BACK WITH YOU
Chapter Seven
A few days later, Jessamyn stood across the
street from Rose's shop, staring blankly at the store. It had taken her a great
deal of time and courage--and prodding from Charlie--before she had decided
that today she would do it. Today she would meet her mother.
She had been so nervous that morning that she
didn't even eat, just guzzled down some coffee and then called in sick to work
with a cold that had been going around. Charlie had called later, to wish her
good luck, and had offered to come over. She told him that no, thank you, she
would be fine, eventually, and that she could do this by herself. And so,
grabbing a coat and an umbrella, she had made her way across town, to where she
was now.
It hadn't started raining yet, but it looked
like it would. Jessamyn didn't get it; she had always heard that California was
always sunny. But it seemed like it was raining a quarter of the time and if it
wasn't rain, there was a chance of it. It was almost as bad as Maine in the
springtime. At least in Santa Monica it didn't flood every April like it always
seemed to do at her old house.
A car rushed by, knocking Jessamyn out of her
thoughts. Again, she went over what she was going to do once she got in there,
for the millionth time that day. She would ask to speak with Rose privately,
and then see where things went from there. Her heart started racing with
adrenalin when she thought about it. It made her excited and want to throw up
at the same time.
After a few more minutes, she realized she
was going to have to go sooner or later. So, with a deep breath, she checked
both ways, waited until it was clear, and then ran across the street.
Approaching the entrance, her shaking hand reached out and grasped the
doorknob. This was it; now or never.
Her heart trembling, she pushed open the door
and then was vaguely aware of the little bell that rang when she walked in.
There were quite a few people around, a lot of customers and then one girl
behind the counter. Jessamyn was pretty sure that the woman wasn't Rose; she
was far too young and her hair was blonde and straight. She began to calm down
a little bit as she made her way to the counter. The first part was over; she
was inside. One step at a time, Jess, she reminded herself. At least
you are here.
"May I help you?" the woman behind
the counter suddenly asked, startling Jessamyn. She hadn't noticed she was
actually standing next to the counter. Suddenly, she was very nervous again.
She set her umbrella down on the countertop and took a deep breath.
"Um...I…well…" Jessamyn stuttered
with the words, not knowing what to say. "I…I…I'm looking for
Rose...Dawson," she finally said, her voice quivering. "Is she
here?"
The woman shook her head. "No. Sorry,
miss. She just left for her lunch break. She won't be back for about an
hour."
Jessamyn was relieved and disappointed at the
same time. What was she going to do now? If she gave up, she knew it would take
days to get her courage up to where it was again. But, what was she to do? Rose
wasn't here.
"Do you want to talk to her? I'm Phoebe,
by the way; I’ve worked with her for a while. I can take your name and phone
number, if you want, and then I can have her call you and set up a meeting
time."
No, that wouldn't work either. She couldn't
talk to Rose over the phone. Think, Jessamyn, think. C'mon, there has to be
something! You’re a clever girl, Jess.
"Ah…you know what? Can I just leave my
name and then I'll get back to her. Maybe this afternoon?" That might
work, leave her first name and then give Rose a little bit of a warning.
Phoebe nodded. "Yeah," she said,
breaking off a piece of white paper from a pad and handing it to Jessamyn.
"Just let me take care of these other people and I'll get back to
you."
"Do you have a pen or something I could
use?" Jessamyn asked, and then, without thinking, leaned over the counter
and started looking for one. Phoebe didn't seem to mind; just nodded and
motioned for her to look around. She was still busy with the other customers.
Something immediately caught her eye, and it wasn't a pen. It was a letter
sitting on a top of a pile, addressed to a Rose Dawson. It was unopened, and
more importantly, had a different address from the one at the store. Jessamyn
realized it had to be her mother's home address and without meaning to, gasped.
Quickly, she committed the words to memory and stood back up straight.
"You know what? Just tell her a Jessamyn
stopped by," she said hurriedly, as she repeated the address over and over
in her head.
Phoebe nodded absentmindedly, and Jessamyn
doubted she had even heard her. But even so, she left the store and started
running down the block. It was a long shot, but maybe, just maybe, Rose was at
her house eating lunch. It would be better this way, if they could talk without
being in a public place.
It seemed like it had taken hours, but really
had just been a few minutes before she had found her way through a maze of
streets and to her mother's house. Now she stood in front of that, staring at
it the way she had the store. There was a small mailbox next to the corner of the
driveway, and the same Dawson was printed across the front of it in white
letters. That was all the proof Jessamyn needed; she had found the place. This
was really it now. But, she had to do this quickly, before her courage left her
like it kept threatening to do. Promptly, she made her way up the walk and
knocked on the front door, her heart pounding from the excitement and all of
the running.
There was no answer.
"Hello," Jessamyn called timidly,
as a distant clap of thunder suddenly sounded. She knocked again, this time
louder. Still, no one came to the door. This wasn’t working very well. Jessamyn
began to pound on the door, all hope leaving her.
"Can anyone hear me?" she called,
more urgently this time. "Hello!"
It had started to rain by now. Jessamyn, not
wanting to admit defeat, sunk down on the front step and leaned against the
house, pulling the hood of her coat up over her head. She was very close to
crying in a mixture of anger and disappointment. This was turning out to be
more of a stressful day than she had planned on. And, in addition to everything
else, she was exhausted and it was raining. She sighed heavily and closed her
eyes, confused as to what to do next.
*****
Rose, meanwhile, was having a shit time to.
