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Flowers in the Attic: "Growing Up, Growing Wiser" (Part 2)


Maggie Mae

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I quit yesterday with one page left in this chapter. I had no idea. I would have finished had I known. No matter. We'll finish it now. To recap yesterday's work: 

The impossibly blonde and beautiful blue-eyed bimbo Cathy and her hunk of burning love brother Christopher (hereby known as Chris, to avoid mix-ups with his father, also called Christopher.) play monopoly after being starved in an attic for several weeks while baby-sitting their younger siblings. Who are also very blonde and attractive and now consider Chris and Cathy their parents. This isn't weird, because Christopher married Corrine and he is actually her older half-brother/uncle. Christopher died in a car wreck, Michael Bay style. Check out the first entry in this series if you'd like to refresh your memory on that plot line (no, don't, I just told you. It was maybe one paragraph and shared through dialogue. The writer needed to save space for the riveting tale of Monopoly in Part Two). I will spare you the details of the Monopoly. Turns out it's just as boring to read about as it is to play. 

So on the last page of the first chapter of part two, Chris whispers in Cathy's ear at night. It's late August and he would like to go swimming. Well, so would I. I can't imagine how gross that attic must be, late August, Virginia. Heat rises. Central Air is not a thing yet. It's also the attic and a small room that attaches to the attic on the top floor of the Foxworth Mansion. Cathy is sulky because she lost at Monopoly. Not because she was recently starved and kept in an attic while going through puberty with her older brother and twin younger siblings. Nope, she's sour because of monopoly. Not because her mother abandoned her, her friends are all in Pennsylvania, and her Grandmother poured hot tar in her hair (impossibly) while she was sleeping. 

Chris is like "hey, I made a ladder so we can get out in case of fire." (I don't think it's foreshadowing. I think it's something that the ghostwriter decided to roll with). Cathy protests, he's like "we're stronger now and have to practice" They talk about leaving a note for the twins, who may or may not be able to read. 

We learn that there are eight (8) chimneys on the roof. Chris has made a ladder out of sheets. There is no description of where the sheets came from. Magic sheets, I guess. 

Chris explains to her how to climb down the rope he made, because in 1950, if girls took gym, their uteruses would fall out. 

The final line of the chapter: 

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Smiling with confidence, he held to the rope and inched his way to the very edge of the roof. We were going down to the ground for the first time in more than two years. 

DUM DUM DUHHHHHN. 

What will happen next? Will they decide to run away and contact a LEO to retrieve their siblings and put them in foster care? Did foster care exist in the 1950s? Will they happen across a kindly stranger in a cabin in the woods who is also a witch who wants to eat children? Will they get caught? Find out next time! 

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clueliss

Posted

Laughing at the Michael Bay reference to the car accident.  Being of an age - even at the time the car accident reminded me of another contemporary novel back in the 70's  that everyone my age read - The Promise (complete with pre-lifetime network melodrama movie) by Danielle Steel (who I have quickly lost the ability to ever read)

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catlady

Posted

i don't think i ever read The Promise, but of the ones i have read, Danielle Steele's books are crap.

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HerNameIsBuffy

Posted

I read one Danielle Steele books when pregnant back in the early 90's.  I don't remember the name or anything about the plot but I do remember being angry someone got paid to write it.

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Chris explains to her how to climb down the rope he made

If he understood the physical mechanics of rope climbing did he think ahead of how two kids weak from starvation and one with less upper body strength than himself were going to get back up?

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Maggie Mae

Posted

3 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

If he understood the physical mechanics of rope climbing did he think ahead of how two kids weak from starvation and one with less upper body strength than himself were going to get back up?

They are clearly fine like two minutes after they were given soup and milk. Cathy is back to whining about losing Monopoly, and he found enough sheets to make a rope to get down several stories. 

As a person who occasionally rock climbs, I find down climbing more difficult. Or at least more technically challenging. They rope with knots pretty much means it will be a ladder. If she were smart, she'd use her feet to save energy. But I read ahead and the rope is poorly knotted. 

Granted, I can't figure out why they want to go back up in the first place. That room has to smell like teenage boy, toddler, and sewer. 

 

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HerNameIsBuffy

Posted

21 minutes ago, Maggie Mae said:

Granted, I can't figure out why they want to go back up in the first place. That room has to smell like teenage boy, toddler, and sewer. 

I hadn't thought about the smell.  Thanks for that.  

Imo it's not believable that they left.  They love the twins and they know two things:  one is a screamer and grandmother is a monster.  Leaving them makes no sense whatsoever.

If they had any faith in being believed by law enforcement Chris should have gone for help and Cathy should have stayed, armed with something from the attic to knock out old Grams if she had to - take the key and grab the kids and make a run for it through the house.  

If he can make a ballet barre they can weaponize some crap from up there.

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clueliss

Posted

Also hadn't thought about the smell.  I'm now going to have to read the rest of these with my t-shirt up over my nose much like I do when I watch hoarders (yes, I can often imagine the smell when I watch that show).  

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JordynDarby5

Posted

I forgot about the smell but your right its got to be the worse. 

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  • Posts

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      Posted

      7 minutes ago, Caroline said:

      My apologies to all who love MCM furniture. But I think this piece is super ugly. It reminds me of my parents' 50's furniture. I even disliked our furniture then. 

       

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      My apologies to all who love MCM furniture. But I think this piece is super ugly. It reminds me of my parents' 50's furniture. I even disliked our furniture then. 

       

    • Antimony

      Posted

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      Quote

      11. Agreement to comply with laws and restrictions on harmful transmissions. You, as the User, agree that you will comply with all applicable laws regarding computing device use, both now and in the future as laws are generated which may affect use of the computing device. You also agree not to attempt to pursue in any way any transmission of information to Covenant Eyes servers or other equipment which could be harmful to its database or other functions. The transmission of any material in violation of any state or United States regulations is expressly prohibited, and will result in immediate termination of use.

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      It's such a strange app to me and its always seemed like you could get a big can of worms about it when it comes to cases like Josh. 

      *Tumblr, a few years ago, used a similar early AI to detect "adult" content but ended up banning a lot of pictures of sand dunes because if you are a robot, the curves of a sand dune look roughly the same as those of a pale-to-tan naked lady because...that's a robot and it doesn't know. 

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      Posted

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      0352F43C-39F1-4563-88E7-EBA2AFE911DC.jpeg

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    • Giraffe

      Posted

      1 hour ago, Four is Enough said:

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