a winter story, part eleven

by: Olivia Dale 

...urged the noble horse into a canter in desperate
search of Great Aunt Eliza.

Janet quietly walked into Great Aunt Eliza's room, or to the boy's room, actually, with a tray of steaming breakfast. She softly laid the tray down and gently nudged her Great Aunt.
Surprisingly, she saw some tangled, brown hair instead of woolly, grey hair.
She ripped off the covers.
"Felix King. What on earth are you doing in Eliza's bed?" she demanded of her son.
Felix yawned and pulled the covers back over his ears.
"It was too cold in here for her last night. so we traded places." he mumbled and drifted back to sleep.
Janet paled, her conscience suddenly pricking her.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" she mumbled to herself and rushed down the kitchen stairs. She flew over to the cot and ravaged around.
Eliza's belongings were gone and Janet's heart skipped a beat.
She burst into tears.
Hetty, who was standing by the stove warming up the lambs bottles, rushed over to Janet's side, perplexed indeed to see her sister-in-law in such a tizzy.
"Janet, what is the matter?" she asked patting Janet's shoulder.
Janet looked at her with glassy eyes. "Felix and Eliza traded places last night. She heard Alec and I talking about her and now she's packed up and gone!"
Hetty gasped, her eyes wide with surprise and worry.
"Oh Hetty, we said some awful things about her." she said, her face full of tears and guilt.
Hetty gulped, clearly at a loss of words.
Janet spilled into fresh tears. "I don't know what overcame me." she sniffed, wiping her eyes.
Hetty frowned. "I don't know what in heaven's name came over you, either. Did you know that she was the one who was bold enough out of all the Ward's to stand up to your father and let you marry Alec?" she asked her sister-in-law, her dark, round eyes flashing with anger.
Janet reddened. "I didn't know that. She did that for me?" she asked, embarrassed. "She came to Alec and I for comfort in her old age...and now Iv'e thrust her into the cold!" she cried, tears spilling over her flaming cheeks once again. Janet turned around and faced Hetty. She grabbed her sister-in-law's hand and looked into her eyes.
"Hetty," she stated firmly, though her voice was shaking, "Hetty, can you look after Daniel for me?"
Hetty nodded yes, and gazed back into Janet's eyes.
"I'm going to look for Great Aunt Eliza." Janet said as she forcefully shoved her arms into her coat sleeves, jammed on a hat and shawl, and rushed through the door.
Hetty shivered as a gust of wind sailed through the doorway, and fear settled into her heart for Eliza who was out in the cold.
"Dear God, protect them." she prayed silently as she watched through the lacy kitchen window and saw Janet climb into her sleigh and urged the noble horse to a canter.

A winter story, part ten

by: Olivia Dale

"Boiled hemlock. For throat problems and coughs. Here, Alec, try this." 

Janet came trudging down the kitchen staircase with a coughing Alec trailing behind her. He sat himself down into a nearby chair and Janet filled the tea kettle and put it on the stove top.

Pretending to be asleep, Eliza stiffened on the cot as she overheard
Janet and Alec talking.

