Learning to Fly

By Rachel Elizabeth Cole

This collection contains seven of Rachel Elizabeth Cole's touching short stories.

In "Fallen Leaves," a mother must come to terms with the bad blood between her late husband's grandmother and herself. In "Listen to the Rain," a young couple going through a rough patch struggles to find happiness. In "Caring for Lily," a young mother wrestles with her decision to return to work. In "For Good or For Bad," a dissastisfied wife must decide if she'll risk everything for her ex-boyfriend. In "Is This Seat Taken?," two strangers connect briefly at a bus station. A woman cleaning out her dead mother’s attic digs through old feelings about the adoption of her son and the woman she swore she'd never be like in “Boxes of Dust.” And, in “Miss Popularity,” will a hallway encounter ruin a young teen girl’s chances at her new school?

Heartfelt, bittersweet, and poignant, these short stories explore the moments where we spread our fledgling wings, take that leap, and learn to fly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tangled Oak Press
• Release date: Jan 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781498961912

Rachel Elizabeth Cole

Rachel Elizabeth Cole is a novelist and short story writer whose work has appeared, among other places, in Cahoots, Literary Mama, Gator Springs Gazette, and Flashquake. Even though she hates the rain, she lives just outside Vancouver, British Columbia, with her husband, their two sons, and two very spoiled house rabbits.

Book preview

Fallen Leaves

Dressed in a stiff, blue dress, Great-Gran perched in a straight-backed chair in the corner of our living room. Withered chin held high, she stared out the window at our front lawn where the rain dripped off the last leaves of the Garry Oak. Sitting amongst the pastel-coloured couches and the glass-top tables, she looked like a Norman Rockwell painting in a modern art gallery. I could almost smell the mustiness and hear the hollow echoing as leering museum-goers trooped by.

She glanced at me and sniffed disapprovingly. I dropped my gaze to my teacup, wishing my mother would say something to end the silence. But Mom just sat there, sipping her tea as if today wasn’t any different than any other Sunday for the last decade. We all knew better. Even Great-Gran, I suspect.

Why Mom had made this decision was a mystery. One of life’s great conundrums, as Mrs. Beecham, my grade nine English teacher, liked to say. It was no secret in our family that my mother and my father’s grandmother held each other in the greatest contempt. Yet when Summer, my eldest sister, left for her first year of college, Mom wasted no time revealing her plan to help Great-Gran sell her old house and move into ours.

It’s in everyone’s best interest that we take Great-Gran in, she’d said at dinner one night.

"But you hate her," I replied.

I do not hate her. Mom frowned at me. She and I don’t always get along, Gracie. But she’s ninety and nearly blind. How would you feel if something happened because we refused to help her?

I glanced at my younger sister, Heather. She stared at her plate.

Besides, it’s what your father would have wanted.

I honestly had no idea what our father would have wanted. He’d been orphaned during the Second World War, when his father’s ship was torpedoed in the South Pacific and his mother died a few months later of a fever on their farm in Saskatchewan. Great-Gran had taken him into her home here in Victoria and raised him alone. Given him every advantage, she’d often say with a sniff. Not that it matters anymore.

Great-Gran expected he would attend law school, maybe go into politics like her own father. But then Mom, the unruly flower child, came along with her grand ideals and wayward tendencies and spoiled all Gran’s plans. They ran off together, travelled the country for a year, even spent some time in the States, before Mom got pregnant and they decided to come home. Dad got a job down at the dry docks. He worked there until I was five and he died in a car accident. We all knew Great-Gran blamed Mom. She blamed Mom for everything. Yet here we were, still dressed in our church clothes, waiting on Mom to invite the old matriarch into our home.

Heather squirmed in her chair and reached for the plate of Peek Freans Mom had bought especially for our Sunday teas because Great-Gran supposedly liked them. I never saw her eat a single one.

Great-Gran levelled bleary eyes in Heather’s direction. In my day, young ladies never helped themselves to anything unless it was first offered to them.

Heather crossed her arms. I put them there.

Pardon me? Great-Gran set her teacup down.

Take one, Heather, Mom said, nudging the china plate towards my sister.

Forget it. Heather jutted out her chin in such a manner she looked, to my surprise, very much like a younger version of Gran.

Well, I must say . . .

But Heather had already stormed out of the room.

Great-Gran retrieved her teacup with a sniff. Donna, you really ought to teach these girls a little restraint. Such manners. She clicked her tongue and shook her head.

Mom sighed. She’s got homework to do anyway.

And you, Gracie? Those bleary eyes had found me. Have you homework as well?

