smackenzie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smackenzie) wrote2011-11-28 11:26 pm
smackenzie) wrote2011-11-28 11:26 pm
Entry tags:
i want all those birthday presents myself
So for the next half hour James makes guesses as to what kinds of birthday presents his family has gotten him, and Aimee announces what she would like when it is her birthday in March, but maybe she would like those things for Christmas too, because Christmas is sooner, and they talk about cake and the piñata and how Penelope Carder did not look like the kind of girl who could swing the stick hard enough to whack a hole in it, and James feels a bit better about Julia and Con being in trouble on his behalf, although he still does not understand his mother's ideas about quality people and why Sean and Liam only seem to count part of the time.
The next day he finds out from her why she did not want to invite them to his party, although her explanation does not make any more sense to him than Con's did.
"I did not want them to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed or out of place," she says. She has beckoned James into her bedroom and shut the door so they may have some privacy. James half expects to see Aimee and Julia standing nonchalantly in the hallway, pretending they were not trying to listen.
"But they were happy to be here," James tells her. "They were not uncomfortable at all. Liam would have said, if they were. Why would they be embarrassed? Benji Troutman pushed Sean out of the way to get to the piñata candy, and he wasn't embarrassed about that. And he should have been."
"Someday you will understand this better, but sometimes when a person is among people of a different background – say, from a very different neighborhood – he can feel a bit out of place and uncomfortable, because he is with people who are unfamiliar to him."
"But – "
"I was concerned for your friends. I did not want them to be unhappy at your party, and in so doing, make you unhappy."
"They had a good time. They told me so."
"James." Mrs Godwin sighs. "I had your and their best interests at heart. They came over Saturday and had cake, did they not?"
"Yes."
"That should have been enough. Do you understand that I did not wish to hurt you by excluding them?"
"Yes."
"Good." She kisses his forehead. "Someday you will understand, I promise."
"Are Con and Julia still in trouble?"
"Oh yes, they are. Not because they conspired to invite the O'Donnell boys to your party, but because they went behind my back and ignored my wishes to do so. Despite what they may think of me, I am still their mother, and I am still in charge, and they may not do whatever pleases them simply because it is pleasing."
"Julia likes you," James says. It seems important to him that his mother know that.
"I believe you. But it is time to talk about other things. Have you told Mrs Malcolm what kind of cake you want for tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"What kind?"
"It is a secret." James grins. He is practicing secret-keeping for the day when he must keep a big one, and so far he thinks he is pretty successful at it.
The date of his birthday is of course not a secret, and at school on Tuesday, his entire class and his teacher sing him the birthday song right before lunch. He does not get any gifts, but he was not expecting any, nor does he get a cake, but Julia sneaks into his classroom with a balloon, so at least he has something to celebrate with.
Supper is a much less crowded affair than his party – Marcus and Matthew and Lucas have already dropped off their presents, and Matthew and Lucas saw him on Sunday, so there is nothing to mark this night as special other than his choice of dinner (turkey), and Mrs Malcolm's cake, which is chocolate decorated with orange slices and green grapes, chocolate icing, and eight candles. When James blows them out and makes a wish, this time he wishes he could be a pirate, even if only for a day or two.
His presents have been arranged in the parlor by the time the Godwins have finished the cake. "As if by elves," Julia whispers conspiratorially, to which William snorts "No, as if by Luisa and Mr Sewell."
"Spoilsport," Julia mutters. William looks unperturbed.
James sits on the sofa to open his gifts. There seem to be a lot of them, but he did not have a celebration of this size last year, so in comparison any number of gifts would be a large one. He receives a leather-bound book called Treasure Island from Marcus, illustrated with full-color, full-page pictures, and an inscription on the title page, which Luisa asks James to read out loud.
"'This was my favorite book when I was eight'," he reads slowly, trying to decipher his brother's handwriting. "It is a thrilling story of pirates and derring-do, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.'"
"Yo-ho-ho," Con says. "Pity it does not come with a bottle of rum."
