The Outsider Ch. 03

There was a lot to be done in those last days, and no time to do it. Item one: Make Miss Kathy and B co-executors of our estate. It came as no surprise to anyone that people preferred to call them as a couple, and it was a rare instance when you mentioned one without the other. Item two: Have B turn theme albums into chronological scrapbooks. Item three: Have Miss Kathy trace back the Russian family I was the flower girl for, for invites. Item four: Have Tommy and Marie Ann agree they are soulmates, problem: they never met each other. Item five: Schooling for Tommy and Marie Ann. Item six: Visit. Beauty's and Apache's apple orchards.

"That should be enough for us to work on," I said as Miss Molly retrieved the sheet of paper from the printer.

"You expect these two to have an enduring love for each other; are you going to have an arranged marriage?" Kathy expressed with concern.

"Nothing so ham-fisted as that my dear; matchmaking is a fine art."

"Miss Kathy, just because they have not met does not mean anything. Have Marie Ann, and her friends to retake their junior year at Tommy's school, taking AP classes, core, and electives. You could see the American History paper Marie Ann would write. Then, to finish school in Paris. By then they would have obligations in Paris I would imagine. Daisy, and I plan on paying for their education."

A few days before their deaths, while at the ranch, Molly and Daisy visited the apple orchards. "I am glad Ceres is not here to see this. She would have never permitted it. It was obvious the trees were either dead or diseased. Call B and tell him to say in lieu of flowers to donate to a fund to dig up and replant both apple orchards. One species slightly sweet for Beauty and the other a more robust species for Apache," said Said Molly.

Leave it for Miss Daisy, and Miss Molly to plan their funeral different than everyone else. They wanted to have two viewings to make it easier for the people who wanted to visit them. During this time, they would have a framework holding up their phones and use Skype for people around the world to pay their respects. During the viewings Miss Molly and Miss Daisy wanted the people of today to meet their friends of yesteryear. B and Miss Kathy were critical with this to make the scrapbooks. Miss Kathy, in desperation, put out a public plea to find the descendants of the Russian wedding. She included the picture of Miss Molly. A group picture of the wedding party, and the wedding invitation with an English translation.

The response was immediate. Molly even though she didn't know Russian, saved the bride's wedding day by getting Mom to the wedding in time. The story was passed down through the generations; no one in the family wanted to forget Miss Molly. In the end, there were over twenty scrapbooks scattered around the funeral home for everyone to look at; the wedding album would be given to the Russians.

Mr. Mayor went to the safe in his office and retrieved two envelopes. "How did he know so many years ago." The day after the Beloved Christmas Tree was hit by lightning, twice, his ancestor scrapped off some shavings, placed some of the crystals from the star and some soil into each envelope, then marked the top section "Molly" and the other "Daisy."

Doing his due diligence, the younger Mr. Mayor placed the two envelopes in the open caskets.

It was to be a pre-dawn funeral, with the lowering of the caskets, between sunrise to thirty minutes after sunrise; this was the time Daisy and Molly spent with God; they already had their prayer time with each other.

Mr. Mayor closed the whole town to car traffic on the day. The city paid tribute by riding horses to the funeral. Miss Kathy made a large loop, starting at the club with two horse-drawn hearses, followed by over one hundred horses, most carrying two people. The circuit then went to "Image of God" and encircled the area they both worked on every day. Then they headed to the Northfield Church for a short service and burial.

Marie, having trouble keeping her emotions in check, went to a secluded room at the funeral home to compose herself. She was the keynote speaker, but the format was such that the burden was taken off her.

Mr. Mayor got up first, "Hello everyone, I am the Mayor of this town, and I welcome all of you to the service for Miss Molly and Miss Daisy. Leave it to them to have a service that has rules for it. Being respectful for them and others are number one. We all grieve in different ways, and some may take longer than others, adults as well as the children. The Holy Spirit is going to lead this service. This service is being broadcast worldwide so all of Miss Molly's friends who can't be here can participate.

"Mee and Pria have generously offered to translate French to English. I am told there are two people in Paris at the plaza that are using the translators in the computers to change English to French, and then they are broadcasting it to half the plaza, and the other half of the plaza will be an English speaking broadcast.

