Chapter 3
Hetty King June 1874, aged 15

The day of my fifteenth birthday is one I do not think I will ever be able to forget, as it started with a fire and ended in the ocean. In our family there had always been the tradition that whoevers birthday it was that day, did not have to get up at the regular time, but instead was allowed to sleep in a little later than normal. However, being the oldest, and with mother gone, last year the tradition ended for me as I had to wake up at five as I normally do to get the fire started, breakfast cooked, children woke up, fed, cleaned up, dressed and to wherever it was that they needed be. At three and two, Ruth and Olivia were still too young for school, but thankfully one of the girls who had just graduated school that year, Irene Steamer, was only two years older than I was, lived nearby and was willing to watch the girls. Unbeknownst to me, or any of us, that choice of letting Irene watch the girls would one day change all of our lives. But, at the time Irene Steamer was simply the beautiful raven haired girl who I had gone to school with, played childhood games, and was living at home with her parents, waiting to get married, and until then, watching my younger siblings.

*Thud*

"Wake Up Now Please Hea-y!"

To be honest I knew who this was before I had even opened my eyes. I have heard many different sayings about old habits, and even though Olivia's new wakeup call was not particularly old, it was becoming something I was having great difficulty in curbing. Ever since mother had died, it seemed that at least once a night one or two of the children would come into my room and try and get into bed with me. And, while I could usually get them to go back to their rooms, Olivia was proving my downfall. But, to be honest, to me, while she was my sibling, she was more like a daughter, or a niece that I was particularly fond of. Next to Ruth, she was my favourite sibling, and her happiness was similarly contagious. But, what at that moment was most puzzling to me was why she was waking me up, when usually I was the one who woke her up, and usually not until just before I would take her to Irene's house.

It was in the moment I opened my eyes that I realized just part of why Olivia was waking me up so early. Looking around my room, which was filled with light, I realized it was not five, the time when I normally woke up.

"What time is it..." I wondered as I reached for my alarm clock, which had been a wedding present of mother and fathers, whilst simultaneously trying to maneuver Olivia who was sitting squarely on my stomach. "Befast Tie!" Olivia said with such enthusiasm, more than anyone should be able to muster in the morning. As I looked at the clock, the hour ashamed me, so, for sake of saving face, I will refer to the hour I was woken up as Olivia called it 'breakfast time'. Very very late breakfast time.

Getting out of my bed I looked at my baby sister. "Have you eaten yet?" I asked as I put my dressing gown on. However, she did not have time to give me any response As I finally got a good look at my charming two year old sister I noticed that she had flour not only on her nose, but it in her deep chestnut hair.

"What have you gotten into?"

"Nutins"

"Nothing my Aunt Fanny. Well, we'll soon see what this is all about." And with that I picked Olivia up and made my way to what ... well, I wasn't sure what exactly I was making my way to. But, in opening the door not only were all my worst fears realized, but some fears I didn't even know I possessed became realized as well.

That is to say in my previously spotless kitchen I was confronted with my three other younger siblings, attempting (I assumed) to cook, but there was more food on their clothes and in their hair than was in any plate or pan I could see. Out of the three of them Alec was closest to me. It looked like he had gone through some sort of thunderstorm, as he was not only wet from head to toe, but also all of his hair was sticking up, all of which looked like the result of pancake batter. Roger was somewhere in between setting the table and making the pancakes, as he had a liberal amount of the batter in his hair. But Ruth, my three year old blonde, angelic, baby sister was the one cooking, and with black smoke coming out of the pan I could see things were not going according to plan.

Looking back on that day, I always think of it as the day that I realized that I had finally grown up. A year previous I would have been frustrated, but would have laughed at them all the same. And, before that I would have joined in. But not that year, and in no years afterwards would I ever join any of my siblings in anything this catastrophic in a kitchen. And, perhaps what I write most emphatically, what happened next would most definitely never happen ever again.
It might surprise you to know that it was not the pan the caught on fire. As soon as Alec saw me in the kitchen he immediately walked over to the stove and pulled it off. Why he had not taken control sooner, heaven only know. However, Roger, poor sensitive child that he is, tried to run away from the anger he knew was coming. Sadly in trying to run away he tripped, hitting the table and knocking over a lit candle. How anyone could be that clumsy I still do not know. But, thankfully the fire was small and we put it out quickly and with relatively little difficulty.

What exactly transpired next, well, a good christian woman does not write of such things, but I will admit it was the first time that I had truly and honestly resorted to physical punishments, and that it did take all three of my siblings several days until they could sit down properly. Now before you think me too much of a tyrant, as I know that that some people have gone soft, physical punishment has to mean something, that is to say, if you want the child to learn the lesson, it needs to be reiterated, in that case the reiteration was through physical punishment. After that time, however, I never resorted to that type of punishment ever again, instead assigning extra chores as punishments.

To be honest, the rest of the day went by quickly. All of the children stayed either in their rooms, or went outside. Out of everyone, only Olivia stayed with me that day, but that was mostly because she really had no choice, and being so young I did not much punish her. Although it was my birthday I no longer had time to indulge in what others normally do. Instead, after supervising the children in cleaning the kitchen, I made sandwiches, left them on the table for everyone to take as they wished, and took Olivia out to the field to have a small picnic, as the day was just too lovely to let pass by.

