Tuesday, November 21, 2006

In the Hapgood Cottage and on the road home, 11/16&17/85

11/16/85

In the small cold room at the top of the back stairway of the Hapgood Summer Cottage where the Nilsons live, a cat is kneading my green down sleeping bag and purring loudly. I don't know if it's Middle Nerd or Baby Nerd. I guess it was Big Nerd that died or disappeared. I had Teber, too, for a while., but Teber went to Judy who is sleeping with Eowyn. The girls are in their bunk and Roy Strider is in his room. Marilyn has gone to Boston to get Big Roy in the snowstorm, which seems to have turned to sleet.

Judy read all 7 1/2 finished chapters of my latest book, Quest to Eowyn, Roy, Sara, Erin and me. I kept hearing mistakes, but Eowyn and Roy really liked it, I guess, from what they said. Tomorrow, we must go home. Monday, it's back to work.

11/17/85

7:40 AM It's been raining quite hard for a long time, but the snow is not all melted. Fog and mist hangs over the snow and the trees and bushes are wet black against the white and fading away. One of the Nerd cats slept on my pillow next to my face all night. It is black and white and purred constantly. The house is silent. The dog has been in to pee on the floor in the girls' room.

Now the children are all downstairs practicing and I've got almsot everything packed. Soon we will head out on the road. Hope the driving is better than it looks.

2:24 PM Erin threw up. She got out of the car and walked through the snow in her bare feet to barf into the ditch. The car smells terrible with exhaust fumes (I'd like to barf myself from the heat and fumes) and I opened the window but Sara screamed she was freezing. We are all tired and grouchy. I have a splitting headache.

3:15 PM I gave the girls the last of my money to get something to eat in Burger King in Adams Mass. I'm sitting in the car. I gave Judy $5 toward gas and have nothing left to get anything for myself. I said I wasn't hungry. I'm sitting alone in the car while they all eat. I am glad to be alone for a few minutes in the quiet car with the rain falling and sliding down the windshield and the window rolled down a little. I'll rummage in the fridge when I get home if I'm not too tired.

7 comments:

a/k/a Nadine said...

That barfing incident made a rather strong imprssion on me. Just before we left, Roy and I had been eating an orange and sour cream & onion potato chips in the kitchen. I still can't stand those flavored chips!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

LOL! (YUK!)

I don't remember the details of the barf, luckily! :-D

BerryBird said...

Huh. I don't recall that specific barfing incident at all (there were many after all) but I must have been cross contaminated: I can't stand sour cream & onion chips either.

The last paragraph with you sitting in the fumey car by yourself in the Burger King parking lot is rather sad.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I don't even remember that. But I had written it in my journal. So there it is. There is a LOT of stuff in my journal that I don't remember!

It sounds sad but I don't feel sad about it.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I don't like them either, was I influenced too?

a/k/a Nadine said...

Well, only Roy and I were eating them, not y'all.

We were being a little bit bratty, in my recollection, by not including Sara.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Y'all could be that way sometimes, and y;all have a better memory than mine about this--I only have little foggy glimses of things in my memory of it.