Double Take (7 page)

She considered this. It might simplify things to have his help finding her way through the building. But what if she forgot the doorman’s name or needed to pull out her notes to help with the security code in the penthouse? “No thank you,” she said.

“The reservation is for nine,” he told her.

She turned away to hide her shock. Dinner at nine o’clock? Her family would be asleep in bed by then.

“Can you be back down here by, say, 8:45?”

“Yes.” She forced a smile as she got out of the car. “8:45.” She hurried up to the building, under the awning that was just as Madison had described. She smiled at the doorman. “Hello, Henry.”

“Good evening and welcome home, Miss Van Buren.” He smiled back at her as he opened the door.

Beyond the glass doors, she stepped into a space as big as Daed’s barn, but instead of dirt, there was a shiny floor made of some kind of stone and an enormous, elegant carpet, plus several chairs and a huge hanging lamp overhead that would easily fill Anna’s entire house. Anna tried not to look too stunned or overly impressed at what Madison had explained was a lobby—a place to wait or just pass through—as she went over to what she assumed were the elevators.

“After the lobby, you go to the narrow part of the building,” Madison had told her when Anna had questioned how she would possibly recognize an elevator—unless it was a grain elevator, which was not the situation. “There you’ll see three sets of brass doors and buttons that are lit up. You use the elevator that’s on a wall by itself, then you push up for up and down for down.”

At the time, Anna had giggled, thinking that it all sounded rather obvious and easy. Now she was glad Madison had been so specific. Push up for up, she told herself as she pressed the button next to the single set of doors.

“When you’re inside, the doors will close—”

“By themselves?” Anna had asked.

Madison laughed. “Yes. They open and close by themselves. When you’re inside, you slide this card”—she showed her a silvery card—“into the slot until you see a green light, and then you push the button with the number 26 on it.”

Now that Anna was inside, she looked around for a place to slide the card. After some time she found it, and after two tries she saw a green light. Then she pushed the number 26 button and waited, wondering why everything was so complicated here.

Suddenly it felt as if she were shooting straight up into the air. She reached for a rail on the wall, clinging to it as her head grew lighter. Did anyone ever faint in an elevator? There was a whooshing sound, and after a few seconds the doors opened, again by themselves. As she got out, she felt a strange popping inside her ears. This was all very odd, and she was thankful she’d asked Garret to wait downstairs. He would have thought she was crazy if he’d witnessed her just now.

As Madison had explained, Anna emerged into a foyer, which was another place to wait. This space had no windows, but it had a black leather couch and a black-and-white chair as well as a big, strange painting on the wall. There was a pair of big red doors off to the side. “Punch the code numbers into the keypad by the red doors,” Madison had instructed.

Anna had tried to memorize the code numbers, but so much had happened that she didn’t trust her memory right now. She pulled the pages out of her purse and looked for the numbers, then carefully pressed them in. She heard a clicking noise, then she tried the door, and—just like that—it opened. She had made it—all the way to New York City, to Manhattan, and into Madison’s penthouse!

“Ah.” She closed the door, leaned against it, and sighed joyfully. “Home sweet home.”

“Miss Madison?”

Anna stood up straight as if at attention.

“You are all right?” A short, stout, dark-haired woman in a neat gray dress looked curiously at her.

“Yes.” Anna nodded, trying to get her bearings. This must be the housekeeper. What was her name?

The woman came closer now, peering curiously with dark brows furrowed. “You are
all right
?” she repeated, a bit more firmly this time.

“Yes.” Anna forced a smile. “I am fine.”

The woman still looked troubled. Or maybe she was suspicious.

“I need to get ready for my date,” Anna said in what she hoped sounded like Madison. She headed toward the left hallway. She knew Madison’s bedroom was down that hallway and her mother’s room was down the opposite hallway. But there were two doors in the left hallway. Anna glanced over her shoulder to see the housekeeper still watching her. Wanting to escape those dark, prying eyes, Anna nervously opened the first door but was dismayed to discover it was not a bedroom. It was a small bathroom—the powder room. Even so, she went inside, closing the door behind her. As ridiculous as it seemed, she thought perhaps she could pretend that was where she’d meant to go.

