Strawberry Hill Chapter 10

Recommended 8 and up. Raleia Pendle always wished she was from an old-fashioned family from a bygone era who would be involved in every aspect of her life, but instead she has modern (for 1976) hippie parents who keep their distance. Raleia gets a taste of the past by moving to Tidal, ME that was hit by a Tidal Wave in 1911 and is a living museum to the event. She also meets Ian Rutherford a recluse who hasn't left his house since the tidal wave hit.

Transcript

Hello,

This is Éliphe of Sylvanosity with Chapter 10 from Strawberry Hill.

Thank you so much for en- joining me for the continuation of this story.

I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Ten.

Rellie expected the house to be silent when she got home,

But she heard laughter before she even got in the door.

She recognized the chipmunk chattering of Tic's laughter first.

Then she heard a snort.

Had to be Tiny.

She found them in Tiny's bedroom.

Blankets covered the windows.

The bedside lamp was propped up on its side without the lampshade.

Tiny and Tic were making shadow puppets in the light it cast on the wall.

It's a turtle with a rabbit riding on its back,

Tic announced as he used both hands to make the creatures,

Then waddled his way across the bed.

A wild horse charges out of the sky to crush them both.

Tiny's handmade horse crashed into the turtle and its rider on their little light stage.

Standing in the doorway,

Rellie thought it looked kind of cool,

Maybe even fun.

But they both turned to her and said,

Close the door.

She slammed it shut.

Why did- what did she want with shadow puppets anyway?

They could have their stupid game.

Grabbing a book from her room,

Rellie went down to the living room to read.

Reading it past the first page,

Before Mac showed up with a box of specimens.

All the little critters swishing around in the tiny trays inside the clear plastic case he carried around.

The biologist's version of a briefcase.

What are you reading,

Rell?

Nothing.

Now that you showed up.

That was a friendly gesture.

He went to the kitchen to put his briefcase in the fridge.

What torturous thing did Tiny do now?

She's upstairs playing shadow puppets with Tick.

Good.

Max came back to the living room,

Nodding.

It's about time she ended her reign of rest and silence.

Yeah.

Rellie rolled her eyes and tried to go back to her book.

Mac sat next to her.

When she didn't look at him,

He leaned into her,

Saying,

So when are you going to loosen up?

Who says I need to?

Me.

This is from a guy who thinks wearing socks to work is being too rigid.

And how would you feel if you couldn't wear jeans to school?

You wouldn't care.

She only wore jeans when Tiny forgot to wash clothes,

And she had no dresses to wear.

Putting her book down,

She said,

Did you know that boys wore detachable collars,

Starched shirts,

Ties,

And cufflinks to school at the turn of the last century?

Yeah,

And prep schools.

Max laughed.

Hoped they choked on their silver spoons.

Lots of kids dressed that way all over the country.

Yeah,

And when Tiny went to school,

She had to wear a dress every day.

He poked her in the knee.

What would you think of that?

Would it be fine if it went with people saying please and thank you,

And paying close attention in class instead of throwing spitwads and passing notes like total ninies?

Max stared at her for a moment.

You've never passed a note in class?

What's so important that you can't wait until after class?

Max stood up.

I give up.

You are a total waste of time.

And good evening to you too.

Relia shoved her face into her book so Max wouldn't see it turn red.

What could he say that to her?

A waste of time?

What a jerk.

I tried,

Relia.

I did.

You're just impossible to talk to.

It's like talking to my mother.

He walked back to the kitchen.

Relia heard him up in the fridge and scrounged around in there for food.

And you're more childish than tick,

Relia thought.

But she kept quiet.

It was the best way to avoid a fight with her parents.

She didn't say a word when Tiny made her scrambled eggs all over again because she'd had added ketchup.

There was nothing nice she could have said when Max asked her to drive Tiny in for her weekly checkup.

Relia didn't even argue when Tiny told her to take Tick with her when she went to the antique store.

It was the first time she could squeeze in a trip between errands for Tiny.

