Abediah Thornton

Chapter 15 - Friday

Abediah had been out on the farm all morning. She'd just finished one of the trays of lasagne for lunch and was now on her way into town. She was meeting with Mrs Winnie Holtby-Cope at 2pm at the office in town. She felt nervous, and excited and a bit apprehensive, unsure whether the lady in red would be able to help or it would turn out to be another roller coaster.

She pulled the truck into the space directly in front of the lawyer's office and went inside. The friendly little tinkle above the door welcomed her again. 'Good Afternoon Mrs Thornton,' said Karen, the secretary. Karen's blouse was pink today, but just as frilly as last time.

'Hello,' she said. Karen came around her desk to meet her and motioned for her to come further into the office.

'Winnie's just popped out Mrs Thornton but she'll be back in a few minutes, she asked for you to wait in her office.' Karen led her towards one of the two doors at the back of the room. Opening a door she motioned to the chairs in front of the desk inside.

Abediah looked around the room. The walls were white, just like the rest of the office. There was a bookshelf the height and width of the room running along the wall to her left. The rest of the room to the right had a couple of comfy looking chairs in one corner and a plant in the other. There were some nice landscape pictures on the walls featuring pretty sunsets. She was sitting at the big wooden desk next to the bookshelf.

There weren't any windows in the office. Abediah guessed this was because it had been a shop before. But actually, between the white walls, the clever lighting and the big landscape pictures it didn't seem dingy at all, quite the opposite.

The bookshelf was mostly filled with those official looking books that most lawyers seem to need to have. However, the central shelf was much more empty.

Abediah rose from her chair to look at the three pictures placed on the central shelf. Taking pride of place was a large framed picture. It showed two women, with huge smiles on their faces. When she looked closer she saw that both of the women were wearing wedding dresses. One of the women was clearly Winnie, the other was black with a short afro. Did they have a double wedding? She wondered.

She moved to the pictures on either side of this big one. On the left the two women were dressed in graduation robes. They both had the flat hats on their heads and the black woman had a gold band around the neck of her robe. They were posing together with big smiles. They both looked much younger than the middle picture.

The picture on the right was another wedding picture. This time the two women were in the centre but they were surrounded by friends and family. There were so many women in the picture that the two fathers and what must have been three brothers looked quite lonely. The penny finally dropped: Mrs Holtby-Cope. Holtby & Cope Attorney's at law.

She sat down. Of course, it was a brave new world. She was sure she must have known some girls like that when she was younger, but in those days nobody talked about it. Girls married boys and that was that. She thought some more and then looked back at the picture of the two happy faced brides. They were happy, and really, that was the most important thing. She decided she was rather glad it was a brave new world.

Moments later Winnie burst into the office. 'Mrs Thornton, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting,' she said in her booming voice. Abediah turned in her chair.