This book is a bit different from the other work I've done in that the story almost completely revolves around women and how they've dealt with, and continue to deal with, their own experiences of tragedy. Bringing them together makes them realize that each of them fills an empty void for the other.
They discover more about themselves than they were willing to admit or show, and unknowingly help each other find and accept the love they'd always buried deep inside as well as the comfort they'd each silently longed for. And the seeds each of them plant in the other sprout up slowly, but, eventually, enable them to finally live life the way they'd always hoped to.
In this snippet, Lily Gran is taking her daughter, Enya, and her granddaughter, Chrissella, to their new assigned bedrooms. The personalities of these three very strong women comes blasting through, with questions for the reader to tuck away to be answered in later chapters.
I hope you enjoy the read and be sure to check back for updates. 😉
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Chrissella was about to ask about it,
then noticed a square in the ceiling at the other end of the hallway with a
small handle on one side. She guessed it was about three feet wide because a
good-sized adult would be able to fit through it.
“What’s up there,” she asked.
“Up where?” her mother asked.
“There…in the ceiling.”
“Well, that’s interesting. I never
noticed that before and I grew up here.”
“That’s just the attic,” Lily Gran
said, maneuvering her cane around the railing. “Nothing up there you need to
bother yourself with. Unless you like fraternizing with spiders and mice.”
Chrissella shivered. “I don’t
fraternize with anything that has more legs or body hair than I do.”
“You shouldn’t limit yourself so
much,” her mother said with a giggle. “You’ve eliminated a fair amount of
potential dates for yourself in the near future.”
“Hilarious, mom, really. You
should take that out on the road.”
Lily Gran stopped in front of the
telephone table between the two open bedroom doors. “Lord have mercy. Are you
two always like this?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Enya said.
Gran sighed, and shook her head.
“I suppose I’ll learn to live with it all. Now, then. Enya, you can have your
old room. You’ll find not much has been moved or changed in there. Chrissella
can have Amelia’s old room next door because it’s bigger. And from what I
understand, teens need a lot more room to mope around in.” She pointed down the
hall to the main bedroom on the left side. “That’s my room. I have my own
bathroom, so this one here is all yours. I expect you to keep it, and your
rooms, clean.”
“Will there be daily inspections
before we’re allowed to eat?” Chrissella said with a flat tone.
Enya’s opened her eyes wide, and
put her hand over her mouth. Gran slowly moved her gaze to Chrissella then
said, “Now that would be terribly anal and military-like, wouldn’t it? What
kind of hostess does that sort of thing?” she shuffled to the top of the
stairs, gripping the railing with one hand and her cane in the other. “Weekly.
And I give surprise inspections, so don’t get caught with your knickers on the
floor. I’d like to get started with dinner preparations so if you wouldn’t mind
getting settled and coming back down soon to get what I need from the garden,
that would be much appreciated. Ta!”
The two ladies kept their stances
until Lily Gran disappeared down the staircase, and Chrissella heard her cane
tapping on the floor below them.
“Did she actually just make a
joke?” she asked with a half-smile.
Enya shrugged, and shot a
raspberry. “Your grandmother has a wickedly sarcastic sense of humor. A lot
like yours, but with less cursing.”
“Well, geez. If this keeps up,
maybe I can get the old bat to crack a smile. I wonder if her face can handle
it. She probably hasn’t used those facial muscles in years.”
“Alright. No need to be
disrespectful. In all honesty, despite our crappy relationship now, Gran could
be a lot of fun when I was younger.”
“In which decade?”
“Hey! I’m not that old!”
Enya peeked over the railing, then said in a more hushed tone, “Look. There are
things that have happened that you don’t about. Our family has had some very
tough times. I haven’t shared any of it with you yet because I wanted to wait
until you were older and could handle it all. You’ll learn as time goes by, but
I’m just asking you to curb the attitude a bit and give this all a chance. Give
her a chance.”
“Why does it matter to you so much
all of the sudden? You never seemed to give a crap whether we all got along and
played nice-nice until she got hurt.”
“Of course I cared. I was
just difficult to get everyone on the same page because we’re all so…so…”
“Pigheaded? Stubborn? Set in our
ways? Grouchy, emotional, angry, Scottish women?”
Her mother laughed. “All of the
above, plus Taureans. We’re all the sign of the bull.”
“Speak for yourself.” Chrissella
stuck out her tongue.
“Alrighty, smart ass. Get in there
and unpack a bit. You heard your gran. She’s got some chores for us to do to
help with supper.”
“If we’re having haggis, I’m never
speaking to you again.”
Enya winced. “No worries on that
one. She hates the stuff.”
With that, each of them went to
their rooms. Chrissella heard her mother opening and closing dresser drawers
and hangers banging together in the closet. Gran was right. The bedroom was
gynormous. Much bigger than the room she’d had back in Toronto.
It was very simply furnished with
a computer desk, a double bed, side table and six-drawer chest of drawers. The
large window faced the backyard and she had a wonderful view of the garden,
apple trees and a small pond. There was another heavily-treed area near the
back of the acreage, but she couldn’t make out what was over there. She made a
mental note to explore when her mother and grandmother weren’t around.
Chrissella put a few things away,
setting her toiletries to the side to throw in the bathroom on her way back
downstairs. Then she sat on the end of the bed, staring out into the hallway at
Gran’s bedroom door. There was a fair-sized linen closet at the very end, right
between the two other bedrooms. That’s when she noticed the room across the
hall from Gran’s was closed. Gran didn’t say anything about that room, or
mentioned if they were even allowed to go in it. And she wasn’t about to ask
about it right then.
Her mother stuck her head in her
room, breaking her thoughts. “Ready for now? You can always put everything else
away later. C’mon. I’ll take you out to the garden. It’s really quite
impressive.”
“Ee-I-Ee-I-O, mom.”
Her mom rolled her eyes and
motioned to the stairs with her head. Chrissella got up, put her toothbrush and
other hygiene stuff in the cabinet left open for her, then followed her mother
down the stairs, eyeballing the mystery bedroom door on her way by.
Guess mom has a lot more to tell me than she planned for, she thought. And she will tell me everything. Whether I want or need to hear it or not.
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