She reached for the small brown papered package on the table and read aloud what it said. "Boiled hemlock. For throat problems and coughs. Here, Alec, try this. It should bring your fever down as well. I only hope you don't have the influenza Aunt Eliza is making me worried about all the time with her old, worn out stories."
She sat down in the chair by her husband and handed him the cup with the strong smelling tea. He took one sip and placed the cup down with a hard thud.
"Oh, I can't drink that stuff, it makes me gag."
he told her."Alec, dear, just drink it." Janet sighed.
Alec looked at her with a concerned look. "Are you feeling all right? You look kind of tired." he said, patting her hand.
Janet rubbed her eyes and yawned. "With Great Aunt Eliza here I haven't had a moments rest. Her nocturnal wanderings makes it hard for anyone to sleep, let alone poor Felix who she bothers every hour of the night to do her bidding." she sighed and looked at the sleeping figure on the cot, whom she assumed to be Felix.
Pretending to be asleep, Eliza stiffened on the cot as she overheard Janet and Alec talking.
Janet continued, unbeknownst that Eliza was listening to her shallow complaints.
"Nothing is good enough for her." she continued, "At least, I am not good enough for her." she said, her voice trembling.
Alec held her close, knowing what his wife was going to say.
Janet brushed away a tear. "She never liked me as a child. Abigail was her favorite then, why can't she just have gone over to her place instead of here? She doesn't approve of anything that I do for her. Why did she come here?" Janet choked out, trying hard not to wake "Felix" with her sobbing.
Alec sighed. "I don't know why she came here when she did. She is getting on in age and with her mind not being what it used to be, well maybe....maybe she didn't want to be left alone when she........" he trailed off, not wanting to say the rest.
He let out a long breath.
"Maybe," he spoke softly, "we can send her off to some place where people can give her constant care, you know, somewhere where she can't bother us. Janet you can't tire yourself out like this and your Great Aunt Eliza is so hard to please."
Janet fidgeted with the napkin she was holding and frowned.
"Oh, Alec. You know I can't just send her away. I couldn't do that to her. But, oh!" she spilled into fresh tears and flung the napkin down. "I just can't take it anymore!" she got up from her chair and quickly dashed up the stairs.
Alec sighed and took the oil lamp from the table. The sip of boiled hemlock tea seemed to help his cold, but he felt badly for his wife. Aunt Eliza was becoming almost unbearable for her, he thought sadly.
Once Alec had made his way up the stairs, Eliza pushed the covers from over her head and reached for her suitcase. Sadly she placed in her belongings and put on her coat, shawl and hat and lugged the suitcase towards the door. But wait! She forgot her little case with her most precious belongings- a photograph of her fiance from her youth, whom she never married, and her medicinal teas and herbs. She hastily retreated back to the kitchen and grabbed the little black case.
Then she carefully closed the door behind her and sullenly walked away from the King Farmhouse, in the cold, and in the dark, alone, and hurt.

A winter story, part nine

by: Olivia Dale

"Your parents don't seem to care for my old fashioned ways, I suppose."

Felix was awakened, again, by Great Aunt Eliza's rattling. Only this time, she wasn't speaking to him,
she was chatting quietly to baby Daniel, who sat in his high chair, sniffing.
"There, there, my boy. Great Auntie Eliza is going to fix you a nice cup of chocolate tea. Not like that nasty brew of your mothers'." she was explaining to the child. "We need to get that fever of yours down."
Felix, now wide awake, got up from the cot and went over to his aunt.
"Did I hear you say chocolate?" he asked, "Or was I dreaming?" he mumbled sleepily, unsure whether he was awake or dreaming.
"Oh, no not chocolate, Felix. Water Raven's Tea it's called, but it tastes like chocolate." Eliza explained.
Felix suddenly became thirsty. "Can I try a sip, Aunt Eliza?" he asked.
"Why certainly." she replied, handing him the cup of tea. Felix took the cup from her feeble hand and sipped."Mmm....this does taste like chocolate." he said, handing the cup back.
"Indeed it does. It will help lessen muscle pains and fevers, and it tastes good, too, which will make small children drink it down eagerly." she told her nephew. She turned to the child in the high chair. "Now, now, Daniel. We need to get this inside of you. There, that's a good boy, yes, drink it all down." she told the toddler, who seemed to enjoy the tea considerably.
"You should get Father to drink some of that stuff." Felix said as he heard his father cough in his sleep.
Eliza sighed, "I doubt that your Father will, your parents don't seem to care for my old fashioned ways, I suppose." she shivered, and rubbed her hands together. "Dear me, I can't seem to get warm, and my bedroom is even colder, if you ask me. This rickety old farmhouse lets in all the drafts as if all the doors and windows were open on a hot summer day."
Felix swallowed, suddenly becoming uneasy as his conscience pricked him.
"Umm, Great Aunt Eliza, I....I have something that I need to tell you..." he stammered. "You see umm...I turned off the heat going towards your room. I'm....I'm sorry.....Great Aunt Eliza." he finished, reddening with shame.
Eliza stifled a giggle, and looked at him earnestly. "You are a very clever boy, Felix. I suppose I have been rather difficult lately, and I cannot blame you for what you did."
Felix looked up at his aunt, surprised. "Really?"
Eliza smiled. "I'm sure I would have done the exact same thing when I was young."
"You would?" he asked, not quite imagining his old aunt playing senseless pranks.
"Oh indeed I would have. I used to be quite rambunctious when I was about your age. I was quite stubborn and determined at the same time. I always went for my dreams and ambitions," she looked at Felix with a twinkle in her eye, "I can see alot of me in you."
"You do?" Felix asked, "I know you really weren't like me, Great Aunt Eliza. I mean, whenever I get a dumb idea into my head I just go ahead and do it, without thinking, and then later after I did it I just realize how stupid that really was. Just like my dreams for later in life."
He frowned, remembering the tragic event last fall with his horse, Blakkie, when Felix had made an unwise decision that had cost his horse its life. Felix swallowed and blinked back tears.
Eliza saw his emotion.
"Oh Felix," she comforted, "It's never wrong to go after your dreams, as long as you know it's the right thing to do and that you have your parents wisdom and advice to go with it."
Felix sniffed, and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
"You really think so?" he asked, turning his attention towards his aunt.
"Do you think that I have reached this old age without any unfortunate happenings? Felix, my boy, following your dreams isn't all roses and butterflies. Yes, there will be bumps and bruises along the way, but, it's the reward and satisfaction of completing your journey that you go for." Eliza said, softening her voice.
Felix smiled, glad to have had this talk with his old aunt. "Thanks, Great Aunt Eliza."
He noticed his baby brother fast asleep in his high chair, when all of a sudden he got an idea. "Great Aunt Eliza, you can sleep down here. It's much warmer here in the kitchen and I can take my own room back. I'll bring your blankets and things down here." he said, picking his baby brother up.
Eliza smiled. "Thank you, Felix, that is a good idea."
And with that, Felix went upstairs carrying his sleeping baby brother, glad at heart.

