Chapter 4
KAITLYN
TO SEE BALLOCH, TO SAY GOODBYE
The night was winding down, longer quiets between the conversations. Hayley said, “So it’s good you’ll only be gone for a day, I have so many plans for our summer. We have like eight birthdays starting now, you have a wedding anniversary, your eighth I think?”
Magnus said, “As the crow flies, yet as the wheel rolls it seems as if we hae been married for much longer.”
I smiled and recited the Burn poem I loved with the words changed a bit, “I will love thee still, my dear, while the sands o’ life shall run. And I will come again, my love, though it were ten thousand years…”
Magnus put his hand on his heart. “Och, ye are verra sweet on yer husband, tis verra fine.”
“This is so true.”
Hayley said, “You changed the words though, from ten thousand miles to years?”
“Seems more fitting as we’re time travelers.”
She pulled out her phone. “What’s your anniversary gift for eight years…?” She typed and searched. “Looks like the eighth anniversary is your bronze anniversary, you gotta get each other something bronze.”
I said, “What on earth — a sculpture? What kind of sculpture should we get?”
Beaty grinned. “We could put a statue of Mookie with his chicken, Saddle, upon his back in the front near the gate!” She had a small twitch at the corner of her mouth to show she was joking.
But, still it was impossible to dismiss the idea, somehow or other she had a way of making her ideas reality, probably because Quentin loved her so much.
Quentin looked incredulous. “How big would this statue be?”
“Och, I think twould need tae be verra big, ye ken? Tis the scale of it that would make it grand. The tourists would drive by the gates tae see it peekin’ over the top and they would say, ‘He is a verra majestic mucag.’”
We all burst out laughing.
She said, beginning to laugh herself, “At dawn I could sit on the statue and play m’bagpipes and all the neighbors would love it, they would say, ‘Och, tis rare tae make a statue of a pig and a chicken, but we are glad tae hae it in our neighborhood!’”
I said, “Oh man, Beaty, I bet the neighbors would love it. But, I’m not sure how the bronze statue of your pig is a good anniversary present for me and Magnus.”
She giggled. “Tis not, but I do think about it all the time.”
Quentin said, “Seriously, Beaty, you think about a statue of Mookie all the time?”
“Aye, and Saddle, ye ken, Quentin. Twould be majestic.”
“I guess it would be.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek, then kissed Noah who had fallen asleep in her arms.
She whispered, “I am goin’ tae take Noah tae bed. Twas a long day, so I will likely fall asleep myself, see everyone in the morn. Now that ye are thinking about the bronze of Mookie I will play a bagpipe Reveille at dawn tae show ye how grand it will be.”
We all laughed and she carried Noah from the room, with Mookie following along behind her.
Sophie got up too. “I will take Junior tae our room as well.”
We all said goodnight.
This might have been a sensible time to take Jack to bed too, but he was curled up asleep in my arms, and I wasn’t ready to leave.
I loved this night, these conversations, hated for it to end.
The brisket aroma still hung in the air, mixing with the faint scent of rain outside.
Everyone was leaning back in their chairs, full and content, the kids in the other room had a game going that included yelling.
Magnus jokingly shook his head at Quentin. “Colonel Quentin, is there a possibility of turnin’ Beaty from this idea?”
Quentin shook his head. “Not a bit, Boss, we’re going to have a bronze of Mookie and Saddle by the end of summer I bet,” he sighed. “You heard her, it will be majestic, there’s nothing I can do.”
Magnus laughed. “Aye, I guess we will hae tae open the coffers tae Madame Beaty’s new whim. Though I suppose tis better a bronze statue than another live animal underfoot.”
Ash leaned against Lochie’s shoulder. He said, “I will get ye home soon.”
Hayley grumbled, “I guess I’m doing the dishes.”
I said, “You love doing the dishes. You usually won’t let anyone help you.”
“I do, I hate the helpers. I like when all the monsters have left the kitchen, I turn down the lights, turn on my favorite songs, and just wash and sing. Clears my mind after a long day.”
Fraoch said, “In a way tis like a fishin’ trip.”
Magnus said, “Or goin’ tae the walls for guard duty.”
“I guess it is.”
Fraoch said, “Ye hae a bonny singin’ voice, wife, I could listen tae ye for hours.”
She rolled up in his arm and he kissed her forehead.
I said, “I don’t know why you were focused on my wedding anniversary, I don’t usually celebrate it, because time is going all willy-nilly, you know, and this summer is going to be so many birthdays. Let’s ignore anniversaries and focus on birthdays, that will be plenty of parties.”
Hayley said, “Speak for yourself, just because you are unromantic doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t celebrate anniversaries.”
“When’s yours, coming up?”
She sighed. “I forget, time is all willy-nilly.” She looked at Fraoch, “When did we get married?”
