Accordingly, the next morning, Della steeled herself and sat at the breakfast table as Maggie flipped through the Los Angeles Times with a dissatisfied look. As expected, there was no mention of Perry Mason in the paper; Della knew that his plane from Scotland would not be landing until late that night. Mercifully, the lack of new information on her favorite defense attorney cut the younger Miss Street's soliloquy on him short.
True to her newfound purpose, Della went out with her father and brothers for the rest of the day to help them inspect the fence posts on the south border of their farm. And in the evening, when Maggie was holed up in her room, diligently studying for her final exams (for she was due to finish seventh grade the following day), Della took it upon herself to bring her sister a cup of tea and a plate of warm cookies.
Until that night, Della had only had brief glimpses into Maggie's room, mostly when she passed by her open door. Walking into the bedroom now, she realized that several newspaper clippings with Perry's picture and name hung by her sister's desk.
"I brought you a snack," she said, focusing her gaze on her sister's head and avoiding the piercing sets of eyes which seemed to be staring at her from the newspaper articles. Oh, how she wished that she could forget that his plane was landing back in the United States tonight – and that he would likely hurry to see Isabella Scalding either this very evening or early the next morning, and that he would take that pretty little blond heiress into his arms and kiss her - Della had never known that she was capable of feeling such intense jealousy!
"Thank you, Della!" Maggie exclaimed. "Oatmeal-raisin cookies. My favorite!"
"Mom said you like them," the older Miss Street replied, stroking her sister's hair comfortingly. "How is the studying going?"
"I wish it were over. I am so tired of doing algebra problems."
"In twenty-four hours, the studying and the test will be over, and you will be free to do as you like for the rest of the summer," Della reminded her.
"Yes, I know. I can't wait! I have so much reading I want to do!"
Della followed Maggie's gaze, and found that her sister was eagerly eyeing a thick, worn book which was lying at the edge of her desk. Wondering what sort of novel her sibling wanted to peruse so desperately, she picked it up, only to find her mouth dropping open from shock.
"You want to read the 'California Penal Code'?" she gasped out. "Maggie, where in the world did you even get this book?"
"From the library. Mrs. Radkins said I might as well take it and keep it – no one has checked it out for ten years. Besides, it's an outdated copy, but until I save up enough allowance to buy the new edition it will have to do."
"I don't wonder that no one has borrowed it for ten years. This is scarcely an easy summer read."
"But Perry Mason occasionally quotes excerpts from the penal code in his cases, and I want to better understand what he means."
Della's first instinct was to drop the book like a red-hot potato and make her prompt exit from Maggie's presence. But, remembering what she had overheard the previous evening, she forced herself to gently put the book down and say,
"You are truly interested in criminal justice, aren't you? You would make a fine attorney one day, Maggie."
A wistful look suddenly slipped into her sister's eyes.
"Me? Oh no…," for a moment, it seemed that was all that Maggie was going to say, but Della's unexpected warmth encouraged her to confide in her big sister. "Well, to be honest with you, I did use to dream of becoming a lawyer. But in order to go to law school, one has to leave Treeland, and move to the city, and I think it has been well-established that for girls like us that is a rather bad idea. I…I had hoped that you would succeed in Los Angeles, and prove that a country girl could make it in the city. Since you were gone for four years, I was almost certain that you would. That was why I looked a bit disappointed when you came home last week. But it isn't your fault…mom and dad are simply right. It's a ruthless world out there, and it is wiser to stay home, where people know and respect you, rather than go out, chasing wild dreams."
"Oh Maggie!" Della cried out, kneeling down next to her sister's chair and wrapping her arm around the girl's shoulders. "Just because things did not work out for me does not mean that you shouldn't try. Dream of law school, by all means! I can see it is your calling, please don't turn your back on it."
"No, Della," the girl gently replied. "I…I don't want to gamble with my life. Don't worry about me. I have other dreams too. I have always liked horses, and when I was younger I dreamed of fencing off the east pasture and opening my own horseback riding school there. That is a more practical, realistic dream, and that is the one that I will plan to pursue."
"But is it the one that would make you the happiest?" Della pressed.
"I…I am sure that, considering that it is the one most likely to succeed, it will make me the most content, in the end."
There was a bitter, but stoic determination in Maggie's eyes, and Della knew that her poor sister's mind was made up. Standing up, she resignedly said,
"We can discuss this again when you have some more time. You probably should go back to your algebra now, so that you can do well on your test tomorrow."
"Alright, Della. Thank you again for the cookies."
Della walked out of Maggie's room and went to hers. She had never guessed that her sibling had been secretly rooting for her to succeed in Los Angeles, or that her coming home would crush Maggie's private hopes.
The personable, bold girl would truly make a fine attorney – Della had been around enough lawyers to know. She would spend the rest of her life feeling personally responsible for her sister's unhappiness if she was the reason that Maggie chose not to pursue her dreams.
If only circumstances had been different…if only Perry Mason had never fallen in love with Isabella Scalding, and if she were still his secretary…how much easier it would have been for Maggie! She could just imagine Perry mentoring her younger sister in his office, answering her questions, teaching her law before she even got into law school – by the time she applied, Maggie would have been a stellar candidate! Instead, she now had to find a way to convince her sister to merely consider law school a concrete possibility, rather than some impossible dream.
Della reminded herself that Maggie was just twelve. This fascination with criminology could just be a phase, and it might pass. If it did not, perhaps…by the time Maggie was seventeen and ready to apply to college, maybe, just maybe, she would have recovered enough from her affection for Perry to be able to confide in her sister …and to tell her that she had left Los Angeles not because she had been a professional failure, but because she had been disappointed in love.
Slipping under her covers, Della found herself remembering the newspaper clippings on her sister's wall. She remembered the handsome, thirty-five-year-old lawyer who was pictured on many of them. Despite herself, she found herself recalling what his voice sounded like when he spoke her name, and the way his dimples showed when he smiled.
Pressing her face into her pillow to muffle her sobs, Della cried herself to sleep.
Sooo...Perry is currently on a plane somewhere between Scotland and Los Angeles at this very moment...is he in for a surprise when he returns to work!
Please review!
