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Promises to Emily

Emily's Bicycle

By DuointherainPublished 3 years ago 20 min read
2

Emily McNeil had asked for a pocket watch for her birthday. She was going to be seven and it made sense to her that if she had a pocket watch, she could spend more time studying and still get to the door in time to get a piggy back ride from Gaely.

Katie hadn’t been in favor and Daddy wouldn’t agree to it either. Ian and Finn weren’t worth asking because they didn’t have any money. Without a watch, she just had to wait for him.

“Sweetie,” Nan said, standing in the hall that led back towards the kitchen. “Why don’t you come play in the kitchen with me, honey? It’s cold over here.”

“Mama,” Emily said, standing up on the little white ottoman, jumping in place, arms out like she was a plane. “Gaely will be home soon! I’m not cold!”.

Nan, who was no one’s mother and everyone’s Mama snorted. “Child! You have to put on some shoes! You’re going to get sick, you hear me?”

Emily giggled and bounced a couple more times, her favorite stuffy, a pillow with bat wings, bouncing up and down as her arms moved. “Mama! Can I have custard? Please!”

“Fine, fine, alright. If you’ll put on some shoes or at least some socks, I’ll dish you up a bowl of custard, fair enough?”

“I love you!” Emily said, half flying off the ottoman to throw her arms around Nan, who was round enough that that was never going to work.

Looking up at the keeper of the house, the kitchen, and every last drop of custard, Emily smiled sweetly, “But the socks don’t have to match, right, Mama?”

“They do not have to match,” Nan said, reaching down and pulling the little girl up into her arms. Blonde braids swished over Nan’s dark arm as she carried her to the room that had been Gael’s when he’d first gotten home. It was now more of a sitting room, a play area, but it had a dresser full of children’s clothing. “Now what colors do you want, baby?”

“Yellow and green,” she said around the thumb in her mouth, head resting on Nan’s shoulder, “Gaely’s coming home?”

“Yes, sweetie, Mr. Gael will be home tonight. He's a very busy man with all kinds of important work to do.”

“Law is stupid,” Emily grumbled, thumb still in her mouth as she sat on the dresser and let Nan put a green and a yellow sock on her bare feet.

“Why do you say that, honey?” Nan asked, holding her arms out.

Emily snapped right back into her arms, legs around the housekeeper’s waist, head on her shoulder. “If it was smart, Gaely wouldn’t have to work so hard to get it to do stuff. It’s like a dead cow.” Law was her arch nemesis. Some day she was going to jump up and down all over it and it would go away and she would be the Queen Victorious! “Dead cow!”

“Well, I can’t say as that’s not maybe true,” Nan agreed.

The kitchen was a big affair, built for cooking for not only the people who lived in the main house, but all the people that worked the fields and lived on the estate. Much of it was unused now and there were new appliances, like an ice box with ice delivered every week. It still had a stone floor and a giant two hundred year old table though.

“Do you want a little bowl or a big bowl, Emmy?”

“Little, please, Mama.” She tucked her feet under her and pulled her nightgown down over her knees. “Tell me a story?”

Nan dropped an extra dollop of custard into the bowl, maybe a bit more than the bowl should have held, then drizzled some still warm caramel over the top of it. “I made this here caramel for Mr. Gael. You tell me if you think it’s good, okay?”

“Yes, M’am,” she said, wiggling around on the table where she sat to get into just the perfect position, which lasted a whole bite before she stretched out on her belly, knees bent and yellow and green stockinged feet dancing in the air as she moved another big spoonful of custard and caramel into her mouth. “Story?”

Nan wiped her hands then pulled up a chair. “Want to hear a story about Brother Rabbit?”

“Yes, please,” Emily said, blue eyes sparkling. “And Robin Hood!”

“Fine, fine,” Nan agreed. “Once upon a time, there was a swamp, just like the one we have here, but it weren’t here, it was far away and a long time ago.”

Already enthralled, Emily licked her spoon and stared. “Is he gonna eat the sheriff?”

