Chapter Twenty-Nine: Diversions

Saturday, August 6, 1910

Emily heard the tinkling of the bells and hollered, "Be there in a second." She was not having a good day.

The old, large mixing machine, once again was on the fritz. She strained to get the two paddles uncoiled from the bowl of chocolate cake batter. She had already missed having a shower that morning because of a problem with the water heater, and now, this. Her hair was sticky and matted from the sweat she encountered from the heat of the various ovens. She strained to unhook the paddles, finally, success, which was unfortunate for her, because she had forgotten to first unplug the electric mixer. Soon, she was smothered in cake batter. She shook; trembling with sheer rage from the nonsense of the situation and from the frustration that it was Saturday and her mother and father were away. She did not know when they'd be back which meant she'd miss out on any Saturday night fun. She wanted to scream but had no one to whom she could voice her complaint. She took a moment to breathe and count to 10. She vainly attempted to wipe away the chocolate from her face; needless to say, this only made it cover a wider area. "Ok, I give up. I'll just go see the customer and then have a nervous breakdown." She confidently strolled through the door to the storefront. Once again, her breathing shortened. "Hi Pete."

He had a curious look on his face. "Emily?"

"No! I'm Helen Taft!"

"I was just thinking, um, you looked amazingly beautiful when I saw you sing at the Music Festival."

She cocked her head. "Really?"

"Well, yeah." He looked down and shuffled his feet. Emily used the moment to nervously primp her hair. "I was just thinking...."

He turned to the cake display case, as Emily walked towards him.

He moved his head up to her eyes and he grimaced to keep from laughing at her batter smattered face.

He cleared his throat. "Do you remember when we went to the carnival and... what's a weeding?"

Emily's eyes bulged. "Huh?"

He snickered, "The cake says: 'Congratulations on your weeding.'"

Emily shook her head no. "You must be mistaken."

He rolled his eyes. "So, you're calling me illiterate?"

Emily fumbled for words, "No, no, no, no. Um, I was just a little surprised... that... so... yes, I remember the lovely night at the carnival." She nervously laughed. "You were quite the charmer."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Emily said coyly, "We ended up kissing that night."

"We did. And, I thought, well, um, tonight is Saturday and..." he looked around. "What's that smell?"

"Tonight is Saturday and...?"

"Is something burning?" Emily made eyes at him.

"Possibly." Of course the fire she implied was not coming from an oven which had four burning cakes in it.

"Tonight is Saturday... and... there's smoke coming out of that door."

She said abruptly, "I'm aware of that Pete. 'Tonight is Saturday and...'."

"You should probably go check on that; I'd hate to see this bakery burn down or something."

Emily was frustrated, she growled, "'Tonight is Saturday and...'?"

She put her hands on her face and ran back into the kitchen. She opened the oven door and reached in for the cake tins. Exactly one hundredth of a second later, it occurred to her that she'd forgotten to put on oven mittens.

Pete Jackson had only recently turned sixteen years old. He thought that Emily would make a good candidate for his first official date, since they'd already made a connection at the carnival.

It took him a week to muster up the courage to finally ask out a real girl on a real date. His mother had graciously stood in as his intended and gave him several pointers like, "Compliment her first" and "Mention a previous occasion when you had fun in a group." His father gave him a few more pointers which were to be mentioned out of ear shot of mom. "Son, never go out with a woman who uses the following obscenities."

This was the first time Pete had ever heard his father curse. Being a deacon at the Baptist church, Maynard Jackson would always bite his tongue and enunciate delicate metaphors for the wrath he was feeling at any given moment. Never, under any circumstance, would wanton cusses spew from his mouth; however, he knew of no other way to communicate the need to avoid a lose women than to mention ten swear words. Pete made note of them but thought that would not be an issue with any of the girls in Eagle Creek.

Emily screamed out three of them with the verbosity and vocal inflection of a sailor from Brooklyn.

Pete stepped out the door and shut it just in time to prevent the delicate ears of passersby from hearing the next barrage of expletives. As Emily ran cold water over her blistering hands it occurred to her that Pete was still in the storefront.

"Pete? Pete?" She started to run out the door, but instead, put on her gloves and removed the four blackened, oval tins from the smoking ruins. The angel food cakes were no longer fit for even the demons on the lowest part of Hades having been scorched in the inferno and unquestionably harmed by Emily's poor choice of vocabulary.

