The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past

Chapter 3 - The Chocolate Chip Banana Waffles

Binny’s skateboarding heroes watched over her as she slept. A good night’s sleep softened Binny’s frustration and anger. But just a little. 

Although Julie Jordan worked just as hard during the summer as she did during the rest of the year, for the rest of the family the summer stretched like an endless lazy weekend. Since Jay was able to work from home, he was left in charge of the Jordan children’s summer activities which were few. Once each summer there was a day trip to the nearby islands for blackberry picking, but the only other treks out of the neighborhood were pilgrimages to the cineplexes downtown to take in every last summer blockbuster, or the periodic mandated chess camp. 

Chess camp was usually at the urging of Binny’s mother. Julie Jordan desperately wanted her kids to love chess the way she did. Jay had played against Julie in the first years of their marriage, but after it became clear he was an infinite distance from beating Julie, he kind of gave up. Julie’s competitiveness wouldn’t allow her to throw a game or two to keep Jay’s interest. She reasoned that letting him win wouldn’t teach him the right skills anyway. She was right. But ultimately what Jay learned was that playing chess with Julie was just not very much fun.

Zach didn’t mind chess camp, and while the kids complained about taking the ferry to the islands, they all loved Jay’s blackberry cobbler, made from the massive amounts of blackberries they would bring home from their trips. Cassie especially loved these expeditions Her purple smile would last for days until the fruit finally ran out.

Jay was not much of an outdoor person or athlete, preferring the couch to his 20-year-old still nearly mint condition bicycle. And while he claimed he wanted the kids to be more active, Jay’s efforts to get them to play outside usually stopped after a couple of ineffective requests. As a result, for the bulk of the summer, the kids were on their own. And the Jordan kids mostly liked it that way.

Binny easily surpassed her father’s athleticism with her newfound passion – skateboarding. For all of his half-hearted attempts to get her to pick up an outdoor activity, skateboarding wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. Jay wasn’t particularly excited at the thought of his ten-year-old daughter speeding down the Madrona hillside on four wheels and a plank, unable to stop for oncoming traffic. 

But with her mother’s support, and countless promises to wear her helmet, skate only on flat surfaces, and go sloooooooow, Jay relented and bought Binny a skateboard. A few short months later, Binny was on her fourth skateboard, having promised Jay repeatedly that she would take better care of the latest replacement, and that the demise of the prior three boards was not a result of her trying dangerous stunts. Jay suspected that Binny wasn’t telling the entire truth, and yet he relented. He liked to picture Binny as he’d drawn her, zipping about Madrona with little wings sprouting from her helmet, and a trail of smoke from her back wheels. 

It was the sun that finally woke Binny up. Jay, Zach, and Cassie were already awake. Binny’s rage and frustration from the previous night took a lot of energy to maintain and demanded a large amount of sleep to keep charged. Rubbing her eyes, Binny smiled at the thought that summer vacation had begun only recently, and this day was hers. But first things first.

Binny grabbed some relatively clean seeming clothes off the floor and changed into them. Many of the shelves in her closet where her clothes actually belonged, remained empty, unsure of their purpose. 

Binny was about to head downstairs to quell the rumbling in her stomach when she remembered to check on the mirror that her sister had swiped the day before. Binny backtracked into her room and to her bookshelf where the mirror had a place of honor – still there. It occurred to Binny that she should move the place of honor to a higher shelf that Cassie couldn’t reach, but there would be time for security improvements later. She was getting really hungry now, and something in the house smelled especially delicious.