Mishka could not resist glancing at her father quickly after she heard Myrtle's unusual invitation.
"The one moment she's irritated with my singing and then the next moment she wants to take me out to a special event," Mishka told herself. She was puzzled about her grandmother's behaviour.
"Is she trying to be friends or is she busy with some kind of match-making again?" Mishka asked herself before answering.
"I do have an appointment for Saturday afternoon. I'm singing for a fashion group, but if I finish there on time I just might join you out of curiosity, since you're making it all sound so interesting," she responded with a smile.
"It will be interesting, yes, but it's gonna be your second Saturday of not resting, so how will you cope if you become exhausted? You will have to resort to drinking herbs eventually, like I do," Myrtle remarked in response.
"I took a good nap late on Sunday afternoon," Mishka responded in her own defence.
"But then you were up late again," Shaun commented.
"Oh, so you heard us having coffee in the kitchen?" Mishka responded with her eyes stretched wide in surprise.
"No, I don't have such good hearing, but I heard you when you were upstairs," Shaun responded with a grunt.
"Oh, so you weren't asleep yourself yet, or did I wake you up?" Mishka asked with raised eyebrows. She was not so sure about whether her father was joking or not.
"No, I guess I wasn't fast asleep yet," Shaun responded in a light tone of voice.
"I guess I was fast asleep," Myrtle mumbled.
"Oh, that's good for you because on Saturday night you were up late, so that means that you were really tired from the previous night's lack of sleep," Mishka thought to herself.
"Then if you're sleeping so light lately you must also have heard the chanting noises on Saturday night because that's what woke me up?" Mishka asked as she glanced at Myrtle quickly.
"On Saturday night?" Shaun asked with a frown. "No, I was watching a sports show on my TV until late, so, I guess I fell fast asleep when I finally went to bed.
But, you say you heard chanting? How's that possible so late at night? It must have been someone's TV show," he added as he reached for the dessert which Milla had just brought in.
Mishka glanced at Myrtle to see if her facial expression changed. She simply wiped her mouth with a napkin as if Mishka had not said anything unusual, though.
"How can she be so cool and calm about this as if she really doesn't know what I'm talking about?" Mishka asked herself.
"And you, Grandma? Didn't you hear chanting?" Mishka asked, still studying Myrtle's face sideways.
"No, it must have been your imagination or you must have been dreaming," Myrtle replied without looking at anyone in particular. She took some dessert for herself as well.
"So, you were up late for two nights in a row?" Shaun asked with a concerned frown on his brow.
"Unfortunately, yes. But, I got to have lovely chats with some of the staff members for a change," Mishka added with a contented smile on her face.
"Oh, lately you spend too much time getting cosy with the staff. I wanted to talk to you and your father about that," Myrtled commented with a sneer.
"Oh, but I learn more from them than from anyone at the office," Mishka protested.
"You are going to be the only mistress in this house one day because I don't think that your brother's coming back with a wife," Myrtle responded with the same sour sneer around her mouth.
"Oh, you can never really say that he's not coming back. He can maybe just be going through a curious phase and then one day he decides to become very interested in the family business. It has happened to some people before," Shaun commented, raising his eyebrows for emphasis.
"Well, you can go on dreaming about that, but I've already seen Denzel's character long ago," Myrtle responded with a deep sigh.
"Oh, but you never said anything," Shaun commented in a sarcastic tone of voice.
"Well, all that I can say is that the chanting was quite real on Saturday night because Cook also heard it and it gave us both nightmares," Mishka remarked as she sipped on her wine.
"Perhaps you and Cook both had a bit too much to drink on Saturday," Myrtle remarked.
"No, we didn't. We just heard something disturbing and I hope that it doesn't happen again, whether it was a TV show or someone's actual Voodoo," Mishka responded, twisting her mouth in distaste.
"How dare she complain about my singing during waking hours when she chants during other people's sleeping hours?" she thought to herself.
"But I would love to see how that party of yours turns out on Saturday night, even if I arrive there late," Mishka she remarked with a bright smile.
"Normally I wouldn't even dream about it, but, knowing what I do know now, I'm dying to meet the kind of people who're gonna be there," she said to herself inwardly.
"Oh it will be fun and oh, another matter on my mind is you and Gillian putting ideas of grandeur into Milla's mind. Don't let her think that she's gonna become a famous movie-maker. It will only break her heart," Myrtle responded, looking straight at Mishka this time.
"What? Milla wants to make movies?" Shaun asked with his eyes stretched wide with interest.
"Apparently, Mishka encouraged her to record a movie with Gillian," Myrtle responded with a snort.
"She's not dreaming about big things. She just wants to do something interesting in her spare time after she's done cleaning up after you in the basement," Mishka responded as she stared at Myrtle.
"Oh, does it inspire her?" Shaun asked, frowning in confusion.
"Yes, because her imagination gets really alive when she's there on the night's when Grandma was there working on plants in the evenings," Mishka responded as she looked at her father. She knew that Myrtle would be truly shocked at this statement.
"Working in the nursery at night, you mean?" Shaun asked with his eyes now stretched wide open in amazement.
"Mom that's just crazy and unwise," he added, turning his gaze to Myrtle.
"Oh and Milla once also saw a stray cat in there. It frightened the life out of her almost, but it also got her imagination going," Mishka added, returning her gaze towards Myrtle who did not move an inch.
"Well, whatever, let Milla make a movie and of course Gillian and Mishka can guide her. It can perhaps make for good entertainment for all concerned," Shaun remarked before rising from his chair.
"Yes, just like my outdoor singing is good for me. I might come up with an amazing song," Mishka added, smiling to herself.
"But, what kind of music is it? It really sounds loud, so out in the open air," Myrtle remarked with a sneer.
"Oh, it's not gonna be forever," Mishka remarked. "It's for a specific project," she added, smiling at Myrtle. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Myrtle that her chanting and whatever went with it was also not welcome at all.
"Now, I would like something savoury to eat after all that sweet jam," she remarked instead.
"Oh, so you had dessert for supper?" Shaun asked with a frown of disapproval on his brow.
"Jam and scones, home baked by grandma's friend," Mishka responded with a giggle as she rang the bell.
"What? Which friend?" Myrtle asked.
"Oh, I was doing some research for the movie and I found out that you have a friend who lives on a farm. So, I went there to get a feeling of farm life from another family apart from Gillian's family," Mishka responded as Milla entered in response to the bell.
"How did you do research? And Rose doesn't exactly have family," Myrtle remarked, looking at Mishka curiously.
"From my office at work. Modern technology can do wonders," Mishka responded.
"It sounds more like conniving and getting into people's private business, if you ask me," Myrtle remarked. "It's almost like witchcraft, this modern technology of yours.
Anyway, don't make a habit of visiting Rose. I think she's going off her rocker in her old age," she added as she also rose from the table.
"Oh, do you mean that she wasn't always like that?" Mishka asked with a curious frown on her brow.
"If she's unstable, then it's not a good idea to visit her by yourself," Shaun advised as he began to walk away from the table.
"Alright, I will make sure to take someone with me next time," Mishka promised.
"Why would you want to go back there?" Myrtle asked with a deep frown as she stared at Mishka in concern.
"I'm going to help her track down her lost son," Mishka responded.
Myrtle's mouth hung open in shock at this.
"You don't want to get yourself into something that you never thought would happen to you, so don't even try to do that," she warned Mishka with a wagging finger.