CLORISSA'S SECRET
Clorissa's "someday" to tell Mimi her troublesome secret came sooner
than either expected. The revelation came about unexpectedly Friday
night. It was the surprise climax to an unplanned party.
Study hall had not subdued the suite mates. They were still excited
over Mimi's honor of being chosen cheer leader and over the campus
discussion Mimi's notes would cause.
Mimi tried to lie still so that Chloe could go to sleep. She could hear
Sue and Betsy turning and whispering. Then Sue spoke aloud.
"I am going to get up. I have a bad case of something, a cross between
the heebie-jeebies and the jitters. I'm naturally wild on Friday nights
and want to celebrate."
"Believe I'll get up, too," Mimi whispered.
"Let's all get up," Betsy said and they were all four out of bed and
tiptoeing to the bathroom by the time she finished.
Mimi with her hands in front of her, walked slowly and slipped her feet
along. She mustn't run into a door facing with that nose.
Betsy fumbled for a match, checked to see that the bathroom shade was
down, and then lighted a candle. Keeping the flame shaded carefully
with her hands, she dripped some tallow in the bottom of the bathtub
and stuck the candle in the thickening puddle.
"Success!" she breathed as she withdrew her hands and the candle stood
alone.
"What do we eat?" Sue asked. "I'm starving."
"No!" Mimi teased and almost giggled out.
"Sh-sh." Betsy warned. She had been to too many such after-lights-out
parties. Keeping quiet was rule one.
"Alas the cupboard is bare," Mimi wailed, as she stepped down from the
side of the tub where she had climbed to search the high shelf.
"The treasure chest is empty, too," Betsy lamented.
"We do have some white sugar and some cocoa in the sitting room," Chloe
remembered.
"My kingdom, not for a horse, but for a cow! We need only butter and
milk to have fudge." Sue had them all giggling now. "Let's make hot
chocolate--sugar, cocoa, water--not rich, but I could drink ink with
sugar in it."
"Far be it from me to be a kill-joy, but, we have no canned heat."
Betsy sounded hopeless. "Why did we ever bring up food at all? I was
hungry but not ravenous until we talked about fudge. If we go to bed
now, and there seems nothing left to do, I'll be delirious with visions
of fudge and sugar plums dancing through my head. Oh me, oh my. My
mother had such hungry children!"
"Fudge? Did you ask for fudge, ladies? You shall have it. I finish
everything I start," Sue's eyes were round with excitement. "Dit's
roommate keeps canned heat all the time and I am going to borrow some."
"Sue! You mean you'll go to college hall?" Betsy asked. That meant
getting safely through the intervening corridor and stepping in to the
lighted halls. The chances of being caught were great.
"I'd walk a mile for--fudge." Sue concluded.
"I'll go with you, then," Betsy said. "Now if we can get to the first
floor-bath and luckily catch some one we know well enough, we can hide
in a shower while she goes and borrows the canned heat."
Betsy certainly knew her way around.
"If you all get caught I'll die," Chloe whispered after them.
"We won't," Betsy assured her. "Into the valley of death strode----"
Betsy and Sue were out the door.
"Gee! I've been thinking about Daddy and Mother so much since I got
hurt," Mimi confided as she and Chloe huddled on the bathroom floor in
the dim light. "You'd love my Mother and Daddy. They're keen! My Daddy
is the best doctor in the world and Mother is a darling. When they
visited me at camp this summer all the girls raved over them. Some of
them who have cranky old 'stick-in-the-mud' parents, envied me."
"I'd envy you any kind of mother and daddy--even old fogies." Chloe's
whisper was pathetically small and lonely.
Mimi didn't know what to say. She wanted to ask, "Where are your Mother
and Daddy?" but somehow she couldn't. She reached over and squeezed
Chloe's hand and continued staring ahead. Minutes passed and Mimi could
not find her tongue.
"I believe I hear them coming back," Chloe said. Both girls stiffened
and sat up straight.
The door to two hundred and nine opened almost noiselessly, then
clicked to. Mimi and Chloe rushed to meet Betsy and Sue.
"We have it!" Sue could hardly keep from shouting. "Not a whole can,
but enough."
"Sh--sh--" Betsy cautioned again. "We nearly got caught. Oh Gosh! Mrs.
Cole, of all people, was over there. She stopped right outside the
floor bath door and talked to Virginia, I thought she'd never go on.
Whew!"
Sigh of relief all around.
"Now for the dirty work at the crossroads." Betsy said. "Chloe get the
chafing dish. Sue, stuff towels against the bottom of the doors into
the hall. Can't have this larupin' good smell oozing out. We'd have
half of Prep Hall in here, not to mention Mrs. Cole. Mimi get to
stirring, we'd better cook in the tub. The light won't show so plain."
The whispered instructions were carried out silently and quickly. Five
minutes after the daring visit to College Hall, sugar and water and
cocoa fudge was boiling away in the chafing dish which stood in the
bottom of the bathtub. Mimi was stirring away, foamy brown bubbles. She
mustn't let it boil over, not waste a precious drop----
"Want a cup of water to test it?" Chloe asked.
