Olivia's Mine (14 page)

“Better cut down on the snacks there Liv,
don’t want you turning into your mother.”

Olivia was taken aback.

“My mother is a beautiful woman.”

“Yes, she is,” Frank said. “But she’s not
exactly a small woman now, judging by the last picture she
sent.”

“You’re making it sound as if she’s huge.
She’s had a few children, Frank. That’s what happens to women when
they’ve had a large brood. And my father would never say anything
like that to her, shame on you for saying such a thing to me, about
my mother or me.”

“Well, I’m not your father Liv. All I’m
saying is you’ve got a great body and I’d like you to keep it that
way.”

He undid the ribbon holding her hair into a
bun.

“I’ve got some time before my shift,” he
said, “why don’t we take advantage of it?”

“I don’t think I’m in the mood,” she replied,
pushing his hands away.

Rejection was not something Frank was used to
from Olivia. He clasped each of his hands over her own and drew
them up to his chest. A motion, Olivia felt, more of control than
warmth.

“Look, tell you what, go down to the store
tomorrow and buy yourself a couple of new dresses.” Frank said,
trying to make amends. “It’s about time I treated you anyway. I
haven’t bought you any new clothes since you’ve been here. I can’t
have the other women saying I’m too poor to buy you anything
new.”

It occurred to Olivia that in this instance,
Frank seemed to care more about what others thought of his love for
her than what he himself thought his love for her. She wondered
when that had happened. How it had happened.

“I’ll make do with what I have until the
summer,” she said solemnly. She always maintained her pride. Her
father had once told her gifts received from guilt were not really
gifts at all, because giving was meant to be a joyful emotion.
“I’ll pick some up when we go to the wedding. I don’t like the
dresses they have at the store. They’re too plain. You wouldn’t
want the women saying you’re too poor to buy me anything that
wasn’t plain.”

She regretted the last remark, but her
feelings were hurt.

“What do you mean?” Frank asked.

“They’re all the same, flower prints, all of
them. All cut the same, all sewn the same, it might as well be the
Britannia Beach ladies uniform. I wouldn’t feel special in them
Frank. And you know what? I like to feel special from time to
time.”

“No, I mean what do you mean about us going
away?”

“What do
you
mean?” shot back. “You know my sister is
getting married in June.”

“Liv,” Frank shook his head, “I won’t be able
to get any time off. We’re going full steam as it is.”

“Well, I’ve got time a plenty. And if you
can’t go, I’m going to go myself.”

“Oh no you’re not,” he said sternly.

“Oh yes I am,” she rebutted. “I am going stir
crazy here. Weren’t you listening to me? I need to get out of this
place for a few days. I am bored, Frank! We were going to go away
for Christmas, but that didn’t happen because you wanted us to
spend our first Christmas together here in our home. Fine. It was
lovely. But you haven’t even had a full weekend off since. You are
always working. Maybe you can’t make time to take me away, but I
can make time to take me away. Frenchie can take me down.”

He grabbed her by the wrist.

“What, you want a weekend away with
Frenchie?” he said.

“Of course not. Frank. You’re hurting me! Let
go!”

“Don’t argue with me Liv. I’m your husband.
If I say you’re not going, you’re not going.”

“You let go of me right now, Frank Patrick
Fitzpatrick,” she said. She had never heard him speak to her like
that before.

Frank released his grip. She moved away from
him.

“Look,” he said, “just go down to the store
tomorrow and see what’s there. We’ll talk about the wedding when it
gets closer. And I’m sorry about the Frenchie remark. It’s just I
see the way some of the men look at you, and sometimes I get
jealous.”

“You know what? I think I’ll go down to the
store right now and maybe I’ll spend all your grocery money and buy
something totally useless,” she said, putting on her winter coat
and hat, making sure the door slammed loudly behind her as she
left.

“You do that,” he said. But his disposition
had returned to normal. He knew he shouldn’t have said what he said
and he knew she needed some time to cool off.

The air outside was quite cool and there was
still a little snow on the ground from a late snow they had
experienced last week. She felt her foot was getting wet and
noticed a small hole in the toe of the boot.

“Maybe I’d better get some new boots first,”
she thought to herself.

