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smackenzieIn October, William turns twelve and Mrs Godwin has a party for him. She invites all the boys in his class at school as well as his brothers and sisters, but Aimee declares she does not want to attend because the party will just be a lot of boys. Lucas and Matthew both put in an appearance, however, mostly to wish William a happy and to deliver their presents, and while the younger boys are running around the ballroom playing party games under the watchful eyes of Luisa and several other nannies, Mrs Godwin and her stepsons sit in the parlor and chat and nibble on cake.
Marcus comes by the house as well, just to say hello and drop off a wrapped box and a card, but he does not stay. William does not particularly want his older brothers at his party with all his friends and classmates, so it does not bother him that none of them stay in the ballroom or the larger dining room, where refreshments and cake are served after the games.
James does not want to attend the party any more than Aimee does – William does not want them there anyway – but because it is a Sunday, he does not even have Sean and Liam to entertain and be entertained by. And because the weather is bad, Con cannot go play football and so is trapped in the house as well. Only Julia and Aimee do not seem to mind that they have been relegated to the nursery or their bedrooms or the kitchen while William's party is in full swing.
But Julia has a plan, and it involves a large pair of scissors and a ladies' fashion magazine.
"You are going to help me," she whispers to James, after Con has locked himself in his room to deal with his schoolwork and Aimee has cheerfully set up her dolls to play by herself.
"What do I have to do?" he whispers back.
"Come with me." She pulls him into her room and shuts the door. "I am going to cut my hair," she says, holding up the magazine. It is called Vogue and there is a picture of a woman with bobbed hair and a yellow and green and black dress on the front. "Bettie Poole in my class bobbed her hair and it really suits her. It is very stylish."
"But your hair is so pretty," James protests. And it is – long and curly and still touched with red from the summer. She has had long hair James' whole life. When he was a baby he used to pull on it, as she has reminded him many times to tease him. He cannot imagine her with short hair, no matter how fashionable it is. She will not look like herself.
"Take this," she says, holding out a hand mirror, "and hold it up so I can see myself."
"What about the magazine?"
"Show me."
So James holds up the Vogue so Julia can see the cover. She makes a face like she is thinking hard, chewing her lip and tilting her head as if she wants to see the lady on the cover from a different angle. Then she gathers her hair in one hand, takes the scissors with the other, and cuts it off. James closes his eyes just before the cut. He cannot bear to look.
"Open your eyes, James," she says, sounding more amused than annoyed. He opens first one eye and then the other. Julia is holding out a tail of reddish-brown hair to show him how much she has chopped off. The hair still on her head is unevenly cut below her chin, but she is grinning. "Now the mirror."
James drops the magazine on the floor, holds out the mirror, and closes his eyes again. Julia laughs at him and calls him a silly goose. He sticks his tongue out at her with his eyes still closed.
He can hear the snik snik of the scissor blades as Julia tries to even out her hair, and when he opens his eyes again she has succeeded in fixing the edge of her new hairstyle just enough so that it is only slightly uneven, rather than wildly so. It does not look right to James.
"You do not look like you," he says. She reaches out and tilts the mirror so she can see her reflection better. James has let it fall to one side in his hand.
"I. Hm. No, I do not. But that is because it needs to be trimmed now, so it is even." She fluffs it with both hands. Loose cut hairs flutter down onto the carpet. "I am going to have to clean this up. Mrs O'Donnell will tell me off for making a mess."
James is oddly relieved to realize that Mrs O'Donnell can be as stern with Julia as she is with him, and that his brave, adventuous sister is just as afraid of their housekeeper as he is. But Julia's shorn hair is quite a pile, especially as she keeps shaking hair off her shoulders and onto the floor.
"What will Momma say?" he asks.
"I do not know and to be honest, I do not care." She grins, then leans forward and kisses James on the forehead. "I will have it professionally trimmed and it will look good, you will see."
Mrs Godwin does not quite pitch a fit, which James was expecting, especially after Luisa sees Julia's hair, covers her mouth with both hands in shock, and shrieks "What did you do to yourself?" Aimee admits that she likes it, and Con says that it looks as if Julia cut her hair with Mr West's hedge trimmers.
Mrs Godwin says much the same thing, along with some head-shaking and scolding and "I cannot let you go out in public like that, Julia Godwin. What were you thinking? How could you let her do this?" she demands of Luisa.