A winter story, part eight

by: Olivia Dale

"C'mon, Sara, it's over here!" Felix King shouted over his shoulder in his Uncle Jasper Dale's workshop.
Since Jasper had been working in Carmody a lot lately, Sara and Felix were assigned to keep the workshop tidy from any pesky rodents that might just pop by for an unwelcome visit to nibble on whatever invention Jasper had been working on. And since Aunt Olivia seemed to be keeping her proper distance from the mice, she had gladly given the unpleasant task of throwing out dead mice to the children.
Sara came rushing over to Felix. "You found another one?" she asked, "Mice are always a problem in the winter, aren't they?" she continued. But Felix wasn't holding a dead mouse by the tail, he was observing one of Jasper's inventions. An odd, boxlike contraption was hooked up with cables to a bicycle, and then other wires and strings connected to a large plank with light bulbs screwed onto it.
Sara and Felix eyed it all over.
"What is this supposed to be?" Felix asked.
"I don't know." Sara replied, "But the light bulbs we brought in last week is all screwed onto a plank. What do you suppose that's for?" she asked, pointing to the bicycle.
"I don't know." Felix replied.
Sara cautiously seated herself onto the bicycle, and started peddling. Nothing happened.
"Peddle harder." Felix suggested. Sara began peddling faster, but still nothing of interest happened.
Out of the corner of his eye, Felix spotted a loose wire.
"Aha," he stated, picking up the strand of wire. "I think this is our problem."
He wiggled the wire onto the box when all of a sudden, the light bulbs turned on, a static tick sounded, and threw Felix across the room. Sara stopped peddling and rushed over to her cousins' side, surprised indeed.
                                                                        ~*~

