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Subject: {ASSM} AnnD:A Study In Scarlett (1/3)FF
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 06:10:06 -0400
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Once more, thanks to Mordmorgan for
all the help finding and correcting my
gramatical errors. Any that I missed
are my fault not yours.
===============================
A Study In Scarlett
by Ann Douglas
(ann_douglas@hotmail.com)
Part One
- Yesterday -
Rich California countryside raced by the
large glass window as the Southern Pacific's
Coastline Express headed towards Los Angeles.
The young, beautiful twenty year old in the
window seat tried to lose herself in the ever
changing tapestry, but try as she could, the
redhead couldn't shut out the droning voice of the
woman sitting next to her.
For the tenth time in the last hour since
she'd boarded the train at San Jose, the blue
dressed girl regretted taking this seat. She had
been traveling cross-country for over a week now.
Every time she changed trains, she'd made it a
point to find a nice quiet woman to sit next to.
This time she had chosen so very badly.
For over an hour the woman who'd
introduced herself as Veronica Wilder had gone
on and on about every subject imaginable. From
how badly President Truman was going to lose to
Governor Dewey in the fall elections, to what a
wonderful performance Jane Wyman had given in
"Johnny Belinda". She seemed especially
fascinated by the winner of the best actress Oscar.
"Isn't it a shame," Veronica had said,
"that she divorced her husband just when her
career reached the top."
"Yes, it is a shame," The young woman
had replied when she was still trying to stay
interested in the conversation. It didn't take her
long to realize that Veronica didn't need an
appreciative audience to keep talking.
"Well it's his lost, believe you me," she
went on. "And trust me, fifty years from now
people will still talk about what a great actress
Jane Wyman was and no one will ever remember
Ronald Reagan."
So it had went on, covering other subjects
including the Summer Olympics in London to
Dinah Shore and Perry Como's latest hits. Even
hiding her head in the Saturday Evening Post did
little to discourage the older woman. Finally the
younger woman just gave up and began to stare
out the window.
"Dear Cousin, there you are," said a
strong voice from the aisle. "I've been looking for
you all over the train. I thought we were going to
meet in the dining car?"
That finally ended Veronica's monologue
as both women looked up to see a tall woman in
her mid-twenties with black hair. She was dressed
in the uniform of an Army Nurse.
The redhead didn't recognize the woman,
but realized this was an opportune moment to rid
herself of Veronica. Quickly she decided to go
along with what had to be the Army Officer's
mistake.
"Where is my head at today?" she asked
herself aloud. "Here I am enjoying our little
conversation so much that I totally forgot. I do
hope you haven't been looking for me long, dear
cousin."
"Not too long," the dark haired woman
smiled. "After all, I only came aboard the train at
the last stop."
"Veronica, you must excuse me," the
young redhead said to her seatmate.
"Oh of course," the older woman said as
she made room for the younger woman to pass.
"I totally understand."
With a warm smile goodbye, the young
woman left Veronica behind and followed the
Army Lieutenant down the aisle.
As they moved into the next car and out of
earshot, the redhead reached out and touched the
shoulder of the woman in front of her. A brief
touch, just enough to get her attention as she
paused in her step and turned around.
"I have to apologize," the redhead said in
a quiet voice. "I think I've taken advantage of
your error."
"You mean we're not cousins?" the
brunette said in mock surprise.
"Then it wasn't a mistake?" the younger
woman asked cautiously.
"You just looked like you needed help,"
the Nurse smiled. "I've had my share of bad
company."
"I did. I guess I owe you my thanks then."
"Well since we were supposed to meet in
the dining car, why don't we have a cup of tea?"
"I think that's an excellent suggestion,"
came the reply. "We can catch up on old times,"
she laughed.
"I guess I should introduce myself then,"
the Army Nurse said as she extended her hand.
"Alice Caldwell."
"Scarlett," the redhead beamed as she
reached out with her own hand. "Scarlett
McMurphy."
