In their silhouette

Chapter two

The cottage had a yellowish coating and a rugged roof made of sticks, even the curtains. They could roll up and get tied with a string to remain up. They had a wooden front porch, and wooden slates (connected by a series of logs) surrounded the cottage like a fence, but it left open the stairs.

The cottage used to be full of her flat-stomached uncle with a twisted mustache and huge green eyes beneath his glasses, her nosy aunt with her long crocked nose and bright red lips, her mother and father. The house never looked like an empty cave.

Now, it was completely different. Only she and her sister slept on the white mattress here. The only breadwinner was Annie.

In fact, her sister, a toilsome bear, did not care about money; however, she loved to spend it on high heels, cosmetics and jewellery. In fact, Sarah often described her money expedition as a crucial part of her exercise and her most important contribution to society.

Miss Lizzy blamed Annie for Sarah’s excessive spending behavior, and Annie took the blame without hesitating. Miss Lizzy explained it to Annie like this: Such excessive spending behaviours dragged on if one did not stand up against it. Say, for example, that whenever your five-year-old child cried, you would go out of your way to spend time with them or buy them something. Now imagine that this behaviour gets carried on throughout their childhood and, eventually, when they are adults, because you did not take the time to step back and see the danger, it has become part of them. You’ve taught your own child the fastest way to unhappiness.

Annie, like you, became faint when time dawned on her to reprimand this bore; so, not wanting to see it unhappy, Annie overlooked Sarah’s love for money.

Sarah had become so accustomed to it. Their mother had helped her lead a comfortable life; she had high hopes for her. Remember, Preis saw everything in life as an investment. They took on only that perspective. In a way, it originated from their need to survive.

Humans will always have this need to survive, nothing to it.

Pastors who looked rather rich in their silk pants and shirts looked only to survive. Be wary of them.

However, after their parents’ death, Sarah held on to this comfortable life and Annie, her servant, had difficulty upholding this illusion.

How come the pretty girls got to live like princesses while only she saw life’s hardships?

“Annie, are you alright?” Sarah cried and took Annie’s hands. “It’s the dizziness again? The heat?”

Sarah came back with a glass and returned it after Annie rinsed her face and gulped down some.

“Did you get it?”

The moment Annie looked better, Sarah picked at her. Her smooth, long curly hair and dark skin, which she had lightened since the age of five, glistened.

“Hey. Thanks for the water.” Annie tried to hug her. “You’re not even giving me time to breathe.”

Sarah paced in front of Annie while rubbing the ends of her hair. “How can I not worry? Today is the last day to pay up. You ain’t gonna ruin my wedding day, are you?”

“It’s not my intention to do so, Sarah. I only wish you the best.”

She rolled her eyes. “So, you say so.”

Annie attempted to hand her Bercy’s reins. “First station Bercy in her stall. We’ll talk once you return.”

Sarah jerked back and swung her hands, fingers apart, in the air. “Ew, no way. Why would I do that? Hello, I have just done my nails.”

“Well, then… give me some time.”

“Or… you can just hand over the money.” Sarah extended her hand towards Annie's purse and licked her lips.

Annie moaned.

“I will come back. Wait for me inside.”

Annie censored out the curse word, or it would have read differently. She should not blemish her beautiful sister’s ears. Her sister should not become as hindered as her.

Before Sarah said anything else, Annie fled to the stables behind their cottage, an old wooden structure that the men on the farm had created way before her mother brought her to life. She led Bercy into her stall and locked the door.

“God, what am I going to do?” She asked Bercy, who simply neighed and drank her water.

She exhaled and kissed Bercy.

“Back from the market already?”

She turned around. “Pete.”

As the Sixteen-year-old Pete walked towards her, he grinned.

The end of his jeans folded up, and Annie unfolded them as soon as he stood next to her. He moaned but did not push away.

“How was the market?” Pete patted Bercy.

She leaned against the barn. “It was good. Great, actually.”

Pete moaned. “You know good doesn’t cut it. You must tell me more. How does it feel to now be free from your mother’s chains? Two years of mourning are up. What are your plans now?”

