Castle Gate by Lisa Bonnice

Author:Lisa Bonnice [Bonnice, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

January 27, 1923

Castle Gate, Utah

Helen’s first Burns Supper in America should have been joyous, surrounded by her Scottish family and friends. The birthday of Scotland’s national bard was an important holiday. She and Will had been looking forward to eating traditional Scots foods, singing songs by Rabbie Burns and imbibing the best locally brewed whisky in their new community.

The event was hosted by John and Bethia Littlejohn at their lovely home on Castle Gate’s “Silk Row” where they had moved when John was promoted to inspector of the Utah Fuel Company properties. Now, they could afford this electrically-powered and well-appointed home near Bill’s even grander house.

Geordie, who so loved planning parties, arranged a list of Burns’ songs with solos pre-assigned to the best singers in the group. He even included a group sing-along or two, so no one was left out.

Sinking into Bethia’s comfy sofa, enjoying the warm coziness of her brother’s home, Helen felt a pang of guilt for spending the festive event with the posh folk instead of at Pete and Jessie’s, where keeping warm meant sitting close to the fire. She needed an evening away from cooking and cleaning and playing the hostess. And, for once, Helen was able to spend time with Bill and Elsie as just another guest at someone else’s party.

“It’s that nice to see you and Bill,” Helen said to Elsie, “without youse two being so busy hosting.”

“Isn’t it grand?” Elsie gushed. “I hardly know what to do with myself. I feel like I should be passing around a tray of nibbles.”

Traditionally, it was the task of the host to “address the haggis” before slicing it open and serving the crumbly sausage with mashed turnips and potatoes, but John had asked their elder brother to do the honor, as he recited poetry so beautifully. When Bill raised his glass in toast and recited the traditional Burns poem Address to a Haggis, he deliberately spoke in his full Scottish brogue and thrilled them all with his perfect delivery:

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!

Aboon them a' yeh tak your place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are yeh wordy o' a grace

As lang's my arm …

On the complex poem went and Bill recited it perfectly from memory, reminding Helen that her Americanized eldest brother—who had moved on to get his education when she was only six and then got married and flitted to the States—really was a Scot at heart.

This realization brought on a rush of sentimentality. Last year she was crossing the Atlantic on Burns Night and her worries were trivial in comparison. This year, Helen was wondering when to tell anyone about the cancer that was eating her up inside.

On one hand, if she shared the news she wouldn’t have to bear the fear alone. On the other hand, it would change the way everyone looked at her. She would become diseased in their eyes, seen as weak and sick, an object of pity, which she couldn’t abide. Once she told, there was no turning back.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.