Guarded Secret
It is a cool bright Saturday afternoon, with winds blowing autumn leaves around the house and on to the large wrap around-porch of Chelsea Webber’s Victorian style house. The coolness of the breezes brings the aroma of fresh cut grass and a hint of the Lavender from the field across the street. The breezes that blow across her face and through her hair make her feel embraced by the wind. She lays her head back on the porch swing and closes her eyes. She reminisces back to when she was a child of eight years when she, her brother Larry and his best friend Timothy were at an empty baseball diamond catching bees and grasshoppers in jars.
As clear as the day it happened, she sees her brother and Timmy a little distance away from her and shortly after she hears the sound of Larry’s voice calling her name.
“Chelsea, why don’t you catch the bees instead of those boring grasshoppers? The bees make it more daring.”
“She’s scared she’s going to get stung.” Timmy chuckled. “Chelsea is a fraidy-cat!” He teased. Then without warning, Timmy runs off screaming, holding his buttocks. Her brother stood bent over, laughing so hard at the sight of
Timmy getting a bee sting on the butt. She couldn’t help but laugh with him and thinking. “He shouldn’t have been teasing me.”
A telephone ringing in the background brings her back to the present. She went to answer the phone, still smiling a little at the sight of Timmy running home with his hand over his butt that day. The sunlight beams through, white lacy sheers that hang snuggled between emerald, green draperies shadow the living room as she walks in from the porch.
“Hello.” She answers the phone.
“Hey Chels, I was just calling to see if you were doing anything later this afternoon?” the caller asks.
“Well, actually, I would love the company if you would like to come over for a while.”
“Sure! I’ll stop and rent a couple of movies and pick up something for dinner.”
Almost as instant as Chelsea replies, she remembers that she already has a dinner guest for the evening but, the invitation is now out there, and she can’t take it back without having to explain. Although, after successfully leaving her abusive husband Harris Foster, she and Brooklyn made a solemn promise to each other, never to allow anyone or anything to come between their friendship.
“That’s fine, Brook. What time do you think you’ll get here?” She asks, looking at her watch. “I’ll leave in about thirty minutes or so.”
“Alright, see you soon.” She said before hanging up the phone.
Chelsea is washing dishes from lunch as she gazes out the kitchen window at the colorful sunset while talking to Ronald on the phone. The kitchen window displays the view of the large back yard, furnished with a gazebo, and an old empty well that Chelsea’s great-grandfather installed at the time he built the house back in the 1800s. Pink and white roses grow around the gazebo using its structure for support during their growing periods. The doorbell rings.
“I’m sorry to have to cancel our plans. Will you take a rain check?” She explains.
“That’s fine babe, just give me a ring tomorrow.” He replies.
“Okay. I have to go; someone is at the door.”
Chelsea wishes so much that it was Ronald at the door instead of Brooklyn. Then again, she felt a little guilty for even thinking that way. Maybe tonight would be an excellent opportunity for her to talk about her involvement with him but, Brooklyn has a way with, throwing her abusive marriage up in her face, and that’s the last thing she wants to hear; especially since she’s no longer with him.
She peeks out the window behind the sofa as Brooklyn parks her car behind her minivan.
“Hey! What did you bring for dinner?” Chelsea greets her as she opens the door.
“Well, we have shrimp gumbo, and for dessert, we have Jamoca Almond fudge ice cream.” She replies, walking towards the kitchen.
“Mm that sounds good, especially since we don’t have to cook it.”
“Well, you do have a part in this, you know.” Brooklyn says.
“What?”
“You can at least serve the meal, thank you.”
“Is that all? No problem.”
“Oh, Chelsea! I’ve got something juicy to tell you!”
“What? What happened?”
“Do you remember Morgan Couch?”
“How could I forget, aside from the fact that he is extremely handsome, and you’re constantly talking about him…what about him?”
“We did it!”
“Did what?”
“You know very well, what.”
“Well, it’s about time. How was he?”
“He was so sweet.” Brooklyn glows. “We went out yesterday for lunch, and then after the movies last night, we went back to his apartment, where I stayed the night.”
“Well, was he everything you thought he would be?”
“Oh, yes!” She answers with a flushed face.
“He must have been. Your rosy smile almost tells it all.” Chelsea says, munching on potato chips.
She gets the dishes ready for their dinner, while Brooklyn is in the dining room clearing away the fine China from the table when there is a knock at the door.
