The Girl Most Likely To ... - Part 39
by Barbara Lynn Terry

Chapter 1 - Naomi stops for lunch.

"Well, you better tell me everything."

"Yeah? What if I don't?"

"Listen Rach, I'm the official historian of Rachel Eileen Watkins, and so help me, girl, I will spread you all over Pine Meadows...uhm...Home For Adolescent Girls." Both girls giggled.

Marilyn, of course, just had to ask.

"Do you girls often joke like this?"

"Yes, mom. We find it takes our mind off of things that bother us."

"Well, at least you aren't throwing tantrums and swearing."

"That's for guys, mom. The home taught us how to be ladies, and we will make sure we don't disappoint them. See, mom, even though you have me with you, now, I still need help. With Janice, Rachel and everybody here, I can get that help. If I need to talk to somebody else, I can always go to the home and talk to one of my sisters."

"Yes, well, we need to talk to Ms. Wells, too. I think what they are going to do, Mel, is have you on a home visit."

"I'm on a permanently extended home visit. I am going to school on the grounds until June, and then next semester I will be going to school in town. If I find I can't handle being on this home visit, I can always go back to the home. Of course, Sharon will probably have a new room mate."

"Rachel, I'm curious," Marilyn said, looking serious. "How long were you at the home?"

"Nine days. I was there one week before Christmas, and then for two more days. So, yes, nine days."

"So, they let you go on an extended home visit, after only being there a short time?"

"Yes, Mrs. Roberts. See, the girls at the home are not restricted. They can come and go as they want. They even go horse back riding, too, along the road. Sometimes, Tommy Barker will take us for a ride on his snowmobile. See, they want us to grow up like girls who are not in institutions. This way, too, we can enjoy life without having to follow a lot of antiquated rules."

"Antiquated? OMG! Child. That is a big word for a girl your age. How old are you?"

"I'm thirteen, Mrs. Roberts, I am going to be fourteen in August."

"And you are using words like antiquated? They must have good teachers at that home."

"Well, see Mrs. Roberts, I haven't been to school at the home, yet. I was to start after the holidays. But, we play Scrabble a lot, and we learn words just playing the game."

"I see. Do you like playing Scrabble?"

"Yes, I actually do. I also like to play guessing games, too. Mrs. Roberts, the home is not all rules, regulations, and authority. We make sure that the simple rules are followed. They are 1., Act like a lady at all times. 2., If in doubt, see rule 1."

"So that is it? All you have to do is act like a lady to get the staff at the home to respect you?"

"Well, yes and no. See, Mrs. Roberts, the house parents at the home, are real parents. They give us love, they listen when we want to talk, and if we want to go in to town, all we have to do is ask for money from our accounts. When I first went to the home, daddy, that's the house father on the first shift, talked to me like I was his daughter, and then told me he was going to be proud to have me for a daughter. Jan, the house mother that works with daddy, said the same thing. Madelline we call Mom, and Ms. Wells we call Grandma Wells. There is a lot of things to do at the home. So, Mrs. Roberts, we are never bored."

Naomi came in the house.

"Hey, Melanie, Mrs. Roberts. Nice to see you here."

"Thank you, Naomi. These two have been keeping me entertained with a lot of information." Melanie and Rachel got up and gave Naomi a big hug.

"Thank you, girls. I just came home for a little lunch, then I have to get back to the sheriff's gym for the rest of my shift."

"Naomi, what do you do at the sheriff's office?"

"I train rookie deputies in hand to hand self defense. I have a black belt in Tai Chi."

"I have a black belt, too," Carl Richards said, coming in to the living room. "It holds my pants up." All four women giggled. "Where is the love of my life?"

"Right here," Gloria Richards said, bringing in a tray of hot cocoa. She gave Carl and kiss and told him to wash up for lunch. "I will make you a cup of hot cocoa, too."

While Carl went to wash his hands and face, Gloria went in the kitchen to make Carl's cocoa. Then she placed seven bowls of chicken noodle soup in the dining room.

"Lunch is ready, ladies. Melanie, you and your mother are staying, so wash your hands, please."

"Yes, Mrs. Richards."

Marilyn Roberts was now really confused. She had never seen people like she had seen here in Pine Meadows county.

"I'm kind of reeling here. Is there something in the water that makes people here treat others nice?"

"Well, we don't quite know what it is," Naomi answered her. "But, whatever it is, it causes the disease randomactsofkindnessitis. It is that disease that makes us treat people with respect."

"Random acts of kindness, what?"

"It is," Naomi stated. "See Mrs. Roberts..."

"It's Marilyn."

"See, Marilyn, here in Pine Meadows county, we have a thing called, 'it takes a village'. We watch out for each other, and all the children, to make sure they are safe."

"Well, I have heard the saying dozens of times, but, I have never witnessed it until I came here."

"My first experience with that, was when I brought Rachel here to the home. Since then, I have experienced it in spades. We have our idiots, our alcoholics, our teen rebels without a cause. But, all in all, Marilyn, this is a wonderful place to bring up a child."