Annie twisted her lips upward and spread them apart into something resembling a smile. “I do what my father wanted me to do. Build up the farm, make sure that everything runs smoothly.”

Her voice cracked in the end.

Pete searched her eyes, then nodded, unsmiling. “That’s good to hear. Your father would be proud to hear that.”

Annie winced.

Her father…

Why this? She must be happy today. Her father would not die in the war.

“I saw Vario.”

Pete laughed. “That feisty fox. How is she?”

“As wretched as ever. She said, hey.”

Pete grinned. “She said hey. Tell her hey back.”

“I will do. Okay, I need to head back. I’ll see you around sometime.”

Pete nodded.

Annie leapt into her room through the window. She treaded towards her safe, a wooden thing that her mother gave her, took from it ten polls and watched the safe become empty. She clapped together the ten bucks and the money from the market and counted them. Satisfied, Annie poked her body out of the window.

Pete noticed her, rubbed his thorny hair and looked at the sky.

Annie’s cheeks warmed, so she kneeled, and frog leapt past him. When she reached the door, Annie stood up, touching the railings to steady herself, and dusted her dress once the dizziness vanished.

She cleared her throat and kicked the door open.

Sarah flung up, and her chair toppled behind her. “I knew you were lying.”

Annie glided to the table, flung the money on top of it and fell on a chair.

Sarah screamed, her hands covering her mouth. And throwing her hair behind her shoulders, she dialled Luis Lopez, the wedding dress designer.

“Yes, it’s me. As I was saying, come around at six. I would like to try the gown on now.”

Sarah snapped her mouth shut and nodded to whatever Mister Lopez said.

Annie adjusted her straw hat and headed outside.

What will she do now? She had no money left.

She still had the farm, though. Was that not all that f*****g mattered? That was all she had to her name, you know. An ugly face did not make anyone fall in love. No rich man knocked on her door. None even spared her their attention or their opinion. She once held a relationship with Mister Caddel. They might have loved each other. Mister Caddel, the only man to have ever looked at her.

Was the past all she had to her?

She had two choices in life. One of them had automatically fallen away after hearing her father’s will and reading his letter.

Annie could not afford to lose the farm, her farm, her father’s farm.

Once Sarah went to her room, Annie returned to the cottage. She cooked dinner: potato soup with beef and rice, and ate it while hot, just a bowl while Sarah ate on a silver plate and afterwards, Annie gave her dessert.

Dolly, Sarah’s finance’s assistant, told Annie not to starve Sarah or else she would hang her. She had threatened Annie on a Sunday afternoon after Sarah and Peter had announced their engagement at their little surprise party.

Dolly held a glass and had pushed down her glasses to the tip of her nose. They stood next to each other, and the white house’s balcony beamed at them. An enormous field of grass sprawled out beyond Preis and the music from downstairs sprung into the upper room, where they stood.

“Do you know the story of Sona?” Dolly asked.

Dolly had short hair and always laid it back. She had a piercing on her nose and tongue. She loved to chew gum as well.

“Sorry, ma’am, I do not know Sona.”

Dolly laughed. “If you don’t want to end up like Sona, then you better take care of Sarah.” She turned to Annie. “And you are particularly ugly.” She stroked Annie’s scarred cheek. “They will love to see an ugly woman… we would create a story.” Her eyes sparkled.

“N-o, n-o need. I know my place.”

“Ah, I am not the big bad wolf.”

Annie still got goosebumps from that incident.

Fuck her, anyway. Annie had no need for a reminder when it came to taking care of Sarah. She had looked after her from the moment her mother gave birth to her. It kept her from going crazy after their mother’s death. Often, especially when her parents’ death hit her, she found purpose in caring for Sarah, but she did not love it.

Mister Lopez, a sixty-year-old with enormous glasses and a white beard, took the four o’clock train to get to their cottage. He preferred the train. He had married Maddie Mádson, a forty-year-old and one of the busiest people anyone would ever come across.

