Cassidy St. Claire and The Fountain of Youth Parts I, II, & III
Page 7
“Partially.” Mr. Caesar flopped the satchel from his shoulder and held it up, reaching inside. He pulled out a small black box, with gold detailing and a silver latch. “Here's the device.” He tossed the box to the shadowy man with a light underhand throw. The shadowy many caught it with one hand, holding it up into a sunbeam to analyze it.
“And the metal?” the shadowy man asked.
“One of the men you arranged for the operation ran off on horseback. I don't know where.”
“Unfortunate,” said the shadowy man as he brought the polished black box, glinting in the sun, into the shadows. “We received a report, but I had hoped it was untrue.”
“Do you want me to find him?” asked Mr. Caesar.
“No,” the shadowy man said as he opened something in the shadow. He produced a small, fine leather pouch that just about filled his hand. He tossed it over to Mr. Caesar, who opened it, revealing small, gold bars and jewels. “We are, at this juncture, no longer interested in covert subtlety. Plans need to be finalized. As such, some degree of exposure is acceptable. We have some hardware coming in from Houston. This will allow us to rectify the situation quickly.” A door opened in the darkness behind the shadowy man, creating a rectangle of light. “I apologize for ending our chat so quickly, but time is short.” The shadowy man turned and his faint silhouette moved through the darkness toward the door.
“Do you have further need of my services?” asked Mr. Caesar.
The shadowy man stopped. “Stay available.”
Mr. Caesar waited as the shadowy man left. The door shut. Mr. Caesar tossed the heavy pouch up and down in his hand, then looked up into the light beam that was illuminating his face, squinting.
---
The morning sun was bright and warm over San Francisco. Boats filled the harbor, birds filled the sky. The sky and the air were crystal clear, providing full view of the verdant vista that encompassed the urban development. The servants of St. Claire manor were long awake, bringing life to the house. They chatted and worked as gardeners readied the yard for the spring bloom.
Cassidy stood in her attic room, naked, in front of her simple, rustic mirror. Her copper hair was a colossal mess. She stared at herself in the mirror with an expression of faint sadness on her face. She traced the outline of her abdominal muscles with her finger, than rubbed her hand over them as she flexed them. She turned to the right slightly, then held up her left arm, flexing it, revealing her large biceps. She straightened and flexed her arm a few times before letting it relax. She then turned to the left and noticed a gargantuan bruise that covered her entire right butt cheek and the rear of her thigh. “Jeezus,” she said in surprise, touching it. She analyzed it for a moment, twisting her body slightly to get a better look. “I better not let William see that,” she mumbled to herself.
Downstairs, Margie and Amos were preparing the table for breakfast. A bell rang out in the main foyer. “Pardon me,” Amos said, leaving. He walked up to the front door and opened it, Joseph was standing there. “Howdy Amos, have you been suitably annoyed yet, this fine morning?”
“Regrettably, no.”
“Aww, too bad. Cassidy must still be asleep.”
“No. She just hasn’t emerged from that moldy cave she calls a room. She will be downstairs shortly. Until then, breakfast will be served in five minutes. You are… of course… invited to join us.” Joseph bowed and walked in.
“The warmth of your invite is all-encompassing,” said Joseph, turning around to face Amos who was shutting the door.
Amos turned and walked past Joseph without making eye contact. “Cassidy will be down shortly.” Joseph watched with mild confusion as Amos walked by. He then sniffed his armpit, shrugged, and headed into the kitchen.
Joseph walked into the dining area where Margie was leaning over the table place a covered tray. He snuck up behind her and, gripping her sides, gave her a jolly good tickle. She shrieked, turned around, and started slapping at Joseph. “Joe! You twit!” After taking a moment to collect herself, she changed from a look of annoyance to a large smile and embraced him warmly. “Ohhhh! Where have you been?! It’s been weeks! Over a month of nothing, then the next thing I hear is that you’re off with Cassidy, risking your lives, doing something stupid.”
They separated from their hug but Joseph continued to hold Margie’s shoulders. “Margie, I’m sorry. You know I am. I don't like being the man who is perpetually out of touch. I just get carried away with my work and when I’m not doing that I’m being dragged around by Cassy, which puts me behind in my work. It’s not my fault, I swear.”