"I can see that. I mean, living in the city all my life, you get used to sirens, gun shots, accidents, criminals, gangs, and whatever else. It is going to be refreshing to live here, where people are decent."

"It will be nice to have decent neighbors after a lifetime in the city. Rachel and I came from Alameda county. I worked there for ten years as a deputy, then after I had brought Rachel here, I transferred departments with a little raise in pay."

"Well, I must say, Naomi, that you are just what the angels ordered. These girls need someone in their corner. I saw that last night, when that young girl was handing out the Christmas presents. I have never seen Christmas presents handed out this late after Christmas."

"Well, Janice was in the hospital, and the girls decided to wait until Janice was back at the home to open their presents."

"Did the house parents decide that?"

"No, one of the girls did. In fact, it was this girl right there," Naomi said, pointing to Melanie.

"Didn't your mother tell you it is impolite to point?"

"Why, yes, she did. But, there are always exceptions. Such as, when you are at home, then it is permissable."

"Oh, uhm, yeah." Melanie looked at Naomi like she was from another planet other than Venus.

"Thank you, Gloria, for that wonderful lunch. I will take hot soup on a cold day, any time."

"You are very welcome, Marilyn. Since we are now aunts to each other's children, you may come in any time. Just let us know you are here."

"Thanks." Marilyn looked Gloria, the same way Melanie looked at Naomi.

"Well, ladies and gentleman, I need to get back to the gym and train the rookies a little more. See you all in a few hours." Melanie and Rachel got up and gave Naomi a hug.

"Drive safely, sis, and don't work too hard, just hard enough to earn your check."

"Yes, mother." There were giggles and even Carl Richards laughed. Naomi left.

"Well, What do we do next?" Gloria asked everybody.

"We still have unpacking to do, arranging and rearranging. I can show Melanie my room."

"That sounds like a plan. You take care of your room and I will take care of down here."

Melanie and Rachel went upstairs to her room. You could tell it was a girl's room, because it had lilac, pink, soft blue, purple, auburn and red all mixed together like you would see in a kaleidoscope. Except these colors didn't make you dizzy.

"This room is, is, uhm, ... wow."

"Yes, it is. I like the way they painted it. My mom, Renée's mom, and Naomi couldn't decide what color to paint the walls, or if they should use wallpaper. They decided to paint, and then couldn't decide what color, so they mixed them up, and this is what it looks like."

"It's beautiful, Rach, just beautiful."

"Mel, thank you."

"For what, sis?"

"For being my sister and a friend." Melanie hugged Rachel.

"Rachel Eileen Watkins, I should thrash you for that, but good. We all took you in to our hearts, because you were not acting like a ruffian; you were not acting like a bully; you were not acting like you owned the world; you were not acting like any boy I have ever seen. No, Rachel Eileen Watkins, you were standing out there shivering, with your arms folded under where your breasts would be. Your legs were together, and I could see your breath in short, white, trails. You, Rachel Eileen Watkins, you, were standing there freezing and shivering the way any one of us would. Being a resident of the home, you were automatically a sister, but we decided that we would be your friend almost as soon as Sharon noticed you standing there.

"Let me ask you. If you had been dressed warmly, would you have been in the same frame of mind that got you sent here?"

"I don't think so. After I left the detention center with Naomi, we were talking as she was driving. She told me a lot of things on the way here. But, you know what, though? When Sharon rushed me in the house, and sat me by the fireplace in the living room, I knew then that what I had done to get sent here, was wrong. When I asked you all to help me find myself, you didn't snicker, you didn't say, 'yeah, right', you didn't call me names. Sharon called me sister, and everyone that night that was there to meet me, called me girlfriend.

"Remember when I said I didn't deserve all the kindness that you all were showing me? Well, I really didn't do anything to deserve that. I was waiting for you girls to start calling me nasty names. But, none of you did that. So, Melanie Marie Roberts, thank you for being my sister and my friend."

The two girls hugged and air kissed on both cheeks. After saying, "I love you sister," they decided it was time to play a board game. Scrabble, to be exact.

Melanie was just a tad better at Scrabble than Rachel was. Melanie had a score of 128 to Rachel's 72. Marilyn was also playing and she was better than both girls, not because she was older, but because she has had more experience using a lot of words the girls hadn't even heard of. To say that Marilyn sent both girls to the dictionary a lot, is an understatement.

While Gloria Richards was putting things away in the kitchen cupboard, the girl's and Marilyn were having fun. Knowing this was a good part of therapy for both of the girls, Gloria did not say anything, but she smiled when she walked through the dining room.

Naomi came in and went upstairs without being noticed. She changed out of her uniform, and came back downstairs.

"So, you little minxes couldn't wait for me to get home, and invite me to play, hey. I will get in on the next game."

Both girls took a break from playing and hugged Naomi.

