Where Clementines Don't Grow [h.s.]

1. The Only Clementine in New York

Clementine was a seventeen year old girl, and she lived in the Adirondacks of New York, in 1861. It was beautiful forestry, a beautiful stream, and it all surrounded a beautiful cottage. She wondered where she got a name like Clementine, for two reasons. 

Who is gonna say the name Clementine? Her grandpa was the only one that said her full name, everyone else called her Minty, but her littlest brother called her "bee". One day Clementine was reading underneath her favorite willow tree with her feet in the stream, and her littlest brother Theodore who was three at the time came up to her and asked,

"What do you like?" So just as a bumblebee sat upon a nearby flower Clementine said,

"I like the bees Theodore."

"So I'll call you 'bee' then."

When Theodore was little he would go up to every person of the household, ask them what they liked, and then claim he'd call them that for the rest of their lives. Grandpa was the only one smart enough to say his own name, "Francis", but Clementine's nickname was the only one that stuck over the years, for it was hard for him to say "Clementine". The second reason was, clementines did not grow in upstate New York. How did her mother, Marianne, think up this name then. Clementines were nonexistent, maybe she would never ever see a clementine, in her entire life. 

Anyway, this was Clementine, she liked to read under the trees with her feet in the stream, run into the forest so she could sit in a tree and watch the chipmunks and the birds, take off her shoes and run in the grass and then lie there and stare at the sky, and ride horses bareback in the fields. She had golden brown hair that turned blonde in the summer, it was wavy and very long, usually tied back in some way but she kept it down sometimes until her mother yelled at her. Also, Clementine never wore shoes. 

Her mother hated this, but her papa, Henry, the jolly fellow he was, insisted that Clementine was a country girl, so therefore she did not need shoes. He also didn't mind when she came back laughing hysterically with a bloody nose, beside her oldest brother Finn who was her best bud for he was sixteen, after they had a handstand contest in the barn. So that Clementine's dress didn't fall down Finn took a rope and tied it around her knees, they were laughing hysterically until she actually attempted to do a handstand, but then fell right on her face before even attempting to do a handstand. Ok, time to introduce the whole gang. 

So there was Clementine, and she lived with her six brothers, grandpa, mama, and papa. Her mama's name was Marianne, her father was Henry, and her grandpa was Francis,and he did love animals, just like St. Francis. Now for her six brothers, here we go. So her oldest brother was Finn, and he was sixteen, Finn and Clementine were sort of noticeably closer among the rest of the siblings since they were so close in age. 

Clementine loved teasing Finn ever since he told her he had a crush on a girl from church, and he had grown into a fine young man. Finn was very tall like his mom, another funny thing about this family was that Marianne was noticeably taller than Henry, which was quite the laugh in 1861. He was tall and maybe even a little scrawny. He had dark brown hair, he looked exactly like a male Marianne, except that of the entire family he was the only one with green eyes. 

He was quiet most of the time, Clementine was the only one he'd really talk to. Next we've got Oliver who is twelve, Abraham who is ten, and Simon who is seven, they were sort of a gang being that they were the middle brothers. Oliver was adorable, he had white blonde hair and their mom being all loud and outgoing always introduced him as

"My little German boy!!!" He had freckles and was blonde and had light brown eyes. Now Simon, Simon and Clementine could be mistaken for twins, for they had the same golden brown hair, and each hard dark brown eyes. Abraham was a cutie as well, and he was the true mischief maker, of course they were all boys that liked to clap and scream in the chicken coop to make the birds all jump, but Abraham would spend his time making "booby traps" because their grandpa always told him stories is bandits and criminals and spies. 

Then Orville, he was five. Orville was a sweet sweet boy. He had blonde and brown hair completely mixed up, cute little puppy eyes, and had a heart of gold. He would always go out and pick flowers for his mother to put on the dinner table, but he didn't know he had only picked weeds despite the fact that they lived surrounded by fields of wild flowers. Next was Theodore, all he wanted to do was play. Maybe any three year old wanted just wanted to play. He didn't understand the war or hate, he was just a boy that when bored asked every person in the house

"Can we play something?" Usually it was Clementine that offered to take him to ride on the horses or play shop outside where Clementine would pay for flowers with pebbles they pretended were golden nuggets. Every once in a while Finn would step it up and give him a piggy back ride all throughout the woods pretending they were running from cowboys and Indians. If only it could be that way forever.