Story takes place in the 1920s
This is the story Zorell Dupree, a young twenty year old nurse who moves to the city working for a prestigious hospital. She is a small time girl thrown into the fast-paced world of the city.
Her childhood friend Lel...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The next morning Zorell woke early. Breakfast time was casual and was only made on demand. She only felt like having a bowl of porridge flavored with cinnamon and a cup of coffee. She didn't sleep well the night before. She was having those nightmares again. The ones she had been having since she left home. It was the one about her father finding her and dragging her back home. It was a realistic possibility, but she told herself that she had to stay strong no matter what he did.
"Good Morning, Miss Kastor," she said as the older woman walked into the kitchen. She was wearing a peach colored morning frock and her off white shoes. She only had two pairs and remembered Della and Trixie's offer. When she received her fist paycheck she would purchase a few more pairs.
"Only porridge this morning?" Miss Kastor asked. The house was quiet and she assumed the others were not awake as off yet.
"No time for anything else," Zorell said, trying to eat as quickly as she could. "I promised to stop by the hospital to visit a sick friend."
"I hope she's not too ill," Mister Kastor said sitting down at the kitchen table next to her.
"She was, but she's getting better," Zorell said and sipped her hot coffee. "I have something I need at ask her anyway."
"Would it have something to do with the young gentlemen who brought you here yesterday?" Zorell looked surprised that she was so intuitive.
"You don't like him very much, do you?" Zorell asked. She knew a little about what her hostility was towards Gavin, but she wondered just how deep it ran.
"Just be careful around that one," Miss Kastor said. "I don't want to see you get hurt."
"What about him?" Zorell asked, and Miss Kastor looked confused. "He's been hurt too." Pearl Kastor looked intrigued by her assessment. "Someone who acts the way he does only would because he's been hurt by someone. You know, pretending nothing matters because everything does. Am I right?"
"You're not wrong," Miss Kastor said giving her a coy smile. "How did you get so smart?"
"Observation," she said and realized her coffee had turned lukewarm. She gulped it down not wanting to waste it. "I grew up in a house where I was never the center of attention, so I was able to watch what was really going on from the outside."
"A pretty girl like you must have been the apple of her father's eye," she said and the thought made Zorell laugh.
"It was the exact opposite," Zorell said and tried to keep up the humor. If she didn't she feared that she might cry. "The truth is my father hates me."
"Now, I can't believe that," Miss Kastor said, but Zorell looked dead serious. She wished it was just an exaggeration, but it was anything but. "What about your mother?"
"She died when I was a baby," Zorell said with a sad look on her face. Miss Kastor's eyes dropped. "I never really knew her."
"You must miss her," Miss Kastor said, but Zorell was too choked up to speak. She just stood up and carried her soiled dishes to the sink and quickly cleaned them.