From Matthew and Alianor comes a pirate costume, as if they have conspired with Marcus to give James gifts on a theme. It comes with baggy red-and-white striped pants, a billowing white shirt, a red sash with fringe, a three-cornered hat, a toy saber in a leather scabbard attached to a belt, an eyepatch, and a little stuffed parrot to sit on his shoulder. All that is missing is the buccaneer boots, but inside the envelope with the birthday card is a little note in Alianor's pretty script, explaining that they need his feet to ensure the boots are the right size, and they will take him to be fitted before Christmas.
James puts the hat on right away.
Gabriel had to send his present by post, and rather than a box wrapped in ribbons and decorative paper, James has a packing box with his name printed on an address label to open. It contains a model of an airplane painted olive green with a bull's-eye on each side, with a working propeller, two tiny machine guns in front of the cockpit, and wings a foot wide. There is even a little pilot sitting in the cockpit, wearing a helmet and goggles. A little card in the box explains that this is a model of the Sopwith Camel, the plane that brought down the famous Red Baron over France. James cannot wait to show it to Sean and Liam.
From Lucas he receives an Erector Set, many pieces of metal with holes drilled in them for nuts and bolts and screws and pulleys, which seems to really interest William (not that James is planning on sharing, unless he absolutely has to), and from Nathaniel, also sent by post, is a carved wooden horse painted to look like a Plains Indian's painted pony – "They are called appaloosas," Mr Godwin says – and a carved and jointed wooden cowboy to ride him. The horse is wearing a little leather saddle and bridle, and the cowboy is wearing chaps and a cowboy hat, and there is even a little leather holster bearing a little rifle hanging from the saddle. James cannot wait to show this to Sean and Liam as well.
He is doing very well for presents, and it does not even occur to him to wonder how a brother who he never sees can know how much he likes cowboys.
Aimee has gotten him a brown velveteen toy pony, because he could not have a real pony at his birthday party, and William has gotten him, oddly enough, a green and gold model train car. Luisa's gift is a pair of red and yellow mittens that she has clearly knitted herself, and which fit him with a little room to grow into, and from Mrs Malcolm he has, naturally, an excellent birthday cake.
Julia and Con give him a joint present, which is contained in a couple of boxes and turns out to be a model pirate ship complete with plank to walk, a captain with a pegleg, several pirate crew, two chests with lids that open to reveal their treasure, rows of portholes through which James can see tiny cannon barrels, a crow's nest, booms that swing, many sails, a flag with the skull and crossbones, of course, and a great deal of rigging. It is the most amazing thing he has ever seen, and he is so impressed with it that he forgets his manners and does not thank either of his siblings until after Luisa has prompted him twice.
Con just laughs at James' awestruck "Thank you," and Julia admits she does not know how any Christmas present will ever compare.
"I told you we should have saved it," Con says, but she just tells him to hush.
"You have one gift left," Mrs Godwin says, gesturing to the wrapped boxes sitting in a neat pile by the sofa. Luisa has pushed the large pile of crumpled wrapping paper off to the side, to make room for James to open the gifts that are left. He does not understand how several boxes can be one gift, but he is learning not to gainsay his mother, and if she says it is one present, it is one present.
None of the remaining boxes is very big, certainly none as big as the box that the model Sopwith Camel came in, but when they are all unwrapped and opened, they reveal a large and impressive train set. James should not be surprised, as he knows that both his father and his grandfather Godwin made a lot of their fortune from the railroads. He himself has only been on a train to see Nathaniel at his recuperative spa, but someday he would like to visit Gabriel, and the train is the best way to get to Chicago. And now he has a model train to play with and pretend with, which as far as he is concerned is the next best thing to a real one.
He understands why William's gift is a model train car. There are two more green and gold ones to match, as well as a red caboose, a black locomotive with "No. 99" painted on the side in gold and something that Mr Godwin tells him is called a cowcatcher attached to the front, a red and blue and yellow circus car with little wooden animals inside, a boxcar, a black open-topped car full of coal that Mr Godwin calls a "tender", another boxcar with doors that slide open to reveal three little wooden cows, and many, many feet of track.
