“Merriam, you won’t believe what I found out,” said Susannah Stewart.
“Harmony and Dissonance and Grandmother Iline are part of a modern day version of The Underground Railroad that has a main stop here in Haven, Tennessee. Only this one helps women and children escape abusive situations.”
“They only told me because I meddled and misjudged how violent Mr. Arnold might get and had to ask the three of them for help. He was gonna hurt Mrs. Arnold and the kids because she was trying to get away from him. I oughta understand meanness better by now.”
“Anyhow, it turns out inspector detectors can be heroes, too.”
“Maybe I don’t know as much as I think,” Susannah admitted sadly.
Merriam-Webster: absolutely: used in speech as a forceful way of expressing agreement
Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you.
LIFE IS SOMETIMES NOT WHAT YOU THINK | TALES FOR NAUGHTY CHILDREN
The true story
Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.
Sisters, I need you
I love him, want him to stay
Vengeance will be my justice
Sister, we hear you
You love a man not worthy
We will help avenge her crimes
The…
LIFE IS LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP | MAGICAL BEINGS
Love in unexpected places
Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.
La Catrina was Granny Weaver's most powerful garden fairy. Though she was tiny, her magic was potent, drawing strength from the dual realms of life and death for its working. …
Anansi could feel the pull of the curse, though he had laughed scornfully at the warning Grandmother Spider had repeated from La Catrina.
Mistress, the others are afraid of the trickster man. He has fallen under an evil spell. He has become one who would eat a child trapped in his web and leave the bones to whiten in the sun…. The Sculptor
But who could have done this to him?
And why do it? Surely Susannah Stewart was not that important. He had been half-joking when he said,
Oh yes, she has Po-ten-tial. Before long, she won’t be stopping at seeing and touching the inside of things. She gonna go deeper.
Perhaps Granny Weaver might help. He would go to see her right now.
He was thinking about how he could save himself and the girl when the darkness pulled him under again.
SUSANNAH STEWART | TALES FOR NAUGHTY CHILDREN
I can see into your hearts
The heart says what only the heart knows.
The secret self lurks
Stalking shadow and sunlight
For revelation
Hearts break in pleading losses
And rise in resurrection
My sisters and I are semi-retired now, living quietly and running a small shop with odd merchandise and irregular hours. …
Charlie loved his name_ Charles Stephen Harrison. He felt that Charlie (the name everyone called him) fit him from tip to top. But more than anything, he was grateful not to be Rhett or Ashley or, worst of all, Rhett Ashley.
It had been a close call.
His mother, Scarlett Harrison, obsessed with that racist propaganda masquerading as genteel Southern history, Gone With the Wind, named his older sister Melanie. She decided on the name Rhett for her baby boy.
Unexpectedly, his father saved him. He told the nurse the baby’s name was Charles Stephen Harrison but
We’re going to call him Charlie.
Scarlett raged, but his father had stood firm.
Susannah Stewart often told him, “Your father is a good man, Charlie. And not just for giving you the right name. Your mother would faint if she knew how much he helps what she calls ‘the undeserving.’”
LIFE IS SPEAKING TOO LATE
I see you, but I say nothing
What is the source of our first suffering? It lies in the fact that we hesitated to speak. It was born in the moment when we accumulated silent things within us.
Hush, child, stay quiet.
An open mouth causes grief.
Silence is better.
What they don’t know won’t hurt you.
Just keep…
Susannah Stewart and Charlie had encountered an unpleasant obstacle that delayed their hearing the end of the story of Mara and Hannah and Finn from the “deciding ladies.” Eavesdropping on Cousin Scarlett, Charlie’s mother, extolling the virtues of her favorite book, Gone With the Wind, Susannah failed to keep her mouth shut.
That worthless book is poorly written racist propaganda that advocates slavery and you should be ashamed of your obsession with it.
Charlie had unwisely nodded his agreement with Susannah.
Scarlett would not put up with Susannah’s “sass” in insulting this book. Instead, she went to Susannah’s grandmother, Iline Stewart, and Susannah’s cousins from up North, Harmony and Dissonance, to help deal with the situation.
The women had no patience with Scarlett and her privileged prejudices, but they lived to keep Susannah’s feet firmly planted on the path of proper behavior. A futile exercise, but they kept trying.
LIFE IS A JOURNEY | MAGICAL BEINGS
Spinning, measuring, and severing
Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling.
Seneca
Came to a bad end.
She sure got what she deserved.
Petty predators
Often become easy prey
And nobody cares at all.
The three beautiful women drinking coffee in the outdoor cafe were drawing everyone's eyes. They might have been…
Stewart House had gardens from its beginning, back in the early 1700s. Kitchen gardens, with plants for cooking and healing, came first, then the flowers and ornamental shrubs. But the large tussie mussie created by Iline Stewart with Granny Weaver and her magical garden helpers in 2008 was special.
Constructed with a powerful design and intricately woven spells, the tussie mussie was another protection meant to counter the evil influences aligned against their new charge, the recently orphaned Susannah Stewart. Her guardians knew that when she was older, Susannah would face a fierce challenge there.
Over the years, the wise women worried the flower border would prove too weak and ultimately fail Susannah. But they underestimated the influence of the Black Knight Butterfly Bush and his steadfast devotion to the girl. And they forgot that the flowers, herbs, and shrubs had hearts and wills of their own.
