Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing (39 page)

Scarlet began to slowly pace about the room, as if she were
searching for something. She ran to the foot of the bed and picked up Rosa’s shoes from the floor and examined the soles to find one thicker than the other. Scarlet dropped her arms to her side, stepped over slowly to Rosa’s bedside, and barely touched the skin on Rosa’s hand.

“You’re her,” Scarlet said softly. “You’re Daisy.”

Rosa patted Scarlet’s hand and met her gaze. “Oh, dear, we have so much to talk about. I’ve been planning this for ages, and I never thought where or how to tell this story.”

“At the beginning,” Scarlet said gently, sitting at the edge of Rosa’s bed for a front-row seat.

“All right. The beginning,” Rosa said, clearing her throat and then motioning repeatedly to signal Enid for a glass of water.

“I’d have to say it started the night of the accident. It was a beautiful spring night in Miami, barely cold enough to warrant a shawl. I was only twenty-two. My sisters and I had the magic touch for sewing. Let me tell you—we could create clothing and embellish it so gallantly; one seam could turn a head. One of us made the patterns, the other the sketches, another sewed and added the final details. Our skills were equal.

“One of us happened to be a mile more ambitious than the others. She moved away for a while and started to make a name for herself, but got caught in the middle of a marriage scandal. She came home broken and desperate. She came so close to hitting it big but let love get in the way. And then she got wind of an opportunity and promised she could take all of us to the next level of business with her.

“After much deliberation, we decided to crash the biggest Florida fashion event of the year. We snuck in wearing our gowns, purses, shoes, and belts that we had just finished that morning. We partied like we belonged there; no one even questioned us. We had a plan—to locate Walter Reese.”

“I’ve heard of him,” Scarlet said. “He created innovative garments for both men and women during the 1960s. He’s the guy who did those thigh-high boots and short-waisted jackets; he was known for using neon colors.”

“Yes,” Rosa said. “We knew he’d be attending the event to sign new designers to his expanding label. He had a direct connection to department stores and wanted to bring artful glamour to the everyday woman. We gathered all the details ahead of time of what he wanted and created a presentation on our line. We knew he’d bite—if only we could pin him down long enough to hear the pitch.”

Rosa took another sip of water and continued. “The banquet-room setting is still fresh in my mind. The waiters with their white gloves and silver trays buzzed around the guests like busy bees in a flower field. I remember noticing that the glass and silverware clinked in time with the Mambo Estrella playing “Que Rico El Mambo” at the front of the ballroom. The horn section gave me chills. Do you know that Marco found me an original recording of Mambo Estrella while I was taking the patternless sewing class?”

“Who cares about Marco right now! Did you get to meet Walter Reese?” Stephanie asked, eating her fourth cookie, totally intrigued.

“Oh, yes, we did,” Rosa said joyfully. “We were right; he gobbled up everything we had and signed a temporary contract that night. He came by our table, kissed our hands, and welcomed us to his fashion family. He invited us to an afterparty to celebrate and even offered to put us up in a hotel so we wouldn’t have to take a cab home so late at night.”

Sadness washed over Rosa’s wrinkled face, tugging it down into a frown.

“One of my sisters had too much to drink,” she said. “She’d
just had a baby, the father skipped town; she wasn’t thinking clearly that night. All the excitement, I suppose. I knew she needed to get home to her son. So… I talked everyone into leaving. I didn’t want to cause a scene with my sister, so I pretended to have a headache. They were angry with me at first. They followed me outside and tried to lure me back in. I threatened to leave on my own; I knew they would join me. I stepped into the street and waved down the first cab that swooshed by. He wasn’t happy—I think he was off duty but he saw us all dressed up and waved us in.”

Rosa turned to reach for the embroidered hanky on her nightstand. She sniffled, took a sip of water, and continued.

Scarlet crawled closer to her on the bed. “You don’t have to tell us now, Rosa. We can wait until morning. Right?” Scarlet said to the group.

“If she’s cool, I want to hear more,” Jennifer said. Stephanie scolded her with a flash of her eyes.

“Anyway, we forgot about the business of the afterparty and celebrated the contract,” Rosa said. “That yellow cab may as well have been a VIP party lounge. All three of us held hands and cheered as loud as we could. We were so happy; we knew our lives would change forever. Our hard work paid off. Even our driver cheered for us.

“They say your life can change in an instant. Ours did. The driver didn’t pay attention to the road… and hit an oncoming car. He overcorrected… and sent us flying over the embankment.”

Scarlet felt her heart stop; so did the other women in the room, including Reyna and Enid, who had never heard the story until now. Scarlet cupped her hand over her mouth and felt her eyes flood with tears.

“All I remember is closing my eyes and feeling the car crash, bump, and roll over and over and over again. I didn’t think we
would ever stop. When we did, I tasted oil and dirt on my lips. I opened my eyes and saw the quilted tan upholstery fabric that lined the roof of the car. The windows were at the bottom and the doors at the top. We landed upside down. I could barely move my head, but I counted to three and gently turned it until I saw my shoulder… and then my arm… and then my hand that my twin sister was still holding. She squeezed it so tight, her giant black rhinestone ring on her finger sliced the skin on my knuckle.”

“You’re a twin?” Mary Theresa asked, lifting her head from crying. “And the ring… the one that slid off your finger in my house.”

“Yes, that one,” Rosa said. “My sister designed it—it was her favorite because she modeled it after one that Carmen Miranda always wore. My sister must have pressed it into my skin to get my attention. It worked. I bent down and was able to hold her head in my arms. She could barely speak.

“ ‘Rosa, I signed the contract in my name on our behalf; if I die tonight, it will be void,’ she said to me. ‘If any of us make it out alive, please carry it through… for me?’