The morning had gone all wrong; she had woken up on the wrong side of the bed
again, after some terrifying dreams, the shop had been packed, and by the time
lunch rolled around, she was exhausted. All she had wanted to do was go to a
sandwich place and get a little lunch, but even that had taken tons of effort.
When she had shown up, the place had been packed. And when she finally placed
her order, they said it would take at least a half an hour because one of their
employees was out sick and they were shorthanded to begin with. So Rose had
taken a seat in the corner of the deli and was prepared to wait. But, while she
was calmly minding her own business, some men, obviously very much out of it,
had come in and accosted the whole place. Rose had hidden behind a magazine,
not wanting them to see her, but they had and managed to give her grief about
being there alone, not to mention making some inappropriate remarks. And by the
time they left and she had gotten her sandwich, it was time to leave for work
again.
And now it was raining.
Not that Rose really minded the rain; it was
just that it made it harder to get around and other people were generally in a
bad mood. Her father used to tell her that when it rained it was all the souls
in heaven crying for the people on earth. Rose liked to think that was true. It
made her feel less alone all the time, even though she knew in her heart that
it wasn’t.
She made up her mind on the way back that she
would take the rest of the afternoon off. She really had to get away for a
while. And she might as well give Phoebe the rest of the day off, too; there
was no point in having only one of them there, especially with how busy it was.
The customers would just have to wait until tomorrow to buy their books.
The bell over the door chimed as Rose entered
and she rolled her eyes as Phoebe gave her a confused look.
"Everything okay?" her friend
asked.
Rose shook her head and made her way back to
the office. Phoebe jumped up from her seat behind the counter and followed her.
"No, everything is not okay," Rose announced as she packed up her
stuff into a shoulder bag. "I’m going home for the rest of the
afternoon."
"Well, what shall I do then?"
Phoebe asked, following Rose again as she left her office, closing the door
behind them.
"I don’t care. Take the rest of the day
off," Rose suggested as she went back to the counter and started going
through her things there, grabbing a few letters and messages. She paused only
for a second, and that was to ask if there were any messages for her.
Phoebe shook her head. "No. Although…"
She stopped and thought for a moment. "A girl stopped by a little while
ago looking for you."
"A girl?" Rose repeated.
"Yes, well, she was about seventeen or
eighteen maybe. With longish, kind of strawberry blonde hair…" Phoebe
reached down and picked something up. "…she left this umbrella, too. She
kind of ran out of here pretty fast."
Rose couldn’t think of anyone she knew who
looked like that or was around that age. "Well, did she leave a name or
something?"
Phoebe thought for a moment again. "I don’t
remember exactly. Sorry, Rose. I think it was like Jessica, or Jasmine…yeah, I
think it was Jasmine…something along those lines, at least."
"Okay…" Rose trailed off, still
confused. What did Phoebe want her to do? She had no idea who she was talking about,
and if the girl didn’t leave any sort of message, then she couldn’t really get
in touch with her now, could she? "You know what, Phoebe? I’m just going
to go home. If she stops by again, give her my telephone number or
something."
"Okay. Will do."
"And lock up when you leave,
please," Rose reminded her as she made her way to the front door.
"I’ll see you tomorrow!" she called as she left. Once she was outside
and the door was closed, she sighed heavily. That girl was a bit of a mystery,
but she couldn’t let herself think about it too much. All she wanted to do now
was go home, slip into some pajamas, grab a book, and lie in bed. She wanted
all thoughts of work and mysterious people to leave her alone for just a little
bit.
It was raining harder now, but Rose didn’t
care. A good walk in the rain never harmed anyone. As long as her papers were
safe inside her bag, a little water was fine. Too much, of course, was
horrible; it reminded her of a lot of things, most of which were too painful to
think about for too long. But this little spring shower was kind of nice. She
felt close to Jack in some strange way.
It didn’t take her very long to get home; her
house wasn’t far from the shop. By the time she got there, her hair was more or
less soaked and her clothes were damp. She needed to get out of them quickly
before she caught cold; that would just make everything worse. Briefly, she
paused to get the mail and then trotted up the driveway, fumbling in her bag
for her keys. She was so distracted that she didn’t even notice anyone on her
front steps. But when that someone stirred, Rose screamed in fright and threw up
her arms, her mail going everywhere.
"Don’t scream! I’m not going to hurt
you…" the person said, jumping up.
Rose placed her hand over her heart, and
tried to calm her pulse. "Who…are…you?" she asked, in between gasps
for air.
The person was, of course, Jessamyn, who by
now was too shocked to say anything else. She realized that this was her
mother. She actually stood face to face with her mother, who right now was
looking just a little angry. This was so weird. Jessamyn felt a wave of nausea
hit her and she would have fainted if Rose hadn’t noticed and put her arm out
to steady her.
"Are you all right?" Rose asked,
her voice becoming more compassionate. She felt a strange, overwhelming sense
of something come over her as she made contact with this girl’s arm. It was
very odd…unsettling, almost. Rose tried to get a look at this girl, but her
face was hidden in the shadows of her jacket, which was damp. How long had this
girl been sitting out here…and why?
Jessamyn nodded, still unable to say
anything.
"C’mon…let’s get you inside…" Rose
mumbled, fumbling around in her bag once again, trying to find her keys. She
succeeded and managed to get the door open with only one free hand. She walked
inside, and flipped on the lights, forgetting about the mail completely. She
wanted to know who this person was and why she was at her house. Jessamyn
didn’t speak a word still, merely followed her mother numbly inside,
contemplating what to do now. How on earth was she going to tell Rose who she
was?