The Ironing Board

Farleigh Hooper enters the shop.

 

The shop windows craved something different for Autumn. Helene suggested a tribute to women and the roles they played in everyday life. Brenda had plenty of mannequins available with only a phone call to Georgetown. The mannequin, Waters, would not want to dress like a girl, so she ordered two young females, sight unseen, from her mother's old display expert Sherman Stokes. 

Both would have long wavy wigs to their waists, and the hair had to be human hair. Glass eyes were a must. The price tag for both, delivered to the shop door by Sherman, himself, was one hundred and ten dollars with free vintage clothing added for good measure. 

They would arrive in a few days. Brenda sat in her "tea sipping chair" by the front left window, and closed her eyes. The girls would be helping their mother who was in bed with a new baby. 

The redhead would be ironing clothes, while the blonde snapped green beans.  One lone Halloween decoration would be hanging next to a picture of the "man of the house" who had died recently in a train accident.

An older woman would be seated at a treadle sewing machine making frocks for the children. A neighbor man would be standing at the window smiling in, about to knock at the door. Brenda wandered into the back store room to find fake backdrops in order to create the scene. 

She and Helene were both strong enough to set up everything, but Karen Shaw's brother was "always looking for extra work" outside the coffee shop next door. With any luck, he might get the task of arranging the bed for the new mother. It was a bit heavy, and ornate.

Brenda was about to close up shop when a young man of about 30 walked in and removed his hat. He introduced himself as Farleigh Hooper from Beltsville, and said that Doctor Sullivan had told him about her, and he was in the area, so he wanted to say a quick hello. He remarked that his late wife, Edwina, had an ironing board exactly like the one in the shop. 

Brenda mentioned her mother's Antique shop In Beltsville, and Farleigh said that he always wanted to stop there, but never did. Farleigh seemed fragile, and shy, almost breakable. 

He was thin, with big blue eyes, and hollow cheeks. He wasn't dressed in current fashion attire. Brenda loved that fact. He glanced at her hat rack, and tried on a 1930's fedora style. It was old store stock. Never worn. 

When he turned and looked at her in that hat, she felt an immediate reaction to him physically. He paid 7 dollars for the hat, wrote down the directions to his house, and gave her his phone number. 

He added that he was home "almost all the time," but unplugged the phone at night. Brenda mentioned that she had a friend who lived in the Vansville area, and that she could get a ride to his house with her because the trolley tracks were being repaired north of College Park on and off for awhile.

Farleigh assured her that he could drive her back . Brenda said that she had a lot to tell him, and he whispered "I hope so."  He smiled, and left the shop. When she ran to the door to see where he had parked his car, he was nowhere in sight.

On the way back to the house, she kept wondering if she was headed for trouble. She had experienced the same feelings when she saw Daniel for the first time. Daniel had been very silent for many days. The Blundons might be able to help her out with matters of the heart. Life was getting far too complicated, and this wasn't the sort of thing that she could "run past" Mr. Griffin. At least, not yet.

C J. Marks