by Geeta Kakade
I haven’t told anyone about my knitting, as I don’t want it to seem as if I’m an old grandmother. As it is I’ve seen the way people look at me when they meet me for the first time.
Moira doesn’t resent my help in the kitchen and we’ve bottled some fruit with Christy under Toby’s sister’s guidance. She’s an expert. It took a whole day but we’ve got so many jars of peaches done that Christy says I can take some to the Convent when I visit. We’re going to do apricots, plums and nectarines next. The strawberries, apricots and plums are going to be used for jam as well.
I showed them how to bake bread from scratch, as we do at the Convent. Christy was so excited about it I couldn’t believe it. When the bread was done we sat down with Mark, Toby, Frank and Moira and tore off hunks of newly baked warmed bread, slathered it with butter and freshly made strawberry jam and had a feast.
Christy said Cupid Lodge had never smelled better than it did when the bread was baking and the strawberry jam was cooking. She said she wished she could always have it smell like that in the mornings and I offered to bake bread once a week while I was here. It’s the least I can do to repay her for all her kindness. One guest asked Christy if they could buy some of the homemade strawberry jam before they left. Christy said she might have a few jars for sale but they were primarily for the people who stayed at Cupid Lodge.
She and Moira discussed giving each guest a small jar to take with them at the end of their stay. It would have the Cupid Lodge label on it and would be in addition to the cookies in a small box. Lucky guests.
Lucky me too, for having this opportunity of staying here.
I’m getting used to all of them but it will take some time for them to be comfortable around me. I guess I’m an oddity…an orphan who’s thinking of becoming a nun. Then there’s the way I dress. I haven’t read any magazine since I’ve been here that says shirts buttoned to the neck worn with skirts that are calf length are the fashion statement of the season. Christy’s persuaded me to wear jeans when we are out on the boat and of course I wear them for riding but the rest of the time I’m comfortable in what I’ve always worn.
I see Mr. Kemp start to launch into one of his stories and if I’m there Mrs. Kemp will kick his foot under the table and he’ll stop and say he forgot what he was going to say.
As it is after this month here I feel like I’ve been in a time warp all this time. The things even Frank takes for granted, like making decisions for himself about what he’s going to do each day after his homework, I’m just beginning to experience.
Mark took us to some stables nearby and enrolled Moira, Frank and me in riding lessons. We were all nervous at first but we have the nicest horses and great instructors. Mark and Christy got us all special riding jeans with no inseam, boots and safety helmets. We had to get to know our horses and the basics of riding before we got on them. Our thighs were sore that first time and the three of us walked bow legged for a couple of days but we’re getting used to it. Christy and Mark rent horses and go for a ride when we have lessons. Mark’s an experienced rider and Christy had lessons when she was young.
JULY 2012
Never a dull moment.
At the convent we always followed a set routine with a few exceptions. Here it’s like each day is a new adventure.
I’m learning how to take the rowboat out on the lake and set up the fishing lines and read or write while I catch our dinner. Christy told me that’s what Mark did all the time when she got to Silver Lake and she thought he was just a no-good lazy moocher but he was really on a government job keeping a watch on the house next door. It was amazing to hear about how they fell in love. It truly was a case of Cupid vs. O’Keefe for a while there.
Cupid Lodge is filled with guests and we are all very busy trying to help Christy. Once the guests are gone for the day and the chores are done, we are free. We get the cleaning done quickly as everyone pitches in and then Christy and Mark like to take Frank and me out on the boat, exploring the lake, anchoring it in one cove or another so we can spend the afternoons swimming and fishing. I’m glad I learned to swim as a kid. The Convent has a house for old and sick nuns with a private beach on Lake Tahoe and we kids were taken there every day in the summer in the Convent Bus so we could help the sick nuns by doing chores for them or read to them or just talk with them. After we did that we were allowed to swim for an hour each day or play on the beach, before it was time to go back. I’m glad now I learned to swim and am not afraid of the water.
