The collection
Every adventure Rosa has had so far, from the first to the latest.
“Sybil! Sybil!” no answer, “Sybil! Sybil!” George tried again running out of the master bedroom looking for his wife. She was nowhere to be seen. “Have you seen Sybil, sorry your mother?” George asked Rosa as she was heading outside with her bowl of oatmeal. “I’m not my brother’s keeper,” she replied closing the sliding door behind her with a pronounced bang. “Mummy,” she continued sitting down in her father’s lounge chair, “mummy, daddy is looking for you.”
Every morning when Rosa awoke, she looked out of her bedroom window and saw a lonely figure sitting cross legged with her wings outstretched, gazing towards the rising sun, and knew all was well in the world.
“Daddy! Daddy! Mummy! Mummy!” shouted Rosa running into her parents’ bedroom while George and Sybil were fast asleep. They groaned. Rosa shouted, “wake up! wake up guys! one of my baby dolls has come to life.”
Rosa yawned. “Time to go to bed young lady?” asked George who closed the book he was reading to her. Rosa yawned again and laid her head on her father’s shoulder. “Yes daddy, I think so. I feel very tired.” “Well, you’ve had a very busy day, haven’t you?” Rosa nodded and closed her eyes. “Yes daddy, but you know what the best part of the day was?” George smiled. He had an idea, but he had to ask. “What was the best part of the day?” “Right now, daddy, when you read me a chapter from Little Women. The book is much better than the movie though.”
“What are you doing little one?” “Colouring in a Junior Ranger colouring book, mummy.” “Oh, I see. Where did you get that from?” Rosa stopped and looked up at her mother with a crayon in her hand. “We had a Park Ranger come to school today and she talked about all the things there are to see and do in a national park.” Rosa smiled at her mother and then blurted out the sentence Sybil never thought she would hear from one of her children. “Can we go camping one day mummy in a national park?”
“You are what you eat!” announced Rosa pushing her salad topped with tuna towards the centre of the table. Sybil looked at her over the rim of her glasses, something she decided to wear even though she had perfectly good eyesight, after being told by one of the mothers, that it made her look studious. “It’s tuna, little one,” she said quietly, “you love tuna.”
Welcome back my dear adoring fans. Now I know it has been a while since my last note to you, but I have been VERY busy! As you may already know my family recently moved into a bigger nest because of my baby sister Brenda. Apparently, babies require an AWFUL lot of room for somebody that doesn't do much besides eat, sleep, cry, and make stinky diapers. That is not what I want to tell you about though that note would be over already. I needed to tell you I have a problem. A very serious problem. I think it might involve INTERNATIONAL ESPIONAGE! For those of you who might not know what espionage is, it’s another word for spying. Anyway, I happen to know someone that might be a spy. MY UNCLE JEREMY!!!!!!
George was excited when he opened the front door to the nest and shouted he was home. Julia poked her head out of the kitchen and waved to him with a large smile covering her entire face. “What’s that you got papa?” she asked in her fake southern drawl pointing to the large bag he was carrying in his right wing. “Oh this?” he replied laughing nervously, “well, I thought we should give you a day off from cooking. Someone in my office told me about a new Chinese restaurant which had opened near Villa Capriani, so I thought I would stop there and get ourselves some Chinese food.” George held the bag up to his nose, he continued, “It smells so good!”
Dear God, hello it's me, Rosa. I know I have not been talking to you for a couple of nights and I'm sorry. I will try to do better. Now God, I thank you very, very, very, very, much for my family especially my daddy, but God, can you help my daddy with his brain because he keeps forgetting to do important things. And God, can you please help him not get too old too fast. I want him to get a little less old and God can you help Julia not cry about silly things and help Timmy build his rocket and God please help me to not be so bratty. I love you and I love my daddy, and I love my mummy and amen.
“This tastes like death!” “What!” Shouted Julia, while Sybil scolded her daughter. “Rosa! What an awful thing to say.” “Well mummy, the last time we had this, I told you it tasted gross and Julia told me if I used those words again then she wouldn’t talk to me for a month, so I used different words.” “Different maybe Rosa. But in fact, they are worse.” Julia stormed out of the dining room with her wings on her hips, while George sat across the table from Rosa with an amused smile on his face, while Timmy giggled and Brenda lay fast asleep in her cot in her room.
“Nirvana! Nirvana! Nirvana!” shouted Pawo at the top of his lungs as he took a deep breath of salty air and extended his wings as far as they would go and looked out over the Atlantic Ocean towards Africa. “It truly would be nirvana if God realised he made a mistake by creating seagulls and fed them all baking soda.”
