Destined (21 page)

Description:
 
A man hangs upside down by one foot,
and appears quite comfortable. Rays surround his head, where amazing
realizations are taking place.

Meaning:
 
Deliberately attempting to achieve a
higher consciousness, contemplation of universal truths, meditation.

When I returned to the shop, I found Siri serving tea to
two elderly matrons dressed in floral print dresses who sat at one of the
little tables in the back of the showroom. They were discussing birds and
looking at a couple of framed Audubon prints, obviously under consideration for
purchase, which Siri had displayed nearby on an easel.

“Yes it was, dear, it was a Great Blue
Heron!” one of the ladies insisted triumphantly, speaking in a small quavering
voice.

“No, dear, we saw the Great Blue when
we went birding in North Carolina. You’ve forgotten!” the other piped up
emphatically, trembling with vehemence.

The two frail, gray-haired women
sipped their tea and bickered affectionately. They seemed to be having a
wonderful time. Siri looked over at me and smiled, the picture of graceful
self-control. She was always patient, always considerate, always polite, and
she always seemed to be truly happy. She was a paragon. I yearned to be as
composed and balanced as Siri. Today she was dressed in one of her saris,
various shades of purple and blue. She looked like a water goddess, cool and deep.

“Hi Em!” she said in a bright voice. “Cup
of jasmine tea?”

I accepted gratefully. The two bird
ladies had fallen silent and were looking at me attentively. I drank tea and
chatted with them for a few minutes. They were very talkative. We considered
the Audubons, which were very nicely framed in gold. I mentioned the prices I
had seen on the Internet for similar pieces. Looking at each other and nodding,
the ladies both said, “We’ll take them!” We clinked teacups all around.

“Oh I do think Father would have
approved of the expenditure, don’t you dear?”

“Oh yes, dear! He would have adored
these prints.”

“They’ll look lovely in the breakfast
nook, don’t you think?”

“Lovely, yes, or in the hall by the
mirror, perhaps?”

“Well as long as Father would approve,
it is his money after all.”

“Oh yes, it is. I think he would feel
it is a good investment, you know. After all, you can’t go wrong with these
collectible prints.”

“That is true, dear, very true.”

Each of the ladies was carrying a
little black pocketbook, nearly identical, and they both pulled out reading
glasses and wrote checks for exactly half the total due. They had different
last names, but we learned that they were sisters. They had both been married
and were now widows with grown children. The sisters lived together in the
house where they had grown up. When their father died, he left it to them.

“We didn’t want to move in with any of
the kids,” said Irene, the little one.

Her sister Rose nodded.

“Young families need their space,
especially when the babies are growing,” she said.

“Anyhow, “ said Irene, “We like our
independence!”

They looked at each other and chuckled
mischievously. In their eighties, they still had plenty of
joie de vivre
. And they obviously adored one
another. It was inspiring. After the upsetting scene across the street, I
started to feel less anxious. Being near Siri was like a balm in itself. After
saying goodbye to our new customers, we cleared off the tea table and brought
the dirty dishes into the kitchen. I told Siri what had happened at the
meeting. She looked at me with concern.

“Emily! This is the time for you to
finally deal with your feelings about this woman! You see what happens when you
allow things like this to drag on?”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked. “How
can I deal with it? We just hate each other, apparently.”

“That is a
terrible
thing to say!” she cried, getting
excited and waving her hands.

“Why is it so terrible?”

“Because if you accept this reality,
if you allow this terrible negative emotional state to exist, then you bind it
to you. It becomes a part of your existence. It attracts more negativity.
You’ve got to abandon the hate, not embrace it.”

“How do I
do
that, though?”

Siri put her arms around me and held
me.

“You will find the way, Em. You just
need to think about it.”

“I don’t like the way I feel about
her. And she…she attacked me!”

“She probably doesn’t like the way she
feels about you, either.”

“I don’t know, she’s hard to
understand. We’re so different, we would never react to things the same way.”

“Perhaps that is the key to
understanding,” Siri suggested. I stared at her, thinking about what she had
said.

“I’ll work on that,” I agreed. “I
think you’re right!”

What if I could use my knowledge of
Lexi’s character to somehow convince her that she didn’t really want to destroy
me, after all? That would be an improvement. I was more than ready to let go of
my side of it, now. I realized that until today, I hadn’t had an angry moment
since I came to work on Market Street. My life had been filled with creativity,
friendship and happiness. I had been feeling terrific—empowered,
productive and successful. Siri was right, there wasn’t room or time in my life
for this kind of trouble.

