The Mandie Collection (30 page)

And how could they help her? She must be in deep trouble, staying down in that old house all alone. Who was she? How did she get there?

So many questions. Mandie silently prayed for the girl to recover, but Dr. Woodard had said she was in bad shape.

Mandie remembered being all alone herself when she had run away after her father had died and she was sent to live with strangers. She was going to help this girl in every way she could.

CHAPTER TWELVE

DECISIONS

The girl was moved to the bedroom upstairs and still did not awaken. Dr. Woodard asked Aunt Lou if someone could stay with her just in case she became conscious.

“Why, sho', Doctuh, Liza kin stay wid dat girl,” the woman replied as they all stood about in the hallway outside the room.

Liza quickly said, “But, Aunt Lou, I'se got work to do in de kitchen.”

“But this is mo' important, Liza,” Aunt Lou replied. “Now I—”

Mandie quickly interrupted, “Please, Aunt Lou, I want to stay with her. After all, Joe and Celia and I have been trying to find out who was down in that old house all this time. So I think it's our responsibility to stay with her.” She glanced at her mother and Uncle John, who were nearby.

Aunt Lou also looked at Elizabeth and John and waited for them to reply.

“All right, Amanda, but we have other things that have to be done,” Elizabeth agreed.

“And the menfolk will be outside cleaning up limbs and debris from the storm,” John Shaw added.

“Then may I be first to stay?” Mandie asked hopefully.

“Yes, I suppose so, but we will all come up here from time to time to check on the girl,” Elizabeth agreed.

“And the minute she opens her eyes I want to know. You come and get me,” Dr. Woodard said to Joe. “I'll be outside with the men.”

“Yes, sir,” Joe replied. “But I could also come and help outside.”

“No, I think perhaps you may be needed in the house to right some things that have been disarrayed by the storm,” Dr. Woodard replied.

“Yes, sir,” Joe agreed. Then, looking at Elizabeth, he said, “Mrs. Shaw, what can I do to help you in the house?”

“Nothing at the moment, Joe,” Elizabeth replied. “If I find something that is too heavy for us women to handle, I'll let you know.”

Dr. Woodard started to follow John Shaw and Uncle Ned down the hallway and called back, “Remember, only one person in the room at one time.”

“Now we goes to see about dat meal we left on de table,” Aunt Lou announced as she and Liza walked toward the staircase.

“And I'll check the contents of each room downstairs first to see if anything needs to be rearranged,” Elizabeth said, following them. Mrs. Woodard, Mrs. Taft, and Jane Hamilton also went to help.

Celia moved over to sit on the bench in the hallway outside the door of the sick girl's room. Joe joined her, and Mandie stepped inside the bedroom.

The three young people took turns staying in the room with the girl for the rest of the afternoon. She didn't move, but Mandie thought her breathing sounded normal after a while. They discussed the girl and imagined all kinds of things about her.

“I wonder why she was dressed like a boy,” Mandie pondered as the three sat on the bench, the nearby door propped open so they could watch for the girl to awaken.

“Maybe she ran away from home,” Joe suggested.

“But if she ran away from home, why didn't she keep running instead of holing up in that old house? Your uncle John says she's
been there a long time, according to the light he's been seeing,” Celia said, looking at Mandie.

“Maybe she got lost, or tired, or something, and thought she ought to take time to figure out where she was going,” Mandie replied. “Oh, I'll be so glad when she wakes up and we can talk to her.”

“I just hope she isn't badly injured or ill,” Joe said.

Mrs. Taft came down the hallway after a long time and stopped to speak to the young people. “Is she still asleep?” she asked.

“Yes, ma'am,” the three chorused.

Looking at Mandie, Mrs. Taft said, “We need to discuss our plans for the summer sometime today so we'll have time to make arrangements.”

Mandie's heart flopped as she replied, “Yes, Grandmother, whenever you say.”

“I'll find out when it will be convenient to get together with your mother and your uncle,” Mrs. Taft said. Then, glancing in the open door to the bedroom as she started down the hallway, she added, “I do hope that poor girl is going to be all right.” And she continued toward the stairs.

