Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN THE MIRROR
Ruth opened her front door before I reached the porch.
She took one look at my scarf.
“Who?”
I tried to answer.
Instead, my face collapsed.
She pulled me inside and held me while I cried against her shoulder.
Then she made tea neither of us drank.
When I finished telling her, she stood up.
“I’m calling Celia.”
“I don’t want anyone seeing me.”
“Celia’s seen me after three divorces and a home perm.
She can handle a bad morning.”
Celia had cut hair in our town for forty years.
She opened her salon early the next day and locked the door behind us.
I took off the scarf.
She looked carefully, then met my eyes.
“What would you like?”
Such a simple question.
Nobody had asked me that in months.
“Something that looks like I chose it.”
She nodded.
“We can do that.”
I watched the remaining length fall.
This time, I knew where the scissors were.
This time, when Celia asked whether she could go shorter around my ear, she waited for my answer.
When she finished, a silver-streaked crop framed my face.
I looked older than the woman in my wedding photographs.
I also looked like someone I recognized.
Ruth stood behind me.
“There you are.”
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I let it stop.
Then came a voicemail.
“Mom, this is getting ridiculous.
Vanessa says you took pictures of private paperwork.
Call me before you make things worse.”
Celia rested a hand on the chair.
“Want me to turn that off?”
“No.”
I saved the voicemail.
Later, Ruth drove me home to collect medication and clothes.
Vanessa opened the door before I used my key.
“Well.
You fixed it.”
I walked past her.
Daniel came out of the study.
My study.
“Where were you?”
“With a friend.”
“You had us worried.”
I looked at him until he glanced away.
Upstairs, I found my bedroom drawers open.
The small fireproof document box from my closet was on the bed.
Its lid was unlocked.
Daniel appeared behind me.
“We were looking for the insurance paperwork.”
“You went through my bedroom?”
“We’re trying to help.”
I opened the box.
My passport was there.
Richard’s death certificate.
Our marriage license.
But the folder containing copies of the house documents was missing.
From downstairs, Vanessa called, “Daniel, tell her about the appointment.”
May you like
He closed his eyes for half a second.
Then he said, “A notary’s coming tomorrow morning.”