"I wanted to bob my hair," Julia says, unrepentant. "Do not blame Luisa. I cut it during William's birthday party, and she was with him."
"I am so sorry, Mrs Godwin," Luisa says. "It will never happen again."
"No, it will not," Mrs Godwin agrees, but she is looking at Julia. "I hope this is not an indicator of the years to come."
"It is just hair," Julia says. "It will grow back. I wanted to look more stylish and sophisticated."
"And instead you look as if you cut your hair with garden shears. I will take you to the hairdresser and he will fix it."
James finds himself wishing to defend Julia against his mother, even though part of him agrees that her haircut is a mess and does not look stylish or even fixable. But she is his sister and she has always been impulsive, and he loves her and will defend her against all comers, even when he does not think she has made a particularly intelligent decision.
She has to go to school on Monday with her newly- and unevenly-cut hair, but as soon as classes get out, Mrs Godwin hustles her into the car and has Mr Sewell drive them to the hairdresser. Julia comes home with her hair cut in a nice straight line across the bottom, to just under her chin. It is still curly at the ends and bounces when she nods her head, and at least it is still the same color it always was, but she no longer looks like the Julia that James knows. She looks older and stranger. He does not think he likes it.
"What is the long face?" she says to him. "I love it. Do I not look older and more worldly and sophisticated?"
"You do not look like you any more," he pouts.
"Of course I do." She crosses her eyes and makes a silly face, which makes him giggle despite himself. "See? I am the same person, I just have a different hairstyle. It will be all the rage, you will see."
"I want to bob my hair too," Aimee pipes up.
"No," Luisa tells her, and Mrs Godwin, who has been listening, adds "Absolutely not. I do not like short hair on little girls."
"When I am big, may I bob it?"
"If you still like the style, yes."
"I think it suits you," Aimee tells Julia, who kisses her on the top of her head and says thank you.
"It is certainly an improvement over the hedge trimmers," Con observes. Julia just tells him to shut up.
She asks William his opinion, but he does not have one and says so.
The rest of the month passes with only the usual dramatics. Mr and Mrs Godwin attempt twice to have as many of their children as they can for Sunday lunch, but even though Nathaniel is willing to travel into the city, Marcus refuses to stay for longer than an hour, and Julia hustles William and Aimee and James out of the larger dining room when it sounds as if Marcus and Mr Godwin are going to raise their voices in argument.
"I do not know why he bothers," Con mutters, having been banished from the dining room as well.
"Who?" Julia asks. "Marcus or Father?"
"Bryant." Julia raises an eyebrow at him. Con has taken to referring to Mr Godwin by his given name, as if they were acquaintences and not father and son. Julia thinks it is disrespectful. James thinks it means that Con does not like their father any more than Marcus does. Lately Con does not seem to like anyone, except for Julia and James and Luisa, and sometimes Aimee if he is in a good mood. "Marcus does not like him," Con continues, "we all know that. He will never agree with him or listen to him or even want to be in the same room as him for any length of time, and Bryant is an idiot for trying to force him."
"Call him 'Father'," William says. Con snorts.
"Why does Marcus not like him?" Aimee asks.
Con shrugs. "Bryant is not very likable unless you agree with him on everything and do as you are told. Marcus does not think much of Natalie either. No, I will not call her 'Mother'," he says, looking at William who is just about to open his mouth. "She is not my mother."
Con and Julia are the last children of Mr Godwin's first wife, whose name is Ginevra. James does not know what happened to her after she and Mr Godwin were divorced. Julia has told him that she went to San Francisco to be near her own mother, but James is sure that Lucas said that she is crazy and has been living on a funny farm. It does not matter to him where she is, but he is curious. But no one will tell him.
"Do not have this conversation now," Julia says. "If you wish to take Marcus' side, you may go downstairs and do so. But I do not want to hear about it."
"Of course, Madam. My apologies." Con's tone is formal and polite, but even James can tell that he is mocking Julia.
"Sometimes you are a horse's ass, Cornelius Godwin," she tells him, with as much dignity as she can muster, and she takes James and Aimee by the hand and sweeps out of the nursery with them in tow.
"Why are you mad at Con?" Aimee asks, as Julia leads them towards her room. "Is he mad at you?"
"He is mad at everyone," Julia says. "I think it comes with being sixteen."
"Will you be that angry?" James asks, a bit nervously.
