A Distant Journey Read online

  ‘No, Mitchell and Alice never had any, so Alice dabbled in business instead. She’s very clever at that sort of thing. If she decides to stay in Palm Springs, she’ll find something to do right away, I bet.’

  ‘Well, so did you, Babs. You’re making quite a name for yourself with your Heaven to Seven clothes.’

  ‘Alice is clever with her hands, too. Our grandmother taught us all to sew, and she makes her own clothes sometimes. She copies them out of the smart magazines. Very haute couture.’

  Deidre snorted. ‘The desert isn’t very haute!’

  ‘Alice is very striking,’ explained Babs. ‘She’ll make her mark, I’m sure.’

  ‘Babs, if you ask me, it sounds like you have a bit of an inferiority complex as far as your sister is concerned,’ said Deidre, with an eyebrow arched.

  Babs shook her head. ‘Deidre, you’ll understand when you meet Alice. She’s always so clever, so in control. At school she was always bandbox smart and perfectly turned out, while I always seemed to be untidy. My hair used to escape my ribbons and my dresses got crushed. Mom used to call Alice “Little Miss Perfect”. Deb never cared, but I did.’

  ‘Well, you shouldn’t be intimidated by your sister. I’ve seen what you can create and I would call your children’s clothes just about perfect,’ said Deidre staunchly.

  All the same, when Babs heard a car pull into the courtyard parking lot her heart started to beat faster.

  ‘It’s a grey Oldsmobile, Mom,’ Joey called out as he leaned over the balcony.

  ‘That will be your Aunt Alice. Let’s go down and meet her.’

  As they came through the front door, Alice Collins got out from behind the steering wheel and straightened up, looking over at the apartment complex. She was immaculately dressed. Her wide-legged cream linen slacks were barely creased. The red and cream striped knit top was tucked into her slacks and a wide red and silver leather belt showed off her narrow waist. Her hair was short and smartly styled into a smooth bob and she wore red and black high heels. Her wrists and throat were heavy with silver jewellery.

  ‘I thought I was driving to the end of the earth!’ she exclaimed as she stretched her back. ‘What have you done to your hair?’ she asked as Babs came forward to greet her and give her a kiss on the cheek.

  ‘Oh, I had it straightened at the beauty shop, it’s a new thing they do,’ said Babs, touching her hair self-consciously. ‘Joey, give Aunt Alice a kiss.’

  ‘Well, if you ask me, it was a waste of money. It doesn’t suit you, and besides, those curls of yours will bounce back in no time. Nothing could ever keep them under control.’ She leaned down so Joey could peck at her cheek. ‘Heavens, he’s not a baby any more, that’s for sure,’ said his aunt.

  Babs sighed inwardly. She was the same old Alice, then. ‘Come on inside and have a cool drink. We’ll get your bags later,’ she suggested, as Alice reached for her smart leather handbag.

  Alice pursed her perfectly painted lips. ‘Why does this place look like something Mexicans live in? I saw some very smart places when I drove through Palm Springs.’

  ‘It’s all we can afford at present, but I like it. We might move later,’ Babs replied defensively.

  ‘If you can’t afford anything else, then I suppose you can’t move,’ said Alice crushingly.

  Babs tried to smile. ‘It suits us just fine, and the neighbours are lovely. I’ve given you my bedroom, Alice, and Joey drew you a welcome picture.’

  Alice sniffed. ‘I hope the room has AC. This weather will take some getting used to and it’s not even summer.’ She strode towards the front door.

  Babs sighed and followed her sister inside and up to the apartment. Alice stepped through the doorway and glanced around, examining the room but being careful not to touch anything. She turned to Babs. ‘What are the plans for this evening?’

  Babs moved towards the kitchen to prepare their drinks. ‘Ah, I hadn’t actually planned anything, Alice,’ she stammered. ‘I thought you might like to rest a bit after your long drive and spend a little time with Joey and me. I made some chili con carne and we recently bought a little TV …’

  ‘I’m not so ancient that I need to be rested!’ said Alice forcefully. ‘And I don’t eat spicy food. I have a whole new food regime, as I’m determined to live healthily. You’ll feel much better if you do that, too. Five vegetables, five fruits a day. No bread or sugar. No meat or very little. Meat killed Mitchell, you know. You should try it, maybe you could lose a few of those unwanted pounds.’ She eyed Babs’s curves.