"Goodness," Luisa says, sounding just as impressed as James feels. He thinks she must be as excited to assemble and play with it as he is. He is already planning to use the pirates from the model pirate ship as bandits to hold up the train, and then Nathaniel's horse and cowboy can ride in and save the train passengers and cargo. He should ask for actual bandit figurines for Christmas.
"There are many more things you can buy for it," Mrs Godwin says. "Other train cars and locomotives, different configurations of track, bridges, crossing gates, signals and signs, terminals, little trees, even buildings. Your father had a great deal of fun picking everything out. He was like a little boy again." She gives Mr Godwin an affectionate look, which he returns, and out of the corner of his eye James can see Con rolling his eyes and Julia hitting him on the arm.
"Tomorrow we will write thank-you notes to your brothers," Luisa says.
"And sisters," Aimee pipes up.
"And sisters." Luisa grins at her.
"Do you like my pony?" Aimee asks James. "I know it is not a real one, but it is still very pretty. Luisa helped me find it."
"It is very soft," James tells her, picking it up and stroking its coat.
"May I play with your train set?" William asks, looking at all the pieces enviously. James wonders why William did not get trains for his birthday.
"I will think about it."
"The answer is 'Yes, William, you can play with my trains'," Luisa admonishes him.
"Yes, William, you may play with my trains," James says, a bit sulkily. But to be fair, he did receive an excellent lot of presents, so perhaps he can afford to be generous.
Later that night, as Luisa is getting James ready for bed, she hands him a crumpled envelope and says "Sean gave me this on Saturday when I took him and Liam home and asked me to give it to you. He forgot to give it to you at your party."
James carefully rips the envelope open and pulls out a folded sheet of paper. He unfolds it and reads the carefully printed and oddly capitalized note:
"For James, in Honor of his Birthday, a Trip to Luna Park and Steeplechase to ride the Roller Coasters and The Whip. To be redeemed in the Summer when it Opens again. Signed, Sean Murphy O'Donnell."
Under the letters is a sketch of what looks like a pair of admission tickets, with "Luna" written on one and "Steeplechase" on the other. James looks up at Luisa, unsure what he has just been given.
"That means that in the summer, when the parks open, Sean will pay your admission as a late birthday present," she explains. "You must write him a thank-you note too."
"I wrote him and Liam one for the six-shooters," he says.
"Then you should write another. You do not have that many, and it is good manners."
After she tucks him into bed he asks her to read Treasure Island. He wants to wear his pirate eyepatch to bed, but Luisa makes him take it off out of fear that it will slide down his face and strangle him in his sleep. He thinks she is being ridiculous, but she is firm, so he takes it off. She reads to him for twenty minutes before she has to leave, and then he climbs out of bed and takes his new book into Julia's room so she can continue.
"Oh no," she cries, "it is the great Pirate James!" He put the eyepatch back on after Luisa went home. "Are you here to make me walk the plank?"
"Will you read to me?" He climbs onto the bed with some difficulty, as he is holding Treasure Island under his arm and it is not a small book. "Because I am a pirate and it is my birthday and you love me. And I will make you walk the plank if you do not." He tries to look fierce and piratical, but Julia only giggles. He should have brought the toy saber as well. "Luisa started it but she had to go home." He holds the book out.
"Of course. Sit." Julia pats the bed next to her and James wriggles under the covers. "Where did she stop?"
"She used a bookmark. There." It is sticking out of the top of the book, and James flicks at it with his finger. Julia obediently opens the book to the correct page, clears her throat dramatically, and starts reading.
By Saturday, James has already lost one of the pirates that came with the model pirate ship, as well as the zebra and lion from the circus train car. Luisa assures him that they will turn up somewhere, but he suspects William of hoarding, or Aimee of being careless, and he does not quite believe her. But the zebra turns up in Julia's water glass when she goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth in the morning, so perhaps Luisa is not entirely wrong.
Sean and Liam, as expected, are impressed and excited by James' birthday presents, if also a little jealous.