The walk to the antique store was almost relaxing.

Even if Tick kept asking her questions.

Passing a house with a row of Tiny cans on the back porch,

He asked,

What do you think they got those up there for?

I don't know.

Relia hated questions she couldn't answer.

And after spending some time with Tick,

She hated all questions because he never stopped asking them.

It got even worse once they went into the store.

What's this for?

Tick asked as he held up a Colonial-era butter mold.

Put that down,

Relia insisted.

Not even looking,

Schnitt was worth over a hundred dollars.

Tick was in such a hurry to put it back,

He almost dropped it.

You were such a klutz,

Relia told him.

I just wanted to know what it was for.

Can't you point and ask like a normal person?

Okay,

Tick pointed and asked.

What's that for?

Relia pushed his hand down.

Don't touch it.

Antiques are fragile.

They used it to mold butter into a disk.

Oh.

Why didn't they make butter into more interesting shapes,

Like moons and stars and stuff?

How should I know?

Relia cursed Tiny from making her take Tick.

He was constantly putting his hands all over things and asking questions.

A total pest.

Suddenly Tick said,

I see books.

Maybe they have comics.

And he disappeared down the aisle.

Relia was relieved.

Tick's absence meant she had the time to look at her own pace in silence.

She drifted into the dining room section.

Staring into her own reflection on a polished maple table,

She imagined herself seated at the head of the table,

Find China before her,

Distinguished guests around her,

All there for the weekly tea and social Relia hosted each week.

Dr.

Reginald Baker would discuss the newest innovations in medical research.

Indeed,

There are several doctors who are trying to pick up where Pasteur left off by finding methods to manufacture the little microorganisms that kill diseases.

Can you imagine?

We would soon have a disease-free world and Annabelle Markham,

A frequent guest,

Would be a living social calendar.

She'd know all about the balls and recitals and be in attendance at every one,

Wearing the finest clothing imported from Paris,

France.

Her voice would dip and swoon as she spoke,

Dotted with a sharp rise that let everyone think of the chiming of a China bell.

The other guests would come and go,

Doctors,

Lawyers,

Reporters,

Even the twin sisters who ran a dress shop on the boardwalk.

It would be divine.

They'd sip tea and discuss the ways of the world over sweet cinnamon biscuits and diamond shaped pecan cookies.

As Relia searched a wardrobe for any hidden panels,

She heard a voice say,

Excuse me,

Miss.

Relia had her head in the wardrobe and was knocking around inside,

So she figured she was in trouble.

Standing upright and closing the door in a hurry,

She said,

Sorry.

An old woman with her hair in a net and thick glasses said,

I just wanted to tell you that your son is making quite a mess in our book department.

My son?

Relia tried not to laugh in the old lady's face.

This wasn't the first time she'd been mistaken for Tix mom.

It started happening a lot after she got too tall for girls' clothes and had to buy a women's dresses from the fifties.

They fit her better than modern dresses and were the closest thing to really old dresses that you could afford.

A few months earlier when Tiny took her to the movies,

The lady behind the concessions counter asked Relia if her daughter would like a drink with her popcorn.

Tiny looked like she wanted to throw the popcorn at the lady,

But they just walked away instead.

Relia decided to follow Tiny's example and said,

Okay,

I'll go check on him.

Tic was spread out on the floor with an aged edition of the Adventures of Spider-Man in his hands and a pile of com-ex stacked next to him.

We got to go Tic.

Just a minute.

Let me finish this story.

I'll be right back.

Just there.

Hurry.

Relia could see that the woman was watching them from the counter.

The lady's getting uptight about you dumping all the books on the floor.

I'll pick them up in a minute.

I promise.

Tic kept right on reading.

Relia browsed the shelves as she waited.

She loved old books,

The softness of their leather,

The sweet musty smell of their pages,

The grooves pressed into their covers,

Even the hand-glued paintings attached to the front.

An encyclopedia step took up one whole bottom shelf.

It wasn't even ten years old,

Which made Relia mad.

