The Lilac Tunnel: My Journey with Samantha

I tell Samantha that I don’t know. We don’t have any proof that Elsa is a thief. Could something else have happened? Samantha takes a deep breath, staring at the ceiling. And then she says that I did the wash yesterday. Maybe the brooch was on Grandmary’s dress and fell off in the wash tub. Or it could be in the grass under the clothesline! Samantha’s eagerness to hunt down the brooch and prove my innocence gets my own heart racing. I leap to my feet, tempted to run outside right now. Samantha says that Elsa is expecting me downstairs. I must go and act as if everything is normal. We will search the lawn the first chance we get later today.

Sure enough, Elsa is waiting for me in the kitchen with breakfast and my first task for the morning. She says I will heat the irons on the stove top. She takes out some matches in a metal holder above the stove. Then, there’s a loud knock on the back door. Elsa says it’s the milkman. He always comes with the most inconvenient times. She hands me the matches and tells me to light the stove.

My parents never let me use the stovetop at home, and since when does a stove need to be lit? I turn to Mrs. Hawkins for help, but she’s on the telephone ordering meat from a butcher. When Elsa comes back in, I’m still holding the matches. She takes them from me in disgust and lights the burners herself. She sets three heavy irons on the stove and says I should rotate the irons. I’ll use one or two while the other is heating on the stove, so when I bring a cool one inside, there’ll be a hot one waiting.

I’m relieved when Elsa helps me carry the hot irons outside. I’m eager to search the grass for the brooch, but Elsa is keeping a close eye on me today. Probably to make sure I don’t steal anything else. After lunch, Samantha and I finally get a chance to search the grass. I’m hanging clothes again to air them out, when Samantha comes outside saying the coast is clear.

We start with the wash tub full of clean clothes at my feet. Samantha suggests we stack them on the grass and tip the tub on its side. After we empty the tub, I inspect it. I run my hands along the bottom, hoping to feel the brooch, but there’s nothing there. I’m about to tell Samantha that there’s another tub inside and when Elsa storms out the back door and scolds me for putting fresh laundry on the grass. She says I must be crazy. Dirtying clean laundry and socializing with Miss Samantha. I must remember my place.