Anna’s heart pounded as she turned on the shiny silver water faucet, allowing the water to go to waste down the sink, which looked like a giant glass bowl. This was her sad effort to appear to be using this pretty powder room. She had a feeling the housekeeper—what was her name?—was out there waiting for Anna to emerge for further questioning. After all her hard work, Anna could not believe she was about to be found out by the housekeeper. Perhaps she was on the phone right now, calling Madison’s mother and alerting her to the intruder trying to pass herself off as Madison Van Buren. Worse yet, perhaps she was calling the police!

To Anna’s relief, the housekeeper, Nadya (whose name she discovered by searching her notes), was nowhere to be seen when Anna finally exited the powder room. This time Anna went straight for the other door, but as soon as she went in, she thought she’d made another mistake. Because this room, on first impression, didn’t look like a bedroom. At least not like any bedroom Anna had ever seen. Then she noticed there was indeed a bed—a big, beautiful bed with soft blue and gold bedding that looked fit for a queen. Not that Anna had ever met a queen, but she’d read about one once. This room seemed prepared for royalty. Was it possible that Madison was actually a princess?

Anna walked slowly across the large room, going directly to the big window. With wide eyes, she looked out to see a scene that resembled the night sky—only it was brighter and flashing and a bit frightening. She gasped to see all the lights and colors and shapes. She finally reached for the thick soft curtains, pulled them shut, and stepped back to catch her breath. It was just too much!

Turning away, she continued to take in the room, studying the details of luxurious furnishings, beautiful lamps, big mirrors, thick rugs. Everything was so fancy, she couldn’t imagine how anyone actually lived here. She was afraid to touch anything. When she finally put her hand on the silky bedding, she jumped at three quick knocks on the bedroom door.

“Miss Madison?” called the housekeeper’s voice from the hallway.

“Yes?”

“You need my help?”

Anna glanced around, wondering what she could possibly need help with when everything in this room looked perfectly immaculate. Unless the housekeeper could give her some fashion advice, which seemed unlikely.

“No thank you, Nadya,” Anna called out. “I am fine.”
Quit sounding so “prim and proper,” as Garret put it
, she warned herself as she removed the short boots that were starting to hurt her feet.
Talk like Madison. Otherwise everyone is going to be suspicious.

Anna noticed what she assumed was a television. Oh, she’d seen a television before, in a store, but it had been small and boxy whereas this one was large and flat. She knew from reading books that televisions were operated with things you could pick up and hold in your hand—things that were called
remotes
—but she had never seen one. She went over to the big black screen and studied it closely. If she could only figure how to turn this thing on, it might be helpful. She could listen to the way the English spoke and see how they acted and do a better job imitating.

Next to the television, she spied a black object that resembled Madison’s phone. Was that the remote? She read the tiny words by the buttons. Although they made little sense, she tried pressing them:
Info, Tools, Return, Menu
. . . nothing. Then she pressed
Power,
and suddenly the black screen came to life. She jumped back as she heard a woman talking. Anna studied her curiously. She was telling about how she lost weight using something called Metaboglycemic and how “for only $19.95, you can too.” Anna stared at two images of the woman—or so the television was telling her—one before, one after.

Anna blinked and stepped away. The English used pills to lose weight? Perhaps she should tell Aunt Rachel about this. But right now she needed to change her clothes.

Where did Madison keep her clothes? Certainly not hanging on pegs like at Anna’s house. She opened a door and was surprised to see that it was another bathroom. She remembered the floor plan Madison had drawn. All the bedrooms had their own bathrooms, and this one was much bigger than the powder room. Everything in it was white and sky-blue and beautiful. The bathtub was huge and shiny, and there was a giant glass box that Anna supposed was a shower. She’d heard of such luxuries before, but besides the spray hose in their bathtub, her house did not have one. Unless she counted her father’s cleaning station out by the barn, where he and her brothers sometimes hosed off the mud before coming into the house.

She opened some of the drawers to see all kinds of curious things, and she opened some cupboard doors to reveal stacks of beautiful linens, but she saw no clothes in here. Then she remembered another door in the big bedroom—perhaps it was a cupboard with clothes. When she opened it, she thought it was yet another room, except that it was filled with shoes and purses and clothes that were hung up with wooden hangers, like the store where she’d purchased the scarf.

