60

Introductory Text

Friends and home and happiness
Alice's Narrative Part 01 60th Post Posted 18 May 2016 at 18:28:05 EDT Link to original

Ha hum. I love waking up in the morning to the smell of fresh biscuits. The warm smell fills my dreams, a smell like friends and home and happiness. I wake up to see the sun so bright and lovely in my window. Hello day! How are you? Every day is bright and cheery when you share a house with your best friends. I can hear them downstairs singing and having fun. After a long night of spooky old dreams, it's good to be awake again in the cheery deary sunlight.

I unlock my bedroom door and go out into the hall. Some of my friends have left fresh piles of biscuits in the hallway, several different kinds. Wonderful! I breathe in the smell and make chirpy little sounds of glee. Heeheehee. Another day!

Chester Barrington comes up the stairs, looking very handsome and somber in his tuxedo.

"Oh, Chester!" I sing. "How is the gentleman today?"

Chester nods to me, gruff but debonair. "Proceedings are afoot, Madam Alice. Proceedings are afoot," he grumbles and makes his way down the hallway. That Chester. So self-serious.

On the stairway, Brett Turlingshire and Mansy Fairworth are in each other's arms, a lover's embrace.

"Oh, dear!" I cry. "I'm afraid I've interrupted your tryst!"

"Oh, madam, nonsense. This is no tryst. This is a destined love affair!" Brett proclaims in his ringing voice. He looks dashing in his fine, striped coat.

"Brett, darling, Madam Alice doesn't want to hear all that gooey talk," Mansy says in her sassy southern accent.

"I'll leave you two be," I say lifting the hem of my nightgown and hurrying past them.

When I get to the bottom of the stairs, I hear Brett murmur, "I wish the Madam would find a destined love affair of her own. She is a noble woman and deserves somebody to treat her well."

"You just worry about treating me well," Mansy purrs, nuzzling against his cheek.

I scurry off before they catch me listening. In the downstairs parlor, Raymond Decks, Montrose Pardonsmith and Elise Rapier are having tea together. The smell of biscuits fills the room. A fresh heap of toffee-colored scones covers the coffee table. A wonderful selection of pastries lies in the corner, and several of the chairs contain more treats.

"Hello dearies! How are we today?"

"Can't complain," Raymond says.

"Splendid!" Sir Pardonsmith intones.

Elise merely lets out a little sigh.

"Elise, are we not feeling well?" I ask, coming over to where she is perched on the arm of the couch.

"Eh. Should we be? Life is but a vague dream which disrupts the sleep of death," she murmurs in her smoky French accent.

"Oh, Elise. Must you be such an existentialist?"

"Je ne suis pas un existentialiste," she mutters, getting up and stalking off.

"Poor Elise," I say as she leaves the room.

"She is affected by that peculiar continental ennui," Sir Pardonsmith observes. "I say she needs a dose of sturdy American optimism."

"Her birthday is coming soon. Perhaps we should throw her a party," I suggest.

"Ha! A party for Elise? That would go over like a Bar Mitzvah for Goebbels," Raymond says.

"Oh, Raymond!" I say, tousling his orange hair. "Well, we'll have to figure out something for her. I don't like her moping about."

"She's an inveterate mope. There's no changing her," Raymond says.

"You may be right, sir," I say, sighing. Well, c'est la vie. Not everybody can be as happy as I am.

Some years ago, I was much like Elise. Down the dumps. A real gray cloud. Then I met a lovely young woman who happened to be passing through my neighborhood. Her name was Angelica. It had been a long time since I had enjoyed the delights of society, but Angelica had a very mature, soothing presence, despite her youth. I lived a large house where my family had once resided but was now empty, so I asked her to stay with me. She accepted just like that. Can you imagine it? Two strangers just making a home together? It must have been kismet.

She was my precious angel treasure. Absolutely heaven sent. I had been something of an existentialist myself, disbelieving in God and thinking his creation a cruel trap for human prey. But then he saw it fit to bring Angelica into my life, and I never doubted him again. I found her company such a balm that I decided to open my home to whoever needed a place to stay. Singletons, couples, whole families have stayed with me. Many children have been born in this house.

Though dear sweet Angelica has long since passed way, her friendship is still a daily gift to me. For on the day I met her, I made a choice to simply not feel sadness or worry or fear ever again. And I haven't. Do you think it impossible? It is possible, if you simply surround yourself with loved ones. That's the secret.

With all these thoughts in mind, I walk into the kitchen to see Reginald Strongton, Linda Mercychowder and Marshall Futz clamoring for their breakfast.

"Madam, I'm famished!" Reginald cries.

"Oh, dear Madam! We starve! We want! We waste away!" Linda says in a tremulous voice.

"Oh, mercy. I left you with a kingly feast last night. Have you eaten it all?" I ask.

"It was not us. We had not a bite. It was that Chester Barrington, the scoundrel!" Reginald cries. "He is voracious and utterly selfish. I found him down here, helping himself to your generosity, and when I tried to serve myself the smallest morsel, he attacked me. Attacked me, madam! My nose still smarts."

"Oh, that Chester does have an appetite. But I find it hard to believe such a gentleman would attack you."

"Eh, I am on the verge of swooning," Marshall croaks.

"Alright, dears, let's have ourselves a proper breakfast," I say.

I get a bag of cuisine from the cabinet and pour it into china bowls for Reginald, Linda, and Marshall and myself. I clear off the love-biscuits that somebody left on the kitchen table, and we all sit down to eat. My little friends immediately proceed with chowing down, and I am about to follow suit, but I notice something that brings me a wonderful thrill.

There is a stranger standing in the doorway to the kitchen. I have never seen her before. She appears to have snuck into the house alone. She stands there, tense and alert, her yellow eyes taking in the scene. I am breathless. She is beautiful, extraordinary, exquisite. She reminds me of my sweet Angelica. Oh, lovely day! I am about to have a new friend!