Cursed (6 page)

“That’s great! How did you do that?”

Mason Brown still didn’t turn around, but answered, “It just needed a little strength. I will work on it later so you don’t have this trouble again.” There was a hint of finality in his voice.

“Well, thanks again. I’ll be heading up now.” She turned to go and looked over her shoulder to see him still facing the machines, waiting for her to leave. She thought about asking about the wall, but decided not to have him think she was snooping.

Holding the wicker basket on her hip, Sarah entered her apartment a few minutes later and brought the laundry directly to her bedroom. Flopping on the bed, she rolled onto her back to face the ceiling thinking about the encounter in the basement.
He must be a very lonely man
, she thought, but she got the sense he wasn’t always that way. He was well mannered, obviously handy so he must have learned from someone, and he was quick to recognize his rude response and apologize.
Who is Mason Brown?
Her researcher's mind couldn’t help but wonder about her mysterious landlord.

Popping off the bed, Sarah grabbed her laptop and booted it up. First she tried Googling Mason Brown. Nothing but a few references to a long dead drama critic, a musician and a designer down south, followed by various LinkedIn and Facebook accounts and eight more pages that contained no reference she could find to the Mason Brown of Dunhill Street. Then she Googled their address: again, not much of anything except maps, a building permit, and some other erroneous listings that included
Dunhill Street in general. Tapping her fingers on the keyboard, she thought about her next move but was quickly distracted by the ring of her cell phone on her nightstand.

“Sarah! It’s Zoe.” Sarah could almost see the dazzling smile and sparkly eyes as the lively voice poured out of her cell phone.

“Hey, Zoe. What a great night last night!”

“It was fun. I am so glad we tried that restaurant. How’s your day going?”

Sarah flopped back down on the bed. “Good, just hanging out, getting some laundry done. I am beat though . . . haven’t had a late night like that for a while.” Sarah closed her eyes and realized just how tired she was. “I have one load left in the dryer and I am done, though.”

“Laundry, huh. Is there laundry in your unit or in the building? Or do you have to go out?”

Sarah got the same feeling she had experienced the night before – that Zoe asked a lot of questions for someone she was just getting to know. Maybe people are just like that here, but back home in Connecticut she didn’t remember meeting people who were quite as inquisitive.

“It’s in the building’s basement. I just got the coins stuck and had to bother the landlord to fix it.”

Surprisingly, there was silence on the line and Zoe’s voice finally came back but with less animation. “So, your landlord helped you?”

“Aaah . . . yeah. He came down and unstuck the coin slide. Simple fix, but I still felt bad for bothering him.”

“I’m sure he was probably very grumpy about it– made you feel like it was all
your
fault.”

Frowning, Sarah replied, “No . . . he was helpful”

“No one likes being bothered on a Sunday, especially landlords. Did he try to push it off until tomorrow?”

Sarah felt almost defensive of Mason, and didn’t want to admit to her new friend Mason’s momentary lapse of politeness. “He was fine, really. Came right down and got it working.”

“Well, I am sure he was cursing you under his breath . . . the Patriots are on and you have him fixing the dryer!”

“Oh, shoot! I forgot about that.” Sarah feeling badly and a little more alert, rolled on her stomach and looked out the window. Maybe that’s why he was a little grumpy? She decided she wanted to get off the phone.

“Come to think of it, Zoe, I should probably head back down to get the clothes.”

“Okay, just wanted to check in . . .”

“Thanks. We should do that again, it was fun to see a little more of the city.”

“Oh, we will . . . promise. I’ll call you.”

Sarah hung up and dragged herself from the bed to gather the last load of clothes from the basement. After folding the clothes and eating a simple omelet dinner while watching 60 Minutes, Sarah decided to head to bed early. Sleep came easily, and it was several hours later when the moon was high in the sky that she awoke to the cries of a cat on her bedroom's fire escape.

