Chapter Text
Summer vacation, Violet found herself musing one morning, was far less interesting than it sounded.
She had gone years without summer vacation, after all. But now she was in school, and school meant there was vacation, and vacation was boring.
"Pass me the arts section, will you?" Jessie asked Henry that morning over breakfast. Henry was reading the business pages of the newspaper, having discarded the front page, which had said something horrible about politics.
"Can I read the funnies?" Benny asked, buttering his toast.
Violet had finished Nancy Drew and the Clue of the Black Keys last night, so she was staring out the window. She would have asked for the front page, but no one would have given it to her.
"Negotiations with the USSR are breaking down," the radio announcer had said yesterday. "The Russian ambassador stormed out of the embassy yesterday, after the Secretary of Defense-"
That was all Violet had heard before Grandfather had turned it off in disgust.
If she had been at school, she could have asked the teachers what the radio announcer meant. Sister Mary would have spoken for far too long about what each branch of government was, but at least Violet would have felt like she understood what was going on. But it was summer, and summer meant that people told Violet she was too young to worry about things.
She knew what the word negotiation meant, but she'd initially thought about Grandfather's secretary. Miss Harris was a mousy older woman, who wore starched lace collars and probably still wore a corset. While she snapped at everyone, and probably would have shouted at Stalin himself if he had worn muddy boots on the carpet, it was hard for Violet to imagine a powerful man being offended by her behavior. Even a Soviet man, who was supposed to be angry much of the time. She had had to look at the encyclopedia before she understood.
Sister Mary would have told her what a secretary was.
"Well," Grandfather said, walking into the room, "it looks like we will be traveling this summer after all. I just got news that my brother died last week. He left his estate to me. I need to go through his things before I can sell the place."
"Your brother?" Henry asked. Grandfather had never mentioned a brother before, but he had never mentioned many things.
"My older brother," Grandfather clarified. "He fought in the War. He was never the same after that. He lived in Iowa." He looked around, then looked out the window that looked over the hillside. "So we will be taking a trip to the country this summer after all."
A trip. Sister Mary had mentioned that, when she was a girl during the second world war, her family had hosted an English child who had been sent away to escape the bombing. But that couldn't be what this was about, could it?
"That must be hard," Violet said. "I'm sorry."
"We hadn't spoken in years," Grandfather said. "Like I said, he was never the same after the War."
"Will we be back soon?" Bennie asked. "The cherries will be ripe in three weeks."
"I expect we will still be gone," Grandfather said. His smile was only slightly sad. "We'll have to make do in Iowa."
"Will they have cherries there?" Bennie asked.
"I'm sure they'll have something," Jessie said. "I don't know what they have in Iowa. Maybe they have peaches."
"They have corn in Iowa," Henry said. "Lots of corn."
"I like peaches," Benny said, but he was sulking.
Violet stared out the window, over the forested hills below her, trying to memorize the view. Iowa was supposed to be flat and covered in grass.
She would miss the trees.
***
"It will be a long drive," Jessie told Benny that night. "Several days, if the maps are right. But we'll pack sandwiches and fruit. Grandfather can drive, and Henry can drive as well if Grandfather needs a break. We will sit in the back, and Watch can sleep at our feet."
It took them a full three days to pack, even though Violet was done in less than an hour.
There wasn't much to pack. She had two other summer dresses, several pairs of underwear, a pair of shoes, a jacket, and a matching hat. She packed her best fountain pen, a second nib, a jar of ink, her violin and sheet music, and an empty notebook. The rest of her suitcase she could have filled with books, if she had had any to bring, but the others didn't seem interested in making sure she would have them.
"I'll bring a cookbook," Jessie said when Violet asked her. "And maybe my algebra textbook. I need to study," she added, making a face. "I have embroidery to do if there's nothing else there."
Math didn't sound nearly interesting enough to Violet. Nor did embroidery.
"Can we stop at the library?" she asked Grandfather.
"We're going to be gone too long for library books," Grandfather said. "But if you have a book you want to buy-"
"Oh," Violet said quietly. "I don't."
She had wanted to read the other Nancy Drew books at the library, but she couldn't ask Grandfather to buy her those. Instead, she sighed and put her pastel case and art notebook in her bag. Then she put in a copy of Little Women.
The day they departed, Violet had one more book she could add.
As she was going through her room one last time, making sure she had packed a toothbrush, Henry approached her, carrying a small paper package.
"I was going to save this for your birthday," he said, "but I will give it to you now. I saw it the last time I went to the bookstore. The shopkeeper said it was good."
He handed her a book called The Diary of Anne Frank, and Violet put it in her bag.
The car's horn honked, Violet climbed in the back of the big car, and then they were gone.