Love Notes from Vinegar House Read Online Free PDF Page B

and Oscar also has everyone’s attention for he is the baby of the family. As the oldest child, Isabella knows things about our family that Oscar and I don’t. I often find Isabella and Mum huddled in secret corners talking in whispers and then stopping when I appear. Just once, I would like there to be something special about being the kid stuck in the middle.
    Isabella would never tell me about Rumer’s secret. So one day, the second day of that fateful beach holiday at Ocean Side, I just up and asked my cousin. I waited until the others were walking down to the beach, their laughter wafting through the small open window, then I rummaged around under my camp bed while Rumer ignored me.
    “Rumer,” I finally asked her, pulling out some sandals, “what are your special circumstances?”
    Rumer had never made a point of being my friend, so I was used to her ignoring me unless she wanted something. When I asked her again, she lowered the magazine she was reading and looked at me as if I were a mosquito she might squash.
    “What are you talking about, you crazy child?” she asked.
    Then she yawned.
    She did it in such an insulting way, that I began to feel my familiar anger with her fizz like lemonade bubbles in my blood.
    So I took a guess and asked about her mother – a thing my own mother had forbidden me to ask my cousin – and Rumer sucked the air between her teeth as if I’d stung her. Then she looked at me, her head tilted a little, and her eyes grew misty as she settled the magazine to one side and patted the camp bed in invitation. This surprised me so much that I perched on the edge of the bed without thinking.
    “The truth is,” said Rumer finally, “my mother is in heaven.”
    It was my turn to gasp.
    “Oh, Rumer,” I said. “How awful.”
    I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone before. I sometimes imagine the loss of my own parents – in a plane crash or an earthquake, I never spend a lot of time thinking how this happens – and I immediately feel such an ache in my heart that I have to remind myself that my parents are, in fact, alive. Even the Colonel looks good after his temporary demise. (Demise is a word I like to use instead of the word death. I don’t like the phrase passed away – which is what journalists sometimes say on the news – because it sounds like someone has just gone past you, but they might be back at any moment. Anyway, that’s what I think.)
    “I don’t remember her,” I said, thinking back to the many Kramer family gatherings and special occasions.
    Well, of course, there was our family – Dad, Mum, Isabella, Oscar and me.
    And I’ve told you about Uncle Stephen, the doctor. He’s married to Aunty Jenny and they have the twins, Lee and Angus.
    Aunty Wendy is married to Uncle John and they have four kids – Julia and her three brothers.
    Rumer and Uncle Lawrence were the relatives who always turned up late. Rumer dressed like she was going to a wedding while the rest of us were dressed like it was the first day of school holidays. Rumer and Uncle Lawrence. But never an Aunty so-and-so. It had never occurred to me that someone was missing. Not that I could remember anyway.
    “I was very young,” said Rumer. “Very.”
    “Was she beautiful? Your mother?” I asked. It made sense to me – why Rumer looked so different from the rest of us. She must have had a beautiful blond mother, a mysterious person who I would never meet.
    “Of course.”
    “You must take after her,” I said.
    “I do,” said Rumer, tossing her hair.
    “You must miss her,” I said.
    Rumer shrugged. “I don’t really remember her too much.”
    I wanted to ask Rumer about her mother’s
demise
, but I wasn’t sure how I could ask that, and she didn’t offer any explanation. Instead, I said, “I’m glad you’ve come to Ocean Side with us.” It was a lie, but the only nice thing I could think to say.
    “I didn’t realise we’d be staying in a shack,” she