Two maids invaded my room so I could shower and the sun shouted at me through the windows.

"Miss Waterford your uncle ordered you take a bath before coming down," one of them whispered to me in bed.

"If I bite one of you this morning I apologize in advance." I mumbled on my way to the bathtub and they scrubbed me away.

Breakfast was served downstairs in the sun room to me alone and I sighed missing the company of the overwhelming cousins causing a ruckus in the morning in Sicily. Although most Italians were fleeing from Italy our family had a stronghold there.

The gardener came in to take care of the garden of the house so I stepped outside to watch him. At first he looked at me to see if I'd stop scrutinizing every movement he made but once he realized I wasn't going to he just nodded for me to come over. I quickly opened a smile and met him and the dirt he was working with. This house bored to me bits and pieces but not now, not watching him cutaway the bad parts and layer new soil for new bulbs of flowers.

"How do you do it?" I asked him but he touched his mouth letting me know he didn't speak.

"Can you hear me?" I touched my ear but he shook his head.

"It's fine, I can find a way, trust me I always do."

I knelt on the ground next to him and picked up one the bulbs in my hand. He smiled and signaled with his rough dirty brown hands to dig.

"Digging, I understand that."

Right away I dug my fingernails into the soil and he nodded telling me it was good and when I had done it enough he stopped my hand and gave me the bulb.

"Thank you," I signaled to him on my chin hoping maybe I'd get through to him and he nodded telling me he understood it.

I pressed down the soil on top of the bulb chuckling and then he clapped for me to let me know I'd done the job right.

"We did it! I have a flower now," I celebrated hugging him and he left his arms open because they were dirty.

"Isabelli!" My uncle yelled out my name and I let go of the gardener and got up from the floor. "Inside now!"

The gardener was a bit fraught but much less than the driver so I ran over to my uncle to keep the gardener's job.

"What were you doing out there with the gardener?" My uncle shook me by the arm.

"Planting a flower."

"That's his job not yours!"

"But I..." I hid my hand so he wouldn't see how dirty I'd gotten.

"Stop interfering with people's job!" He said and I nodded. "What are you hiding from me?!" He asked trying to get me to show my hands.

"No uncle, don't," I warned him trying to keep him away but he pulled at my hand until he saw my dirty hands and fingernails.

"I told you to take a bath so you'd be clean by the time arrived! Did you or the maids not listen to me?!" He was mad at everyone now and I desperately tried to get the dirt off my nails.

"Me, it was me, I was as you asked but then I made the gardener let me help. It's my fault," I said in a rush hyper focused on my nails.

"Stop!" He shouted, "And go get yourself cleaned up this instant! You're going out."

"Out?"

"No more questions. Not after what you pulled with your driver!" His anger came in again.

"Oh..."

"Is that all you have to say to me?"

"Is he all right?"

"I'm sure he learned his lesson."

"What do you mean?"

"I told you once. Do you not remember my promise today?"

"You'll take care of me. But I don't know how."

"The how doesn't matter. The promise is that I will."

After they scrubbed my fingers and slipped me into another dress I was given the ring again. The one I had thrown out. But this time it was the girls who offered it to me. No doubt as an instruction from Uncle Jack and I took it upon myself to wear it for their sake.

"Out!" He barged into my room holding something in his hand and they all hushed away like poor little mice upon the sight of a cat. Although a cat I could love, my uncle on the other hand. I disliked him more than anyone because he was the splinter I couldn't get rid of.

"I did as you said so don't be mad anymore," I demanded.

"Is that the right tone?"

"Why should I do as you please if you will still act this way?"

"Why are you the only one who tests me?" He asked and afraid of answering him back I sat still at my vanity. "I am only teaching you how to deal with me. Something you'll be doing for the rest of your life." He opened the box and gave me a gold bracelet with a small heart lock on it.

"Is the ring not enough?"

"That was your mother's, this is my promise. So you'll never forget it, not for a second." He asked me for my wrist and I held it up. "Never take this off," he ordered and I nodded.

*

We drove to a house I hadn't been before, the day was lovely like a spring tulip outside, and my hat kept the barely warm sun away.

"Welcome Mr. and Miss Waterford to the Loewe manor," a man welcomed us in and the name did not ring a bell at all.

"Who is Loewe?" I asked my uncle.

"All you have to do is sit there and smile," he replied in my ear.

A man and a woman about my uncle's age were sitting out in the lawn with a tea waiting for us, as the man smoked a chimney from his seat.

"Jack," the man shook my uncle's hand as if they were close.

"Louie," my uncle called him. "I'll give it to you, you've come a long way from Jersey."

"Well the commute was bothersome," he laughed, "go on have a seat. Cigar?"

"Come on do I gotta tell ya?"

"Here you go," he got the box and handed one to my uncle who smelled it before lighting.

The damn thing had always disgusted me to the core, the odor from it was repugnant. And I hated going home with the smell stuck on my hair like some invisible glue.

"Louie?" The woman reminded him of her existence and the manners he ought to have.

"I'm getting to it, this is Lisette, she set up this shinding so you know enjoy it," he made a horrible introduction between us.

"Thank you Lisette," my uncle said.