  Babs placed her hands on her hips. ‘I’m still the same size as I was in Portland, Alice.’ She called out to Joey. ‘Joey, please show your aunt to the bedroom while I get the lemonade. It’s homemade.’ Babs escaped into the kitchen before she said something she would regret.

  ‘Thank you, Joey, although it’s not as though you could get lost in this apartment,’ tinkled Alice as she followed Joey to the main bedroom.

  After Alice had unpacked and tried some of Babs’s lemonade, which she pronounced too sweet, she agreed to spend some time at the pool so Joey could show her how well he swam. Babs wasn’t sure if Alice was actually watching him. Her sister’s sunglasses had impenetrable black lenses and a large floppy hat shaded her face. Babs sensed that her eyes were closed. Although Alice wore a swimsuit under a short sarong-style pair of shorts, she refused to get wet. ‘You don’t know who’s been in that water,’ she announced.

  ‘It’s only for residents and their guests,’ said Babs.

  ‘When you wrote you said that you’d been to the pool at the Desert Inn.’

  ‘Not very often. It’s too far away without a car.’

  Alice pushed her sunglasses up her nose. ‘I think you need to make new friends who’ll take you to interesting places. My, when I think of the devoted friends I have back at home. They were all so devastated at the idea of my moving away. I can’t tell you the parties they all gave me to send me off.’

  ‘Don’t you think that moving away from all your friends is a big step? I hope you don’t feel you have to come and help me. We’re managing just fine. Please don’t change your life on account of us,’ said Babs.

  ‘Of course I’m not! I wouldn’t do that.’ Alice shook her head vigorously in exasperation. Babs felt irritated when Alice’s hair fell neatly back into place.

  ‘It was so unfair that Mitchell went first and left me,’ said Alice in a tone which intimated that Mitchell had chosen to die just to inconvenience her.

  ‘Yes, it was very sad. Mitchell was a lovely man,’ said Babs. ‘I wasn’t so lucky in my choice of husband.’

  ‘Luck has nothing to do with choosing a husband, Babs. You can’t get too emotional and rush into things. You don’t buy any pair of shoes or piece of fruit without checking them out, do you? The same goes for a husband, as far as I’m concerned.’

  Babs burst out laughing. ‘Alice, that’s ridiculous! You fall in love or you don’t.’

  ‘Nonsense. Anyway, it wasn’t as though you really had a choice about getting married, did you?’

  Babs refused to dignify that remark with a response.

  Alice sailed on. ‘No, my mind is made up. I really didn’t think I could go on living in Portland without dear Mitchell, and you made Palm Springs sound quite interesting in your letters – although, of course, what you and I find interesting might be quite different things. Anyway, you know how organised I am. And I’ve had the very best advice from my dear friends – they’re lawyers and financial advisers, you know. They look after me. Everyone thinks I’m so adventurous. They just know I’ll be a success here.’

  Babs felt that she too had been very brave in taking the risk of leaving her husband and striking out for California, but she held her tongue. There wasn’t much point making a fuss; Alice never changed.

  ‘I’m sure you’ll find something to do,’ Bab
s replied. ‘Palm Springs is full of tourists and retired people, so there must be something to interest you. I’m sorry I can’t help much, but between Joey’s school hours and my sewing workload I don’t have a lot of spare time. It’s fortunate I can work from home.’

  ‘I think what you’re doing is ridiculous! A production line on your dining room table, whirring away into the night. Your neighbours must be sick of the sound of Grandma’s sewing machine!’

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of disturbing them. I never use it in the evening, I just hand-sew or cut out,’ Babs retorted.

  Alice held up a perfectly manicured hand. ‘No, no, we have to move your cottage industry into a proper business, with our own outlet. I bet you get paid a pittance for the work you do. I know all about the mark-ups in those fancy stores, and I bet you didn’t bother negotiating a reasonable price for your work. I’m right, aren’t I? Well, I have a million ideas,’ she continued. ‘And as I’ll be bankrolling this next step, we’ll have to come to a business arrangement …’

  Babs felt herself beginning to shrivel. Here was Alice steamrolling over her, yet again. Her delight in her new life began to fade before her eyes. Alice had stopped speaking and was staring at her as Babs began fanning herself, struggling to find the right words.

