Rouge(53)

What did I let go of? I wondered. But all I said was Oh good. I hope so.

Can’t expect miracles, of course. Know better by now. But maybe I’ll have a bit more of a glow today. That would be a very nice surprise. I take a quick look up in Mother’s ceiling mirror before I go out the door to meet those voices, getting louder now.

Oh, look at that. Yes. I do seem to be glowing a little today. How nice.



* * *




Two men are in the living room, so my ears were right. One is wearing a linen suit and holding a briefcase; the other is shirtless and holding some sort of squeegee. Briefcase man looks a little like a goblin. The shirtless squeegee one looks like a merman, except instead of a fish tail, jeans. He’s very pretty. It’s a little funny to see the two of them talking. Such an odd couple. Who are they? I know them, I know I know them, but it’s taking my brain a second to give me their names. While I wait, I watch a pretty white cat do figure eights around their legs as they talk to each other in low voices. Now they both turn to look at me. The looks on their faces are very strange.

I smile. “Hello, good morning,” I say, because my brain still hasn’t given me their names. “I was about to shower but then I heard your voices over the chimes and the waves.”

They both just keep staring at me like they’ve seen… someone dead. Boo, I want to say. The pretty man with the squeegee looks stunned, why stunned? Just a bit of a glow. He grips the squeegee like a gun pointed right at me. I laugh to put him at ease. “Don’t shoot,” I say, but he doesn’t laugh with me. Maybe he’s an idiot or something. I turn to the goblin man. He might be more reasonable since he has a briefcase. But he looks just as shocked as the pretty squeegee man. His shock isn’t so pretty because of his goblin face.

And then I remember. Of course. Mother’s lawyer. This goblin man is Mother’s lawyer.

“You’re Mother’s lawyer. Tell me, is there something wrong?”

That seems to snap him out of it, though he’s still looking at me funny. “Belle,” the goblin man says, like he’s confused, like my name is a question. “Sorry to barge in like this… I came by because I’ve just received a notification from your mother’s bank.”

“Mother’s bank.” Huh. The roses in my mind flash redly in their vase. “What about Mother’s bank?”

“Well, I was hoping you’d tell me,” the goblin man says, trying to smile. Sweating a bit.

“Tell you?” Tell you what? I hear a faint swelling of those chimes. The mist over my thoughts grows thick. “I think you better tell me first.”

“Well.” And the goblin man clears his throat. He looks very pale. “It looks like all her debts—”

Beside me on the wall, one of Mother’s many mirrors shines and I can’t help but look into it. I’m a little nervous to look, I have to say. The way both these men are gaping at me, you’d think I have tentacles growing out of my face or something, haha. But when I turn to the mirror, I’m pleasantly surprised. Very pleasantly. My, my. Look at that.

“Belle, did you hear me?”

“What was that?” I’m still looking at my reflection, my face, which looks really very—

“I said, it looks like all of your mother’s debts have been paid off.”

“Paid off?”

“Yes. She’s totally cleared.”

“Cleared,” I say to my glowing face in the glass. Looking into my own shining eyes. “Unbelievable. Well, that’s wonderful, isn’t it? A very pleasant surprise.”

“It is. But—”

“What? Cleared is a good thing, isn’t it?”

A very good thing, my mirror eyes say. Now I look at the goblin man in the glass, though it’s hard. Very hard to look away from my own reflection just now, which is smiling at me like of course cleared is a good thing. The best thing. The happiest turn of events. He’s still staring at my face with that strange, scared expression. Why scared? Shouldn’t I be the scared one? Doesn’t he look even more goblin-like in the mirror?

“Of course,” he says. “I was just very surprised. I was under the impression… I was under another impression… about your finances.”

“Another impression.” I stare at his face in the mirror. Definitely he looks more like a goblin there. And his mouth movements don’t quite sync up with his words. Sort of like there’s a lag, if that makes sense, how funny. Maybe I’m still a bit out of it from last night. Or maybe there’s a glitch in the glass. My eyes or the glass? Can’t be my eyes, because I can see myself so incredibly clearly. And what I see. What I see is so—

“So you cleared her debts, then?” goblin man asks.

And the answer that comes to me right away is Yes. Definitely. I cleared them. In the glass, I feel my reflection nodding. Definitely, we cleared them. I’m nodding with her, of course. Nodding at both men because they’re looking at me like they can’t believe my face, let alone my words. “Definitely I cleared them. If not me, then who, right?”

“You really did?” the pretty squeegee man asks me softly. He looks incredulous. “When did you do that, Belle?” He knows my name, so I really must know his.

“Who is this man?” the goblin says, pointing at squeegee man, who’s still staring at me like he’s enchanted, a little afraid. Mouth open. Eyes wide. Really very like a merman if he weren’t wearing jean shorts. What is he doing out of the sea? Nothing to be scared of, Tad. Tad, that’s right.