I Went Down (NaNoWriMo Read-Along)

17 Emmy Jane

Emmy Jane—or was she Emiliana now?—stretched and pulled on her robe. It was a beautiful pale blue silk with pink and white flowers embroiderd on it, a parting gift from Contessa Marietta. “A leading lady should always wear silk,” the long haired girl had said, and it seemed like an important truth. Emiliana sat down at the vanity and teased out the curls of her hair until they made a pleasing shape around her face. Her roommate was still sleeping, but Emiliana hummed quietly to herself, reliving snatches of the previous night’s show. Of course, it wasn’t all her influence that had made the men so happy, but surely it hadn’t hurt.

When her hair was arranged to her liking, she shed the robe and put on a dress. It was made of a polka dotted fabric that wrapped around her body and had a matching belt to keep it in place. By Ibai standards, its bright blacka nd white pattern was thoroughly outrageous, which made it all the more lovely. For a moment she set a small green capulet onto her curls, then put it back onto the hat stand. There was no need to wear a hat to the kitchen, after all. She’d put it on again after breakfast, before she went out with Luessa to see if there was anything new that her friend at Bellea’s could introduce them to.

As she went down the hall to the kitchen, though, Harlan spotted her from his post by the front door. “Emiliana? That you, girl?”

“Yes,” she called back. The giant man no longer seemed as fearsome as he had when she had first arrived at Minnie’s, when she had been on the outside trying to get in. Now that she was the leading lady, he treated her as nice as you please, just like all the other men.

“There’s a fella out here, says he’s got a letter for you.”

It would be Russell Blake, of course. Her feet carried her away from breakfast and down the hall.

“You want to see him?” Harlan asked.

“Yes, I was expecting a letter from home.”

Harlan pulled the door open enough to stick his wide head through and bark into the street. “Hey! You still want to deliver that letter?”

Emiliana peered around Harlan’s bulk. Sure as water flows downhill, there was Russell Blake turning around and heading back toward the front steps of Minnie’s. If he had any thoughts about Harlan’s rude yelling out the door, he seemed to forget them when he saw her face.

“I’ve got a letter for you,” he said. “And this.” He was carrying a small, flat wooden crate in his arms. The sides were stamped with familiar markings and she knew immediately what was inside.

“Pomegranates!” Emmy Jane—for with another Ibaian she must be Emmy Jane—slipped underneath Harlan’s arm and out onto the stoop.

Russ smiled at her and balanced the flat with one hand while he reached into his jacket with the other and drew out a letter. He handed her the thin envelope and retreated back down a step under Harlan’s watchful eye. It was unlabeled, but she ripped it open immediately and looked over the first lines scrawled in Elodie’s hand.

You wouldn’t have thought, but Mother and Father guessed right away where you had gone. Aunt M blames it all on the records, but even Father wouldn’t let her throw them out. And since Father said we would keep the records, she got very brave and said to Aunt M, ‘Just you wait, one day you’ll turn on the radio and they’ll be playing a song that sounds so familiar, and it’ll be because there’s a Neely girl singing it to you.’ So you see that they are only a little angry, but mostly proud that you are going to be famous. They don’t know about the prize money yet, though, and I’ll never tell that you took it, even if it was supposed to be for all of us girls. Send back enough for boat fare and I’ll come to sing with you as soon as I can!