“I’m sure, it’s never your fault. Or Cassidy’s, or Jacob’s.” Margie replied, with an incredulous look. “How is business anyhow?”
“Oh, doing well enough,” Joseph said, letting go of Margie to pull out one of the rustic, Tuscan-styled chairs and sitting in it. “The winter was good and cold, so shipments were large.” Joseph started pawing at the various plates on the table. “It’s not like I take much interest in that aspect of the business. Billy handles that.”
Margie turned around from the serving cart and waving her hands up and down, shooed Joseph away from the table. “And how is Billy. I haven’t seen him in, my lord, a year. Maybe a year and a half.”
Joseph had started poking at a bubbling, steaming dish on the table. The melted cheese on top had a crisp, golden texture to it. “Wha? Oh. Who cares about Billy. What is this magnificent looking thing?”
Margie turned around to look. “Stop poking at it! It’s a breakfast casserole. Eggs, bacon, ham, spinach, inside a pastry shell. It’s like a large soufflé.”
“My god in heaven, this is mine,” Joseph said, picking the dish up and making a break for the other side of the table.
Margie reached out to whack him but was blocked by the serving cart. “Joseph. You’re going to ruin it. Put that back!”
“No!” he responded petulantly. He started dancing his fingers around the edges of the casserole. “Ow, ow, ow, ow!”
“Good,” Margie said, holding up a wooden spoon. “You deserve every blister. Now put that back!”
“No! It’s mine!” At this point, Cassidy walked in, wearing fitted corduroy pants, leather riding boots, and a loose-fitting button-up shirt.
“Cassidy, tell Margie that I can keep this.”
“What. The dish?” asked Cassidy.
“No, what’s in it,” replied Joseph.
“What’s in it?” Cassidy asked, looking at Margie.
“It’s my breakfast casserole. Bacon, eggs—it’s basically a big soufflé,” replied Margie.
“And it’s in a buttery pastry shell!” added Joseph, looking wistfully into the distance.
“Oh my god, gimme that!” said Cassidy.
“Stay away!” yelled Joseph.
“Fuck you, it’s my house!”
Margie bonked Cassidy on the head with her spoon. “Don’t curse!” She removed the spoon which now had multiple, long, copper hairs on it. “Oh god,” Margie said as she rolled her eyes in disgust.
At that moment, Levi walked in the room from behind Cassidy. “Something smells heavenly.”
“Levi!” Margie said with a smile.
“It’s that!” Cassidy said, pointing at Joseph. “It’s manna in a pastry shell.”
“Ha!” Joseph yelled, holding up a large serving fork he removed from a drawer. “A fork!”
“Hand over the soufflé and no one gets hurt!” Cassidy yelled, smiling at Joseph.
“Why must you separate us? Oh soufflé, only you understand me!” Joseph yelled as he ran out of the room with the soufflé wrapped in a towel.
“Get him!” Cassidy yelled, as she and Levi took off in pursuit, chasing Joseph out the dining areas back door.
Margie continued stirring a steaming pot on the stove near the dining table with a look of resigned annoyance. She sighed as the sounds of pursuit could be heard off in the distance.
“OW! How is it still too hot to eat!?”
“I can smell him, but I can’t see him!”
Thud thud thud. “What the hell!? I think he's upstairs! Levi, go around!”
“That casserole is going to get smashed. I just know it,” Margie said as a young maid walked up behind her with a large pot. “Oh, thank you Rebecca.”
Amos then walked in with his usually snooty expression. “I see that breakfast has degraded into chaos before it even began. I believe that’s some sort of record.”
“No,” replied Margie. “Remember the time that Cassidy set the table on fire when we were still washing dishes? That ruined breakfast before we even started preparing for it.”
“Oh yes. I had actually forgotten about that. Thank you for reminding me that she spends every day finding new ways to make life difficult.”
“Oh pishaw,” said Margie. “Separated by ten years, it's a funny story now. Give Cassidy a break. If she were a boy you would see it quite differently.”
