I Went Down (NaNoWriMo Read-Along)

26 Emmy Jane

Emmy Jane set the photograph of the paper moon on her bedside table. The simple cardboard frame had a tab on the back which folded out to hold it upright, and she adjusted it so the first thing she would see when she woke up would be the smile on her own face, and on Russ’s. Davina came over to look at it.

“Did you go to the carnival? I wish you had woken me up. I would have gone with you.” She caught herself and added, “If you didn’t mind, I mean.”

“You could go tomorrow,” Emmy Jane said. “I think they will still be there.”

Davina stood next to her bed and twisted her hands behind her back, still looking down at the picture. “Is that… it’s not Mister Primrose, is it?”

“Just a friend from home.” Emmy Jane went to the wardrobe and began unbuttoning her dress to put on her blue dressing gown. Luessa came in as she was pulling it over her bare shoulders.

“Did you take the second half of that medicine?” She pointed to the brown bottle, which Emmy Jane had left on the table behind the photograph.

“Not yet. I was going to take a quick shower before we get dressed for the show.”

Luessa hung on the doorframe, watching her, trying to take a measure of her mood. Davina looked from one to the other. Emmy Jane sighed and picked up the bottle. She uncorked it and pinched her nose to avoid the strong medicinal smell as she drank the contents. “There. Done. Gone.”

“I’ll see you in the dressing room,” Luessa said. She left the door open and Emmy Jane followed her out into the hall. She saw Luessa return to her room. Emmy Jane went to the shower room. Pearline and another girl were there already, drying their hair and chattering to each other. When they saw Emmy Jane, they fell silent. Had they been talking about her? Pearline did not greet her, though the other girl looked as if she might say something but had thought better of it. Emmy Jane went past them, hung up her robe and her towel and turned on the water.

Of all the conveniences of city life, hot running water was the thing Emmy Jane liked the most. It was the best part of a river—water rushing by and carrying everything away in an instant—and none of the river’s downsides. Never cold, never muddy, never overflowing, able to be turned on and turned off in an instant. If the Ibai could only find a way to control the river as these pipes controlled the city’s water! Turn a valve and send the cargo down the river. Turn another and reverse the flow to bring the boats back without the trouble of stoking the steam engines in the big paddleboats, or breaking men’s backs over their oars. Turn the river on to its fullest flood and wash away all the people who had lodged themselves here at the mouth of the Tarn. Each of them a snag under the surface, waiting like Jimmy Primrose to tear through her hull and sink her dreams. But Emmy Jane wasn’t going to sink. Emiliana Josephine would not be a forgotten wreck washed up on a delta sandbar. Russ was right. Emmy Jane was going to be brave until she felt brave.

She scrubbed away the muddy streets of Delta Mouth, and the carnival on Rouminou. She scrubbed away Russ’s arm around her shoulders and the sticky seats in the tram. She scrubbed away Luessa and Davina’s concern for and the whispered words of Pearline and her friend. She scrubbed away everything that had happened the night before, she even washed away the previous night’s shower. When she turned off the water and rubbed her body dry with a thick towel, everything from the last week had gone down the drain.

Emiliana Josephine pulled on her robe and smoothed her hands over the pale silk. A leading lady always wore silk, or something equally expensive.

When she walked into the dressing room, it was already full. The other girls of the chorus were half dressed, helping each other with hair, makeup and costumes. Davina was helping a voluptuous girl tighten the corset which transformed her large breasts from striking to unmistakable. While her friend was pinning up her red curls, Pearline was in animated conversation with Luessa.

“—if she just disappears again?” Pearline caught the look on Luessa’s face and turned to see Emiliana in the doorway.

“I’m not disappearing,” Emiliana said. She pointed her words at Pearline. “You don’t have to take over my place tonight.”

“I thought you might want to rest,” Luessa said into the hush that had fallen over the dressing room.

“I’m fine,” Emiliana said. “Nothing can keep me off the stage for long. Singing is my destiny.”

Pearline bit her lip and turned away. Her friend bent down to whisper in her ear. Emiliana went to the rack where the half-empty hangers held the costumes of the chorus and pulled hers down. She put her dressing gown on the hanger instead and pulled the dress over her head. The beads covering its surface shivered and whispered as they settled on her body. The cool glass pulled the heat of the shower out through the thin cloth and goosebumps sprang up on her skin. Luessa came over and helped her shape her hair, combing the damp curls flat over her head. “Are you sure?” she whispered in Emiliana’s ear. “You could take the night off.”

Emiliana shook her head and picked up the feathered headdress that would settle down over her hair. It wouldn’t be pretty when she took it off at the end of the night, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that she would be on stage, singing and beautiful, in front of anyone who came to see her.