“Hush now! Who’s telling this story, you or me?”

As the story really got going, several other kids came to sit on the table and on the floor by the fire. The sun fully set and firelight cast shadows over Nan’s round face, made the whiteness of her teeth stand out. “So there they were! Robin was true deep lost in the swamp, but he couldn’t lose the sheriff. Wounded, he knew he couldn’t beat the bigger man in a fight, so he was all set on finding a place to hide.”

All the children seemed to magically draw closer, as if the sheriff might be just outside the thick wooden door of the kitchen. Emily was down on the floor then with the other kids, all huddled together, warmed by the fire, and lost in the swamp with Robin Hood.

“How now the sheriff he knew he had Robin on the run! He’d been trying for so long!

Today was the day! Every hundred paces he’d call out, ‘Robin! Time to pay for your crimes! Robin!’” Now Nan was a very good storyteller and could throw her voice a bit, so the sheriff’s voice seemed to come from everywhere at once in the big echoey kitchen.

Gasps preceded pressing closer together. Little hands held on tight to each other.

“Robin knew he couldn’t do much more. He felt so weak from his wound,” Nan said, her voice fading as she held onto her side, leaning into the imaginary wound. She sat up suddenly, a smirk on her face, ‘What you give me, if I show you the path out of here, brother?’ Brother rabbit said!”

Those kids could not have gotten any closer together.

“Now Brother Rabbit is small, like all rabbits are, not big like Brother Bear or a man, but he was clever and wise with fur darker than midnight and whiskers made of moonlight. Robin was in dire straights as he lay there below that big tree, his feet in the water. ‘I have nothing to give you, my friend. I have lost my bow and my arrows. I have no money. I could tell you a poem, if you like.” Robin said, making a face as he tried to sit up right.’ Words are powerful and they are due to be respected.”

It wasn’t as if they hadn’t all heard this story before, but each time it was always just as scary.

Nan stamped her feet, in her solid leather boots on the worn stone floor, “Robin! Time to pay for your crimes! Robin!” Then there was a moment of silence, just the children’s breathing and big wide eyes.

“Brother rabbit wasn’t afraid of someone just because he was big and loud though. Sitting back on his back legs, Rabbit slapped his front paws together. ‘You seem a clever man. I’ll ask you a riddle and if you get it right, I’ll help you out.’

‘Alright, friend Rabbit, ask me a riddle and Lord willing I’ll give you an answer?’

‘Well, now you seem like a good man and I can respect that,’ Rabbit said, reaching into his waistcoat, that could only be seen while he was reaching into it. ‘I’ll give you this here mushroom that’ll heal you well up, just because of that.’

‘Thank you so much,’ Robin said, trusting the his new friend rabbit, ‘I will come back with something to give you in return, should the Lord see me live this day.’

‘Of course, of course,’ Rabbit agreed. ‘But first tell me about this man who chases you?’

‘He is the sheriff of our town and he’s collecting taxes for the master. He takes too much and leaves people to starve, so I steal it back. He wants to kill me.’

‘I see,’ said Rabbit, whose whiskers made of moonlight could tell the truth in words, the weight of a person’s heart, and he knew that Robin was telling the truth. ‘What eats only after it’s been wronged, grows stronger as it starves, but belongs to no one house?’

‘I’ve never heard this riddle before,’ Robin said holding his side as he chewed his lip and thought about the answer. ‘I confess, I know not the answer my friend, but I am better for having heard it and I will find the answer one day.’

‘Indeed,’ Rabbit agreed.

In that very moment, the sheriff broke through to them and grabbed Robin up by the throat, holding the good man up in the air as he cut off his air. ‘You have to understand!’ The sheriff growled, ‘The poor don’t matter! They are small and worthless! You should have known better than to become one!’

Robin fought for all he had left, but he didn’t even have the air left to pray.