“If my hermanas weren’t bleeding to death, I would have smacked the girl. I thought she was going to ask me if I was OK, or tell me she loved me as her last words. But instead she wanted to make sure I knew about the contract. That little cabrona. She wanted more than anything to be a famous designer.

“I told her not to worry about the contract, that we’d all be fine. I didn’t let her see me cry when she coughed up blood and finally told me she loved me. And then she squeezed my hand as hard as her weak body could and… and… then it went soft the exact moment I saw the life leave her eyes. I lost my two sisters that night. All because I wanted to go home early.”

Mary Theresa, Olivia, Stephanie, and Jennifer ran to Rosa’s side to console her.

Everyone but Scarlet, who sat up, her face motionless. “Who was your twin sister, Rosa?” she asked, staring at a vintage photo that hung on the wall of two twin girls sitting at a sewing machine.

Rosa gulped and took Scarlet’s hand. “Daisy.”

S
carlet jumped from the bed and ran across the hardwood floor of the bedroom until she reached Rosa’s bathroom.
Daisy couldn’t have died,
she thought over and over.
No way.
Scarlet turned the ceramic faucet handles on the copper sink and splashed her face with water. A cool, calming breeze passed through, and Scarlet reached for the bathtowel to dry her cheeks and eyes. She paced up and down the corridor of the bathroom and sat on a red chaise longue in the corner to think.

She didn’t understand any of Rosa’s actions. Why did she come all the way to Arizona to torture Scarlet by taking the class? Why did she hold back the truth? Were
all
her stories lies? Daisy couldn’t be dead, Scarlet had seen newsreels and articles. She collected them, for God’s sake. Unless, they were all of…

“Rosa,” Scarlet said coldly as she exited the bathroom. “Have you been impersonating Daisy?”

“Scarlet, if I didn’t heart you so much, I’d slap you for being so rude,” Olivia said.

Rosa held up her hand to quiet Olivia. “Yes, I did. I did it to carry on my sister’s dream,” she said in a strict, grandmotherly tone. “And I do not feel guilty. She was so talented and worked harder
than anyone I have ever known—well, until I met you, Scarlet. You remind me a lot of Daisy. It happened so quickly. The ambulance came and I kept hearing her last words in my head. I passed myself off as her. No one figured it out. I’ve been living somewhat of a double life ever since. Back in the eighties we had everything settled with the lawyers, for the safety of the business. Very few people know. Not even Johnny knows. I expect all of you to take this to the grave. I’ll deny it if anyone asks.”

The women nodded in agreement. Rosa knew she could trust them.

Joseph brought in another tray of cookies just in time. The women took a short break to eat. Scarlet sat in a large wooden chair at the opposite side of the room. She didn’t feel mad anymore, just flustered.

“Scarlet come here,” Rosa said. “I want to explain how you fit into this.”

Scarlet rose from her chair and made a stop at the cookie tray for a cup of hot tea. She needed something soothing to pass through her veins. “I think you should write a book, Rosa,” she said as she sat on the bed. “You have quite a page-turner here.”

Rosa rubbed her hands together like the master storyteller she was. “Oh, it gets better,” she said. “Not only did I pretend to be Daisy, I raised Lily’s son, too. John.”

Rosa grinned. “That boy was trouble from day one. Daisy told me that Lily made him that way as my payback.”

“What do you mean, Daisy told you?” Mary Theresa said. “I thought she died.”

“Oh, her body passed, but her spirit is alive and well. How else do you think I could design all those fabulous clothes?”

“Daisy haunts you?” Scarlet asked.

Rosa elbowed the pillows against the headboard to make
them fluffy again. “I wouldn’t call it haunting; she’s just a nag. I don’t necessarily hear or see her. I feel her. It’s the twin thing.”

“She needs to cross over,” Olivia said. “You need to tell her to cross over and go with the good Lord!”

“She can’t, or rather… she won’t,” Rosa explained. “I raised little Johnny the best I could, with good ethics and business sense, with the plan of turning over the Casa de la Flora empire to him. But the kid is still a brat. He’s greedy and doesn’t care about fashion one bit. All he wants is his picture in the magazines, and money. I’ve given him so many chances. He deserves to be demoted to Johnny “Hand Me the” Scissors.

“Daisy and I even decided we would set him up with a test and find a Plan B. As we expected, he failed miserably. So we put Plan B into action.” Rosa reached for her intercom. “Bring in Louisa now, please.”

The clock struck one a.m., yet Louisa from the Johnny Scissors Nightmare Experience strolled in, wearing jeans and a tie-dye T-shirt.

Scarlet gasped. “I thought you worked for Johnny!”

“I work for
Rosa,
Scarlet,” Louisa said. “I processed your tuition, and reworked your contract so Johnny has nothing on you. I’m sorry for being rude last Sunday, but I had to play along with Johnny so he wouldn’t find out.”

“You mean the entire time, my tuition was paid?” Scarlet asked.

“No. Not in the way you think,” Rosa said. “I don’t believe in shortcuts! I believe in hard work and proving oneself. You had so many obstacles to overcome, but you never let them stop you. However, we wanted Daisy’s buttons back something fierce.”

Scarlet dropped her hand on the top of her head. “You won the buttons? Oh, Rosa, how awful that I had them the whole
time. You asked me to show them to you and I said no. I feel so stupid.”

Rosa flipped her hand at Scarlet. “It wasn’t me asking, dear. It was Daisy nagging in my ear. We’re happy to have them back. And thankful to Louisa for bidding on them. She’s our spy. She gives us a live feed of everything Johnny is purposely doing to ruin our company. I’m cutting him off tomorrow.”