"I only get new boots for my birthday," Liam pouts. "Nothing as fun as a pirate ship."
"You can dress up as a pirate, though," James tells him. "My costume should fit you."
The pants and shirt are in fact a bit big, and Sean wants to wear the saber and the eyepatch, and they cannot get the parrot to stay on Liam's shoulder, even with Luisa's assistance, but in the end it does not matter, because there are enough pirate costume pieces for each of them to wear something. James puts on the three-cornered hat and decides that he will be an admiral sent by the English crown to apprehend the notorious pirate brothers Black Sean and Patchwork Liam, and once he fetches Julia's umbrella and one of his father's walking sticks and the wooden six-shooters for good measure, he and Sean and Liam thrust and parry all over the nursery. Julia comes in to see what they are doing and Sean takes her hostage, and then he and Liam capture James and make him walk the plank, and then Julia jumps overboard and swims to safety, and somehow Indians end up on the boat and the swordfighting moves into the hallway and down the stairs.
As interested as they are in playing with James' new toys, Sean and Liam are almost afraid to touch the pirate ship and all of its bits and pieces, not to mention the train set and especially the Sopwith Camel. (Although Mrs Godwin has said that the model plane is not a toy, it certainly looks like one, and Luisa has made James promise that he will play with it very carefully so as not to break it, because she does not want to have to explain things to his mother if it needs to be repaired.) James convinces them to help him build a bridge with the Erector Set that they can run train tracks over, and that seems to pull them in,
James had not thought that his friends, who will play with anything, would be unwilling to even touch his new things. He wonders if that is what Mrs Godwin meant by making someone uncomfortable, and he feels badly that he is causing Sean and Liam any distress, but once he has enticed them with the Erector Set, they are much less shy about playing with his new toys.
The brothers do not want to go home at the end of the day, even though they know they will be back in a week. James promises that he will not build anything else and will wait for them to rearrange the train tracks, and hopefully in a week he will have found the missing pirate figurine and the little wooden lion.
Mrs Malcolm finds the lion in the pantry, sitting on a tin of sardines. No one will admit to having put it there, but James does not care as long as it does not vanish again. He just wishes the little pirate would turn up too.
words: 3053
total words: 47,155
quickie research: lionel trains, erector sets, model planes, the red baron, fruit in season, treasure island (yes i had to look it up because i never read it and needed to make sure it really was about pirates)
The next day he finds out from her why she did not want to invite them to his party, although her explanation does not make any more sense to him than Con's did.
"I did not want them to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed or out of place," she says. She has beckoned James into her bedroom and shut the door so they may have some privacy. James half expects to see Aimee and Julia standing nonchalantly in the hallway, pretending they were not trying to listen.
"But they were happy to be here," James tells her. "They were not uncomfortable at all. Liam would have said, if they were. Why would they be embarrassed? Benji Troutman pushed Sean out of the way to get to the piñata candy, and he wasn't embarrassed about that. And he should have been."
"Someday you will understand this better, but sometimes when a person is among people of a different background – say, from a very different neighborhood – he can feel a bit out of place and uncomfortable, because he is with people who are unfamiliar to him."
"But – "
"I was concerned for your friends. I did not want them to be unhappy at your party, and in so doing, make you unhappy."
"They had a good time. They told me so."
"James." Mrs Godwin sighs. "I had your and their best interests at heart. They came over Saturday and had cake, did they not?"
"Yes."
"That should have been enough. Do you understand that I did not wish to hurt you by excluding them?"
"Yes."
"Good." She kisses his forehead. "Someday you will understand, I promise."
"Are Con and Julia still in trouble?"
"Oh yes, they are. Not because they conspired to invite the O'Donnell boys to your party, but because they went behind my back and ignored my wishes to do so. Despite what they may think of me, I am still their mother, and I am still in charge, and they may not do whatever pleases them simply because it is pleasing."
"Julia likes you," James says. It seems important to him that his mother know that.
"I believe you. But it is time to talk about other things. Have you told Mrs Malcolm what kind of cake you want for tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"What kind?"
