Lilly Sorina

Lady Lilly Sorina detested all things pertaining to gears. Especially now that they were in fashion and she was forced to wear them. She preferred her hats to have feathers and flowers and bows not shiny bits of metal. Now here she was sitting after dinner at the Wexfords listening to Miss Cornelia lecture about the inner workings of some machine. When did scientific lectures become proper entertainment? She really missed hearing all the young debutantes singing or playing after dinner. How was a young girl going to catch a handsome eye standing in front of the room wearing an apron and thick leather gloves? She had seen Miss Cornelia at dinner she was wearing a lovely dress with high sleeves and a modest yet fetching neckline, perfectly in fashion and in just the right pale shade of green to set off her golden hair. Wearing a dress like that she should be standing next to a piano and singing, or perhaps seated and playing the harp. It had been ages since she had been to a dinner party where anyone played the harp. So much more becoming in a young girl than standing behind a table littered with parts and staring at her. Lilly’s husband gave her a gentle nudge “Lilly dear, “ he smiled at her absent expression, “Miss Cornelia asked if she might have your brooch.” He nodded to the front of the room where Miss Cornelia was looking directly at her.

Slowly Lilly came out of her reverie and remembered the brooch she was wearing was one of those newer pieces consisting of gears and lace and just one or two crystals. “Yes of course” she said unpinning the brooch and handing it to Miss Cornelia. “Thank you Lady Sorina, how clever of you to have just the piece I needed.” With that Cornelia grabbed up a large pair of scissors and snipped the largest gear right off the brooch inserting it into the mechanical monstrosity she was working on. A few more clanks, a bit more explanation and then Miss Cornelia stepped proudly aside to reveal her creation.

Lilly watched as a small bird emerged from the nest of mechanical detritus that lay on the table. The bird hopped about, cocked its head and then began pecking as if looking for mechanical seeds. The room burst into applause. Lilly clapped along with them although she wasn’t sure how this counted as an accomplishment for a young lady. Her husband took her arm and they rose to leave the room. “Lady Sorina,” Cornelia called out and stopped Lilly from leaving. Lilly stopped and turned to the girl who was really quite lovely now that she had removed her gloves and apron. “I just wanted to say thank you. It was really quite embarrassing for me as a scientist not to have all the pieces I needed.” Lilly was not quite sure how one responded to a debutante blushing and making apologies about science. “It was nothing.”
“Of course I will replace it, it was a very nice brooch.”
“You needn’t bother, it wasn’t a favorite.”
“Perhaps with something new then?” Cornelia pressed, “You have such an eye for design I would enjoy shopping with you for a replacement.”
Lilly smiled, Cornelia was a truly sweet girl despite her modern ways. “I’m just happy to be able to help.” She said honestly though she wasn’t sure what exactly she had helped with.
“Oh,” said Cornelia, “do you like it?” she asked gesturing towards her mechanical bird. “I could give you the bird.”
Lilly looked at the scant flippy little thing on the table, “Does it sing?”
“What?” asked Cornelia, “Why?”
“People keep birds to hear them sing.”
“I had only thought of the movement.” With that she reached over to the bird and twisted a small gear arm. The bird began to flap and looked as though about to fly but only fell over flapping. “I can’t get it t fly.” Cornelia looked crestfallen.
“Oh well, keep at it I am sure you will get it eventually.” Lilly’s husband returned and she was glad to have the chance to excuse herself. They left the party with Lilly still wondering why anyone would want a bird that pecked and flapped but couldn’t sing.

Dated

"12." Ok, that is it, the last of the china. My wedding china. I wonder if one of those guys from TV could take one look at my china cabinet and know exactly when I got married and how many people were invited. I still remember picking it out, wanting something new, modern, fresh. Had I ever been so young I didn't realize the opposite of timeless wasn't modern, it was dated. This china was definitely dated. Well, it is put away now anyway, back to the sink.

It had been such a nice dinner. I always feel a small swell of pride when the turkey looks that good. It tasted good too,but it looked good, that was important. And it looked good on my wedding china, with the silver that I am washing now and will polish later. The silver passed down from my parents, timeless. The kind of timeless that complements even my dated china. Timeless goes with everything from Thanksgiving dinner to hotdogs. Ok, I never eat hotdogs with fork, maybe the baked beans, maybe the potato salad. What does it matter-I am more like the china than the silver.

What happened to me. I remember being fresh out of school. Young, fresh, modern, getting married only because I was truly in love; not to conform to some societal norm. I was going to do it on my terms, life, married or otherwise was going to be on my own terms. Now all I feel is dated. My only child off at college. Home for Thanksgiving dinner. With a friend, who is more than a friend.

