rich man's world; charlie dalton

[two] theresa dalton

Very well then.

The words slipped out of Mrs. Dalton's thin lips like honey.

Sigrid felt comforted by her small words of affirmation. Adults typically tried to convince her to pursue something 'better'. Like her father said: nurse, housewife, or nothing.

No one's gonna pay you for being a poet.

It nearly made her scoff. It took creative people to understand why she was passionate, Mr. Hall was the furthest thing. A polar opposite.

Mrs. Dalton and Sigrid shared a small smile before the older woman continued to talk, "What year are you in, young lady? I'm sure a girl as advanced and put together as yourself has gotten far in her education."

"Actually," she looked down at her yellow saddle shoes and then sniffed. "I haven't quite got a school yet. My father is really opposed to the idea of myself becoming a poet because he says it's a man's career. 'Not a smart man's, but a man's'," she quickly added with air quotes. "He took me out of school to prevent me from getting into any universities. I went to Ridgeway."

The people in the front seats looked at each other, Mr. Dalton pursed his lips, "Well, that's horrible Sigrid Taylor. Could you afford homeschooling? If the opportunity arises you should take it. Opportunity rarely turns the corner."

They were also opposed to the idea of the girl dropping out of school, there would be so much wasted potential. It didn't take much to see.

The question sounded rude coming from his lips because he had a naturally monotone and deep voice. Sigrid shook her head, "I was thinking that I could exchange some lessons for cooking, cleaning, and maybe even babysitting. Seeing that it'll be secret I can't take money out of my savings account and whatever my dad gives me out his pocket wouldn't even get me the books until December."

"And if that's not good enough?"

"I've got friends at Ridgeway who I'm sure would let me borrow their books to study. I wouldn't want to be a burden to them but if borrowing is what it comes down to I'll do it," there was a murderous undertone in her words, she didn't appreciate getting questioned and they were unwillingly pushing her buttons. Instead of being insulted by the tone, Mrs. Dalton smiled and turned her head to look at her.

The older woman immediately picked up on how serious she was about the topic. Then her mind trailed back to the possibility of arranging the girl with her son. Keen on it, really. The lightbulb in her head lit up like never before, "Have you tried enrolling into Welton?"

Sigrid's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Isn't Welton an all-boys boarding school?"

"Yes."

She was even more confused.

"But you've got us, the Dalton's. Whatever we say goes, we put a lot of money into that school and I'm sure they'll hate to see it all spent."

Sigrid's facial features slowly twisted into a smile before they dropped quickly as she remembered, "But it's too expensive, even if you get me in through convincing I wouldn't be able to gather enough money to continue studying there. We're back at square-one. And missing this year would ruin my entire academic career I-"

"Don't worry, we've got you covered."

She went into a slight state of shock, the Dalton's laughed at her expression.

Just like that? It couldn't certain be that easy.

Her internal monologue didn't fail to doubt her, laugh at her. The car stopped at the street Sigrid had requested, but she could not move a muscle realizing that the nice strangers had just offered to pay for the rest of her education. Not even her father was that kind. It made her wonder why and how she considered her father kind if he had literally left her miles away from her own home.