“Absolutely not, and you know that.” replied Amos indignantly. “If anything, I would hold her to even higher standards. Man or woman, her behavior is sometimes beyond the pale. She is a person of powerful social position. She should be living up to that!”
Margie nodded grudgingly. “Yes, but we're only talking about you right now, and she has been getting much better.”
Amos sighed. “She still refuses to respect me for who I am.”
“No, she does respect you for who you are. She wants to be your friend.”
“That is not possible.”
“And that is the source of your strife. She sees you as a friend, you see her as a charge.”
“Don't make it sound so simple,” replied Amos.
Joseph ran into the room from the back doorway, scurried over to the table and carefully placed the soufflé on a trivet before sitting down and acting nonchalant. A moment after that, Cassidy and Levi ran in. Cassidy slowly walked up to the soufflé, and seeing that it was half-eaten, she belted Joseph across the head. “You jack-ass! You ate half of it!”
Joseph burped, causing his entire body to jerk. “I regret nothing.”
“Where’s my fork?”
“I may have eaten it.”
“I’m serious, where’s my damned fork? That was silver.”
“I think I left it in the dumbwaiter.”
“You hid in the dumbwaiter? You hid in the dumbwaiter to eat a pilfered pastry? You’re pathetic.”
“Am I? Am I? Who got to eat half of a soufflé?”
“The rest of that soufflé is mine,” Cassidy said, pointing at everyone in the room with a stern look on her face.
“Oh for Pete’s sake Cassidy, I made two,” Margie said, removing another soufflé from the oven and placing it on a trivet on the table. She then gestured at it with both hands.
“Oh… Well… I want some of that one instead. It hasn’t spent any time being intimate with a fat guy in a dumbwaiter.”
“Amos, could you make the announcement that everything is ready?” asked Margie.
“Right away, madam,” replied Amos before walking out.
Cassidy dropped down into a chair, staring daggers at Joseph. ”So where’s Jacob,” she asked, obviously a bit annoyed.
“Oh right, business,” Joseph said, pulling himself up to a slightly more upright sitting position. “He’s awaiting news at the telegraph station. As soon as it comes in, he will ride it straight away here.”
Cassidy sighed and grunted annoyedly. “Honestly, when are they going to install telephones?”
“They’ll get around to it, I’m sure,” Joseph replied. “It’s the way of the future and all that.”
“Yes,” added Levi. “It’s still a rather new technology.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m wealthy and they’re a business. Businesses have things first because they need them. It’s irritating as hell that they don’t have a telephone. How the hell do they expect me to conduct my business effectively when companies on the east coast have had robust telephone connections for the past two years?!”
“Yeah!” Joseph yelled, slamming his fist on the table. “God dammit!”
Cassidy stared at him. “You're mocking me, aren't you?”
“No, no.... no... A bit, a bit... yes.”
Cassidy, Joseph, and Levi continued talking while others came in and sat down. Eventually, the table was filled with ten more people up and down each side. Cassidy sat in the last seat furthest back on one side, with Joseph and Levi taking up position opposite her. As the food was being passed around, Joseph was just staring ahead, wide-eyed and breathing deeply. Cassidy, spooning some food onto her plate, noticed this and started staring at him with an eyebrow raised. “Joe?”
Joe didn’t shift his gaze. “I lied.”
“What?”
“Remember when I said I regret nothing? I lied. I think that I’m beginning to regret.”
“Well good. You deserve the discomfort,” Cassidy said.
“And look on the bright side, evacuating what you’ve just eaten is an excellent diet plan,” added Levi.
The doorbell rang in the distance. Cassidy looked at Joseph and Levi and they looked at her in return. They then looked to the doorway to the dining area, waiting. After a short time, Jacob came walking in, holding his bowler hat between both hands. He spoke in his usual thick, Russian accent. “Hello, everyone.”
“Jacob, come in!” exhorted Margie, who got up to hug him. “There’s a spot by Cassidy.”
“I wish I could,” replied Jacob, “but I will probably be leaving immediately.”
