Relatively Inescapeable

Relatively Inescapable

“Did you hear the news?” Archie whispered to Ellen.

“What news? Did I miss some gossip?”

“You were reading when I heard Mom on the phone. Auntie Mar is coming!”

"There’s no escape,” Archie intoned darkly.

“She only comes at Christmas! It’s not Christmas now!”

“No! Mom and Dad invited her for Thanksgiving this year.”

“Why? “

“How do I know, but she’s coming!”

“She always smells like Vicks Vapor-Rub, moth balls and Avon Moisture Cream!” Archie said.

“She’s always nice to me,” Ellen said brightening.

“She’s anti-boy, I think.”

“Auntie Mar never had kids of her own, remember?” chimed in a third voice. They looked up startled to see their mother beside them.

“What’s her real name?” asked Archie curiously.

“Marguerite, I have her name for my second name,” their mother replied.

The two stared at each other wordlessly.

“Better go break the news to the other kids. Dad went to pick her up at the train.”

“How long is she staying?” Archie blurted as he ran past.

“Until after New Year’s Day,” came their mom’s reply.

“Wow, that’s a really long visit,” Ellen said happily, visions of raisin bran muffins and oatmeal wafer cookies wafting through her head.

Archie said little, because he wanted to be first to tell the other five siblings the news. As for Ellen, she remembered those summers she spent in Sudbury with Auntie Mar quite fondly. She met a girl her age who lived next door to her auntie’s apartment building, and they played together for hours.

“I even went to kindergarten across the street, and when I wasn’t ready for Grade One, I repeated kindergarten at the same school,” she remembered.

“Actually, Auntie Mar wasn’t so bad. She grew on you,” Ellen realized, smiling widely.