My RA Ch. 02

"You do as Mistress says and get very good grades. Then we can work on a free ride."

Zoe said," Do you think I could do that? I was not a very good student in high school. I promise I will work extra hard to get good grades for you."

"Do not get grades for me, get them for you. I will be here to celebrate with you or to comfort you." It was getting late so Zoe and Joy bid farewell to each other. Joy felt at peace that night. Zoe smiled all the way back to her dorm, she had an anchor now. She missed her parents dearly, she thought Noel might help her with that. She called her as soon as she dug her packet out. Noel had a very calming voice. Zoe thought it would be best to talk about her parents face to face.

The next day Zoe was happier than she had been for some time. "Joy, this is Zoe. Can we set up a time to go to church? Do you think you could introduce me to Noel? I need to talk to someone like her about me and my parents. I loved them so much and they were gone in a flash. I came here so they would be proud of me."

"Zoe, we can go to the 11:00 service, then Noel does not have another service to go to. As far as your parents go they have not gone, they are within you. You probably know that by how you feel. Have you made friends with your roommate yet? My roommate was my Mistress, we told each other everything. I will have a present for you on Sunday."

When Sunday came, Joy had a bag with her. "What is in the bag Joy?"

"No peeking Zoe, you need to wait until after the service." The service was very emotional for Zoe. Jacob rewrote his sermon when he heard Zoe was coming. While his church was going through a series, Jacob thought a diversion was necessary. Today it was about love and how a parent's love for you is modeled after the love God has for you.

"God's love is eternal, we cannot comprehend how great it is. There is no baggage or strings with Him. Christ has interceded for us so God sees no sins. A parent's love comes from God. Even if we lose loved ones, they are with us in our memories and in our hearts. They are even in your very DNA. They will always be there for us, never gone, never forgotten."

After the service Joy introduced Zoe to Noel. As they talked a growing number of friends joined the group. Soon Anne, Mei, Faith, and The Dean had joined the circle, Noel was watching close by. Zoe was surprised to see The Dean there. Everyone had bags with them. Joy said." OK Zoe, now everyone is here. I need to tell you that everyone here has a very strict rule if they want to be close friends. Do you want to be our close friend Zoe?"

Zoe was unsure about a strict rule comment. "Yes I do, but I do not want to commit before I know what the rule is."

"Well, it is kind of a key to get into everyone's house. Anne was kind of shocked when we told her about it after her Dad died. At first, she refused. One-Two Three-Now." Everyone reached into their bag only to retrieve a bear that was dressed up in their finest clothing.

"Zoe meet Teddy, Bear, Cubby, Specs, Sony. My Mom's bear is Goldie, Mei's Mom's is Boo-Boo and Mistress is Blackie. I seem to have an extra bear in here. He does not appear to have a name. Do you think you can help us, Zoe?"

"What? This is silly Joy, I can't afford a teddy bear. What would I do with it?"

"You know Anne said the exact same thing. Owners are not allowed to buy their bears, we aren't slavers, and we adopt them. This poor bear does not have a name. He needs a forever home. You are the only one here not holding a bear, I think he needs a hug from you."

Zoe looked at each member of the group and then back at Joy: they were waiting expectantly. Zoe grabbed the bear from Joy and gave it an ever so tight hug. She just started to cry. "What do you say Brownie, do you want to be friends with these very silly and kind people?" Brownie nodded quickly then he gave Zoe another hug. Zoe whispered to Noel she wanted to talk to her privately. Both sat in a corner. Zoe just could not hold back the tears. "Noel, I loved them so and some drunk driver smashes into them. The only good thing was they died together. How am I going to cope? I am all twisted up inside."

"Joy, I am going to take her to our house for the night."

Once there Zoe just relaxed, and Noel put her to bed so she could rest. Noel promised hot cocoa with honey after dinner. The rest was exactly what Zoe needed. Noel was right there if she needed to talk. As Zoe slept Noel grabbed Jacob and brought him to the guest room. As they started to pray for Zoe, Noel just started to cry," This child has been through so much before her time." Noel put Brownie in her arms. Zoe automatically gave Brownie a tight squeeze.