His money. While it was true she had never
earned an income and always survived on the allowances the men in
her life had given her, she thought about how wonderful it would be
to have money of her own, to save and spend as she pleased, without
having to explain anything to anyone. Even Akiko Yada, she thought,
earned her own living, as meagre as it may be. She wondered if it
gave Akiko a sense of pride, or whether Akiko felt only the burden
of financial necessity. She knew Akiko worked long, hard hours.
Harry must make a good salary at the mine though, she thought, so
it couldn’t be just the need for the money. Maybe, she thought,
Akiko got a sense of self from it.

Olivia may have been naive in thinking that
Harry was paid as an equal at the mine, but she was becoming less
naive of her current lot in life. She reminisced about the days she
would spend with her friends in Seattle, drinking a cup of coffee
at a local café. She had rarely been invited out for a simple cup
of coffee the whole time she had been at Britannia. Why was
everyone so unfriendly?

“Come to think of it,” she said to herself,
“I haven’t actually invited anyone out for coffee myself.”

That was a revelation. It wasn’t that she
never wanted to go have coffee with the neighbours. It’s just that
she never found, no, never made, the time.

She had overheard Mary Alice talking to Mrs.
Schwindt about her once when Mary Alice had thought she was out of
earshot, and Mary Alice had said that she was a little
standoff-ish. Maybe there was some truth in that after all, she
thought. Mrs. Schwindt had replied that Olivia seemed to think she
was hoity-toity, being from Seattle and all, so Olivia decided to
keep clear of the two women, which probably just added fuel to
their fire.

Olivia opened the door to the mercantile and
was greeted by Joe Cicceretti, the shopkeeper.

“Good afternoon Olivia,” he said. “Some sugar
for you today? It’s on special this week.”

“No thanks Joe, not today. Do you happen to
have any ladies boots on sale?”

He took her over to the display. What they
had was either too expensive or too old fashioned for her taste.
Drab black ankle lace-ups. Maybe when she was sixty, she
thought.

“Can I take a look at the Eaton's catalogue?
Maybe they’ve got something. I need a new dress as well. I saw a
few I liked the last time I was browsing through it.”

“I’m sorry Olivia,” he said. “Mr. McMichael
made us get rid of the catalogues. He said it was affecting his
profit margin. Not enough of one. We’ve got a lovely selection of
floral print dresses Mary Alice Jones has made special though, what
with spring just around the corner. I’m sure you’re familiar with
the design, all the ladies have them.”

Olivia ignored the sales pitch.

“How can he get rid of the catalogue? Doesn’t
he know it brings us the latest fashions, like all the women in the
cities are wearing? So he’s not making a two hundred percent
mark-up. At least he’s making some money from it.”

“Well, some is not all, and you know J.W.
It’s all or nothing. He likes to control the prices, and you can’t
do that with Eaton's printing how much everything costs. We’re just
too small a town to get a big bulk volume. Now how about those
dresses? Beautiful empire waists…all hand tatted lace around the
collar…”

“No!” Olivia shouted.

Joe was taken aback.

“I’m sorry Joe, it’s just I’m in a bit of a
mood, is all. Tell you what, why don’t you get me some of that
sugar that’s on sale, I can always use more, and I’ll head off on
home.”

“All right then,” Joe said, silently taking
her money and nodding her a good-bye.

“I am just a ray of sunshine,” Olivia thought
to herself.

Leaving from the store, Olivia noticed that
the wind had picked up. She wondered if they were in for yet more
snow, as the sky was a threatening colour. Just ahead she saw a
woman draped in a long black hooded cape, bundled up from the cold.
The woman’s feet were covered in stylish long black leather boots
that rose up to her knee. Olivia smiled for a moment. Grieving as
she was, Lucy still had style. A red curl peeking out from beneath
the hood confirmed her identity. Maybe there was hope for Lucy
yet.

“Lucy!” she shouted.

Lucy turned around.

“Come have coffee,” Olivia said.
“Please.”

The wind took a brief rest, allowing both
women to catch their breath.

“Okay,” Lucy said, much to Olivia’s surprise.
“I’d like that.”