Even this late in the afternoon, the dining
car was still surprisingly full. Two young men in
front of them in line graciously offered to share
their table. Both Scarlett and Alice were quick to
decline their offer, saying they had no problem
waiting for the next free table.
The suggestion was one that both women
encountered daily. Alice was tall with a graceful
athletic build, suggestive of a dancer. Her small
firm breasts were visible enough beneath her
uniform jacket so that no one was ever going to
mistake her for anything but a young woman. Her
face was more suggestive of the term cute than
beautiful, but she had the kind of looks that would
follow her far into middle age. Her black hair was
cut just short enough to fulfill army regulations,
then tied up in a bun.
Scarlett, on the other hand, had never been
described as anything but stunning. Only an inch
shorter than Alice at five ten, she had a build that
seemed copied from a statue of Aphrodite. Her
bust, concealed beneath her simple traveling dress,
was larger than Alice's but just as firm. The only
makeup she wore was simple dark red lipstick,
which served to accent the natural beauty of her
features. Rich flowing red hair, which would've
stretched down her back if undone, was instead
held in place by an elaborate hairstyle.
By the time they were led to their table
five minutes later by a white jacketed steward,
they could tell they were already on the way to
becoming fast friends.
As her uniform attested, Alice was an
Army Nurse and had been for eighteen months.
Twenty-six years old, she was traveling to Los
Angeles on leave before reporting to San Diego
for her first overseas assignment. She had joined
the Army in order, as she put it, to see something
besides the twenty square miles that comprised
Ethan Falls, California. Both her mother and
father had been born there, and neither had ever
ventured more than fifty miles from the center of
town their whole lives.
"So what strange and exotic place is the
Army sending you?" Scarlett asked as they picked
up their small menus.
"Seoul, Korea," Alice said as she laid
down her menu, making a quick choice. "I'm
going to be assigned to the new hospital they just
built there."
Sounds exciting," the younger redhead
said as she also put down her menu. "Although I
only have a general idea where Korea even is."
"Don't feel bad," Alice replied as she
signaled the waiter that they were ready to order.
"I don't think many people do, myself included. I
had to go and look it up on a map."
In response to Alice's inquiries, Scarlett
explained that she was going to school at a small
private college called Ravenwood just outside of
Los Angeles. She had been back east visiting her
family during the summer break.
"You came all the way across country by
train?" a surprised Alice asked. "Most people
these days would've flown. It's a lot faster and
definitely a lot more comfortable."
"My brother was a pilot in the Navy,"
Scarlett said in way of explanation. "Actually I
should say he was a Naval Aviator, he was always
correcting me on that. That was back when I was
just hitting my teens. Sean was on the Lexington
at Midway and ..."
Scarlett paused, unable to finish her
sentence. Alice reached out and took the younger
woman's hand in support, telling her there was no
need to explain further. She didn't have to hear
the words to know that Sean was one of those
brave young men who didn't come back to enjoy
the fruits of the still recent victory.
"We'll just say that you don't like to fly and
leave it at that," she said as she squeezed her
hand. "I'm not too crazy about it myself. That's
why I'm glad I'm going to Korea by boat," she
added, changing the subject.
Over their tea and the small sandwiches
they'd ordered, the two women found that despite
the wide difference in their backgrounds they had
a lot in common. Enough for both of them to feel
a certain measure of regret that their association
would be a brief one.
Underneath the surface of their animated
conversation, there seemed to be a secondary level
of attraction as well. It wasn't really anything that
could be called tangible, or even something that
would be recognizable to either of them. Unless
of course they wanted to perceive it.
Finishing their small snack, Alice
suggested that it might be a good idea to try to
find some seats on the other end of the train as not
to run back into Veronica. Scarlett agreed with
the thought.
Luck was with them as many seats had
emptied out at Santa Barbara. There were only
two more stops left before Los Angeles and the
train was already a third empty.
"So what are your plans when we get to
the city?" Scarlett asked.
"Well, I guess the first thing to do would
be to find a nice hotel to stay at," Alice answered.
"Something not too expensive. Any place you
might suggest?"
