Clockwork Firefly

Clockwork Firefly - Chapter Twenty-Four

The clock in the hall chimed four. The quiet sound of a door closing was nearly lost in the space between the third and fourth chime, but the soft footsteps came after, moving slowly along the carpeted hall and down the stairs without hurry. The hardwood was less forgiving of the sound of her heels hitting, so she relented to keeping on her toes as she moved toward the front door.

"Are you playing hide and seek?" A whisper from behind her made her jump and she dropped the fruit crate she'd been carrying, the contents spilling out across the floor. She whipped her head around even as she was crouching to try and shove everything back into it. She spied the innocent golden face and wild hair instantly.

"No, The Jon. I am not playing anything." She rose and held the crate before her, wrapped in her arms. "I am leaving."

He made a high pitched sound and moved over with a haste that sent her back a step. "You can't just go. You didn't say goodbye or anything."

"I have to. If I stay to say goodbye..." She realized the complexity of the truth was perhaps a bit hard to grasp. "You know what chivalry is, right? Knights and fair maidens, and men expected to put down their coats over puddles and give up their seat on the bus to ladies even if they're really really tired? Well, that's the problem. If I stay to say goodbye, then someone will say 'stay' but they will only do it because of chivalry. They are good men, the Walters, and they feel bad because of what happened on the train. I don't want to be anyone's burden. "

"But we like having you here." He hemmed and hawed a bit, scuffing at the carpet with his toe. "You treat us nice and you made us ice cream, and Rabbit said next time you made jelly I could come help."

She couldn't bring herself to correct him about it just being shaved ice. It was not the time to be pedantic. He seemed so dejected she began rethinking her decision, but came back around the moment she realized that what she said before had not changed. If she told the Walters they would insist on taking her to the train and hiring her a companion for the trip, they'd make her pack up all the dresses they had bought her and likely offer her more money for the trip. Things had changed though, and she could not bear the scene that would come if she told them the truth. "If you promise to not tell anyone I have gone until they ask outright, I will tell you a secret, The Jon. A secret that nobody else will know. Just you and me, alright?"

He perked a bit and nodded so hard his hat went down across his eyes and he had to push it back into place. "I like secrets."

"Okay." She gave a theatrical look left, then right before leaning in, lowering her voice to a whisper. "I'm not going home. I'm staying here in California, just for a little while. But you can't tell anyone else. If you do, then the Walters find out, they will do that... chivalry thing. " She made a small face to show it was an unpleasant thought.

He mimicked it and nodded, dragging his index finger over his heart in a giant X shape. "I promise." He cocked his head. "But what if they ask right out. I don't want to lie."

"If any of the Walters should ask, right out, if you know where I am, then you can tell them all you know." She assumed that even if he spilled the beans, 'California' was a very large place and gave no real help at all to tracking her down to turn her into a charity case. She was afraid if she weren't on the sidewalk when the cab arrived that the driver might honk and she didn't want the household roused. "I have to go, The Jon." She leaned up and kissed his cheek, a smile given. Hugging the small fruit crate, containing a single change of clothing as well as a few used toiletries that the Walters couldn't use anyway but a lady needed to look her best to her chest, she stepped back and hurried to the door, stepping out and running down toward the yellowed lights that were creeping down the street. She didn't dare look back, for fear she'd break into tears and succumb to feminine weakness. Sliding into the cab, she pulled the folded portion of the paper from the crate, unfolding it, her head bowed as she re-read the ad for the hundredth time. "Hotel del Coronado." She sat back as the cab pulled away into the still dark morning.