Story Ava (Complete)
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Ah yes, more investigators, ack.
beaglemama
Contributing Member
Thanks Kathy!
Siskiyoumom
Veteran Member
I am greatly enjoying your story and thank you!
packing mom and dad. Lord have mercy what a mess. Will try and get something written and posted the next day or so.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Good luck.
Laurane
Canadian Loonie
I sympathize with you - am packing for a move in 2 weeks back to our home province and I thought I had downsized when we moved here. I am not a knick-knacker, but I do paint and food storage is our priority, so we have lots of stuff which needs to go.
Enjoying your story immensely, though the "south" is still a mystery to me.
Enjoying your story immensely, though the "south" is still a mystery to me.
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
You're not just packing up your parent's stuff. You're packing up generations of family memories and history.
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
I'm guessing by now she's made it thru the family photos and knick knacks and is starting on the dreaded attic.
Mother Hen have you thought about sending the parents on a spa weekend or a visit to favorite friends/relatives and having professional movers take over?
Mother Hen have you thought about sending the parents on a spa weekend or a visit to favorite friends/relatives and having professional movers take over?
I wish ... that I’ve gone through that much stuff. I already have a 12 x 24 foot shed full of stuff and I only packed their books and cleaned out one of their sheds. OMG. We are leaving today to go back and I’m ... oh good Lord ... going to try and pack as much of my mother’s Quilt Shop (read huge shed where she keeps her FIVE sewing machines, quilting tables, craft stuff, bolts of cloth, etc.). I don’t know if it will happen or not.
My brother is coming to collect the tractor (1950-something Massey Furgeson with implements) and some of dad’s work shop stuff that he will be storing for him. But the rest of the shed ... plus the one that we are moving down for him (yes the entire freaking shed) will have to be later. I had a goal to get them moved in by the middle of August but I’m beginning to have doubts.
I am going to try and finish up the chapter tonight but I don’t know. I’m just beat and real life here at the chicken coop has to be taken care of as well. My adult son was going to come with us this time but he got called into work and both girls have exams for their summer college classes. One of them will be graduating in August and can‘t afford to skip. The other will help take care of the animals (including her 16 year old brother) so it is just hubby and I this time.
Needless to say I am going slightly nuts. They’ve lived on this place for 25 years so this is the second “downsizing” they’ve done. LOL. Yeah right. My parents used to go to auctions and such and they are both pack rats and they have more “stuff” now than before they downsized the first time. They’ve just gotten to an age where they can’t take care of all their “stuff” so now it is up to me and whomever I can drag along to help them. Love my parents, not too thrilled with all their “stuff”. LOLOLOLOL. Better stop laughing or the men in white coats are going to come to take me away.
teedee
Veteran Member
You have taken on quite a job. We will be here when you get back so take care of the important job first. I am a model builder and have downsized my stuff by sending a lot to a gentlemen in Uruguay who is teaching youngsters there about the love of flight. It is hard to let somethings go.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
All I can say is God Bless and good luck to you. Oh boy!
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I understand. I'm honestly more like your parents, but I am trying to slowly get rid of a few things. When DD is here this weekend, I will be sending lot of specialty pans and cake decorating tips home with her. What little decorating I do can be done with a ziploc and scissors.
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
HUGE undertaking Kathy but maybe the most important thing you'll ever be able to do for your extended family.
I'm preparing myself for the backlash BUT.....Why not just take a break from TB2K and Ava and get this done? We'll survive and you can get this put to bed so you don't have to keep whipping yourself into a frenzy.
As well and, from a perfectly self serving perspective, I fully expect once this necessary task is complete, your production of tales for your public, will skyrocket!!
Seriously; we're NOT family but your parents are-- who deserves more attention?
I'll miss Ava and you but if I don't see anything new on this for 5-6 weeks, I'll survive.
Take care of your parents' move and everything else will come together.
G.
I'm preparing myself for the backlash BUT.....Why not just take a break from TB2K and Ava and get this done? We'll survive and you can get this put to bed so you don't have to keep whipping yourself into a frenzy.
As well and, from a perfectly self serving perspective, I fully expect once this necessary task is complete, your production of tales for your public, will skyrocket!!
Seriously; we're NOT family but your parents are-- who deserves more attention?
I'll miss Ava and you but if I don't see anything new on this for 5-6 weeks, I'll survive.
Take care of your parents' move and everything else will come together.
G.
