Friday, June 22, 2012

every family

If every family chooses someone to punish, I was the one chosen by mine. Mr. Harding, for instance. When he came to lunch, Ma always put him next to me. Why me? I wanted to know. Why not Miranda, she's a freak herself? Every night Miranda woke up screaming that the Germans were coming for her over a wall. War I kept telling her, it's war, not wall! But Ma just told me to keep my oar out of it, Miranda had a fixation, she said, and anyway, what would I know about the war, I hadn't even been born until it was over. So it was hopeless. Every Sunday I was stuck next to Mr. Harding, and every night Miranda was allowed to go on screaming until Ma came down the passage with the DDT. From The Servants' Quarters by Lynn Freed
Photo: Wilhelm von Gloeden c. 1895 
via my dear friend Deanna Marrujo

4 comments:

Louise de lima said...

What a beautiful picture!
How cool that you lived in Trancoso. What took you there? Did you love it? It's still so beautiful. I wonder if it's changed a lot.

erica lorraine scheidt said...

Louise, hello. I have one of your bags from Toast and I get a million compliments on it.

I ended up in Trancoso as a teenager traveling with her brother and then I fell in love with the place and a boy and I stayed. Trancoso had no electricity, and Ajuda only had electricity sometimes. But the pictures you posted look just like I remember. xo

louise and nivaldo de lima said...

How wonderful! I have a friend who went there as a young girl and also fell in love with a boy and stayed for a couple of years. She was in Trancoso and Caraiva. Her name's Alice. Wouldn't it be funny if you knew her?
I can't believe that you have one of our bags, that so great! I'm happy to hear that you're still wearing and loving it! x

erica lorraine scheidt said...

Maybe I know her. There is such romance there. And we'd dance, lambada and forró. How could you not fall in love?

xo