Joy called Dawn," Mistress, Zoe and Brownie are in grief right now. She is all mixed up right now. She just lost her parents in a car crash. She is at her wit's end. She is with Noel right now, can you promise to keep an eye on her?" Dawn realized that Joy gave Zoe the bear to have a place of permanence. She probably had a hard time making friends and she was having trouble with school. Dawn will visit her tomorrow night. The next night when Miss Dawn arrived, Zoe welcomed her. It was evening and Zoe's roommate was not there. Miss Dawn noticed.

Zoe said," Pen is always out partying. I hardly ever see her so I have not made friends with her yet." On the inside Dawn was fuming, she could not do much to Penny unless they caught her in the act of breaking the rules of the college. She needed to save Zoe from herself. "Zoe, how is your schoolwork? Do you need help with it? Joy thinks you are special; she does not let everyone into our Bear Family, and it is a very select group. We all want to help you Zoe, but you need to talk to us. You know when Joy came to us, she had trauma, she had to act like a ten-year-old, and we had to give her a lot of rules to organize her mind. Do you think that would help you?"

"I could use some of that Mistress, I do not know if I am coming or going. Last night at Noel's I had the best sleep I had in some time. Do you think I am starting to forget my parents?"

"Never Zoe, you will never forget them. They are part of you." Dawn saw an 8X10 inch picture of her parents on Zoe's desk. "So we need some rules, let's start with you will kiss Mom and Dad as soon as you get up and before you go to bed, wishing them a good morning and a good night. You need to keep in contact with your new friends. We can never replace your parents, but we would love to be your adopted family. You came here for a diploma so you will get good grades. We will set times for you to get meals, showers, studying, what to wear when to go to class. First, we need to ask The Dean if we can swap roommates with one of the subs in our class. We need to get you, someone, to confide in at a moment's notice, someone who will know you inside out."

"Mistress, I do not have the money to come back to school."

"Excuse me, Zoe, I do not believe I said you were to go broke or drop out of school. I said you were to get a diploma. You will make your parents proud and get very high marks. When you graduate, I want you to bring that picture right up on stage with you when you get your degree. You have a lot in common with Anne; you should hang out with her and have good times. There are a lot of people who like to give college students money to continue school. You think about that for a moment while I make a call."

Zoe now realized that Dawn believed in her wholeheartedly, so did Joy. The others as well. They wanted to bend over backward to help her. They wanted her to be their friend. Zoe was in a dream world, she could barely hear Mistress talking.

"Alkaia, this is Dawn. Listen, Zoe's roommate is somewhat of a party girl and is hardly ever here. She does not need that environment. Can we swap rooms so Zoe can room with a sub classmate? Then they can get to know each other just like Mei and Joy. She needs structure as Joy needed, but I wanted to set that up after we got her a new roommate. It is your call, but we could sneak in a potential Mistress type from my class for some on the job training."

"Sounds reasonable Dawn, we may need to move three people. Who is the sub you want for Zoe? "

Alkaia said, "I will tell the police to let us know if she gets into drugs or under-aged drinking. We expressed that very clearly in the new forms that those were grounds for expulsion. Unfortunately, we have to scrape them off the street before we can get the police and medical reports."

"Alkaia, I will figure it out and text you the name, we will get some guys to help all three moves so there will not be a big problem. We need to give this girl a sense of permanence. She lost her family so we need to build her a new one. She seems to have a lot in common with Anne. I suggested they do stuff together."

One evening Zoe knocked on the Lodge door. Anne opened it and invited Zoe in. Zoe had been crying because her mind was still in so much tumult. With lips quivering, she just blurted out," Anne, several people have told me we have a lot in common with each other. I was wondering if you, Mei and Joy would consider being my best friends. I have never had any before and could sure use someone who could be there for me. Of course, I would be there for you also. We could just hang out or do something planned. I do not make friends easily."

Anne just gave her a warm embrace. "Yes, I will Zoe. I would love to spend some time together with you so I get to know you. You can never have too many friends. After my Dad died, Mom and I thought it was important at the memorial service to first do something as a family, then we had corporate prayer with all our new friends that would help us through the tough spots. I think we have a lot in common, probably more than we know. Once we get to know each other maybe we can block out some time every week, we can figure out later what to do.