It was nearly time for me to begin making dinner, I was in the parlor with Olivia practicing her letters and reading when Alec, Roger and Ruth came into the room. "We have a surprise for you" Roger said, nearly mumbling over his words. I inwardly panicked, was there any way they could have gotten back into the kitchen. 'Please God' I thought silently 'please let my kitchen still be in one piece.'

"And where is this surprise?"

"That's part of the surprise!" Ruth said smiling at me. All three of them looked quite happy, and not at all angry about what had happened earlier.

"You have got to trust us Hetty, you will love it. But we've got a little bit of a distance to go. I hooked up the buggy, so you go get a sweater on, or whatever it is that girls wear. And come outside." Alec looked rather pleased with himself. I smiled back at him when I handed Olivia to him, that for whatever reason seemed to wipe the smile off his face; at eleven he was not very impressed with babies, he probably would have rather Olivia be a frog or something similar.

Getting into the buggy with the children, and trusting them to drive would be considered a dangerous task on a normal outing. But, this being a surprise was made even more harrowing by the fact that they all demanded that I wear a blindfold. Normally, of course I would never do something so foolish, and inwardly I knew I would come to regret it, sooner rather than later, but there was a part of me, somewhere deep inside, that they had touched earlier, a part of me, the child still within me, that still wanted a little bit of excitement in her life. So, risking life and limb (and who knows what else) I got in, Roger put a blindfold on me, and we were on our way.

Needless to say I was constantly nervous for the duration of the whole ride, but kept a calm facade. Of course it would have ruined the surprise, but I did wish I knew what was going to happen - goodness providence knew I had had enough surprises in that one day to last me for a very long time afterwards. However, the children were quite adamant in keeping the secret, even Ruth, who could barely keep anything secret, remained silent for the most ride.

"Won't you at least give me a hint?"

"No" Alec said emphatically, "We just want to surprise you, can't you leave it be."

"I've had enough surprises for today."

"I promise Hetty, no more cooking. It's too difficult, and it's girls stuff anyways. If father doesn't know how to cook, I don't have to."

"Are you sure it isn't the strip on your back that makes you promise?" I asked, keeping my laughter as inward as possible.

"No ..." Alec began. "Well maybe..." Roger continued.

"Yes!" At least I could count on Ruth to be more honest than the boys. As I began to ponder how to get those two to become more honest, the buggy stopped. "Know where you are yet?"

"With this blindfold on I know nothing."

"Good" Ruth sighed. The relief in her voice made me think that Roger and Alec had threatened her, in order to make her keep the promise, or perhaps dared her. Children always do such foolish things, but I suppose I was still a little bit of a child, so I didn't say anything. "Ready?" Alec asked

"As ready as I suppose I will ever be." I had to lean down after that, so that Roger could untie my blindfold, he may be taller than I am now, but in those days Roger was only six, so I indulged him, leaned down and finally was able to be rid of the blindfold.

The first thing I saw as the blindfold was taken off, was a very familiar sight to me. Smiling at me, and missing two of his front teeth, stood Roger. Even smiling at me, with his near black hair and dark deep eyes, my youngest brother looked - as he was - quite a serious boy, always with a small touch of sadness about him. The seriousness had always been very much a trait of my baby brother, the sadness, however was new, and didn't quite fit with the Roger I knew and loved. I suppose I had lost myself in though, I couldn't help it

"You know, there is more to see besides Roger. It's not like he is your surprise."

"You watch that tongue of yours Alexander King" I scolded as I turned around "you know what teacher says if you don't have anything nice to say ...oh my." As I began to really lay into Alec, I had every intention of continuing no matter what the surprise, but as I saw it, I was marked speechless. While I believe the children had been mopeing around all day, it seemed that I had been wrong. Instead, they had been planning what looked like a picnic on the beach.

"We hope you like it Hetty. We all knew that we ruined the breakfast surprise, so we thought we'd try to make it up to you. Miss Steamer helped us make sandwiches, so don't worry there was no real cooking involved. We borrowed the tent and the blankets from Reverend Ward, so everything is all clean, and as neat a possible for a sand picnic. I remember how much you use to love them before everything. It's not fancy or anything but..."

I knew I had to interrupt my brother. "It's absolutely perfect Alec. Who needs fancy when you have the whole ocean." As he smiled back at me I could see that, for both of us it had all been worth it. I was most definitely not our mother, nor would I ever pretend to be - doing so would have been a ridiculous waste of breath. But, despite its' many challenges I was enjoying watching my brothers and sisters grow up. What the future had in store, at that time I had no earthly clue. However, what I did know was that, no matter what I would be there for all of them, for as long as it was possible. And, for once since the death of our mother I knew that everything would work out perfectly.

"Last one to the bottom is a rotten egg!" If Roger hadn't gone into archaeology, with a voice as loud as that I would have said he would work out perfectly in a theatre.

I laughed as I watch my brothers both stream down the dune hill. Even though he started later, and was running while carrying Olivia, Alec had a good six inches on Roger, so the race was good. Holding Ruth's hand we began to walk down the dune, but it wasn't long before she pulled on my hand.

"Hetty?"

"What sunshine?"

"Just this once can we run?"

I let go of her hand.

"Well, you heard Roger, last one to the bottom is a rotten egg!"

Authors Note: My goodness I didn't expect that to be so long! Reviews are always loved. Is there any thing in particular anybody wants to see? Tell me all darlings! 3's - V