Scarlett seemed to look beyond Alice for a
moment, lost in a thought. Then a big smile filled
her face and an answer gushed forth.
"I know a great place," she said in an
excited voice. "And not expensive at all. In fact,
it wouldn't cost you a cent."
"I don't understand," Alice said.
"My Grandmother has a small place by the
water," Scarlett explained. "I sometimes go up
there on weekends. She's in Europe right now,
but I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I used it, or if I
invited a guest."
"Oh I couldn't," Alice said. "Please don't
think that I was suggesting that you find me a
place to stay."
"If I thought that I wouldn't have offered
it," Scarlett replied. "The house is just sitting
there empty and all. Besides, it would give us the
chance to become the best of friends before you
leave."
"I still don't know," Alice said, thinking
over the proposal.
"Please," Scarlett intoned. "You might
not think it, but I really don't have a lot of friends.
Most people find me a little too ... how would I
describe it ... too unladylike at times."
"I've been accused of that a time or too
myself," Alice laughed. "I guess you've got
yourself a houseguest."
"Wonderful!" Scarlett beamed as she took
both of Alice's hands in her own and held them
tight.
Despite the crowd that exited the train
station, the two women had no trouble finding a
taxi to take them to Scarlett's Grandmother's. In
fact, they were almost bowled over by the three
young men who surged forward from the waiting
cars to help them with their luggage.
By the time the winning car pulled away
from the curb, they were already again lost in their
spirited conversation. They made their way out of
the city in good time and were soon zooming up
the coast highway, retracing some of the ground
they'd passed a short time before on the train.
"Is it much further?" Alice asked as she
realized they had been riding for almost an hour
and hadn't seen another house in ten minutes.
"Just around the next bend," Scarlett
smiled.
Sure enough, just as they rounded the next
curve, Grandmother's little place on the water
came into view. It was not what Alice expected.
Instead of the small bungalow the Army
Nurse expected, she found herself being dropped
off in front of a tri level, twelve room summer
house, complete with a large patio overlooking
the Pacific beach beneath it.
"This is what you call your Grandmother's
little place on the water?" she asked Scarlett as
the cabby unloaded their luggage.
"It is when you compare it to her place in
the city," Scarlett smiled. "I thought if I told you
what it really was, you wouldn't want to come."
"Maybe so," Alice replied, thinking that
self-conscious as she sometimes was about her
background, she might just well have declined the
invitation.
A smile on his face from the generous tip
Scarlett had given him, the cab driver left their
bags at the front door and headed back to the city.
"Buena tarde, Maria," Scarlett said to the
middle aged Mexican woman who answered the
door. "Es tan agradable verle otra vez."
"Senorita Scarlett," the gray haired
housekeeper beamed back. "Me plazco tan verle."
"This is my friend, Alice," Scarlett said
switching back to English as they stepped inside.
"She will be staying with us for a few days.
Would you be so kind as to make up one of the
guest rooms for her?"
"Of course, Senorita," came the reply in
English as well as she quickly moved to do just
that.
"You speak Spanish?" Alice asked.
"Yes, and French too," Scarlett replied as
they walked into the living room.
"You're kidding?"
"Ce bruit comme je badine?" the redhead
said.
"I don't have any idea what you said, but
I'm impressed," Alice said as she looked about the
beautifully decorated room. "I couldn't managed
bilingual, much less trilingual. That must be some
college you're going to."
"My family has extensive business holdings
on the island of San Cristobal in the Caribbean,"
Scarlett explained. "More people there speak
Spanish or French than English. It's become a
sort of family requirement."
"Your Grandmother has a television?"
Alice asked, changing the subject as she saw the
cabinet with the small screen in the corner. "I've
never actually seen one before."
"She's always had a fascination for the
latest gadgets," the younger woman laughed as
she watched Alice examine the small set.
"Personally I don't see the attraction, sitting
around staring at a bunch of snowy images on a
little screen. I'd rather be listening to Burns and
Allen on the radio any day."
"I don't know," Alice said as she finished
her look at the Philco brand receiver. "Maybe it's
a little crude now, but who knows what it's going
to be like in the future. I think it's going to be
something really big."