"No. Not at you" – she shakes his hand – "or at you" – she shakes Aimee's. "I think he is just unhappy and angry at everything, and he is mad at me because I am right here. It will be over in a couple of hours."
And to James' relief, it is.
words: 2016
total words: 40,675
quickie research: bobbed hair, vogue
Marcus comes by the house as well, just to say hello and drop off a wrapped box and a card, but he does not stay. William does not particularly want his older brothers at his party with all his friends and classmates, so it does not bother him that none of them stay in the ballroom or the larger dining room, where refreshments and cake are served after the games.
James does not want to attend the party any more than Aimee does – William does not want them there anyway – but because it is a Sunday, he does not even have Sean and Liam to entertain and be entertained by. And because the weather is bad, Con cannot go play football and so is trapped in the house as well. Only Julia and Aimee do not seem to mind that they have been relegated to the nursery or their bedrooms or the kitchen while William's party is in full swing.
But Julia has a plan, and it involves a large pair of scissors and a ladies' fashion magazine.
"You are going to help me," she whispers to James, after Con has locked himself in his room to deal with his schoolwork and Aimee has cheerfully set up her dolls to play by herself.
"What do I have to do?" he whispers back.
"Come with me." She pulls him into her room and shuts the door. "I am going to cut my hair," she says, holding up the magazine. It is called Vogue and there is a picture of a woman with bobbed hair and a yellow and green and black dress on the front. "Bettie Poole in my class bobbed her hair and it really suits her. It is very stylish."
"But your hair is so pretty," James protests. And it is – long and curly and still touched with red from the summer. She has had long hair James' whole life. When he was a baby he used to pull on it, as she has reminded him many times to tease him. He cannot imagine her with short hair, no matter how fashionable it is. She will not look like herself.
"Take this," she says, holding out a hand mirror, "and hold it up so I can see myself."
"What about the magazine?"
"Show me."
So James holds up the Vogue so Julia can see the cover. She makes a face like she is thinking hard, chewing her lip and tilting her head as if she wants to see the lady on the cover from a different angle. Then she gathers her hair in one hand, takes the scissors with the other, and cuts it off. James closes his eyes just before the cut. He cannot bear to look.
"Open your eyes, James," she says, sounding more amused than annoyed. He opens first one eye and then the other. Julia is holding out a tail of reddish-brown hair to show him how much she has chopped off. The hair still on her head is unevenly cut below her chin, but she is grinning. "Now the mirror."
James drops the magazine on the floor, holds out the mirror, and closes his eyes again. Julia laughs at him and calls him a silly goose. He sticks his tongue out at her with his eyes still closed.
He can hear the snik snik of the scissor blades as Julia tries to even out her hair, and when he opens his eyes again she has succeeded in fixing the edge of her new hairstyle just enough so that it is only slightly uneven, rather than wildly so. It does not look right to James.
"You do not look like you," he says. She reaches out and tilts the mirror so she can see her reflection better. James has let it fall to one side in his hand.
"I. Hm. No, I do not. But that is because it needs to be trimmed now, so it is even." She fluffs it with both hands. Loose cut hairs flutter down onto the carpet. "I am going to have to clean this up. Mrs O'Donnell will tell me off for making a mess."
James is oddly relieved to realize that Mrs O'Donnell can be as stern with Julia as she is with him, and that his brave, adventuous sister is just as afraid of their housekeeper as he is. But Julia's shorn hair is quite a pile, especially as she keeps shaking hair off her shoulders and onto the floor.
"What will Momma say?" he asks.
"I do not know and to be honest, I do not care." She grins, then leans forward and kisses James on the forehead. "I will have it professionally trimmed and it will look good, you will see."
Mrs Godwin does not quite pitch a fit, which James was expecting, especially after Luisa sees Julia's hair, covers her mouth with both hands in shock, and shrieks "What did you do to yourself?" Aimee admits that she likes it, and Con says that it looks as if Julia cut her hair with Mr West's hedge trimmers.
Mrs Godwin says much the same thing, along with some head-shaking and scolding and "I cannot let you go out in public like that, Julia Godwin. What were you thinking? How could you let her do this?" she demands of Luisa.
"I wanted to bob my hair," Julia says, unrepentant. "Do not blame Luisa. I cut it during William's birthday party, and she was with him."
"I am so sorry, Mrs Godwin," Luisa says. "It will never happen again."
