TheBanyanTree: Rachel

[Kitty Park]

You typed this on your PHONE??  I would have lost my thought before I got
through the first sentence.

So "clean it up" later; right now your audience is itching for the next
episode!

Kitty
<mzzkitty at gmail.com>kcp-parkplace.blogspot.com
 <http://parkplaceohio.com>



On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 1:45 PM, Monique Colver <monique.colver at gmail.com>wrote:

> Good grief, it's a mess. The swype on my phone likes to correct my words
> for me as I type. And in the middle of the night, I don't really pay
> attention.
>
>
>
> *
> *
> *We appreciate your referrals!*
>
> Monique Colver
> Colver Business Solutions
> www.colverbusinesssolutions.com
> monique.colver at gmail.com
> (425) 772-6218
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 9:05 AM, Gail Richards <mrsfes at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I hope there's more of this!!
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message----- From: Monique Colver Sent: Sunday, September
> > 29, 2013 4:01 AM To: Banyan Tree Subject: TheBanyanTree: Rachel
> > It is 2:42 in the morning, almost another Sunday, and the dog and I have
> > made our regular trek down the stairs and, for him, outside, and for me,
> to
> > the kitchen, where I survey the wreckage and grab a bite of brownie. By
> > then Ash is ready to come back in, so I open the door, make sure his feet
> > are clean (a habit he regards as odd, but tolerates), and we head back to
> > bed.
> >
> > We do this most nights, though on the nights we don't I'm never sure if
> we
> > hadn't or if I just don't remember. Also, there are usually not brownies
> > present, but when I'm sick I am provided many things that are not good
> for
> > me.
> >
> > Before plopping himself back into bed Ash has some water, but within
> > seconds he is sound asleep again, and so again I am left alone in my
> > wakefulness. It'll pass quickly though, and then I shall be asleep like
> > everyone else in my bed.
> >
> > But first, I have questions.
> >
> > Is the old woman who keeps insisting she has written books, though none
> can
> > be found, a victim of intellectual theft, or is she delusional? We
> suspect
> > she's delusional, that the dementia that has been creeping up on her
> like a
> > once jilted suitor determined to at last get his way has convinced her
> that
> > these books do exist. We could be wrong, but no one wants to admit to
> that.
> > Instead, we tell her she is mistaken, which either angers her so her
> cheeks
> > turn red and she tells us to go to hell, or saddens her, so she cries, as
> > if she's lost something precious.
> >
> > Perhaps she has.
> >
> > She lived in the house on the coast for so long, on her own, with so
> little
> > contact with the rest of the family, that none of us can say with any
> > certainty what she did with her time.
> >
> > Even she cannot tell us, not in a manner that makes attendee. Her
> memories
> > are out of order, as if someone had spilled the card catalogue of her
> life
> > and then just threw the cards back together in whatever random order
> they'd
> > fallen in.
> >
> > This is no way to live out a life, but it's the only way she has now,
> with
> > the house on the coast boarded up and she with us, in the second floor
> > suite I'd setup for my in-laws, who'd had the nerve to die suddenly
> instead
> > of move in with us. Just as well for Aunt Rachel though, I suppose, since
> > she had to live somewhere, and no one else wanted her.
> >
> > I didn't particularly want her myself, I barely knew her, other than the
> > stories my mother had told of her, stories that seemed wild fictions at
> the
> > time.
> >
> > And they still did.
> >
> > Sometimes her recollections were so clear and even verifiable that I
> > thought the books a certainty. At other times, such as when she denied
> > having ever been married to Uncle Albert, denied ever knowing him, I
> > doubted everything she claimed as true, even those events that were part
> of
> > family history.
> >
> > Uncle Albert had been my father's much older brother, and my father spoke
> > about him as if he were a minor deity. It was Albert who had made
> granddad
> > treat dad as a member of the family, though granddad had never wanted his
> > wife's bastard child in the house, much less did he want him as a
> coherent
> > reminder. but Albert had insisted, and even granddad would not defy
> Albert,
> > his favorite  oldest child.
> >
> > when uncle Albert went missing all those years ago, leaving behind
> Rachel,
> > grandad was inconsolable. that's what killed him, in the end, though his
> > car going off a cliff certainly didn't help matters much.
> >
> > but i digress. As much as I've resisted the idea that Rachel had written
> > any books, her insistence that she had began to gnaw at me. With Anders
> > working all the time and the kids off at college, I had nothing but time
> to
> > let it gnaw, and take care of Rachel. maybe it was time to visit the old
> > house on the coast with Rachel, see if there were any signs of any books,
> > see if there was any chance we could sell the house.
> >
> > perhaps that was just what Rachel needed, a trip back to her past to help
> > her remember what was true, and what was not.
> >
> > from my phone at 3:59 am. it's raining now, the sort if downpour
> > nonresidents suspect we have daily.
> >
>