Rytius Records (Substack Edition), Ch. 4

Chapter 4: Tiara & Merrillee

4. Tiara & Merrillee

It happened that Tiara was the early riser, and it had been that way since Atlantic City, and it was going on about twenty years since then. Merrillee wouldn’t have it any other way, and let Tiara think what she wanted. That, also, had been that way since then. Merrillee was simply the better charmer, so she had to get up early anyway. She did try, but Tiara couldn’t do it, and it wasn’t because she was lazy or malingering. It was an actual matter of talent; a talent Merrillee would rather have done without. So she didn’t like it, but she took her pleasure where she found it, and she found it in being better at something than high, mighty Princess Tiara, while Tiara never failed to remind her that her attitude, which should be gratitude, tended rather toward the tendentious and irritable, just as it had in Atlantic City, and no doubt before. No sooner did the Lord let her wake than she started in to grumbling, sowing dissension, and working iniquity. Merrillee let her ’buke, scorn and chastise, because Tiara didn’t know just how patiently Merrillee had held her tongue these years since Atlantic City. Merrillee would never let her know, either.