Leftovers: A Novel (18 page)

But Vivian found Florida to be fascinating and exotic. The landscape was dotted with trees she’d never seen or heard of before like loquats, mangroves and bottlebrush. Mile after mile, they passed by vast farmlands, orchards full of lemons, oranges and grapefruits and sometimes just . . . nothingness. Then, as if it were a mirage appearing out on the horizon, Vivian could see the gleaming-white colonnaded building of the Tupperware Home Party Headquarters.

She felt her heart skip a beat as the bus pulled into the parking lot. There were hundreds of people, about 90 percent of them women, making their way down a long pathway bordered by treasure chests, each with a pole extending from it and waving colorful flags depicting names of each of the United States. On either side of the walk were beautiful lakes, which had fountains in the middle of them, spewing giant sprays of water.

At the end of the pathway was the main pavilion, which housed the Pacific Hall, the Midwest and the Gulf rooms. As Vivian, and all the other Tupperware devotees entered the pavilion, their immediate reaction was one of relief. It was air-conditioned. Outside it was 98 degrees with full humidity.

And the first thing she saw inside was the impressive 42 foot long mural titled the
Evolution of Dishes.
Drawn in a contemporary style it depicted the history of dishes, starting with prehistoric times and ended in the present, with Tupperware. And set up farther down the hall was a huge corkboard with a sign above it that simply read:

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WISH LIST
 
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Like many others, Vivian stood there for a moment trying to figure out what it was for when out of nowhere appeared a beautiful woman, dressed as the Wish Fairy. She wore a ballerina’s costume and tutu, her head was adorned with a tiara and she carried with her a magic wand the size of which would have made Glinda the Good Witch green with envy.

As she pointed to a table that had small slips of paper, pencils and thumbtacks, she waved her wand and said to all, “Attach your wish to the official wish list. Make sure you attach your wish.”

Everyone, including Vivian, wrote down their wishes and stuck them up onto the corkboard. From there, the Jubilee attendees picked up their nametags and then were escorted to the enormous Pacific Hall.

Vivian entered and found a seat as the master of ceremonies on stage was doing a sort of warm-up act. He was clowning around, telling jokes and the spirit and energy in the room was infectious. When everyone was seated, several women came on stage, stood behind him and suddenly the back curtain opened revealing a full symphony orchestra playing the intro to the Tupperware theme song.

The MC spread his arms as if embracing the audience and encouraged them to join him.

“Come on, everyone, stand up!” he shouted.

Vivian and everyone else in the hall stood up.

“The ladies behind me are going to show you some choreography. When we say head, we all touch our heads, when we say heart, we touch our hearts, when we say toes, we touch our toes . . . maybe!” The crowd laughed. “And when we say all over me, we jump as high as we can. Ready?” He asked again, louder, stirring up their enthusiasm. “I asked, is everybody ready?”

They all shouted back, “Yes!”

Along with the orchestra they sang out as loud as they could.

“
I’ve got that Tupper feeling up in my head, deep in my heart, down in my toes. I’ve got that Tupper feeling all over me, all over me to stay!”

Immediately, they broke into another round of the song and cheered even louder at the end. The MC applauded with them as the women on stage exited and he motioned everyone to sit down.

“Thank you and welcome to Jubilee.” The audience cheered. “I know you’ve all been waiting for this moment so let’s bring her out now . . . the woman who encourages and inspires us to be the best we can be . . . here she is, Brownie Wise!”

The crowd jumped to its feet again, cheering, as she came out on stage. The brown eyed and perfectly coiffed, pewter haired Brownie was decked out in a pink cotton pleated tiered dress cinched at the waist showing off her lean figure. With it she wore her signature pearl necklace and matching pearl earrings.

Vivian was mesmerized. So was the crowd. And it took them quite a while to calm down and sit back into their seats.

Brownie graciously bowed to the auditorium and walked up to the microphone.

“Welcome everyone. As you know, our Jubilees are designed to reward you, our best selling, hard working, loyal dealers, managers and distributors.”

The audience applauded.

“Along with games and prizes we also have the Tupperware business class where we teach effective ways of selling product and recruiting people, followed by graduation. And don’t forget that over the next few days, the Wish Fairy will be granting wishes.”

The crowd reacted again.

“Welcome to the Tupperware Jubilee, where everything begins with a wish.” She gestured as she walked off stage and into the audience. “Follow me!”

Like the pied piper, Brownie lead the entire group outside of the pavilion and out onto the south lawn where a huge area of land was sectioned off with fencing. The earth looked as if it had been tilled and hundreds of shovels spaced equally apart were sticking out of the ground. Everyone gathered around as Brownie now spoke through a megaphone.

“This is the Forrest Of Spades. Sometimes it takes hard work and a little sweat to see your dreams come true. When I say go, all of you run to a shovel, start digging and see what you can unearth. One, two, three, go!”

A bullhorn blared and under the blazing sun everyone scrambled for a shovel and started digging.

The first woman to find something screamed when she uncovered a small box. The lucky lady opened it up and found a diamond ring inside. Another unearthed a larger box, tore it open and yelled, “Hooray!” when she discovered a toaster.

Farther back, the crowd went crazy when a woman found a mink stole.

With an assistant shading her with an umbrella, Brownie walked around the Forrest Of Spades, encouraging them with words of praise as she came upon Vivian.

Determined to find her treasure, Vivian dug like mad, but unfortunately, the area that she was digging in was bit swampier than others causing it to sink farther down. Eventually she hit something hard. Covered in mud, she pulled out a large box and opened it up as Brownie and others watched on.

