Edits

[ Celeste ]

Mara put a ledger on the table one morning.

Thick. Hard cover. The kind that would you'd worry about offending if you dropped it. It claimed a spot between pincushion and shears, beside the tin of chalk, accompanied by a wooden stool that hadn't seen varnish in decades.

On the first page of the ledger Mara had already ruled headings in her angular hand.

GARMENT:
DATE ISSUED:
ISSUED TO:
PROBLEM REPORTED:
REPAIR:
RE-TEST:

Mara tapped the headings once.

"These are not set in stone," she said. "This is a starting point."

"To catalogue repairs?"

Mara shook her head.

"No. Everything. No more mending pile."

I glanced over to the other end of the worktable, where the mending pile once lived. Charlie had just finished repairing the last item the night before.

I was surprised to see a folded up chemise sitting on the edge, looking a bit abandoned. Mara's lips tightened.

"Who's is that?"

Charlie arrived just then, quietly. He started undoing the buttons of his jacket as he followed Mara's gaze.

"Oh, that? One of the actresses dropped it off last night, just at closing. You had just—"

"Who?"

Charlie startled slightly. He frowned, as if trying to remember.

"I think her name as Lily." He gave a nod. "Yeah, that was it."

He removed his denim jacket.

Mara picked up a spiral notebook. She fixed her gaze on his face.

"Your task this morning is to find Lily and get details on how that garment failed."

"Find her?" He looked puzzled.

"Yes. I think she's one of the actresses in the marketplace."

His eyes went a bit wider as she handed him the spiral notebook and the chemise. He stared at the garment.

"Um, I did have a look at it last night," he said. "I could probably tell—"

"'Probably' isn't data," Mara said firmly.

His face fell. Mara saw it.

Of course she did.

"Is there a problem?"

"No-no," he said hastily. "I just thought—"

"That your testing abilities were going to answer every question?"

She waited.

He bit his lip, his hands shaking slightly as he slipped his jacket back on. He picked a pen out of the tin.

"Details," Mara said. "We need to know what she was doing when it failed, if it was pinching, if it was something she'd noticed was starting to fail, and any other information you can think of."

"Yes, Mara."

He glanced at me as he moved to the door.

And then, the door clicked shut.

Mara's eyes met mine.

I went back to work.

Later that morning, I opened the window. A cold wind had come up and was blowing leaves around the carpark. I propped the window partly open to let in a bit of fresh air, wondering why I couldn't smell the usual hot chips porta-pottie medley.

I had just returned to invoices when the door opened.

Lucy came in, wearing a huge grin. She sidled up to me.

"Who sent Charlie out to meet the wolves?"

I tipped my chin at Mara.

"He's looking like a reporter for the local paper at a hostage scene," Lucy said, lowering her voice. "Asked poor Lily a bazillion questions and then, scribbling away—"

I nodded.

"He's taking his job seriously."

Lucy gave a sharp laugh.

"Lily never knew what hit her." She tossed her head. "And then, this other actress—"

The door burst open and Charlie tottered in, eyes scanning his notes. His mouth was to one side.

Mara looked up from her work.

"Did you get it all?"

Charlie tipped his head slightly to one side.

"I think so."

Mara's eyes rested on the notebook.

"Have a look?"

His neck reddened slightly as he passed it over to her. She glanced over it, and handed it back.

"Can you read this?"

"Yes."

"Good. Transcribe it."

She pointed at the ledger.

===

Over the next few days, the weather got colder. And the number of actresses bringing items to Wardrobe for repair increased. Mara wouldn't even look up from her work when one of them appeared but would simply point at Charlie.

Charlie's furious scribbling had settled: he wrote less into the notebook and, for simple repairs, entered details directly into the ledger.

he had just shut the ledger one afternoon and had picked up a jacket to repair when the door opened and a young, tall blond actress strode in carrying a linen chemise. She stood before Mara, hands on hips, ignoring her gesture towards the mending corner.

Mara looked up then.

