The Shadow Sisters

[E1] Chapter 9 - Elizabeth Cole

Elizabeth knew that Tuesday was bin collection day for Meadow View. Seamus Phillips, the dean of the university himself, had written her a welcome email with that information included. She thought that was a nice gesture, even if it was probably just one of the admin staff writing on his behalf. It was nice to pretend.

It'd stated that the bins would be emptied early on Tuesday mornings and that it'd alternate between general waste and recycling on a weekly basis. But there was nothing to indicate which came first. She felt weirdly uncomfortable replying to the email, in case it somehow did reach Seamus and came off as incompetent or high maintenance.

After a period spent with her hands on her hips, glancing between the two bins, she surmised that the guilty party was unlikely to fess up. So she walked to the bottom of the drive to see if any of the neighbours had left out theirs yet.

As of yet, there was no sign of an answer.

Though, that was understandable, considering that it was still early on Monday and normal people likely didn't leave their bins out a full twenty-four hours beforehand.

Elizabeth Cole was a special breed of anxiously over-prepared. She'd always been that way, ever since she was a little girl.

She glanced to her neighbour's house. Would talented musician Robert swoop in and assist her with her quandary? Despite her best efforts to linger in the back garden when she sneaked a cigarette, she'd yet to see him since that first night. Though, given that he did own his own business, he might be busy. Knocking him to ask about something so trivial felt weirdly invasive.

She was in the middle of this thought when She noticed a young woman across the street. As she exited her car, her lush orange hair billowed in the wind.

Goodness, that was an expensive vehicle for someone who could scarcely be older than Marie.

"Hi there," Elizabeth called.

She must've startled the poor thing, because her eyes widened and she literally stepped back. After unlocking the gate, Elizabeth jogged over in an effort to minimise her crazy aura, but perhaps only achieved the opposite effect.

She had to catch her breath when she reached the girl. Man, did she really need to up her cardio game. "I'm sorry," she said, panting, "I just wanted to ask which bin we leave out this week."

The blue-eyed girl slumped her shoulders, letting out a held breath as she probably realised she wasn't about to be butchered in broad daylight.

"I live in that house with my two daughters." Elizabeth pointed.

"I see." The girl grinned. "It's the blue bin this week and the black bin the next."

"You sure?"

"I'm about ninety-percent positive."

"That's less definitive than I'd have hoped."

"In fairness, you picked the worst person in all of Meadow View to ask. I'm away a lot."

"I understand. I'll choose to trust you. Thank you, dearly." Elizabeth veered away to make back for her house. Already it was getting bitterly cold, as it tended to do in Willow Town evenings.

"Wait, but it's only Monday. They don't get collected until tomorrow evening."

"Right, but I'm a bit of an organisation freak."

"I see."

"If I left it until tonight, I'd end up forgetting after the first glass of wine. If I left it until tomorrow, I'd end up rushing out in my dressing gown, and you don't want to see that." But maybe that could prove enough to entice her handsome knight Robert to emerge from his fortress. Men liked frizzy hair, smeared makeup, and erratic behaviour, right?

"I wish I could bottle a drop of that preparation," the girl said, "But I've always been an improviser."

"My crazy is a package deal. If you want the organisational skills, you have to take everything that comes with it."

She chuckled. "You seem fine to me. Only normal crazy."

"Normal crazy. I like that." Elizabeth extended her hand. "Lizzy."

"Oh." The girl gripped it and shook it firmly. "I'm Regina. Pleasure to meet you."

"Do you live with your parents, Regina?"

"No. I'm out here on my own."

"Oh, wow. You're really young to be renting your own place, especially considering the size of that house. Do you work for the University?" All of these words spilt out of Elizabeth's mouth before she realised what she was saying. Often that was a consequence of having children, you adopted a terrible habit of offering everyone near their age unsolicited advice.

"No," Regina said quickly, offering no alternative explanation. "It's nice to meet you, Lizzy." Suddenly she seemed in a rush, as if she'd just remembered she was late for a meeting.

"And you, Regina."

"Welcome to the neighbourhood. If you ever need anything..." Then she must've had a change of heart on her impending offer, because she opened her gate and entered her car without uttering another word.

As she wandered away, Elizabeth couldn't help but shake the notion that there was something very peculiar about Regina. And if there was an expert on things peculiar, she considered herself to be one.

It was only as she returned to the shelter of the veranda that a possible answer struck her.

At the beginning of their conversation, she was almost sure that Regina's eyes had been blue. And yet, she was almost equally as certain by the end, they were lime green.

The more that she pondered this, the crazier it seemed. Of course, there had to be a rational explanation. Either there'd been a weird glare from the sunlight or she wore a changing contact that was trendy among the young folk.

Jeez, you really did get left behind with the times quicker these days.