Big Bangs, Prohibition, and a Sugar Daddy

A Party Gone Wrong

"You'd better go on ahead and help Carol." Luke told me. "She's taller than you are. But maybe you can find her some dry clothes."

I did as I was told. I brought Carol into the kitchen. Clara and Sara stared at the soaked Carol. "Clara, please bring some towels. Sara do we still have some hot coffee?"

"Yes, Miss Ellen, we do." Sara was wise enough to busy herself with getting the coffee, not to ask questions. Clara had already gone for towels.

There is a small table sitting at the window looking out at the pool. I sat Carol down at the table. Mother took a seat on the other side of the table. Sara placed the hot, black coffee in front of Carol. It was October, poor Carol was shivering from the cold. Although warm to the touch, the water had not been that warm to begin with. The cooler air didn't help matters any.

Clara came into the room with an arm full of towels and a robe. I took a towel and dried Carol's hair. Clara simply stood there with the other towels until Mother grabbed the robe. She helped Carol into it.

"Is there a bathroom where Carol can change out of these wet clothes." Mother asked me.

"Clara, take Carol, and my Mother to the bathroom. I'll see if I have any dry clothes that might fit Carol." Clara led them off though the staff dining room and on into the hall where the bathroom was.

"What happened?" Sara asked me once they were in the hall.

"Just a lark gone wrong." Which was what it was. "Carol fell into the pool as a result."

Clara loaned Carol a dress. It was a recent black dress, made of cotton. In good condition. I am too short for Carol to comfortably fit into one of my dresses. Carol has a good two inches on me, is not as developed. Which seems even more unfair to me. Why would I, who did not want feminine attributes end up so well developed, while my sister didn't.

Luke had escorted Phillip back to the Living Room. "I'm sorry."

Carol had come in with Mother, she wore the black dress, and possibly undergarments that Clara would have loaned her. "It wasn't funny."

"Don't be too harsh on Phillip." I was standing in the door that led to the Dining Room. "He's pretty hopped up. Possibly for a while now."

"It's my fault." Carol sat on the arm of the chair next to Phillip. "I knew he was heavily drugged, but I wanted so much to come here. I should have let Henry drive us back to Phillip's apartment."

"It might have been for the best, dear." Mother was sitting in the arm chair that she had been sitting in before. "You know we could have gotten together at another time."

"Oh, Mother. It had been nearly a week. Sitting with Phillip in the hospital. Working at the department store. I just wanted to go out somewhere besides the hospital, work, or the apartment." Carol was crying. Not the crocodile tears she used for sympathy. Genuine ones. "I was being selfish again."

That was an admission I never expected from Carol. That she felt a week without any recreation was a long time, I expected. Not admitting she had been selfish in coming here despite how hopped up Phillip was. There was the 'again' as well. Meaning she realized she was selfish before this and was admitting it. I wondered at what revelation Carol had come to as she sat in the hospital, at work, and at home. Apparently all work and no play had made Carol reflective.

"Phillip has more opium in his system than he should. It's possible that it's heroine. All the same, they used too much of it." Phillip was beginning to recover. "Depending on how long Phillip has been hopped up like this, it's possible that when heroin begins to lose its effect he will suffer from withdraws. He may get very sick."