There are days when I think my kids hope I never die, so they won't have to go through all my books, some 50 to 70+ years old, and junk (I will need that if I ever get a place to work on things). Trying to make time for a yard sale/shed clearing, wife needs more room for fabric and notions. Something I realized about myself, a collector is a hoarder with OCD.
I will keep posting as I can. I really want to finish Ava before the end of the month. Might not happen but I'm gonna try. The posting just might not be real regular. I appreciate all the support. Life is just really crazy right now. And not just for me but for you all too. Thanks!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 80
Life goes on. You think it is about to come to a head but then it just doesn’t. Maybe you’re ready to get it over with but that just not the way things play out. September was a real bear in more than one way. There was the stuff that kinda hung over my psyche waiting to fall like a ton of bricks. Em and I would run hot and cold every day. Not cold maybe but certainly things would cool down and then one or the other of us would have a rough day and there was a need to have someone there you could count on and we’d just be there for the other even if we kept getting our toes close to the danger line without meaning to and having to back up real quick to keep things from getting too complicated.
Then there was trying to get used to Auntie and Momma L turning to Vadie for lots of stuff they used to call me for. Yeah, I felt excluded. Took a while to get used to. I accepted that it was a family thing. They were working to get Vadie and Thib hooked up … as in legally married. Bit tinfoil kept trying to sprout on my head no matter how many times I’d pluck it out.
“Ava! Yo Ava! You got wax in your ears or something?!”
“I’m busy Thib,” I told him as I whacked at some palmettos that were clogging one of the runoff areas in the retention pond.
“Uh …”
I stopped and stood up and stretched. “What do you want?”
“Er … I guess Vadie wins this one. She says you’d be pissed.”
“About?” I asked while trying to not let my feelings show. Obviously I didn’t do a great job of it.
Thib sighed. “Ava, this wasn’t Vadie’s idea but she did need a job. She was going to have to leave the area and … and I …”
I decided I was too tired to beat around the bush. That and I was already nursing an acid stomach from the news that was coming across the radio I had been listening to. “Relax Thib. I still have a job. I never imagined myself rising above my place on the totem pole. Stop worrying it to death. Nothing is going to change what has already happened.”
“So … you’ll be staying?”
Ah, so that was it. “I don’t see where anyone has any say on that but the Trust Lawyers and whoever it is that tells them what to do.”
“What … uh … who are you talking about?”
I shrugged. “Some woman called to make sure I understood I still had a job when the lawyers gave me a letter than basically said they’d hired Vadie to replace me. Whoever she is in the scheme of things those Trust Lawyers sure scrambled to do her bidding.” I shrugged again not telling all I knew. “I tell you it sucked that I just was gonna be given the shaft like that. And since no one really gave a crap that it was going to be that way I don’t understand now why anyone should give a crap if I stay or not.”
He got a worried look and said, “It wasn’t like that.”
I looked him right in the eyes and said, “Like hell it wasn’t. Just be honest. They were picking family. I get it.”
“Er …”
“But let me give you some advice and you can chose to pass it along or not.” At his nod I said, “There are people you should be able to trust in this town. But you can’t trust ‘em.”
“Now Ava …”
“You can believe what you want but I’m telling you … you watch your back Thib. And if … and I’m not saying this is what happened … but if Auntie was persuaded that it might be a good thing to get me out of the way, that I was going to cause trouble, or take away Fabrice, or was lying about those two other idiots he calls brother … you just remember that I’ve beem putting Fabrice in Vadie’s way for a while now. The trouble I could have made a long those lines I never did … and never would have. I know what it’s like to lose everyone and everything.”
Thib was not as dumb as people mistook him to be. He might not be Einstein’s twin but he’s clever in his own way. “Wellll shit. Are you saying …”
“Shaddup. Neither one of us is saying anything. Or even thinking it. Especially not where maybe someone overhears it and carries tales to people that might take a prejudice to the truth getting out. But assuming we were, you might want to ask yourself what that person or people have to gain by arranging things the way they have. And maybe think if they’ve done any … arranging … in the past.”
In a whisper he said, “Holy hell Ava. This is bad. It’s real bad.”
“Doesn’t have to be for you and yours. Just make sure you don’t go getting yourself where you might owe certain people. They might just ask to be repaid.”
“Ava? I … um … I didn’t see it happening the way it did. I didn’t know Auntie was going to … to do what she did.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t know that she had, at least not for sure, until you confirmed it just now.”
“Aw shit.”