Vivian stood their confounded as she looked at an odd looking pot. “What is it?” she asked the woman digging next to her.

The crowd laughed as the girl said, “It’s a double-boiler.”

Vivian looked at again as if it was the most precious thing in the world. “Just what I wanted,” she said, absolutely sincerely. “A double-boiler!”

She turned to the girl again and whispered, “What’s a double-boiler?”

Brownie leaned in to her assistant and asked, “Who is that girl?”

The assistant got close enough to look at her nametag. “Vivian Lawson.”

Brownie smiled as scores of people continued to dig through the mud.

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The Jubilee was a constant buzz. During the day there were seminars, classes and demonstrations. At night there were dinners where everyone dressed up followed by concerts, entertainment and gift giveaways. Each night, as the bus returned Vivian back to her room at the Orange Blossom Trail Motel, she was so exhausted that not even the helicopter-sized mosquitoes zooming around all night long could waken her from her deep and restful sleep.

On the second day, Vivian and hundreds of others, sat at classroom style desks concentrating hard on the tests they were taking. A bell went off and everyone passed their papers forward.

And that night during a candlelit graduation ceremony with organ music playing in the background, Tupperware attendees were handed out their diplomas.

The classes were helpful and informative but the graduation had a much deeper impact on many of the students. For some, this would be the first graduation they had ever experienced in their lives. But as each person went up on stage to receive their diploma, Vivian became more and more worried that maybe she hadn’t passed the courses. Now, the last person left, she looked nervously amongst the crowd wondering how she would handle the embarrassment.

Brownie paused before she spoke. “And last but not least, our valedictorian, Vivian Lawson.”

Vivian was so surprised, she struggled to make it up the steps to the stage.

Brownie embraced her and whispered into her ear. “I’d like to speak with you privately.”

Confused, Vivian moved a step back as Brownie handed her the diploma. “Yes, your Highness . . . I mean, yes, Ma’am.”

She laughed. “Call me Brownie.”

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The next day, Brownie walked arm-in-arm with Vivian through the gardens on her 20-acre estate located about 15 minutes south east of the headquarters.

“It’s all so beautiful,” Vivian said as they parted huge palm leaves and walked out onto a lush, bright green grassy lawn that stretched towards East Lake Toho.

“I’m lucky to have 1,900 feet of frontage property,” Brownie said. “Not to mention three horses, two dogs and a wonderful prankster of a teenage son.” She gestured out into the water. “And my very own Isla Milagra.”

Vivian squinted to see what she was pointing at. “Who is Elsa Millagraw?”

Brownie laughed. “Isla Milagra. It’s my island. Translation means—Miracle Island. It’s pretty wild right now and over-grown. No one lives on it and it’s covered with Carolina willows, bald cypress and oaks dripping with Spanish moss but I’m going to tame it and turn it into a sanctuary for all of you. A place to contemplate, give thanks and make more wishes.”

“Isla Milagra,” Vivian softly repeated. “I love it.”

“And welcome to Water’s Edge.”

Again, Vivian was at a loss. “You mean we’re at the edge of the water?”

She laughed. “No, I mean my home.” Brownie gestured down the shore and there stood a Spanish style mansion with a red tiled roof. “Rumor has it that it was originally built for a some 1930s Hollywood star whose name escapes me, but they never moved in.”

They continued to walk arm-in-arm towards the house. “Vivian, you’ve sold an awful lot of Tupperware in a very short period of time, my dear. Come on in.”

The foyer to Water’s Edge was magnificent. Decorated with Italian statues and giant ferns, sweeping staircases invited one up to the second floor suites.

“It’s magnificent,” Vivian whispered.

Of course Vivian was no stranger to living in opulence, however her mother’s decorators, whom were the most expensive one could find in New England, designed a house that felt cold, sterile and museum-like. There were rooms in her house she was not allowed to enter, rooms she had never seen in her life. But to Vivian, Water’s Edge felt like a home, one full of life and begging for entertaining. She sensed that Brownie had handpicked each treasured item herself because she loved and wanted to be surrounded by them.

They walked into the massive living room that was tastefully decorated in floral prints, imported rugs from all over the world and on the walls hung original and eclectic modern art. Much of the furniture was handmade of bamboo or wicker and shipped up from Key West.

Brownie walked Vivian over to a pair of French doors and dramatically opened them up revealing a large swimming pool.

“It’s inside your house?” Vivian exclaimed.

“Isn’t glorious? It’s filled by a spring and then runs back out into Lake Toho. Refreshing but mighty cold.”

They passed by a grand piano and into the dining room that had a table 15 feet long and then on into Brownie’s state of the art, ultra modern kitchen. The cabinets were all made of capitol steel in a cheery peach color and the floor was covered with blue linoleum.

The first thing Vivian noticed was an appliance built into one of the counters.

“Is this?”

Brownie smiled. “An automatic dishwasher.”

Vivian caressed it. “I’ve never touched one before.” Then she noticed the cooking range. “Electric, too?”

Brownie nodded as Vivian fantasized never having to deal with another gas stove for the rest of her life.

“Come with me,” Brownie said as she headed back towards the staircases.

On the second floor, they passed by Brownie’s home office that had an executive style desk paired with a giant peacock fan chair and then they reached her bedroom. Vivian hesitated as Brownie entered the pink room fit for a princess. She turned back, waving to her to follow, as she opened a set of mirrored doors.

“This is
my
sanctuary,” Brownie giggled as she invited Vivian into her dressing room.