"If you speak yet another language, we have a computer in the back that you can set up for your language. It has noise-canceling headphones, so you only hear your language."

When Marie got to speak, she first mentioned their payer logs. "I took the liberty to look at their current prayer logs; each have been keeping them for over eighty years. Prayer logs are to show you exactly how faithful God has been to you, and you can look back and review all the times He was there for you. Most of the time there is an ending point, when someone gets better you have an ending point for when they were sick. Miss Molly and Miss Daisy both wrote down the same prayer for their last item; while it is marked in yellow to show God was faithful there was no endpoint. Their prayer was for God to call them 'Good and faithful servants'. As you know, they had a special bond. I would like to relate one of those stories. It happened while they were in college; their schools were both religious, and secular, the religious school was almost identical to each other. The schools were on opposite coasts."

"On the day Molly's Dad got in a car accident, Daisy knew before Molly. Daisy told Molly who was hurt, not by telephone or post, but by her mind; when one hurt the other did. Shortly thereafter, I was mobilizing my family in France to fly here. Both girls had life threating fevers by now. Their roommates have figured out their actions and they were being prayed over nightly. How everything happened only God knows. Flight itineraries streamed in except for a text because of a missed flight. There was no communications between people, yet over thirty people responded."

"Molly was told to get some food to help her fever she was coming back to the room, Daisy came charging at her, spilling salad dressing all over Molly; both fevers were now broken. God blessed Northfield to be a very tight-knit town; it was not always like that. It seemed Miss Joy was the one common thread that held the town together."

"It was her that was almost drowned on the day of the flood, when the whole town was washed into the river. It was only through God's grace that Mr. Jerry and Miss Gail came to save her in their skulls. The weather was so bad normal water rescue was not possible, but the skulls skimmed the water. God gave them endurance: the distance and time in the elements would have taken its toll."

"The more people tried to separate the two girls the more it backfired on them."

An old man was next to stand up. "I am originally from Meadowbrooke. I was only a young boy when we had a school project. It started out to get life back in Northfield as they didn't even have any birds or plants, just their beloved Christmas Tree. The project turned out to be a disaster, later only Molly and Daisy rode into Meadowbrooke on horseback, Molly carrying a white flag. They were not received well. Daisy and I spit-shook hands to seal a deal between us."

"A week later, they were back and ready to make bird houses. All the other kids were invited, but the mothers didn't want them to go. The fathers overruled them and at long last, everyone showed up in Meadowbrooke in a convoy."

"Miss Daisy was big into going out to find birds, so we both had a bet to see who could spot the most birds. Shortly after is when they spotted an extinct bird, just sitting on a fence post. How do you compete with that. I was the one who called to concede; they only accepted the concession if we all got binoculars from our Daddy's, and to continue to look for more birds on weekends."

Beth was next to stand up. She was in St. Vincent's on her new iPad. "Miss Molly and I had a girl's night out. She ordered the driver to take us to the best burger and shake place the city had to offer; he had to call his daughter to find the right one. I love burgers and shakes, it was a treat. When we got back to her room at the hospital, she showed me how to make a prayer log. She said the children were looking to me to lead them. She even gave me a questions book for all the questions I ask God. I told her I don't have any questions to ask. Her response was 'you will', the hard part is listening for the answers."

The girls were used to wearing school uniforms. Now that Marie Ann, Mee and Pria were going to school in North America, Marie Ann had made three sets for each girl, for every season of the year. Included was a patch for the school that was like the school crest. Instead of a circle, a golden triangle was used to mean the Trinity. The school were known as the Eagles; Marie Ann used a Golden Eagle instead of the Bald Eagle. She removed the Latin from the crest and only used the initials for the school.

After one week of very unhospitable reactions from the school, Marie Ann, Mee, and Pria, her best friends from France, commanded the attention of the cafeteria. The principal stopped a teacher from intervening saying, "She has the right to speak her mind as long as she doesn't cross the line."

Marie Ann was pissed, but she chose her words well.

