Chapter 246: Cecile XXI—Darling!
Cecile was
awoken early in the morning, the basement light was on and Jana was giggling
like a maniac. She frowned and glanced at the time, it was before
“Cartoons!” Jana squealed and before Cecile knew it, she stumbled up the stairs and into the world of highly sugared breakfast cereal and blaringly loud cartoons.
Cecile informed Michele Roy of the bathtub that morning and oddly enough, Patrick smiled at her, was cordial and seemed as if he had never approached her before in her life. How could he act so differently? Cecile had thought. On the bright side, perhaps he had given up any idea of making anymore advances at her.
By the time Cecile was done with her shower and had folded up Jana’s blankets, brought them upstairs, the boys had eaten breakfast and were in the process of lugging their hockey gear to the cars.
“Oh Cecile,” Michele said with an apologetic smile, “Jana has absolutely refused to go with either of us to hockey practice today. Just this once, please?”
Cecile didn’t find it hard to smile this time. “No problem, Mrs. Roy, really.” She said. “I can watch her.”
Michele glowed. “Bon!” she exclaimed and continued in French. “Can you please go with her upstairs? Bill will be here in an hour or so, the plumber, and I think she bothers him too much so can you please keep her occupied?”
“Yup,” Cecile replied and stopped herself from cringing when Michele grabbed her and kissed her on the cheeks.
Cecile could hear Jana’s voice as she entered the girl’s bedroom.
“You gotta make it stop throwing up! The tub is being groooss!”
She heard a mumbled reply. A low male voice. Cecile frowned and went quickly into the bathroom. “Jana?” she said.
Jana’s blond hair was pulled back tightly in a braid. She was dressed from top to bottom in an overly chic black outfit, her mother’s fashion sense no doubt. She was sitting on the counter next to her pastel pink sink, her skinny legs crossed and on her lap she was balancing the large jar she had captured Igor the Spider with. Cecile could see an assortment of twigs and litter inside the jar, the spider no doubt in there.
Jana looked up from the jar and blinked. “Yeah?” she asked.
“Who are you talking with?” Cecile asked. She knew she had heard a male voice, she knew what Jana was going to say, and she knew there was going to be no possibility of her believing it.
“Igor,” Jana said, the set to her jaw looked eerily like her father’s. “He says he’s making the tub gross so that I’ll let him go but I can’t let him go cause it’s cold outside and he’ll freeze to death. I’m only thinking of his well-meaning.”
“Being,” Cecile corrected. “Well being. Jana honestly, Igor is not causing the tub to act up like that. And the spider is more than likely a girl; male spiders are rarely large like that.”
Jana rolled her eyes. “Whatever!” she said and she hopped off the counter. “What do we do now? Wanna play a game?”
Cecile glanced from Jana’s bathroom into her bedroom. “Clean your room first,” she said. “Then we can play anything within reason.”
Jana grinned and she leaned over with the jar, placing it on the floor between the pink toilet and the sink. She patted it and slid it to the wall. “Reeeason!” she said as she stood up. “You’re no fun! Mitchell says you’re fun but you’re not.”
Cecile lifted her eyebrow, Jana lifted her own to match. “Fine then, what would you want to play not within reason?”
Jana frowned. “I don’t know,” she replied. “But I like to have my auctions open.” With that she lifted her chin and stalked past Cecile, into her bedroom where she began to pick up her nightclothes.
Cecile
grinned as she stood in the doorway of the bathroom. “Do you have any more
adventures to tell me about
“Sure,” Jana said as she carried her pajamas into her huge walk in closet and closed the door behind her. “But you’ll never believe me.” She said in a loud voice from within.
“Of course I won’t!” Cecile said loudly as she walked towards the closet. She stopped and scooped up some stuffed animals and tossed them onto the bed. “But I like to hear them just the same. You were talking in your sleep last night, what were you dreaming about?”
Jana didn’t answer. Cecile raised her eyebrows and knocked on the closet door. “Come on, what were you dreaming about?” There was still a silence. In fact Cecile couldn’t hear any sign of movement from within. “Jana?” She turned the doorknob, pushed the closet open. “Jana? Are you in here?”
The light wasn’t on and Cecile flicked it on, the little girl’s closet had to be half the size of her bathroom and it was lined with clothes and toys and books. She had to be hiding. Cecile leaned in. “Jana stop playing, where are you hiding?”
“BOO!” It was from right behind her, little hands pushing into her back.
Cecile screamed and whirled around and there was Jana, standing in the room, grinning, pleased with herself. “Jana! For the love of all that’s holy!”