"It is a secret." James grins. He is practicing secret-keeping for the day when he must keep a big one, and so far he thinks he is pretty successful at it.
The date of his birthday is of course not a secret, and at school on Tuesday, his entire class and his teacher sing him the birthday song right before lunch. He does not get any gifts, but he was not expecting any, nor does he get a cake, but Julia sneaks into his classroom with a balloon, so at least he has something to celebrate with.
Supper is a much less crowded affair than his party – Marcus and Matthew and Lucas have already dropped off their presents, and Matthew and Lucas saw him on Sunday, so there is nothing to mark this night as special other than his choice of dinner (turkey), and Mrs Malcolm's cake, which is chocolate decorated with orange slices and green grapes, chocolate icing, and eight candles. When James blows them out and makes a wish, this time he wishes he could be a pirate, even if only for a day or two.
His presents have been arranged in the parlor by the time the Godwins have finished the cake. "As if by elves," Julia whispers conspiratorially, to which William snorts "No, as if by Luisa and Mr Sewell."
"Spoilsport," Julia mutters. William looks unperturbed.
James sits on the sofa to open his gifts. There seem to be a lot of them, but he did not have a celebration of this size last year, so in comparison any number of gifts would be a large one. He receives a leather-bound book called Treasure Island from Marcus, illustrated with full-color, full-page pictures, and an inscription on the title page, which Luisa asks James to read out loud.
"'This was my favorite book when I was eight'," he reads slowly, trying to decipher his brother's handwriting. "It is a thrilling story of pirates and derring-do, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.'"
"Yo-ho-ho," Con says. "Pity it does not come with a bottle of rum."
From Matthew and Alianor comes a pirate costume, as if they have conspired with Marcus to give James gifts on a theme. It comes with baggy red-and-white striped pants, a billowing white shirt, a red sash with fringe, a three-cornered hat, a toy saber in a leather scabbard attached to a belt, an eyepatch, and a little stuffed parrot to sit on his shoulder. All that is missing is the buccaneer boots, but inside the envelope with the birthday card is a little note in Alianor's pretty script, explaining that they need his feet to ensure the boots are the right size, and they will take him to be fitted before Christmas.
James puts the hat on right away.
Gabriel had to send his present by post, and rather than a box wrapped in ribbons and decorative paper, James has a packing box with his name printed on an address label to open. It contains a model of an airplane painted olive green with a bull's-eye on each side, with a working propeller, two tiny machine guns in front of the cockpit, and wings a foot wide. There is even a little pilot sitting in the cockpit, wearing a helmet and goggles. A little card in the box explains that this is a model of the Sopwith Camel, the plane that brought down the famous Red Baron over France. James cannot wait to show it to Sean and Liam.
From Lucas he receives an Erector Set, many pieces of metal with holes drilled in them for nuts and bolts and screws and pulleys, which seems to really interest William (not that James is planning on sharing, unless he absolutely has to), and from Nathaniel, also sent by post, is a carved wooden horse painted to look like a Plains Indian's painted pony – "They are called appaloosas," Mr Godwin says – and a carved and jointed wooden cowboy to ride him. The horse is wearing a little leather saddle and bridle, and the cowboy is wearing chaps and a cowboy hat, and there is even a little leather holster bearing a little rifle hanging from the saddle. James cannot wait to show this to Sean and Liam as well.
He is doing very well for presents, and it does not even occur to him to wonder how a brother who he never sees can know how much he likes cowboys.
Aimee has gotten him a brown velveteen toy pony, because he could not have a real pony at his birthday party, and William has gotten him, oddly enough, a green and gold model train car. Luisa's gift is a pair of red and yellow mittens that she has clearly knitted herself, and which fit him with a little room to grow into, and from Mrs Malcolm he has, naturally, an excellent birthday cake.