That evening, Mr. Paradis decided to
celebrate the arrival of his new housemate by taking Tony and me out to dinner.
I found out about this at closing time, when the two of them came down the
front stairs and appeared in the doorway to the showroom, obviously dressed for
an excursion. Tony had added a black leather jacket and running shoes to his
jeans and T-shirt, and Henry wore a colorful Moroccan cap and vest over his
habitual black sweats and slippers. It seemed we had reservations at Buddha,
the restaurant owned by Mei’s family. The men stood side by side and looked at
me appealingly.

“We will be honored if you would join
us, Emily?” Henry said, on his best behavior.

“If you’re not busy tonight?” Tony
added. “I hear the food is very good!”

I liked the fact that he didn’t assume
I would automatically drop everything to go out with him on his first night
back in town. I would probably have done so in a flash, if I had plans, which I
did not, so it wasn’t an issue.

“I heard the same thing,” I said. “I
met one of the owners recently. I’d love to, thank you!” My two dates looked pleased,
and we all went outside together.

I locked up the shop and the three of
us strolled down the sidewalk enjoying the balmy summer evening. Mr. Paradis
walked along slowly with his hands clasped behind his back, surveying the
neighborhood. I realized that I had no idea what he normally did in the
evenings, though I suspected he didn’t get out much. There were usually signs
to be found in the morning that he had cooked a meal and eaten it at the table
in the sitting room. Tony walked along next to me, letting his hand bump
lightly against mine every few steps.

“How was your day, Emily?” he asked.

“Eventful. Not very good, I guess.
Challenging.”

“What happened?”

“I ran into my arch enemy at the
meeting about our big neighborhood promotion. She tried to ruin the whole
thing.”

“The art gallery woman?” Henry had
been listening.

“Yes, how did you know that?” I asked
him, surprised.

“Oh, believe me, I could tell she was
no friend of yours, when she called.”

“She called? When?”

“She called me back, after I called
her. Checking your references.”

“What did she say about me?” I was
curious.

“Oh, not much,” my employer said, “I
gathered she was not happy with your abrupt departure.”

He seemed unconcerned, while I was
nonplussed to discover he had known all about it. It was embarrassing to me for
some reason. I felt guilty.

“Don’t worry, my dear,” he said,
patting my shoulder. “I could immediately tell from the way she spoke why you
decided to leave!”

We arrived in front of the restaurant
and I looked into the big windows as we approached the entrance. The interior
was decorated in a warm red with black accents. A screen of live bamboo grew
nearly to the ceiling and a long black-and-gray speckled granite sushi bar
stretched along one side of the room. A young man wearing a neat white shirt
and black pants met us at the door smiling, a stack of menus in his hands.

 
A moment later I saw Mei coming from the back of the
restaurant, saying, “Hello! Emily! It’s so good to see you again!” She took the
menus from the young man and he turned to seat another party as she led us
inside. Mei brought us to a table near the open window where we settled down to
sniff the delicious aromas that were emerging from the kitchen. I introduced
Mei to my employer, who greeted her with compliments for the handsome décor.
Then I introduced her to Tony Novak, who said something totally unintelligible
that caused her to react with delight. I suddenly remembered that he spoke
Chinese.

She uttered a cascade of melodious
syllables in response, and said to me, “Your friend speaks very well! He’s
nice!” She took our drink orders and headed back to the bar. We all perused the
menu, enjoying a little breeze and watching the passersby on the sidewalk as we
sat and talked.

Mei came back with the drinks and her
sister, who was very happy to meet us. Then she brought her mother over to the
table, a graceful elegant woman in her fifties who said hello to us in English,
then quite a lot more to Tony in Chinese. He spoke with her at length. She
seemed quite taken with him. Henry gave me an I-told-you-so look over the top
of his menu. Apparently Henry spoke some Chinese too, presumably from his
travels. He chimed in with a few words here and there.

Then Mei ducked into the kitchen and
came out with her father, who greeted us enthusiastically. Tony stood up to
shake his hand, so Henry did also. I just waved from the back of the table. I
couldn’t understand a word any of them were saying, but it was a lively
conversation. Eventually our hosts bowed and went back to their work, leaving
us to study our menus again. About five minutes later, Mei appeared with plate
of something that looked delicious.