That’s when Brother Rabbit became the shadow of the moon and swallowed the sheriff right up! Now where he went to, I can’t say, but he wasn’t there no more and he wasn’t able to hurt nobody anymore neither. Then Rabbit was just Rabbit again, sitting there on his back legs, dusting off his paws like he’d done a whole day off work. ‘My whiskers can tell that you’re a soul of good heart. I’ll tell you then, friend Robin,’ Rabbit said, ‘the answer to this riddle. ‘The answer is justice. It wakes when it’s been wrong and the hunger for justice makes it strong, but it belongs to all and therefor not to anyone one house. Now get you from my swamp, as you don’t belong here. Follow back the path you came and to your home you will soon be.’

Having eaten the mushroom, Robin found his wound healed, but as he got to his feet all the desire he felt to thank his rabbit friend went hungry, for Brother Rabbit had gone, which was only right as his work was done. Now you lot all need to go home and to your beds. Brother Rabbit keeps watch, but you need to be doing what you’re supposed to be doing!”

That scattered them all, except Emily, who still didn’t want to go to bed. Instead she licked out the last of the custard and licked the spoon clean before running back to the coat closet off the foyer where she could watch for her big brother to come home. She could also watch outside for Brother Rabbit. She just knew if she could meet him, they’d be friends. If he could give her just a part of one of his whiskers, then she could use it to prove to Gaely that law was evil.

Eventually walking on the ottoman got tiring and she sat down. Brother Rabbit didn’t come by and Gaely was late, really late. Sitting there with her elbows on her knees, her chin in her palms, she decided she needed a bicycle. If she had a bicycle, she could ride out and look for him. Maybe his car broke down? Maybe Brother Bear had surprised him and his car was stuck on the side of the road!?

She might have fallen asleep. Maybe.

But then the door opened and she was sure she’d never been asleep at all. The sound of hard soled shoes stamping on the mat just outside the door let her know it was her biggest brother and she ran to the front door.

Gael was so tall! His eye patch was because sometimes he was a pirate! Her feet couldn’t stop moving and she kind of ran in place as he came through the door. He hung his hat on the coat rack, then his raincoat as well. Cane held in hand, he went down to his good knee and Emily scrambled up onto his shoulders, hands taking hold of damp wild curls. “Did Brother Bear scare you off the road?”

“No,” he said, a hand on her knee, holding her safely on his shoulders as he got up. “No bears, Emmy. There was just a lot of work. My client has difficulty telling the truth.” Leaning on his cane he moved towards his old bedroom. There was a chair waiting for him there, a table with room for a late dinner, and even a bed, should he not want to take the stairs. “Nan!”

Nan stepped out of the kitchen just in time to greet him. “Mr. Gael.”

“Any chance for some late dinner in the sitting room?”

“Of course, sir. Fresh bread, sliced roast, some cheddar cheese, and a cold beer?”

“You are amazing!” He kissed her temple. “I’d just die without you, Miss Nan.”

“You might consider getting a wife, Mr. Gael,” she repeated the often offered advice.

“I want some too!” Emily said, bouncing on Gael’s shoulders. “Please Mama!”

“If you eat too late at night, honey, it’ll give you bad dreams!” Nan said, chin tipping down to give Emily a stern glare that did nothing at all. “Fine. Two plates.”

The chair was the closest to heaven that Gael could imagine as he sat down and pulled Emily into his arms. There was already a blanket there on the table and he covered her up, kind of hoping she’d just go to sleep. “I’m sorry I’m late, Chicky. Forgive me?”

Thumb already in her mouth, snuggled up on Gael’s lap, his tie crumpled in her slightly custardy fist. “Yah, but no war. You can’t go.”

“No more war,” Gael promised, rocking her slightly. “The Great War is over and we won. There will be peace forever now.”

“Good. Did you see Brother Rabbit tonight?”

“He said you should go to sleep like a good little girl,” Gael said, letting his words take on a comfortably soft Irish accent.

“I want a bicycle,” Emily said, which was a bit garbled because she was also biting her thumb.