“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!” Rosa sounded more excited than usual before she hugged her father asking him how much he had missed her and before walking down the hallway to say hi to her mother. “Yes, Rosa dear?” asked George. “I want to sell Girl Scout cookies.” George let out a slight laugh. “Why is that?” “Because Rebecca is, and you can make millions of dollars doing it.” “No, I don’t think you can make millions of dollars Rosa dear, because the money goes to the Girl Scouts.”
“Daddy, are you as old as dirt?” George dropped the newspaper he was reading, Julia let out a sharp laugh, Sybil smiled her evil smile, Timmy rolled his eyes and Brenda kept sleeping peacefully in her cot in Rosa’s room. “Why do you ask me a question like that, young lady?” “Well,” continued Rosa putting her crayon down and looking at her father laying on his favourite deck chair. “Well, my bestest friend Anjali, told me her father is 50 years old and then she asked me how old you were, and I said 500 years. So, she told me you must be as old as dirt!”
George, as he did whenever he came home early because business was slow, was standing in the hallway in front of the closed front door. He was waiting for his second youngest daughter to come flying through the door, throwing her book bag on the floor and crashing into her father’s wings. But today was different.
“You know what daddy, it’s nice when they think about me, without me having to remind them to think about me.” George smiled behind the newspaper he was reading. Rosa had recently returned from school and was sitting next to him on a lounge chair with her eyes closed, soaking up some sun. It was quiet.
As usual, the entire Blau family was seated in their chairs at the dining room table eating breakfast before Rosa made her grand entrance. There was a time, when the family would have to wait for Rosa to make her appearance before they would begin their meal, but time had shown them that the food got cold if they continued to do that. George, being the titular head of the family, decided they would not wait for Rosa anymore and that she could eat her meals whether they were still sitting at the table or not.
A day the Blau family never thought possible had arrived. Sybil was ecstatic. Julia was beside herself with excitement. Timmy was upset because Julia in her excitement of getting a larger and better equipped kitchen had hurriedly packed whatever she found, which included Timmy’s Torah and tallis together with her pots and pans. George, meanwhile, remained above the fray laying on his lounge chair on the deck watching shrimp boats with the seagulls flying behind them. Rosa wasn’t quite sure what to make of all the changes happening and baby Brenda crawled across the floors in search for whatever a year old Sandpiper would look for.
“Rosa! Rosa! What are you doing? Please lift your head off the desk at once.” Mrs Benjamin walked over to where Rosa was sitting in class and tapped her on her back. Rosa lifted her head and looked up at Mrs Benjamin, who had her wings on her hips. “Rosa, what’s the matter with you? Are you ill? do you want me to call the school nurse?”
George walked into his nest, pushed the front door open with a big sigh and then dropped his briefcase on the floor. He looked down the hallway, but it was empty. He could smell food being cooked in the kitchen, but before he wandered in there, he went down the hallway and peaked into everyone’s room. The first door on the left was Rosa’s room. He opened the door and saw Rosa laying on her bed reading a cookbook. She looked up at her father, smiled and then went back to reading the book again.
No Jeremy! No! No! No! for the millionth time, no!” “But you don’t understand cousin, in this day and age it’s all about making money.” “I agree about making money,” replied Sybil stopping in her tracks near the front door of the nest and turning around to confront her cousin. “There is making money, and there is making money,” she said emphatically. “Huh?” Jeremy was confused. “Well, Jeremy, Rosa’s vegetable garden is for growing vegetables, and tobacco is not a vegetable.”
“Rosa! Rosa! What are you doing? Come away from the door immediately!” Sybil looked around for George but he wasn’t anywhere. Sybil continued. “Why are you standing at the door?” she asked again, smiling at Pawo and his family as they came in handing a present to Rosa. Sybil froze. “Did you just ask them if they had bought you a present? Oh dear. Please don’t mind Rosa, I don’t know what’s got into her,” Sybil forced a smile as Pawo laughed it off diplomatically. “It’s Rosa. We are used to her. She’s just a child.”
“Has anyone seen Uncle Jeremy recently?” asked George as the family sat down to dinner last Friday night. “Aunty Elizabeth said he went back to New Jersey to clean his mind.” There was silence. George looked at Sybil who in turn looked at Rosa who just shrugged her shoulders and added, “why are you looking at me? I just told you what Elizabeth said and oh,” she hesitated for a second, “and she also said that he’ll have to stay there for years because his mind is in the gutter or was it in the sewer.” Rosa hesitated again before adding, “or something like that.” Julia shook her head, while Timmy smiled and Brenda banged her tray nearly giving Wicket a heart attack. “I think Brenda wants to eat.” Rosa stretched as far as she could across the table to pull the dish of sweet potatoes closer to her.
It had been a long day at work for George. Being that it was summer, he had had hundreds of customers contacting both he and Moshe placing orders for plastic shovels and plastic buckets, while others were calling wondering where their orders were, which they had only placed the day before. Uncharacteristically, he was the last one to return to the nest. In fact, the rest of the family were already sitting at the dinner table waiting for him to show up. He had called Sybil a few minutes earlier to let her know he was on the way home.
