Chapter 9
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"Hello," Norah greeted Imran a little nervously. "Can you tell me where Maira is? I have some news of your mother for both of you."
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Maira was outside, cleaning up. She was not happy about it.
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"Your mother wrote and said that she misses you," said Norah.
"Well, we don't miss her," said Imran.
"Except that with her gone, and Rashidah now, too, I have to do all the work around here. And it's all your fault," Maira complained.
"My fault?"
"If you hadn't let that pirate stay with you, Mum would never have met him and left, and Rashidah would still be here, and I wouldn't have to wash all the dishes."
'We think you should marry our dad to make up for it," added Imran.
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"I'm certainly not going to marry Tom Watson. I don't even like him," Norah told Cecelia later. "But I don't see how the pirate could have had time to meet Rahmi."
"There's something I've been meaning to tell you," said Cecelia. "I've been putting it off, but I promise, I would have told you right away if Claudia had been a boy."
"Huh?" said Norah.
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"Claudia and Penelope are sisters," said Cecelia.
"You mean your sister was involved with the pirate?"
"I've never had a sister," said Cecelia. "He stayed with me earlier, when he had that quarrel with Agnes Crumplebottom. Penelope is his daughter. I said she was my niece because I didn't know how the Henford Hens would react."
"Thanks for letting me know," Norah said, stabbing the pancake batter with her wooden spoon.
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Norah was tempted to move out then and there, but Claudia and Penelope did enjoy playing together.
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They had agreed that both could be mommies like their mommies even though there was only one dollhouse.
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And they were on their way to becoming best friends as well as sisters.
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"It's very strange," Norah said to Kim when she came over. "It didn't bother me that the pirate loved me and left. I knew he wasn't the kind of person who would be faithful. And I'm so glad I have Claudia. But finding out that he was involved with Rahmi, too..." And Cecelia, she thought, but didn't add, because Cecelia hadn't said anything about letting the rest of the village know.
"What's strange is that I feel kind of jealous," she summed up.
"You should talk to Miss Agatha," said Kim. "She explained all about the triangular nature of desire to me when I was upset about Michael."
"The triangular nature of desire?"
"Person A doesn't get really interested in Person B until there's a rival for his affections, Person C. I just liked Michael as a friend until I found out he was interested in Cecelia, but then I became jealous. Go talk to Miss Agatha. She can explain it much better than I can."
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"Kim said I should talk to you," Norah began and stopped, unsure of how to continue. After all, according to the pirate, he and Miss Agatha had been involved back in the day.
"Is this about the pirate?"
"Yes," said Norah. "Do you know his name?"
"I think he called himself Roger Jolly when I knew him," said Agatha, "but I doubt that was his real name. He might have forgotten it by now, it's been so long. What did he tell you about me?"
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"He said that you and he had a relationship..."
"We flirted," said Agatha. "I flirted with lots of people then, and I knew he didn't mean anything serious by it. That was fine with me.
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"But Agnes took it differently. He was her one true love, and she was sure that he would settle down with her and become respectable. Respectable! You might as well expect a cat to fetch your slippers for you. I tried to tell her what he was like, but she just said I was jealous. And cynical. And that I underestimated the power of a woman's pure love." Agatha shrugged.
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"And did he really give you a bottle of water from the Fountain of Youth?" Norah asked.
"Youth, no, but he did make us immortal, or at least give us very long lives. Of course, we both thought it was all a cruel joke back then. We drank the water and nothing happened. But I have to admit, we've lived quite a bit longer than our natural life expectancy.
"Don't try and talk to Agnes about him," added Agatha. "She's still very bitter."
Norah hadn't found out anything more about the triangular nature of desire, but she did feel better after having talked to Agatha. She would definitely rather be philosophical like Agatha rather than angry and bitter like Agnes.
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Meanwhile, Cecelia had decided to see if there was anything she could do to cheer up Tom Watson.
