Part 3 - Four Women, One Life

Dorothy’s house

Chicago

It was spring time in city. Spring always indicated hope and new colours. The lively nature with hues of colours in the trees and clouds makes it more happening season. Thunderstorms prevailed for definite period of time. But for Dorothy, her life had given a hardest thunderstorm. She was cheated by some people in her business and she was close to bankruptcy. Her life revolved around art and paintings. She made her ends meet through selling paintings. She ran a gallery house full of modern and classic paintings. Some were her works and some were of others. 

She helped the underprivileged class and was part of cultural committee in church. She was always ebullient and hopeful in her life and handled solely all the work. For her, everything was temporary except for her mansion. It was given by her father. It was the dream of both of them. Dorothy invested half of the money in the mansion and rest was paid by her father. After the demise of her father, it was written on the will that Dorothy would inherit the house. As she was the only child of her parents, that was natural. 

She made every penny out of her sale of artworks and trying to pay the debts. But the season was dull and the sales were considerably low. She hosted exhibitions, stalls and visited houses to make a deal. But the hard time was teasing her and testing her every level of patience. The phone bell rang. Dorothy was preparing breakfast. The usual egg omlet and cheese with orange juice made her morning look happy. She wondered who was calling her at that time of the hour. She was not used to phone calls. Normally no one called her except her two friends. They were her lifeline as they supported and stood beside her in all points of her life. She was socially very active but hardly people came to her place. The neighbourhood church was one pleasant thing and stress buster and she pulled every stop to devote her time to the service. She washed her hands and pulled the receiver. It was her friend Mary.

“Oh, Hi Mary, How are things?” asked Dorothy and eyed the microwave, turning her back on her breakfast which lay waiting.

“Dorothy, I need to talk to you. I have got an idea. Can we talk now or meet after your work hours in nearby Le cafe?” insisted Mary with her cheerful tone. Her voice showed that she had some positive thing to suggest.

Dorothy wondered what it was and agreed to call once she finishes her work. She kept the receiver down and saw herself in the mirror. These days, she forgot herself how she looked. With so much of events happening in her life, she missed giving attention to herself. She loved dressing nicely and being attractive and experimenting with her hair and face. Though she thought she had so much to catch up on the lost time, she looked amazing. Even with the dishevelled hair, she looked like a doll. Her petite figure and curly hair stood out and gave her a look of innocence.  

She smiled over her conversation with Mary and moved ahead to go back to her half finished work. Morning time was her ME time when she had her breakfast and watched news. She thought if Mary was getting engaged or she received an acceptance for her higher education. Whatever it was, she was going to listen it from the horse’s mouth. For that she had to wait till evening and it sounded as a long day.