Alicia's Misfortune (26 page)

The cousins took off their coats and then walked into their
work-room.
 
The other girls were already
inside, all of them dressed in the same drab work clothes as Emily and
Leila.
 
None of them smiled, and none of
them spoke.
 
Emily plopped down on her
stool, and then reached for a skein of yarn.
 
She looked at Leila who was already spinning a long line of yearn onto a
spool, and then sighed.
 
Then she got to
work threading her yarn, and daydreamed about a different life.

Emily sat down on her stool Wednesday morning, just as she
did every morning.
 
The ritual was almost
exact, every day that she stepped into the factory.
 
She took off her coat and hung it on a wooden
hook.
 
Then she reached for her skein of
yarn that was always stuffed into a large basket in the middle of the
table.
 
She knew that there had to be
more to life than whittling away her days inside such a gloomy factory, but as
of yet she had no alternative.
 
The
better paying jobs were reserved for the university students, and it was
difficult finding anyone who would hire her without much experience.

Just as she was about to ask Leila a question about how much
yarn was left in the basket, a loud explosion sounded at the end of the
building.
 
The walls shook and the spools
rolled off the table.
 
Leila’s face grew
white with fear.
 
Before Emily could say
a word, an alarm rang off in the work room.
 
Finn threw open the door, his face contorted in bewilderment.
 
“Fire!”
 
He screamed at the top of his lungs and then ran out of the room.
 
Emily bolted from her stool and yanked Leila
by the arm.
 
The girls in the work room
screamed, and a temporary chaos ensued.

“Out!Out the back door and down the escape!”
 
Emily ran to the front of the room and
bellowed her command.
 
The girls in the
work room looked frightened and confused as they scrambled in various
directions, some attempting to grab their coats and other just focused on
getting out of the room.
 
Emily, making
sure that Leila was right behind her, rushed to the doorway and ushered the
girls out.
 
When she was sure that nobody
was left behind, she herded them down the corridor and out to the escape.
 

Smoke was already filling the building when they descended
the fire escape.
 
Emily’s heart pounded
and she could feel a bead of perspiration forming on her forehead as the heat
form the flames enveloped the building.
 
For a second she wondered what had become of Finn, but she knew that she
couldn’t go back in and look for him.
 
The girls at the bottom of the fire escape stood in a huddle, some of
them crying, and others simply stunned.
 

“Go!
 
Get away from
the building!”
 
Emily urged everyone
toward the hills, and in a matter of minutes, they had all migrated toward the
edge of the parking area.
 
The stood with
their hands over their mouths, watching in horror as Lancashire Textile Company
erupted in flames.
 
Emily gulped and
reached for Leila’s arm.
 

Large red fire trucks appeared on the scene a few minutes
later, and the girls watched as a team of firemen unrolled thick rubber
hoses.
 
Their first spray attempted to
put out a thick flame that licked the side of the building, but it was
unsuccessful.
 
A police car flew up to
the parking area, and then an ambulance.
 
Emily’s mouth dropped open as she watched their efforts to get the fire
under control.
 
One of the police
officers stepped out of the car and then grabbed a megaphone from inside the
vehicle.

“We need everyone to back away from the building.
 
If you live close by, please start to make
your way home.
 
If you need
transportation, one of our officers will assist you.
 
Please.
 
Stay away from the building.”
 
He
clicked the off-switch and then climbed back inside his car.
 
Emily took Leila’s hand and then inched away
from the lot.
 
Most of the girls were too
shocked to move very far, but slowly, they all made their way toward town.

When they could barely see the building behind them, Emily
and Leila stood quietly on the sidewalk.
 
Leila started to cry and Emily draped an arm around her shoulder.
 
People looked at them as they made their way
through town, wondering why they looked so forsaken.
 
The two listened as the sound of sirens
echoed in the distance, and then eventually made their way up the steps and
into the apartment.
 
Emily turned on the
radio that sat on their coffee table and tuned in the news.
 
The story of the Lancashire Textile Company
fire was all over the airwaves.

“What are we going to do?”
 
Leila sat on the edge of the couch and cried.
 
“The building is gone.”
 
She buried her face in her hands and then
reached across the table for a tissue.
 
Emily shook her head and then moved closer to Leila.

“Don’t worry yet, Leila.
 
They haven’t even said what would happen.
 
