“Well, au revoir, one and all.”
~P. L. Travers
I don’t want to go back,” Ernie whined as he sat in his closet.
“You don’t have much choice,” Cecelia answered from his room’s doorway.
“You can teach me,” he pointed out.
“I could, but I won’t. I’m heading back to the bookstore tomorrow. Sorry, kid.”
“What if I pay for a tutor?”
“With what money?”
“My grass-cutting money.”
“You spent it already on that new video game.”
“Oh yeah,” Ernie remembered. “Here it is,” he added and extracted his backpack from the depths of the back of his closet.
“Did you ever clean it out from last year?” His mother asked.
Ernie opened the top of the bag and stuck his head in it.
“Nope, and it kinda smells. May have left that last clementine in there, oops.”
“Downstairs now,” she directed the sheepish boy.
The Hawthorne household had switched into back-to-school mode now that Operation Wedding Central was complete, and Ernie was pushing all of Momma’s limits.
“Aren’t you excited to see your friends?” Cecelia asked as they walked down the steps into the living room.
“Momma, I love you, but this isn’t the twentieth century anymore. I see my friends all the time, even online. I don’t need to go to school to see them.”
“I see,” Cecelia murmured, trying to think of a comeback to Ernie’s snarky remark.
“Are you guys talking about the 1900s again? I tell ya, Momma, you’re my hero. How in the world did you survive without cell phones and the Internet?” Zelda asked, washing her lunch bag under the kitchen faucet.
“Well, thank you for that, um, compliment. But it’s not like we used a rock and chisel to communicate.”
A knock at the front door thankfully broke up the conversation before Cecelia had to defend her childhood again. She left the children to clean their backpacks and prepare them for the next day’s early morning. Opening the door, she saw Lilia standing on her front porch, both hands full of coffee cups, while bags of pastries hung from each arm.
“Well, hello. Cousin,” Cecelia greeted her, taking a cup and a bag from her.
“Hello there. Happy Labor Day!” Lila proclaimed and walked into the foyer. A crash from the kitchen welcomed her into the living room. “Kids getting ready for school?”
“How could you tell?”
“I remember the sounds of cleaning out rank backpacks and lunch boxes.”
“So, what’s up now that the kids are home from their honeymoon?” Cecelia asked, waving her hand to the couch.
Lilia sat down, placed her cup on the table, and opened the bag to reveal cherry danishes. Like Pavlov’s dog, Bentley appeared in the kitchen doorway and pranced over to her, drool already hanging from his jowls.
“Ignore him, and he’ll go away.” Cecelia cautioned.
“No, he won’t,” Lilia replied knowingly.
Bentley rested his head on the cushion beside Lilia and side-eyed her.
“The kids had a great time, but now they’re hunting for a new house.”
“Any ideas on where yet?”
“Hopefully, they will soon before the winter weather sets in. No one wants to move during a snowstorm,” Lilia said, taking a sip of her hot coffee.
“Too true.” Cecelia agreed, all too familiar with Western Pennsylvania’s Lake Effect ice storms. “Speaking of changes, are you ready to help run a bike shop?”
“Truthfully, it feels like we’ve been doing it already for years, but actually working behind the counter with Jack? Well, that will be a little different,” Lilia pondered. “So, are you excited about being back in your bookstore?” Lilia asked.
“Yes, ma’am. I love my children dearly, but I’ve missed the smell of books. And I just put an order in for new notebooks and page markers. Oh, and paper clips with these adorable, embroidered cups of coffee attached to the top of them, and these amazing academic planners!”
Lilia sat back and relished in her cousin’s infectious happiness. Seeing Momma looking and acting quite Momma-ish again was a wondrous sight. The cousins sat and enjoyed their coffee and danishes before their change of season set in.
In the cottage next door, two ladies sat at the kitchen table enjoying cups of Earl Grey tea and orange-cranberry muffins. The chickens finished their dinner, and the hutch had been searched for eggs; the laundry was spinning in the machine.
“A well-deserved muffin, dear sister,” Raina raised hers in recognition of their hard work.
“Such a beautiful summer day. I hated to waste the sunlight,” Reveena replied before taking a bite from her muffin. “The summer days are certainly waning, I’m afraid. I have been here for almost an entire year!”
“And what a year it has been,” Raina agreed and sipped her tea. “Have you thought of coming back home?”