Julia and Con give him a joint present, which is contained in a couple of boxes and turns out to be a model pirate ship complete with plank to walk, a captain with a pegleg, several pirate crew, two chests with lids that open to reveal their treasure, rows of portholes through which James can see tiny cannon barrels, a crow's nest, booms that swing, many sails, a flag with the skull and crossbones, of course, and a great deal of rigging. It is the most amazing thing he has ever seen, and he is so impressed with it that he forgets his manners and does not thank either of his siblings until after Luisa has prompted him twice.
Con just laughs at James' awestruck "Thank you," and Julia admits she does not know how any Christmas present will ever compare.
"I told you we should have saved it," Con says, but she just tells him to hush.
"You have one gift left," Mrs Godwin says, gesturing to the wrapped boxes sitting in a neat pile by the sofa. Luisa has pushed the large pile of crumpled wrapping paper off to the side, to make room for James to open the gifts that are left. He does not understand how several boxes can be one gift, but he is learning not to gainsay his mother, and if she says it is one present, it is one present.
None of the remaining boxes is very big, certainly none as big as the box that the model Sopwith Camel came in, but when they are all unwrapped and opened, they reveal a large and impressive train set. James should not be surprised, as he knows that both his father and his grandfather Godwin made a lot of their fortune from the railroads. He himself has only been on a train to see Nathaniel at his recuperative spa, but someday he would like to visit Gabriel, and the train is the best way to get to Chicago. And now he has a model train to play with and pretend with, which as far as he is concerned is the next best thing to a real one.
He understands why William's gift is a model train car. There are two more green and gold ones to match, as well as a red caboose, a black locomotive with "No. 99" painted on the side in gold and something that Mr Godwin tells him is called a cowcatcher attached to the front, a red and blue and yellow circus car with little wooden animals inside, a boxcar, a black open-topped car full of coal that Mr Godwin calls a "tender", another boxcar with doors that slide open to reveal three little wooden cows, and many, many feet of track.
"Goodness," Luisa says, sounding just as impressed as James feels. He thinks she must be as excited to assemble and play with it as he is. He is already planning to use the pirates from the model pirate ship as bandits to hold up the train, and then Nathaniel's horse and cowboy can ride in and save the train passengers and cargo. He should ask for actual bandit figurines for Christmas.
"There are many more things you can buy for it," Mrs Godwin says. "Other train cars and locomotives, different configurations of track, bridges, crossing gates, signals and signs, terminals, little trees, even buildings. Your father had a great deal of fun picking everything out. He was like a little boy again." She gives Mr Godwin an affectionate look, which he returns, and out of the corner of his eye James can see Con rolling his eyes and Julia hitting him on the arm.
"Tomorrow we will write thank-you notes to your brothers," Luisa says.
"And sisters," Aimee pipes up.
"And sisters." Luisa grins at her.
"Do you like my pony?" Aimee asks James. "I know it is not a real one, but it is still very pretty. Luisa helped me find it."
"It is very soft," James tells her, picking it up and stroking its coat.
"May I play with your train set?" William asks, looking at all the pieces enviously. James wonders why William did not get trains for his birthday.
"I will think about it."
"The answer is 'Yes, William, you can play with my trains'," Luisa admonishes him.
"Yes, William, you may play with my trains," James says, a bit sulkily. But to be fair, he did receive an excellent lot of presents, so perhaps he can afford to be generous.
Later that night, as Luisa is getting James ready for bed, she hands him a crumpled envelope and says "Sean gave me this on Saturday when I took him and Liam home and asked me to give it to you. He forgot to give it to you at your party."
James carefully rips the envelope open and pulls out a folded sheet of paper. He unfolds it and reads the carefully printed and oddly capitalized note:
"For James, in Honor of his Birthday, a Trip to Luna Park and Steeplechase to ride the Roller Coasters and The Whip. To be redeemed in the Summer when it Opens again. Signed, Sean Murphy O'Donnell."
Under the letters is a sketch of what looks like a pair of admission tickets, with "Luna" written on one and "Steeplechase" on the other. James looks up at Luisa, unsure what he has just been given.
"That means that in the summer, when the parks open, Sean will pay your admission as a late birthday present," she explains. "You must write him a thank-you note too."
"I wrote him and Liam one for the six-shooters," he says.