With her mouth open, Anna just stood and stared. This room was obviously Madison’s clothing closet, but it looked bigger than the bedroom Anna shared with her little sister Katie. All this for clothes? Anna just shook her head in wonder.

Now she needed to pick out something to wear. But where to begin? Anna started by removing her clothes, and it felt good to get out of those blue jeans. Oh, she knew from reading English novels that they weren’t really boys’ pants, but they weren’t all that comfortable either. She missed her loose cotton dresses. As she recalled from books, girls often wore dresses on dates.

She went to the section of the closet that had dresses—at least she thought they were dresses. They were all quite short. She studied the dresses of every color and every fabric imaginable. Or even unimaginable. She blinked at a red one that glittered like jewels, then put it back where she’d gotten it. Next she pulled out a black one that glistened with hundreds of tiny glass beads. How long it must have taken to sew all those beads on. It was pretty, but how could she wear a dress that was so short? She held one up that seemed longer, but still it would be well above her knee. What would Mamm and Daed say? Well, she couldn’t think about that now.

Anna heard something like bells chiming in the bedroom. Madison’s phone! She ran to the purse and dug for the phone. “Hello?” she breathlessly answered.

“I know, I know,” said an unfamiliar female voice. “I wasn’t going to call you—and really you don’t deserve to be called—but it’s been almost twelve hours and I am totally desperate. Madison, you have got to come down here. I mean it. Seriously, I cannot do this without you. You must come immediately!”

“I . . . I can’t.” Anna took in a breath. This had to be Vivian, the best friend who wanted Madison to come stay with her.

“You mean you
won’t
,” Vivian snapped. “You’re supposed to be my best friend and that’s the best you can do? You are useless.”

“I am sorry.” Anna didn’t know what else to say.

“Please come.” Her voice softened. “I’m begging you.”

“I’m sorry. I cannot come. It’s impossible.”

“I am dying here, Madison. You have to come!”

“Dying?” Anna felt alarmed.

“It is so freaking boring! I want to drown myself in the pool right now. Please come, Madison. It’ll be fun. I promise.”

“I can’t.” Anna was standing in the doorway to the closet. She needed to get off the phone and find something to wear. “I have a date with Garret and—”

“Are you insane? Why are you going out with that lowlife? You said you were going to take a long break from him. It’s been like one day. What is wrong with you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why do you sound so weird? Seriously, Madison, you do not sound like yourself. Are you sick or something?”

“I . . . I’m well. I just need to get dressed.” Anna was tempted to ask Vivian for some fashion advice but suspected that would be a mistake.

“Fine! Be that way. Next time you want me to do something for you, you can just forget it. I am so over you, Madison!”

“I am sorry,” Anna said again.

“If you’re sorry, why don’t you—”

That was it. No other words came out, just silence. Anna looked at the phone to see that the little screen was dark. She shook it and looked again. Still dark. Was it broken? Or had she done something wrong?

She shrugged and set it down, then turned toward the television, where several women were all talking at once in agitated voices. The women looked little older than Anna, but in the next picture, they were all smiling and they all wore dresses similar to those in Madison’s closet. Anna watched as words came across the screen—
The Real Housewives of New York City
. She moved closer to the television, studying how these real housewives looked. Certainly nothing like the wives in Anna’s community. But then she knew that everything was different here. This was how people in New York dressed.

She returned to the closet, finally picking out a sleeveless dark blue dress in a shiny fabric. This would be an acceptable color in her community. Almost all shades of blue, many shades of purple, and some subdued red tones, as well as pastels (on younger women) were common. Dark blue was quite respectable for most any age and any occasion. Of course, that was nearly all that would be respectable about this garment.

Anna looked through some of the drawers to find very interesting sorts of undergarments, hosiery, and other things. She picked a pair of black stockings, hoping that would help make up for the length of the dress, then she found a pair of black shoes. After a few minutes, she managed to dress herself, but when she looked at her reflection in the mirror, she couldn’t help but laugh. She did not look right. Her white cotton undergarments peeked out from beneath the dress, and the black stockings and shoes . . . well, she was no expert, but she knew they were all wrong too.

