The Brick Wall

There it was. It was always there. Red brick piled upon red brick. Every spring it would be covered in fresh new morning glory vines. Ever fall would reveal brown whithered vines. Moss grew in certain places and the wall was the perfect hieght to find shade under on a burning hot day in the town. The smuge women, pinched by their corsets, waddled by it under the wieght of their bustles and yards of skirts. The men walked stiffly past the red brick in their stiff suits and top hats to match on their way to their buissy lives. The wall sat. It waited for the two people it saw everyday. For the past 15 years....

everyday first the man would come, although when he had first starting going to the brick wall he had only been a young boy. He would push his way through the crowd of starch and linen to the shade of the brick wall where he would wait until, by and by, a girl of about his age would arrive. Her bearing and fine dresses spoke of aristocracy, creating a noticable contrast with his worn clothing that was often too tight and dirty. But once the two were together, the restrictions of society melted into the afternoon sun and they would spend the entire day in the brick wall's shadow with each other. When the sun set they would part in opposite directions until the next day when they would begin all over again. In this way the decade and a half passed quickly in the brick wall's safety.

The 15 year old lad was a scruffy lad who lived on the outskirts of town with his 70 year old grandma. They had never been well off, and they maintained their rickity house with the money his grandmother made sewing doilies and such for the townspeople. He sold newspapers whenever he could. In this way, life droned on for Kay, until, that is, te day he met her. She was beautiful, even at the small age of five. She had come in her miniature woman's dress, trailing behind her mother, to Kay's run-down house to bye a few items that his grandmother had made. Jenny clutched her mother's skirt as they stood on the porch and peared at the little boy named Kay. Kay peered out from behind the door frame as his grandmother gave Jenny's mother 4 doilies and 2 scarves for a few loaves of bread and a basket of eggs. Kay reached out his small hand to touch the thing of beauty on his door step. Jenny likewise stretched out her hand. They felt drawn to eachother somehow. Like they were ment to be closer to eachother. Jenny's mother, however did not feel the same way apparently for when she felt little Jenny's hand release her skirt and reach for the ruffian's hand behind the door she said, "Jenny, it is time we were gone." So saying, she took ahold of Jenny's out streched hand and marched off, material in hand. Her starched dress rustled as she walked and her bustle bounced up and down. They never came back to Kay's house, but a few days later, while Kay and his grandmother were in town, Kay spotted the vision of loveliness in a shop window. He was later to learn that Jenny's mother owned a shop and Jenny helped when she could. This shop was located right next to a vine covered brick wall and every day since that day, the two children met eachother in the shadow of the wall. Now they were much more than their original tender ages of five. Kay loved to see her beautiful frame walking towards him and he hated to see it walk away everyday. She loved to see his solid frame sitting against the wall and detested leaving.

Jenny opened the door to the tiny clothing shop near the glorious brick wall. "And prithee where have u been?" asked a tall starched woman. Jenny looked down at the rufles on her heavy petticoat, "nowhere mama," she answered meakly. "it seems as if u r "no where" everyday child. it isn't right for a young girl to go galavanting about the town. u could get hurt. from now on u stay here." "oh but mama!" Jenny looked up from her ruffled gown, "I only go to the wall! that is always as far as i go. lease mama! i am carful really!" her mother threaded a needle. "and what might a young girl want with a wall?" she asked impatiently. apparently she did not believe her daughter.

"nothing mama. just its shade to comfort me from the hot afternoon sun," jenny said, trying to maintain an innocent look upon her face. her mother looked at her with suspcision in her eyes and around her pursed lips. " humph. well, if that is all you seek, then I suppose I shall permit it..." jenny gave a huge smile of relief. "...that is, only a few times a week. shall we say, every other day? im sure it would not harm you to keep inside for shade on those other days. that is, unless you have some other motive behind visiting this wall, which i am verily sure you have none." her mother finished with a look of satisfaction on her face. jenny tried not to let her disappointment show in the best interest of hersecretescapades. her smile felt quite heavy as she replied "No mama, Im sure it would not. Thank you for your lenience," and hurried back to the store room where she let her smile fail her and her tears of frustration at her mothers commands fall freely.

Outside, the vine covered brick wall sat. Patient, watchful, constant, come what may.

Kay was not much like the wall the next morrow. The rush of thoughts ran though his
head in a frenzy. He was doubting whether Jenny would show up as he peered at the
foreboding precipitation begin creeping in from the north. What began as a light
summer shower soon turned into a downpour and Kay was forced to go back to his
home to check if his grandmother was alright. Jenny looked out the window staring at
the wall, what was once a joy to her now seemed daunting. She stared at it, seeing a
resemblance between it color and her mother's dress. Jenny opened the window and let
the rain wash in over her face, to hide away her tears. Although tomorrow was another
day, the opportunity to see Kay delighted her as she closed the window to find her
nana look in bewilderment.

"What on Earth did you do that for, child? You're going to catch yourself a disease! Come here and let me dry you off."

"No,  really, it's not necessary, Nana, I'm rather enjoying this feeling at the moment. I feel fresher than I did before."

Nana's face changed to one of concern. "Make sure you dry off soon, though, understand? I don't want you getting sick just because you wanted to feel fresh." Nana hugged her as she said "Now go see your mother, she told me to come find you."

"What about?" asked Jenny, her heart racing. Had her mother seen her watching Kay? She was already suspicious, but did she know more than she let on?

"Nothing much, I suppose. Something about the latest batch of scarves."

"Ok, thanks Nana," Jenny said, walking off to find her mother.

"And don't forget to dry yourself off!" Nana yelled after her, laughing.

Jenny walked slowly as she looked for her mother. She needed to formulate plans in case she was cornered about Kay. What would she say? There really wasn't much to say if her mother did know. She found her mother in the back room, sorting through some scarves with a puzzled look on her face. Jenny could hear mumbling as she entered, but it stopped as her mother looked up to address her.

"Come take a look at this," she said. "I think we are missing a few scarves." We were supposed to have 30 in this last batch, but I only count 26. Have you seen any of them anywhere else?"

"No Ma, I hadn't known we'd even gotten a new batch."

:You would have if you were doing your job well - these should have been put out two days ago! Your sister was never this lazy"

Of course, Jenny could never be good enough - but her sister, now there was an angel, certainly. Perfect this, perfect that. Right. Even when it was advantageous, her mother was always on Jenny about something. She'd done the same to her sister, but it was convenient to forget in order to make Jenny feel worse.

"Aren't you happy I didn't put them away? You would never have known that four of them were missing. I would have thought there were supposed to be 26 of them."

Her mother mumbled something but didn't elaborate. A call came from the front room. "Kathryn! A customer has a question for you. Can you come here for a second?"

"Just a moment!" her mother responded. "Jenny, could you go talk to Miss Delfini about the missing scarves?"

Delfini. Delfini. Jenny searched for the name while her mother left the room. It hit her: her mother was still getting scarves from the same place but hadn't brought her along since the first time. She bolted out of the room and out the front door, pausing only to grab her rainjacket. Maybe she could catch Kay before he got to his grandmother's and they could still have a little time together today while they walked.