Rilla was still sitting, with her cup of coffee in her hand in the kitchen after breakfast when Lillian came through the back door out of a breath and wild look of horror on her face. It was a break between semesters, so the older children had part of the week free and where about the house or out with friends. Except for Clara who still had school.
"Zee took him! Zee came by and marched him right out of Zee's house!"
"Pardon?"
"In front of the children, Shirley, Zee took him god knows where for questioning and tore apart his office!"
"Lillian, slow down, I am not understanding anything."
"Shirley, the army, Zee showed up at the house and took him, practically arrested him for something I don't know about? I kept trying to ask them why, and Elodie and Lunette were screaming to let him go and crying and Shirley was trying to tell us it would be okay, and not to worry…" Lillian manages to get out a bit more cohesively. "Something about work he did in Europe?"
"The work he did in Germany," Rilla corrects her. "Of course they would see it and flag it," Rilla groans. "He should have just…he had to go be a hero again! It will be all right, once they realize he just is an engineer and did nothing wrong and knows nothing and has a distaste for the man like everyone else it will be all right. Unless you know other things I don't know about?"
"Non, non," Lillian says sighing. "Zee's last project, they offered him another and he refused something never felt right there, said we were moving back home and left it at that and yet mail kept coming…"
"Is that the reason why you moved back to Canada?" Rilla asks eyes wide.
"Oui, and non? We wanted to be closer to family of course but they pushed us to do it sooner?" Lillian says sighing.
"I'm sure it will be okay, he'll be back before dinner. Shirley has nothing to hide, hell if anything he might be able to help them in some way?" Rilla tells her. "Do you want me to bring the kids over we can go wait for him. They can pass the time together, or we can send them out outside to go sliding to help them keep their minds off of it?"
"Elodie is indisposed and won't want to converse with anyone really," Lillian shakes her head. "Has Rowena entered that phase of life yet, fourteen is about the right age?"
"She has, back in the summertime, she's adjusting to it?" Rilla says quietly. "Tries to use it to get out of a school more often enough, but I tell her she's just going to have to learn to live like everyone else who lives with it."
"There was a tradition in France, and parts of the French Canadian that you slap your daughter when she begins hers for the first time. To mark the occasion and to ward off bad spirits who may attack her during her times." Lillian says. "It's quite a shock."
"That sounds…horrific," Rilla says shuttering. "Please tell me your mother didn't?"
"Oh she did," Lillian said with a sigh. "I was a late bloomer…not long after, well you know that story," Lillian says further. "I couldn't with mon files."
Rilla nods her head, "Well, I am sure it will be okay, Shirley has nothing to hide. Though why he had to contact them is something I don't understand."
"How is Ken doing?" Lillian asks.
"Who knows, he spends more time smoking than ever," Rilla sighs as the housekeeper comes in.
"Mrs, I seem to be missing most of Oliver's things for the laundry today." She speaks to Rilla. "Oh Madame Blythe, should I make up more coffee?"
"Non, non, I should get back to the children who are home from school," She says looking at Mrs. Clarke. "Thank you though, I'll keep you updated," she says to her sister-in-law.
Rilla nods her head and hugs her before pulling her coat on again and heading out the back door.
"I'll go see if I can find his laundry," Rilla tells Mrs. Clarke going towards the stairs. She can't remember the last time she ventured into her son's room, the door often being closed. What she is greeted with is messes of paper and dirty clothing on the floor. It even had a strange smell, stale and crusty somehow.
She shakes her head, opening the window despite the cold late January weather, hoping to air it out.
"This boy…" Rilla groans to herself. "I did not raise him to leave his room like this."
She grabbed the blankets from the floor and tossed them on the bed and then sank to her knees and reached for the dirty socks under the bed. She wrinkles her nose wondering how much he sweated for them to feel such a way.
"Why are you in my room?" Oliver tells her looking frightened.
"I was finding your laundry because apparently Gloria couldn't find anything of yours in the hamper and asked if something had happened so I went to grab whatever I could find. It's filthy in there. You're sixteen years old, you should take better care of your room, than you did before. Honestly Oliver I'm beginning to wonder about you."
"You went through my room?" His eyes are wide and his voice is indignant.
"Well, it is my house," Rilla's eyes narrow at him. "We don't ask much of you, but to keep your room tidy and to help with chores, but lately you've been slacking on both and really what is with the hoard of socks underneath your bed? It's disgusting, truly disgusting, clothes everywhere, things and you said you would tidy it up and yet you haven't."
"I'll get to it," Oliver huffs.
"You'll do it today, now," Rilla looked at him before shaking her head. "Or I'll do it for you and you don't want that.
Oliver looks at his mother, waiting for her to leave, and when she finally steps out of the room he shuts the door. Rilla sighs shaking her head.