"You know, girls, with hugs like that, I can thole anything."

"You can what, Naomi? Thole? What does that mean?"

"It is a Scottish word, meaning endure. I thought since you were playing Scrabble, I'd use that word, and see if you have ever heard it before."

Both girls assured Naomi that they hadn't, but that it was a good word to use in Scrabble.

"How do you spell that word, Naomi?" Rachel asked.

"T H O L E. Thole. It is hole with a "T" in front of it."

"Thank you, sis," Melanie said, hugging Naomi, again. "Are there any other words that you can teach us, Naomi?"

"Several. As we play the game, I will use some of them, if I can."

As they played, the board was filling up fast, and it was getting harder and harder to find spaces to put what tiles you had left on the board to form words.

At three thirty, Renée, Sandi and Mandy came back from their in town excursion.

"Hey, you guys could have waited for me and Sandi to get back, so we could play."

"Renée!" Melanie exclaimed. "We were just practicing, so we can beat you, when you came back."

"Oh yeah? You and what army?"

"Me myself and I, the three most important people in my life. Come on, sis, we are almost finished with this game."

"Let me get my coat and boots off, first, Mel, then I can sit down and we can have fun."

"I'm playing, too," Mandy added.

"We're not going to have hardly any tiles to draw from," Rachel observed.

"That's what makes the game interesting." Mandy added. "If everybody had all the tiles, then we would have to make words from them. No drawing from the kitty. That would be a very interesting game. How many tiles are there?"

"There are one hundred tiles, but only four little things to put your tiles on, while you play. Unless somebody had a few some place else."

"Naomi, we uhm, really don't have any spare letter things to set the letters on," Renée answered.

"Well, in that case, when this game is over, one of us will sit out the next game, and let somebody else play. So, who is it going to be? You, Sandi, Mandy, or even your mother, sis?"

Gloria having heard what Naomi just said, tried to make her excuses that she had way too much work to get done, to get the house organized.

"Pffft. Woman, if I know you, you have been getting this house organized all day. You can afford to take a break, before we have to get dinner started. Besides, it is only three o'clock. Sit down, woman, and rest."

"Naomi, if I kept sitting down, every time I worked doing the house things, the house things would never get done."

"Alright, girls, you heard what the lady said. It's tickle time."

"Oh no," Gloria was saying backing towards the stairs. "You are not tickling me." Gloria ran in her room and closed the door.

"Hey little piggy, come on out, or I will huff and puff and blow your house down."

"You...you...you stay away, you escaped lunatics from an asylum."

Naomi and the girls just giggled softly.

Naomi opened the door, and they tried to grab Gloria but she ran across the bed and out the door and down the stairs. Just then her husband Carl was coming in, and she hid behind him.

"Help, Carl, those lunatics want to tickle me."

"Oh? Is this true, ladies?"

"Yes, sir," Naomi answered, panting because she was running.

""Welllllllllll...I really need to...HELP YOU!" Carl said, starting to tickle Gloria.

Gloria was laughing so hard, she had to tell everybody to stop, or she would pee. They stopped tickling Gloria.

"Now, woman, see, it's like this. You work in one room, take a break, work in another room, take a break. Get the idea? All work and no play, makes Gloria a very dull girl."

"Yes, I get the idea. But we need to get this house in order, then we can play card games, board games, go out and go bowling, or to a movie. But we just moved in, and now we have to get this all done. Naomi, you're at work all day, so there is no reason why the rest of us can't do what needs to be done, while you aren't here."

"You are right, Gloria, but we have company, and we have to be gracious hostesses and show our company our manners."

"All right, then, I will take a break. Who wants lemonade and a piece of cake?"

Nobody refused the generous offer from the workaholic, so Gloria went to get the refreshments. Renée and Sandi went to help.

"So, everybody thinks I'm a workaholic."

"Well, you are, mom. I mean, even when you aren't straightening things around, or dusting something, you're doing other things. How many times have you stood in our living room and rearranged everything in your mind?"

"Oh, all right, then, yes, I am a workaholic. But it's just that I have to keep busy, or I feel like I am useless."

"Mom, you know that we have always been able to talk. You can talk to daddy, too. If you need to go out somewhere with daddy and let your hair down, I would understand. We all have to get out and be wild now and then. I am thirteen years old, and old enough to stay home by myself, if you need to go out. I'm not a little girl any more." Gloria looked at Renée very closely, as if seeing her for the first time."

"No, you're not. You're getting to be quite the young woman. You make me and your father very proud of the way you treat others, and the manners you have. Maybe this weekend we will go and see a movie."

"I have seen the Grand, mom, but I have never seen the drive in. That would be a good place to go."

"Dear, it is winter time. Drive-in movie places aren't usually open in the winter."

"Oh, all right, then, I guess I will settle for the Grand." All three giggled.

They took the lemonade and cake in the living room, and passed the cake slices around, and Renée poured the lemonade.

"Thank you, Gloria, for the refreshments."