She burst through the storefront door. "Pete? Pete?"

He was gone. Frustrated but undaunted, she ran out of the bakery and looked to her left and then her right. She took off to her right. He was not in the hardware store, the barber shop or the livery. It was doubtful that he was in the women's shop and she could not think of any reason why he'd be in a bank. Emily growled and ran back the other way.

Pete was not in the post office, the dry goods store and there was no reason why he'd be in the jail. She ran to the post office, not there. Lillian, the waitress at Casey's Cafe, never got the chance to ask Emily why she was running around the restaurant, she left too fast.

She ran down to the Baptist church and noticed the front door was ajar. She ran into the auditorium and, in her haste, she did not question why there were white and pink decorations on the pews and people wearing suits. When she recognized the puzzled look on Pastor Fry and the young man in a tuxedo, it suddenly occurred to her that she simply was not invited to participate in this event. As she turned around she almost ran face first into the bewildered bride.

"Congratulations on your weeding" and sprinted out the door.

Emily nearly tripped and tumbled down the steps. She looked to her left and then her right; left this time and ran full speed to the park. He was not there either. She ran towards town hall, the door was locked.

She nearly collapsed running towards the school house. But, in the distance she could see a horse tied to a tree. She put out her arms and pressed against the building to stop herself. She could hear Pete's voice around the corner. She wiped her face once more, spreading the chocolate even further into previously untouched crevasses. She took a moment to breathe and collect her thoughts and practiced accepting his offer.

She stepped to the other side of the building, Pete was on the playground. "Sure, I'd like to go out with you tonight," she heard Lynn say.

Emily froze. She took one step backwards and fell back against the building. She was so frazzled by the chase, her hands were burnt, her feet were aching and, it finally hit her that she'd left the bakery, unmanned, on a busy day, for several minutes. Tears were attempting to come out of her reddened eyes but her head was swimming with conflicting emotions. Part of her was unhappy with herself for being so awkward around Pete.

Part of her was angry at him for running off. Another part was jealous of Lynn; however, she would have no way of knowing that Pete had previously attempted to ask out Emily, so Lynn was an innocent party. Too tired to cry, she turned around and walked back to the bakery.

As she neared the establishment, Jake was coming out with a half eaten apple fritter. "I put a nickel on the register."

Emily smiled. "Thank you."

He even held the door open for her as she walked in. As she went into the kitchen she could see the now working mixer sloshing batter at top speed in all directions. She stared hopelessly at the streaks of chocolate on the ceiling. She gingerly unplugged it and returned it to the table. Just then, the door bell tinkled, again.

Emily tugged on her hair and angrily mumbled to herself as she opened the door, "Who the... fudge making expert in Eagle Creek? I am! Rah! Rah! Hello Mrs. Hines."

Crystal raised an eyebrow. "Emily? Are you alright?"

Emily trembled and tried not to choke up. "Fine. We're having a special on apple fritters, two for one."

Crystal sighed. "So, you're not having a good day either?"

Emily's eyes twitched as she spoke. "You might say that."

Crystal stepped behind the counter and hugged her, Emily broke down. "I try and try and try and try. My parents left this morning on a surprise trip to Great Falls. And, and, and, she's so moody because she's... oops."

Crystal laughed. "Your mother is pregnant. Emily, this is a small town and I'm a preacher's wife which makes me a cornucopia of gossip."

Emily tried wiping her face again, only to spread more chocolate on her forehead. Crystal tried not to giggle at her.

"Pete Jackson came asked me for a date and I, naturally, insulted him and looked horrible and then I burnt my hands and screamed... glory hallelujah."

Crystal laughed.

"Pete was so repulsed that he ran off and asked out Lynn Watson instead of meeee." She pouted, "Which is... fair, I suppose. Dennis broke up with her after the Music Festival because...." She cringed. "That was also a secret."

Crystal snickered, "I already head that too. Good gravy Emily, you spill more secrets than The Montana Sun."

Emily sighed. "My mom reads that too for baking news."

Crystal chuckled, "Naturally. You forgot about running into the middle of a wedding."

Emily looked at her hands. "Barber shop, post office, dry goods store... oh, yeah, I did ruin a wedding."