"Then you should write another. You do not have that many, and it is good manners."
After she tucks him into bed he asks her to read Treasure Island. He wants to wear his pirate eyepatch to bed, but Luisa makes him take it off out of fear that it will slide down his face and strangle him in his sleep. He thinks she is being ridiculous, but she is firm, so he takes it off. She reads to him for twenty minutes before she has to leave, and then he climbs out of bed and takes his new book into Julia's room so she can continue.
"Oh no," she cries, "it is the great Pirate James!" He put the eyepatch back on after Luisa went home. "Are you here to make me walk the plank?"
"Will you read to me?" He climbs onto the bed with some difficulty, as he is holding Treasure Island under his arm and it is not a small book. "Because I am a pirate and it is my birthday and you love me. And I will make you walk the plank if you do not." He tries to look fierce and piratical, but Julia only giggles. He should have brought the toy saber as well. "Luisa started it but she had to go home." He holds the book out.
"Of course. Sit." Julia pats the bed next to her and James wriggles under the covers. "Where did she stop?"
"She used a bookmark. There." It is sticking out of the top of the book, and James flicks at it with his finger. Julia obediently opens the book to the correct page, clears her throat dramatically, and starts reading.
By Saturday, James has already lost one of the pirates that came with the model pirate ship, as well as the zebra and lion from the circus train car. Luisa assures him that they will turn up somewhere, but he suspects William of hoarding, or Aimee of being careless, and he does not quite believe her. But the zebra turns up in Julia's water glass when she goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth in the morning, so perhaps Luisa is not entirely wrong.
Sean and Liam, as expected, are impressed and excited by James' birthday presents, if also a little jealous.
"I only get new boots for my birthday," Liam pouts. "Nothing as fun as a pirate ship."
"You can dress up as a pirate, though," James tells him. "My costume should fit you."
The pants and shirt are in fact a bit big, and Sean wants to wear the saber and the eyepatch, and they cannot get the parrot to stay on Liam's shoulder, even with Luisa's assistance, but in the end it does not matter, because there are enough pirate costume pieces for each of them to wear something. James puts on the three-cornered hat and decides that he will be an admiral sent by the English crown to apprehend the notorious pirate brothers Black Sean and Patchwork Liam, and once he fetches Julia's umbrella and one of his father's walking sticks and the wooden six-shooters for good measure, he and Sean and Liam thrust and parry all over the nursery. Julia comes in to see what they are doing and Sean takes her hostage, and then he and Liam capture James and make him walk the plank, and then Julia jumps overboard and swims to safety, and somehow Indians end up on the boat and the swordfighting moves into the hallway and down the stairs.
As interested as they are in playing with James' new toys, Sean and Liam are almost afraid to touch the pirate ship and all of its bits and pieces, not to mention the train set and especially the Sopwith Camel. (Although Mrs Godwin has said that the model plane is not a toy, it certainly looks like one, and Luisa has made James promise that he will play with it very carefully so as not to break it, because she does not want to have to explain things to his mother if it needs to be repaired.) James convinces them to help him build a bridge with the Erector Set that they can run train tracks over, and that seems to pull them in,
James had not thought that his friends, who will play with anything, would be unwilling to even touch his new things. He wonders if that is what Mrs Godwin meant by making someone uncomfortable, and he feels badly that he is causing Sean and Liam any distress, but once he has enticed them with the Erector Set, they are much less shy about playing with his new toys.
The brothers do not want to go home at the end of the day, even though they know they will be back in a week. James promises that he will not build anything else and will wait for them to rearrange the train tracks, and hopefully in a week he will have found the missing pirate figurine and the little wooden lion.
Mrs Malcolm finds the lion in the pantry, sitting on a tin of sardines. No one will admit to having put it there, but James does not care as long as it does not vanish again. He just wishes the little pirate would turn up too.
words: 3053
total words: 47,155
quickie research: lionel trains, erector sets, model planes, the red baron, fruit in season, treasure island (yes i had to look it up because i never read it and needed to make sure it really was about pirates)