope and Euly held it like the Holy Grail as she made her way to see her sister. Wind blew her hair into her face. The air was crisp but the clouds and fog were lifting under the sun’s power. Fat clouds still skipped by in-between sun appearances spotlighting them as if actors walking from entrance to exit across a stage, adding to their importance. She kicked the door, knocking it with her foot.

“Why didn’t you just come in?” Enaya frowned but Euly didn’t answer. She only stared at her sister in dumb amazement. Her sister bent forward to her and brushed the hair out of her face. “What? What is it?”

“The last one.” She opened her eyes wide.

“The last what?”

Euly cocked her head as if to say, come on!

“Treasure hunt, you dope.”

“No shit.” Enaya’s eyes softened and her jaw slackened.

“No shit.”

“Get in here.”

She grabbed Euly’s arm and pulled her into the cottage.

They sliced open the seal with a letter-opener they'd found in the loft at her desk and carefully unfolded the note from inside the envelope. They flattened a map out over the kitchen table and read their final instructions.

“She painted the floors for our benefit.”

Enaya pointed to the reference of a red star noted in her letter to the girls.

“That stinker.”

Euly thought back on the week it had to be done.

“Mother can’t this wait?”

“I can’t wait. I’m not going to be around much longer. It has to be now.”

She held a hand to her mouth and started to cry. Enaya rubbed her back. “Unbelievable.”

“She just had to do it. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Her sister went into the bathroom for a box of tissues. When she came back she was wiping her own nose.

“Here. I think we’re going to need these. What do you think?”

“Oh yeah.” Euly laughed a little.

“Okay, little sis, let’s figure this one out.” It was more than an hour later when they discovered it – a loose split in the floorboard. It was nearly invisible and looked like just another seam in- between the wooden slats. They looked at each other.

“How do we get it up?”

Enaya rubbed the floor searching for something, any irregularity. “Here it is.”

Euly rubbed over the same spot. “Oh lord.” She let Enaya have the honor and, when her sister slipped her index finger into the middle of the red star, it gave way and made a small hole. She pulled up. The secret panel lifted out easily. The hiding place was a foot deep and housed a two-tone brown and black leather satchel with two buckled straps that, when connected, kept it closed. There was also an old-fashioned brass lock in the middle to keep out the curious.

“Get the key.”

Euly jumped ran to the counter near the envelope where she’d left it and raced back with it held out.

“Here.”

Enaya wore no makeup this morning and yet her cheeks were tinged with blush.

“Oh my God.” Euly felt her heart race as she watched her sister move closer to the satchel.