"Repair?"

"Yes."

Mara nodded at the other end of the worktable.

"Charlie is responsible for repairs. He needs details on how the failure happened."

"I'm not discussing intimate garments with a bloke."

I could see Charlie stiffen.

Mara's eyes sharpened.

“You don’t have to. His job doesn’t change.”

The blonde straightened.

"It's— inappropriate."

Mara stood.

"You have a right to your opinion," she said silkily. "The more information we have on what went wrong, the better able we are to prevent problems in the future. Whether you assist us in that is up to you."

The blonde dropped the linen garment on the worktable and turned on her heels. Mara wordlessly picked up the chemise, folded it and inserted it at the bottom of the repair pile.

"Whenever you can get to it," she said to Charlie.

He nodded.

Friday afternoons became design review sessions. Mara, Charlie and I would sit at her worktable, ledger open — I would take notes. Patterns in the way garments were failing had started to emerge from Charlie's meticulous entries. Charlie had the floor.

Mara would say very little.

I said nothing.

We were halfway through one of these sessions that Lucy came in with the blond actress, a jacket folded over her arm. Lucy went straight to Charlie.

"I hope we're not interrupting something—"

"Carry on," said Mara.

Lucy put the jacket on the table.

"So, this isn't actually my jacket," she began when Mara interrupted her.

"Whose is it?"

Lucy startled.

"Um, well, Bree's, actually."

"Then Bree needs to be bringing it in."

Lucy turned the jacket over. "It's just where the sleeve's come loose—"

"Perhaps," Mara said. "We still need to know why. And how."

"But why is that so important?" the blonde interjected. "We never had to do that before."

Mara turned to Charlie.

"Show her."

Charlie swallowed, then opened the ledger.

"We're looking for failure patterns," he said quietly, not looking at anyone. "So we are better able to prevent those problems in future designs."

The steamer hissed. A diesel truck rumbled by the partly open window.

"I'll ask Bree to pop 'round," Lucy said finally.

After the actresses left, Charlie finally glanced up. Mara tipped her chin at him.

"Carry on, please."

We had been back at work for only a few minutes — me at the rails, Charlie doing repairs — when the door opened briskly and a tall actress with an imposing bearing entered Wardrobe. She glanced around the room — when she found Charlie, she strode up to his table.

"Hi, I'm Bree," she said in a voice designed to carry to the budget seats.

Charlie wordlessly gave a nod. He pulled the jacket from the pile, and then, opened the ledger.

"May I ask you some questions as to how this happened, please."

"Of course!"

His smile was doing its best, but his eyes were wide. Bree was at least a foot taller than he was, with a regal bearing. I could easily picture her doing King Lear in the title role.

"Would you like to sit down, Bree?" he offered.

"Thought you'd never ask." She dropped herself unceremoniously into the proffered chair. I could hear it creak from where I stood. "So, what do you want to know?"

Charlie consulted the ledger.

"What were you doing at the time?"

"I was thrusting with a sword."

Charlie blinked.

"I see. Could you show—"

Before he could finish, she demonstrated, her closed fist stopping inches away from his startled face. She burst into gales of laughter.

"Oh, sorry honey, I didn't mean to..." She looked over at Mara, then shook her head at her, biting her lower lip. "I— I didn't mean to—"

Mara said nothing but went back to work.

Bree's smile had faded a bit but when Charlie timidly smiled back, it regained most of its cheerfulness.

"I am sorry, hon," she repeated. "I tend to lose myself in the moment." She hunched over, wrapping her arms around herself. "What else do you need to know?"

Charlie was carefully examining the sleeve.

"I think I have what I need," he said. "I will reinforce both sleeves when I do the repair so it doesn't happen again. Is there any other issue you have with this jacket?"

I caught Mara's eyes on me.

I nodded.

===

A couple of days later, Lily showed up at around two in the afternoon with a rather well-nourished lass with a dour expression holding a bodice. Lily was carrying a bag from the Faire bakery.