Crystal shrugged. "Things are supposed to wrong at weddings, it's one of the fundamental laws of the universe."

Emily sniffled, "I guess that's true. Do you want a loaf of bread or something?"

Crystal shook her head no. "I am here for another reason, but, I suppose you can't do it."

She turned around to walk out; Emily grabbed her arm and spun her around, "Can't do what?"

"Well, my friend from college, Amanda Brewster, runs a camp in Lustre. My niece Patricia and her friend Gena said they'd be counselors this week. Well, I got a telegram this morning; apparently, they want to go to a concert next Tuesday instead. I can't believe my sister is actually letting her back out of a commitment like that! She infuriates me! This makes me look bad and it puts me in a bind."

"I can do it."

Crystal raised an eyebrow. "Do what?"

"I can be a camp counselor. She needs girls who are responsible, knowledgeable and attentive and, ma'am, that's me."

Crystal nodded. "I see. What's burning?"

Emily turned around and rushed into the kitchen. "Son of a... beautiful woman; I forgot the oven mittens!"

She returned a moment later. "Ordinary cupcakes are dull. I thought I'd experiment with something new... that we could feed... to pigs."

Crystal swished her mouth. "That makes perfect sense to me."

"You need two replacements?"

"Yes."

"Sarah can also go."

"How do you know this Emily?"

"I asked her... in the kitchen... just now... as I was removing the cupcakes."

"Ok, then let me see her."

Emily bobbed her head. "She's already rushed home to pack."

"Hi Em. Hi Mrs. Hines." Sarah said as she walked in the front door of the bakery.

Crystal chuckled, "Hello, Sarah."

Emily ran up to her. "You can do it! Can't you, Sarah?"

Sarah shrugged. "Do what?"

Emily stepped on her foot. "I said, 'You can do it. Can't you Sarah?'" Stepping on a foot was their signal to just blindly agree with the other person, as in, "You're right, I have to go to the bathroom. I'll leave you two alone for a few minutes."

Sarah moved her foot out of the way and said to Mrs. Hines, "Yes. Yes, I can do it." Emily smiled to her.

Crystal rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You two are terrible liars, however; since I am in a bind, I'll pretend that what you're doing actually makes sense." She began writing on a piece of paper. "Your contact is Amanda Brewster. Camp Sunflower, Lustre. Pay $1 a day. Check-in at 4 pm." Crystal patted Sarah's back and said sarcastically, "Thank you so much for volunteering." She left.

Sarah waved. "Thank you ma'am. See you at church tomorrow."

Crystal giggled. "I certainly hope you won't."

Sarah snapped, "I don't like this. What did I just agree to do?"

Emily slowly shook her head. "Nothing big." She casually put the piece of paper behind her. Sarah leered at Emily with a dubious expression. Emily smiled.

Sarah politely smiled in reply. "You're blouse is unbuttoned."

When Emily reached for the buttons, Sarah grabbed the paper.

Her eyes bulged. "Mrs. Hines?" She started to run out the door, Emily grabbed her.

Sarah was flabbergasted. "No!"

"Why not?"

"Because Emily, you just can't... you're not supposed to...."

"$1 a day, that's $7."

"I... I haven't asked my parents."

"They'd be fine with it, Sarah."

"Well, what'd your parents say when you told them?"

Emily swished her mouth and looked up. "'Darling Emily, I am so proud of you.'"

"In other words, they're not here to ask?"

"They went to Great Falls this morning. Sarah, please, this stupid bakery is a beastly task master and I need a break."

Sarah swished her mouth. "As far as I know, I have nothing planned this week."

"And, we're closed on Sundays."

"When will your parents be back in Eagle Creek?"

Emily looked to the ceiling and then to her left. "They, um, didn't say."

Sarah cautioned, "You'll get in trouble."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Do you know my mother?"

Sarah chuckled, "Yeah, you pretty much stay in trouble. Is the camp co-ed?"

Emily grimaced. "Which answer would make you more inclined to go?"

Sarah sighed. "Alright. I'll ask my mother."

"And then come back and help me make this place look immaculately clean?"

"I guess so."

Sarah stepped to the door. She turned around and looked at her hopelessly demented best friend who now wore a smile.

"You're welcomed Emily, you're welcomed."