Summer/Fall 1983 - in the usual way
Jun. 1st, 2014 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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It's a natural sort of thing, of course, to be worried. It's entirely regular and completely normal.
And the Eichelns are, after all, an entirely regular and completely normal family. Charles is an entirely normal number of years older than his wife. Lorraine has given him, after all, a completely regular number of sons spaced at appropriate intervals. The boys are growing tall and bright and beyond the pale exactly the sort of children any Clubs family would be proud to smooth down the hair of and call their own.
So being worried as her eldest's twelfth birthday draws near is just an extension of that normalcy. It would have been far more odd if Lorraine wasn't worried that Edgar wouldn't throw himself with absolute immediacy--still so much a child in her eyes, still so much the little boy she felt she'd held swaddled in her arms just a heartbeat ago--into the sort of Challenges which had been known, on occasion, to take good Club boys away from their mothers and fathers and brothers.
If anyone, therefore, happened to be looking for her on the first chilly day toward the end of August, they would find Lorraine Eicheln baking rather purposefully in the Clubs kitchen.
And the Eichelns are, after all, an entirely regular and completely normal family. Charles is an entirely normal number of years older than his wife. Lorraine has given him, after all, a completely regular number of sons spaced at appropriate intervals. The boys are growing tall and bright and beyond the pale exactly the sort of children any Clubs family would be proud to smooth down the hair of and call their own.
So being worried as her eldest's twelfth birthday draws near is just an extension of that normalcy. It would have been far more odd if Lorraine wasn't worried that Edgar wouldn't throw himself with absolute immediacy--still so much a child in her eyes, still so much the little boy she felt she'd held swaddled in her arms just a heartbeat ago--into the sort of Challenges which had been known, on occasion, to take good Club boys away from their mothers and fathers and brothers.
If anyone, therefore, happened to be looking for her on the first chilly day toward the end of August, they would find Lorraine Eicheln baking rather purposefully in the Clubs kitchen.
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Date: 2014-06-01 01:07 am (UTC)She can't quite dip into a respectful bob of the head, but she tries, "Hello, Mrs. Eicheln."
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Date: 2014-06-01 01:59 am (UTC)So there's a calm smile entirely devoid, for the moment, of worry as she glances over at the young Club. "Rachel. What a lovely surprise. What's brought you down here, then?"
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Date: 2014-06-01 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-01 05:04 am (UTC)And if she's going to bake to handle the anxiety of her children growing up, someone ought to help with the product.
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Date: 2014-06-01 05:18 am (UTC)"--That'd be lovely. If you're certain, I mean."
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Date: 2014-06-01 05:43 am (UTC)The shadow stays away from the corners of her lips now, at least, as she tsks and wipes flour from her hands.
"Absolutely. I've made dozens, mm? You can't expect me to let the boys have all of them, can you?"
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Date: 2014-06-01 02:07 pm (UTC)Said with a wry grin as she imagines the thought. The Eicheln boys (and Andrew, when he's with them) are rambunctious enough as is. Them on dozens of cookies would be even worse.
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Date: 2014-06-01 02:47 pm (UTC)Her de-floured hands are run briefly under the water, shaken and brushed against a towel before she moves to get the cooling racks set.
"And how are you, dear?"
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Date: 2014-06-01 03:17 pm (UTC)It's polite as it should be, but there's a hint of an easier candidness that lies beneath it.
"How're you?"
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Date: 2014-06-01 03:37 pm (UTC)She's a good influence. That's entirely clear.
"Not so badly. It's-- nice, to have a bit of time."
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Date: 2014-06-01 04:20 pm (UTC)"I apologize for interrupting, then."
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Date: 2014-06-01 04:27 pm (UTC)She pauses reaching for the oven mitts to instead reach briefly to squeeze the girl's shoulder. Slight browning on the cookies is hardly of huge imporance.
"You aren't, I promise. You'll understand, mm, when you have a house full of sons someday."
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Date: 2014-06-01 04:33 pm (UTC)And the thought isn't one she understands, yet, but she can at least accept it when she's reaching out so kindly.
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Date: 2014-06-01 04:44 pm (UTC)"I am. I'm not certain you could ever be an imposition. Pass me the spatula?"
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Date: 2014-06-01 04:50 pm (UTC)"Thank you, ma'am."
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Date: 2014-06-01 04:59 pm (UTC)"Nothing to thank me for," she assures, beginning to move the cookies to the rack. "While these cool, why don't you tell me about school, yes?"
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Date: 2014-06-02 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-02 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-02 02:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-02 02:40 am (UTC)"What would you rather do here?"'
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Date: 2014-06-02 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-02 03:15 am (UTC)Lorraine hopes desperately they both actually want it.
"Why is it best?"
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Date: 2014-06-02 03:29 am (UTC)And maybe the job isn't entirely something she understands at this point, but she'll learn.
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Date: 2014-06-02 03:38 am (UTC)"Is hard such a bad thing?"
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Date: 2014-06-02 03:45 am (UTC)It's going to be hard, after all, getting that high up in the first place.
"'s just don't want to be having to do work stuff all the time. Seems boring."
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Date: 2014-06-02 03:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-02 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-02 04:18 am (UTC)"All right. How many of these can you and Argine take care of for me, sweetheart?"
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Date: 2014-06-02 02:19 pm (UTC)A thoughtful hum, "Maybe a dozen? 'f that's all right?"
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Date: 2014-06-02 02:31 pm (UTC)It's been a long afternoon of stress-baking already, after all.
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Date: 2014-06-02 02:43 pm (UTC)Any more and both her mother and Argine's would likely fuss about a possibly wasted dinner.
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Date: 2014-06-02 04:31 pm (UTC)"Lovely. Grab a plate, sweetheart."
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Date: 2014-06-02 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-03 02:42 am (UTC)It might be nice, to pretend she had daughters, just for an afternoon.
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Date: 2014-06-03 03:22 am (UTC)"I'd like that. I'll ask 'gine if she would, too."
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Date: 2014-06-03 04:06 am (UTC)Who knew? Maybe she'd even be able to wrangle one of her boys into helping, if it wasn't just 'time with mom.'
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Date: 2014-06-03 01:32 pm (UTC)She clearly sounds like she's looking forward to it, whether in the company of one of the boys or not.
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Date: 2014-06-03 03:46 pm (UTC)