"It was like an invisible hand grabbed me and threw me across the room." Felix mused, eyes wide with excitement of his small adventure.
"Felix, really," Aunt Hetty chided, wiping off the blood and dirt from Felix's electrocuted finger."You know you mustn't play around in Uncle Jasper's workshop."
Janet came scuttling over to her sons' side with a dish of butter and quickly dressed down his finger in it. "I suppose you deserve this for prying into someone else's belongings." she scolded him as she looked at his swollen finger.
"Aunt Hetty," Sara piped up in Felix's defense, "Uncle Jasper told us that we could work around in his workshop."
Eliza saw the butter dripping from Felix's finger. "Ice, Janet, not butter." she said as she handed Hetty the ice tray.
"Eliza's right." Hetty said as she wiped the butter off of his finger and cooled it down with a chip of ice. Then she wrapped it up with a strip of cloth.
"What were you doing in there, anyway, besides cleaning up dead rats? You could have been badly hurt, as if this,"Alec said, pointing to Felix's sore finger, "isn't bad enough?"
Felix shrugged. "Just looking around, I suppose." he told his father.
Alec didn't smile but his lip twitched and his eyes held a sparkle of amusement.
"Your curiosity got the better of you two didn't it?" he asked, looking at his son and niece.
They looked at him sheepishly.
"Play it safe the next time." he finished, putting on his coat and hat. "I've got to tend to the lambs. Felicity, Hetty, Cecily, Sara and Felix," he said to them, "I'll need you all in the barn after your'e finished in here."
Hetty quickly finished wrapping Felix's finger. "I'm going out with you right now." she said, grabbing her coat and mitts. Alec, along with Hetty, closed the door behind them.
Janet cleared the table and rushed the rest of the children out to the barn, leaving just her and Eliza in the kitchen.
Eliza was complaining, as usual, with her infamous tjsk-tjsk.
"You really ought to know better, Janet, speaking of medicinal things, that butter does not help a burn at all, infact it just makes it even worse." she said, picking up baby Daniel. She felt him all over."And this baby here, is burning up with fever!"
Janet paled and quickly took the happily chortling child from Eliza's arms.
"I have always warned you about the sicknesses that can arise in a drafty old house, yet you never listen to me, do you? I can blame you for this." she said with a rise in her tone of voice.
Janet breathed a sigh of relief, the baby didn't have a fever at all. She hugged him close. But her cheeks flamed with furry at her old aunt. How dare she blame her for all the mishappenings!
"There is nothing wrong with this baby. He's just overheated, is all. And I thank you to keep your opinions to yourself." she finished with stomping out of the kitchen.

a winter story, part seven

by: Olivia Dale

"Felix King, what are you doing?" Sara asked.
"Getting my room back." Felix replied, turning the handle on the stove pipe.

Hetty was sipping her tea, gently letting the hot liquid slide down her throat and into her stomach,
allowing it to warm her from the inside out.
Janet came down the stairs, holding a sniffling toddler, Daniel.
"It's been so cold lately that Daniel has gotten a cold." she told her sister-in-law, setting the child down into his highchair.
"Alec doesn't seem to be much better." Hetty replied, refilling her tea cup with the steaming liquid. "Colds seem to be going around these days, not much you can do to prevent them, except for staying warm and indoors."
"Not that Alec has, or will." Janet said, sitting herself into a chair next to Hetty, with tea in hand. "I only hope it won't spread from a minor cold to influenza, especially with the lambing keeping him busy and Great Aunt Eliza in the house."
From upstairs, a ringing bell sounded, catching all of their attention, except for Janet's, who sagged inwardly.
"What on earth is that?" Hetty questioned with a glance up the stairs.
"I'm coming!" Janet said in a high voice, getting up from her relaxed position. "Great Aunt Eliza is turning the household into a tizzy with that bell." Janet hissed for Hetty's ears only.
The bell sounded again.
"I'm coming!" Janet's high voice sailed up the stairs, this time with a hint of exasperation in it.
She disappeared upstairs, leaving Hetty and Daniel alone in the kitchen.
"Look, Daniel," Hetty cooed to her nephew, "a lambs' bottle." she said, pointing to the the bottle on the stove's top. Daniel looked at it eagerly with large, blue eyes.
A cold rush of air blew through the kitchen. Hetty shivered.
"Goodness, children," she told Sara and Felix as they quickly scampered for the warmth of the kitchen, "mind you close that door. Do you want Daniel to catch a chill?" she huffed.
Felix paid her no mind and reached for the cookie tin, while Sara made herself a steaming hot cup of cocoa. Hetty sneezed, which was quickly followed by a "bless you" from both children.
"I'm going back out to help with the lambing. Keep an eye on Daniel for me until your mother, Felix, comes back down. She's tending to Great Aunt Eliza." Hetty explained as she wrapped herself in a thick layer of shawls, sweaters and a scraggly barn coat. She picked up the lambs' bottle and headed out. "See you later in the barn."
"Yes, Aunt Hetty." Both children replied as she closed the door behind her.
Felix tore into his cookie. "Want one?" he offered his cousin the box full of delicacies.
"Sure. Here's a cup of hot chocolate. Be careful, don't spill it." Sara cautioned him.
Felix took the cup, and gingerly took a sip. "Mmm, that's good, Sara, you're a good cook." he told her.
Sara smiled. "Thanks, but I didn't make it. It was already on the stove. Aunt Janet probably made it."
Just then, Janet came down the stairs, eagerly awaiting her cup of tea, which had probably turned cold by now. As she almost reached for her tea, the irritating bell sounded again.
Daniel howled. Janet groaned, picked up the baby and chugged back up the stairs.
"I'm coming!" her high voice rang once again.
Sara and Felix both looked at Janet's retrieving back. "Poor Aunt Janet." Sara commented.
Felix said nothing, but pulled up a chair next to the stove. Next thing he hopped right on it, and, trying to balance his bulky weight on the wobbly chair, he reached for the handle on the stove pipe.
"Felix King, what are you doing?" Sara asked, wide eyed.
"Getting my room back." Felix replied, turning the handle on the stove pipe.
Sara stood aghast. "Felix, she'll freeze!" she said, imagining a blue Great Aunt Eliza the next morning.
Felix brushed aside her comment, jumped off the chair and quickly put it back in place before his mother came back down the stairs. He tugged Sara towards the door.
"C'mon, we've got chores to do." he said, making his escape to the barn.
He chuckled gleefully. That'll show the old aunt a thing or two. he thought, dreaming of his own warm bed that would soon be his again.