"Thank you," I replied.

"Anyways who's this pretty lady?" Louie asked my uncle.

"Ah no one really, don't mind her, I just don't like to travel alone." My uncle replied instead of saying I was his niece.

"That you do not. Always in good company," Louie replied eyeing me toe to eye.

We sat for tea and they chatted about the weather, the building of the house, politics and then it came to a halt.

"You know they're trying to put their marionette at all costs," my uncle said.

"And so are you."

"Not just me."

"Lisette!"

"Yes."

"Show the girl around," Louie said at once meaning women were off limits to this conversation.

"This way Miss Waterford," she got up to lead me out and my uncle with a swift motion of his eyes told me to go as well.

*

Just when things would finally pick up from their usual boring repertorie I was kicked out. Most times I was grateful I didn't have to dirty my conscience with their business. Yet the fact I would end up being played on their chess board for their own means at the end of it all made it indigestible like the dessert I was forced to eat with a smile on my face.

"Louie told me he got this china in a poker game can you believe it? He just has that luck I guess," Lisette went on about the things in the house.

"And when did you two meet?" I asked her.

"Oh we met at my previous work place," she said shyly with a hint of shame coming on her erratic demeanor.

"Oh, he didn't seem the type to like a girl who works." I mentioned confused about Louie and his antiquated moustache.

"He doesn't, so I don't work anymore. I just stay here with him."

"Did you use to like your job? Or you prefer to be here?"

"I like it here better. I like being with him. Even if he does not feel the same about me." She admitted showing she was the unguarded type, she wasn't about to lead me astray with a fake perfection and yet this made me pity her.

"I'm sure he wouldn't have brought you here if he didn't."

"I'll be sure once he asks me to marry him."

"Wait so you two are..." I was shocked about their living situation and how she was able to confess to a stranger.

This was the unforgivable sin a woman could never commit. Men were expected to be traitors especially in their line of business but us girls, women, wives, daughters were the idyllic embodiment of loyalty and faithfulness like Mother Mary herself. And here was the Magdelene of it all exposing herself to judgement and I at once swallowed my point of view.

"Well aren't you and Mr. Jack?" She thought.

"No. Absolutely not."

"Oh I'm sorry I'm such a fool. I didn't mean to offend you..."

"You did not, I promise."

"Good. I wouldn't want to offend Louie's company."

After the tour we said our goodbyes and this looked like one of the many places I would never see again. And who knows what would become of Lisette...

"Can we drive down by the sea?" I asked my uncle.

"No, you're going to want to do something stupid."

"No I won't."

"You're going home. That's where a jewel is best kept."

"I don't want to be a jewel."

"Jewels don't ask to be jewels. They're found, forged, and worn. Which is what you'll be at the end of it all."

"Displayed like a status symbol?"

"Exactly, my crown jewel."

"And if I jump out of this car?"

"Don't play games with me Isabelli!" He warned me and I opened the door slightly to confront him to which he pushed down hard on the brake. "Isabelli!" He yelled out my name because when the car came to a stop I ran out. "Come back here this instant!"

For some reason I thought I could outrun him. It was as if I was running for my life. As if my life itself was in complete danger and there was something waiting for me at the end of the road. I just had to make it to the end of the road. But soon he grabbed me by the dress, almost yanking it out of my body wholly. The beads fell on the pebbled road and his hand shook me more violently than the car.

"You really think you can just disobey me as you wish? Have you forgotten who you belong to? Who pays for the very air you breathe? You're alive because of me! You're wearing these dresses and nice shoes because of me! Nobody but me!" He got down and roared at my face as I tried to shield myself away. 

"Nobody wants you but me! Do you understand this or is your head too little to do such a small thing!" As he asked I whimpered on the floor where he still held me by hair.

"Do you understand you only have one value in this family and it all depends on who you marry! I am the only thing keeping you from heading straight down the altar! If I decide to let my father do as he wishes then guess what happens to you! And you know what happens to me? Nothing! You're the only one with something to lose here!"

As uncle Jack explained so thoroughly I kept getting more scared which I did not think it possible. I knew I had been raised like a pebble in their shoes but I had no idea I was this worthless in their eyes. Was Uncle Jack really the only person on my side? Where was grandmother?

"I won't let my father ruin our lives like he did with your mom. All you have to do is trust and obey me. Can't you do that much?" He asked and I opened my eyes up looking at him not knowing if I could do what was asked of me.

"I just wanted to see the sea," I said lowly.

"People like us don't go watch the sea. People like us watch the clear waves of champagne pouring down a glass and we thank God for it."

"Uncle..."

"Jack," he corrected me and I didn't question him. "I can't have all I want yet. So you have to be patient and do as I say. If you do you will have everything you want. I will give you everything you could possibly dream of," he let go of my hair and caressed my neck.

"Everything?"

"Everything," he said it like another promise.

We went home and as we arrived no one even batted an eye at my ripped dress and undone demeanor as they trashed the dress and washed me to go to bed and sleep off the day.

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No part, character, names, plot, setting, conflict or resolution, point of view, theme or symbolism of this story may be replicated.

Copyright: All Rights Reserved to A. Sena Gomes.