It was not too long until her mother was calling up the stairs for her to come down for lunch. It was always a stressful time for Violet when her mother wanted to practice manners; just the two of them. The meal felt more like every single thing was judged even the things she did right. She knew it was not about trying to hurry through it, because that only made it worse.
When she got to the kitchen she saw there were two plates and all the silverware at each place; even cloth napkins. Violet took a deep breath and walked to the table. Her mother pulled out her chair and pushed it in as she was sitting down.
“Very good Violet, now the napkin.” As her mother was saying it Violet was taking the napkin and unfolding it into her lap.
“Isn’t this fun.”
Violet thought it was anything BUT fun, but she also knew the right answer was to reply yes and smile. Lunch went pretty well and her mother was already focusing on their tea for the afternoon. Together they cleared the table and talked about the drive to the city in the morning. Her mother thought they would leave after breakfast and said her father was filling the car up with gas and checking all of the car stuff, this afternoon so it would be done and safe.
“And I bought two work-books for you to work on in the car, that way you will not be bored.”
“What kind of work-books?”
“They are like school books, but you can buy them at the store. There are some stickers and word finds and things in them. I do not know – you will see it tomorrow morning. In fact if you promise me you will not open them, not look at them; I will give them to you now and you can take them to your room and put them in your backpack. Make sure to add a pencil and the sharpener, even your colored pencils. Then the bag will be ready to go in the morning.”
“I promise!!”
Her mother handed her two work-books; both had red covers on them and Violet was so excited to be able to open them tomorrow. She was wishing they could leave today. She went to her room to get her backpack and fill it up with the work-books, and the supplies she might need.
Violet was thinking this is kinda of like getting to go back to school, and how excited she is for school to start again. ©
