Shorecliff by Ursula Deyoung

Author:Ursula Deyoung
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical
ISBN: 9780316213394
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 2013-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

10

Picnic

The exciting thing that my uncles had planned was a surprise picnic dinner. Unexpectedly, it was Uncle Cedric who spearheaded the venture. Emerging from his cocoon of silent observation, he announced his plan, organized the trip, ordered picnic foods from the aunts, suggested that we bring the tools of both athletes and naturalists, and selected the path we were to follow—west along the cliff until it curved northward and then inland to a small meadow that he had discovered on a hunting trip several years ago. Eberhardt and Edie declined to accompany us, and Uncle Kurt, to my disappointment, begged off, using his writing as an excuse. The other aunts and Uncle Frank laughingly agreed to come along, but Cedric was the leader. It was the first time that summer that either he or Frank played any sort of role in family events. As if to give its blessing to the expedition, the sun shone brightly and dispelled, at least for a while, the shadows my father had cast around the house.

Francesca didn’t come with us that afternoon, but the other cousins were all there: Fisher, bursting with delight at the thought of conversing scientifically with Uncle Cedric on our several-mile hike; Delia and Delia, appearing together for the first time after Delia Ybarra’s days of invisibility; Charlie and Tom, eager to walk with the uncles; Yvette, Pamela, and Isabella in a trio, looking beautiful against the green grass and sunny sky; and Philip, as so often, walking alone.

Pamela was exceptionally agreeable on this expedition, and I spent most of my time with her after we arrived at the hidden field. During the hike I stayed by my mother’s side, where I could observe my cousins unnoticed. Once we got to the meadow, the aunts formed a cluster on a blanket in one sunlit corner, the uncles spread out a miniature camp in another, and the cousins claimed all the territory in between, racing back and forth for sheer joy at being in an alien field. This field had the additional advantage of being situated in an unexpected location within a depressingly dark forest. When Uncle Cedric first led us into the wood, we all groaned in unison, but the abrupt transition from damp pine needles to cushion-soft grass made the gloomy interlude worth it. It would have been impossible to predict the meadow’s existence had Uncle Cedric not promised it to us ahead of time. We stood on its edge, feasting our eyes on the sunlight over the sloping expanse, and Uncle Cedric said, “It’s all ours. There’s no one else around for miles.”

Charlie and Tom arranged a game of badminton, and Fisher, who had belied his frail figure by heroically lugging the bocce balls all the way from Shorecliff, began to coax various cousins into the game. Yvette proved surprisingly adept, and soon the badminton players abandoned their tournament to contest her superiority. Charlie could never resist an athletic challenge. Philip and Isabella and even Uncle Frank joined in.

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