“Oh, I dread this planning business,” Mandie said with a loud puff of breath as soon as her grandmother was out of sight. Then, looking into the bedroom, she was startled to see the girl suddenly sit up and rub her eyes.

“Where am I?” the girl asked in fright as she looked around the beautiful, expensively furnished room.

All three of the young people rushed into the room. The girl pulled back under the covers as she stared at them.

“We're your friends,” Mandie quickly told her. “You don't have to be afraid of us. We found you in the ditch where the tornado had blown that old house away. Are you all right?”

“Oh!” the girl exclaimed, her eyes filled with terror. “I remember. I thought I died but I must still be alive.”

“Oh, you're alive all right and we're glad you made it,” Joe said.

The girl looked around at the three and then asked, “Who are you? Where am I?” She still huddled under the covers.

“You're in the big house up the hill from the old house where you've been staying,” Celia told her.

“Why were you staying in that old house?” Mandie asked.

“Oh, my things! Everything blew away! I have to go find my belongings,” she replied, swinging her legs off the side of the bed.

“Wait, we'll help you, but first we have to let Dr. Woodard know you are awake,” Mandie told her.

The girl paused to look at the group. “Dr. Woodard? Has there been a doctor here?” she asked.

“Yes, my father, and you just wait a minute now while I run and get him,” Joe replied, hastily leaving the room.

“But I don't want a doctor. I'm all right. I have to find my things,” the girl insisted.

Mandie held the covers as the girl tried to get out of the bed. “Please wait,” she said. “Dr. Woodard is a friend of our family and just happened to be visiting here when the storm came. He asked us to get him when you woke up.”

“But I have to find my things. Everything I own in this world was in a bag in that house,” the girl insisted, reluctantly leaning back on the pillow.

“What is your name?” Mandie asked with a smile.

“Frances Faye,” the girl replied.

“Frances Faye? What's your last name?” Mandie wanted to know.

“Where are you from?” Celia put in.

The girl looked at them both and finally said, “I suppose it doesn't matter anymore. You see, I was trying to keep anyone from seeing me and I kept thinking I should be traveling on, but I was tired and I got blisters on my feet and was waiting for them to heal. But then I got hungry because I ran out of the biscuits and meat I had brought with me. And suddenly I found a basket of food someone put on the porch. I ate a lot of it and decided to keep the rest for the next day. Well, the rats got to it that night and I had to throw it out.” Her voice trembled as tears came into her dark brown eyes. “And I let your white cat come inside to catch the rat, which he did, thank goodness.”

“So that's where Snowball was when we couldn't find him,”
Mandie said. “We'll get Aunt Lou—she's our housekeeper—to fix you something to eat.”

Joe came hurrying back ahead of his father. Dr. Woodard smiled as he looked at the girl and said, “Well, now, I'm so glad you are feeling better. Do you have any aches or pain anywhere?”

The girl shook her head as she looked at the doctor and then put her hand on her stomach and said, “Just a little pain here.”

“Because she's hungry, Dr. Woodard,” Mandie told him.

“Well, if that's all that's wrong with you, we can fix that right quick, young lady,” Dr. Woodard said, still smiling at the girl. Turning to Joe, he said, “Joe, pass the word to Aunt Lou that this girl is hungry and see what she can come up with.”

“Yes, sir,” Joe replied and hurried back down the hall.

Dr. Woodard sat down on the foot of the bed and said, “Now, tell me, why would a pretty girl like you want to put on boy's clothes?”

The girl frowned and finally said, “So people would think I was a boy and I'd be safer to travel.”

“Safer to travel? Now, where might I ask were you traveling to?” the doctor asked.

There was a moment of silence before the girl sighed and then answered, “To my grandmother's house.”

“And just where does your grandmother live?” the doctor asked.

The girl didn't reply and Celia spoke up, “Are you from Virginia? You say house just like I do—hoose—like all real Virginians speak. I'm from the country, just outside Richmond.”

The girl quickly sat forward and said, “Richmond? That's where my grandmother lives—I think.”