When Mister Lopez arrived, Annie tended to the fire, hoped it scorched her and tried not to stare dreamily at the dress. Sarah and Mister Lopez disappeared into Sarah’s bedroom. Sarah’s squirms and squeaks flowed to the living room.

Annie sat down on her father’s rocking chair beside the fireplace and shut her eyes.

Sarah’s door creaked open, and she came to face her.

“And how do I look?” Sarah muttered as she spun around.

Annie gaped at her. “You’re beautiful. Totally stunting”

The white gown dangled on the floor behind her. Crystal-like jewels glittered throughout the gown.

“It’s really beautiful,” Annie repeated absentmindedly, and then she turned to Mister Lopez. “Thank you.”

He nodded. “It will do me good, this.”

Sarah hurried to her room.

“Tea?”

Luis Lopez sat down. “I had started to worry that you wouldn’t be able to pay it. Lizzy back yet?”

Annie set the cup of green tea on the table. “No.”

Luis Lopez sighed. “I miss her apple pies.”

Annie frowned. “I heard your wife also makes good apple pies. How is she?”

Annie wished the fire had not glowed so brightly. Luis Lopez’s murderous stare knifed the flames and quietened down its cracks and snarls.

“Good.”

Sarah came back into the living room, holding the dress tenderly.

Mister Lopez cradled the dress from her.

“Keep this safe until Friday. If anything happens to it…” Sarah gave the old man a sting eye.

Mister Lopez laughed and caressed the dress. “No. I won’t. This here is a break or make for me.” After he hanged the gown on a white hanger, he zipped up the clothes bag. “Anyway, I would not wish to cause trouble for Peter.”

Sarah nodded and flicked her hand at the door. “Go on then.”

“Thank you, Mister Lopez.”

Luis Lopez smiled. “Just Luis, Annie, and thank you for the tea. Best be getting back to my wife.”

Annie only came to know later of how bitter he felt about his relationship with Maddie.

“We all fight. Have a good afternoon.”

She watched him off, then returned to her father’s warm hug. Sarah sat on the couch across from her, crocheting.

“Gibbie is coming over tomorrow morning.”

Annie stopped rocking. Why the f*****g hell would you do that?

“Why do that now?”

“Why the hell wouldn’t I?” She stopped crocheting and yawned. “You must get past your hatred of him. We are family now or something like that. He works for the government. He wishes to fund the rest of my wedding plans.” Sarah crossed her hands. “Father would have been angry to know how stingy you are!”

Annie stared dumbfounded at the fire.

“They have left you everything. All the money they had, but yet you don’t want to share it. You’re really damn selfish.”

“I plan to use it to advance the farm.”

“The farm, the farm and once more the farm. What about my wedding?”

“I have paid for your wedding dress, haven’t I?”

“And that is all you’ll be doing. Right?” Sarah crossed her hands.

Annie sighed, cleared her throat, and retrieved her peaceful state.

“Let’s not fight. You shouldn’t stress yourself now. Peter will kill me should he see you like that. And anyway, they didn’t leave you anything because they knew you would be fine. Someone will love you. You will leave me here alone, and old. Remember to come visit sometimes.”

Sarah’s features relaxed, and she patted the spot beside her. Annie sat down there and laid her head on her lap.

Sarah ran her fingers through Annie’s hair. “I won’t ever forget you. You’re my sister.”

“And so you remember.”

Sarah laughed. “I am not so cruel as to forget. You, who gave me her pocket money instead of saving it for herself? You who stood up to my bullies! Ah! Me forget you, then God must strike me down now.”

“Don’t say such stuff.”

Sarah sighed, and Annie knew the moment had vanished. “Gibbie, Mister Caddel, arrives early morning—”

“Sarah.”

She pulled away. “No. It’s the least you can do since you no longer want to fund the wedding. You will welcome dear Gibbie Caddel. He will sleep in your room. I don’t want him going off to complain to Peter about our poor reception.”

Annie simply bowed her head, but in all honesty, her inside fueled to life like the vroom vroom of a car. Gibbie Caddel… when last?

Sarah stood up. “I need to go to sleep. Today was such a stressful day. Tomorrow I will have to deal with the cake…” she paused at the door to her room. “Will you be there?”

