XXII. The Attic
Both of Diana's teammates sat on the bed. Diana finished rummaging around the room and joined them.
"Good, no hidden cameras. Alright, the plan is to start with the attic. We need to be quickly and quietly while we are up there. Hannah you're going keep watch."
Hannah nodded.
"Barbara, you and me are going to be searching for incriminating evidence." Diana said in a determined tone.
Barbara stared back at Diana with visible confusion.
Diana sighed. "You have questions, don't you?"
"Kind of. Are we looking for photos, old letters or keepsakes?" Barbara asked.
"We are looking for anything that proves that Daryl is in fact not straight." Diana said.
"Umm. You mean pictures of her with girls?" Hannah said a little confused.
Diana rubbed her temples with visible frustration.
She forgot that her two teammates weren't as keyed into signs that someone could be gay.
"If you find anything having to do with my Aunt just bring it to me." Diana said, not wanting to go into explaining the complexities and subtle nuances of queer coding or gaydar.
"Okay! Got it." Barbara said.
With that Diana peeked out of her room to see the halls empty. She swiftly lead her teammates to the attic entrance. There was a small dumb waiter big enough for one person to get in.
"This seems a little unsafe." Hannah commented.
"This is the only way up, the stairs were closed off years ago." Diana said grabbing the rope and pulleys.
"Barbara." Diana said.
"Oh geez." Barbara said getting into the contraption.
After Barbara was up and the contraption was reset, Diana climbed in.
"Hey Diana what should I do if someone asks were you are or what we're doing?" Hannah said nervously eyeing the hallway.
Diana smirked knowing this part would be easy.
"Tell them. That it's none of their business and if they press it any further, Diana will have them reprimanded."
When the dumb waiter stopped, Diana could smell the dust. She climbed out and saw Barbara with her head and arms in a large crate shuffling around. Diana sighed, there was so much up here.
The spaced out clusters of light bulbs affixed to the ceiling illuminated the space. There were dozens of boxes, wooden crates and bookshelves full of family treasures. Diana noticed as she went further back that the layers of dust seemed to accumulate. That had to mean that more recent items, like ones from Daryl's youth would occupy the space closer to the dumb waiter.
"Pssss! Diana!" Barbara whispered. Diana turned around and saw Barbara holding a large painting of Daryl when she was a child. Diana visibility cringed, her dress was so frilly.
"Can this help us? I mean she does look a lot like you. Hmmmm." Barbara sqiented.
"No, I'm afraid not." Diana said.
As Barbara put back the painting, Diana noticed that there were other paintings of Daryl nearby. There was even one of her Aunt at 17. God, it was almost uncanny how similar she looked to Diana.
Diana looked back toward the further and dark parts of the attic. Something caught her eye, a large dresser in the left side that had it's top drawer partially opened.
Diana walked over and opened it up all the way. There was an ungodly amount of keys amassed in this one drawer. Diana ran her hands through the sea of keys and stopped. At the back right corner of the drawer was a small white chest with the initials DAC.
Daryl Avery Cavendish, Diana thought. Excitedly she closed the dresser and placed the chest on top. The chest had a busted lock and opened with some difficulty. There was a small, blue, star shaped rhinestone sparkling back.
Diana swiped it up when she heard Hannah speaking loudly downstairs.
Barbara creeped up to Diana as they both listened in.
"Yes, Miss Daryl, ma'am. Diana is just getting some old uhhhhh... party favors! For us to have a vintage sleepover. Yeah, she said it was vintage themed."
Shit. This was bad. Diana thought as she looked around and saw an old tea set and a couple of feather boas on a bookcase nearby.
Diana threw a feather boa on her and Barbara and stuffed the white chest back into the dresser. With the tea set in tow she descended on the dumbwaiter.
Aunt Daryl was waiting for her with an accusatory look on her face.
"Well girls, I wasn't informed that you were coming. I would have had scones and tea delivered up to your room, Diana." Daryl said, with agression toward Diana.
"You weren't home when I got here." Diana explained, handing off the tea set to Hannah. Both Hannah and Barbara kept silent.
"Well, you could have called me least called me, unless you didn't want me to know about this sleepover. Speaking of surprises what were you girls doing up in the attic?" Daryl asked, smirking as she waited for Diana's excuse.
"We were getting a fancy tea set and a couple of party favors for the night. Just like Hannah said." Diana remarked without missing a beat.
Hannah and Barbara nodded confidently, playing along with Diana.
As the three girls slipped pass Aunt Daryl, Diana stopped and turned back.
"We'll be in my room the rest of the night. Please try not to be too nosey while my guests are here." Diana said.
