Ten Chimneys
The sun was high in the sky as Diana pedaled her gleaming red Schwinn bicycle down Genesee Road. It was a birthday present, fully-equipped with basket, horn and handlebar tassels.In seconds, with her arms outstretched, balancing her bike, she was flying into the wind. Up and down the kettles of the moraine, soaring in and out of the woods, she always strained to catch a peek of the mystical white manor and estate with its ten chimneys, rising into the trees like steeples.Today, for the first time, she excitedly pedaled through the opened Ten Chimneys' wooden gate. To savor the moment, she walked her bicycle slowly down a shaded, long winding drive and entered a large courtyard.Jules' familiar voice floated to her through an opened window. "Hi, Di! Don't you look pretty! I'll be right there."Holding her Nana's pie in a favored tea towel, she stood at the main house's laundry room door. Shading her eyes from the noon sun, she looked up. Above her, lace curtains in an open upstairs French door rustled closed."Hey! Miss!" Behind her the Lunt's groundskeeper, Ben Perkins approached, walking down the path from the stables. "What are you doing there?" Scared, Diana put the pie on the porch step, scrambled back onto her bicycle and pedaled away.Jules shouted from the open kitchen window, "Ben, it's Diana from over the hill, delivering a pie from Mrs. Herrold!""I'm sorry," Ben called back, laughing. "I didn't recognize her all dressed up."Jules' caution echoed through the woods, "Remember to close the gate, Di!"