Even on the worst days of the week, Rosa made it downstairs in time to have breakfast, especially when Julia was making it. But that day was different. The Blau family was close to finishing their meal, which was made especially for Rosa, oatmeal with frozen blue berries, when George looked at his watch and then said, “where’s Rosa?”
“What are you doing out here young lady?” George had just returned from Surf City where he had done some shopping at Chaim’s Deli. He walked out onto the deck where Rosa was sitting by herself in a chair with her legs on the railing of the deck, her head turned towards the late afternoon sky. “Hi dad!” she replied without turning her head, and then added nonchalantly, “did you get any bagels?” “Yes, I did.” “And cream cheese?” she asked.
Rosa calmly walked outside on to the deck where her father was sitting as usual reading his newspaper. He appeared to be very engrossed in an article. Every now and then he would shake his head. “Something bad you’re reading?” Rosa asked sitting down on her mother’s lounge chair holding a bagel and cream cheese in her wing. George looked over at his daughter and smiled, “oh no, nothing bad. I’m just thinking about the phone call I had earlier with Mr Harrison.”
“I think Brenda needs a room for herself.” Rosa collapsed on the deck of the nest when she came home from school after giving George a hug, Sybil a peck on the cheek and grabbing a doughnut off the kitchen counter before Julia objected. Brenda was in her crib taking her afternoon nap in Rosa’s room. Only Timmy was on the deck engrossed in watching Melody playing an intense game of pickleball with Herman a hermit crab, who had made it his goal in life to beat Melody at the game. That hadn’t happened yet. Timmy casually glanced over at his sister waving to her but not uttering a word, before he went back to watching the game.
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” shouted Rosa, slamming the door to the deck shut and running out to stand in front of her father who was sitting on his chair reading the newspaper. He smiled knowing there probably wouldn’t be a chance for him to finish the sports section highlighting the swimming competition which was held the day before at the turtle sanctuary. He had placed a large bet, on Benne's insistence, on a turtle he had found wandering in the middle of the road not quite sure where it was going. He had scooped it up in his beak to the shouts of obscenities from the public, who just stood around and wouldn’t help the poor turtle. He then flew it to the turtle sanctuary and deposited him where he had deposited others, at the front door.
“Hello daddy, you’re home late from work.” George had walked out onto the deck of the nest, where Rosa was laying in his chair wearing a pair of sunglasses with a drink of some sort in her hand. When she heard the sliding glass door open, she turned her head and smiled when she saw it was her father. “I missed my hug at the front door,” she added which made George smile.
“Rosa!” said Sybil sternly, “what a horrible thing to say!” George burst out laughing and Sybil turned to face him. “George, it doesn’t help matters when you side with Rosa.” George shrugged his shoulders and continued laughing. “Where did you hear that?” Sybil asked Rosa who wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. Especially with her father laughing, she thought her mother was making a mountain out of a molehill. Rosa was standing on the deck holding onto the railing looking out at the ocean and a few children screaming with delight as they ran in and out of the waves.
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Rosa ran on to the deck where her father was laying on a lounge chair reading the Top Sail Times. He thought he would have a few moments of peace, before all the children would be tucked into bed and he and Sybil could do something they rarely do, and that was to have a glass of port and watch the sunset over Surf City.
As a father,” began George rubbing his eyes to emphasise what he was about to say, “as a father, I have to tell you that I have watched the three of your grow up before my eyes and I have to tell you,” he hesitated for a second before continuing, “I’m sure your mother will agree with me,” Sybil smiled her ascent, “that we are so pleased that the three of you are growing up to be such wonderful chicks.”
“Fairies visited my bedroom last night,” said Rosa proudly as she stood next to Mrs Benjamin’s desk in her classroom listening happily to the sounds of astonishment from her classmates.
“Hi God, it’s me, Rosa. I want to thank you for giving me my family. My Daddy and my Mummy, but more for my Daddy because my Mummy gets grouchy when she doesn’t have her coffee in the morning. And for my sister Julia without whom we would all die because she does the cooking, and my brother Timmy because he’s my brother, but not for my aunty Elizabeth or my uncle Jeremy because they’re weird. That’s all, amen.”
Neither bird was quite sure what to make of the other. Separately though, Rosa the Sandpiper was devastated that she wasn’t the only person in the world named Rosa, while Rosa the Chicken was delighted to meet another bird with the same name.
