Border Secured (A Scenario) - Section 2 - Part 13

Florence was never the same in the days following Ben’s funeral. Her smile that was usually such a joy to behold, the smile that would light up the darkest room, had disappeared. Charmaine always told her that when she smiled her eyes also smiled, but Florence lost her joy when Ben died. She  was trying very hard, for Charmaine’s sake, to give an appearance of happiness but her heart was not in it. Her heart

Border Secured (A Scenario) - Section 2 - Part 12

Reading about Ben’s funeral and Florence's sorrow saddened me so much that I went to bed crying. The last time I cried like this was when my Grandmother Charmaine died. It felt as if I was drawing poor little Charmaine’s pain. I had accepted the fact that little Charmaine and my Grandmother Charmaine were the same person. Maybe that was the reason why I was feeling so sad. She was losing the closest thing she had to a father and she must have been devastated at Ben's death. Poor little Charmaine. I was happy, however, that her relationship with Stanley Wharbucks had improved. I said my prayers and, hugging my pillow, I finally drifted off to sleep.

Border Secured (A Scenario) - Section 2 - Part 11

Ben was dead! I cried as if it was my own father that had died. I thought about little Charmaine and poor Florence and I cried even harder. I picked up the ledger from the floor and continued to read. Most of what was written in the ledger was what Florence said was told to her by Stanley Wharbucks as she was too distraught to write anything. The days following the death of Ben were a blur to Florence. She spoke to no one and she refused to eat and drink anything. She said she had no appetite and no manner of coaxing by Stanley Wharbucks could get her to do otherwise. Stanley Wharbucks took Charmaine to stay with him at the main house. As sad as she was Charmaine was overjoyed to be staying in the main house. The stone lions at the top of the steps leading to the verandah had fascinated her from the first day she saw them and she looked forward to climbing atop them when her Grandfather was not around. When she saw the room that she was to stay in she gasped at its beauty. Stanley Wharbucks told her that the room had belonged to her mother. The walls of the room were painted bright pink. There was a huge four-poster bed in the middle of the room with a beautiful pink floral bedspread on it. The sheer curtains at the window matched the bedspread. The nightstands on either side of the bed had lamps with the bases in the shape of a Victorian-era woman and the pink shades had gold fringes. The seat of the dresser stool was covered with pink velvet and Charmaine ran her fingers across it. She turned to Stanley Wharbucks and said, “This is so beautiful!” He smiled and told her that her mother had said the very same thing when she saw the room for the first time. He lifted her up and placed her atop the stool so that she could have a better look at the hundreds

Border Secured (A Scenario) Section 2 - Part 10

I woke up the next day with a feeling of dread. I had an eerie feeling that I was going to receive some bad news. I said my prayers and then got up out of bed and did all the chores I had to do so that there would be no interruptions when I resumed my reading. I went outside to take care of the dogs. They were listless, they must be missing Maud a lot or maybe they were just drawing that sense of foreboding from me. Anyway, the fowls were happy that I finally came to remove all the eggs from the coop. I guess they needed space to lay some more! I went back inside, made myself a huge jug of lemonade, took a bag of crackers from the cupboard and went back to my room as it was too hot to sit outside on the verandah. I took up the last of the ledgers and noticed that it had a piece of black

Border Secured (A Scenario) Section 2 - Part 9

Stanley Wharbucks had been taking Charmaine to school for over a week now. Ben was still sick so he had no choice but to take her himself. Florence got her ready every morning and Stanley Wharbucks would be there ready and waiting when they arrived at the main house. Charmaine told Florence that her Grandfather