“Why?” asked Cassidy as she got up, alarmed. At that moment, a tall, impeccably-trimmed and dressed black man, standing in stark contrast to the grizzled and pallid Jacob, walked in next.
“Barney?” Cassidy paused. “Oh god,” she said, sitting back down. “What was on that train?”
“First,” replied Barnabas in his prim, proper, and even a little snooty tone of voice, “why didn’t you tell me about your little operation?”
“It was a security issue. It had nothing to do with manufacturing.”
“Barnabas, honey, would you like something to eat?” interjected Margie.
“I would love something to eat, Marjorie” replied Barnabas in the lovingly friendly way that everyone used when talking with Margie. Barnabas then paused to collect himself and opened his mouth as though to speak, then closed it and walked over to Cassidy, sitting in the empty chair next to her. He sat and again opened his mouth, ready to speak, before glancing at the table and the soufflé. “Is that a soufflé?”
“Oh for…” Cassidy shoved the soufflé away. “Focus for a moment.”
“Right, right.” Barnabas breathed in deeply. “I have bad news and worse news.”
“Gimme’ the good news,” replied Cassidy in a flat tone.
“I bought new cuff links. See.” Barnabas showed them to Joseph. Everyone nodded and mumbled in agreement. They were indeed nice cuff links. “All of my other news is bad. The reason why I was so upset that you didn’t tell me about the train is that we were shipping samples of our new alloys on that train. The new alloys.”
Cassidy stared back at him for a moment. “What, the titanium ones?”
“Yes.”
“Shit!” Cassidy yelled. “Shit, shit, shit!” Margie tossed a spoon into a pot in a frustrated fit. “You’re angry at me? Why didn’t you tell me you were shipping bars of alloy on that train or any train!? It seems like something the owner should be aware of!”
“Yes, but not every detail of shipment and experiment. You want updates on the developments. The details of the process are my responsibility. I did what was expected of me.”
“The alloys are one of our most important projects since… ever! I need to be kept abreast of every detail.”
“Cassidy, if I kept you informed on every bit of news about our important projects, you wouldn’t have time for anything else. That’s why you hire
d me. Honestly, if you want proof, come down to the factories and try it. Spend a day in my shoes.”
“And your incredibly fashionable cuff links,” added Joseph.
“Fuck the funny stuff,” Cassidy said to Joseph, looking more at the table than him. “I don’t want all important projects, just the very important ones like alloys.”
Margie interrupted with a plate of food for Barnabas. “Here you go, dear. Extra sausage, just like you like.” She placed it down in front of him while maintaining a judgmental glare on Cassidy, who made intermittent eye contact.
“What?” Cassidy asked.
Margie wagged her finger and spoke quietly. “I didn’t raise you to be so crude.”
“What? Did I swear?” Cassidy asked, leaning in to her group of friends.
“Yeah,” replied Barnabas in a quiet tone. “You, um, you said shit a few times… in a row.”
“Really?” Cassidy looked up at Margie. “I’m sorry,” she said, smiling sheepishly. Margie shook her head slightly and walked off.
Barnabas dug into his dish and spoke in between mouthfuls. “Back to the point. Even if I cherry-picked details for your edification, Cassidy, your days would be filled with it. I spend twelve hours a day working on this stuff. My children have forgotten what I look like. I’m telling you, you do not have time, and this was done all by the book. And even if you had known, would it have changed your actions on the train?”
Cassidy paused. “Probably not. Well why didn’t you inform security?”
“I did!” responded Barnabas. “It wasn’t a significant issue. We’ve done this dozens of times before without incident. Hell, we’ve stored sensitive items in the hidden compartments of our coal tenders for weeks when we didn’t have any place else to put them.”
Cassidy thought for a moment. “Ok, just for the sake of clarity—your man, down in Los Angeles, took the alloy samples from the forge, out the door, and placed them in a box. He then—rode? Walked?—to the train yard and handed these alloy samples to one of our security guys, who placed it in the compartment in the coal car. That’s it?”
“More or less,” responded Barnabas.
Cassidy slumped onto the table with a contemplative and annoyed expression on her face. “This still does nothing to answer how they knew which train to rob.”