White Aprons

Chapter 7

     The wind whips through my hair ferociously, like a caged animal batting and pulling at the bars of his entrapment. Water rains down through the locks of my hair and reaches my skin, causing me to shiver. I scan my surroundings for cover, and run to the nearest dry spot. My brunette hair, now tossed and tangled, finally falls onto my shoulders as I walk beneath the big oak tree in the castle garden. The wind, feeling successful with the damage it has done to my hair, leaves it tassled on my shoulders, wrapping around my neck, and sticking like a wet blanket. I brush a few damp strands of hair out of my eyes, but they fall straight onto my face again, despite my desperate blowing with my mouth. Of course I have no tie to pull my hair back. Forget it.

     I ventured outside on a search for basil, but to no avail. The head of the kitchen, Marge, had seen me doing my usual dusting in the drawing room at late hours and thought I was just standing there like a fool, her words. When I protested, she said she had something actually useful for me to do, and despite my earlier protesting, I gradually accepted. Dusting is the most boring job of any maid, in my opinion, and any who say otherwise should just try it themselves. It's especially boring when there is no one in the room to eavesdrop on.

     Apparently Marge was extra busy preparing little Prince Henry's banquet dinner for tomorrow night. Guests had started to arrive for the ball, which was to be held Sunday, for the prince's tenth birthday! Some had come early for the banquet tomorrow, which was on his actual day of birth. Kings, Queens, princes, princesses, and even those few castle maids, who travel with their masters, are coming from all various kingdoms to see Prince Henry finally turn ten! Ten is a huge deal for boys in the kingdom, for it is when they finally begin to learn the ways of the King, so someday they may rule. The next important age is 18, when if at that time, the king has passed, they can rule.

     Getting chosen to be one of the maids who travels with the royal family is supposed to be a very special honor and all of the maids are very ecstatic to be chosen to travel to another kingdom, even though they have to work. Now that I think about, I may be assigned to work the ball. Oh god, hopefully I won't be chosen for clean-up duty. I mean, just imagine a castle room after several kingdoms full of royals have danced, eaten, and drank for a huge celebration. Would you like to clean that up? I didn't think so.

     So I leaned against the wooden countertop and listened to Marge go on and on about how much stress she was under to feed all those mouths and how she had to make Henry's favorite meal the best she's ever done it.

     "Spaghetti is his absolute favorite dish!" she told me.

     And so I was sent outside to collect some basil for Marge to sprinkle in the sauce, when it began to rain. The droplets found their way through the clouds and came plummeting down to the ground, and to their death. I immediately took cover.

    And so now I stand under the tree, in the cool dark of the night, with no basil. A drop of water from my hair slides down my forehead and onto my cheek. I brush it away dismissively like a tear.

    I know Marge won't let me back in without a clump of basil, even if it was lightning. I sigh and lean my damp back against the tree bark, thankful that there are no lightning strikes. I cross my arms over my shivering body and sniffle. I'm probably catching a cold. My green eyes scan the garden around me, but it is too dark, and the heavy rain constricts my view. I would sit, but even the ground under the dry tree is muddy, and so I stand, waiting. The rain will pass soon....Hopefully.

     A few minutes later, my gaze shifts to the slowly dimming castle. Lights are being turned off one after the other, everyone deciding to get a good night's rest for the big day tomorrow. I sigh. Will this rain ever stop? Some of the droplets have found their way through the thick branches of the sturdy oak, and I am now shaking like a girl left out in the rain, which I am. I tilt my head back and let out a groan.