Tarot Tales: The Hermit & Queen of Swords
Written by: Gemma Cross
Karen was ready. She was preparing her Winter chalet to receive all her clan for the holidays. She looked forward to Christmas every year, as all the family would descend on her realm and join her for two weeks. Karen was a little bit wary this year though. There had been a rather unfortunate incident this summer at the Family Chateau, and she feared the waters hadn’t been entirely smoothed over. She took Christoph a mug of tea up to his study, thinking she might talk that fight over one last time before the family arrived. But Christophe was busy sorting some emails out with an old friend of the family, so Karen closed the door and left him to it.
Faery Tarot
Queen of Swords
She really needed to get this sorted and well organised. At least if everything was exactly in place, then there would be nothing to fight over. This is why she needed help. Where was that husband of hers when she needed him? She needed some help to move the boards out of the garage basement so that she could lay the foam and make a bed for Son Number 1 and his wife. They could sleep downstairs in the basement so they would be out of the way and none of the others would have to put up with those noisy dogs of theirs that they insisted on driving over from England.
Well, these things didn’t get done by themselves. So she called the local handyman, and arranged for him to come over. He would love to help, he had children of his own, and extra money was always welcome at Christmas.
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There would be skiing, of course, most of the clan were expert skiers, and they loved the sport. That meant, at least, that most of the clan would all disappear for most of the days. In decades gone by, they would simply get up whenever they could be bothered, eat their porridge, and disappear until sunset. She would barely see them, and that suited her and Christoph down to the ground.
Except that now there was The American contingent who simply hung around all day. The daughter had moved over to America after marrying a soldier. He had been ever so dashing when he first came on the scene, but it seemed that exercise ended at 30 in that profession. And, oh my goodness, the food. Karen remembered her visit to The States. It was true – it simply wasn’t possible to walk to the shops in that country, and the food was atrocious. Here, in Europe, there was good food in the shops, but nonetheless these people showed no interest in walking down the hill to them… preferring instead to drive absolutely everywhere.
It was no wonder those grandchildren were so, well, unfit. None of the usual hand me downs fitted these girls, except for the skis and boots. So that had been an extra expense for them that firstyear, buying super size clothes for them all. And then of course, this lot didn’t even take to skiing, so the ski clothes went to waste and instead they stayed home under her feet. What a waste. It was no wonder Christoph had started spending so much time in his study.
Faery Tarot
The Hermit
Apart from the Americans. the grandchildren had been all trained onto skis from an early age. The Australian contingent, had made a marvellous video one Christmas back when they were teenagers. They’d bought one of these go-pro cameras that attached to the helmet, and taken footage of the slopes and the Chalet. The chalet looked good of course, but the skiing just looked so dangerous. And those snowboards, that they insisted on renting were so uncouth. And they flattened the snow of course, since most people had no clue how to use them.
They had worn the most gawdy fluorescent colours, which did look quite catchy on the video. It was just a pity they couldn’t upload it onto YouTube of Facebook so she could show her friends. Apparently it was because of the music they had used. Well, to be quite honest, Karen thought it would have been better without the music anyway. Boom, Boom, Bang, Bang. She couldn’t see what they liked about it. But as Christophe quite rightly said, she didn’t need to listen to the sound at all!
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At last, though, things were ready. The beds were made, the food was prepared. The space under the stairs had been cleared out for their cases of beer. What could go wrong? This year, she had decided to stop fretting. Christophe never seemed to get stressed about their visits. But then again, Christophe spent most of his time in the study. What was the point, Karen wondered. After all, he only really got to see the clan when he emerged for his dinner. And then he would grace them with a game of cards, before taking an early night. maybe she should take a leaf out of his books, and ignore them when they were here.
But then, if she did, who would pack the dishwasher properly, and know where to put things away, and who would move the slippers from the middle of the floor, and tuck away training cables, and generally make sure things went well? Nobody would. It would seem he had spent her life raising the children to the best of her ability, and they had learned nothing.
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