The two women walked into the café. More than
one head turned when they saw Lucy heading toward a little corner
table for two by the window.

Lucy wiped a tear from her eye.

“Don’t mind me, it’s just the wind, it always
makes my left eye water. I’m not crying. See, the right one is dry.
How are you Olivia?” Lucy asked.

“I should be asking you that.”

“Oh,” Lucy said, “everyone knows how I am.
I’m the talk of the town. Crazy Lucy. They’ve always called me
crazy Lucy, but it’s taken on a whole new meaning lately. How are
you? How have you settled in? I’m sorry it’s been so long since
we’ve talked.”

“I’m going quite mad,” Olivia admitted.

For the first time in a year, she did what
she needed to do. Olivia sat with Lucy and told her how much she
was missing her family, how bored she was getting, how sometimes
she found the town depressing, and how she wished something
exciting would happen to her so she wouldn’t feel quite so useless.
She told Lucy all the things she couldn’t tell Frank.

For the first time in a year, Lucy did the
same thing. She told Olivia she was slowly coming to grips with her
new life, a new life alone. That meant getting out more, which was
why she ventured out on this rather blustery day.

“Where did you get that cape?” Olivia asked.
“It’s lovely.”

“Frenchie picked it up somewhere for me. I
didn’t ask him to. He just showed up with it one day. Brought it to
me at the hospital. It was brand new. He said “Lucy, I ran inta a
factery sale down de coast. Dey ‘ad too many so I took one off der
hands.” I have no idea where he really got it. I think he paid for
it himself, bless his heart. It is lovely though. I wish it wasn’t
black, but it is lovely. And his gesture means so much to me.”

“But black is the only colour we’ve seen you
wearing,” Olivia pointed out to her friend.

“It’s all I wanted to wear for most of the
year,” Lucy admitted. “I was really living the crying widow
scenario. But when I finally got out of the hospital, I decided I
needed to stop grieving so much. Start living life a bit again. I
wasn’t quite up to making a trip out of town, especially since my
parents were killed.”

“I heard about that. I’m so sorry,” Olivia
interrupted.

“I was talking,” Lucy said, and Olivia
thought she saw a slight smile. “I thought I might like to get
something new, something a little nicer, so I went down to the
store for some new clothes but all they had were these stupid
flowered dresses.”

Olivia laughed.

“I don’t think I’m quite ready for florals,”
Lucy said. “But maybe something in beige.”

They laughed some more.

“Liv, I would have liked to talk to you like
this before. I’ve seen you many times. But I just wasn’t ready. The
day I met you was the day it all happened. My life came to a halt.
It wasn’t you, I know that now, it was just the memory of that
night that I was associating with you, and with Frank, and with the
town…”

“Where are you living now Lucy? Are you up in
the upper village? I really don’t know, I’m sorry.”

“No, down here. I’m staying with Margaret,
one of the nurses I became friends with over at the hospital. She’s
older than I am, but she has an extra room, and is kind enough to
let me stay. It’s not forever, but it’s fine for now. Like I said,
I haven’t ventured out much, but I’m ready to now. I’ve been to the
women’s afternoon gatherings, including the quilting bee, and that
helped.”

“I was a bit worried when I heard that,”
Olivia admitted.

“They said you were going for a while but
hadn’t been in lately. You know Liv, I learned something. I learned
that the women really actually had wonderful things to say if I
took the time to listen. And since I wasn’t in the mood for
talking, I did a lot of listening. It turned out they were bored
and frustrated with the isolation here, just like I was. Just like
I still am. The difference is that they had learned to be content
with it. I don’t know if I’ll ever be content with it, but my
anxiety seems to be in a calmer place these days.”

“So what’s next for you Lucy?” Olivia
asked.

“I really don’t know,” Lucy admitted. “I have
some insurance money, but it’s not going to last me forever. I’m
thankful Marty had the foresight to take out life insurance. He
even took it out on the children, which surprised me. I didn’t know
he had. Still, I’m going to need to find a job to support
myself.”

“A job?” Olivia said. “Are you going to
leave?

“No, I don’t really have anywhere else I want
to be, now that my parents are gone. I’d like to find one here in
town,” she replied.