Page 43 of The Identicals
“Your second responsibility is the ERF boutique on Candle Street,” Tabitha says. “Meghan is going to have her baby soon. She’ll show you the ropes tomorrow, and both of you will have to put in a lot of work. I can do the buying remotely, but you’ll be in charge of tracking the orders, getting them out on the floor, accounting for inventory, ringing up sales, and going to the bank each morning with the deposits. In addition to hand-selling, of course. You’ll have Mary Jo to help.”
“She’s blind,” Ainsley says.
“Myopic,” Tabitha says.
“I can handle it,” Harper says.
“Yes,” Tabitha says, and the part of her that has long wanted revenge on her sister is placated. There is no way her sister can handle it. “I’m sure you can.”
HARPER
Her alarm goes off at six thirty the next morning, and Harper’s feet hit the ground with a sense of purpose. Fish is already waiting by the bedroom door, wagging his tail.
In the distance, Harper hears the wail of the ferry’s foghorn. Tabitha is on that boat with her car. She is gone. Harper is in charge.
“Take care of the daughter,” Harper says to Fish. “Then mind the store.”
After Harper lets Fish out, she heads upstairs to find the coffee brewed and a handwritten set of instructions written out, along with an envelope containing fifteen hundred-dollar bills.
Harper reads through the instructions, marveling at how Tabitha can be nearly forty years old yet her handwriting is still the same as it was when she was a ten-year-old girl and won the fourth-grade penmanship award.
Harper,the note says,please follow these basic instructions.
Harper finds herself grateful for guidelines. She is both elated and terrified at the previous day’s turn of events. She is going to spend the next few weeks—or longer?—in Nantucket caring for her sixteen-year-old niece, which is something she knows exactly nothing about.
1. Ainsley: No drinking. No drugs. Infraction = Loss of phone for one week. NO EXCUSES.
2. Felipa comes on Wednesdays to clean. Felipa lives in the basement of Eleanor’s house, and she will know if you are over thereSNOOPING.
The words are capitalized and underlined, as if Harper’s snooping were a given. Tabitha thinks Harper is a cheat, a liar,anda thief.
Numbers 3 through 6 are about the store: the address, the security code, the numbers of the maintenance man, the landlord, Meghan, Mary Jo, the police department, the fire department.
7. Dress yourself from present inventory. Pick six outfits (one MUST be the Roxie) and cycle through. Write down the exact items you take. One pair of shoes only. This store is a direct reflection of the Eleanor Roxie-Frost brand. Don’t mess this up.
Harper gets an immediate case of the hot pricklies. She knows the Nantucket boutique carries brands other than Eleanor Roxie-Frost, but these other brands will still be too fussy and feminine for Harper, and she is going to have to wear the blasted Roxie at least one day a week.
She has a succession of nauseating memories: her confirmation at Church of the Advent, her ninth-grade dance, her prom. Her adolescence was pockmarked with events for which she had to dress up. Tabitha had loved it. Tabitha had worn dresses and skirtsvoluntarily.
Harper will worry about the store later. For now she will focus on the daughter.
She raps lightly on Ainsley’s door. There is no answer. She knocks again a little louder, which elicits a groan. Harper cracks open the door.
“Time to get up,” Harper says.
“I’m sick,” Ainsley says. “I have a migraine.”
Harper nearly laughs. It’s startling the way ailments, either real or perceived, pass down through the generations. For Eleanor, every headache was a “migraine” and required a cool, dark bedroom for three hours, followed by a double espresso and a double gin martini.
“Get up,” Harper says.
“Seriously, I get them,” Ainsley says. “I can’t move. My vision gets all splotchy, and I feel nauseated. I’m staying home today.”
“You’re going to school today,” Harper says. She snaps her fingers twice, and Fish leaps onto the bed and starts barking. Ainsley groans again and extends a foot to the floor.
While Ainsley is getting showered, Harper makes her famous scrambled eggs—famous to her and Billy, anyway. Harper uses double yolks, half-and-half, and a handful of shredded Cheddar. She cooks the eggs slowly over low heat until they are deep golden and creamy.
Harper makes a plate for Ainsley with a piece of lightly buttered rye toast, but Ainsley pushes the dish away. “I don’t eat breakfast.”