The cat came every night that week, crying outside her side window until she would get out of bed and go to the fire escape. Each time, the cat would run off as Sarah came too close to the window. She started leaving it some food and toyed with the idea of having a pet, naming the cat Midnight because of the shiny black coat and timing of visits.

By Friday, the lack of sleep was catching up to her.
She sat in Henry’s office, trying to look alert, while struggling to follow the conversation. Admiring Henry’s bow tie and the unique shade of burnt orange that picked up the threads in his brown sweater vest, she almost missed the words she had been waiting to hear this past month: “Sarah, I have a project for you I think you will like.”

As if lifted from a dream, Sarah sat forward in her chair and smiled broadly, eagerly waiting to hear more.

“It’s a period piece about Boston. The author has some interesting and unique perspectives from several family members journal from the late 1800’s and turn of the century, but there is an awful lot to validate and he’s not the strongest writer. But, I believe there is an interesting story in there. Somewhere.” Henry tapped the thick folder in front of him for emphasis. “There are some pictures too, some of the great Boston fire of 1872 that I don’t think have been published before, but not all are marked so we will need to try to find locations.”

Henry sat back and studied Sarah for a moment; a faint smile played on his thin lips.
“Stan has been very complimentary on your organizational skills and attention to detail and, Izzy . . .” Henry chuckled, “Well, if you can make heads or tails out of Izzy’s notes I think you will be great at this project.” He smiled kindly at Sarah.

“Thank you, Henry! I am so excited to get started.
This is just what I’ve been waiting for!”

With Lisa coming up to visit for the weekend and the new project assigned, Sarah felt a sense of exhilaration that lifted her tiredness.
When the phone rang late that afternoon, she jumped; looking at the time thinking it might be Lisa arriving early.

“Hello, Sarah.
It’s Zoe.”

“Oh! Hi Zoe, what’s up?”

Sarah leaned back in her seat as she listened to Zoe and looked at her computer screen. “I wanted to see if you had any plans this weekend? You haven’t been to my neighborhood yet so I thought I could introduce you to the North End. We could get a great dinner and nice bottle of Chianti!”

“Oh…that sounds great, but my friend Lisa is driving up from
Connecticut right now to spend the weekend. We wanted to catch up. Can I take a rain check?”

The line became quiet and Sarah thought for a moment the call had dropped.
Zoe cleared her voice and continued – some of the velvety quality replaced with an edge. “Lisa? You hadn’t mentioned a friend coming for a visit.”

“Lisa’s my oldest friend, we were neighbors growing up, but she was more like the sister I never had.
She wants to see my new place and we’re going to check out the city a bit.”

“Well, come to the North End and meet me for dinner
with
Lisa. She shouldn’t miss this area of the city while she’s here. It’s the Italian section of the city, a tourist attraction in itself, although it’s a lot quieter now than during the summer months.”

Sarah didn’t answer quickly enough and Zoe jumped back in. “Meet me at my store Saturday afternoon after you get done sightseeing and we will go from there.
Settled?”

“Umm. . . I guess that could work.” Sarah felt cornered but truth be told
didn’t mind. She had wanted to get over to the North End and this might be a good opportunity with someone who knew it well.



Saturday afternoon, as Sarah and Lisa walked across the new greenway along Hanover Street into the North End, the neighborhood took on its own vibe and they instantly felt drawn to the small shops, abundance of restaurants and bakeries, and the people on the street. Already dusk, Sarah stopped in front of a shop and checked the directions she had jotted down earlier to reach Zoe’s shop. After a few turns to a smaller side street, they arrived at Zoe’s shop, Luna Mezza.

They stepped inside to the warmth of the store and the calming smell of incense.
It was a small shop with one window in the store front. Old gold lettering on the glass announced the store and a symbol above of a half moon and several stars. The floor of the store was made up of alternating, well worn, white and black tiles and the walls were raised wood paneling painted in a deep red with shelves full of candles, ornate silver boxes, and incense burners. A glass counter ran across the back of the store that held jewelry – mostly earrings, bracelets and pendants – and behind the glass counter an apothecary cabinet of small square drawers in dark wood took up most of the wall.