I was uncomfortable the first couple of times I was in a swimsuit around Mark but he doesn’t stare at me so that’s something else I’m getting used to. He treats me like I’m Frank’s age.
Christy is teaching me how to handle the boat and Mark has told me all about the fishing laws in California so I don’t incur any fines.
Mr. and Mrs. Kemp are away in New Zealand for the whole month so I help Moira and Christy with getting breakfast ready. Christy insists she’s going to give me what Moira asks for which is fifty dollars a week. I told her I don’t need any money. I have a hundred dollars saved up from my work at the Convent and that should be plenty for the summer. Christy said I either have to stop working or take the money. I guess I’ll just have to find a way of giving it back.
Mark had to be away for two weeks for his job and for the first time since they’ve been married Christy decided not to go with him. I worry it’s because of me but she said it’s because of Mark’s work…he’d be so busy they wouldn’t be able to spend time together. Plus, she says, she’s discovered summer can be really busy at Cupid Lodge. We’re doing a lot of things together with Mark gone. On one of our trips to town I saw a sale on yarn in the craft store by Mina’s Galleries and I bought some. I finally told Christie I like knitting while I listen to my music. She didn’t laugh at me just said she wished she could knit too. She’s learning to quilt now and after that she’d like to learn to knit.
She asked me to teach her and I was about to say I wouldn’t be here for that but I kept quiet. I can always come to Cupid Lodge once in a way even after I return to the Convent.
Christy stops by Mina’s galleries often. I’ve seen her father’s work displayed there. At the house Christy has a beautiful painting of his over the fireplace and a couple of his other sketches or watercolors in every room. He was a very talented artist. Christy showed me the website and the portfolio of sketches he did of her as a child and told me all about her childhood. She’d been told he was dead and she couldn’t believe it when she found a letter from his lawyers on her twenty fourth birthday, among her mother’s things, telling he had died six months ago and left her this house. She came to Silver Lake right away and once she got here knew this was where she belonged. I am so glad she’s living at Cupid Lodge now and she found enough proof here that her father never stopped loving her. I know her father had something to do with Mark and her falling in love with each other. I didn’t know I was crying as I listened to her talk about her pain over not being able to help her father when he was ill, till she put her arms around me and we cried together.
Mark took one look at our faces that evening and said he was taking us out for dinner. No guests had requested a meal that night and Moira and Frank were at the movies. We went to a very fancy restaurant in South Lake that overlooked Lake Tahoe and had the best dinner possible. There is a standup comedian who performs there. By the time we left we were all in a good mood.
What Mark did for Christy made me think…it must be nice to have someone so tuned into you that they know when you’re sad and want to make you feel better. I’m so glad Christy and Mark are there for each other.
The riding lessons are twice a week now and we go for short rides. Our instructor has us on a lunge rein so there’s no chance of our horses running away with us. Moira’s still nervous but she’s getting better.
Everyone is surprised about how I fix things…the toaster, the leak in the bathroom sink, the scanner. I picked up my repair skills in the Convent. W
e got a lot of donations that just needed a little fixing to start working and I used to love challenging myself to see what I could do with them. Sister Winifred, the nun who raised me, said I took all my toys apart too as a toddler and then wanted to put them back again.
I can’t believe how quickly eight weeks have gone by.
Each new thing I do is helping my confidence level and I am surprised how much I’m talking these days. Of course everyone praises me and encourages me, so that helps. I think they see me as a turtle who has to be coaxed out of its shell.
August 2012
Mark had to be away for another week this month and Christy decided to take everything out of the old roll top desk in the attic and refinish it. She researches these things very carefully online and at the library as she doesn’t want to ruin the old finish by covering it with the wrong stain. She says she loves to restore things to what they originally were as her maternal grandmother taught her to appreciate the beauty of antiques.