“When you’re taller,” Gael promised, rocking her very softly as he sang in Irish, a lullaby about the moon and loved ones.

Jack came in the back door, stopping by the bathing room he’d put in. The sound of the water running was enough to pull Gael up out of sleep, nearly. It was Jack’s voice that pulled him out of sleep enough to matter. “Let me get you two upstairs,” Jack said softly, a gentle hand caressing Gael’s face.

“Hi baby,” Gael said, leaning into the touch. “How was your day?”

“I learned that I can help a horse give birth today,” Jack said, irritated and amused at the same time. “That was definitely not covered in any class.”

“My client is an idiot,” Gael agreed, letting Jack pretty much lift him onto his feet. “Does Em feel like she’s got a fever?”

Jack rested the back of his fingers on Emily’s forehead. “I’ll check on her more in the morning. It’s probably nothing.”

<><>

The next morning Emily was not the first person out of bed. She just didn’t feel like it. Everything felt bad and she was cold. See pulled her bat stuffy closer and tried to go back to sleep. It might have worked, because the next thing she new her daddy was sitting on the edge of her bed.

He wasn’t her real daddy. She knew that, but it didn’t matter. Brother Rabbit’s whiskers said he was her real daddy and he’d always be here. “I don’t wanna get up,” she said, hiding behind her bat winged pillow.

“I see,” Jack said softly. “Well, let’s check your temperature, shall we? Open wide.”

Those little blue eyes glared angrily at him as he positioned the glass thermometer under her tongue.

“You’re a difficult patient,” Jack said, tugging very gently at one of her braids. “I understand you’d like a bicycle and a pocket watch. Just what do you think you’ll do with these things, young lady?”

She rolled her eyes, squished up her lips around the thermometer. He rolled his eyes right back at her, as if they really were father and daughter. When the minute hand on his watch ticked forward, he took the thermometer out, made a mock serious face at her, then read her temperature from the mercury. “Um.” He shook it down, then said, “Let’s do that one more time, “Miss Emily.”

She did it, but was getting grumpier all the time, her bat held tightly to her chest as she lay back on the bed and kicked at the covers.

“Here now,” Jack said, catching her hand, “Lay still for a moment, please. Look, I’ll do little piggies!” He wiggled her thumb and said, “This little piggy went to market!”

Emily rolled her eyes again. Piggies was for babies, but she still rolled a little to watch the rest. In her mind her thumb was always a nice round little piggy with a basket, buying flowers in the market.

“This little piggy stayed home,” Jack said.

“Cuz he was sick,” Emily said around the glass in her mouth. Then she threw up on him.

While one of the maids was taking care of the bed, Jack gave Emily a quick bath and examination. He knew what this was though. He’d treated hundreds of cases in New York. With Emily tucked back in bed, a copy of Peter Pan with her, both the picture book and the chapter book, he quietly instructed the maid who had taken care of the bed that no one was to be allowed in Emily’s room. He would take her meals to her himself and she was not to be allowed out of her room.

He knew that Gael had a trial to take care of today, but this was an urgent issue. The telegram equipment that Gael had insisted on had seemed frivolous at the time, but Jack was glad of it today. The telegram he sent to Charleston read, “Come home. It’s polio.”

<><>

She wasn’t sick very long. It was a single day with ten lunches. Brother Rabbit came and told her stories, but she couldn’t answer the riddle he’d given her. If she could answer the riddle, he’d give her one of his precious whiskers.

Being sick wasn’t really that bad. At one point a man with the head of a dog came and he and Gaely argued really loud. It was really funny watching Gaely argue with a doggie. A woman came then and she was dressed in some white curtains. Emily couldn’t stop laughing. She’d never felt better. She could get up out of the bed and run around the room and still stay in Gael’s lap at the same time! That was the best!

If she jumped really hard, she could almost fly like Peter Pan, but never came. He was probably just scared of Gaely. Gael seemed so sad too, and after a bit that kind of made nothing else fun either.