At the end of the counter Zoe was sitting on a stool with a dark green leather ledger in front of her.
She looked up and smiled broadly as the two girls entered and slammed the ledger shut, causing Lisa to jump a little.

“Zoe! We found you!
This is Lisa. Lisa, this is my new friend Zoe that I told you about.”

Zoe extended her hand and Lisa raised hers to greet Sarah’s new friend.
Zoe saw Lisa’s expression as they shook hands and grinned. Her cobalt blue eyes twinkling with amusement.

“I was just closing up for the day and moved the delivery boxes out back into the ally,” Zoe offered as an explanation.
“My hands must be like ice.”

Lisa smiled in return as Zoe stepped down from the stool and began locking up the jewelry cases.

Lisa began admiring the selection of silver earrings as Zoe closed up, and Sarah was eyeing the jewelry on the glass counter, fingering a bracelet with cat’s eye stones.
She looked up Zoe, taking in a deep breath, “What is that scent? It’s nice.”

“It’s agarwood resin, an incense.
I sell it here.” Zoe pulled out one of the drawers in the apothecary cabinet and showed Sarah the small pouch. “You use it in a charcoal burner and it has a soothing effect.” Sarah nodded.

“This is an interesting store,” Lisa said, while looking around.

“Thank you, Lisa. It had been my Aunt’s store many years ago. I’ve been running it for a while now since she passed away.” Zoe picked up the ledger and walked across the back of the store, heels of her black leather boots clicking authoritatively on the ancient tiles. She disappeared through a doorway into the backroom for a moment and returned with fresh red lipstick and a long black coat that she pulled on over her black cashmere sweater and gray wool mini skirt. Zoe smiled at the girls as she expertly wrapped a stylish blue scarf around her neck that accentuated her eyes. “Ready?”

Sarah looked at her own outfit that she had spent the day roaming the city in and wondered how her long straight dirty blond hair must look in a ponytail.
She glanced at Lisa who was self-consciously checking out her own outfit and lack of makeup in the small mirror on the glass display case.

Zoe approached Lisa from behind and handed her a tortoise shell comb, “Lisa, here, you are welcome to use my comb.”
Zoe’s smile was wide, showing perfect, white teeth, lips curling at the corners. Lisa’s return smile was hesitant, not sure if she should be thankful for the offer or offended that Zoe was asking her to clean up before they went to dinner.

“Thanks,” Lisa muttered as she pulled a clip from her pocketbook and quickly combed out her thick brown hair, twisted, and clipped it into place.

“Lovely!” Zoe said as she retrieved the comb and dropped it into her pocketbook. “Shall we go?” Spinning around, coat flaring, she strode towards the door and the two women followed.

Once outside, Lisa and Sarah stood on the sidewalk one step below, as Zoe took out her keys to lock up the shop.
Two old women walked by, one making a quick gesture at Zoe’s back with her index and pinky extended and two middle fingers curled under as Zoe locked the door. Sarah and Lisa watched in silence. Without turning around to see the sign of the horns gesture, Zoe called out merrily, “Bouna sera, signora Mistretta e signora Capuono.”

Zoe slowly turned around to see the two older women, huddling together hurrying away along the sidewalk.
She flashed her big blue eyes at Sarah and Lisa, blinking in mock innocence, lips in a pout, “Can I help it if Mr. Mistretta is friendly with me?” The pout curled back into the Cheshire cat smile, and in a more confident tone, “He is absolutely ancient! I don’t know what she is thinking.” Giggling erupted between the three women.

“I thought we would go to
one of my favorite restaurants for dinner, it’s this way.” Zoe motioned back up the street the way they had come, silver bangles on her wrist tinkling in the crisp evening air. The three turned back towards Hanover Street for dinner.