We got the family tree out and looked at it but there was nothing there that helped me. I’m twenty-one and there’s no entry after Christy’s birth. As I told Christy it doesn’t matter. I’m happy at the Convent.
After we had all the papers in the desk out and sorted, I asked Christy if I could examine the desk further. Mother Superior has one like it and when you put your hands into the very back there is a latch that releases a small door to a secret compartment.
Christy and I could not believe it when we found two old diaries there. She hugged me and said I was brilliant. I was so glad I had found something that made her so happy. We examined them so very carefully. I wondered if we should wear gloves as the first diary is so very old and the paper is so thin and yellowed. Luckily they are well preserved and easy to read.
Christy and I read the first twenty pages together…she is so excited about our find. The next day she told me she hadn’t been able to get to sleep and stayed up till dawn to finish reading the first one.
I haven’t read past the first few pages as it suddenly hurts to do so. These are the stories of her family, not mine. Christy must have guessed how I feel because she hasn’t mentioned the diaries since; only gone out of her way to suggest things we can do outdoors. I’m not jealous. From time to time I just feel lonely inside when I think about whom my parents were but as Sister Winifred always said my life isn’t a Greek tragedy unless I choose to make it one.
Keeping busy and keeping self-pity out is not a problem at Cupid Lodge.
It seems strange to have all my time to myself once the morning work is done.
“Have fun,” Christy always says and I’m learning to though I do feel guilty sometimes that I should be doing something useful instead. Working through the guilt is getting surprisingly easier with each passing day.
Frank and I love going for long walks on the beach, swimming, getting the lobster pots up and finding them teeming with crawfish. Having a crawfish boil in the backyard is so much fun. The first time Mark showed me how to do this, he Christy and I stayed up till four a.m. emptying the crawfish traps and re-baiting them. I’ve never seen so many crawfish in my life as we caught that night. We had a huge crawfish-fest in the backyard the next night and all the guests loved it.
The Kemps are back and in charge and after giving them a week to get over their jet lag Christy and Mark talked with them and decided we could all take a few days off, Moira too, and go to Reno for the weekend. Toby has found someone who will come in and help Mrs. Kemp in the mornings while we are gone. Moira has been training Sue Tinsley for the last two weeks and says she’s a good worker.
Mark said that’s high praise coming from Moira and Toby says he had to talk to a lot of people in town before he found Sue. He said he knew we needed someone who could hold her own when compared to Christy, Moira and me.
I’m looking forward to my visit home to the Convent as Mark said we would stop there first. I’ve missed Sister Winifred.
We left early Friday morning after breakfast and we were at the Convent by eleven. I showed them around the Orphanage where I’d grown up and introduced them to Mother Superior and Sister Winifred. I had a private interview with Mother Superior while Sister Winifred took everybody around the bakery and farm attached to the Convent. Mother Superior said I looked well and she and Sister Winifred think I should accept Christy and Mark’s invitation to extend my stay at Cupid Lodge till December if I wanted to. I do want to stay on for a while so I thanked her and said I would like to do that.
There is a guesthouse at the Convent and Mother Superior invited all of us to spend Friday and Saturday night there.
We had dinner in the Orphanage dining hall at the head table. I told the others that when we helped ourselves to dessert we usually sit with the kids at whichever table we want to. I stayed with Sister Winifred at the head table so we could have a chat. She asked me about life at Cupid Lodge. We talked and I wondered if it was only my imagination or did she look more tired than usual? I asked her if she was all right and she said she didn’t know what I meant. She’d never felt better. She said she enjoyed my letters and was glad I was staying on at Cupid Lodge till December.
After dinner, the kids put on a one-hour talent show for us. We enjoyed the small skit and the performances on different musical instruments. Moira said her favorite was the little eight year old girl, Joan, who had sung Ave Maria at the end with a voice that should surely find her a spot on the America’s Got Talent show when she was older. My favorite was five year old Nina who played the mouth organ.