What’s important now is that everyone made it
out safe.
 
I’m sure that when it all
settles down, we’ll hear form Finn and he’ll give us instructions on where to
go next.”
 
Emily nodded her head,
confident that Finn would somehow come to their rescue as soon as he knew what
he was going to do next.

“Emily, we don’t know if he even had insurance.
 
It costs building owners a lot of money to
carry it, and around here I think it’s pretty rare if they do.
 
If he just lost his building and has no
insurance…”
 
She shook her head slowly
and then sighed.
 
“Then we aren’t going
to have any kind of job.”
 
She dropped
her gaze to the floor and Emily realized that Leila might be right.
 
What would they do if Finn had nothing to
offer them?

The sky grew dark and a somber aura fell over the town.
 
The sirens had eased up and both Emily and
Leila looked out her window to see if they could make out any activity coming
from the building.
 
When they were
convinced that all was now said and done, they both changed for bed and got
ready to go to sleep.
 
“Leila?”
 
Emily called out to her cousin from across
the room.

“What, Em?”
 
Leila
lied awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering what the next day would bring.

“Maybe this is like a purging.”
 
Emily looked across the room and then turned
her head back toward her pillow.
 
“Maybe
this all happened for a reason.”
 
She
wasn’t one to put too much faith in the supernatural, but in the pit of her
stomach, she had a peculiar feeling that the fire was symbolic.
 
“I mean, maybe this is what we’ve been
waiting for all along.”
 
She looked over
at Leila but got no response.

“The only thing that this fire symbolized was faulty wiring
in an old, stone building, Emily.
 
And
I’ll bet you my last dime that tomorrow morning the news reveals that Finn had
no insurance.
 
All of us are going to be
out of work.
 
What’s so symbolic about
that?”
 
Leila huffed and then turned over
in her bed.
 
Emily sighed and then
fluffed up her pillow.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
 
Emily figured that Leila would probably be
right.
 
Yet she still thought that the
fire meant something, that it didn’t just destroy their workplace for no reason.
 
There had to be something deeper to what
would happen next.
 
If they really did
find themselves with no work, then they’d just have to forge ahead like they’d
always done, and find new means for survival.

By the time Emily and Leila had fallen asleep, the latest
news report revealed that Finn Dillmore, sole proprietor of Lancashire Textile
Company, had just lost his building and all of its contents to an unexplained
fire.
 
The report further explained that
Mr. Dillmore had no insurance, and that he had no intentions of re-opening the
company in another building since all of his assets had been destroyed in the
fire.

“Well, you were right.”
 
Emily pushed a newspaper in front of Leila as they sat inside Griffin
Café.
 
Martha had already given them hugs
and expressed her condolences over their tragic loss.
 
“He lost everything.
 
We’ve got no work.”
 
Emily shook her head and sipped her
coffee.
 
Leila opened up the paper and
then scanned the front page.
 

The article stated that the building was burned beyond
recognition by a fire and that the cause was unknown.
 
It went on to state that no restoration
process would be initiated.
 
Mr.Dillmore
expressed his sadness for the loss, and was quoted saying that he “…saw no
option for supplying further work to his employees.”
 
Leila shook her head and then shoved the
paper across the table. Emily raised her eyebrows.

“So now what do we do?”
 
The gears in Emily’s mind were already turning.
 
How would they pay their rent next
month?
 
What would they do to make ends
meet?
 
There was no other textile company
in all of Lancashire, and neither of the cousins had reliable transportation to
get them over to London where they might find some kind of comparable
work.
 
The prospects seemed dismal.

“We start to ask everyone we know, and we scour the
newspaper.”
 
Leila wasn’t one to accept
defeat.
 
She was a survivor and she knew
that they could find something as long as they persisted.
 
Emily wasn’t sure how to process the news.
 
She wanted to feel relieved that she had
finally gotten her wish and that she would no longer have to walk the long,
dingy halls to her work space.
 
Yet she
also felt a pang of loss.
 
She imagined
how crushed Finn must feel, and she realized that there was nothing she could
do to rectify the situation for anyone.

“Maybe we should ask Martha if she needs any help in the
café.”
 
Emily whispered across the table
and then had a sip of her coffee.
 
“It’s
worth a try, right?”
 
She looked over her
shoulder as Martha pulled a large rack of pastries from the oven.
 
Leila shook her head.

