MARBLEGATE

by Danna Shirley
Short story for Creative Writing Class, Bartlett Senior Center, Bartlett, TN

            Mrs. Prayder drove through the gate and up to the biggest house I’d ever seen, a mansion for wayward wards of the court.  How ironic. If I’d known this was how I could have been living, I would have run away from my three-room slum long ago. We parked under a tree and walked a long path that was dotted with flowers up to the front door. Across the expanse of the property were all kinds of different colored azalea bushes in bloom.  “Well, here we are,” Prayder announced. “I think you’ll like Marblegate.  Miss Crowder is very nice and I’m sure you’ll get along just fine.”

            “Yeah, I’m sure we will,” I lied. I could just see me having to scrub this place down from top to bottom like Cinderella with her ugly stepmother. Prayder knocked. I expected some cold, cross, matronly old woman but Crowder was young and beautiful and greeted us with a smile. She seemed even happy to have me come and live with her.  What a crock! I bet she’ll lock me in my room tonight.

            “Oh, hello,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you. Please come in,” and she showed us into a front room with couches and chairs and bookshelves full of books. There was no television in sight. Boring!!!

            “Miss Jeannie Crowder, I would like you to meet Miss Alexandra Summers,” said Prayder. “She’s fourteen and will be going into the eighth grade this fall.”

            “Hello, Alexandra. Do you have a nickname or should I call you Alexandra?”

            “Just call me Alex. Nice ta meet ya.” I lied. I was good at lying.

            “And you can call me Miss Jeannie.”

            Miss Jeannie!  She’s got to be kidding! What a crock!  

            “Would you like to stay for tea, Angela, before you return to town?” So that was Prayder’s name, Angela.

            “No, I have a desk full of cases that I must process but thank you anyway.”

            Boy, weren’t they the polite ones! Please and thank you! I could just puke!

            “Alex, I just know you’re going to have a wonderful time staying out here at Marblegate,” Prayder said and she reached over and hugged my neck. 

            “Yeah, right!”

            Miss Jeannie followed her out on the porch and said goodbye.  Then she returned all smiles and asked me, “How about we tour the house, Alex?” She was too, too sweet and friendly. I know she was trying to get me off guard but I’m never off guard!

            “Yeah, sure, why not? Might as well see the lay of the land.” I needed to plan my escape route anyway, when the time was right. The place was huge and Crowder rattled on and on about the house being built in 1858 by her great-great-grandfather. It had a parlor, whoop-de-doo, and a music room, a study, and blah, blah, blah. She sure was impressed with herself. I guess she had something to be impressed about, though. It was a pretty nice place—but it didn’t have a T.V. room! That didn’t matter to me anyway ‘cause I wasn’t gonna be here long enough to miss it.

            “Would you like to go upstairs, Alex, and see your room?” she beamed. 

            Why was she being so nice to me? Didn’t she know foster kids were rebels who could care less where they are today ‘cause they’d be somewhere else tomorrow. 

            Crowder opened the door to a beautiful yellow bedroom filled with fancy, frilly things and sunlight streaming through the windows. I felt a warmth I’d never known before. Funny, it seemed to be on the inside of me! Course, it was July so why wouldn’t I be warm? Except I didn’t know what warmth was—not on the inside. I had always felt cold and dark and miserable about my life. What life? Mom was an alcoholic and I was her booze runner. I can’t believe how I fought and fought to stay with her but I had to, she had no one else to take care of her but me. I loved mom and I wasn’t complaining but my life could have been better. 

            “I’ll let you get settled,” she said. “You might even want to take a nap before dinner or you can explore the house and grounds and I’ll meet you in the dining room around six o’clock. We’re having fried chicken tonight but we’ll go grocery shopping tomorrow and get whatever you like.”

            “Whatever?” I said sarcastically. I was trying to be laid back about the place but I was warming up to Marblegate pretty quick—and Crowder, too. 

            I decided to explore the second floor. Two doors down the hall I found the bathroom. Now I know it didn’t look like this in 1858. Didn’t they have outhouses back then? Everything was marble; the shower, the bathtub, the sinks, even the floors. Well, I hadn’t had a good bath in a long time so I looked through all the cabinets until found some bubble bath. Then I filled the tub all the way to the top. It felt so good. All warm and scented. I soaked for the longest time and then dried off and dressed and went back to my room for that nap. Now this is the life.

            When I woke up about four o’clock, I decided to go downstairs and check out that sitting room with all the bookshelves. Now I’m not that good with schoolwork and such but I do like to get lost in a good story. They always have a happy ending, not like my life. Crowder had history books and mystery books; she had cookbooks and how-to books.  Then there were the fiction and romance books. On the bottom shelf I saw a few dusty photo albums.

            I decided to take a look at her family pictures and have a good laugh. The first one was way back when; I guess when they first took pictures. The paper was real thick, almost like cardboard. The women wore long dresses with their hair piled up high and the men had mustaches.  Nobody smiled! How dull was that? The next album was a little better. The skirts were shorter and the hair was shorter and the women wore lots of long beaded necklaces. There were a few smiles now and then, too.

            Then I finally noticed something that looked familiar. A family on the front steps of Marblegate, two little girls standing behind their mom and dad who were sitting on the steps. I turned the pages and saw the sisters get older and more grownup. One of them was Crowder. She got prettier and prettier. There was something familiar about her sister, though, like I’d seen her somewhere before. The next picture made my heart stop. That was my mother! My mother was in that picture! She was young and fresh and happy; not like now. I dropped the album and looked up. Crowder was standing there watching me. How long had she been there? Finally, I squeaked out the question, “Is this my mother?”

            “Yes, honey, it is. That’s my sister, Janet, and I’m your Aunt Jeannie.”

            I stared in disbelief. “I didn’t even know I had an aunt. How did you find me?”

            “I’ve prayed that I might find your mother for a very long time. I didn’t know she had a daughter either until Angela started investigating your background and located me. We didn’t want to shock you with the news so we decided to just let you come here and get to know me a little bit first. Of course, I didn’t think you would find out your identity so quickly.”

            “So now what?” I said still dumbfounded.

            “I would like to help your mom go into rehab and I hope you will consider staying with me indefinitely, if that’s something you want to do. She will be welcome here as soon as she’s able.” 

            “Mom sure needs some help—and I guess—,” I tried to hold back the tears, “—I guess I need some help, too.”

            The dam finally broke and I cried like I had wanted to for so long. I cried for my mother and what I couldn’t do to help her. I cried for me, too, like I had never cried before in my life.  I was tough!  TOUGH!!!

            Crowder grabbed me up and hugged me tightly. I hadn’t been cared for like this in I don’t know when—maybe never. I was warm all over, warm on the inside and warm on the outside. 

            “Do you think we can make it work, honey?” she asked as she stroked my hair.

            “Yeah, sure, I’ll do everything I can to make it work!”  We stood there and just held onto each other. I had finally found someone to love me.

             “Welcome to Marblegate, Alex,” she said smiling through her tears.