"Afternoon tea for my favourite people in the world," she announced cheerfully.

"Lovely. Thank you," Mara said, indicating the tearoom. The dour-faced young woman found Charlie at a sewing machine.

"Do you even know how to use that thing?" she asked.

"Yes, I do," he replied. "How can I help you?"

To my surprise, he looked unfazed. He calmly took down details about the bodice — when, where, how — and then said:

"We can add a bit of reinforcing if you'd like. So it doesn't split again."

"That would be lovely," Lily interjected before the well-nourished woman could speak. "You do such lovely work, Charlie." The scowl on the other woman's face eased a bit. "I'll be back in a bit, Vanessa," Lily continued.

Vanessa mumbled something, attempted a smile, then turned and left.

"Don't mind her," Lily said gently to Charlie. "“She's going through a horrible breakup with her boyfriend. That can mess with your mind."

Charlie nodded, his eyes a question mark.

"Was there—" he bagan, but Lily giggled and shook her head.

"Well, no." She paused. "Well, actually, yes." She produced a pair of black leggings from her bag. "I was wondering..."

Charlie stared at the leggings.

Mara spoke clearly, without emotion.

"We don't do alterations or repairs on personal garments."

Lily's shoulders went up and she snatched the leggings from Charlie's hands.

"Oh, sorry," she murmured. "It's just— it get so cold these days in the marketplace, especially in the early mornings. But I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

Mara had approached them. She looked at the leggings: they were of a heavy stretch cotton with a soft inner layer.

"So, the chemise and extra petticoats don't keep you warm enough?"

Lily shook her head, then got up to go.

"Wait." Mara put out her hand. "Show me."

The gusset in the crotch had given way. Mara looked at Charlie.

"This is a common fail point for leggings. Any ideas on how to fix it?" She handed the leggings to him.

His brows narrowed as he rubbed the stretch cotton between his fingers.

"We'd need this type of material," he said slowly. "I'd replace the gusset completely, and then, add a reinforcement layer on the inside."

"Do it."

She turned to Lily.

"When we find that type of cotton, we'll let you know. Charlie will take care of it for you."

Mara turned to go back to her worktable. Before she sat down, she said to me,

"We need to rethink the chemise for winter. And possibly, one of the petticoats."

Less than a week later, a new chemise design was spread out on Mara's worktable. I was on the phone to Lauren's linen supplier when Lily appeared. She went straight to Charlie.

"Celeste rang me earlier. She said you have the material."

Charlie slowly put down his work, carefully arranging everything so he could quickly pick it all back up where he'd left off.

"We do." He reached into the repair basket and produced a bag. "If you can wait for like twenty minutes or so, I can do the repair for you and give them back to you straight away."

"Oh, that would be amazing!" She handed him the leggings almost reluctantly. "They're my favourite pair," she said, her eyes fixed on the garment.

"I'll be careful."

"Oh, you always are!" she breathed. "Your hands are so gentle. They remind me of Bree's."

Her face reddened suddenly.

Charlie gave her a crooked smile, then slowly started unpicking the gusset. She watched him work, the side of her lower lip gripped between her teeth. Every now and then, he would glance at her with a quick smile, then return to his work. When the old piece finally came free, he laid it over the new cotton and began marking around it.

“You're replacing the whole thing?”

“It failed once.”

Lily smiled. “Right.”

At the overlocker Lily said to him,

"I'm afraid your coffee has gone cold."

He shrugged.

"That's okay. It was nice of you to bring afternoon tea."

After Lily left with her leggings, Mara pointed at the ledger.

"Just a quick note: what you repaired, and why."

Charlie turned his head at her with a slight frown.

"Why? Because the gusset was coming apart?"

"No, because the chemise and the petticoats were not keeping the actresses warm."

[ Bree returns with Sarah, who is still suspicious of Charlie. But Bree really likes Charlie, especially when he encourages her to ask Lily out. ]

[ Mara designs a new Chemise. ]