He did. Which meant Eddie wasn’t here.
I stared at the green dog toy.
“Aunt Pari?” I asked. “Do you believe in second chances?”
“I believe in anything that involves hope,” she said, smiling.
I believed in anything that involved retribution, holding a grudge, and long-term plans for revenge. But maybe I could make room for a little hope. Just to switch things up.
I’d been in the dark for so long. Maybe it was time to crawl out of my cave and act like a human being. I could start by apologizing to Jane for acting like a monster.
Maybe we weren’t enemies after all.
Maybe we could be friends. Friendly? Not shouting?
I just knew one thing. I could not exist in the same town with Jane and stay silent.
That I could not do.
Track [8] “Goin’ to the Party”/Alabama Shakes
Jane
The remainder of the driveback to the lodge lasted forever and a day. Dad dropped Mad Dog off at the main house’s front door, and we parked the Fintail safely in the garage without discussing anything Mad Dog brought up about making peace with the lake. Dad was bothered by it, though. I could tell. So I whispered “I’m not going near the dam” against his back as he locked the car. He reached back and patted me, nodding once, but didn’t reply.
Maybe that helped. Sometimes it was hard to read him when feelings were involved.
When I stepped into the carriage house and let Frida Kahlo off her leash, she made a wild dash through a narrow entry hall for her water bowl in the connecting prep kitchen—and nearly caused a pedestrian collision in the process. Curses were discharged in her direction. Guess all the domestics were getting ready for Velvet’s shindig. Including our boss, the head housekeeper.
I tried to sneak away but wasn’t fast enough.
“I’ve been looking all over for you,” Norma Dewberry said, one hand on her hip, the other fanning her face. Exie thought shemight be going through menopause; Norma was always talking about being hot when no one else was, and she was constantly tetchy for no good reason.
“Wow, it’s a circus back here. I’ll just grab some chow for lunch and get out of your hair,” I said.
“Chow” was code for staff food, which was different than the food that Exie made for the Family. Different meals for different people. Different ingredients kept in different refrigerators, and all of it tallied to a strict budget.
Norma frowned at me from behind bobbed gray hair. She was wearing the required domestic uniform of the Larsen domestics: khaki pants and a black polo shirt with Mad Dog’s personal emblem stitched on the breast. “Did you use your company card? Where’s the receipt?”
“You said to log it and turn it in…” Never mind. No sense in arguing with her. Frida was running around underfoot while I struggled to fish the receipt from my purse. “Here.”
She glanced at it briefly. She didn’t want it now. Just proof that I’d saved it. “Why aren’t you on a walkie? Not that I can understand you half the time anyway.”
Exie was walking behind her with a pan of water and gave Norma a middle finger behind her back.Thank you,I told the chef with my eyes as quickly as I could. Norma notices too much.
All the domestics were supposed to carry walkie-talkies from morning until 8 p.m. But it was mostly for Norma to bark orders to the rest of the staff, and it could be challenging to listen to chatter about toilet cleaning and kitchen supply emergencies forhours on end. My word-pixie didn’t like it. So I conveniently forgot to carry it, or I turned my earpiece off.
“And why are you in street clothes?” Norma asked. “Where’s your polo shirt?”
“Do you need me to help Exie with the dinner prep?” I asked brightly. A smile, but not too big. “Because Velvet also needs me to help her with assistant stuff before the party. Which I’m supposed to be attending. I need to bring her this shampoo… stat.”
See what I did there? Deflection and reminder, which is key when you’re dealing with a Negative Vibe Merchant like Mother Superior.
“Oh, right.” Norma lifted a hand to adjust her earpiece, and light shone on a scar that crossed her cheek. Before Dad and I came to Mad Dog’s house, Norma fought off burglars who were trying to rob the Bel Air studio. In the tussle, Mad Dog was stabbed in the leg, and Norma ended up with ten stitches on her cheek. The burglars, however, lost an eye and broke a leg trying to escape through the window, and both ended up serving a lot of time in the state prison.
Norma was negative. Mean. Tough. A bully. But she would literally take a knife in the face for Mad Dog, and she ran this house as if it were a duty bequeathed by a higher power. She was not going anywhere.
If I didn’t want to spend eternity bowing to Mother Superior, I had to get out of domestic service.
