Thomas Fitzgerald, Topher Calhoun, etc. (fitzproctor) wrote in weddedto_sonora, @ 2013-10-12 15:47:00 |
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Current mood: | nervous |
Meeting New People
“There,” Mama said, smiling as she tucked the last errant lock of Ella’s hair back. “Now you look even prettier than usual.”
Ella rolled her eyes, but giggled, too. “You say that every time you dress me up, Mama,” she pointed out, glad secretly of the repetitiveness of it all. Repetitive was good; repetitive was very good compared to the way things had been lately. All her life, her home had been very repetitive until two months ago, when Mama had come in that afternoon crying and then they had stayed with her grandparents for almost two weeks before they came home and even then things had not gone back to normal. Her parents tried hard to pretend that they had, but Ella heard them arguing sometimes when they didn’t think she or her brothers could, and saying mean things about each other, and the other day, just before he left for another trip, she had heard Mama crying and Daddy shouting at her.
Daddy went on more trips now, too, and was hardly ever at supper anymore, and that worried her, too. She didn’t say anything, though. She had tried telling Grandmother about Mama being upset all the time and the arguments, but Grandmother had said it was adults’ business and she shouldn’t listen to it and if she couldn’t help it that she should never talk about it. So she didn’t.
“Because it’s true every time, silly,” Mama said. “Put your shoes on, and we’ll go to Grandmother and Papa’s.”
Ella obeyed, trying not to look as interested in the trip as she was. It was, she knew, the first thing which made Mama really happy in a long time, since it meant that Ella – like Isabel, her fourteen-year-old aunt, and Sara, their cousin, who had done so well that she was getting married soon, and Mama herself, a long time before any of them had ever – might be popular in school, or at least get started in the right direction by meeting the sister of a friend of Isabel’s now. It was, everyone seemed sure, very good for her to at least start socializing outside the family now, so she wouldn’t have to make it all up as she went along when she was old enough to go to Sonora.
This time next year, she would be getting ready for that, she guessed, since her tenth birthday would September 1st of this year. It was exciting to think about, and a little scary – sort of like meeting her aunt’s friends.
At her grandparents’ huge house, she had just enough time to hug Isabel before their mothers descended for one last straightening up and round of reassurances, then they were installed in the sunroom to await their guests. When they arrived, Ella rose just a fraction after Isabel, curtsying and introducing herself, “Elizabeth Gardiner, of the Illinois Gardiners. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”