The Lilac Tunnel: My Journey with Samantha

Elsa brings me into the kitchen and puts me to work folding big white cloth napkins at a long wooden table. She shows me how to fold each napkin into a shape called a Bishop’s Hat. My hands feel clumsy as I try to fold the napkin and form a triangle. I try to fold the corners into the edges just like Elsa showed me, but my napkin ends up looking like a paper party hat. Elsa shakes out the napkin and tells me to start again irritatedly.

When Elsa leaves the room, assuming I finally caught on, Mrs. Hawkins casts a sympathetic glance to me. She’s snipping off the ends of string beans, stopping every now and then to stir the bubbling pot on the stove. She looks like she has her hands full.

Everything Mrs. Hawkins prepares smells delicious, but something tells me I won’t be enjoying it anytime soon. My stomach rumbles. I should have had another helping of tuna casserole at lunch when my stepmom offered it to me.

Samantha pokes her head into the kitchen and says hi to me. She snitches a string bean from Mrs. Hawkins, who scolds her playfully. I’m happy to see Samantha, but I don’t dare stop working. Who knows when Elsa will come back to check on me.

Samantha flops down beside me and reaches for a napkin. She says she’ll help. Unfortunately, neither one of us can make anything elegant out of the napkin cloth. Her napkin looks like a hot dog. Mrs. Hawkins shakes her head disapprovingly at us, but her eyes are smiling when she says that she can show me. I hand her a napkin which turns out to be a big mistake.

Elsa steps back into the room just as Mrs. Hawkins is completing a perfect Bishop’s Hat, and I am just sitting there, watching. Elsa scolds me and says that Mrs. Hawkins has plenty to do without me pestering her. We should find a job that I am more suited for.