Sussex Gown

    The room was very dim even after I opened all the curtains to let the light illuminate it. I leaned on the window frame and gazed into the cloudy sky like a sunflower raising its petals to the sun. Then I whispered softly to the book, that I was holding tightly in my right hand, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” I was yet again caught up in one of my daydreams.  Suddenly, I saw a man waving his hands and calling out to me in front of the fence. His voice seemed to grow increasingly louder and snapped me back to reality.

      “Albert, is it really you?” I happily whispered to myself and tears sprang into my eyes.

      “Fern,” he yelled.

      “I’ll be right there,” I said loudly and quickly ran to open the gate. Then I threw my arms around him.

      “I’m so sorry,” he said choking back tears. “I know you and Emmy were really close. I’ve lost my future wife, too.”

      “I lost the best sister in the world. She was my life. How did it happen? Have you heard anything from your precinct?”

      “The preliminary report was that it was a burglary gone wrong.” He weakly said as he leaned against the gate.

      I reached out and took his arm and led him into the house. Then I set him on the sofa and went into the kitchen. I grabbed a coffee cup off the shelf and put a Melita filter over the cup, then measured two tablespoons of ground, French roasted coffee to put into the cup and poured boiling hot water over the coffee. He likes his coffee so hot that it burns. The aroma transported me to the time when I spilt all the coffee beans on the floor in Andronico’s. There was a figure in a long-sleeved, red top and white shorts, with a number 17 on the right corner, who came from behind and helped me pick up every single bean. It was the first time I met Albert.

       “I thought you might need this,” I said as I handed the coffee that I just made for him.

      “Thank you,” he whispered. 

      He took a couple of sips and then his cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen.

      “It’s from my office.”  He looked hopeful to hear further about the investigation of Emmy’s death. I stroked his shoulder as he took the call and suddenly remembered that I needed to find where I put the book. I searched every corner of every room until, “Oh it’s right there.” The book was big enough to be noticed on the brown carpet in the room with the rain forest wallpaper. The room gave the sense of being in nature. I bent over to pick the book up from the carpet and whispered smilingly to the book cover, “now I will keep you in the darker place, so you won’t be alone.” 

      “Is this where you write your mystery novels?” I whirled to face Albert and hid the book behind me as he entered the room.

      “Yyyes,” I squeaked out, startled.

      “Sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you,” he apologized. “What are you hiding behind you? Can I see it?”

      “This is my new book, but it is not published yet, so I can’t let you see it, however, you will be the first to get to read it when it comes out. Could you wait for me downstairs while I put this away?”

      Albert nodded his head and went downstairs. I looked around the room and hid the book where I thought no one would find it. Then I joined Albert.

      “John, the detective who called me, said that a neighbor saw Susan, the maid leave Emmy’s house at 4 P.M, two hours before the burglary happened and he also discovered that earlier that day, Emmy had a big argument with Jane, one of the clothes designers, during Emmy’s presentation. Emmy said that they will be settling their dispute later. The autopsy report shows that the body was injured in a way that suggests a personal vendetta.”

      “So it may not be just a burglary?”

      Albert’s words carried me back to when I was a senior in high school. While we were waiting for our father to come pick us up, Emmy yelled at a girl who was her teammate in the same freshmen seminar class with her and blamed the girl for the worst project presentation which ended up lowering the whole team’s grade. The girl and her best friend came up to us and shoved Emmy. I stopped the fight by stepping in between them and said, “ you better stop this fighting or else I will call the teacher.”  After the girls left, Emmy scolded me, “Stop interfering with my life, bitch, you weren’t in my class and you don’t know anything!”

      “We may be looking for a murderer who knew her,” Albert said with new awareness dawning in his eyes.

      I stared intensely into his eyes and wondered what he would do to solve my sister’s murder.

Suddenly, the buzzer rang and Albert and I quickly turned to the fence. I walked toward the window and peered through the glass to the gate.

      “Oh it’s Emma.”

      “I’ll go open the gate for her,” Albert volunteered.

      I quickly went upstairs and changed into the off-the shoulder, long, black dress that I planned to wear to the Botanical Garden. Then I tied my dirty blonde hair up into a bun. While I was standing in front of a wide mirror, I saw a woman with dark bangs and a brown coat with a pearl necklace was coming behind me. “Emmy, weren’t you dead?” I suddenly turned back to her.

      “Are you okay, my dear?” Her big brown eyes gazed at me. “Oh-h my daughter, I haven’t seen you for so long.”

      “I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to say like that,” I said and tears sprung into my eyes.

      “Awww, you must miss your sister a lot, ” Emma said, on the verge of tears and embraced me with a hug. Then we went downstairs.

      “Albert,” I called his name loudly.

      “He might be walking around here,” Emma said as she looked out to the window.

      “The Botanical Garden is closed at 6.00. I’m going to ask him if he wants to come with us,” I glanced at my watch.

      “Let me go look for him, he might be outside the house. His car was parked across the street,” Emma said.

      I quickly walked to the basketball court because I know he would be there, trying to shoot hoops or laying down on the grass. Every time he comes visit me, we usually picnic here. As I stepped on the basketball court, I saw myself back in the past, competing with Albert, “Boy, your hands don’t know how to move the ball.”  Albert smilingly gazed at me and talked back. “ My hands sure don’t but my skillful feet could kick the soccer ball faster than your hands do.”  I happily responded “well, we are not playing soccer now.”

      “Fern, Fern,” Emma called out loudly as she walked to me. I whirled to her.

      “Did you see him there.”

      “I think he already left because I don’t see his car there.”

      “He left?” I shrilled.  “Why didn’t he tell us?”

      All of a sudden, I stride to the writing room where I kept the book. As I strolled on the carpet, I knew there was someone came here after I left. I forgetfully grabbed the key on the table to open the drawer. I was then shocked to see the drawer was opened and the book that I kept wasn’t there. I fell down on the carpet and screamed out like a child. The entire world turned upside down. My tears flooded the room.

*********************************************************************************

      “ Didn’t your step mom come upstairs?” the cellmates questioned.

      “She did and I shot her head.”

      The alarm bell alerted all the prisoners to wake up and go take a shower. While I spent the whole night telling the cellmates my real life, I was writing it down in the dairy, so that hopefully my non-fiction mystery will get published one day.