“Brook, can you get the door for me, please?” Chelsea calls from the kitchen. Brooklyn returns from the door holding a flower box in her arm.
“Who was it?” Chelsea asks.
“A delivery person.”
“Oh, flowers! Did you tell Morgan you were going to be here?”
“No,” she answers, pulling a small pink card from beneath the ribbon. “But who is Ron?”
Surprised more than she leads on to be, Chelsea quickly takes the card away and reads it silently. The card reads; “I hope you believe that I’m not angry with you and still look forward to seeing you again.”
“Ron is a friend from work that’s interested in me.” She answers with a smile and takes the box of flowers to the kitchen. She smiles with uncertainty, not knowing if Brooklyn is going to lecture her on getting into a relationship so soon.
"So, you’ve been holding out on me…but why?” Brooklyn asks.
“You lectured me for so long on getting back into a relationship, I just didn’t want to hear it anymore. I was going to tell you about him.”
“Well, now, you have to.”
“What do you want to know?”
“The basics…age, career, and more importantly, how long have you been seeing him?”
“Ron is the CPA in the office building I work at. We have been seeing each other for a year now. He’s thirty-seven, never been married, and has no children.”
“I’m so happy for you and at the same time a little hurt that you felt you couldn’t tell me. I didn’t realize that I was that hard on you, and I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize. I’m sincerely grateful for your concern for me. You’re the only one I have left in my life that knows where I am and makes me feel at home. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you.”
“When are you going to let me meet him?”
“Soon, I’m sure. We’re supposed to set something up soon, but I’m not sure when.”
“Hey! We could double-date! Dinner and a movie and maybe come back for a game of cards.”
“We’ll see, Brook.” Chelsea smiles.
After dinner, they sit in the living room playing cards with the television on until Chelsea begins to feel sleepy but the entire time, Ron is still running through her mind, and occasionally Brooklyn would catch her smiling for no reason.
Losing the game royally to Brooklyn due to her lack of attention to the game, she is ready to hang it up for the evening.
“Brook, this is my last hand, and then I’m going to take a shower and hit the sack. I can hardly keep my eyes open, I’m so sleepy.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re just sore because you’re losing.” She teases.
“Whatever…I just know that when my head hits that pillow, I’m going to let the sandman take me away.
“Gin, I win!” Brooklyn shouted in glory. “Good. Now I’m going to take my shower.” Chelsea says, placing her cards on the remaining deck.
Brooklyn always thought it was odd that Chelsea had the guest room in the front of the house off the living room and not upstairs. From the time Chelsea moved into the house, Brooklyn would always tell her that the room should be a den or an office and not a guest room. Instead, Chelsea tells her that she prefers to have her office upstairs near her bedroom…then too, Brooklyn thought it odd that she kept that door under lock and key.
Even on rare occasions that Chelsea has gone up there with Brooklyn visiting, she would still lock the door from the inside. Whenever Brooklyn would ask if she could see how she had her office set up, she would always come up with an excuse or lame reason for why she couldn’t and insisted that she would like her to stop asking and let her have her privacy. They had a few heated arguments about what was upstairs because Brooklyn didn’t want to accept that she didn’t have anything to hide and, if it were any other room, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.
Eventually, Chelsea was able to persuade her to see her point of view as far as her privacy, by recalling how her husband Harris demanded that she know everything, including her whereabouts after work. It was so bad that he had ruined almost every gift she tried to surprise him with. Brooklyn has not asked since, but her curiosity is still there because even now when she makes the trip up there, she still locks the door once she’s on the other side.
After Brooklyn has her shower and is dressed for bed, she looks at the clock and sees that it is just ten forty-five and she is nowhere near sleepy. She goes into Chelsea’s room to find out more about her new friend Ron.
“Chels, are you sleep yet?” She asks, standing in the doorway.
“Not quite. You can come in.” She replies and sits up in the bed, dozing off while watching television.
“So, tell me more about Ron.” She said, plopping down across the foot of her bed.
“There’s nothing more to tell.”
“Well, how do you feel about him?”
“It’s too soon to say. We just really started to go out with each other. Tonight, would have been the first date.” She speaks.
“So, what do you think about double dating until you’re comfortable with him.”
“I think that’s a good idea, but maybe next time.”
“Ok. Hey, this is one of my favorite movies. Do you mind if I stay and watch it with you?”
“Sure, why not?” She answers, with her eyes rolling to the back of her head, as her eyelids grow heavier.