Dated, what else would make me think first about not having grandchildren. I was having such a nice time, the turkey looked picture perfect, even the sweet potatoes, bane of my existence turned out well this year. My daughter, home from her first semester at college, seemed to have blossomed while she was gone. She even brought a friend home, a very nice girl. A very sweet girl, which is what I told her when she asked me what I thought. I just hadn't expected her reply.

"Good, because we've been dating."

#5

#5

"I am not going up there with you." It was an echo of the words she hadn't said out loud last night. Now he knew for sure, she wasn't just refusing to climb a monument, she was refusing to come upstate with him. Last night when he finally told her about the job he'd accepted she had seemed genuinely happy even though he had waited until they were on vacation to tell her about it. They both agreed that is was the right choice for him. But she wasn't coming with him. No, she didn't want a divorce, she just didn't see why she should have to leave her career or her life behind. He looked down at the small speck that was Kathy on the ground below the temple. She was his wife, he didn't want to live separated from her. True, the demands of careers had made them spend a lot of time apart, but that was part of the dissatisfaction that had led to him accepting the job upstate. He had built it up in his head, he would rescue them from the rat race of the city, they would reconnect and have the kind of marriage he had spent the last 5 years waiting to magically happen, but never did. He was tired of treating his marriage like a sound investment, to have and hold and then retire comfortably with. He wanted a marriage in the present tense. He didn't what to be up here, while she stayed down there.

#4

You can't see them.

I shouldn't be seeing them.

I always loved my outdoorsy kid with the wild imagination. For as long as I can remember she had been seeing another world in our backyard. Every time her father would get ready to mow the lawn she insisted on running outside first yelling, "He's getting ready to mow! He's getting ready to mow!", as if she were warning the village.

Today she scraped her knee while she was playing outside and while I was out tending to her, she was telling me all about her fantasy friends. "Oh, mommy I really wish you could see them too". "That would be wonderful, honey but -", I answered absentmindedly and got distracted as the sun suddenly got brighter for a moment. I looked up trying to judge if the day were going to get any hotter, but nothing seemed to have changed. I looked back at my daughter, who seemed to have even forgotten she had fallen and told her to go play I'd call her in for lunch soon.

As I was getting up I saw them. Moving at he base of the tree we had been sitting next to were these creatures. I sat back down and stared. What could they be, were they dangerous? They weren't animals, they had tools and clothes, and definitely some magic. How is he moving that huge eggplant? Hey, that's from my garden! I thought I had a rabbit problem. Julie did say the fairies liked them. Oh-no! These can't be the fairies she had been talking about all these years. Fairies are beautiful diaphanous creatures, these are not beautiful. They might be cute in they way that small things are cute, but these are homely, earthy creatures. They don't even have wings. They look like they probably live underground.

"Mommy!" Julie's voice calls to me but I can't look away from what I am watching. Her hand is on my shoulder, "can you really see them now mommy?" "See what honey?", I answer vaguely although I know what she is referring to. She turns her head and says something to herself. When she looks back at me she gives me a big hug and runs back to play again.

I don't know if I am losing my mind or if my daughter has just given me some magical gift so I can see into her world. But I know I am sitting right here until something makes sense.

#3

Facebook.
She had found him on Facebook, or rather he had found her. Now here she was sitting in a coffee shop pretending to do a crossword puzzle for the past 20 minutes, waiting.

Why had she even gotten onto Facebook anyway? "Come on mom, it'll be fun", her son had said, "we can be friends". Oh, she had given him such a look, but then he flashed that smile and she became his "friend". She was surprised at how many "friends" her son had, and even more surprised at how many of them were friends with their parents. One of her son's friends contacted her after she had been online and asked her for the recipe for those "lemon cookie things" that he had at her house once, he had never forgotten them. She didn't remember the boy or the cookies and there was a good chance they had probably come out of a box, but it was sweet anyway. Eventually, she knew more about what her son was up to than when he had been living at home and she had her own slew of friends. It seemed like everyone was on Facebook.

"I can't believe you are on Facebook. I have thought about you so many times and wondered what happened to you." came the message with the Friend Request. Thank goodness no one was there to see her grinning like a schoolgirl with a crush at the computer screen. He had thought about her, he had found her, she pressed accept without thinking. Was the world so much easier now. She started to write to tell him, but his e-mail arrived first asking her to meet him at Cafe Amelie tomorrow for lunch. She focused back on the entrance and the street around it. She knew she would recognize him, even if he never looked her way. She could remember how he walked, the way he moved, but of course she would be sure if she saw him smile. She had seen that smile every day for the past 20 years. Well almost every day, up until her son moved on to campus last year.

There he was walking into the Cafe.

