Sun Kissed Innsmouth
Part Three
The sudden silence was unnerving, it stopped Felecia from continuing with her train of thought. The sneer only grew on Nana’s face as the silence began and continued until she spoke to the serving woman behind her, “Go pack a bag for our dear Felecia, and fetch her coat too. Send her down to the foyer in a few minutes.”
Felecia, at twelve, going on thirteen, refused to tremble with fear, she wasn’t going to be led down the stairs to the cellar again. “Having me deposited to father’s side of the family for the unforgivable sin of sunbathing? Is that it?”
Nana’s wicked sneer only grew wider. “So smart, and so…dumb. They wouldn’t take you in, girl. Have you looked in a mirror? You’re one of mine, even more so than that empty headed mother of yours. That lout’s people wouldn’t suffer you, and if they did it would be just long enough to commit you to a sanitarium so you could finger paint with the dullards and the masturbators. No one else would ever dare to keep you with our looks and how contrary you are.”
Felecia’s resilience and determination withered under Nana’s rebuke. She wasn’t holding the shawl around her anymore to hide her body; she was pulling it tight around her to hide her very essence. That show of subservience wasn’t enough for Nana as she crept to the edge of the shade and let her wrinkled sneer fade into an emotionless blur. “The next time you and I talk, you will understand your place and you will be obedient as serves your years and station in this house. Otherwise, we won’t ever speak again.”
Nana turned around and walked out of the parlor and Felecia could hardly parse out what had just happened until she realized that Josephine was already in her room, rooting through her closet and drawers and personal belongings. Her sanctuary was already a foreign kingdom by the time Felecia managed to slip her clothes back on and dash across the second floor. A single suitcase was already being stuffed with dull clothing that spelled out time spent traveling and out of doors.
“Please Josie, I’ll just hide here until morning, mother will settle her down, you don’t have to go to all this trouble for a family spat.”
Josephine continued sorting through the closet while she ignored Felecia as she waited in the doorway of her own room until Josephine crossed over to the tall chest of drawers. The bottom drawer held Felecia’s journal, as well as the many letters she found herself writing to no one unparticular. Letters confiding feelings and desires even Felicia didn’t fully understand at that age.
The maid couldn’t be allowed to rifle through that drawer a second time, the first intrusion earlier that year had already nearly laid bare truths that Felecia couldn’t stand seeing through another’s eyes.
“Josie, please, I’ll do it. Let me pack my own things if you feel the need to go through with this charade.”
The maid continued to ignore her as the woman riffled through her underthings and socks packing sparse amounts of both into the top slot of the suitcase before closing it roughly. It was bad enough to have the serving woman in her room going through her things to begin with but the woman was packing the supposed going away bag in spartan fashion. Surely if Josephine wasn’t going to dive into that bottom drawer then Felecia would do so to gather her journal. Not that there would be any real need. No one was actually leaving the house, right?
Right?
Josephine deposited the suitcase on the floor with little ceremony and dropped Felecia’s one drab brown coat on top of it before turning away to strip the bed and continue with her usual cleaning duties.
“This is absurd! You’ve never been cruel to me, even when doing her bidding in taking away my things. Please, Josie, just leave for a moment if for no other reason than letting me collect my treasured belongings.”
The maid never turned away from her duties, she never looked over at the girl with the wet hair still dressed in clothing that wouldn’t hold up for a week out in the country slept on cold, hard ground. She only spoke over her shoulder as she continued to strip the bed of its linens. “Your things, what things, books and pens? Your tawdry letters. No. Its all toilet paper out there, girl. I packed what you need, as requested, you best go to the kitchen and beg for scraps to fill that case with, otherwise you’re like to starve out in those woods.”
“We both know I’m not going anywhere. Can we please stop with this show already?”
Josephine stopped collecting linens just long enough to turn around and collect the coat and suitcase and push them both into Felecia’s unwilling hands. “Your grandmother said your mother would be waiting for you in the foyer, you’d best not keep her waiting. The groundskeeper has been summoned to haul you out if you don’t leave on your own. Trust me, you don’t want that.”
For the first time since her trip down to the cellar with father, Felecia was truly scared. Josie wasn’t one for jokes or even someone smart enough to understand most of them. The woman was dull but absolutely honest. If Josephine was pushing a bag packed for Felecia into her hands as well as her one weather proof coat, this wasn’t just one of Nana’s games.
Felecia stood there for a moment, looking down at the suitcase and coat and then at the bottom drawer of her chest until the maid nodded at the bottom drawer. “I’ll do my best to make sure its all left in place while you’re away, miss. You need to leave though, now!”