I fiddled with my teacup, debating whether there was any advantage in imitating my sister’s performance. I glanced at Mom. No, Gran. No homework.

Well, she said and slurped her tea.

The silence stretched like an elastic band on the point of snapping. I began to regret my decision to stay.

You’ve been quiet today, Donna, Great-Gran said to my mother.

Mom’s head shot up like a startled deer’s. I . . . I’ve been thinking a lot about Summer lately. Since it’s her first year of college and all.

"Yes. Quite an accomplishment for this family." Great-Gran raised her sagging eyebrows above her bat-winged glasses and slurped her tea.

Mom shifted in her chair and toyed with her blouse cuff. So, how are you doing these days? Has your back been troubling you again? Doctor Kostecki said you should take it easy.

That Doctor Kostecki. Always telling everyone about my health.

I hardly call his filling me in on your check-ups ‘telling everyone.’ Mom knotted her hands, kneading the flesh around her knuckles. You know he’s only trying to help, Gran. And if we don’t know what’s wrong, we can’t help.

Help? I don’t need help. Great-Gran’s chin shot up. Why, I don’t feel a day over sixty. I’m quite fine, thank you very much.

I saw you wince getting out of the car today.

It was nothing. Great-Gran waved her hand. Only stiff muscles from sitting on those miserably hard pews all morning.

Gran, the girls and I are concerned about you, living in that big old house by yourself. We think maybe—

"You will not put me in a home, Donna Sather. So help me, I will not go. Stuck in a hospital with loonie old ladies and drooling old men... I will not be treated so."

Gran, please. Mom clenched her hands until her knuckles turned white. We have no intention of putting you in a home. We want you to come live with us.

With you?

Yes. We worry about you. We’d feel so much more comfortable if you were here with us.

"Oh,

Reviews for Learning to Fly

[shadow123_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book from LT Member Giveaways.This collection of short stories showcases some masterful prose, and I really enjoyed that. I think the reviewers complaining about the ambiguous endings are missing the point - this is art. What fails for me, though, is how awful the dialogue is - completely unrealistic sounding, which really hinders the character development. If Cole can get that down, then she'll be a really powerful writer. Overall, though, I recommend this collection - there's a lot of heart here,and a lot to ponder.

[crazy_bunny_lady · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was good but I just hate it when they end like these did.

[lost_lenore · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked very much. Although the stories are indeed short, the truth is that I felt in them an extremely sensitive depth. I think each story has a story within that appeal to sentiment. Transforming everyday things into touching things is definitely a gift.

[chancelet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I won this book in a LibraryThing Member Giveaway. Learning to Fly is a book of short stories with characters that are well developed, relatable and oh so real. They are stories that tell of a difficult moment in people’s lives. In Fallen Leaves, there is the widowed mother who must consider taking in a difficult, elderly in-law. The question is why? Listen to the Rain, is about a young pregnant couple that must learn whether it’s worth surviving past the chapter in their lives when neither of them say what they mean to and end the day in arguments. The character I related to most was the mother in Caring for Lily who is trying to find a daycare for her baby so she can return to work – truly that’s what she wants, right? Then there’s the blogger in For Good or For Bad with a good husband and two children, but who can’t stop thinking about the one who got away. Finally, there’s Is This Seat Taken? where a young pregnant woman at a bus station meets a young college guy. Are they both lost and looking to find their way?As I stated above, the characters are real and the book is well written. What was most amiss for me was that to me they weren’t short stories, but excerpts of longer pieces, as none of them was a complete story. It seemed to be what the author intended, but I was always of the belief that a short story has a beginning, middle and end. These all lacked an ending, some more than others. The last story was the most mystifying. It was unknown what the conflict was and why the pregnant woman was at the bus station. At least with the other stories, you could think of how the stories could turn out and dream up possible endings. For the last one, however, since it’s unsure what the conflict was, you have no idea what might happen.Still, Rachel Elizabeth Cole is a very good writer who is great at character development, something I admire in a writer. I would be interested in reading a complete novel by her to see how she does finalize stories.

[kmt01_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received this book from Library Thing to read and review. This is a wonderful collection of short stories. In every case, though the story is short, the author pulls the reader right into the story. The characters and their stories are real ones abut everyday life and hardships. The author has managed to put forth a setting, develop characters and also insert in a plot in a short amount of time and space. This is the biggest challenge for the short story writer, and the author has met this challenge successfully. These stories are each separate and can be read separately, whenever the reader has a short spurt of free time. Since that is often my case, I welcome a book like this one. It is only an added bonus to find such good stories within the book. I highly recommend the book to anyone who enjoys good writing and good short stories (or to anyone who even does not particularly care for short stories—these are good).