"No, it will not," Mrs Godwin agrees, but she is looking at Julia. "I hope this is not an indicator of the years to come."
"It is just hair," Julia says. "It will grow back. I wanted to look more stylish and sophisticated."
"And instead you look as if you cut your hair with garden shears. I will take you to the hairdresser and he will fix it."
James finds himself wishing to defend Julia against his mother, even though part of him agrees that her haircut is a mess and does not look stylish or even fixable. But she is his sister and she has always been impulsive, and he loves her and will defend her against all comers, even when he does not think she has made a particularly intelligent decision.
She has to go to school on Monday with her newly- and unevenly-cut hair, but as soon as classes get out, Mrs Godwin hustles her into the car and has Mr Sewell drive them to the hairdresser. Julia comes home with her hair cut in a nice straight line across the bottom, to just under her chin. It is still curly at the ends and bounces when she nods her head, and at least it is still the same color it always was, but she no longer looks like the Julia that James knows. She looks older and stranger. He does not think he likes it.
"What is the long face?" she says to him. "I love it. Do I not look older and more worldly and sophisticated?"
"You do not look like you any more," he pouts.
"Of course I do." She crosses her eyes and makes a silly face, which makes him giggle despite himself. "See? I am the same person, I just have a different hairstyle. It will be all the rage, you will see."
"I want to bob my hair too," Aimee pipes up.
"No," Luisa tells her, and Mrs Godwin, who has been listening, adds "Absolutely not. I do not like short hair on little girls."
"When I am big, may I bob it?"
"If you still like the style, yes."
"I think it suits you," Aimee tells Julia, who kisses her on the top of her head and says thank you.
"It is certainly an improvement over the hedge trimmers," Con observes. Julia just tells him to shut up.
She asks William his opinion, but he does not have one and says so.
The rest of the month passes with only the usual dramatics. Mr and Mrs Godwin attempt twice to have as many of their children as they can for Sunday lunch, but even though Nathaniel is willing to travel into the city, Marcus refuses to stay for longer than an hour, and Julia hustles William and Aimee and James out of the larger dining room when it sounds as if Marcus and Mr Godwin are going to raise their voices in argument.
"I do not know why he bothers," Con mutters, having been banished from the dining room as well.
"Who?" Julia asks. "Marcus or Father?"
"Bryant." Julia raises an eyebrow at him. Con has taken to referring to Mr Godwin by his given name, as if they were acquaintences and not father and son. Julia thinks it is disrespectful. James thinks it means that Con does not like their father any more than Marcus does. Lately Con does not seem to like anyone, except for Julia and James and Luisa, and sometimes Aimee if he is in a good mood. "Marcus does not like him," Con continues, "we all know that. He will never agree with him or listen to him or even want to be in the same room as him for any length of time, and Bryant is an idiot for trying to force him."
"Call him 'Father'," William says. Con snorts.
"Why does Marcus not like him?" Aimee asks.
Con shrugs. "Bryant is not very likable unless you agree with him on everything and do as you are told. Marcus does not think much of Natalie either. No, I will not call her 'Mother'," he says, looking at William who is just about to open his mouth. "She is not my mother."
Con and Julia are the last children of Mr Godwin's first wife, whose name is Ginevra. James does not know what happened to her after she and Mr Godwin were divorced. Julia has told him that she went to San Francisco to be near her own mother, but James is sure that Lucas said that she is crazy and has been living on a funny farm. It does not matter to him where she is, but he is curious. But no one will tell him.
"Do not have this conversation now," Julia says. "If you wish to take Marcus' side, you may go downstairs and do so. But I do not want to hear about it."
"Of course, Madam. My apologies." Con's tone is formal and polite, but even James can tell that he is mocking Julia.
"Sometimes you are a horse's ass, Cornelius Godwin," she tells him, with as much dignity as she can muster, and she takes James and Aimee by the hand and sweeps out of the nursery with them in tow.
"Why are you mad at Con?" Aimee asks, as Julia leads them towards her room. "Is he mad at you?"
"He is mad at everyone," Julia says. "I think it comes with being sixteen."
"Will you be that angry?" James asks, a bit nervously.
"No. Not at you" – she shakes his hand – "or at you" – she shakes Aimee's. "I think he is just unhappy and angry at everything, and he is mad at me because I am right here. It will be over in a couple of hours."
And to James' relief, it is.
words: 2016
total words: 40,675
quickie research: bobbed hair, vogue