“Knock it off Thib. It wasn’t a state secret. Just don’t bother your grandfather about it.”
He gave me an intent look and then said, “You know don’t you?”
I didn’t but I wasn’t averse to learning something new. “Maybe. A little. Straighten me out before I stick my foot in it with Mr. Julius.”
“Geez, don’t do that,” he said worried. “Although I’m kinda guessing that it was him that called Evelyn. I know that Granpere and Orélie had some kinda fight about it.”
I looked at him and didn’t say a word. I didn’t want to give away just how much I didn’t know.
“Look, you know Dad’s mother … she left when he was a little boy.”
“Yeah. Happens. And I know it gave Mr. Julius an excuse to drink.”
Thib snorted. “Granpere didn’t need an excuse by the time my grandmother left.” He ran his hand through his hair and then made a face. “I’m only going to tell you this once so you better be listen. It’s embarrassing as hell, especially the way my brainless sister acts.”
“Fine. If it is a Cajun soap opera just get the telling over with. Not something I’m terrible fond of either. But I’m the last person to beat you up over it. I’m sure you’ve heard a few stories about Uncle Henley before.”
He relaxed a little but still looked sour. “Yeah. It’s worse when it is your own family though. You ever heard my dad talk about his mom?”
“No. At least not that I can think of.”
“You were right the first time. He hasn’t and he won’t. For love or money. The day she left is the last day she ever talked to him. Even when Granpere tried to get her to pay some attention to him, take him for a while, anything, she just wouldn’t.”
“Was she mad because Hubert was the reason she and your grandfather had to get married?”
“Got it in one,” he answered nodding. “Dad only explained it to me once and that was the day he gave me the birds and bees talk the first time. He … he was hurt bad by his mom leaving him like that. Her name was Cezelia. I could draw it all out but I hate this crap. Bottom line is Cezelia wanted what she didn’t have and thought it was the only way to be happy. She ran off with another man, divorced Granpere. She turned up pregnant and no one, not even Evelyn, knows for sure whether she is Dunn Cartier’s kid or Granpere’s. Dunn raised her as if she was his because he and Cezelia had been having an affair before she divorced Granpere but the … er … timeline of things makes it just as possible that she’s Dad’s little sister. Dunn had another family but none of them were his bio kids, just step kids he didn’t get along with. Dunn always pitched a fit when anyone brought up a blood test and would shout them down. His name is on Evelyn’s birth certificate but … uh … Evelyn … she looks more like Dad than Dunn. So you guess what a mess that’s been growing up with.”
“I take it she’s the Evelyn Cartier that got my butt out of the unemployment sling it was sitting in?
“Yeah. And you can use your imagination how Orélie and Cezelia and Granpere and Orélie’s husband make another big mess or stomach-churning story time for the insane.”
“Your grandfather and Orélie were straight and you know it. And I take it that Mr. Julius and his brother didn’t get along because of all the …” I stopped and made a face. “Okay, so maybe your story comes close to being as twisted as mine. And you don’t have to explain anymore. Beyond telling me if I guess right.” Thib nodded. “I take it that Dunn Cartier was a rich man and that The Isabelle is part of his estate and that Evelyn woman kinda runs things from behind the scenes.”
“Yep.”
“With all the family drama, why would she hire Auntie to run the Isabelle?”
He shrugged. “’Cause Aunt Orélie is her real aunt even if Evelyn isn’t Granpere’s real daughter.”
“And Cajuns have to keep the crazy in the family one way or the other.”
I actually got a smile out of Thib for that. He also said, “Yeah but Aunt Orélie really did used to be good about running things. Something is going on with her lately but …”
“Family is family.”
“Yeah. Uh … we square? Vadie is kinda … well, she’s kinda bent and on my case to make sure you’re okay. She … um … she kinda knows what it’s like to get kicked out and I guess I didn’t think until she put it together for me. I thought Auntie had a reason or you had another job or … or anything other than what it was.”
Thib reminds me too much of the guys I grew up with. “Tell Vadie we’re square but not to be a nail looking for a hammer. Things are took crazy right now.”
“You ain’t kidding. You heard about the federal orders?”
“What now?” I asked with dread thinking of all the other things I’d been hearing on the news.
