Story for the Week
Ah the memory of grade school rhymes!
“Johnny and Susie, sittin’ in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Susie with a baby carriage.”
“Miss Mary Mack, Mack Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back.
She jumped so high, high, high,
She reached the sky, sky, sky,
And she never came back, back, back
’Til the 4th of July, July, July.”
On any given day, I can’t remember what I get up and walk into the kitchen for. Or I’ll be reading an e-mail and go to open an app on my phone, get distracted, and then can’t remember what app I was planning to open until I go back to my e-mail. But I can remember those rhymes like I’m still on the playground. Guess there’s something to be said for repetition. 😉
If you look up the rhymes online, the lyrics may be different. They seem to vary over time and also depend on where you grew up. I vividly recall a jump rope rhyme about Cinderella, dressed in “yella,” and she goes upstairs to “see her fella.” The version I remember asked how many kisses did she get, and then you jump as fast as you can, and the number you miss on is the number of kisses.
When I started looking up other rhymes for this post, the one I found about Cinderella said that she accidentally kissed a snake and asked how many doctors did it take. I also found verses about Cinderella in blue and green that I didn’t even know existed.
I don’t see many kids jumping rope these days, but I asked Corinne if they had any rhymes at school. She said they didn’t jump rope either, but they would clap hands together with a partner in different motions going progressively faster. (We did the same for Miss Mary Mack.)
But I kind of question their…imaginations. 🫤
“Tic tac toe,
Give me a yes,
Give me a no,
Give me three in a row.
Bunny got shot by a UFO.” 😲
And they ended with a rock, paper, scissors motion.
“Lemonade, crunchy ice, sip it once, sip it twice.
Lemonade, crunchy ice, sip it once, sip it twice.
Turn around, touch the ground.
Kick your boyfriend out of town,
And freeze…pose…and do the belly roll.” 🤔
(Yes, I confirmed that they repeated the first line, and no, I have no idea what this is supposed to mean.)
I finished a book recently that used a childhood rhyme as a plot element. It was pretty dark and twisty. Based on what people create rhymes about, maybe we’re all a little dark and twisty.
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5 Stars for The Only One Left by Riley Sager
398 pages
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: June 20, 2023
The Creepy Book Club selection for July 2023, purchased on Amazon.
Publisher’s Description
At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life
It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.
“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead
As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.
************
Main Characters:
- Lenora Hope – 71-year-old invalid, confined to a wheelchair in her home Hope’s End, can type on a typewriter using only her left arm, accused but never charged of killing her parents and sister in 1929
- Kit McDeere – 31-year-old home-health aide, assigned to care for Lenora Hope, accused but never charged with the mercy killing of her mother who was in hospice care for cancer
- Carter – mid-30s, general groundskeeper, gardener, handyman at Hope’s End
- Mrs. Baker – 74-year-old head housekeeper at Hope’s End, has been with the family since she was in her 20s, never married but took on the title of “Mrs.” as a sign of respect
- Archie – 74-year-old chef at Hope’s End, has also worked with the Hope family since he was in his 20s
- Jessie – early 20s, housekeeper at Hope’s End who shows Kit around and tells her all the family lore
I….
Loved….
This….
Book!
That is all.
OK…that’s not really all, but I did love this book.
Riley Sager is a new author for me, and I need to catch up. In recent years, I have read more women’s fiction than thrillers. I will be adding more thrills to my reading list, and I’m starting with some previous books by Sager.
Kit McDeere is a home-health aide coming off of a suspension, having been investigated (not charged) in the death of her mother, who was in hospice. Now assigned to take care of 71-year-old Lenora Hope, accused (not charged) at 17 of killing her parents and sister, Kit can’t help but feel that she was given this assignment because her boss sees the similarities between Kit and Lenora and refuses to put her anywhere else.
Confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak, Lenora retains only the use of her left arm after multiple strokes and a bout with polio. Using a typewriter, she wants to tell Kit the story of what happened the night her family was killed, which happened to coincide with the day the Stock Market crashed.
I suspected a lot of things through the course of this riveting story. Mrs. Baker and Archie must know something because they were the only ones still on staff from back in the day. Carter, the groundskeeper/caretaker, seems suspicious because he’s always appearing from somewhere, but he’s not old enough to really know anything. He just feels “off.”
And I literally do not want to say anything else because the build-up will never prepare you for the twisty, twisty, and even more twisty ending. The twists just came one after another.
I was not prepared, and it was fantastic!
Read….
This….
Book!
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