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Diana - Out of the
Ashes
The story I read last night, the last
one I read before I fell asleep, was about a bird. A bird that flies so fast it turns into
bright burning flames, then, crumbles to ash.
Unbelievably, from that scattering of ashes rises a new bird. “A phoenix” the book called it. Emmy loaned me her book, it’s the one I first
started to read after the fire. She
called it Metamorphosis. Said it was a collection of tales they used
to tell long ago. The tales are magical,
like the fairy tales my Momma used to read to me each night before I fell
asleep. The book had been a gift from
her father. He’d brought it from
Germany. My favorite had always been
the story of the miller’s daughter: the girl who weaves straw into gold but
who’s almost tricked by that arrogant troll. She survives because she doesn’t
give up and she listens.
Yesterday, after we’d sat with Emmy and
made our plan, Jane and I left while Emmy did her paperwork and got her laundry
accounts settled. We took a walk back to
the Chase hotel. I hadn’t been back
since the night it burned down. Since
the night I walked into my own darkness and then back out. It still stood, black ember boards covered in
grey ash. There wasn’t much left and by
the looks of it (ashy foot prints everywhere) many have already picked over
anything that was left unscathed. I
thought I would feel sad looking back at this place, but instead it is a
nothingness that fills me. Not the
darkness that threatened to let me walk into the flames, but a nothingness of
no regret of not feeling anything for this place.
Jane and I walk on past the ruins of
the hotel. She is nervously biting her
nails. I loop my arm in hers as we walk
down the tight streets. She’s worried she’ll run into Big Ben. That he’ll see her and make her come
back. But, I assure her that whatever
the cost Emmy can buy her out now, that we safe. We gettin’ out. But, she still bites her nails and looks at
the ground as we walk. All the joy that
had been slowly washing back into her face has washed right back out.
When we walk past the hotel where Jane
once worked, I can feel her arm start to shake in fear. “It’s okay,” I say. “ I got the paper. We gonna be okay.” But she still shakes.
Strange thing is when we walk up we
find the door kicked in. Ben is in the
parlor. But he don’t look so tough. He’s got a bloody lip and he’s pacing back
and forth on the floor.
“What the hell do you whores want?” He say as we walk up.
“We are here to buy ourselves out.” I say trying to look tall as I can.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” He says. “
Kate!” He yells. “We got another runner.”
By the look of Ben, by the sound of
these words, I know that something bad has happened. Kate steps slowly down the wood staircase in
her high heeled boots. She is (like
always) dressed to the nines. Her body
is held tight in a red velvet bodice.
Her breasts spilling out of the top.
Her hair is swept up and her face is painted like a china dolls.
When she gets to the bottom of the
stairs she says. “Well, well, well, what
we got here. Another transformed
whore? We were wondering where you went
off to Diana after the fire. And Jane
you take care of your problem? Or, you need another visit from Big Ben’s
fists?” With these words I can feel Jane
shrink to half her size.
“No ma’am. We here to buy back ourselves.”
“You ain’t got that kind of cash.” Kate cuts back.
“Oh yes Ma’am we do. Just after the
fire, Widow Ricketts struck oil. She’s
offered to buy us out. I’ve got her
letter here.”
“I don’t care you got a signature from
President Lincoln himself. You two is my
whores and we got some men who want your services so you get your pretty little
selves cleaned up so we can make some money.”
“I don’t think you understand. We got the money. We want out.”
“I don’t think you understand. I got a business to run.”
Two days ago, before the fire, before I’d
seen what would happen if I’d stay, I would have backed down. I would have dropped my eyes and said a
quiet, yes, ma’am, sorry, ma’am. But not
now, not today. Anger bloomed in me hot
as the fire I’d escaped.
“We not here to negotiate.” I say, handing Kate the folded paper Emmy had
written out.
“Ben, Ben you believe this one?” She
say
But Ben don’t look himself. He still cursing under his breath and blood
is streaming down his face. “I don’t give a fuck what them ladies want
Kate. I need a fucking drink” And with these words he strolled right out
the door.
“Well, I never!” Kate says under her breath, her face
flushing. She opens the parchment and
looks down. I see her reaction real
quick before she can fix it. She looked
surprised by the numbers Emmy has given her for us. But she a good business woman and she correct
herself real quick.
“Well, we’ll have to see if this figure
will work. You girls get out of here now
before I change my mind. You’re lucky I
have one hell of a headache this afternoon.”
And with these words she folds the paper into a tiny, tight note and
stuffs it into her huge bosom.
I grab Jane’s arm too tight and spin
her out of that place fast. We walk as
quickly as we can down the street back to the far edge of town where Emmy
lives. As we walk I can feel the air
around me grow lighter and lighter. As
if a cool breeze had suddenly picked up and washed over us. We walked through that wind, arms linked,
feeling lighter than air, the dust swirling in the air, the ash of the burnt
hotel back to the shade of them hemlocks on Emmy’s property where she sitting
and shouting out to us, “Well? How’d it
go? You free yet? Cause we got us some
work cut out for us today!”
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