"Sure, and maybe someday we'll see
television pictures from the Moon."
"Well I wouldn't go that far," Alice
laughed.
Alice's attention was then drawn to a large
oil portrait hanging over the fireplace. It was a
painting of a young woman in her late teens. With
fiery red hair and sparking green eyes, she bore a
striking resemblence to Scarlett.
"Is that you?" Alice asked.
"That," Scarlett smiled, "is my
Grandmother, Celeste. My Grandfather, Sean,
had that painted as a wedding gift for her back in
1893. She was only nineteen when she married
him. He was twenty-nine."
"She's beautiful," Alice commented. "And
she looks so much like you."
"I've been told that many times," Scarlett
said. "She want's me to have my own portrait
done but I think it's kind of silly."
"Oh you should do it," Alice quickly said.
"It's something you'll cherish when you're older."
"Maybe." came Scarlett's noncommittal
answer.
"Is your Grandfather still alive?" Alice
asked out of curiosity.
"Eighty-four and still the Chairman of
McMurphy Industries," Scarlett said. "My father
is the President and basically runs the day to day
operations. Grandfather just sort of likes to drop
in now and then to make sure things are going
right."
"Is he in Europe with your Grandmother?"
"No, he spends most of the year in San
Cristobal," Scarlett explained. "He had this big
house built there in a place he called Scarlett's
Cove. It's really beautiful. Someday, when I'm as
old as he is, I'd like to live there as well."
"They don't live together?" Alice asked,
then quickly realized she might have overstepped
her bounds. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked
that."
"No, it's okay," Scarlett assured her.
"After being married for over fifty years, they sort
of developed seperate lives. They still love each
other, but they don't have to always be with each
other to know that. I envy them actually, to have
a love so strong that time and distance can't effect
it."
"That is very rare." Alice agreed.
"Let me show you the rest of the house,"
Scarlett said, changing the subject. "We'll see
what other toys we can find for you to play with."
The tour ended with the verandah, a wide
expanse that stretched the length of the house and
overlooked the beach. The sand below was a soft
golden brown, unmarked except by the breeze.
"This is my favorite part of the house,"
Scarlett explained. "When I was a little girl and
came to stay with my Grandmother, I'd sit out
here for hours and just watch the waves. At night,
I'd lay here and count the stars."
"It is beautiful," Alice agreed as she
looked out into the blue ocean.
"Would the Senorita and her guest like
some refreshments?" Maria said as she stepped
out of the house holding a large tray, filled with a
tea service and some small sandwiches. She
placed the tray on the center of the large circular
table in the middle of the deck.
"Thank you, Maria," Scarlett said as she
led Alice to one of the empty seats.
"Will the Senorita be needing anything else
before I leave?" Maria said. "The deliveryman
was here yesterday and both the refrigerator and
the pantry are full."
"I'll be fine," Scarlett replied. "You just
go and enjoy your time off."
"Thank you, Senorita Scarlett," she said
as she turned and headed back into the house.
Less than a minute later, the sound of the
front door closing could be heard through the
patio doors.
"Well now it's just us," Scarlett said as
she took a sip of her tea.
"Just us?" Alice repeated.
"Well I thought it rather silly to have both
me and Maria both spend the week house-sitting,"
Scarlett said. "So I told her to take an extra
week's vacation."
Scarlett, whom it was now obvious, came
from money, really didn't act like rich people were
supposed to act. At least not how Alice always
imagined they did.
"It's just you and me, kid," Scarlett said,
doing her best Humphry Bogart imitation, having
just loved him in Treasure Of The Sierre Madre.
"We'll just have to rough it."
"I love your idea of roughing it," Alice
laughed as she reached for one of the small
sandwiches.
Scarlett and Alice took the rest of the
evening just to settle in. After Maria's snack and
what they had earlier on the train, neither of them
really had any appetite for dinner. Instead, they
decided just to relax on the verandah and enjoy
the sunset.