  ‘Good gracious, what’s the matter with you? Has the heat got to you? Do you want me to get you some water?’ asked Alice, making no attempt to do so.

  Babs tried to regain her composure, but rather than shout, Go away, Alice! Let me live my life! she only managed to mutter, ‘I don’t want to put you out … you do whatever you’d like to do, Alice …’

  ‘Of course I will. You’ve gone about it all wrong, but for once you have hit on an idea with a bit of potential. You need me to put it right and see to it that it really works. I think I’ve come at just the right time.’

  ‘But I was enjoying doing my designs and sewing them,’ Babs said faintly, but Alice airily waved a hand.

  ‘You might be all right at that, but you’re no good at selling, and that’s the important part of any business. You need to leave that to me.’

  ‘So what exactly are you thinking?’ Babs wondered how Alice could arrive on the scene and work out a way to take over her entire business in the space of a few hours. Then again, maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised. Alice was Alice.

  ‘Let me lay it all out for you later. I need to do a bit more research first. You know, soak up the local atmosphere, get the lay of the land, get a feel for this place. Have you been to any clubs in Palm Springs?’

  ‘What sort of clubs?’

  ‘The smart ones. The nightclubs and the tennis and golf clubs and private clubs.’

  Babs frowned. ‘I belong to our local tennis club, but the private clubs, like the Thunderbird Club or the Racquet Club, cost a fortune to join – not that I know anyone who would put me up for membership in the first place.’

  Alice smirked. ‘Honey, what have you been doing all this time? Just leave things to me.’

  She leaned back, lifting her face to the sun, and closed her eyes. Babs pursed her lips and walked over to Joey, who was climbing out of the pool. She sat on the edge of the pool and dangled her feet in the water as Joey prepared to dive in. She glanced over at her sister, stretched languidly on the lounge, seemingly without a care in the world, until Joey’s bellyflop splashed cold water all over her precious-not-to-get-wet outfit. Babs stifled a laugh as Alice stalked back to the apartment. Alice hadn’t changed. Still, it might be nice for Joey to have some family around, even if Alice could be overbearing at times. Besides, knowing her sister, it wouldn’t be long before Alice had her own circle of friends, and Babs thought that her sister’s enthusiasm for the baby clothes business might then begin to

  wane.

  Within two weeks, Alice had rented a house in Twin Palms, a new estate in Palm Springs, and had already met some acquaintances from Portland who’d promised to nominate her for membership to the Thunderbird Club. Alice also joined the Racquet Club, though she rarely played tennis or golf, and took to lunching at all the smart clubs and restaurants in the plush hotels with her new-found friends, who also included her in their visits to nightclubs and supper dances.

  Babs was never included in these occasions, not that she wanted to go – she was much too busy and had Joey to consider – but, as Alice explained, it was all about business, making the right connections with the right people, and Babs would be quite out of her depth in such company. So Babs kept quietly stitching and embroidering and smocking little dresses and pinafores, packing up her work when Alice came around to avoid facing her ‘helpful’ criticism.

  But then one morning, Alice’s voice cut in over the whirring of her sewing machine.

  ‘Babs! Bar-ba-ra!’

  ‘What is it? What’s happened? Is everything all right?’

  Alice swept into the apartment. ‘It’s all settled. We have a shop!’ She waved a sheet of paper. ‘And you’ll never guess where!’

  ‘What do you mean? We can’t afford a shop!’

  ‘It’s small, I’ll grant you that, but I know just how to make it work for us. It’s inside the Desert Inn! Close your mouth, you look like a goldfish. Aren’t you pleased?’

  ‘How? I mean, I didn’t know. This is all a bit of a surprise.’ Babs was flabbergasted. She was not at all sure that she wanted to sell her baby clothes in a hotel. Did she really want to get into the retail side of things? ‘How did you manage it, Alice?’ she asked weakly.

