“I hear things,” Cheryl said quickly, then was silent.
Elaine could tell that she’d overstepped. Looked like Cheryl’s sources of gossip were off-limits. “Do you know the boy’s dad?”
“No.” She was massaging Elaine’s scalp. “I met Jack when I got tangled up in a clothesline and couldn’t get out. He was riding by on his bike and heard me call for help. He saved me.”
Elaine still wasn’t understanding the connection. “So why is the boy here now?”
“He brought the camera by. This summer his little brother is with his grandparents in Colorado, so Jack is going to film me doing some broadcasts.” Cheryl wrapped the towel around Elaine’s hair, then told her to stretch out on the kitchen table.
“Do what?”
“I want you to lie down with your head at this end. I’m going to try my best to get some moisturizer into your skin. What products do you usually use?”
“Soap and water?”
Cheryl groaned. “How do you expect to accomplish anything in life if you don’t take care of yourself first?”
Elaine was sitting on the old chrome-legged table but it wobbled. “Don’t worry. It’s safe. I give my mom facials every week.”
Elaine stretched out and Cheryl put a rolled-up towel under her neck. “What do you want to broadcast?”
“The news.”
“You mean like onGood Morning America?”
“Yes and no,” Cheryl said. “I just want to do the local news.” She was putting a nice-smelling lotion on Elaine’s face.
“But being a journalist could take you around the world.”
“I don’t want to go around the world.”
She said it so firmly that Elaine opened her eyes. She knew little about Cheryl.
Until two days ago she wasn’t sure of her name. “What do you want to do?”
“Get respect,” Cheryl said. “I want...normal, I guess. A nice husband, two children, a lovely house. I don’t want to get stuck with one of the Roy Wyatts of this world.”
Elaine was beginning to understand. She’d read somewhere, “Dress like what you mean to achieve.” “Is that why you wear what you do? So you don’t attract people like the Wyatts?”
“Yes!” She smeared a clay mask on Elaine’s face, then stepped back. “Clothes are powerful tools. They’re a key that unlocks doors. I want my children to go to great colleges. I want dinner parties. When people see me, I want them to feel a sense of respect.”
“A sort of Lady of the Manor.”
Something about that made Cheryl laugh.
“I still think you should go to New York and get a job—”
“If I don’t do it here in Lachlan, it won’t matter. Being a broadcaster elsewhere would just be a job. I need to show peopleherethat my family isn’t what they think we are.” She dried off her hands. “That’s enough about me. What about you? What are you going to study at university?”
“English lit. My mom says that being a teacher is a good job for a woman.”
“Where did you get that white jacket with the red piping?”
“I made it. When I was twelve, I spent the summer with my father’s sister in North Carolina. She taught me how to sew. I loved designing things. I made whole new wardrobes for my aunt and me. We were a big hit at church.”
“Then what?” Cheryl began taking the clay off Elaine’s face.
“Nothing. I came home and went back to school. No more sewing. My mother doesn’t believe in what she calls artsy-fartsy stuff.”
