Amie Bernstein; Chapter 17

 

Amie Bernstein; Chapter 17

© 2022 by Amber Wright

THE VISITOR

Date: Winter 1902

Place: London, England

Amie walked into the dining room with a proper air, having slid down the banister without being seen. Now, her eyes searched the table for a new face. A visitor, as Annie had called the person. Well, it could be— Her thoughts were cut short when her eyes locked onto the person sitting next to Oncle Aaron.

“Are you a ghost?” Amie rushed over to the thin-faced young man with the wide Bernstein eyes rimmed in black eyelashes. “Shad!”

“Not that I know of.” Shad’s smile replaced his vacant stare as he stood and reached out to hug her. “Hello, Amie!”

“Bonjour, Shad!” Amie planked a kiss on each cheek, then sang out chirpily. “Well, I’m a ghost. I just died a few minutes ago. It was so heroic too! I saved Sherlock Holmes’ life.”

“Reading, hmm?” Gad chuckled.

“Oui !” Amie’s face lit up even more. “And did you know that—?”

“How about we pray first so people can begin eating, shall we?” Papa smiled.

Amie silently took the empty chair beside Shad and closed her eyes, but still had a huge smile on her face during the whole prayer.



“Shad’s out with the big boys.” Kitt complained with a huff when Amie asked him where Shad was the next day. “And I have to baby-sit you!”

“Poor you!” Amie made a face and grinned. “Aren’t you lucky more like, hmm? Today’s the day Oncle Gad teaches us how to play my song Drippy, Drippy Rain! How about that?”

Kitt smiled sheepishly and dug his boot into the thick carpet. “Merci, Amie. You’re so nice and…” He seemed at a loss for words.

“Make gray-days play-days!” Amie grabbed his hand and dragged him along. “C’mon, I hear him playing already. If we don’t hurry, he just might—”

“Take Annie Montgomery shopping!” Kitt finished in a snort, laughing.

“Precisely, Kitt Lazar.” Amie giggled, breaking into a run. “Destination piano!”

They ran smack into Dinah the maid as they neared the parlor door. Towels flew everywhere. One landed on top of Amie’s perfectly-set curls.

Amie felt a few hairs pull and yank out. “Ouch!”

“Miss Amie!” Dinah gasped, sitting up from the pile of clean towels surrounding her. “And Mr. Kitt Lazar!”

Kitt pushed himself up on all fours and helped Dinah up from her kneeling position. “Pardon, mademoiselle! We shouldn’t have been running inside.”

“Well, no harm done.” Dinah smiled and stooped to pick up the scattered towels. “Just have a heart and help me pick up these, will you? Thank yous.”

After they had folded the towels nicely once more, Amie planked a kiss onto Dinah’s cheek. “Sorry so much for the trouble, Dinah. We’ll try not to do it again.”

“Thank yous.” Dinah walked off humming Amie’s tongue-catching tune Drippy, Drippy Rain! and Amie smiled watching her go.

They entered the parlor with rumpled hair, large smiles and giggles. They sobered up when they saw Gad look up from playing.

“What happened to yous?” he wore a frown.

“We ran into a towel-tornado, that’s what.” Amie answered briskly. “Now, shall we?”

“Absolutely.” Gad patted the bench beside him. “Kitt first since he knows less than you, Amie. Now Kitt, this first key where my index finger is, is which key?”

“The key C…”



The lights of Saturday burned low and the fires were banked as the house settled into a nightly stupor. Next day was Sunday and Gad had promised Amie and Kitt that he would play for them while they sang at church.

But not your brand new song, Amie, Gad had added with a chuckle, or what would Mr. Russet do? Amie had answered smartly, Swallow his tongue! Amie thought about this with a laugh as she snuggled deep under her soft, warm covers.

“Goodnight, night.” She giggled, closing her eyes.

She had wished everyone in the house a “Goodnight” that night, feeling herself an accomplished young lady. She had both written and played her very own song. Now she would continue in her efforts until she would reach the stars that twinkled down on her through the crisp glass windows.