The next day the five of us went to the Best in the West Rib Cook off. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so many ribs or had such a fun day sampling all those delicious kinds and amazing sauces. There were bands playing throughout the day too and I could tell everyone about downtown Sparks on the drive by sightseeing we did before getting to Victorian Square. We had always gone there from St. Mary’s every year to sing Christmas carols.
We all wore Western hats and outfits for the Rib Cook Off, very much in the spirit of the day. Christy looked madly in love with her cowboy, Mark. Moira, Frank and I separated from them for a while to give them time to be on their own. I said I wanted to talk to one of the women who had been on the barbecue circuit for twelve years about her sauces and Moira and Frank went off to meet one of the singers in the group who’s show we’d watched earlier. On my way to meet everyone I saw Mark talking with someone in a huge cowboy hat behind one of the biggest barbecue trailers. That was strange, even more so because he didn’t mention it later when he joined us and Christy asked where he’d been.
I thought I’d seen him with that man when I went to town for groceries last month too. They’d been talking by Bud’s garage but I can’t be sure it’s the same man. It’s none of my business anyway whom he chooses to talk with.
By five we were exhausted. It was all the food we’d eaten and all the walking I guess. We collected the huge trays of ribs, bowls of salad and pickled watermelon rinds Mark and Christy had ordered to take back to the Convent with us. As soon as we had tasted the first few samples that morning, Christy had asked me to call Sister Winifred and check if we could bring dinner for everybody. The sisters and the kids loved the food. I sat and chatted with Sister Winifred while she ate and she mentioned she knew now exactly what I meant about Christy being one of the most generous people alive.
On Sunday we attended the service in the Convent Chapel at ten and then Mark said he would like to head back early to avoid getting caught in weekend traffic. I hugged and kissed Sister Winifred and held on to her for a little longer than I normally would. She gave me a long look as she said, “Bless you my child.”
Christy was strangely quiet on the drive home. Mark kept looking at her from time to time but he said nothing. Frank filled in the silence with his comments on the Rib Cook Off and how much he had liked our vacation together and wanted to know if we could have another vacation soon. A look from his mother silenced him.
The Kemps were
happy to have us all back. Christy was reassured that everything had been all right in our absence and Mark teased her saying nothing could have dared go wrong with her hourly phone calls to check on things. He said she’d been like a new mother leaving her baby with sitters for the first time. She said she’d been away with him before but he said that had been different…it was the Kemps who hadn’t been left to run things alone before and the last three days had proved they could do it as well as she could.
Mrs. Kemp told me that Christy won’t take any money for their board, since they started running Cupid Lodge whenever she was busy or on a trip with Mark. She says the place has been a godsend to them. They’d wanted to get their own place in the area but realized they needed to be around people not on their own. Cupid Lodge was the perfect answer to their needs. Managing the business side has gotten Mr. Kemp out of the blue funk he’s been in since he retired and made her life so much easier. She loved cooking and talking to people and could do both here to her heart’s content. Most important they both felt needed.
We went for a camping trip the last week of August and it was great. We drove to stables that a friend of Mark’s has. Joe Garrison had a special wilderness permit and planned a special trip for us and he and his wife Amy came along with us. We rode into the El Dorado forest area on a little known trail that Joe said he only took his friends on. He wanted to offer it to guests next year and wanted our suggestions on how to make it perfect.
Moira, Frank and I had really quiet horses and we soon got used to them. We rode in two groups ten minutes apart, so we wouldn’t be inhaling dust from the horse in front. Amy rode in front with Christy, Mark and Moira. Joe stayed with Frank and me. I think their horses know how to handle inexperienced riders and after we got comfortable on them we started enjoying the amazing scenery. Towering pines, shallow creeks and the beauty of meadows that stretched as far as the eye could see. Joe talked about how his pack outfit was new in the area and he and Amy were working hard to establish a reputation for personalized packing trips. He says the guides are also called wranglers and every trip needed a special wilderness permit.