"My friends and I have been here for one week. We have heard all the backstabbing, and snide remarks that are said behind our backs because you are not willing to tell them to our faces."

"Let me explain our badges. We have a gold triangle to symbolize the Trinity; we are new Christians. God is essential to us. You have a Bald Eagle as this means something different in your country than ours; we picked the Golden Eagle. And just the initials for the school."

"As for our agreement, we are having a hard time wrestling our emotions with it right now. We have finished our year three classes already. We came to take AP, core, and electives for a year, to know America better, and to have Tommy catch up to us in classes so he could join us in Paris for year four."

"Your authorities know of our deal. There is also a clause that states if any or all of us don't want to come, we are allowed. Also, if any or all of us wants to leave it is our own decision, not someone else. We agreed not to join any clubs or sports, which is a shame. Mee's grace in gymnastics winds her up with a chest full of gold medals; floor exercise and uneven bars are her specialties."

"He will be welcomed with open arms in Paris, as any of you would be."

Then Marie Ann heard of the failing health of Louis; it was the ideal excuse to get back to Paris. Tommy's parents arrived at the airport at 23:00 to catch the 00:01 flight, the first flight out. Tommy had a nagging feeling as he waved goodbye to Marie Ann. He had not spent enough time with her to know her, so he didn't know what this feeling was. B is with Miss Kathy now; it seems the role of the outsider is now on his shoulders.

Tommy stood on his chair at lunchtime. "I hope you are all proud of yourselves. I know everything that was said, and who said it, bad news travels fast. Three days ago, Marie Ann stood here and said they were looking for a way to leave, one week into the term. They are now in Paris."

"Did you know that Marie Ann oversaw the Notre Dame project? Of course not, you never gave her a chance. Imagine the heartbreak of going through the trauma of a fire like that, then go to a place of safety only to get it stomped on all over again."

"Mee is full of grace and poise, you, on the other hand, resort to mean-spirited untrue gossip on the grapevine. She has an inner beauty that none of you could dream of attaining. Coach, I have seen a picture of Mee in her gymnastics leotard with four gold medals around her neck."

"Pria, she is the quiet one, she is fun to be around. To sum up, you had a golden opportunity to learn from people of another culture for a full year. They wanted to be friends, to be friendly to others, and they were to fun to be around. You were mean-spirited to them, and you plotted and planned ways to send them home as soon as possible. I know who I will rather be with, in fact, I am done with the entire lot of you."

"Don't even think about inviting me anywhere, anytime, or for any reason. The answer will be NO, not even NO thanks."

Tommy's best friends sat down to have lunch with him, as they had done since the first grade. Tommy silently got up and moved to an unoccupied area of the room. After doing this a few more times, and getting the same response, they gave up; it was an act of futility.

They went to Tommy's Mom to see if she could help.

"I take it the entire school body disrespected the girls to a great degree?"

"Yes, Ma'am, we aren't proud of it."

"He is taking this personally; I can't even express how many levels that covers. It would be different for any other three people in the world. I am afraid 'Sorry' won't cut it, nor will your most sincere apology, nor anything the school can do. Only Tommy can decide this; it is a shame you won't be able to say goodbye to him. As we speak, he is upstairs searching; you know how the internet can find people."

"Hey Mom, I remember, it's 'Fredrick's,' the name of the inn that has been in their family for ages."

After the boys heard this, they said, "Thank you for your time, Ma'am." They walked back to their car, depressed and dispirited. Their best friend will leave by weeks end, and they couldn't even say goodbye.

RING, RING

"Hello, this is Fredrick's, how may I assist you?"

"May I please speak to Madam Marie please?"

"This is she, to whom am I speaking?"

"This is Tommy, and we met at Miss Molly's and Miss Daisy's funeral."

"I am truly sorry about how the school treated the girls."

"Marie Ann, this call is for you."

"Marie Ann, this is Tommy, think of how hard it was to track you down, but he did it anyway."

"Hi Tommy, how are you? What! None of us are mad at you; we saw what a bad situation it was for you. Listen, this is the Inn's line, give me your mobile number, and I will text you all my contact information. I expect to get a call in a few minutes."

