Talk of The Town: A Tale of Two Cities

Chapter Five B is for Your Blessed Anyway

Tess put the key in the lock and gave it a slight turn and a heave, the front door of the house was old and worn and yes you usually had to give it a push to open it.

Inside she could smell the strong smell of turps sweeping the house; naturally the smell of chemicals meant her mother Jennifer Howard-Williams was painting. She took a peek from the basement door and got an instant headache, it looked as if it was going to be a lonely Friday night for Brooklyn Girl.

Tess had noticed her Mom working heaps lately, and she wasn’t really sure why. She guessed she was having another expo at some upper Brooklyn loft.

No sooner had she put her bag on the floor beside her bed did the phone rang, “Hello Tess speaking!”

“Darling I have been trying to reach your Mother all day!” exclaimed the voice loudly; it was Tess’s mother’s agent Lottie. “Oh well I will get her for you then” Said Tess stamping down the stairs silently.

“Mom, Lottie!” She tapped her mom’s shoulder; Her Mom was apparently listening to her iPod of songs. “Oh you gave me a heart attack!” she stated taking the phone.

“Maybe if your music wasn’t up so load you would of heard it ringing non-stop!” Tess walked back up the basement stairs to the kitchen.

Tess knew that might have sounded bitchy, but after that interview she felt her mood sour. She had been rather content when she had met that Alexandra Elliot Prep Guy, he had been really nice.

And yet as she made her way up the stairs with a grilled cheese sandwich, she couldn’t help but think why He seemed so familiar although they had never met.

It was late at night as Tess sat up nibbling on Her pencil, studying up on Her geometry homework for the coming week. She couldn’t sleep from her muddled mind thinking of Dean Tracey, she had asked herself over and over again why she felt she knew him already. It was pressing at her every thought that She flung the geometry text book to the floor and stamped out of the bedroom.

Tess sat down and pulled at the box in the bookshelf, some old books fell to were the box had been. She let out a little cough as dust blew everywhere and she blew further to get the remainder off.

Carefully she lifted the lid off and looked down into a scattered pile of black and white still frames. She picked up a pile and scattered them on the ground, lifting them to look at them individually.

She acquired one photograph and examined it, looking at the minor details.

Her Mom stood beside a slightly taller similar looking girl, and tucked on the girl’s arm was a tall dark curly haired man in his youth of his late 20s.

Tess flipped to the back of the photograph, and read the documentation on it.

Hamptons 1985

Jennifer, Rose and John Tracey.

The man looked similar to Dean’s features; their last names were the same too. But that all made Tess freak! Did her Mom really know rich upper east side people; by the looks of the Channel she wore in that picture was it possible she was once one of them?

Tess shoved them back into the disorganised box, thinking critically if such a possibility was realistic. In truth Tess realized it was possible after never knowing her grandparents, let alone never knowing her father.

But then why hadn’t her mum criticised her wanting to get into Alexandra Elliot, was it because She knew Tess the girl from Brooklyn so didn’t stand a chance?

Tess rolled over onto her side back in bed trying to think why would her Mom lie to her about her own childhood?

Behind every lie there is a truth, apparently Brooklyn Girl has just stumbled across one but doesn’t that really mean Brooklyn Girl is blessed anyway.