August 25th, 1868
Today Mother, Mari, Fae, and I all went down to the creek for a picnic. It was beautiful outside. (And still is now; the sun is setting currently. The sky is a soft gray blue that reminds me of John's eyes, going into brilliant pink with oranges, towards the bottom of the sky.) The creek is far calmer and quieter than the river is. It’s also shadier. The river runs through the east side of the valley, coming in from a gap in the mountains that surround the whole valley and are part of what keep it hidden. The creek branches off from the mouth of the river to the left and back into the woods. It’s always beautiful on a summer day. This is one of our last days to enjoy the sunshine before the weather becomes cooler and gray clouds cover the sky.
For our picnic, we had little chicken sandwiches and apples. After eating, Mother told us one of my favorite tales about a man called Odysseus, who’s journey was so spectacular it was named after him. He was a Greek king of a place called Ithaca, who went to fight in the Trojan War, which kept him away several years. His whole journey he was trying to get back home to his family. His story became known as The Odyssey; a Greek named Homer first told it. I admire Odysseus’ perseverance. He did everything in his power to get back to his wife, Penelope, who in the meantime was doing everything she could to keep away suitors, believing that he would return home to her.
After the story, I splashed in the creek with Ranger, one of the many dogs in the Valley. (He'd followed us out to the picnic. It was a bit of a struggle to keep him away from the sandwiches, mostly because Fae kept feeding him bits of hers.) Mother braided Fae’s hair and discussed married life with Mari. The main part of the conversation I remember was when they began discussing things their husbands do that make them laugh; Mari mentioned how Wilhelm always gives her cat, Ivy (A gift from me), a wide berth when he passes, for fear she should scratch him. It's a just fear though, because she did once. It was the first time he met the cat actually. She came out of nowhere, swinging her claws wildly. Wilhelm ended up with four long scars on his forearm. Ivy is a very pompous and picky cat. I think this is because I spoiled her far too much when she was a kitten. She was born with a squashed grumpy face, and I worried over whether she would be able to live or not.
Mari’s anecdote makes Mother smile, and she begins talking about a cat she owned when she was a young girl, a cat that absolutely despised her, even though she fed it and loved it.
It’s my favorite thing to see Mother smile. (Not just Mother; it makes me smile to see my family happy.) Mother always looks very beautiful. She has smooth red brown skin, and a sharp jawline and cheekbones. Her hair is a gorgeous raven black that shines a silvery color in the sunlight. Her eyes are a warm amber. Mari has her exact hair color, but with olive green eyes, and a softer version of Father's angled features and a skin tone slightly darker than his.
I don't look much like either of my parents. My skin tone is an even mix between Father's and Mother's caramel brown one. I ended up with muddy green eyes, rather than brown or acid green, or even the pretty olive color of Mari's. I have limp brown hair, and an oval face shape. I’m a little on the plump side like Father is. I have my mother’s height though; I’m very short. Most of Mother’s children are, but I'm probably the shortest of all my siblings. Corin is the shortest brother. He absolutely despises that fact. He's five-foot-ten. Bo, Caleb, Marget, Cory and the twins (Rion and Lani) are all tall like Father. Father is just six feet tall. Bo is two inches taller than Father, Caleb and Cory are one inch taller, and Marget is an inch shorter than Father. But the twins are two towering bean poles compared to them. They're both six-foot-seven-inches. Wilhelm is close behind at six-foot-three-inches. John is the tallest though, he’s a towering seven-feet-tall. (And maybe a bit more.) His life in the castle was spent stooping beneath doorways. The rest of us are either average height, I suppose, or just short.
I took a break from splashing to stand in the water a bit and put my face up to the sun. It was very warm. Then I sat back down on the picnic blanket and remembered my question for Mari. I asked her if she’d been getting letters from Corin. Mary gave me that signature sly smile, that she, Corin, Cory, and the youngest twins all inherited from Mother.
“Maybe I have, maybe I haven’t,” she said, “But if anything important comes up, you’ll be the first one I’ll tell.”
That was a bit frustrating. I hate that about this family. Everyone's always so vague with what they say, or just don't speak at all. Her words don’t mean much anyways, considering the fact that Mother and Fae can hear thoughts, (Cory can as well. He managed to keep it a secret from me for a good hundred years. Everyone else had figured it out before I had. I was a bit furious after I'd discovered the truth) but I accepted them anyways.
I like to think about being married sometimes. I’ve just never mustered up the courage to leave the Valley, which is the first step. Then after I leave the Valley, I have to meet someone. This step terrifies me. The only people I've known my entire existence have been my family. After I've met a new person, I then have to get to know them well enough to love them and marry them; which is very hard to do these days, because Mother tells me that people don’t usually marry for love. I don’t think they ever have. Bo and Mari were lucky their loves stumbled into the Valley. Marget never planned on marrying until she decided to explore Ireland and met her husband Peter. I'm not sure how Corin came across John, but they also seem very happy together.
I wonder if I should wait another century before I leave the Valley; things might have changed by then. People will hopefully have changed how they look at marriage. I want to have fallen in love with the person I’m marrying. But from what Ellen tells me of the outside world, so far most people are still marrying for status and money.
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