“They’re telling everyone to have an evacuation plan and to keep a suitcase packed with important papers and at least a three days of food for each person, a week if you can swing it, for just in case. There’s another build up of foreign ships in the Gulf and things could go to hell in a handbasket fast.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 80
Life goes on. You think it is about to come to a head but then it just doesn’t. Maybe you’re ready to get it over with but that just not the way things play out. September was a real bear in more than one way. There was the stuff that kinda hung over my psyche waiting to fall like a ton of bricks. Em and I would run hot and cold every day. Not cold maybe but certainly things would cool down and then one or the other of us would have a rough day and there was a need to have someone there you could count on and we’d just be there for the other even if we kept getting our toes close to the danger line without meaning to and having to back up real quick to keep things from getting too complicated.
Then there was trying to get used to Auntie and Momma L turning to Vadie for lots of stuff they used to call me for. Yeah, I felt excluded. Took a while to get used to. I accepted that it was a family thing. They were working to get Vadie and Thib hooked up … as in legally married. Bit tinfoil kept trying to sprout on my head no matter how many times I’d pluck it out.
“Ava! Yo Ava! You got wax in your ears or something?!”
“I’m busy Thib,” I told him as I whacked at some palmettos that were clogging one of the runoff areas in the retention pond.
“Uh …”
I stopped and stood up and stretched. “What do you want?”
“Er … I guess Vadie wins this one. She says you’d be pissed.”
“About?” I asked while trying to not let my feelings show. Obviously I didn’t do a great job of it.
Thib sighed. “Ava, this wasn’t Vadie’s idea but she did need a job. She was going to have to leave the area and … and I …”
I decided I was too tired to beat around the bush. That and I was already nursing an acid stomach from the news that was coming across the radio I had been listening to. “Relax Thib. I still have a job. I never imagined myself rising above my place on the totem pole. Stop worrying it to death. Nothing is going to change what has already happened.”
“So … you’ll be staying?”
Ah, so that was it. “I don’t see where anyone has any say on that but the Trust Lawyers and whoever it is that tells them what to do.”
“What … uh … who are you talking about?”
I shrugged. “Some woman called to make sure I understood I still had a job when the lawyers gave me a letter than basically said they’d hired Vadie to replace me. Whoever she is in the scheme of things those Trust Lawyers sure scrambled to do her bidding.” I shrugged again not telling all I knew. “I tell you it sucked that I just was gonna be given the shaft like that. And since no one really gave a crap that it was going to be that way I don’t understand now why anyone should give a crap if I stay or not.”
He got a worried look and said, “It wasn’t like that.”
I looked him right in the eyes and said, “Like hell it wasn’t. Just be honest. They were picking family. I get it.”
“Er …”
“But let me give you some advice and you can chose to pass it along or not.” At his nod I said, “There are people you should be able to trust in this town. But you can’t trust ‘em.”
“Now Ava …”
“You can believe what you want but I’m telling you … you watch your back Thib. And if … and I’m not saying this is what happened … but if Auntie was persuaded that it might be a good thing to get me out of the way, that I was going to cause trouble, or take away Fabrice, or was lying about those two other idiots he calls brother … you just remember that I’ve beem putting Fabrice in Vadie’s way for a while now. The trouble I could have made a long those lines I never did … and never would have. I know what it’s like to lose everyone and everything.”
Thib was not as dumb as people mistook him to be. He might not be Einstein’s twin but he’s clever in his own way. “Wellll shit. Are you saying …”
“Shaddup. Neither one of us is saying anything. Or even thinking it. Especially not where maybe someone overhears it and carries tales to people that might take a prejudice to the truth getting out. But assuming we were, you might want to ask yourself what that person or people have to gain by arranging things the way they have. And maybe think if they’ve done any … arranging … in the past.”
In a whisper he said, “Holy hell Ava. This is bad. It’s real bad.”
“Doesn’t have to be for you and yours. Just make sure you don’t go getting yourself where you might owe certain people. They might just ask to be repaid.”
“Ava? I … um … I didn’t see it happening the way it did. I didn’t know Auntie was going to … to do what she did.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t know that she had, at least not for sure, until you confirmed it just now.”
“Aw shit.”
“Knock it off Thib. It wasn’t a state secret. Just don’t bother your grandfather about it.”
He gave me an intent look and then said, “You know don’t you?”
I didn’t but I wasn’t averse to learning something new. “Maybe. A little. Straighten me out before I stick my foot in it with Mr. Julius.”
“Geez, don’t do that,” he said worried. “Although I’m kinda guessing that it was him that called Evelyn. I know that Granpere and Orélie had some kinda fight about it.”
I looked at him and didn’t say a word. I didn’t want to give away just how much I didn’t know.