“You mean you don't know?” Mandie asked. “How can you go to her house if you don't know where she lives?”

The girl started crying and tried to hide her face behind her hands.

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you,” Mandie quickly told her. Turning to Dr. Woodard, Mandie said, “She told us her name is Frances Faye.”

“Frances Faye. Now, that's a right nice name, but how about the
last name? Everybody has to have a last name,” Dr. Woodard told her as he reached to hold her hand.

Frances Faye was so overcome she practically fell into Dr. Woodard's arms. He hugged her tightly and brushed back her long, dark hair. “There, now, let's talk about this. You can't talk and cry at the same time, can you? We are all ready to help you, but you must give us enough information for us to know what we can do.” He continued stroking her hair.

Aunt Lou herself brought the food. She stood there in the doorway with a tray in her hands. Then, coming toward the bed, she set the tray down and said, “Lawsy mercy, this chile got to eat something right away, Doctuh. I believe dat cryin' spell is due to hunger, and we'se gwine fix dat right now.” She plumped up the pillow behind the girl and straightened the covers as Dr. Woodard continued holding her.

Joe stood in the doorway watching. Mandie looked at him and shook her head. This poor girl seemed to be in bad shape, hungry and crying.

“Now, you jes' sit right back agin' dat pillow so's I kin put dis heah tray on de bed fo' you.” Then looking at the three young people, she added, “Y'all jes' go sit in de hallway till dis heah chile eat. Den she'll feel mo' like talkin'.”

“Yes, ma'am,” the three chorused as they reluctantly left the room and went to sit on the bench in the hallway.

“She said her grandmother lives in Richmond,” Mandie reminded Celia. “Maybe your mother knows her.”

“Oh, Mandie, Richmond is a little bigger than Franklin. We don't know everybody in town,” Celia said. “The grandmother might be someone my mother knows or has heard of. We'll find out.”

Mandie explained to Joe what the girl had told them while he was gone to the kitchen.

“But is she traveling on foot all the way to Richmond?” Joe asked in surprise. “I wonder where she came from?”

When Dr. Woodard told them they could come back into the room, they found the girl had been sitting at the side table in a chair and eating while Aunt Lou stood by encouraging her to finish the food.

Frances Faye looked at the young people as they stood around the room and said, “Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I feel so much better now.”

“That's good, because now we need to make a decision about some things,” Dr. Woodard told her. “First of all, we need your last name and we need to know whether you are running away from home, or what?”

Mandie thought the girl was going to cry again, but instead she breathed deeply a few times and replied, “My name is Frances Faye Fordham and I am not exactly running away from home because . . . because . . .” her voice faltered for a moment, “because I don't have a home anymore. My mother died.” She bit her lip and bowed her head.

Mandie rushed to her side to hold her hand and told her, “I understand how you feel, Frances Faye. My father died a while back and I was sent out to live with strangers to work for them tending their baby, and they were mean to me, so I ran away and came here to my uncle's house.” She talked fast as she relived the memories in her mind.

Frances Faye looked at her and said, “My mother was the only living relative I have, except for my grandmother and I've never seen her. She's my father's mother, and he died when I was a baby. We were living in Tennessee and I don't remember this grandmother ever coming to visit us.”

“If your grandmother lives in Virginia we'll help you find her,” Celia said. “My mother will know how to do that.”

“My mother never would talk about my grandmother, for some reason,” Frances Faye said. “All I know is she lives in Richmond and I suppose her name would be Fordham, like mine, since my father was her son.”

Aunt Lou had been stacking up the empty dishes on the tray and now she looked at Mandie and said, “My chile, dis heah young lady be 'bout de same size as you. Why don't you find her a nice dress to put on so she kin come down to suppuh tonight?” She started out the door with the tray.

“Oh, of course, Aunt Lou,” Mandie said with a big smile. “That's
a good idea. Frances Faye, come with me to my room and pick out whatever dress you want to put on.”

Frances Faye looked down at her soiled clothes and said, “But I have to go find my things that blew away.”