Still wearing this outfit, she studied the television, hoping to get some fashion direction, but now there was a woman dancing around in undergarments—very skimpy undergarments that were red as blood. Anna blinked then stared. She was shocked that someone would want to be on television dressed like that—for all the world to see. But now she realized that if she was going to dress like a modern Englisher girl, she would need to wear Madison’s undergarments as well.

Starting over, she returned to the closet and peeled off the clothes, this time putting on some of Madison’s skimpy undergarments. It felt strange, and she could not imagine ever letting anyone—certainly not the whole television world—see her in these things. Then she put the blue dress back on.

Now that looked better. Except for her bare legs, which, unlike the TV women’s, were pale. She picked up the black hose again, deciding she didn’t care if she was less fashionable than Madison. If she felt more covered in these stockings, that was her choice. Instead of the high-heeled shoes, she picked out a pair of brown suede boots that were actually quite comfortable. Then she found a little purple sweater that she put on over the dress.

She looked at her image in the mirror again and frowned. She looked nothing like the housewives of New York City. Knowing it was probably hopeless, she decided she didn’t care. Perhaps she would pretend that Madison had experienced some kind of life-changing revelation, that she had decided to toss fashion to the wind.

Because she was missing her
kapp
, Anna looked through a collection of hats, finally selecting a bright pink one. Before she put in on, she braided her hair in two pigtails just like her mother used to do when she was a little girl.

She laughed to see her reflection now. She would probably scare Garret off with this strange getup. Perhaps that would be a good thing. Just for fun, she put a shiny red belt around her waist, then looked through Madison’s jewelry collection. Finding a big brooch filled with lots of colorful jewels, she pinned it to the sweater and nodded with satisfaction. She looked a bit like a rainbow, or perhaps like one of the more colorful quilts that she sometimes helped to put together with the other women in her community.

To this colorful collection of garments, she added the orange purse that she’d been carrying all day. When she emerged from the bedroom, Nadya, who was standing nearby pretending to dust, stared at her with a shocked expression. As if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“How do I look?” Anna asked, suppressing the urge to giggle.

Nadya nodded with a bewildered expression. “You, uh, you look good, Miss Madison.”

“Thank you!” Feeling Nadya’s eyes still on her, Anna opened the front door. “See you later,” she called, hoping she sounded more like Madison than she looked.

Anna pushed the only button by the elevator and waited for the doors to open and close. Nothing happened. She looked at all the buttons with all the numbers and wondered what to do. Put in the card and push 26 again? She was about to dig out the notes, but suddenly the elevator started to go down all by itself. She felt a bit nervous but thought maybe the elevator knew what it was doing. It stopped and the doors opened. Thinking it must be the lobby, Anna started to get out.

“Cool your jets.” A short, dark-haired girl gently pushed Anna back into the elevator. “This isn’t the lobby, silly.”

“Oh?” Anna blinked at her. She had very short hair, big dark eyes, and was wearing a black dress topped by a bright jacket of yellow and red.

“Didn’t you push it?” The girl reached over to the row of lit-up number buttons, pushing the one with an L on it, and just like that, the elevator began going down again.

Push the L button
, Anna told herself,
to go down. L must be for lobby.

“What
are
you wearing?” The girl stared at Anna curiously.

Anna shrugged. “This and that.”

The girl laughed. “It looks like a Madison Van Buren original.”

Anna tried not to look shocked. Obviously, this girl knew Madison. But who was she?

The girl looked more closely at her. “Seriously, Madison, it’s not a bad look. Kudos to you for trying something new.”

“Thank you.” Anna nodded, wondering what kudos were.

“Too bad you’re not interested in helping with Fashion Fling this year.”

Anna frowned. What was a fashion fling? Throwing clothes, perhaps?

“But then I guess you don’t care about starving Haitian orphans or—”

“I do care,” Anna insisted. Just then the elevator stopped and the doors opened, and there standing in the lobby was Garret. At first he smiled, but then as if seeing her better, he looked somewhat confused.