Later that night, many candles were lit around Diana's bedroom as the three girls sat on spread out on the floor. The room was quiet except for the chatter and laughter that bounced off the walls as shadows were dancing around the light of the candles. Diana sat cross cross legged as Barbara finished telling her and Hannah a story.
"And then he told me my hair was as lovely as the night is long. We parted ways shortly after, never to see each other ever again." Barbara recounted ending on a dramatic note.
Hannah looked up at her skeptically from her nest of pillows and cushions on the floor.
"Wait. Didn't you tell me he ended up in your class the very next year?" Hannah pointed out.
"Yes, but it wasn't the same our summer romance had long since died and he looked at me as if I were a stranger from a distance land." Barbara said with a dramatic, wistfully tone in her voice.
Diana chuckled. "You've been reading too much Nightfall." She said leaning forward placing her head in her hands.
It was fun to talk like this, it was a chance to relive happier times. It was almost as if Diana didn't have the pressure of getting herself into Aunt's room tomorrow. Every once and awhile she would hear faint sounds of servant rushing past her door. She reminded herself that she needed to wait until tomorrow when Aunt Daryl would be running around like a chicken with her head cut off planning the events of Sunday. Then, no one would be guarding her room.
Shit, the Sunday brunch! Diana let herself fall back on into the cushions and blankets nestled at the foot of her bed as Hannah started another "love" story. She wanted to forget about it but it was on the horizon, she wouldn't be able to escape her Aunt's zeal to shove her together with some guy. Diana brought her knees to her chest and rested her arms over them. Then, the plan was even more important than ever. She needed to find some sort of damning evidence or Daryl would find out what she had really been here for. Then…. She didn't even want to think about it.
Hannah stopped telling her story and looked over at Diana. "Hey, Diana. Are you okay? You still worried about the party on Sunday?"
"I mean sunday brunch sounds fun with all the fancy food and fancy dresses and… oh right. Sorry, I mean, yeah." Barbara wrapped up as she remembered the whole interaction between Diana and Anna.
Diana released her legs from the anxious embrace of her arms and let out a heavy breath.
"I just want to focus on finding enough evidence to incriminate her. Once I do, I'll confront her. The best option is confronting her at the event on Sunday, then she'll feel pressured to not react irrationally in front of her guests." Diana stated matter-a-factly.
Barbara petted Henry's soft plushie shell.
"Not to take the wind out of your sails, but what do you think confronting her will accomplish?
"I mean I don't think she's going to be happy that you're humiliating her in front of her guests." Hannah said stuffing a cupcake into her mouth.
Diana stood up and started pacing without even thinking about it.
"Because, I want to be able to hold up a photo of her kissing another woman and force her to confront the fact that she's a hypocrite! She's forcing me to see Doctor Klien to "fix me". When the truth is that she's also a lesbian! " Diana said as she heatedly paced back and forth.
"Ooooohhhhh. That's what we were looking for. Yeah, I grabbed a few pictures of your Aunt with other women." Barbara said holding up a stack of old photos.
"What! And just when were you going to tell us this?" Hannah asked, her eyes narrowing at Barbara.
"Well, I sort of forgot until what Diana just said." Barbara grinned sheepishly.
Diana snatched up the stack and focused all of her attention on leafing through the dusty pictures. They were certainly old, the earliest ones were of Diana's mother and aunt in graduation gowns. The photos were an assortment of ones of Diana's mother and aunt but as Diana continued to flip she noticed something. Daryl was in many of the photos with the same person. A woman with long black hair and dimples on her face when she smiled. Diana pulled those photos away from the stack and looked at the backs. The woman's name was Alice.
"Alice and Daryl, summer cruise 1994"
"A and me, Halloween Bash 1994"
"A and Daryl, Thanksgiving 1994"
"A and me, Christmas Day 1994"
The next two stunned Diana. There was a photo of New Years Eve 1994 with Daryl and Alice kissing on the lips. The next was a strip of four mini photos, seemingly from a photo booth on Valentine's Day, two of the photos were of the two of them kissing on the lips. On the back of the strip were the words, A + D together 4ever.
Diana sat back down.
"Holy crap, Barbara! You hit the jackpot!" Hannah said with eyes bugging out of her head.
"I mean they could be, just friends." Barbara said downplaying it.
"Are you kidding me?! They're kissing on the lips on Valentine's Day! We're best friends and we don't do that!" Hannah exclaimed with arms across her chest.
"Well, We could if you wanted... " Barbara mumbled off.
"What?" Hannah asked.
"Nothing." Barbara said a little too quickly.
Their words faded into the background. They had done it, it was obvious that this woman, Alice was more than a friend to her Aunt, they had been dating.