“Look, you know Dad’s mother … she left when he was a little boy.”
“Yeah. Happens. And I know it gave Mr. Julius an excuse to drink.”
Thib snorted. “Granpere didn’t need an excuse by the time my grandmother left.” He ran his hand through his hair and then made a face. “I’m only going to tell you this once so you better be listen. It’s embarrassing as hell, especially the way my brainless sister acts.”
“Fine. If it is a Cajun soap opera just get the telling over with. Not something I’m terrible fond of either. But I’m the last person to beat you up over it. I’m sure you’ve heard a few stories about Uncle Henley before.”
He relaxed a little but still looked sour. “Yeah. It’s worse when it is your own family though. You ever heard my dad talk about his mom?”
“No. At least not that I can think of.”
“You were right the first time. He hasn’t and he won’t. For love or money. The day she left is the last day she ever talked to him. Even when Granpere tried to get her to pay some attention to him, take him for a while, anything, she just wouldn’t.”
“Was she mad because Hubert was the reason she and your grandfather had to get married?”
“Got it in one,” he answered nodding. “Dad only explained it to me once and that was the day he gave me the birds and bees talk the first time. He … he was hurt bad by his mom leaving him like that. Her name was Cezelia. I could draw it all out but I hate this crap. Bottom line is Cezelia wanted what she didn’t have and thought it was the only way to be happy. She ran off with another man, divorced Granpere. She turned up pregnant and no one, not even Evelyn, knows for sure whether she is Dunn Cartier’s kid or Granpere’s. Dunn raised her as if she was his because he and Cezelia had been having an affair before she divorced Granpere but the … er … timeline of things makes it just as possible that she’s Dad’s little sister. Dunn had another family but none of them were his bio kids, just step kids he didn’t get along with. Dunn always pitched a fit when anyone brought up a blood test and would shout them down. His name is on Evelyn’s birth certificate but … uh … Evelyn … she looks more like Dad than Dunn. So you guess what a mess that’s been growing up with.”
“I take it she’s the Evelyn Cartier that got my butt out of the unemployment sling it was sitting in?
“Yeah. And you can use your imagination how Orélie and Cezelia and Granpere and Orélie’s husband make another big mess or stomach-churning story time for the insane.”
“Your grandfather and Orélie were straight and you know it. And I take it that Mr. Julius and his brother didn’t get along because of all the …” I stopped and made a face. “Okay, so maybe your story comes close to being as twisted as mine. And you don’t have to explain anymore. Beyond telling me if I guess right.” Thib nodded. “I take it that Dunn Cartier was a rich man and that The Isabelle is part of his estate and that Evelyn woman kinda runs things from behind the scenes.”
“Yep.”
“With all the family drama, why would she hire Auntie to run the Isabelle?”
He shrugged. “’Cause Aunt Orélie is her real aunt even if Evelyn isn’t Granpere’s real daughter.”
“And Cajuns have to keep the crazy in the family one way or the other.”
I actually got a smile out of Thib for that. He also said, “Yeah but Aunt Orélie really did used to be good about running things. Something is going on with her lately but …”
“Family is family.”
“Yeah. Uh … we square? Vadie is kinda … well, she’s kinda bent and on my case to make sure you’re okay. She … um … she kinda knows what it’s like to get kicked out and I guess I didn’t think until she put it together for me. I thought Auntie had a reason or you had another job or … or anything other than what it was.”
Thib reminds me too much of the guys I grew up with. “Tell Vadie we’re square but not to be a nail looking for a hammer. Things are took crazy right now.”
“You ain’t kidding. You heard about the federal orders?”
“What now?” I asked with dread thinking of all the other things I’d been hearing on the news.
“They’re telling everyone to have an evacuation plan and to keep a suitcase packed with important papers and at least a three days of food for each person, a week if you can swing it, for just in case. There’s another build up of foreign ships in the Gulf and things could go to hell in a handbasket fast.”
AlaskaSue
North to the Future
Goodness dear one! I just wish I was there to help! You remain, always, in my prayers!
Hope to see you this year!
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Very big thank you with all you have going on.
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
Thanks for the chapter Mother Hen. Don't know how you find the time and energy.
Also wondering how many people and how much gear will fit into Uncle Henley's pirogue?
Also wondering how many people and how much gear will fit into Uncle Henley's pirogue?
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
With Mother Hen you never know where her stories are going to take you. Just when you think you've got it figured out.... Surprise!
