New Beginnings

Chapter 19

"Grandma, can I have some baby pictures of you and grandpa?" Victoria asks at Friday night dinner.

"Any particular reason?" Emily asks. "Yeah, we're doing this family history project for school" Rory tells her grandmother.

"Oh well if it's for school I suppose I could dig something up" Emily says. "We need some of mom too" Victoria tells her. "I thought we already had this conversation" Lorelai says to her daughter.

"Yeah, but we don't believe you" Rory tells her.

"Mother, tell them" Lorelai asks her mother. "I don't have any baby pictures of your mother" Emily admits.

"Thank you" Lorelai thanks her. "How could you not have any baby pictures of mom?" Victoria asks. "Because when your mother was seven I came downstairs and found her burning all of her baby pictures" Emily answers.

"Why would you do that? I'm sure you were a cute baby" Rory asks her mother.

"She was, she was very cute" Emily tells her. "4, 3, 2, 1" Lorelai counts down.

"I'm most respects" Emily adds. "And we have liftoff" Lorelai says. "What does that mean?" Victoria asks her grandmother.

"Nothing" Lorelai says.

"I don't see what the problem is, you certainly grew into it" Emily tells her daughter. "Grew into what?" Rory asks.

"As a child your mother had an unusually large head" Emily explains. "The best thing about it was she would tell me constantly, my first complete sentence was big head want dolly" Lorelai tells them. "I can't imagine it being that bad" Victoria says.

"It wasn't, it just affected her balance a little" Emily tells her.

"Okay can we please talk about something besides my formerly huge head?" Lorelai asks. "Are these new chairs grandma?" Rory asks changing the topic.

"Why yes Rory they are" Emily says happy she notices. "They are?" Lorelai asks. "I got them from a dealer in Maine, he just finished restoring them" Emily tells her.

"They look exactly like the old ones" Lorelai says.

"They're nice" Victoria says even though she can't tell the difference either. "Are you sure they're new?" Lorelai asks.

"Of course I'm sure, I brought them" Emily tells her. "I don't see any difference at all" Lorelai says. "Well the arch in the back is higher, and they have a completely different leg" Emily points out the differences.

"No difference" Lorelai says.

"Of course I could only get ten of these so I'm two chairs short of a set" Emily complains. "You're telling me" Lorelai says.

"Lorelai, do you realize how rare these chairs are?" Emily asks her daughter. "No" Lorelai answers honestly. "I searched for three years for them, I've combed every fine antique store on the east coast and this is all I could find. I blame Peg Mosley" Emily explains.

"Mmm, Peg Mosley. Evil, evil woman" Lorelai says having no idea who Peg Mosley is.

"What did Peg Mosley do?" Rory asks. "She lured these two German children to her gingerbread house, then she tried to eat them" Lorelai jokes.

"Pass the artichokes please" Victoria asks. "I made the mistake of telling Peg all my favorite special spots and that woman moved in and completely wiped them out" Emily tells the real story as she passes the artichokes to her granddaughter. "You can't find a decent biedermeier hutch in all of Connecticut, I'm desperate for new sources" Emily continues.

"What about Kim's antiques?" Rory suggests.

"What's Kim's antiques?" Emily asks. "Didn't that burn down?" Lorelai asks not wanting her mother in Stars Hollow.