A Watch In Time

A Watch In Time
A Full Length Story by Golden Keyes Parsons
CHAPTER ONE

Stifling. Muggy. Lily Kate turned on the old, black oscillating fan. It hummed its back-and-forth rhythm, but did little more than waft waves of hot air and dust motes throughout her mother’s bedroom. The room had been vacant ever since her mother died last year. The muted wallpaper with roses trailing from top to bottom had faded until one could hardly tell where one bud ended and another began. It was one mauve and taupe pallet. The damask bedspread and matching draperies with matching rose dust ruffle and pillow shams were almost as bad. The shabby chic look was simply looking shabby these days.

Her mother’s deathbed utterance had puzzled Lily. She could barely hear her raspy voice as her mother gave instructions where to find the album. “You will find the answers to our family secrets in the pages of the book in the trunk hidden in my closet.” Her mother pulled her close, and whispered “Watch.” Then her mother slipped into eternity enfolded in Lily Kate’s arms.

The album was forgotten in the months following the funeral, as Lily returned to work on her Master’s in history at Baylor University. The weeks flew by, but one day as she passed her mother’s room at the foot of the stairs she remembered. She’d pushed open the door which scraped across the wooden floor. The late afternoon sun slanted through a crack in the wooden blinds. Lily opened the slats. They were the only new addition to the room. The old parchment shades had grown brittle with age, and Lily and her brother, David, had persuaded their mother to replace them.

She went to the small closet and opened the door. Her mother’s Este Lauder perfume still lingered on the clothing hanging neatly by category on the wooden dowels. Visions of her mother wearing the various pieces of clothing plucked at her memories.

The trunk was nowhere in sight. She pushed aside her mother’s dresses, skirts and jackets. Need to do something with those. She just hadn’t been able to call the Salvation Army to come pick them up or take them to the Goodwill drop-off point yet. She found the hump back trunk in the back right-hand corner. She tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. And there was not enough room to lift the lid. She grabbed the leather handle on the end of the trunk and pulled and tugged until she got it out into the center of the room. She jiggled the latch. Locked. Her mother had said nothing about a key. Watch. What was she supposed to watch for?

She pulled open her mother’s dresser drawers, then looked in a porcelain jar on her vanity. No key. Her mother’s necklaces hung on a peg board in her bathroom. She searched through them. Still no key. A wooden jewelry box sat on top of her chest of drawers. Lily Kate took it down and looked through it. The last drawer held several keys. It has to be one of these. She sat on the floor in front of the trunk trying one key after another. Finally, the lock clicked open. “Eureka!”

She stood and rummaged through the garments, locating a heavy album on the bottom, in a flimsy cardboard box.

Setting the box aside, she carried the album to a white wicker desk in the corner of the room. Turning on the Tiffany lamp and sitting in the matching wicker chair, she stared at a woman’s photo–an elegantly clad woman of regal stature. Lily Kate leaned closer and stared at the portrait. Her own eyes stared back at her. The caption, in beautiful calligraphy, read “Lillian Katherine Walker.” Perhaps an ancestor—her namesake? She leaned closer, and touched the faded picture with her finger tips. Her breath caught. If the hair were different, she would look just like … me.”

The woman in the picture had to be an ancestor. The resemblance was undeniable. Nobody in the family had ever been willing to discuss their ancestral history, despite the fact they lived in one of the oldest homes in Waco. The young woman twisted her long dark hair, still damp from her shower, into a large plastic clip, and tightened the sash of her robe. Where was David? Surely her brother had found a bandage by now for the gash he’d dug into his hand trying to open a storage box for her. Her eyes grew heavy. She folded her arms on the top of the trunk and lay her head on it. The drone of the fan lulled her into the drowsy dimension between waking and sleeping.

Bam! Lily startled awake, her heart thudding against her chest. Bam! The shutters slammed against the window as rain pelted against the side of house. She jumped from her impromptu nap and closed the window. She had no idea how long she’d been asleep, but it was dark outside. Reaching to turn off the fan, she moved her hand back and forth in the darkness. Couldn’t find it. A chill had settled in her mother’s room. Tucking the volume under her arm, she felt her way in the dark to the hallway and into the kitchen. “David?”

A soft glow surrounded a lantern on the kitchen table. The electricity must have gone out. Lily set the book beside the lantern.

A young black woman, who appeared to be a servant in period costume, came through the door from the dining room carrying a candle in a pewter holder. “Miss Lillian?”

“Who are … “ Lily stared at the woman. “Yes. Who are you?”

“Miss Lillian? Are you ill?”

“No, I’m not ill. This is my house, and I don’t know who you are. Where is David?”

Join us again next week to read part two of chapter one…

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