Today is Rachel Griffin’s fourteenth birthday.
So much happens today that I have no idea where to start.
She has a nice morning. She finally gets her long-awaited talk with her father. She gets teased by Sandra. She discovers something that throws her. She has a chat with the Raven, and she gets to go riding with her friend Ben Bridges.
She even gets to see Thunderfrost and “Thunderfrost’s boy,” the ghost of her Uncle Myrddin.
All around, it is a most eventful birthday.
During the ride with Ben and her family, she gets into a battle of haiku with her older sister Sandra, when trying to convince Sandra not to tell Vladimir how Rachel pretended to summon him by snapping her fingers.
It went thus:
Sandra glanced at her and chuckled. “Are there any other boys you can produce by snapping your fingers?”
“Oh, that’s so unfair! Please don’t tell him! Please!”
Sandra rolled her eyes. “So, how are you, dongsaeng? I can’t believe you’re already fourteen! How is Roanoke treating you?” She leaned toward her little sister and asked teasingly, “Has it gotten you over your obsession with moldy mounts of rocks and outdated ways of life? Finally ready to leave all that behind and embrace some new ideas?”
Rachel bit her lip. No wonder she so often found herself reluctant to share her innermost thoughts. When she did, the people she most cared about always seemed to use that very thing to pick on her. Why had she made her now-infamous speech about preserving precious old things in front of her family? She had been talking to her dead grandfather, upon the first anniversary of his death. She could have waited until no one else was present.
“I have not changed my mind,” she replied quietly, not wishing to discuss the matter on her birthday.
Sandra smiled kindly. “You’ll change your mind as soon as you get a taste of the wonders of Unwary living. Though some of their devices are so amazing that I suspect magic must be used to create them. O.I. certainly does. Like refrigerators. A brilliant invention that makes life so much easier. Once you’ve lived with one, you will never want to go back.”
“We have ice sticks and stay-fresh boxes,” countered Rachel.
“Ice sticks don’t last very long,” replied Sandra, “and stay fresh boxes tend to dry things out. If you leave food in them too long, it becomes tasteless. That doesn’t happen with a fridge. All that wonderful tasty goodness is preserved. Besides, refrigerator makes an excellent last line to any haiku:
My little sister
Knows nothing of what is good
Refrigerator.”
Rachel counted the syllables in the word refrigerator. Sure enough, it was five.
“Let me try.” Rachel drew in a deep breath.
“Please do not tell Vlad
He will flatten me with a
Refrigerator.”
Sandra chuckled charmingly.
“Then you won’t tell him?” Rachel asked hopefully.
“Too late. Already did.”
Happy Birthday, Rachel!