Alyson Miles

Aly Miles shouted to get everyone’s attention.

“Time for class. You have one hour so no more talk unless I ask you questions and we’ll demonstrate more of the arts of painting and water-colouring. I expect you’ve bought your homework with you which I’ll grade with comments this evening after class. Naomi, would you like to join us. These are paid for classes, but you may want to watch and see if you’re interested and if so, then ask your father to see me and I’ll give him my schedule of charges.”

The kids sat around art tables positioned to see a giant screen on the wall and a whiteboard where Ms. Aly sometimes illustrated styles of construction of paintings and the best tools to have for the art they were attempting to use. Aly would walk around inspecting each project under construction and making suggestions to each child attending.

Steph told Naomi as she accompanied her back home afterward that some of the kids turned into good artists but the majority only managed acceptable work and some dropped out after finding they had diminished interest as their classes progressed. Naomi had asked Ms. Aly for her schedule of charges to show her father as she was very interested in what she’d seen that afternoon and the woman had hugged her as she sped home and asked her to call her Aly from now on as she preferred informality.

That evening as she saw her dad drive in after his day’s work were finished, she rushed to warm up supper prepared by the housekeeper and could hardly wait to tell her dad all about her exciting afternoon. When Richie saw the excitement in his daughter as she reported on her afternoon meeting, he took the brochure Aly had given him and looked for the contact information. He pressed in the numbers printed and a cheerful voice answered the phone.

“Hi, this is Carolyn Miles Aly Counselling and Art Therapy, how can I be of assistance to you this evening?”

Richie picked up the brochure again to check as Naomi had told him it was an Alyson Miles who ran the business.

“Hi Carolyn, is this the Ali Art Therapy phone number?”

 “Yes, it is I care for the phones while mom grades papers of an evening or does online counselling. So, what is your name and how can I help you”

Richie smiled.

“My name is Richie Fisher, and you must be one of the Miles girls who were so kind to my daughter Naomi this afternoon and I’d like to sign her up for classes but need to know how I can transfer money into your account in payment.”

“I think Naomi needs a friend and we are glad to draw her into our network of friends.  We misunderstood her seemingly aloof treatment of the kids on the bus and at school but now we know she’d still grieving for her lost mom, and we can understand that as we now have no dad either. Check with Naomi and see which course she wants to sign up for, and you can see what’s involved in payments for each unit of studies. The bank details to pay for each course are at the back of the brochure. It’s quite a comprehensive course and some go through to the end and are eventually able to produce studio quality work. My mom is the best teacher, so you’ll get your money’s worth and it includes materials supplied to each student.” 

Richie laughed.

“Carolyn that’s the best sales pitch I’ve heard for a long time and when you’re old enough to look for a job come to the department store in town and ask for me and I’ll give you a job.”

Carolyn laughed too.

“Thanks Mr. Fisher. Who knows what the future holds as I’m still working my way through school and deciding on a career, but I’ll certainly keep your kind offer in mind and will look after Naomi to keep you in debt to me.”

By this time both were laughing and Carolyn wished Richie a good night and disconnected the phone waiting for the next call.

Alyson who’d been listening into the conversation while marking projects and writing comments began to chuckle at the exchange between her daughter and Richard Fisher the manager of the Shoppers Paradise department store in Parkerville. She’d always imagined people working at the corporate level were hard headed money conscious characters engaged in the exploitation of the community and workers but this man sounded human and she thought it would be interesting to catch up with him in the village someday when everyone got together at festival time to check out if he was one of those rare exceptions in the corporate world. Her experience with her army husband had not been a happy one so she had a jaundiced view of men but at least she’d been compensated by finishing her master’s degree in counselling and therapeutic arts because of her husband’s army pay she managed, and they had a sizable bank account by the time of his death overseas. But she and the girls could never survive in a city, and it was by chance she read about Silver Cascade and bought into this community.

It had been hard to establish a business in this remote area and their savings had been severely depleted before Aly’s fame spread and she had a thriving art and online counselling business now and savings were building up again but they had to be careful with their spending as Aly wanted to build up sufficient savings for her daughters to get  a higher education of their own choice. Steph had indicated she had a long-term goal of following the arts side of her mother’s profession and that would be expensive as it involved art pursuits through computer programming and she was unsure if that would include web page development or the games or movie industry, but Carolyn was leaning toward the business world but hadn’t quite made up her mind yet. She wanted to test her marketing skills so was working on her mother to approve her working at the department store run by Naomi’s father and Aly was thinking about that before school vacation. This was Steph’s coming graduation year and a decision on the best college to fulfil Steph’s ambitions had to be made.

