{"id":7364,"date":"2011-06-06T22:27:09","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T05:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beltdrivebetty.com\/wyzwmnsworld\/?page_id=7364"},"modified":"2011-06-06T22:27:09","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T05:27:09","slug":"chapter-64","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/?page_id=7364","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 64"},"content":{"rendered":"

the sound: <\/strong>Tom Waits \u2013 For No One<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Tom Waits \u2013 Chocolate Jesus<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Tom Waits \u2013 Hold On<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Tom Waits \u2013 Take me Home<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Tom Waits \u2013 Elephant Beer Blues<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Tom Waits \u2013 The Piano Has Been Drinking<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Tom Waits \u2013 Tom Traubert\u2019s Blues<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mrs. Kirkpatrick introduced herself to me as we followed her 3 huge children out the door of the den, through the vestibule and down the hallway to the kitchen.<\/p>\n

She asked how I knew her children and I told her that I\u2019d met them through a friend and that they\u2019d been kind enough to \u201cput me up\u201d while I was here.<\/p>\n

She seemed pleased at the implication that they had manners.<\/p>\n

As we stepped into the warm sunny kitchen I was totally shocked to see Rosie tying on a big, gingham, ruffled and bibbed apron as she walked towards the pantry.<\/p>\n

Then I turned my head to the left in time to see Robert and Grey dutifully setting the huge table with a lovely matched set of china teacups and cake plates not to mention sterling silver cutlery complete with real teaspoons.<\/p>\n

It was all I could do to keep from barking out a laugh as I watched Robert\u2019s great big hands manipulating a pair of sugar tines while he quietly and patiently piled sugar cubes into a lovely white pyramid.<\/p>\n

The table at the right end of the kitchen was polished cherry wood and likely large enough to seat 15, 20 if you all got up close and personal like. There were 2 huge ladder back chairs with armrests looking suspiciously like thrones at each end and high back wooden chairs along each side of the table.<\/p>\n

The King seat sat facing the French doors to the side veranda and overlooking the water with its back to the kitchen. It was empty of place setting while the Queen seat, facing the kitchen with its back to the doors was set with a lovely crocheted doily placemat topped with a thick paisley trivet. On the trivet was the cup and saucer, the tea service on a tray in front of the Queen seat.<\/p>\n

Along both sides of the table in the chairs closest to the Queen seat where seats for the four of us. Each with its own matching doily placemat in sunshine yellow topped with a paisley trivet.<\/p>\n

As we got to the table I began to wonder at the possible cost of the furniture itself, forget about the tea service and the crystal decanters of amber fluid that sat on the sideboard across from the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d pay a dollar for about a gallon of that amber liquid just now\u201d I snorted to myself.<\/p>\n

The massive shelves of the sideboard held about 30 of those Royal Dalton figurines my mother was so fond of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so, so outta my league\u201d I thought just as Grey showed up at my elbow with a china platter of teeny tiny sandwiches\u2026no crust\u2026looked like cucumber or water cress.<\/p>\n

\u201cok, that cut\u2019s it\u2026.I\u2019m fucked\u201d I thought and turned towards Rosie in time to see her pouring hot water out of the largest china tea pot I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

She had her tongue stuck out the corner of her mouth and I had time to think that she looked just like she did with the first aid kit in her hand while running to rescue one of her idiot brothers when they\u2019d shot someone, then she looked up and our eyes met. She started as if she was surprised to see me and then blushed.<\/p>\n

I watched in wonder as the red flushed slowly up Rosie\u2019s neck to her face and then she bobbed her head down to pour water over the tea leaves she\u2019d dropped in the pot.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiobhan?\u201d Mrs. Kirkpatrick queried\u2026\u201dare we nigh ready dear?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cyes ma\u2019am\u201d Rosie replied as she hurriedly pulled the cozy over the tea pot and rushed towards the table.<\/p>\n

Robert places a tray of \u2018petite fours\u2019 on the table and hastened to help his mother be seated. Mrs. Kirkpatrick sat in the Queen seat with Robert and myself on one side and Grey and Rosie on the other facing us.<\/p>\n

I watched with some amusement as all four of them in virtual unison pulled their clean crisp white Irish linen napkins out from under their butter knives and gently opened them to place them on their laps. I hastened to follow suit.<\/p>\n

Then 3 adult Kirkpatrick children sat quietly, heads bowed, hands in their laps while their mother looked at me inquiringly until by some grace a light went on in my head and I too bowed my head.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoibhil\u00edn, the grace?\u201d Mrs. K asked and in reply, wonders of wonders, surprise, surprise\u2026.that big tough, gun toting, Jack Daniels swilling, goat butchering, cussing and shooting bad ass biker Robert quietly blessed our food.<\/p>\n

You could have knocked me over with a feather!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the sound: Tom Waits \u2013 For No One, Tom Waits \u2013 Chocolate Jesus, Tom Waits \u2013 Hold On, Tom Waits \u2013 Take me Home, Tom Waits \u2013 Elephant Beer Blues, Tom Waits \u2013 The Piano Has Been Drinking, Tom Waits … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":6871,"menu_order":64,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7364","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7365,"href":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7364\/revisions\/7365"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}