"Care for some wine?" Scarlett asked as
she appeared from the kitchen holding an open
bottle and two glasses.
"Sure, why not?" Alice replied as she
reached up and took one of the glasses from her
hostess.
Alice had exchanged her army uniform for
a pair of white shorts and a sky blue short sleeved
blouse. Relaxing in a reclining lawn chair, she had
been reading a hardcover book with a concealing
cloth cover.
Scarlett had changed into a soft white
sundress with light yellow flowers. Neither
woman had bothered with footwear, deciding to
instead go barefoot on the smooth, polished deck.
"What are you reading?" Scarlett asked as
she poured wine into her new friend's glass.
"Nothing you'd find that interesting,"
Alice said as she took a slip of the wine and
expressed her approval. "Just some medical
research, pretty dry stuff. Mostly technical stuff."
"Oh," Scarlett said as she filled her own
glass and then took her seat. "You know, you're
supposed to be on a vacation. That's a funny way
to relax."
"Well we each have our own little quirks."
Alice smiled.
"That we do," Scarlett agreed as she
flipped through a pile of magazines on the table,
finally selecting a copy of Life with Marlene
Dietrich on the cover.
They sat there for a while, reading and
slowly sipping their wine, all the while watching
the sun drop lower and lower on the horizon. It
was only when Scarlett noticed Alice trying to
suppress a giggle over something she had just read
that she put down her magazine.
"What in a textbook could be so funny?"
she asked out of curiosity.
"Not really funny," Alice said, a slight look
of embarrassment on her face. "Just a little ..."
"Now you have to share," Scarlett said as
she jumped out of her seat and reached for the
book Alice had been reading.
Her face red, the dark haired woman
surrendered the tome. Scarlett quickly turned to
the title page to see what the book was.
"Sexual Behavior In The Human Male,"
she read aloud. "The Kinsey Report."
"Well I am a nurse," Alice said in way of
explanation.
"I heard there are places in this country
where they actually banned this when it came out
earlier in the year," Scarlett noted.
"Well now that you've seen it," Alice said.
"I'd be happy to lend it to you to look over. It's
the least I could do."
"No thanks," Scarlett said as she handed
the book back. "It really doesn't interest me."
"You're kidding?" Alice said in surprise.
"Based on what my friend in the book store told
me, they can't keep the book in stock. Of course
no one wants to be seen buying it or admit they're
reading it."
"Maybe so," Scarlett said as she dropped
back in her chair. "But I really have no interest in
reading it. Maybe if they get around to writing
Sexual Behavior In The Human Female I might
find it interesting."
"I don't think you'd find enough women to
admit to the things they write about in here,"
Alice said, tapping her fingers against the book
cover.
"I don't know," Scarlett smiled. "After
all, it is 1948, not 1908. You might be surprised
what some women might be willing to admit to."
Not sure were she should to go with a
statement like that, Alice decided to stay on safer
ground.
"A lot of women have read this to find out
about their husbands and boyfriends," Alice said.
"Well, last time I looked, I didn't have
either one of those." Scarlett replied as she
refilled her glass.
"You mean a beautiful girl like you doesn't
have a whole fraternity breaking down the door
trying to date her?" Alice asked.
"Ravenwood is an all girl college, there are
no frats," Scarlett laughed.
"I didn't know that," Alice said, noting
that most women this day and age wouldn't be so
happy to be going to an all girl college.
Their conversation was abruptly cut short
as the bright red orb of the sun began to dip
beneath the horizon. They turned their attention
to the spectacle spread out across their vista,
watching in silence until it faded from sight.
"It's been a real long day," Alice said as
she drained the last of her glass. "I think I'm
going to turn in."
"Have a good night's sleep," Scarlett said
as she poured the last of the bottle into her own
glass. "I'm going to stay up a little longer."
Alice got up to leave and began to clean
up after herself. Scarlett told her to just leave
everything where it was and she'd take care of it
later. After all, she was her guest.
(missing parts may be found at)
Ann Douglas Web Page
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Ann_Douglas/www/
ASSTR Donation Page
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/donations.html
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