"Shoot no," Mimi answered. "I can tell by the way it boils when it's
done. When it begins to boil heavy and the bubbles spit little balls,
it's ready to beat. Can I wait or can I wait?"
Betsy in the meantime had greased a platter with cold cream.
"I really feel like I'm at boarding school now," Mimi murmured happily
as she continued stirring.
"You'll _know_ you are at boarding school if Mrs. Cole catches us and
you get _campused_," Betsy warned. "What a divine smell!"
"Look!" Chloe was pointing at the canned heat. Her face was tragic.
"It's going out!" Slowly the blaze flickered, flared up, and while the
anxious girls looked on, sputtered out.
"There goes the old ball game," Mimi whispered.
"Not for me, I'll eat it with a spoon." Sue declared.
"Never say die," Betsy said. "It's nearly done, I know it is. Lift it
up Mimi and we'll finish it over the candle. We mustn't let it stop
boiling. Here."
"Dit has an electric perculator," Sue volunteered. "She's made tomato
soup in it. Why not fudge?"
"Don't be silly," Chloe said.
"No," agreed Mimi, "you'd better thank your lucky stars you made the
last trip safely. Besides, the lights are out over there now."
After ten slow passing minutes of feeble boiling over the candle, Mimi
declared the candy finished. The candle was about gone, too.
"Pour it up, please--" Sue urged.
"Control yourself, Wimpy," Mimi teased Sue.
After each girl beat and beat, the candy was poured up, setting as it
fell, spreading in circles which heaped higher and higher to the center
leaving a topknot.
"Dubs on licking the pan."
"Go to it, but no holes in the chafing dish please," Mimi cautioned,
handing her the pan. "We might want it again, sometime."
Betsy dried the nail file she had been scrubbing and while the fudge
was still hot, she cut it with the file. Then spreading an oiled bread
paper flat on the floor she turned the platter upside down. Slowly the
fudge fell out.
"Let's eat one piece apiece now and let the rest cool," Mimi suggested.
"Since I licked the pan, maybe I can hold off," Sue agreed, turning on
a slow stream of water and putting the pan to soak.
"Knock on wood y'all, but we've had better luck with our first
after-lights fudge party than my great Aunt Patricia and her crowd did."
"What happened to them?" Chloe wanted to know.
"You know, my great Aunt Patricia, Pattie to her chums, came here when
Sheridan was a Seminary for young ladies, I mean ladies. Did they have
it easy? Needle work, china painting, French and grammar. Penmanship
was a heavy course. Imagine! I've heard Aunt Pattie tell what an
enormous place Sheridan seemed to her when Uncle Mose and her father
drove her up the drive in the family barouche. Prep Hall was all there
was here then. The rest of the building has been added. She was being
left all of twenty-two miles from home. Think where my Mother and Daddy
are! Uncle Mose, the coachman begged his little Missie not to forget
him while she was 'getting edicated' and her father kissed her solemnly
on the forehead and gave her a Bible marked with daily readings."
"But what about the fudge party?" Betsy interrupted. She knew all about
the founding of Sheridan and its growth from a small private Seminary
to a Preparatory School with college course added; how it was
outgrowing finishing school requirements and, by abolishing the
preparatory department all together next year, would be an A-1
accredited college for women. Not that Sheridan tradition bored her,
but tonight her main interest was fudge. "It's cool enough for
seconds," she added, as Mimi continued.
"Aunt Pattie was full of fun. She didn't do anything bad or break any
big rules, but she got plenty of demerits."
"Don't we all?" interpolated Sue.
"This night of the fudge party things were just getting in full swing,
when there was a rap on the door. Some one snuffed the candle quickly.
The window was open and they hoped the smell would go out. Each girl
sat or stood as she had been, you know like slinging statutes--and
hoped that the matron would go on. But she didn't!
"Aunt Pattie had all the demerits she could have that term so she was
scared stiff. In spite of all her hopes the door opened and there stood
the matron holding an old timey oil lamp in front of her. The hall
proctor was close behind her. Before either of them had time to make
out any of the girls' faces, the suction sucked the light out. Aunt
Pattie did some desperate thinking and then did a desperate thing.
"Knowing that if the matron succeeded in lighting her lamp again they
were all in for it, while the matron fumbled for a match, Aunt Pattie
crept toward her on all fours. When her hair lightly brushed the
matron's heavy skirt, she stopped. For one calculating second she
checked her bearing, then swift as a shot and sure as a good marksman,
she jumped up to her full height knocking the lamp out of the matron's
hands! Wide flew the oil, the wick, the base.
"In the panic which followed the girls fled to their rooms. Other than
the girls who were hostesses to the party, only one girl was caught--"
"Not Aunt Pattie?" from three distressed voices.
"Yes, Aunt Pattie."
"But how?"