Vacation was coming up quickly and the three girls had bonded well over the years. Naomi had made a great transformation in her personality. She was now confident and outgoing and the grief though there in the background at her mother’s passing was now manageable. Naomi and her father had drawn close together and enjoyed evenings Richie putting everything needed to be done as homework for his job aside until his daughter was tired and went to bed. He was delighted at the way the Miles girls had taken Naomi under their wing and bought about such welcome changes in her personality and noted Naomi’s developing attachment to her art teacher. He was proud of the paintings Naomi was producing noting constant improvement in her techniques. He looked forward to meeting Aly someday to personally thank her for her mothering of his daughter.

At this time a crisis developed that bought great concern to Richie. One evening his daughter had come home agitated and would only return home to greet him accompanied by her two friends. As soon as he drove to the garage, he was met by the three of them who shouted the story until he calmed them down and asked Steph as the oldest what had happened. She reported that as they were about to board the school bus for return journey to their village an elderly woman stepped forward to intercept Naomi. She ordered her get into the car as she was taking her home to talk with her father about her future.

Now all teenagers were aware they should never accept an offered lift from a stranger. Steph stepped forward to challenge the woman as she felt she was the one obligated to see to their safety as the oldest. She told the woman under no circumstances would Naomi be going with her as she was authorized by Naomi’s father to see her safely home. The woman had threatened Steph telling her that as her grandmother she was the one authorized to see to her safety and Steph shouted to the security officer watching as the teenagers left school for his help. There had been a shouting match between the woman and security officer after the security officer asked Naomi if she wanted to go with her grandmother and Naomi said no as her grandmother was not friendly to her or her father. So, the security officer saw the three girls to the bus and Grandmother Goldberg returned to her chauffeur driven car threatening to have the security officer dealt with by her law firm. Richie was alarmed. The Goldberg’s had written he and his wife Eva off and indicated they had no interest in Naomi when their expected grandson did not eventuate.

Why the sudden interest. He feared for his daughter’s safety on learning this and wondered if a restraining order would be necessary. The Goldberg law firm were formidable opponents, and he knew the police would be cautious. He thought for a few minutes and then went to see their home was locked after the housekeeper had left and Naomi hadn’t returned to take over from her. He locked up and asked the girls to get into the car driving to where he knew Aly Miles lived. She was surprised to see the four of them appear unexpectedly as she only expected her girls to return home after seeing their friend home.  She left her final preparations for the meal and indicated the lounge room where she sat waiting the purpose of this unexpected visit.

Richie went over his experience arriving in Parkerville and meeting Eva Goldburg. How Eva had defied her parents and married him despite parental disapproval. How the Goldburg’s had written them off and only expressed an interest when learning their daughter was pregnant expecting a grandson to be taken over by them to raise to be the inheritor of their law practice. But instead, it was a granddaughter Naomi who they rejected waiting for the eventual grandson only to be devastated when their daughter who practiced law for the firm was killed by criminal elements because of a case she was conducting in court. He was concerned now that they’d decided to take an interest in his daughter Naomi and aware of their power as a law firm so wondered if Aly would keep Naomi at her home until he arrived from work and he could pick her up to ensure her safety.

Aly nodded and quickly agreed then invited Richie to stay and enjoy the evening meal with her and the girls. Naomi was overjoyed and looked at her father hopefully, so he said yes reluctantly not wanting to be a burden. Aly had been studying Richie and decided she liked what she saw. He didn’t match her impressions of a corporate raider exploiting those around them for profit and she had a favour to ask him anyway so she asked him to come into the kitchen and help her add to the meal she’d been preparing so they could talk. As they worked together, she mentioned Carolyn had expressed a desire to work at the department store during vacation and inquired what kind of work he had in mind when he suggested that in Carolyn’s first encounter on the phone. Richie said he’d get some of his senior department heads to try her out in sales and asked which department Carolyn might have an interest in. Aly called Carolyn into the kitchen and she appeared looking surprised.

“What did you have in mind when you asked permission to work at the department store Carolyn?”

Carolyn looked pleased the subject was being raised.

“I think I’m leaning toward general marketing as a career mom so could I just start with trying my skills in selling things, but I’d also be interested in the advertising world and that aspect of marketing. This may help me to clarify what I want to take as subjects in college.”

Aly laughed.

“How come you haven’t been marketing my products then my dear?”

Carolyn flinched wondering if she was being reprimanded for that, but Aly laughed and put her at ease. Then she turned to Richie.

“What do you have in mind Mr. Fisher?”

Richie looked up in surprise.

“No one calls me Mr. Fisher, so I’d like you to call me Richie if you’re comfortable with that. I’ll put her under Elaine Sheffield, and we’ll try her out in women’s garments. Let’s see how she deals with that.”

Carolyn jumped up and down and rushed over and hugged Richie then rushed out to share the good news with the others talking in the lounge room. Aly watched Richie out of the corner of her eye as she worked and liked what she saw. She felt she’d like to know him better and smiled as she caught him eyeing her off trying to look innocent as he did. Men were so easily seen through she thought to herself, but she was glad to see that interest.

To be continued.

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