"I don't understand boys, really Socks underneath the bed?" Rilla says walking into Ken's office.
"Socks underneath the bed?" Ken says curiously.
"I know, and they were all…almost crusty with something," Rilla says sighing. "Not to mention the missing tube of Vaseline I need you to talk to him Ken, it's not right."
"Pardon?" Ken says looking at his wife. "What's the problem? Behind the messy room which yes he needs to clean?"
"Seriously Ken? He's…" Rilla looks around not seeing anyone else. "He's masturbating which isn't something he should be doing."
"He's a teenager Rill, are you saying all those mumbo jumbo books you read and the ones about parenting haven't explained this to you?"
"My books are not mumbo jumbo Kenneth, he's a boy and that isn't right," Rilla shoots him a look.
"Rilla, I would be more worried if he wasn't, he's a teenage boy. If he wasn't I'd be the first one to take him to the doctors, and if he's doing it himself, he's not out looking for girls to help him out with his needs."
"Needs? Jesus Christ, he's sixteen, not a married man Kenneth!"
"Sweetheart, I hate to tell you this, but when I was his age I was no better than he was, and trust me the trenches were far from innocent during rest hours," Ken says quietly. "So be grateful he's doing it privately."
"Grateful? He's a boy Ken!"
"You know for a doctor with fairly liberal thoughts on a bunch of things, you are taking this harder than I thought you would if ever realized our son is a young man?" Ken responds to her, eyebrows slightly raised.
"I just think there are plenty of other ways to spend his time that are way more productive and not so…socks Dear! Socks!" Rilla's voice raises in a slight disturbance at the idea of it.
"So when he's bored at midnight he supposed to what? The radio is off, Clara can sniff out anything being made at midnight, the piano is too loud and you tell him lights out at 11:30…what else is there to do at sixteen? Because it's not like he can roll over to his wife to make love to her?"
"You are not seriously making this out to be a hobby for him, this isn't him realizing he has a penis and telling him not to touch it like I had to do when he was an infant. This is completely different, what if someone walked in on him?" Rilla hisses.
"Then he learns a lesson of locking the door or being extra careful. Honestly Rilla, sometimes it just happens, he has no control over it and you know that theoretically. And it is slightly hypocritical because as if you have never once taken care of any sort of feeling of need yourself when I wasn't home?"
"Of course, ladies don't do such things," Rilla harrumphs. "It is still highly inappropriate and someone, you need to tell him to stop. Jimmy never did this."
"Oh I am sure Jimmy did, he was just better at hiding it," Ken rolls his eyes. "But fine I will tell him to I don't know keep it more inconspicuous because I'm not shaming him for something completely normal, and I hope to hell you don't either Rilla to any of our children," Ken tells her. "I need a drink and a smoke before I even attempt that."
"Really Ken?"
"Yes Rilla, if you want me to talk to him, I'm gonna need some liquid courage." Ken gives her a look as there is a shriek down the stairs.
"Clara is home," Ken says.
"So it seems, though I should tell you, Lillian was over and Shirley got taken in by the army for something," Rilla tells him.
"Excuse me?" Ken looks up.
"I know," Rilla sighs, moving closer to him. "I think he'll be okay, I mean he's my brother he wouldn't do anything foolish. He has integrity, he wouldn't knowingly work or someone so sinister."
"But given the time frame, would he have even known what Hitler was planning? The boats that German submarines have sunk this month, not to mention the Soviets trying to take Finland in a game of tug of war?" Ken says his laugh almost a bark laced with sarcasm at his pun.
"We can't think like that Ken," Rilla hisses at him.
"I know, but I know the army, and he does too, there is no way he applied for anything without knowing this could happen." Ken reminds her.
"I hope you are right," Rilla says shaking her head as Clara comes barging into the office.
"Look what I made!" She holds up an awkward-looking frog-shaped creature made from felt and yarn.
"Isn't that adorable," Ken says swinging her up into his arms, his back complaining slightly. "Should we put it with the other Mr. Ribbit?" He asks her knowing Rowena had her collection in his office.
Clara nods her head grinning and Ken walks with her and holds her to the higher shelves as she puts MR. Ribbit on the shelf.
"You did very well," Rilla says smiling and kissing her daughter's cheek. "Now though you need to go change out of your uniform."
Clara nods her head. "Can I have my bath before dinner so I can listen to Peter Pan tonight?"
"If that is what you wish," Rilla says shaking her head amused.
"In your bed?" Clara asks hopefully. "I promise to go to sleep right away afterwards."
Rilla laughs lightly, tickling her sides. "We shall see," she tells her little daughter.
"Rills?" Ken says coming back from depositing Clara back into her bed after falling asleep in her parent's room after the radio story time. He sits down on his side of the bed, shaking his head at the imprint still on the pillow.
