✅ My Cousin's Keeper [NaNoWriMo 2021]

110. My Busy Day

I didn't sleep so well in Upper Ashfields. It wasn't the first time I'd had to stay overnight due to the combination of working late and an early start, but that normally meant crashing in one of the little suites attached to the office. There was little more than a bed and an alarm clock, but sometimes that was all you needed. This time, Jessop had suggested that I take a room in one of the town's more luxurious hotels. I'd initially wondered why he was making such a show of kindness, and thought that it was typical I would get a comfortable room when I was likely to be too tired to properly appreciate it. It wouldn't have surprised me at all if I went back to my room after a long day dealing with movie people and passed out on the bed, only to dash out ten minutes after waking up in the morning. But then I'd realised there was another reason I was here: so that I would already in the building if any of the interlopers from Hollywood needed something unusual in the middle of the night. It wasn't luxury; just a sign that I was to be on call all through the night.

Thankfully, I was spared any real drama. Most of the people here were the movers and shakers; the people who were used to getting everything they asked for, but whose demands were on the whole more reasonable than the artistes. There were only three people at this conference who were likely to cause trouble, and all were staying in their own trailers. The people I was sharing a hotel with wouldn't actually bother me unless something was going wrong, and I took it as a tribute to my organisational ability when that didn't happen.

Instead I retired to my room at a fairly reasonable time, and tried to sleep while my mind was plagued by thoughts of how the day could have gone for Tess. I couldn't ask her if it had gone well, because I wasn't supposed to even know that her suitor was there. I sent a message on XV asking if she'd had a good day, and then stared at the screen hoping for some kind of reply. It didn't seem likely that I would get one. I sent Ffrances a message instead, letting her know how much I missed her. That was a sentiment I repeated probably a dozen times through the night. She responded after a few minutes each time, reassuring me that she missed me too, and speculating about what we might be doing if I were at home now.

Sentimental? Maybe a little. But I loved Ffrances, and I would do anything for her. And at times like this, when I was restless, I knew she would always be there for me. It made me feel less alone, and it was never hard to find something to say even if we didn't really have anything to talk about. I asked again how Tess was going on; I was still worried about how she might be getting on without me, but the only answers I got were platitudes. It took me a while to realise that was probably all the reassurance I needed: if Tess had been upset, there was no way Ffrances wouldn't have noticed. And even if she thought I didn't know that Spike had been there, she would have been worried enough to talk to me about the problems, if not their cause. She would have warned me not to tease Tess too much, if nothing else.

I still dozed fitfully through the night, waking up a few times to reach out to Ffrances again. But she was always there to answer me, even if I'd expected her to be asleep long ago. Maybe I could stop worrying about how far away I was, and just think about my plans for the future. A future with Ffrances and Tess in it looked very bright; my mistress and my little, a perfect family who would stay together forever.

The next day, I had so much more work to do. Mostly it was just more of the same. Some of the TV types had taken over our usual offices for dealing with their paperwork, so I was working wherever I could find the space. Again I was sent to pick up an actor who thought that the studio was lucky to have him present, and they'd cater to his whims no matter what. This time I didn't need to go to the lengths I had with Walthamstone; just treating him like the child he was acting like was enough to get him to behave. It was amazing how quickly his behaviour turned around when faced with someone who just wouldn't tolerate a self-centred tantrum.

Later in the day, Carter found me again for another session of conference administration. I was a little frustrated because she appeared to ask for help just as I thought I'd finally found a few minutes to read the latest chapter of The Baby Button, which I hadn't managed all through the day before. But she seemed genuinely enthusiastic about learning to do her job better, and somehow that brought out my maternal instincts. I showed her how to do all of the forms, and she was pretty helpful; we got through the bureaucratic hurdles considerably faster than I could have done by myself. And then there was time to read the newest chapter, or at least half of it, before something else demanded my attention.

I could have joined Gyrald, the director, for dinner. He'd thanked me for all my help over the last couple of days, and said I was welcome. But I told him that I had too much other work to do; and in a way that was true. Instead of a fancy dinner in one of the town's indie restaurants, I stuffed a sandwich in my mouth while waiting in my car on one of the quieter residential streets, just outside the part of Upper Ashfields occupied by the conference. My timing was about right, because I'd just finished eating when there was a brief tap on my window. I wound it down to see Maurice G Kernigan looking down at me.

"Good to see you, Mr Smith," I smiled. "Still want to go into town?"

"Of course," he answered with a smile. "And I think, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to keep being Mr Smith. I would rather not be the object of attention for so many people, while I am here in secret. Especially given that the Claughton people seem so enthusiastic about keeping me out of sight of my community."

I nodded, and drove on. It was after six o'clock now; and the whole say had been so busy that for most of it, I didn't have time to stop and wonder about how Tess might be feeling after a date which was supposed to have been a disaster. I knew I should have been thinking about her; I would never be a good Mommy if I didn't pay attention when my little needed me. But there had been so many work-related things today, as well as the plan that would cement my family together more strongly than ever. I promised myself that it would all be worth it. Big changes always required sacrifice, after all, and then for most of the day I hadn't even had time to stop and think.

Malarkey and Sons would still be open. It was Isaac's game night, after all. Ffrances was going to miss the games in the basement today, because she had a night shift at work. I had been to hear that, as I still didn't trust the creepy old man around my girlfriend. But from all the times she had been there, I knew that he liked to keep the shop open until all of his visitors had arrived; sitting there and letting them past into the basement one by one. And that meant that until people started arriving at eight, the shop would be open late with no indication from the outside. I doubted that he'd ever had a customer during the extra hours, but that was just perfect for us. Kernigan wanted to see a shop that he'd heard so much about, Isaac would be delighted to have a visitor in the hours between his normal closing time and when his gamers started to arrive, and there was a good chance I would be able to get the thing that I wanted most.

Or something like it, at the very least. I crossed my fingers.