"When Aunt Patty went down to breakfast the matron was standing in the
doorway supposedly saying good-morning to the girls but she was really
playing detective, or better, bloodhound. She had been doing some
desperate thinking, too, and had found an excellent clue. Carefully she
looked down on each girl who entered. Not that one, nor that one. She
was about to despair when Aunt Pattie came tripping in, in her flowered
cashmere.
"Pattie come to my office immediately after your meal."
"Aunt Pattie pitifully murmured, 'yes, ma'am.' She was dumbfounded."
"But how did she know it was Pattie?"
"She had been sniffing each girl and when Aunt Pattie passed she simply
reeked of kerosene. When she upset the lamp she had baptized herself in
oil. Scrubbing had changed her appearance but the smell lingered.
"What did they do to her?"
"Sent her home I think. Aunt Pattie always avoided that part. She
didn't want me to know any of my family had ever been kicked out."
The candle was out and the fudge had disappeared miraculously.
"We'd better get to bed, I expect," Sue suggested. Full and warm, she
was ready to cuddle down.
"I wish y'all weren't too sleepy to hear about _my_ family," Chloe said
faintly. "You see, I've tried to tell you so many times and somehow
couldn't. While it is so dark and nobody is running in and out, maybe I
could tell you."
"See that's it." Mimi hated herself for thinking. "She's ashamed of
them!" but she was the first to say encouragingly--"Do tell us, Chloe.
I'll admit I've wondered why you told about your Aunt Marcia, so much
and never mentioned your Mother and Father."
"I haven't any," Chloe said bluntly. There it was out. Mimi felt her
quiver. They were all crowded together in a small circle, crossed legs
touching.
"Oh." Three soft Oh's again. What else could they say?
"You mean, they're--dead?" Sue whispered. Her tender heartbreak was in
her voice.
"I--don't--know," Chloe replied.
"Don't know if your own Mother and Father are dead?" Mimi prayed that
wasn't rude. The question had popped out of its own accord.
"No. I don't know. You see--"
"Yes?"
"I was--kidnapped."
Chloe's whisper left them paralyzed. Their excited breathing rasped the
silence. All the eager questions died unspoken. Now that the ice was
broken Chloe was the calmest of the four. In her soft, lanquid voice
louder than a whisper, but much lower than her usual speaking tone,
Chloe lisped her heartbreaking story. Telling it helped. She spoke
easier as she went along. When she had finished it was as if she had
unclasped an iron necklace and left her throat free from choking
bruises.
"Aunt Marcia is not my aunt at all. She selected me at The Home and
adopted me. There is only one incident I remember about my real family.
"When I was very small, I couldn't have been more than three, I was
playing under two big trees by a big white gate at the end of a drive.
Two men slowed up in a touring car and watched me play, then drove on.
Soon they came back. The big one with the tattooed arms jumped out of
the car and grabbed me. As he slung me over his shoulder like a sack of
cotton seed and ran for the car, I heard a shriek. My head was hanging
down over his shoulder bumping up and down as the man, whom I later
learned to call Fritzie, ran. I couldn't see very well, but I shall
always remember the blurred picture I saw. A beautiful lady was running
down the drive screaming frantically. As long as I could see she kept
holding out her arms running after us and pleading. She must have been
my Mother. She must have loved me very much."
Chloe's voice died away.
Not a soul moved. Even the raspy breathing was stilled. The whole night
had paused to hear Chloe's touching story.
Chloe's voice and girls breathed again.
"The little man drove us miles and miles. Fritzie put coveralls on over
my dress. Threw my little white shoes away and put sandals on me. The
buckles pinched. Then Fritzie took some big scissors out of the car
pocket and cut my hair off until I must have looked like a little boy.
When the little man put Fritzie and me on the train he said, 'So long
Sonny.'
"Then there was a time, I have no idea how long, that I lived on a farm
with Fritzie and a large slow moving woman called Freida. Callers
seldom came but when they did I was hidden in the cellar.
"After a time something happened. I don't know what but Fritzie and
Freida packed up and left, leaving me at The Home. I stayed there 'til
that happy day Aunt Marcia came."
"But why didn't you tell the people at The Home you'd been kidnapped?"
Mimi asked.
"I tried to once and the nurse said I'd had a bad dream. Of course, I
didn't know the word kidnapped and I remembered so little by then. I
even had a new name and didn't know the old one. When I'd say--'two men
grabbed me,' the nurse would say, 'there, there; no one is going to get
you' and move on to the next child. You see there were so many of us in
The Home.
"Once I tried to tell Aunt Marcia. I could tell by her eyes she was
scared but she turned it off as if I didn't know what I was talking
about."
"She's afraid some one would identify you and take you away from her."
Mimi was shrewd.
"I've thought of that. It's awfully nice to know somebody wants me, but
I wonder all the time who I really am. Sometimes I wake up in the night
and think I hear my real mother screaming."
"You are just you, honey, and that's good enough for us." Mimi spoke
for all three. "We swear we'll never breathe a word of your secret."
How could Mimi ever concentrate on geometry again when she was living
in the midst of an unsolved mystery?