a winter story, part six

by: Olivia Dale

"Maybe five or six of them will survive." -Alec

Felix and Sara hurried back to the King barn, where they quickly entered into the lambing pens.
"Uncle Alec, do you need any help?" Sara called over the bleating of the sheep. Hetty King came scuttling up, lamb in arms and bottle in hand.
"Yes, indeed we do, Sara. Here," she said, plopping the lamb, bottle and all into her niece's arms, "you feed this one, and Felix, help me with the others." she said, shoving Felix towards the rest of the bottles.
He picked up one of the bottles. "It's frozen...." he lamented to his aunt.
Hetty jerked it from his hand. "Goodness, Alec," she shaked the bottle, "it's frozen. Frozen!"
"I see, Hetty." Alec told her, pushing the bottle away that she was shaking inches from his face.
"We need to do something to keep the animals warm, and ourselves for that matter." he stated, looking around at the shivering, new born lambs, and rubbing his arms together for warmth.
"Warmth." Sara thought out loud. "Well, warmth is heat."
"Heat's energy." Felicity put in while struggling to dress a lamb in a sheep's blanket. "Stop squirming." she commanded the lamb.
"Like when you jump up and down." Felix joined the going-no-wheres conversation.
Alec sighed, then coughed, as his cold was getting worse. "Children, I know your just trying to help, but really, this is not getting us anywhere. All we can do is try to huddle the lambs closer together and maybe five or six will survive." he instructed, urging the sheep closer to the corner.
Five or six out of nineteen lambs, Hetty thought, gulping, This is not going to be good.

a winter story, part five

by: Olivia Dale

Felix knocked on the door, and Sara peered through the window.

"Mr. Pettibone assigned us a science project to do, including an experiment." Sara was telling her cousin Felix as they were walking towards Jasper Dale's workshop. "And we had to do it about either light, electricity, or heat."
Felix held on to a very big, but light box, and trudged after Sara.
"Yeah," he grumbled, "and all of those topics aren't easy, either."
"Well, we can pair up in teams. You an' me can be partners in science." Sara smiled to her cousin. "The only problem we have now is figuring out which topic."
Felix placed the huge box down knocked on the workshop's door. Sara peered through the window.
"Uncle Jasper?" she called. No answer. Felix knocked again on the door, much louder this time.
"Sara, Felix." a voice from behind them called. It was Olivia.
"Jasper's not here, he left for Carmody this morning." Olivia explained to the children. "Did you want to talk to him about something?" she asked them.
"Oh, no, Aunt Olivia," Felix piped up, "We just had to deliver this big package to him. We were just about to put it in his workshop."
"Oh, all right then." Olivia replied and headed back to the warmth of her house.
Sara and Felix made their way into the workshop with the large box.
"It's so light!" Sara chattered. "I wonder what's in it."
They put the box down and somehow, the flap fell open. Felix moved the flap off of the box and both children peered inside. Felix shrugged. "It's only straw." He said, stating the obvious.
But Sara was curious, she lifted the straw off of the contents and caught her breath.
Felix's eyes widened. "Light bulbs!" he shrieked. "In Avonlea!?"
"Just like the ones in Montreal!" Sara stared at Felix, her blue eyes sparkling.
Felix stared back, his smile widening. "You know what I'm thinking??" He asked his cousin.
"This will be the best science project of the year." she said, awed by the sheer excitement of it all.