“Martha has both of her daughters here to help her out.
 
I can guarantee that she does not need any
extra hands.”
 
Leila had opened up the
classifieds section of the newspaper and was running her eyes across the
ads.
 
“I was thinking that maybe we could
go down to the post office and see if they need any mail carriers or
cashiers.”
 
Leila sounded proud of her
suggestion but Emily scoffed.

“They would never hire us.
 
We have no experience, and to be a carrier you need to know all of
Lancashire like the back of your hand.
 
We don’t have cars, and we haven’t even traveled to the south side of
the town.
 
I’m not being pessimistic,
Leila, but I just know we need to think of something else.”
 
Emily bit her lower lip.

“Hey, Emily.
 
What
about this?”
 
Leila scooted closer to the
edge of her chair and then shoved the paper across the table.
 
She had circled an ad with a red marker, and
Emily read it over then laughed.

“You’re joking, right?”
 
Emily held the paper up to her face and then laughed out loud.
 
“Texas rancher seeks submissive and
domesticated woman for marriage of convenience?”
 
Emily covered her mouth with her hand and
then laughed out loud again.
 
“Leila,
this is some kind of joke, I’m sure.”
 
Emily tossed the paper onto the table and then took a sip of her
coffee.
 
Leila snatched up the paper and
then opened it back up to the ad.

“Emily.
 
Listen to the
rest of it.
 
He needs help.”
 
Leila cleared her throat and then read the
rest of the ad out loud.
 
“I am a
successful business man who requires assistance raining my two orphaned nieces,
and in exchange for marriage, will offer you my plentiful acreage to live
quietly and happily.”
 
Leila shrugged and
then set down the paper.
 
“How bad could
that really be?”
 
She wondered why Emily
didn’t think it was a good idea.

“First of all…”
 
Emily
cleared her throat and then laughed.
 
She
just couldn’t take it seriously.
 
“Okay,
let me get myself together here, Leila.”
 
She took a long sip of her coffee and then laughed out loud once
more.
 
“First of all, it is
ludicrous.
 
This is a total stranger.
 
He claims to be a successful business man
that owns some ranch and yet he can’t take care of two kids?
 
Why doesn’t he just hire a nanny?”

 
Emily scoffed and
then walked away from the table.
 
She
ordered a red raspberry Danish from Martha, then carried it back to the table
and sat down with a curious expression on her face.
 
“You aren’t really considering this as an
option, are you, Leila?”
 
Emily was
concerned that her cousin was thinking out of desperation.
 

“Emily.
 
It could turn
out to be the perfect solution.
 
Both of
us are good with kids.
 
We basically
helped raise our little cousins back when Aunt Gussie and Uncle Tom were having
problems, remember?”
 
Leila had a serious
expression on her face, and Emily realized that she was, indeed, serious about
her proposition.
 
“Why don’t we at least
respond to the ad and see what he has to say?”
 
Leila couldn’t see any harm that could come from simply responding to an
ad.

“Okay, Leila, if you say so.”
 
Emily took another bite of her Danish and
then looked out the window.
 
Most of the
snow that had fallen the week before was now sitting in an icy heap
outside.
 
The plows had moved it all to
the corners of the street, and all of the exhaust from the motorists had
colored it a smoky gray color.
 
Emily figured
that it wouldn’t hurt her to simply humor Leila’s request.

“Thanks, Emily.
 
Who
knows?
 
Maybe we’ll get the break that
we’ve both been hoping for.”
 
Leila
smiled and then had a sip of her tea.
 
It
was the first time that she had ever hinted toward wanting something other than
tedious textile work.
 
Emily was both
surprised and pleased.
 
She looked out
the window once more and then picked up the paper, ready to respond to the
ad.
 

“His postal address is 3532 Running River Road, in Lubbock,
Texas.
 
If you get me an envelope and a
stamp, I’ll write the letter.”
 
Emily
smiled at Leila. Just then Martha appeared form behind her counter.
 
She sat down next to Emily and patted her on
the shoulder.
 

“Don’t you two go worrying yourselves sick over this.”
 
She looked at both cousins and then
sighed.
 
“I’m sure that you’ll both be
able to put your heads together and find a new way to support yourself.
 
Besides, the textile industry is slowly
losing ground in this part of England.”
 
Martha spoke with a nostalgic tone and then got up from the table to
wait on more customers.
 
