Searching for Independence Day_Summer Cousins_Omelets, pancakes and family secrets_Enemies No Longer
Catalog Guide:
Searching for Independence Day
At noon www.onedoor.ccon the last July 4th of his life, Mohan sat in his seat at the kitchen table, staring through the window at the lawn he used to tend, now out of his reach. “Asha beti, we just want to wish you a happy birthday” said his wife, Rani, seated at the telephone desk behind him.“When will she be here?” Mohan asked expectantly.“Darling, I told you, she is not coming,” Rani said in a voice tired from its continued burden, omitting the reminder that their daughter who lived a continent away in California had chosen not to spend her birthday in this home ever since it became her choice to make.An...
Summer Cousins
There was magic in the lake.Grammy told me that. Of course, Grammy was a bit magic herself. Every year on the last day of summer, Grammy packed her picnic hamper, and together we’d carry it down to the old dock where the reeds were thin and the ducks liked to gather. We’d sit for hours with our feet dangling in the water, just Grammy and me, because I was the oldest and (I suspected), that made me the favorite. We’d eat cheese sandwiches wrapped in crinkled brown paper and thick slices of Great Aunt Millie’s angel food cake, which Grammy promised Mother she wouldn’t let me have but always did ...
Omelets, pancakes and family secrets
“Secrets are things that are meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others,” Jane said as she almost floated through the early morning set at the barre.We were at dance class – something that my cousin, Jane, talked all of us Gilbert girls into about five years ago. She said it would be a “bonding moment.” My sister, Claire, Jane, her sister, Dana, our cousins, Lucy and Terra, my aunt Melinda, my mother, Ginny, my sister-in-law, Lora, her daughter, Megan, and myself all joined a beginner’s ballet class together.I loved to dance. The beginner’s class for me was beyond my skill level, but I knew ...
Enemies No Longer
The day had dawned with a vengeance, not to be forgotten by any of the blue-coated soldiers as they arose in the early morning.Corporal Elias W. Killough stretched the small of his back as he stood in line for the weak coffee that was being offered along with the paltry portions of what the cook called breakfast. Half-warmed watery porridge and some leathery strips of bacon, when what he craved was a steaming plateful of flapjacks and sausages, perhaps even with a side of a corn muffin or something of the sort.“Here you go, Corporal,” smiled the quartermaster’s daughter who often helped the ca...