Monday afternoon, after lessons were done, Amie and Kitt took turns playing the piano until their fingers tingled. It was January 20, 1902, day of the beginning of their piano practice to the fullest.



Tuesday arrived cloudy—but inside the house was shining with the attempts of both Amie's and Kitt’s classical piano playing. It sounded…almost professional, just not quite. But Kitt thought differently, not wanting to face up to the bare facts of his raw classical piano playing. Amie knew. They both had a lot to learn and a lot to practice.

“We just have a long road ahead of us, Kitt.” Amie tried to console him when he banged a few keys on accident and sat moping on a window-seat.

“Well, it better get here!” Kitt stared into the glass, glaring up at the blankets of clouds gathered in the January skies. “That road. And it better not have any crooked bends in it either or I’ll…” He bit down on his bottom lip with a mournful frown.

“Aw-w…” Amie dragged out the word with a twinkling smile. “But it’s so much funner with the crooked little bends. Otherwise, it’d be boring knowing every season of success. Every season of disappointment. Every up and down.”

“I never thought of that.” Kitt swallowed, turning his frown into a smile. “You know, Amie, you’d make a parfait counselor. You should work in the Mental Institute when you grow up.”

“No thanks.” Amie made a face and began playing Drippy, Drippy Rain! again. “Kitt, why don’t we try playing this together? Like a duet? You can play the low part.”

“Alright.” A grin played on Kitt’s face as he took the left-hand side of the bench. “And I sing French and you sing English. Ha-ha!”

“Smashing! Let’s have a go.” Amie giggled and started playing right-hand keys in an artistic arrangement. “Three, two—”

“One—go!” and Kitt took off singing in French. “La pluie qui goutte…”



Wednesday began breezy with a light rain pattering against the glass panes. Lunch was served in the parlor in honor of hearing Amie and Kitt, the now new pianists who played every chance they got, perform their French/English rendition of Drippy, Drippy Rain! Everyone applauded and the two pianists/singers were all smiles. Afterwards, they ate little ham sandwiches, pickles, latkes, hot tea and ginger cake.

“I vote we go…” Edia paused and gave each one a mysterious glance.

Every eye from the settees and chairs stared at Edia.

Kitt shrugged as he finished the sentence off for her, “Shopping. Je suis exact?”

“Non. Wrong. I vote we go,” Edia smiled and finished in a blank-like voice, “riding.”

“In this rain?” Danielle made a wry face. “It’s cold—and wet.”

“Suit yourself, Danielle, but,” Edia turned to the rest, “how about it? Shall we have a go around town. Shad hasn’t seen the city in a long time, so…”

“I vote twice!” Amie raised both of her hands and smiled with her eyes closed triumphantly. “And then we can investigate—”

“The graveyard!” Kitt raised his black eyebrows dramatically.

“Yes, do!” Amie quickly agreed. “That’s where I almost die.”

“I thought you were already dead.” Shad’s pale face was getting more color now since he was home. At first, he had looked ghostly white when he had arrived from the South African hospital. “Remember?”

“Oh, I am in the other story. But now,” Amie’s smile widened almost to the point of splitting her cheeks, “dot, dot, dot.”

“Oh yes.” Shad smiled. “Dot, dot, dot. That starts a whole new chapter.”

“Precisely. Shall we?” Amie stood up and motioned towards the outside.

“Precisely.” Shad was on his feet in an instant and squashed Amie’s curls by putting his arm around her shoulders. “Come along, m’love, and get yourself dead.”

“You mean almost. I don’t die this time.” Amie reminded him importantly.

“Right. Get yourself almost dead.” Shad’s blue-gray eyes laughed and Amie giggled hopelessly as she thought about it being realistically unrealistic.

The drizzling rain dampened nobody’s spirits as they began their go around town.

French/English translation:

Mademoiselle………… Miss

Oncle…………………… Uncle

oui……………………… yes

non……………………… no

Bonjour………………… Hello/Good morning/Good day

merci…………………… thank you

Pardon!………………… sorry/excuse me

parfait……………………… perfect

Je suis exact?………………… I’m right?

La pluie qui goutte………………… Drippy rain