Emily tapped her
pen on the table and Leila took her cue.

“I’ll be back in a little while with a stamped
envelope.”
 
She winked at Emily and then
put on her coat.
 
Martha went on chatting
with her customers and Emily gazed out the window.
 
What would happen if this man really did
respond to their letter?
 
What if he
decided to accept their offer?
 
Who would
become the bride?
 
How would they even
get out to Texas with no money?
 
Where
would they stay?
 
Her mind buzzed with
possibility and uncertainty.

Leila walked in silence through the town and toward the post
office.
 
Along the way, she passed one of
her co-workers who trudged along the icy streets with a child in tow.
 
“Hi, Leila.”
 
Amber spoke through her thick scarf and Leila stopped to greet her.

“Amber.
 
How are
you?”
 
Seeing another Lancashire Textile
employee filled her with emotion and she immediately threw her arms around her
friend.
 
“Are you oaky?”
 
She stood back to look at amber’s son had
hidden behind her legs.

“I’m okay, but I’m very worried.
 
We still can’t find work.
 
I just left the post office because I thought
they might have a few options, but they are closed for hiring.
 
I just don’t know what I’m going to do. Ethan
was laid off three months ago, and then he hurt his back doing odd jobs, so all
of our income depends on me now.”
 
Amber
looked down to the ground and Leila felt a tear come other eye.
 

“I’m so sorry, Amber.”
 
Leila wanted to offer a solution but she didn’t have one.
 
She thought about Emily’s prediction about
the post office not being a viable option.
 
“Maybe you can try to sell some of your knitting work.”
 
Leila tried to offer a helpful
suggestion.
 
She had seen many of Amber’s
pieces and she thought that there must be someone, somewhere, who would like to
buy some of them.
 
Amber shook her head.

“I don’t even have the money to buy new supplies right now,
Leila.
 
I need something where I can get
paid on the spot, and I need something soon.
 
It’s not just me, you know.
 
Many
of the girls from our company are out here now looking for employment and none
of them are finding anything.”
 
Amber
tried to look hopeful, but she couldn’t even muster up a smile.

“If I hear of anything, I’ll let you know.
 
Emily and I are in the same boat.”
 
Leila nodded her head, hoping that amber
realized she wasn’t alone in her troubles. She gave Amber’s son a pat on the
head and then they parted ways.
 
Leila entered
the post office, bought her envelope and her stamp, and then made her way back
to Griffin’s Café where Emily awaited her return.

“Here you go.
 
Let’s
get busy.”
 
Leila placed the stamped
envelope on the table and then sat down.
 
Emily had already written her letter, and she handed it over to
Leila.
 
“Wow.
 
You already finished it.
 
Why don’t you read it out loud?”
 
Leila looked enthusiastically at Emily and
then leaned forward in her seat. Emily smiled and then cleared her throat.

“Okay.
 
Here you
go.”
 
Emily took a quick sip of her
coffee and then read the letter.
 
“Dear
Mister McBride, my name is Emily Fawn and I live in a small town in England
called Lancashire.
 
I am writing in
response to the ad you placed in the Lancashire Times a few days ago, and I
wanted to tell you that I think I’d be the perfect fit for your needs.
 
I’m great with children, and I have lots of
experience as a care-taker.
 
My cousin,
Leila, is also interested in the position, and she has equal experience.
 
We hope to hear back from you soon.”
 
Emily paused and then took a deep
breath.
 
Leila looked on with admiration.

“Well, you sure can write a clear, concise letter, and I
think it’s off to a good start.
 
But…”
 
Leila paused and furrowed
her brow.
 
“You know, it kind of sounds
like I’m not really included in the offer as much as you.”
 
She didn’t want Emily to take offense, but
she didn’t think that this man in Texas was going to be interested in meeting
two women, and then having to decide which to marry.
 
She thought for a few seconds and then tilted
her head in contemplation.

“That’s really what you think?”
 
Emily looked hurt and confused.
 

“Well, kind of.
 
I
mean, think about it, Em.
 
What man wants
to have to decide between two women that respond to the same ad?
 
I think you should do it.
 
Even though I’m the one that found the ad, I
think you’re a stronger person and I honestly think you’d do a better job.
 
You send it yourself.”
 
Leila sat back with a satisfied look on her
face.
 
She really meant what she had just
said, and Emily knew it.