Helen was absolutely furious about the news paper article and how hurtful it was to everybody involved. She tried to put it out of her mind and to lovingly help Angel and her family put it out of their minds as well. She did everything she could to make Angel’s life as happy as it had been before. But after Angel went inside and didn’t come out again Helen became obsessed with finding out who the traitor was, who had given the information to the press, when and why. She stopped designing dresses and left others to run her shop and business, all she did for many months was interview the girls from the choir and their families. Her final conclusion was that one of the choir members had an Aunt that was jealous because she felt her niece should have been the soloist. The story had been leaked to the press the first or second week that Angel had been rehearsing with the choir, which explained why the reporters had so much time to research the story. It didn’t matter if the choir had won or lost the national championship the story would have been published and either way Angel/Ricky would be at fault and he and his family would be humiliated, the jealous Aunt would get her revenge.

As for the choir — Their “National Choir Championship” title was stripped from the choir. The choir itself was disbanded. Mrs. Russell was never permitted to direct another choir, and what of the other girls? Their names were recorded and circulated to all the choirs in the area. They were black balled; they were never permitted to join any other choir.

So because of one jealous Aunt trying to hurt one little boy she succeeded in devastating an entire community and hurting the lives of hundreds of innocent people.

“Evil knows no boundaries, when it is released it is difficult to contain and impossible to control”.

Evil Daddy

It took Helen’s detectives 3 months to track down the low life scumbag that had so brutally raped Julia. He was living in a flea bag hotel in Los Angeles at the time. Of course being an upstanding citizen of the community Helen just had to let the authorities know of his whereabouts. He was extradited, tried and sentenced to the state prison for a 5 to 15 year term. Helen also had some contacts that were not quite so upstanding. She made sure that he served the entire 15-year sentence. She also made sure the he had, shall we say “special company” every night. It was going to be a very, very long 15 years.

Life with the Twins

Rachel soon discovered that taking care of the twins was a bigger job than she or Grace had anticipated. You see taking care of one angry person is one thing; taking care of two angry people is an entirely different challenge. You see the twins were emotionally linked, when one was happy they were both happy but when one was sad or angry they were both sad and angry. And being that they were 20 years of age and Rachel was 16 (when she first arrived) she seemed to be just a little undersized for the job. But she was determined, dedicated, and now had a very strong will that would not let her size difference stop her from doing what ever she needed to do.

Rachel soon discovered also that there was an effective and efficient way of getting the twins to calm down when they were angry, or to be happy when they were sad. This little trick was soon a delight to the twins and the entire household. You see Rachel had learned to accept the different personalities within her and even to control them. Her little trick as you might have guessed was to let Angel out to sing. Her voice although it had changed slightly over the years was still the voice of “An Angel Sent from Heaven”. Angel’s voice could be heard throughout the entire estate and when she sang to calm the twins it had the same effect on the entire household. As word of this got to Julia and Auntie Harriet they couldn’t help but tell Auntie Helen and Auntie Sylvia. It wasn’t long until Angel was again singing concerts, although they were very, very private concerts. Only her mother, her aunt’s and Betty’s household and occasionally a few others very special guests were invited to attend. On a few special occasions some members of the choir were also permitted to attend and even sing along with Angel (Christmas carols turned out to be everybody’s favorite). Rachel was so happy that she no longer had to hide her music that she loved so much.

Graduation Day

Taking care of the twins took a lot more of Rachel’s time than she had anticipated. It was very difficult to find time to do the “Home School”, school work that she needed to do. She was fighting hard to take care of the twins and to achieve a goal that she had set for herself which was to graduate with the rest of her High School graduating class. But somehow she managed to find the time and got the work done. She passed all of her final exams with flying colors. Everyone was excited when the test scores came back to find that Rachel / Richard was in the top 5% of the graduating class.

Graduation Day was approaching quickly and they knew that it would take some time to change from Rachel back to Richard. The hair was going to be the hardest part. They couldn’t cut it because it had to be long when Rachel went back to Betty’s and the twins. But due to Aunt Harriet’s skills that challenge was soon over come and Richard, in a new custom tailored suit by Auntie Helen (the most masculine outfit she had ever created), was a very handsome young man.

There are a lot of little people in this world, not short or small because of the size but little, because they are very little inside.

When Richard was seen joining the graduating class many wondered why he was there. All they remembered was the little boy that had humiliated the town by pretending to be a girl. When Richard once again heard those nasty, obscene, and intentionally stabbing comments that he remembered from so long ago. He would smile; turn and then go to the person that was trying to make him feel bad. They must have thought that he was going to beat them up (you see the years he spent taking care of the twins had only added to his upper body strength and the size of his arms). Richard would just smile and shake their hand, complementing them or congratulating them or giving them some other positive remark. You see their feeble attempts to hurt, discredit, or humiliate Richard no longer had any affect because he was no longer the shy, timid, helpless child they once knew. Richard knew who and what he was — he was part Richard and part Ricky, part Angel, and part Rachel. He was strong and sure of him self and he knew that he had a very bright and happy future before them.

Everyone that loved Richard, Rachel, and Angel were invited to attend the graduation ceremony. There was a big party for all of them at Auntie Helen estate afterwards. Every one had a wonderful time. Many of the guests had to point out those ridiculous baby pictures of Angel that were on Auntie Helen’s walls embarrassing Richard again but not in a hurtful way. Every one was absolutely in awe at the life size portrait of “An Angle in Concert” as the plaque beside the picture read. They even persuaded Richard and the few girls that were there from the choir to sing for every one. With Mrs. Russell at the piano Richard and the girls gave the performance that had won them the “National Choir Championship” 9 years before. There wasn’t a dry eye anywhere on the estate as Angel’s voice echoed and swelled and resounded throughout the estate. No one wanted to leave after such an event, but slowly one by one they said their tearful good-bye’s and went their different ways. Finally the only ones remaining were Richard and his mom, Barbara and her mom, Auntie Harriet, Helen, and Sylvia with not a dry eye among them.

Richard and Barbara took one week for themselves making plans for their future before Rachel had to return to Betty and the twins.