The Dean is all about family, if you are broke and can't continue with school she finds the money. If you have to have a Mom nearby, she makes it happen. If you are sick and need medicine but can't afford it, she figures out away. Mom and I were really sick, lots of times we did not have food. The night my Dad died I went to stay at the Lodge and Mom went home with The Dean. I woke up to a wonderful smell. Joy ordered me to eat my fruit cup, Mei gave me orange juice and bacon and eggs were cooking. It was a real treat. Then we went to the hospital to get checked out and get our medicine. Mom was very sick. She got several shots and a lot of prescriptions, and she was scolded severely when she complained about the cost.

"Zoe, let me show you something." They went into Joy's old room; her rule boards were still there. "These are Joy's rule boards. As you can see, Mei prioritized them into different groups. It is quite extensive, she needed two boards. You should consider doing the same. Just remember, you better behave if we are doing an activity that you need to sit down to do. Mei, Miss Dawn and The Dean had to put her under boot camp mode until she organized her mind. She had to know what to do and how to act and what was expected of her. Mei was right here for her. She had to have someone like Mei, so she knew she had someone in her corner. Do you want me in your corner Zoe?"

"Oh, yes please Anne, I would really like that. Miss Dawn wants to do a boot camp thing with me. I have a party girl roommate now, so 'The Dean' is going to put me with one of the subs in my class. Apparently, she needs to move three or four people. I didn't know 'The Dean' played such an active role in the student's lives, I thought she was a pencil pusher."

Anne asked," Zoë how would you like to start out with just lunches in the Café? After a couple of weeks, we can reevaluate our status." After a week of humdrum daily small talk at lunch both wanted more. Both started to look for opportunities to do something together, they did not want to sit and watch a football game. Just the two of them doing something special.

One day Zoe came running to the Lodge, flyer in hand. Anne perused the flyer and approved it. "Zoe this looks great. I have never tried horseback riding before. Since he just opened, he will not have run-down horses. Maybe he has deals on other things. Maybe even animals the kids could feed and hayrides. Let's go Saturday afternoon."

The week flew by. Saturday was a beautiful day, sunny but not too hot. The owner, Buck was depressed, it had been two weeks and Anne and Zoe were going to be his first customers. Anne and Zoe got the grand tour on horseback by Buck. He thought his first customers deserved more than what they paid for.

Anne asked Buck, "Do you have things the kids can do like feeding animals or hayrides? There are fifty well-behaved children back in town, so they need to be rewarded from time to time. Horses are probably too much for them. They would love feeding chickens and goats and pet some animals. They would do it even if it stinks. Bunnies would be a big hit I think."

"Well truthfully, I never thought about the kids. I am zoned for all that stuff, and I have the acreage. I am sure I can get a used wagon to have hayrides. Chickens and bunnies could be a good start and get bigger animals if it is successful."

"Anne I am having a blast. We need to come back next week if it is nice out. I have not been horseback riding since I was a kid on a pony, we just circled the corral a few times. We thought we were big shots just like the adults who rode the horses. I remember one time I saw a calf being born. The little thing could barely stand when it found mama for the first time.

"Mister, you need to change your marketing strategy, flyers won't work. Get on Facebook, tell of all the upcoming things you are going to get. Have pictures of the horses and testimonials from customers. I hope you have someone to teach lessons. If you teach lessons; you might as well sell the equipment. Have a few extra stalls for people that might want to board their horses here."

Buck said graciously," Thank you girls, I have never thought about a lot of it. I will ask my daughter, Sarah to get myself out there. I was aiming at the school kids, but I know I like feeding the chickens and petting bunnies."

When Anne paid, she first gave him a dollar bill," This is for your wall." She put the rest on plastic.

Later in the day Buck called Sarah and invited her to dinner but told her to bring her laptop. I need some media consulting. He told her all the ideas Anne and Zoe had told him. They took some pictures of some of the horses and were hoping Anne and Zoe would consent to have some taken on the ride. There was a lot of homework to do on other items as well and spending to get a wagon and animals. Over the next two weeks, the site would be live tested. Anne and Zoe were thrilled to be in a photoshoot. Zoe said," We should get some shots riding and maybe some of the horses drinking by the nearby creek. It would project sereneness." Both girls posted raving reviews.

