Brenna was in the kitchen making blueberry pancakes, the aroma of coffee wafting through the house, when Molly shuffled into the kitchen the next morning. “Oh, those smell wonderful,” she groaned, dropping into a kitchen chair.
Brenna laughed. “Here, sleeping beauty,” she said, handing Molly a mug of hot coffee. “I wondered if we’d see you before noon. I was thinking. You want to go see Helena today? I haven’t visited her in over a week. I feel terrible.”
“Sure, that’d be great,” Molly replied, her face buried in her big mug. “You know, instead of moving down here, I should’ve paid you to move in with me and be my chief cook and bottlewasher. Nobody makes cocoa and coffee or bakes like you.”
“Thank you, my dear,” Brenna said, bowing as she set Molly’s pancakes in front of her on the small formica table. “I’ve got to get cracking on the dining room, I can’t be serving my guests in here all the time.”
“I’m not guests, I’m family,” Molly replied around a mouthful of pancakes. “These are great. Thanks.”
“You’re very welcome. Someone suggested I have Helena over sometime and I was hoping to have a baby shower for the mailman’s wife. It would be nice to have the place finished first.”
“Want to work on it today?”
“No, this is your weekend off. We’re going to do fun stuff...if we can think of something to do other than eating, running and watching TV.”
“Well, you can show me Victoria’s grave and we can poke around in the attic.”
“You call that fun?”
“Yeah, it’s like finding buried treasure when you find old stuff. You wanted to put the baby clothes back anyway. I can help you do that and we can look around. You might have more antiques up there.”
Brenna chewed thoughtfully. “I’m trying to remember...I can’t remember seeing any furniture or anything, but then I kind of had tunnel vision, what with looking for that box. I remember when she put the box up there, she was putting it next to her trunk with her wedding gown in it.”
“There you go! That would be so cool if it’s still up there. There’s a big market right now for antique clothing if you wanted to sell it.”
“No...that doesn’t seem right. Maybe after some time has passed or Helena has died. It seems sacrilegious to sell her things with her living so nearby. I guess these dreams have made me feel as if I know her better than I really do. Okay, why don’t we get it over with and have a look up there. Now you’ve piqued my curiosity and I don’t want to be left here alone, wondering what’s up there!”
After they consumed all the pancakes (much to Zoe’s disappointment), they put on some old clothes and armed with flashlights and a new light bulb, carried the box of baby clothes upstairs. Brenna showed Molly how to pull down the stairs to the attic and Molly climbed up first to screw in the light bulb while Brenna waited below.
“Okay, come on up,” Molly called down.
Brenna climbed the stairs, balancing the box in one hand and passing it to Molly as she neared the top. She looked around in the bright light which exposed all the corners of the attic. “Well, this definitely improves things up here. There’s more stuff than I expected. Here's the trunk her wedding dress was in,” she said, pointing at the gray trunk to the left of the stairs. There was another trunk behind that one and an old iron bedstead propped against the wall. Toward the back of the attic, there were a couple of old wicker rockers, their seats long gone, and a few more boxes blanketed in dust.
“Geez, we’ve got our work cut out for us. I didn’t expect to see this much,” Molly mused, turning in a circle as she observed the items.
“You and me both. I bet I can find someone to recane these seats,” Brenna said, pushing on the arm of the nearest rocker to find it rocked smoothly despite its age. “Let’s check the wardrobe trunk first. That’s the only other thing I have any knowledge of up here." She moved aside the boxes so she could swing it open. Fortunately, it wasn’t locked and opened stiffly as they pulled on it, dust floating into the air. One side of the trunk had several drawers built into it and the other had a short rod hung with covered garments. Brenna looked at Molly with nervous anticipation and lifted down the first garment bag. It was heavy and Molly helped her lay it out on the floor. Brenna unzipped it and was surprised to find a black wool coat, in good condition...but definitely not a wedding gown.
“Maybe she got rid of it later,” Molly said.
“Yeah, maybe,” Brenna said, disappointed. What did it matter if she found the wedding gown anyway? It hadn’t figured in any of her dreams; she hadn’t even actually seen it. But still...
Molly pulled down the next bag and laid it on top of the first. Unzipping it, she discovered a short evening gown, reminiscent of the 1950’s and in a shade of blue remarkably close to that of Brenna’s new dress. The neckline was off the shoulder and it had a tight waist and full knee-length skirt, decorated with sequins that glittered in the light.
“Oh, isn’t this pretty?” Brenna remarked, looking closely at the handiwork. “I wonder what occasion this was for. It must have been special for her to save it all these years. She must have been...what, in her thirties when this was in style?"
“Maybe you’ll dream about it. Let me know what you find out, okay?”
“Hey, don’t put any thoughts in my head! I have enough trouble up there!”