"What is it darling?" Rilla looks over from her vanity as she rubs cream into her hands.
"Ollie normal right? Like when he was a normal toddler and kid?" Ken asks hesitantly.
"Normal as little boys go?" Rilla says frowning. "Why? Is this something to do with earlier?"
"No, but…I thought I might tackle that with another topic. He gave me some writings of his and it's… it's filled with these strange idealizations, ideologies, and rather extreme backwards working of societal norms." Ken tries to explain.
"So he's a liberal?" Rilla asks confused.
"He has two male characters who are in love with each other," Ken states sighing.
"Oh," Rilla looks to Ken with a look filled with anxious intrigue.
"I don't know but it's not something boys his age would ever write," Ken says. "I just have this impending dome that I failed as a father though. I mean if he's…how do I?"
"How do you love him if he's romantically attracted to the male sex?" Rilla says sternly. "Would it be that horrible if our son was a homosexual to you?"
"His entire life would be in peril!" Ken retorts.
"Or he'll find his way and be like Carl Meredith," Rilla says quietly looking at her husband. "This is far from the end of the world."
"What do you mean like Carl Meredith?" Ken asks her and Rilla flushes.
"Have you never?" Rilla asks. "I mean I don't think they know, that I know but Carl, he's not exactly… well normal as you call it?"
"His marriage, to your best friend Rilla, seems decently normal to me. They have a child together, clearly something is working for them."
"I saw him kissing the stable hand Ken, and when I tried to ask, I mean I didn't say about what I saw, just that Carl and he seemed to get along fairly well, Marianne got oddly quiet and just brushed it off. Whatever their marriage is, I think Marianne knows given their courtship all those years ago, and her past. It oddly makes sense to me?"
"You're okay with this?" Ken says almost defensively.
"It's not my choice, nor do I believe it's a choice from what I read about it anyway," Rilla says simply coming to sit next to him. "We are not losing a son over something trivial Kenneth."
"It's dangerous for him…If he got caught by the wrong people they could throw him in jail Rilla."
"There's risks in everything Ken," Rilla reminds him. "I am more worried that this war will go on forever and he'll be eighteen before we know it."
"Isn't there something we can do?" Ken asks hesitantly. "Surely there is a way to guide him to the right choice? To fix him of this problem, so he doesn't live a life in scrutiny or hiding?"
Rilla drops her hairbrush. "Do what? Torture the evil out of him? Call the priest and ask him to pray for our strayed son. There's nothing wrong with him Kenneth. We don't even know what he's thinking, he could just be writing, deciding what so of man he wishes to be. Maybe it's one of his friends who's struggling. But that is never the answer, I never disagreed with anything more than all those disgusting conversion tactics. It's inhuman and against everything, but those people are too stupid to see such a thing because it is against this or that. Even Freud himself believes there is nothing wrong with it." Rilla tells him.
"It's…wrong though isn't it?" Ken looks down at his hands, his morals and attitudes battling a conflict he never thought he would have.
"It's only wrong if you believe it wrong," Rilla says simply. "Maybe you should examine your conscience before you ask him about it. If he needs feedback on the story just stick to the black-and-white editing."
Ken can only nod his head and there is a knock on the door.
"Mom, can you help with the back of her hair?" Rowena says through the door.
"I'll be right there," Rilla calls out, leaning down to kiss him before grabbing her robe to help her daughter.
"How old were you when Dad first kissed you again?" Rowena asked breaking the silence between the mother and daughter as Rilla rolled her hair into neat bundles and tied them off.
"I was sixteen, but it was rather an innocent kiss," Rilla hums thinking about it. "Has Robert tried to kiss you?"
Rowena blushes. "He tried to stick his tongue in my mouth."
"Well, that was very rude of him," Rilla says after a moment. "Especially when one is not expecting it."
"So it is a thing?" Rowena asks after another moment and Rilla sighs.
"Listen carefully, kissing is a wonderful moment and pass time. And yes couples can, heighten a kiss with some tongue but it should only happen when you are comfortable with it," Rilla settles gently of course. "If you don't want Robert Cooper's tongue in your mouth, you tell him that and if he doesn't like that, well maybe he isn't the one for you then."
"You won't tell Daddy will you?" Rowena looks up at her.
"Roe, if your father knew about this he would be hunting Robert down." Rilla reminds her daughter. "I do not want that on my conscience if I did go and tell him. Plus there is such a thing called mother-daughter confidentiality for small things like this."
"Good," Rowena says quietly. "Not that I don't want him knowing, it's just embarrassing something the way he goes all…I am her father…"
"He just loves you and wants to protect you from everything and anything that he can Roe," Rilla squeezes her shoulders and smiles. "You're all done though, Just tie up your scarf and you'll be ready for the morning."
