Today
Gwendolyn - Gwynna - Williams just stuffed her coat in the locker and threw her stethoscope after when her morning shift colleague came into the dressing room. "Gwynn, you left your watch on the counter again. Melissa Paulson held her golden watch, a gift from her grandparents, in front of her nose. "Damn it!" Gwynn hit his forehead with his flat hand. "My gran will kill me if I lose this one."
Melissa unlocked her locker and pulled a foul smelling packed lunch from the locker. "Yuck, I forgot about that last time." "What are you going to do with your two weeks vacation? California? Mexico? " Gwynna stuffed the last T-shirt in her backpack. After her 48 hour shift in the Emergency Room she could hardly wait to finally leave the hospital. "No, I promised my grandparents I'd keep her house until her housekeeper got back from her vacation. I'm going to the Hamptons tonight."
"Will you take the Jitney?"
"No, I'm driving my car. That's why I gotta go before rush hour starts."
Gwynna took a quick look in the mirror. For her work she had tied her long blond hair, which reached almost to the waist, into a braid, which she now loosened and shook out the hair. She saw the dark circles under her blue eyes and the pale complexion. She came out way too seldom to get color. She was 1.70 medium tall and had a female figure - hourglass figure, as her grandmother said - with full breasts, narrow waist and female hips. 'I'll never be a model,' Gwynna thought and sighed. She noticed a stain on her red T-shirt and rummaged in the locker for a replacement, which she finally put on.
Gwynna threw a kissing hand at her colleague, "Have fun in the nuthouse!" and ran towards the exit, turning her wristwatch on. Pass the doorman, get out. It was already hot outside, the July sun was burning on the asphalt, but Gwynna paid no attention and ran towards the subway, her backpack thrown over a shoulder.
Her workplace, Lenox Hill Hospital, had become her second home, as many hours as she spent there. Her rotation to the emergency room had lasted six months. Another six, and she would have completed the mandatory period for her training as a traumatologist.
Arriving in the subway, Gwynna was able to board line 6 immediately and sat down on one of the free seats. Fortunately, the trip lasted only 20 minutes. When she finally arrived in her small one-room apartment, she threw her backpack to the ground, took the sweaty shirts from it and ran into the small bathroom where the basket for the dirty laundry was. Then she hurried to her bed and knelt in front of it to pull out the suitcase underneath. Living in New York had many advantages, but as a young doctor in continuing education there were few affordable apartments. So chronic lack of space was a problem, so that every gap had to be filled as well as possible.
Gwynna went to her built-in closet and pulled out clothes, trousers, shirts and shoes. Then followed lingerie from the small chest of drawers next to the bed and last but not least her utensils from the bathroom. She grabbed another Coke bottle from the fridge, locked the suitcase and finally pulled it through her apartment door into the hallway to the elevator. Two blocks away was the garage where she had rented a place for her car. The costs were borne by her grandparents, otherwise Gwynna would have had to do without a car. She lifted the suitcase into the trunk of her little Ford, opened the driver's door, got in and turned the key in the ignition lock. With a quiet chug the car started, Gwynna carefully backed up and drove up the three ramps to the exit. At the barrier she held her chip card against the sensor and was finally able to drive onto the road. Meanwhile it was 10 o'clock and the streets were not yet too crowded.
Gwynna took the CD from the passenger seat where she last dropped it and put it in the CD slot. To the sound of "One Year of Love" she drove out of New York towards Hamptons. Her grandparents' house was located in Southampton and was not one of the luxurious billionaire villas found in the Hamptons. It was a cozy detached house with a large garden, ground floor, attic and a granny flat where the housekeeper of the family, Elizabeth, lived. She was watering her grandmother's rose bushes when Gwynna turned into the driveway. Gwynna parked her little blue Ford in front of the garage, got out and was immediately greeted by the delighted Elizabeth and her even more delighted Bassett Sparks, who came waddling on his short legs and jumped up at her.
"Sparky, my cuddly bear!" Gwynna shouted and kneeled down on the stones to crawl the dog behind his ears.
"Oh, Miss Gwendolyn, it's so nice to see you again. You hardly come to us old people anymore." Elizabeth lovingly embraced her and immediately plucked Gwynna's sleeves as she had done since childhood. "Elizabeth, I'd like to come back more often, but you know... Job's wasting my time. And now I'm here and you're leaving!" Gwynna smiled at the old lady.
"Have you heard from my grandparents? How do they like Italy?"