Finally the woman in the curtain came back. Emily thought maybe she was Wendy. That made sense. They probably didn’t have Sears catalogs in Neverland. Wendy had even brought some of Tinkerbell’s dust too! Emily got really excited when she saw the little bottle the woman handed Gael.

Not that that was going to work. Gael was already grown up so he couldn’t go to Neverland. It was sad that Gael was so old! Her eyes went wide as the room tipped. As Gael poured the fairy dust in her mouth it felt like she was falling down a hill and right back into her body.

If there’s one thing that she knew beyond any other thing that she thought she’d ever learn, that was that fairy dust tastes awful! She groaned and wiggled as Gael hugged her tight. He kissed her head and her face, little peck kisses all over her face like he hadn’t seen her in a week! She batted at him and wiggled until she was out of his lip. She had been given fairy dust! She had to fly before it wore off!

A moment after trying, Gael picked her up off the floor and wiped at the blood on her lip that she’d split open. Maybe fairy dust doesn’t work for everyone.

Jack came running in and whooped in joy, hugging both of them tight, and honestly Emily was pretty sure she’d had enough hugs for a bit. She was actually hungry and it was the middle of the day.

And then she remembered! “You promised me a bicycle! And a pocket watch!”

“I did,” Gael said happily.

“Now now,” Jack said, peeling her out of Gael’s arms. “You’re a proper young lady. Bicycles are for boys.”

“No, Daddy,” she said, arms around his neck, hugging him because now she wanted to. “A bicycle is for me. Don’t cry! It’s okay. Gaely can get you a bicycle too!”

“First let’s check your temperature,” Jack said more seriously. “Then perhaps some milk and toast.”

“Ewww! I want roast beef and eggs!”

What she got was a glass thermometer.

“I’m a big girl!”

“Talk after we get your temperature, Miss Emily,” Jack said. “Big girls behave properly. How about a nice parasol with lace from France?”

<><><>

A month later, Emily didn’t believe everyone that said she’d been in bed for almost two weeks. She’d been there. She’d know if that was true. Besides if she’d been in bed for ten days, she might have grown a little taller! She was still too short to abduct Finn’s bicycle.

Gael did make one that was just her size. He also came up with a pair of overalls for her and some boys sport shoes that were just her size. They waited until Jack was out on a longer house call and then she put on the denim pants. It was so much better than a dress!

It also turned out that bicycles are hard the first time! They worked at it from lunch until near dinner and Emily almost cried several times, but then she got it! It was better than flying! She could go so fast! She rode around and around the drive and thought she was going to be faster even than Brother Crow, at least until Gael couldn’t get out of the way fast enough and she ran right into him.

Skinned knees for both of them and a bent front wheel. “I’m sorry,” she half shouted as she cried. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Gael said, ruffling her hair. “I get worse than this every day in the courtroom.”

Her mouth fell open, her blue eyes, the same as his remaining one, stared at him in shock.

He ruffled her hair again, winked. “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

Her face squished up. Maybe that was the riddle from Brother Rabbit that she’d forgotten, but she didn’t know the answer. “I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head.

Gael smirked as he worked his way back to his feet. Making a cross with his thumb and pointer finger, he answered while making the sign of the cross over his now dusty shirt and vest. “He was Catholic.”

She groaned, laughed, then chased after him, pushing her bike. “Why did Brother Rabbit cross the road?”

“I don’t know, why?”

“His whiskers told him to!” She said, laughing enthusiastically at a joke she understood more than anyone else did. “Okay, okay! Why did Daddy cross the road?”

“To get to a patient? Leave the bike here, Em. I’ll take care of it after dinner.”

She really didn’t have an answer to the last riddle, but the house smelled like dinner and that was all that mattered as she ran past Gael and towards the kitchen. “Mama! Why did the chicken cross the road?”

vintage
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About the Creator

Duointherain

I write a lot of lgbt+ stuff, lots of sci fi. My big story right now is The Moon's Permission.

I've been writing all my life. Every time I think I should do something else, I come back to words.

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