Jana giggled. “Scared ya!” She said.
Cecile pressed her hand into her breast. “How in the world did you sneak out of that closet without me seeing you?”
Jana winked. “Magic,” she said.
Cecile shook her head. “Come on!”
Jana held out her skinny arms. “My secret, I take to the grave.”
Cecile looked back in the closet. There had to be a secret passage or a hole in the paneling. That was the logical solution, and she thought about that spiral staircase at the other end of the house. It was almost a secret passageway in itself. “Alright,” Cecile said. “Finish up with your room.”
Before Jana could reply the phone rang. “I’ll get it!” Jana squealed and she ran from the room to answer the phone. Cecile jogged after her.
“Hey,” Jana said into the phone. “Uh huh, are you Bill? Hi! Okay… okay..” Jana sighed and she handed the phone to Cecile. “It’s Bill, he wants to talk to a grown up.”
Cecile took the phone. “Hello?”
The man, Bill, informed her that he was waiting to be let into the house, if there was indeed a plumbing problem. Cecile stumbled over Gigi to get to the stairs and told him she would be right there. She hung up the cordless phone and held it in her hand.
“Bill’s a dork,” Jana said. “He’s come three times to fix the bathtub and it always breaks somewhere.”
“Well what plumbing company does he work for?” Cecile said as she narrowly missed stepping on the puppy.
“Greeeenwood Terrace,” Jana replied.
“That’s your suburb,” Cecile said.
“I know,” Jana said. “He fixes everyone’s bathtub, Jack from down the street said that Bill is always fixing the toilet and it never fixes. He’s a dork.”
“Oh, he must be on the community payroll then,” Cecile said, more to herself than to Jana. “And Jana,” she continued, “Your mom does not want you bothering him; she would rather you stayed out of the bathroom.” How horrid! She thought, I sound like my mother.
The phone rang again and Cecile rolled her eyes and answered it. “Hello?”
“Cecile, Darling!”
Cecile’s heart slammed to a stop. “Mom?!” she exclaimed.
“Oooo you’re in trouble,” Jana declared.
Cecile stopped walking and the doorbell rang sending Gigi snarling down the rest of the stairs.
“It’s Bill!” Jana exclaimed, “I’ll get it.”
“No! Jana!” Cecile exclaimed. She had to run after Jana to keep up with her, “Mom just a second…”
“Cecile you can’t be that busy, Debbie told me that you were watching only one of the children today.” Pauline said.
“Mom, I’m kinda busy,” She said into the phone, pinching it to her shoulder and chin to snatch the puppy as Jana climbed up a stool to stare out of the peephole. “There’s a plumber and…”
“It’s Bill alright,” Jana said with a definitive nod. She hopped off the stool, kicked it aside and her little white hands fumbled with the locks on the door.
“Well, Cecile, darling, I thought you would be at least glad to hear from me,” Pauline said. Cecile felt her stomach twist in agony, I just need the ring! Just the ring, please wait for the ring!
“Of course,” Cecile said breathlessly. She barely looked at Bill as the man came in lugging a silver box of equipment.
“Where am I headed?” he asked.
“My room!” Jana said. “I’ll show you.”
“Jana!” Cecile exclaimed. “Mom can I call you back?”
“Well I
never!” Pauline said. “I come back early all the way from
“You’re HERE!” Cecile gasped. “You’re here?”
“Well, yes, darling, how else would I know you were at Mrs. Roo-aw’s house? Mrs. Sakic informed me, dear.” Pauline replied, her voice was flinted but was hanging onto some patience.
Cecile closed her eyes and felt her cheeks burn. There was no ring on her finger, but the entire affair had already been in the newspapers. She could feel a cold brick wall slamming into her back. “That’s so awesome,” Cecile said in as bright a voice as she could muster. “I can’t wait to see you. But Mom the little girl, you know the pretty little blond one? Jana, she just went running like a wild Indian and I need to really avert certain disaster here so may I please call you back later?”
“Of course!” Pauline said brightly, “You act like I’m a fiend, yes dear call me when you have the child settled. Is she eating too much sugar?”
“Always,” Cecile sighed. “Love ya, Mom.” Cecile clicked the phone dead as before she could hear anything further from her mother and she clonked her forehead with it. “Why??” She knew it, she had to tell her mom, and she had to bring everything out now. She thought of Danny’s soft lips and the tears in his eyes when he proposed, he had proposed he had done so much for her. She owed it to him. He deserved her decision, her acceptance and her compromise.
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