What kind of antique was that?

It belonged in a Salvation Army store.

This encyclopedia doesn't belong here.

It's from 1970.

1970?

Tic asked with excitement.

He scrabbled over to the shelf and grabbed the M.

It'll have the first entry on the Apollo moon landing.

If that ain't history,

What is?

He plod through the pages at high speed until he found a picture of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the lunar surface.

Totally cool.

Why couldn't I have been born ten years earlier?

In kindergarten,

Tic told everyone he was a moon baby because he was born the same day the man landed on the moon.

But he wasn't really born until July 30th.

Relia was five when Armstrong took his giant step.

It looked too much like a science fiction movie to her.

What difference did it make anyway?

They landed on the moon.

So what?

Did they change the country forever,

Like the Great War or the influenza pandemic of 1918?

No,

Not really.

People just started to treat TV dinners like moon rations and talk about Martians all the time.

Heck,

Mars was a fiery pit of dust.

Who would ever live there?

Mr.

Rutherford would understand what she meant.

He knew the value of real history.

Who's Jules Verne?

Tic asked.

Tapping the page he read from,

He added,

This says he wrote a book about travelling to the moon a long time ago.

So Relia detested science fiction.

It was a waste of time.

It must have been like a comic book,

Tic said.

Could you imagine reading a comic book about a trip to the moon when you were a little kid,

Then seeing it happen when you're old?

No,

She couldn't.

But Rutherford could.

That is if he knew people travelled to the moon.

The truth was,

He didn't know.

He didn't know about television or computers or jet planes.

Heck,

Sound movies were just beginning when he stopped paying attention to the rest of the world.

Do you know about radios and race cars and jet planes?

No.

None of it.

Relia bent down and started to stack the encyclopedia on the floor.

Help me,

Tic.

I'm going to buy these for a friend.

Who?

None of your business.

Then I won't help.

Tic crossed his arms.

Fine.

Relia snapped the M shut in his lap and took it.

The set was priced at twenty dollars.

That meant she wouldn't have too much left for Tic's birthday when it rolled around.

But he didn't deserve anything nice,

The little brat.

Relia decided she'd bring one volume a week up to Rutherford's.

No,

She'd want to know everything about the twentieth century and one fell swoop.

That'd be a mind-blower.

No,

She'd bring him the discoveries of the century,

One book at a time.

It'd be great.

You know,

What would be great is if members of a family understood each other,

Saw them for who they really were,

Accepted them as they are.

But so often it's difficult to do that,

Isn't it?

So often we have things we're mad about because of something that sister did or that brother did,

Or things they will not stop doing.

In the same way,

Sometimes it's hard for our parents to understand us.

Sometimes it's hard for us to understand our parents.

But you know what?

Family is there to support us.

At least they should be.

And in order to fully support you,

They have to understand you.

So sometimes it's important to take a moment to share each other's point of view of the world.

Help your parents understand you.

Ask questions that help you understand your parents.

And I realize siblings can be really annoying,

But they can also be our strongest allies.

So make sure you take time to say,

I'm sorry.

Make sure you take time to get to know them.

Make sure you're there when they need you.

And you know what?

They'll be there when you need them.

And forgiveness is one of the most powerful acts in the universe.

Not only does it free the person we forgive,

But it frees us too.

Because then we no longer have to hold on to the baggage of anger and resentment.

We can let it go.

Turn it into nothing more than the dust of the past.

You know,

I wonder if Raelia can do that.

To find out,

You'll have to listen for more chapters from Strawberry Hill by A.

Le Fay.

This has been A.

Le Fay of Sylvanosity.

And I'm so grateful you listened to this recording today.

And I hope you'll stop by to listen to more of my recordings and that they may inspire you.

Thank you.

Bye now.

Feeling better now?

Reviews

Ouch, Max!

Yay!!!!!! I was soooo excited 😆 when a saw that another Strawberry Hill story was out and I loved it so much thank you for making it🥰🥰🥰🤯🤯🤯
~Eryn-Francis