“Oh, I feel I might still be needed here,” Reveena responded thoughtfully.
“Well, I’m sure there’s room on my flight.”
Reveena sat and pondered the offer. Was she still needed? She felt so much had happened, all for the better, she believed. Cordelia could be who she always was, and Zelda learned she could be whatever she wanted. Flora found her role as a nonna, and Cecelia realized that blood does not always make a family. Hadley had yet to figure out that she came from greatness, but she had a glimpse of what could be done when free of restraints. Was she really done here? She admitted she had indeed become close to this motley crew who treated her like she belonged with them.
“It seems home doesn’t have quite the draw it used to, Reveena.” Raina looked over the rim of her cup as she sipped her tea.
“Is it that clear?” Reveena asked. She broke off a piece of her muffin and tossed it under the table for Meeka.
“It seems you made yourself at home, my dear sister.”
Reveena cleared her throat and tried to dry her misty eyes nonchalantly with her napkin.
“I know you; don’t be upset about me. I’ll be just fine.”
“Are you sure your story is done here, Raina?” Reveena asked, eyebrows raised over her glasses.
“What sorts of merry mischief and trouble are you thinking of getting into next?” Raina answered Reveena with a question of her own.
The sisters from Exeter smirked the same dimpled smile, and the same bright glint twinkled in their eyes.
The next morning dawned as brightly as every other summer day, although black clouds hung over the Hawthorne house. Cecelia stumbled into the hallway, not used to the early alarm, and knocked on Ernie’s door.
“Get up, boyyo!” she mumbled through the door. She opened it to let Bentley out, who followed her down to the kitchen.
She hit the button on her trusty coffee maker, which she filled the last before, and walked to the basement doorway.
“Rise and shine, time to get up,” she yelled down the steps.
She went to the refrigerator and pulled out two lunch bags, freshly cleaned and filled with that day’s sustenance. She placed them on the breakfast bar, feeling her usual routine quickly coming back to her.
“They better get moving,” came a voice from behind her.
“They will if they don’t want to walk to school today,” Cecelia reassured Kevin, dressed and ready to start a new class of cadets at the academy. “Just concentrate on your new students, and I’ll work on these.”
“Okay, love ya,” he smartly answered. He kissed her cheek, walked into the living room, patted Bentley on the head, picked up his gear bag, and headed out the front door.
“Time’s a-tickin’ kiddos!” Cecelia yelled into the silent house.
A thud, a whack, and a smash reverberated above her head. Then pounding feet, she assumed, ran towards the bathroom, followed by a door slamming shut. She turned her attention to the basket of breakfast muffins and heard dragging feet trudging up the basement steps.
“Morning, Momma,” Zelda muttered and grabbed a blueberry muffin from the basket. She grabbed her lunch bag and headed towards the entryway where her backpack sat, waiting for the day to begin.
“Love ya, kid!” Cecelia cheered.
She heard rushed footsteps down the front steps, picked up Ernie’s lunch bag, and met him in the entryway. Handing him his lunch in one hand, she offered him a muffin with the other. He took both in one hand and grabbed his backpack with the other. Cecelia opened the front door as the boy hurried out in a panic.
“Happy first day,” she shouted at him.
He raised the hand with his muffin in salute. Cecelia shook her head with a smile and shut the door.
“Well, Bentley boy, ready for our day?” She asked as she walked to the kitchen to nab her muffin and work bag.
Locking the backdoor behind her, she waved goodbye to the dog, who settled himself on the kitchen rug for a long day’s nap. She walked over to Reveena’s backdoor and rapped on it before letting herself in.
“Good morning, ladies,” she announced to the two old women sitting around the kitchen table in robes, hair still up in pin curls.
“Good morning, dear heart. Off to the shop?” Reveena asked in between sips of tea.
“Yep. See you later for Story Hour?”
“Yes, siree. See you then,” Reveena sang and picked up her cup again.
“I’ll be tagging along,” Raina waved.
“See you both soon!” Cecelia waved back and left for the bookstore.
Raina looked at her sister and smirked.
“What is that for?” Reveena wondered out loud.
“So, this is life in Castor, huh?”
“It seems to be.” Reveena smiled contently and sat back in her chair.
She whistled a cheerful tune while the faucet showered the waiting dishes in the sink’s basin, and the broom pushed off the wall and began sweeping up the stray breakfast crumbs.