Tommy did a video chat with Marie Ann, and they talked for over an hour, then Marie Ann got very serious, and started to sob.

"Tommy, I don't know how to say this, so that I will blurt it out all at once."

"Tommy, he is not doing well, and he isn't going to get any better. Do you think you could be here? I would consider it a personal favor."

"Give your phone to your Mom, and I will give it to mine."

Marie saw Marie Ann running down the grand staircase, phone in hand."

"Marie Ann, I think we could find some scraps of food for him."

Marie Ann ran over to Marie, hugged her, and said: "I love you." Then she rushed into the office to hand her phone off to her mother. Her mother readily agreed.

On the ride to the airport, Tommy's mother said, "Well dear, at least we don't have any more children who want to fly off to France at midnight."

"So, Tommy, should I put in an eighty-inch television with a ninety-inch sofa, or a big hot tub or sauna in your room? I haven't decided yet. Dad and I will work on our French so were don't make total fools of ourselves at the wedding."

The trio was well-liked and respected in Paris.

Mee, she was the athletic one, first ballet, that lead into gymnastics. Having black straight hair going to her mid-back, Marie Ann most often gave her a sophisticated five-weave French braid before the meets, unless the choreographer decided he wanted a different look. Her skin was flawless, her hair silky.

Pria, she was the outdoor, the girl next door type. Horseback riding was one of her favorite hobbies, and Mee often joined her.

Marie Ann was the creative one, currently whittling a silhouette of Beauty for a weathervane.

Pria came into the inn saying, "Mee and I are off Marie Ann, never been to this one, farther away than most, but it is a glorious day for a ride."

As the pair arrived at the stables, they saw it had an area upfront for the children to feed chickens and lambs. To the left was the house, and the barn was straight ahead.

As they entered the stable, they saw several ancient pictures hanging behind the counter.

"Look, Mee."

"It can't be Pria, not after all these years."

"Excuse me, but do you know who those people are?"

"No, they were taken ages ago. They stopped here before doing a concert at Euro Disney. My Great-Great- Grandad went to it. One sang our national anthem; he never cried like that before. There were a couple of others up there that seemed to have some innate connection to each other, and it made them special."

"That would be them. That one must be Miss Francine then; the others are Miss Daisy and Miss Molly when they were very young. If you ever want to get rid of them, we will take them."

"You knew them?"

"Yes, only for a short time, sadly. We recently came back from our friend's funerals in North America."

"How much for a two-hour ride? It is so beautiful I want to spend some extra time."

"Forty Euros each."

"Deal."

After they were mounted and the ride had started, Pria said, "What a beautiful animal, does she jump?"

"Pria, be nice, you are her guest."

"Why, yes she does." The owner, ever the competitor, did not miss the implied challenge.

"Want to race? We would need to take a picture of something at the turnaround."

"We can go to Madam K's about two and a half kilometers from here. She was my science teacher, never liked her. Are both of you going to race?"

Mee said, "Count me out; I will ride around here."

Mee dropped a bandana, and both were off. Mee had to smile.

The owner had a stronger horse; this made her overconfident; she went out too fast.

Pria kept to her technique and form like she has seen Mee do so many times before.

What the owner now saw was heartbreaking. Madam K had erected a new fence that the horse could not clear from that angle.

Pria went up and over, and soon was taking several pictures of Madam K making funny faces, and silly poses. "I am sorry Madame for the divots in the dirt."

"It's OK lassie. She doesn't often lose, good for her to get knocked back a peg or two."

One hundred meters to the owner's left was a much lower section of the fence; she decided to try the right side and had to walk half-way around the perimeter. Madam K took glee in the circumstance the owner found herself in.

Mee was bringing out a pitcher of lemonade for the contestants to drink as Pria came out of the woods. Pria attended to her horse now in a lather; a proper hose down would do the trick. Pria was almost finished with the brush down when the owner got back.

"As your trophies, you can have the pictures; they mean much more to you than me."

In the car, Pria ask Mee, "Mee, have you figured out what God wants us to do yet?"

"No, not a clue, not sure which direction to take."

"Mee, names mean a lot to God, should I look up our names?"

"Sure, it could be a starting point."