The Brooch

The Link

"How do you know all that grandmama? Weren't you way too young at the time? Was it granddaddy who told you that? And his daddy, Julius who told him?"

"I know all that Maple, because of the one who was there from the beginning to see it all. And no it wasn't your granddaddy or Julius for that matter."

"Then who?"

"My Muther." Grandma Hastings proclaimed. "What Julius did tell yo granddaddy, coincided with what my Mumma told me. So that's how I know it's true. See, She knew the Lexington's quite well. More than most. Especially Mrs. Lexington. She was almost her right hand."

"I didn't know that Mumma." Jeffy said.

"Oh honey, most don't. Even yo daddy didn't know that. Not till many years later that is."

"But Mumma, that still doesn't explain the letter and what daddy wrote about you..."

"Oh it explains a lot Scarlet? You just have to have your ears perked ripen open to listening of the details. See I was Magnus's Lexington Crowder's school mate. In fact we knew each other in diapers. Naw you see, I told you, my Mumma was very close to Mrs. Lexington. Her right hand. But what I didn't tell you was, My mother worked for the Lexington's. She was a housemaid, Mrs. Lexington's most scared confidant, companion and friend. Oddly enough for a very short time, Magnus's nanny. And once upon a time we lived under the same roof, all the while my Papa Hubbard was off to war... Truth is, the Lexington's, well Mrs. Lexington took us in."

"Mumma, you never told us that." Jeffy replied

"Wasn't nothing there to tell."

"I beg to differ." Mama Woods disagreed. "I think it makes a lot of difference."

"Well if it comforts your heart any Scarlet, it was only for a short while. Till my Papa returned. "Still, Magnus never let me forget." Grandma Hastings said rolling her eyes.

"I can't even imagine Grandmama." Maple said with a sour expression.

"See funny thang is... there was a time, she wasn't so bad. Not at all, in the first few years that is. In fact she became one of my closest friends."

"Well what changed it?"

"Yo daddy..." Grandma Hastings smiled. "He changed it all. Why when he came to Orange Haven, dressed to the nines in his best dressed suit. He was thick, strong and tall! Cleverly sharp tongued and those swimmingly gorgeous green eyes. Oh I just knew he had a sweet invitin taste for days. Like some juicy cherries, plucked ripe from the tree. Honey, life for me was over! I knew I wanted that delicious, delectable man from the beginning. Em!" She said licking her lips.

"Umm... Grandmama?"

"Honey, Grandma gone. I think she done took a round trip ticket on the love train, slippin into la la land, thinkin bout my daddy. Em." Mama Woods expressed like she had just gulped down some sour milk, looking at her reminiscent, googly eyed Mama.

Jeffy shared in the same sour expression as his sister.

"Snap out of it Mumma!" Jeffy fussed. "Sides I don't feel like hearin bout another one of yo love sagas with daddy! No ma'am! Hmm emm!"

"Well you gonna hear it son! How you thank you gonna find out about the brooch if you don't?" Grandma Hastings griped. "I don't know why y'all always get so wiggly when I talk about my love with yo daddy."

"Cuz the way you talk about yo love with daddy, Mumma!" Jeffy slightly complained. "And that look, especially that particular look when you talk about daddy! That look in yo eye." Jeffy cringed.

"That look in my eye, is how y'all got here."

"Exactly." Jeffy replied gagging at the thought.

"Oh hush up all that. I ain't paying you or yo sister no mind. If you want to know bout me and the brooch you'll squeeze yo butt in that chair and listenin."

"I'm listenin Mumma. I'm listenin."

"You betta. Sides, from what I hear from yo sister there, you ain't far off from lookin all googly eyed yo self. Emm hmm. With Miss Georgia Pine. Or is it Cornelia Pumpkin Lee?" Grandma Hastings teased her son.

But Jeffy wasn't amused as he stared down his sister, who dared not return eye contact back as she sheepishly looked away. Maple was entertained as she snickered in the background.

"Don't know whut you laughin at Maple." Jeffy scowled. "Side yo Mumma makes the same expression when she talks about yo daddy."

"Huuuu. Don't do that." Maple cringed at the thought as she kicked her uncle under the table.

"I do not!" Mama Woods fussed as she joined in kicking and smacking at Jeffy was well.

"Naw do you wanna hear or don'tchu?" Grandma Hastings fussed.

"We said we were listening Mumma." Scarlet replied, still scowling at her brother.

"Okay then... as I said, everything changed when yo daddy came to town. I wasn't lookin for him. But boy was he lookin for me." Grandma Hastings gushed. "Apparently he had been watching me for some time, every time he came to town for a visit. As you know he didn't live in Orange Haven, after Julius moved them down to Ponchas Row. And his father, Julius may no longer have been a goldsmith. But he did stay in the same trade. And he taught yo daddy, my Matthew, everythang he knew. Julius after all was an artisan." Grandma Hastings said.

Just then Grandma Hastings got up from the dining room table where they all sat. There in that same room was a massive cherry curio cabinet made of oak. Stepping on the step ladder she tipped on her toes, as she reached on the top of it, where she pulled out the key that belonged to the cabinet. She opened it. She pulled out a small, yet very charming, hand carved wooden decorative box. It was vintage. It was unique. It was plain. Yet it was without a doubt also incredibly captivating. In fact it was bewitching.

Delicately, she placed it in front of her children and Maple. Right beside the letter and the brooch.

"That's one of daddy's boxes." Mama Woods said.

"It was his first. And it was the one he gave to me." She nostalgically smiled. "And it was this same box that held that brooch for many years. Although I could part with the brooch, I couldn't part with the box. Not yet anyways...

For a moment it seemed like Grandma Hastings was about to cry. But for the sake of her children, she held back her tears...