“It’s not Tuesday!” Rosa announced as she walked into the kitchen where Julia was busy preparing dinner. “I know that, Rosa. I can read.” “Then why are we having tacos?” Julia laughed. “Just because it’s Thursday doesn’t mean we can’t have tacos.” “Yes, it does. We are only allowed to have tacos on Tuesday. That’s why when they invented the calendar they made it Taco Tuesday. You’re not allowed to have tacos on any other day.” “Ha, you’re wrong,” replied Julia, busily cutting up tomatoes and onions for the salsa. “But that doesn’t mean you have to have some of it. You can just have the meat without the taco.”
“Hello Rosa, what have you been up to?” “You know,” she replied walking slowly onto the deck where her father was sitting on his favourite chair enjoying the warm sun, “you know this and that.”
Greetings my adoring fans! I am so happy you have been reading the stories about my family. I'm just not sure you are getting the right information. I think the best place to start is with the most important person, and if you guessed me you are right! I'm sure you guessed me because I know you are a smart cookie! Speaking of cookies, I love cookies! I am nine and I like school. My favorite person is my daddy, and Julia because she cooks. I don't always like what Julia cooks because I don't like to eat chicken, even though I have told her many times not to cook it.
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” shouted Rosa rushing through the open door of the nest and colliding with her father who had just stepped outside to see if his 9 year old daughter was on her way home. She was, after all, a few minutes late. When he saw her flying down the path towards the house, he had barely enough time to walk back in before Rosa literally landed in his lap. “Can we have a vegetable garden now that we have a bigger nest?” And without waiting for her father’s reply Rosa continued, “I want to grow tomatoes and chilis for Julia and all that kind of stuff.”
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Shouted Rosa running out on to the deck where she stood next to her father as he lay on his chair reading the Sandpit Times. “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Rosa repeated, “can you buy me a farm?”
“Hi daddy! I have a present for you,” said Rosa as she walked through the front door of the nest, dropping her book bag and handing her father an envelope, instead of allowing him to wrap his large wings around her. Rosa then continued walking towards the kitchen. At first, George was a little alarmed at his second eldest daughter’s behaviour. But instead of asking her to come back, he watched to see if she would hug her mother instead, which would mark a giant change in her behaviour. However, she waved to her mother and continued into the kitchen where Julia was waiting for her with a snack she had prepared. Rice Krispy Pie.
“Where are you going young lady?” asked George putting down the newspaper he had been reading while sitting on his deck chair. Rosa, who had been sitting next to him sunning herself, had got up and headed towards the door which led to the dining room.
“What would you like for lunch?” Julia asked Rosa, when she came out onto the deck where the entire family except Brenda, who was taking her late morning nap with Wicket, who was laying on his back counting the times he heard Melody scream with joy, as she played pickleball with Herman the hermit crab.
“Where’s Rosa?” asked George, not ready to panic just yet. “They’re out here,” shouted an overly excited Elisabeth who was outside having just finished hatha yoga with Pawo.
“Hi daddy! I have a present for you,” said Rosa as she walked through the front door of the nest, dropping her book bag and handing her father an envelope, instead of allowing him to wrap his large wings around her. Rosa then continued walking towards the kitchen. At first, George was a little alarmed at his second eldest daughter’s behaviour. But instead of asking her to come back, he watched to see if she would hug her mother instead, which would mark a giant change in her behaviour. However, she waved to her mother and continued into the kitchen where Julia was waiting for her with a snack she had prepared. Rice Krispy Pie. George finally had to say something as this behaviour was so uncharacteristic of Rosa, and so he called her back. Rosa sighed as she was looking forward to a slice of Rice Krispy Pie and turned around, walked out of the kitchen and stood by her mother. Sybil of course was delighted with this change in Rosa, misreading it as she normally did.
One Sunday morning before anyone else in the house had stirred, Rosa woke up and instead as she usually did jump out of bed and begin her day in earnest, she instead lay in bed for a while looking up at the ceiling and then over at the little cot close to her bed and smiled as she saw Brenda laying on her stomach fast sleep. She smiled for a second and then said quietly, “you know what God, I love my little sister. At first, when my mummy told me she was having another chick, my heart was broken. I knew I would no longer be the youngest in my family and that there would be someone younger than me. But you know what God, it’s all because of you that my little heart is overjoyed with love. You changed my heart. You made me look at life differently nowadays.
As usual at the end of the school day, Rosa barged through the front door of her nest, throwing her book bag down and making a beeline for her father who normally stood on the other side of the front door waiting to catch his daughter in his wings and wrap her up close to his body for a few seconds before releasing her. After that, Rosa would head down the corridor towards the kitchen to see what Julia had for her as a snack giving her mother a perfunctory kiss and wave before entering the kitchen, leaving her father to pick up her school bag. But this day was different.
The Blau family were in for a shock. They had recently returned from visiting New Jersey in the dead of winter, just so Elizabeth could explain to Rosa the difference between seeing snow in a photograph and actually being in snow, when they woke up one morning to a vast winter wonderland.
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