The girls knew they were short-staffed, so they volunteered to do some jobs, they drew the line about muckraking. They brushed and washed the horses. Anne fed the chickens and Zoe fed the bunnies. They loved to curl up in Zoe's arms. Anne saw a marked difference in Zoe as she worked with the animals. They were one more part of the foundation Anne was trying to build for Zoe. Anne got a thought for yet another stone, soon the foundation would be complete.

Anne called Buck," Hello, this is Anne, and we here at school are trying to build up a solid base for Zoe since her original base was ripped out from under her. I was wondering if you would let us take the horses back by the creek and we could have a picnic and Bible study. You or any of your family would be invited, especially to the Bible study. We would like to have God be the cement that holds all the stones that we have been building for her."

"I am not much of a religious type, but my daughter Sarah is. I think she would like that; I will have her call you. Your number is 555-6789 right?"

"Yes, that is right. I hope she can come. We love all of your animals; it calms her down."

For no real reason, except know what might be expected for her, Joy walked all of her tests over to Mistress to inspect. Joy had been working hard in her new major but being accelerated and a harder major she did not do as well this time.

"This is more like it Joy, you got two A's and an A-. You see Joy if we just skate through life you get very little reward. It is the old High risk/ High reward theory. Now you are not perfect. Most students in this school would die to get an A-, you probably got upset by it. It must be hard to have a major test every seven to ten days."

"It is, but he was kind enough to shuffle the tests up so I do not have the test in the same class every week. It gives me about an eight or nine-day gap. Sometimes while I am in a class, I get a test for a different class just so he can space things out more. I will have more classes after finals also. These are just the 101 religion courses, I already did the freshman non-major classes. I am going to have to do two summer school semesters to catch up. I have already told him to plan on a two-week honeymoon during spring break. I miss not being able to do stuff with my friends, I practically live in the library. I hear Anne and Zoe are doing horseback riding, I wonder if they have an evening ride or hayride on the weekend."

Zoe was the first of her class to go into town and meet the kids, most disregarded Miss Dawn's advice. Zoe took Anne's advice that she could not have too many friends. She could not figure out how to introduce herself to the kids. Then a brainstorm struck. She realized she made a mistake.

Zoe walked over to a small boy playing with his bear. She sat down Indian-style and talked to the boy who was wary of her. Mommy and Daddy always said not to talk to strangers. "What is your bear's name? He looks like a handsome bear. Did Miss Joy make sure you got that bear?" The boy nodded. "Do you know Miss Joy made sure I got a bear also? His name is Brownie. I should have brought him with me, but I forgot. Zoe was not below doing some name dropping. I will bring him next time I come down if you will have me."

When the boy heard she was a friend of Miss Joy he started telling all about his bear. Just about everything he did with his bear. Zoe just listened to the boy as he went on about his bear. Word spreads quickly on the grapevine. Soon all the children knew the stranger was Miss Joy's friend. Miss Joy gave her a bear named 'Brownie.' Miss Joy only gives bears to special people. Soon there was a large group of children that encircled Zoe all holding their bear or dolly. Molly was playing hopscotch outside, she did not hear about Zoe. Before Zoe left she walked over to an adult working on his laptop. She whispered into his ear and showed him a web site. The adult was intrigued. "It would have to be an extra-extra-extra special occasion." Zoe agreed.

David spoke seriously to Joy," Joy, you have been working too hard and you are not getting any fun. I think the kids are going to the stables soon. You are going with them. I am willing to give up a 'Date night' so you can catch up with your work. You know you love being with them and they love you. So, where is this box you have been hiding on me? I have heard much about them but have not seen them."

Joy was in a dilemma. She did not want to show David her plaques, but he had a right to see them. Joy got them at a very hard time in her life, not long after the flood. When David saw Joy carrying the box to him, he could see tears just spilling down her cheeks. He slowly opened the box and carefully read each one. Then he got to the bracelet and examined it closely.