“I will try my best. What time is it?”

“Half past four.”

She nodded. She had no problem with this because she left the market around two. “Ahhh. Where is it?”

Sarah’s sighs floated from her room. “At Federica’s delicious cake. You can ask Mister Caddel to take you there. Please wear... well.”

Her bedroom door shut.

Annie tiptoed into her room. The wooden floor always creaked, and Sarah had already fallen asleep. That entire night, she spent it moving clothes, boxes, and toiletries from her room to the attic. All by herself, she swept the house and cleaned her room. On her knees, she went on to scrub the walls, the bathroom and the clean the toilet.

She slaved away, like always.

She took care in rolling away the carpet, putting away the candles and her mother’s picture. The season for mourning passed away like her parents.

The sun caught her assembling vegetables and some fruit in her wagon. She returned to the kitchen to make jam, toast, egg, and cupcakes. Once the kettle had finished boiling, she made tea for Gibbie Caddel and Sarah.

Annie honestly f*****g risked not getting a spot at the market today.

As the final touch, she sprayed the living room with the lavender she used to make with her father.

A green Jeffrey rumbled outside and then she heard a familiar laughter.

Gibbie Caddel.

Annie hesitated going to the door. Would he still remember her, even when she was the one to break things off with him? Had he forgiven her all these years?

She touched her scar.

No, why would he do that?

So, her excitement died. She held onto false hope–but she was not the only one acting like a nut-head.

Gibbie, Mister Caddel, dusted his hat and stomped his feet.

He had remained short, only 5’3 inches tall. He had on a black coat and white gloves. His gelled hair glittered in the stark sky and his dark skin, lighter than last time.

Annie gawked at him for a few seconds. He had changed a lot.. he did not look sad anymore. The last time she had seen him…

In that moment, his eyes met hers and she realized that the Gibbie Caddel she knew back when they dated had vanished the moment she broke things off.

She flung for his bags, avoiding his eyes. “Mister Caddel, I hope your travels went well. How generous of you to help Sarah; I appreciate it.”

Mister Caddel tugged his suitcase from her hands. “Annie, what are you doing?”

“Helping out?”

“I am more than capable of carrying my bags, sweet cake. How have you been?”

He removed his hands when she shook her head.

“I don’t mind.” She said. “I’ve been well Mister Caddel. I had only heard about your arrival yesterday.”

Without looking at her, he strutted into the cottage with her behind him.

“Sho thing. How’s it been?”

Annie avoided his gaze. “How have you been?”

He nodded. “Condolences for your mother’s passing.”

“Just a second.” She breathed out as she put the suitcases down to open the door for him.

He entered, inspected the floor with his eyes, and ran his fingers across the wall and cupboard and even the window pane before he nodded.

Annie dropped his suitcases beside the cupboard, almost kicking them. She faced him. “Breakfast is ready, Sir.”

Gibbie Caddel grinned as he put his hat on the bed and removed his coat. “I will come out now.”

She nodded and left the room. As she shut the door, she thumped her hand against her chest. Why did her heart still beat fast? How many years have passed?

She did not have time to consider the reason for having such feelings around Gibbie, because he soon appeared with his sleeves folded and his glasses on.

His hair had ruffled up a bit, probably because of the clothes changing he had to do. His style had changed. He used to wear jeans and strippy shirts, but now it was a silk black pant and a white, loose, long–sleeved shirt.

Her stomach became jelly.

She cleared her throat, but did not catch his attention. “Sorry sir. I will head out to the market now. If you do not mind… Sarah will wake up soon.”

Gibbie Caddel nodded, and still no eye contact.

Annie got Bercy from her stall and rode off with her wagon while trying to keep from crying.

Five years have gone by now and oh, how quickly things change.

He had grown, become more manly. What sort of man and did he ever get over his father?

Tini slowed down and matched Annie’s pace. “Oh, someone is slow today. In fact, you are late. Anything the matter?”

Annie growled before pushing Bercy on. Tini enticed her more than Vario, that’s for sure.