"They just called yesterday. They're fine, and they're out all day. They want to leave Rome next week and head south. I'm here to greet you and wish you a pleasant time with us, Miss Gwendolyn."
Elizabeth had never called her by her nickname, since she could think she was "Miss Gwendolyn". Gwynna grew up with her father's parents, Lorraine and Peter Williams, from the age of six, after her parents had died in a car accident. Her grandfather was a successful banker who had achieved some prosperity and was able to make the house in the Hamptons possible for his family. He had also financed the study of his granddaughter. Gwynna had never met her mother's parents or her uncle, her mother's older brother. The family originally came from Scotland and Cedric Moray, her uncle, was said to have returned there.
Gwynna took her suitcase and stomped into the house behind Elizabeth and Sparks. She brought the suitcase into her old nursery and unpacked the things she had brought with her. Meanwhile the smell of freshly brewed coffee flowed through the house. Her grandmother loved English chintz and Italian coffee, so Gwynna's room was decorated with large flowered chintz on windows and bedposts. On the white dressing table she draped her perfumes and make-up utensils. Finally she left her room again and joined Elizabeth in the kitchen, where Sparks worked his way through a large mountain of dog food.
"Is the dog staying here?" Gwynna asked when Elizabeth pressed a cup of coffee and milk into her hand.
"No, my brother will pick him up in an hour. You have enough to do with the garden, so I didn't want to burden you with the dog."
"But I wouldn't have minded. Sparky and I get along well together," Gwynna said, looking at the animal.
"I know that, Miss Gwendolyn. I've already brought Oliver all the dog food and if you want to see him, he's not far away."
Elizabeth placed her cup on the kitchen table. "The fridge's full, the freezer's too. I filled up tea and coffee and in the storeroom you find canned food and everything else. That should be enough for two weeks, only fruit and vegetables you'd have to get fresh."
"Before I forget... Here are some more letters. Mostly for your grandparents. I don't think anything important, so I can wait till they get back. But here, here's a letter addressed to you."
Elizabeth pulled one out of a pile of letters and presented it to Gwynna.
"What's that? Who sends letters to me here?" Gwynna looked at the letter. It was made of old-looking, dirty beige paper without a sender, but it clearly had her name on it.
"Why don't you take a look," said Elizabeth and resumed her cup. The address was written with ornate letters and apparently with ink, as there were one or two spots in the lines.
Gwynna opened the letter and took a sheet from it that looked just as beige and yellow as the envelope. Here, too, it had been written in ink. She read:
"My dear Gwendolyn,
You will not remember me because you were too small when I last saw your mother, my sister, and you. In the meantime a lot has happened that I can't tell you everything in the letter, but there were reasons why I didn't come to you anymore. I'd like to tell you that personally, if you'd like to see me at all. So much time has passed... Meanwhile you are a young woman and I court that you have your own family and are happy. Unfortunately, that was not granted to me, but I am still filled with my life. So if you want to see me, I'll be in Southampton Park after sunset on July 15th. Go to the oak tree in the left corner. I'll wait there. I'm afraid I can't come to you, that's why this unusual meeting place.
I implore you not to tell anyone about the contents of this letter. It's very important. I'll be happy to explain everything, but until then, I'll stay your uncle.
Cedric"
Gwynna lowered the leaf and stared at Elizabeth. "Strange letter." "Who's that from?" "It's from Cedric, my uncle. I haven't heard from him in many years." "And what does he write?" Gwynna flinched. Cedric had specifically written her not to tell about it. She took her mug and had a sip of coffee.
"Oh, nothing earth-shattering. What he did and a lot of gossip."
Before Elizabeth could mention anything, there was a knock at the door and her brother came in to pick up Sparks. Fortunately, that saved her a more detailed answer.
After Oliver had left with the dog, Elizabeth had already forgotten the letter that Gwynna had put into her backpack. It was now time for her to leave as well. She had ordered her cab for 4:00 and had to hurry.
Gwynna waved after the taxi and went back to the house to get the letter out again. She read through the lines again. July 15th was in two days. She bit her lower lip. Should she really go to the park? Alone? In the dark? What was that all about? Why was your uncle so secretive? And was the letter even from him? Maybe it was a madman who tried to kill her there? Gwynna sat down on the sofa in the living room and thought. There was no one to accompany her, and he had wanted to see her alone. Gwynna sighed. After all, there were still two days until she had to decide whether she really wanted to take the risk.
She used it to get up to inspect the fridge and the pantry.