  ‘I’m doing some design work for the hotel. The place needs freshening up in some areas; I have to find the right people to do the work and oversee them, make sure that it’s all being done properly. I mean, you really can’t trust contractors. Anyway, there’s a space available in the lobby. It’s only small and the hotel management was not entirely sure how to make the best use of it, so I suggested that I could turn it into a kiddies’ boutique. I thought I’d dress the window with a western desert theme for children. Good for our business and it will attract business for the hotel, too.’

  In spite of her resentment that Alice had taken such a step without consulting her, Babs found her sister’s excitement contagious. ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it!

  A store for Heaven to Seven, that’s so thrilling. What about stock … How long before it opens?’

  ‘Well, you can’t do everything yourself, Babs. We’ll never keep up with demand with your little output. We can buy some things and you can design some of the outfits and we’ll get other people to make them. And we need a name for the shop. I thought “The Little Folk’s Cottage” sounded cute. The interior designer can help with the signage …’

  ‘Oh. Well, I guess it is kinda cute. But I insist the clothes I make and design still carry my label,’ said Babs, finally finding some courage.

  ‘Sure, sure,’ said Alice, waving her hand, ‘although I think we might want to change it to “Heaven to Eleven” so that we can cover a wider range of children’s wear. Why limit ourselves?’

  Babs swallowed. She supposed she could live with that. ‘I don’t know how you did all this,’ she said.

  ‘I got lucky,’ Alice replied with false modesty. But Babs knew there was nothing lucky about it. Alice always knew what she was about and nothing in her life ever seemed to happen by luck or accident. ‘You have to believe in yourself,’ was one of her favourite aphorisms.

  And so The Little Folk’s Cottage opened and The Desert Sun newspaper took a photograph of the two sisters and Joey at the entrance to the shop. The window displayed a child mannequin dressed in a Heaven to Eleven cowboy outfit standing beside a large patchwork burro that Alice had made. The toy donkey was a big hit. The shop started quietly – so quietly in fact that Babs wondered if Alice had made the right decision to open a store – until one day Alice rang her.

  ‘Babs, we’re made. You will never guess who came in and bought three
different cowboy outfits – Gene Autry! So if we now have the singing cowboy’s seal of approval, the sky’s the limit.’

  And Alice was right. With a photograph of the famous cowboy star shopping at The Little Folk’s Cottage displayed in the window, business started to take off. Other film stars began to buy children’s clothes there as well, both for their own families and their friends.

  Now Babs was working long hours at home as well as supervising the other seamstresses whom she managed to hire with Sol’s help. Since they all worked from their own homes as well, she seemed to be forever travelling around the Palm Springs area, in the cheap secondhand car she’d bought on hire purchase.

  ‘I know we’re able to make more clothes for the store, but honestly, the work they do can be pretty rough. Look at this,’ said Babs, holding up a little girl’s dress. ‘This work is far from perfect. It worries me that we’re selling inferior clothes.’

  ‘You need to keep a better eye on things,’ replied Alice tartly. ‘Make them unpick the shoddy work and don’t pay them until it’s fixed. You need to make more of an effort, Babs. I can’t do it all myself.’

  The shop became even more successful and Babs found herself working even longer and harder. She hardly ever got to work in the little shop and she missed the quiet evenings when she and Joey used to watch television while she cut out patterns and he sorted and rolled up threads and ribbons and bits of trimming and put them in the right boxes.

  Alice, on the other hand, had carved a niche for herself in desert life with gusto. As she’d promised, she’d really got things happening. She was making plans for another store where she could sell expensive women’s fashions aimed at the top end of the market. She’d bought a house in Palm Springs and traded in her Oldsmobile for a Cadillac coupe, and was dating an attorney called Spencer.

  One evening, after Joey had gone to bed, Babs flopped on the sofa and put her feet up. She’d spent the day driving around, chasing up orders and wondering how she would ever keep the store stocked with clothes that matched her exacting standards. Still, when she reflected on how much she had achieved in the last few years – a growing, popular children’s clothing brand and a shop, whose success admittedly was due in no small part to the work of her sister – Babs felt that she could take some pride in her own efforts.