Brenna zipped up that bag and lifted down the last, bulkier than the others. This is it, she thought, I knew it was still here. Opening the bag, she uncovered gleaming satin and row upon row of white lace. She looked up at Molly, her face glowing. “I knew it was here. She could’ve gotten rid of it, but I just had a feeling...I mean, she didn’t have her daughter to keep it for, but she saved it anyway.”
“I guess you’re right... let’s take it downstairs when we’re done. It’s too dusty up here.”
“Good idea. This is so much fun!” Molly carefully hung the other bags back in the trunk as Brenna zipped up the garment bag. “What now?”
“Hmm...let’s look in the drawers before we close it up.”
Brenna opened the top drawer to reveal tissue paper, and folding it back, she revealed a mound of white silk. Reaching in, she lifted out a floor-length peignor that shimmered in the artificial light. It had long full sleeves and a neckline trimmed in fine lace. “Look, Molly, it must be her part of her trousseau. Isn’t this beautiful?”
Molly stroked the soft folds of material. “This is too cool. I can’t believe she still has this. This gown has to be sixty years old!”
“I know. It looks like she preserved them pretty well; this must be special tissue paper.”
Molly looked back in the drawer and pulled out some embroidered handkerchiefs and a pair of white leather gloves. “Maybe she used these after the wedding.”
“Yeah, I bet she did.” They put the items back in the drawer and opened the next one. Inside were two faded cardboard boxes; one held some ivory satin pumps, slightly yellowed with time. “Now, those would not fit me, that’s for sure. I prefer to believe the statistics that say people’s feet are, on the average, larger than they used to be.”
“Oh, right, Brenna, whatever makes you feel better. It’s probably more related to all the years you spent running your feet off for our ungrateful hospital.”
Brenna laughed. “You’re probably right. Hey, look at this,” she said, opening the second box. It held a small white felt hat with white feathers decorating one side and a small veil in front.
Molly peered inside. “I bet she wore this with the white gloves. I wonder what dress she wore on her honeymoon! Geez, I don’t even know this woman and here I am wondering what she wore on her honeymoon. Time for lunch, I’m getting creeped out.”
Brenna laughed. “Where did you pick that phrase up?”
“Oh, when I had to float to Peds last week, there was a twelve-year old who was ‘creeped out’ by just about everything in the hospital.”
“Probably with good cause,” Brenna said soberly.
&nb
sp; “Peds has a couple new Playstations. That helps the more stable kids pass time better,” Molly said, as she descended the stairs. “Personally, I don’t like my patients big enough to talk back to me.”
Brenna left the light on and came down slowly after her, carrying the heavy wedding dress carefully. She hung it in her closet, intact in its garment bag, while Molly pushed the staircase back up. They went downstairs for lunch, stretching muscles sore from kneeling.
Molly noticed the paint cans by the back door. “How are you ever going to paint the trim of your house with your fear of heights?”
“I’m going to enlist the help of my dear friends for the upstairs and I’ll do the downstairs.”
“Oh? And when are you planning this enterprise?”
“This summer sometime when the weather is good. Doesn’t summertime at the beach sound good?”
“Right, summertime on a ladder in the sun, covered in paint.”
“If you’re painting right, you shouldn’t be covered in paint.”
“We’re talking about you and me working together, dear. Outside of the hospital, things can get out of hand when we work together,” Molly replied, remembering past painting parties when more paint had ended up on the people than the walls. Of course, back then, beer was considered a food group and that might have had something to do with it. Nowadays, an occasional glass of wine was all they drank. Brenna reminded Molly of this.
“Oh well, I tried.”
The phone rang and Brenna backtracked to the parlor while Molly investigated the contents of the refrigerator.
“Hello?”
“Hi, how have you been?”
She smiled and knew she had worried for nothing as Adam’s warm voice carried over the line. “I’m fine. Molly’s here for the weekend and we’ve been poking around the attic.”
“Find anything else interesting up there?”
“Yes, some old trunks and clothes."
"Anything important?"
Brenna frowned. "I'm not sure yet. We found Helena's wedding dress though; it's really beautiful."
"Sounds like something she'd save. Anyway, the reason I called...we’re having a spaghetti feed at the fire hall tonight. Would you and Molly like to come?”
“I’ll ask her...should I bring something?”
“No, you’re my guests and I’m bringing spaghetti. I’ll pick you up at quarter to six, okay?”
She yelled the invitation to Molly in the kitchen who answered with a resounding yes. “Okay, we’ll see you then.”
Brenna followed the smell of grilled cheese sandwiches into the kitchen.
“Ooh, firemen! See, I knew he'd call.” Molly said. “It’s about time you developed a social life here and I get to meet men to boot.”
“You know, there are firewomen up here, too.”
“That’s great,but there still have to be more firemen.”
“Okay, you win. Is that my sandwich? I’m starving.”
Chapter 29