“Sketches from the Café
Confictura” will return in January, 2018 for its thrilling final posts. Will
Klaus Orsted destroy the energy life force of Applewood to ensure Hackett
Masterson’s mayoral victory? Can the café regulars stop him? Will Roscoe ever admit
his profound love for Mrs. Creaverton? And just what’s going on with Violet?
Until then, catch up with
the first nineteen posts at www.clarissajeanne.com/sketches.html,
or start or join a discussion here on Vox Populi. I’ll also be posting bonus
material on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from time to time, so stay tuned.
Welcome to the intro video
and an excerpt from the nineteenth post of my weekly serial, “Sketches from the
Café Confictura.” If you’d like to share a comment, please use the comment option at the end of this excerpt. To follow the mystery of Applewood, and get
recipes from Mrs. Creaverton, writing advice from Roscoe Belesprit, and fashion
tips from the Fastionista, please visit www.ClarissaJeanne.com for new posts
every Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. EST.
The leader
called, “Mr. Masterson is campaigning today. He’ll be campaigning most days
from now until the election, so I suggest you attend one of his rallies.”
Apparently, Kate
was done being patient. She marched back over to Snitty McGee and said, “Well,
I suggest you call him and let him know his campaign schedule just changed.
Now, he can either be here for this event, or watch on the news tonight how he
cared more about delivering some rehearsed stump speech than discussing real
concerns with real people in real time.” As she spoke, she gestured toward the
five reporters, two producers, and two cameramen who’d shown up from a few
local papers and even a couple Hartford news stations.
Well, that got
Brunhilda’s attention. Finally, she tapped a number into her phone. She glanced
again at the cameras and, with as little movement as possible, smoothed her
eyebrows and hair, adjusted the shoulders of her blouse, sat up a little
straighter. She was just started to pout a little at the cameras when someone
came on the line.
“Uh, yes,” she
said into her headset, “is he available? It’s important. No, I don’t have that
number. Not an emergency, exactly. Right. Thank you.”
She hung up, and
said to Kate or, possibly, to the cameras, “Well, I tried. Mr. Masterson is
very busy, but you can’t say we didn’t try to get a hold of him. He’s simply
unavailable at the moment. If you’d like to leave a number where he can contact
you--”
“Leave a
number?” said Kate. “This isn’t a social visit. Look, you call whoever that was
back, and tell them…” And, with that, Kate was off on another couple rounds
with the leader.
Violet watched
Yolande through this, and then went over to her. She spoke to her under the
hullabaloo: “Bonjour. I am curious, what made you choose those glasses?”
Blood rushed
into Yolande’s cheeks and she ducked her head practically under the desk. She
shrugged. “Oh, I didn’t choose them. I need them. If it were my choice, I’d
never wear them. They’re just big reminders that I’m an outcast.”
Violet reached
out and rubbed Yolande’s arm. “No, no. This saddens me to hear.”
“Well, it’s
true,” said Yolande. “I got these because they were the most invisible, you
know? Rimless, no color on the bridge or temples.”
From the other
end of the counter came the leader’s squawk: “I told you, I don’t have Mr.
Masterson’s emergency number, and I’ve already spoken with the only person who
does, and he won’t put me through. There’s nothing else I can do here. I can’t
get a hold of him right now.”
Kate said, “All
right,” and stepped back. She sat on the arm of a chair, and crossed her long
legs at the ankle. “Then we’ll wait until you can get a hold of him.”
The leader
glanced again at the cameras, and held her tongue for now.
Violet came back
over to Doc Graham, Wilhelmina, and me, and she asked, “Do you believe that
they can’t reach Hackett? I do not. Yolande was averting her eyes when the
fashion faux-pas said this.”
Wilhelmina said,
with sympathy, “I think averting her eyes is just her normal look, Violet.”
“No,” said Violet. “There is
something different there. I think she can get a hold of him. I think I know a
way to get her to do it.”
