Character Completion

I met Emily on a black Friday. Her last name ‘Chesterfield’, she was the sole heiress to Chesterfield Arms, her father’s pride and joy though Emily was assured she would see not a dime since resuming her mother’s lineage via last name. This whole scenario came about as Daddy dearest held taught to greed over the responsibility of a father. No worry though, she was old enough to begin discerning truth for herself and made that bold move in a poignant effort to have Daddy realize what he was missing.

He didn’t.


Emily, or ‘Em’ as we called her, had a way of stopping time long enough to have you consider your stance on an issue and defend it until you made her believe what you now questioned. I am pretty certain she got that trait from her mother, one of my dearest friends, but up to that Friday, had not quite mastered implementing it as casual conversation.

Being a Chesterfield gave her prominence in arms dealing that her mother discovered, really meant nothing if even the signing of such a name was vacant. There was no substance - part of the reason why Em only wrote her name in erasable pen throughout her high school years.  This way, she could erase it and script in P-A-R-I-S after showing her father that she'd completed her work.  Paris had significance, it had a robustness and a commanding presence. It rolled off the tongue with delightful pronunciation and depending on how much of a pause she put between Em  and Paris, which she kept deliberately quip, Em could rattle off her presence 'EmParis' while the corners of her mouth raised in satisfaction with how clever she was becoming in her dawning womanhood. 

Gemma on the other hand, Em's mother, had long commanded her own being and gave only as much of herself that she deemed essential for the introduction to continue.  If she didn't like you - you were well aware and could somehow deduct that to continue speaking would be an ill investment, not to mention a risk.  She meant well. Gemma was strong, intelligent, and had experienced enough vacuous relationships to glean significance from a meeting within a first encounter; a trick that served her well.  She appropriately handed down some vice to her daughter and kept enough in her back pocket for when she would inevitably need it.