“Twas a market day but was called for the rain.”
She grinned. “And I argued with you because you wouldn’t ever tell me a straight date, it was always something like ‘just past the crow’s yell at the first light after the whole moon.’”
He shrugged good-naturedly. “Tis a great way tae ken the date! Ye ken a number, ye are always lost — och here we are with the argument again. Twill say it on our gravestone, I loved her, though she never truly knew how tae tell the time of the year.”
She grinned. “What is today?”
“Today is the day of the third summer storm since the Flower moon, och nae, ye are lucky ye hae me here tae tell ye.”
She said, “So what we’re saying, Katie, is I can’t remember when our wedding was—”
Fraoch interrupted to say, “I ken, twas a small number of morrows afore Lughnasadh. Or yesterdays dependin’ on which way the wheel is rollin’.”
Magnus grinned. “That is a lovely time of year, good day for a wedding.”
Ash said, “Lochinvar do you know when that is?”
Lochinvar said, “Aye, tis the haymonath.”
Hayley said, “Haymonath? Fraoch, do you have any idea what that is?”
“Aye, tis easy tae understand!” He grinned, using his finger to tap on the table as he said, “Tis An t-ògmhios, then An t-Iuchar, then Lughnasadh comes at the beginning of An Lùnastal.”
My eyes wide, I joked, “I swear, I have to learn Gaelic.”
Hayley said, “This is what I mean though, we need to celebrate some anniversaries, we need to mark the year. It’s important.”
Fraoch said, “I agree, ye hae tae celebrate the wedding anniversaries so the bairns will ken that all the parties arna just for them. Sometimes, the cake is for Uncle Frookie.”
Hayley raised her glass. “And the bouncy house!”
“When is your birthday, Fraoch?”
He shrugged. “I daena ken, we dinna celebrate the day, so there was nae reason tae mark it, we had many feast days though, for the saints… M’mother told me I was born after Beltane on the day she saw the first bloomin’ bluebells.”
Hayley rolled her eyes. “A while back I figured out he means the month of May. He’s a Taurus, makes sense, right?”
“I think what we are learning is that we need to just have a big party in the summer and celebrate all the birthdays and anniversaries at once.”
Emma raised her brow. “You think the kids are going to be cool with that?”
“Okay,” I chuckled. “We celebrate all the kids’ birthdays and ignore the grownups just like always, win-win.”
Everyone laughed.
“And it’s good that we don’t celebrate a bunch of anniversaries because I would have no idea what to get Magnus for a bronze present.”
Hayley said, “I know! You know how people will get baby booties bronzed? You can do Magnus’s boots!”
James said, “This is a perfect reminder that not all ideas are good ideas.”
Magnus was quiet. Then he asked, “What is for the five year anniversary?”
“Why?”
“Nae reason.”
She looked at the list. “Wood.”
He nodded.
I said, “What are you up to? It’s not our five-year, it’s our eight-year and as you point out we’ve been married for years, possibly decades, I’ve been your wife forever…”
He shrugged. “I just wanted tae ken.” Then he asked, “Chef Zach, ye promised the bairns dessert?”
Chef Zach hopped up. “Yes indeed. A real old fashioned colonial specialty, gingerbread.”
He got a bundle from the counter in the kitchen and brought it over calling the kids around. “Real colonial gingerbread!” He untied twine and pulled the cloth edges away.
The kids oohed and awed.
Zach said, “Two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old cookies.”
Ben said, “Is this safe to eat, Dad?”
“Yep, I watched the shopkeeper bundle it up this morning!”
Magnus rubbed his hands together. “Twill taste wonderful with ice cream.”
Zach laughed and left for the kitchen to grab a carton and some bowls.
Hayley and Fraoch got up and cleared the dirty plates, James helped by stacking empty water glasses into a wobbly tower. Zach and Emma spooned out ice cream with colonial cookies on the side of the bowls and we all began to eat.
It was subtle, not very gingery, less sugar than I was used to, and a little dry.
Zach asked, “Do you love it kids?”
Isla said, “Best cookie I ever had.” Then she put down half of it and said, “Zoe, want to go watch tv?”
They rushed off.
Emma chewed and then sipped from her glass. “What is that, it’s like… not ginger.”
Archie said, chewing, “Do you think George Washington ate this?”
James said, “Probably, it was the most popular bakery in Philadelphia.”
Archie said, looking at the cookie, “It’s good, but needs more sugar.”
He and Ben ate their ice cream, Ben asking, “Dad, do we have any ice cream toppings?”
Zach said incredulously, “The gingerbread cookie I got you from the year 1775 is the topping! I don’t even know why I bother.”
Ben took a dainty bite. “It’s really good, Dad, I like it.”