Thread by @lainasparetime

With that updated, shall we tackle Chapter 22 for #LainaReadsAnne? I kinda forgot it was Tuesday on Tuesday. My week's schedule was really thrown off.

Last thread, Anne and Diana stumbled upon a house in the woods and met Miss Lavendar Lewis!

#LainaReadsAnne We have a nice short chapter - somewhat of a relief after how long that last one was. It was a very good chapter, but my hands got tired! Also tbh I have other things to get done today.

...but oh boy, there's some stuff to unpack in this one. Buckle up, kids.

#LainaReadsAnne It's breakfast following the visit to Miss Lavendar's and Anne is filling Marilla in one everything that happened.

#LainaReadsAnne Marilla hasn't seen Miss Lavendar in fifteen years but says Lavenda was "reckoned a great beauty when she was a girl" and Marilla always liked her, though they didn't know each other well.

*whispers* Crush? XD

#LainaReadsAnne Anne says Miss Lavendar is different, but "maybe it's because she is one of those people who never grow old".

Marilla is unimpresed by this, as it makes it hard for people to fit in. "Far as I can learn Lavendar Lewis has just dropped out of everything."

#LainaReadsAnne She's also always been curious about why Miss Lavendar and Stephen Irving didn't work out. He apparently left for the US after they broke up, and hasn't been back home since.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne, "with one of those flashes of insight which experience could not have bettered", figures it was nothing huge, but just the little things that add up.

Yeah, I can see that.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne also asks Marilla not to talk to Mrs Rachel about this. She's not ready to talk about it so publicly, and wants to respect Miss Lavendar's privacy, which I think is really thoughtful of her.

#LainaReadsAnne Marilla admits Rachel would normally be curious, but she's been preoccupied with Thomas' illness. No one really thinks he's going to get better at this point.

Mrs Rachel doesn't know what she'll do if he dies, as all her kids live out west besides one daughter.

#LainaReadsAnne Which, uh. Is perhaps somewhat telling that of her TEN (living) children, NINE of them moved full across Canada.

I'm sure Mrs Rachel was a good mother, but she also seems like a mother who is easier to love from afar.

#LainaReadsAnne Marilla says, "Rachel says if he’d only brace up and exert his will power he’d get better. But what is the use of asking a jellyfish to sit up straight?"

#LainaReadsAnne And then she basically says Thomas would never have done anything in his life without Mrs Rachel and he's lucky to have her to save "him the bother of ever making up his own mind about anything".

Hey, if it works, it work. As long as they're happy, good for them.

#LainaReadsAnne Meanwhile, this whole time Davy has been displaying his usual awful table manners.

He specifically horrifies them by licking his plate and Marilla says if he ever does that again "you'll be made to wait for your meals till everyone else is done, like the French".

#LainaReadsAnne Again, you know. Yikes. Big yikes, even

French people were REALLY treated badly in this time period.

#LainaReadsAnne Racism/anti-Indigenous racism cw for this next bit. Also, animal abuse.

Apparently Davy also recently pulled feathers out of the rooster's tail because he wanted, and I quote, "an Injun headdress", which is apparently a big trend in the local schoolboys.

#LainaReadsAnne Yeaaah, that's fucked up. I don't have to point out how fucked up that is, right?

Like... wow.

#LainaReadsAnne Timeline note, the book mentions "the past six years" so my timeline is correct right now as far as counting years Anne has been at Green Gables

Besides the racism and animal cruelty, they both think Davy is behaving better since starting school which makes sense

#LainaReadsAnne This is also when Montgomery remembered the twins have an uncle and Marilla wonders about him. There's been no news since "last May".

#LainaReadsAnne In literally the next paragraph, it says, "A month later a letter did come."

He's dead.

Yup, just like that. The book remembered he exists and then he just dies. It is, honestly, hilariously abrupt. Absolutely no buildup. Just dead.

#LainaReadsAnne He did, however, leave them two thousand dollars in a trust for when they're adults and the interest will be used for raising them.

Say it's 1896 (I do), that's in the neighbourhood of $65k, according to the calculator I just checked.

#LainaReadsAnne This is obviously a big relief for Marilla as kids are expensive and the farm rent only goes so far.

Marilla also refuses to use any of Anne's money on the twin and I was like, "What money does Anne have?"

She... she has a job. She's a teacher.

#LainaReadsAnne That's a whole-ass job. Did I just forget she was being paid?

Brains are so weird.

#LainaReadsAnne Davy and Dora are delighted to be staying at Green Gables - they're seven so an uncle they've never met dying doesn't make them very sad, OBVIOUSLY. This is super normal.

#LainaReadsAnne Dora, however, is nervous he'll show up walking around in the house like Mirabel Cotton's uncle did.

Tbh that's pretty darn funny.

#LainaReadsAnne And that's the end of this chapter! If you liked it, pls RT something you thought was good so other people can find it, and if you can, my tip jar is open. Tbh I need to buy the next book pretty soon! ko-fi.com/A0602GN