Quickly she got up and began to walk across the street. Finally after all this time she could tell him about how that summer, that vacation, that one night had changed everything. He could tell her why her dad couldn't find him when he looked, why his family had never come back to the lake. It was OK, she hadn't been alone, her family had had taken care of them both, but she always felt bad that he didn't know about their son. She walked up to the entrance of the cafe and could see him seated. She only saw his profile, but his face gave her all the answers she needed. He had always known.

#2

It was either the best decision or the worst decision she had ever made, taking up with a stray. Oh she knew him from around the island, he was always friendly, nice teeth if that meant anything. But allowing him into her life was a split second decision she hoped she wouldn't regret.

That first night he spent hours bathing her, brushing the knots out of her coat, untying the strings that those rotten juveniles had tied to her. Not that she was vain but she would not have gone back to sleep outside after that for an entire souvlaki. Ok, well maybe for and entire one she would have, but not just for a bite. But he cleared some space in that cluttered room and gave her some old T-shirts to lie on and she slept indoors for the first time. It would have been the best night of her life except that her stomach started rumbling before the sun was even up. She was used to scavenging at night to fill her belly and now her belly was telling her to find food but she was trapped inside. She got up to see if she could find something that would allow her eat enough to get back to sleep.

There were more smells in that cluttered room than behind the fish restaurants down by the bay. She carefully dug through piles of clothes that smelled of endless nights, empty cans, empty bottles, empty boxes and so many things she couldn't identify. She finally found one stale crust to chew on and then she continued to chew through the paper plate it had been sitting on, her stomach still rumbled. In front of her she saw a tube and in her hunger decided it was worth tasting. Ugh the awful acrid taste, it filled her mouth immediately. She thrust her tongue forward over and over trying to get rid of it but she couldn't get it out of her mouth. She needed water and she ran frantically around the room trying to find some, finally she found it in the small room off to the side. She drank and drank and drank until that foul taste left her mouth.

In the morning he found her sleeping there beside the toilet. He looked so worried and he ran around almost as frantically as she had after she had bitten that tube. Finally he found the tube and walked over to her, laid his hand on her head and said, "red paint". He then brought her big bowl of water and some food although she had no idea where he had managed to find food when she couldn't. He washed her again and when he was done he made a big deal about throwing away almost everything in the room. She cowered in the corner wondering what would happen next. He turned to her and said, "Come Jackie, let's see if we can get some real painting done today".

#1

Everyone knew where to find them. Every morning out by the dock. Long before the tourists had shaken off last night's party they were out with the people of the town getting ready for the day to come and the night to follow. Most of the money on this island was made at night, even the shops stayed open until the wee hours taking advantage of the purse strings loosened up by revelry and alcohol. But they made their money in the morning, Benito and Angelo were part of the quiet side of the island. Street cleaners nodded at them as they worked their way past. Shopkeepers and friendly cops would come by and chat as they cleaned the fish caught before the sun had even come up. They would be done with their work by lunchtime and in bed before the street lights came on at night.

Benito caught himself thinking that he would miss this quiet routine. He tried to think of what it would be like after they left. Their first stop would be Athens. The only soul he knew there was Vicki, one of the countless young people who came out from the city during tourist season to make some money. But the only one he'd ever met who loved to watch the sunrise. His thoughts were interrupted by a loud laugh. He looked over, Angelo was smiling and chuckling, but it was the cop who was laughing loudly at his own story.

The cops enjoyed sharing their stories with the two fishermen even if they did stay back a few feet back to keep the smell of fish guts off their uniforms. Then there was that one morning almost a year ago now when no one came by. Benito and Angelo had wondered about it until they realized that an early morning crime had upset the police routine for the whole day. One of their favorite cops, Dimitri, had griped to them about it the next day, "Who the hell commits a crime at sunrise!" Benito turned his face down towards the fish he was cleaning to hide his smile as Dimitri went on about how it screwed everything up. How the night shift was just getting ready to turn in, the morning shift was coming on so then everyone had to be involved, 2 different shifts stepping on everyone's toes, screwing up the whole day. Still it was the most exciting thing that had happened in a long time, four jewelry stores hit in rapid succession at sunrise. Dimitri went on and on about how it had to be one of those big crime rings and they would have to get Interpol involved, but they never saw a single agent. The cops had talked about it for weeks. Now though, it had faded and the cop who was standing with them was just telling stories of drunk and indiscreet tourists.

All those mornings of cleaning fish on the dock in view of the shops where the tourists would unload their money, he knew everyone's routine better then he supposed they did. He was going to miss this, but it was time to move on. Tomorrow they would drive the car down in the dark and park it as usual. They would take the boat out, gather up their catch and that would be it. They would be just as gone as the jewelry.