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Chapter 81 - Holiday Festivities

Winnie, her jaw set firmly, marched down the hallway, walking so quickly that the others had to hurry to catch up with her and, as they passed Terence and Barbara in the hallway, Barbara shot a questioning look at Tamara.

“Later,” Tamara grinned back as she hurried after Winnie.

As Winnie burst out of the door onto the deck, sliding the screen door open with a slam, the others turned to look at the noisy interruption. And most of them did a double-take, really staring at her, open-mouthed.

Jay was the first to speak. “Holy shit, Winnie. What the hell were you concerned about? You’re ripped, gal. You must be on your school’s swim or track team, right? You must; you’ve got that kind of body and it shows it.”

Winnie blushed, pulling up short. She hadn’t thought past just getting her naked reveal over with.

“Um, no, Jay, it’s just me. I exercise to keep fit, is all.”

“No way... you do more than ‘just keeping fit’; getting that awesome muscle development like you have takes lots of dedication.” Jay insisted. “Tell me what you do to stay in such great shape.”

“Yeah, Winnie, I’d like to know too,” Peter said as he walked up to them. “You mentioned doing isometrics and using resistance bands; how did you use them?”

“Ah, that explains why her muscles are sleek like that and not bulky,” Jay commented, and then Terence came out of the house with Barbara.

Terence took one look at Winnie and whistled softly. “Day-umn, Winnie, Ah didn’t know y’all were an athlete too... Y’all’s super ripped. Y’all zipped past me in the hall inside so quick, all Ah saw was a blur,” he chuckled.

Winnie giggled, and blushing, began telling them about how she did her isometric and resistance exercises.

Tamara grabbed Barbara and steered her away, saying, “Winnie was awfully shy about stripping in the bedroom; that’s what took us so long in there. But look at her now; she’s glowing at the admiration she’s getting from the guys. She’s telling them about her exercise regimen and they’re just soaking it up.”

“Her body looks awesome,” Barbara agreed. “When we met, she told me that she’s never played sports. That body’s not from sports? She reminds me of some elite track stars I’ve seen photos of.”

“She just recently started playing volleyball. I’ve got to see if she wants to run with me,” Tamara said. “She told me that she used to run when she had the chance but couldn’t do it regularly while she was living in the group home. That’s when she ran at her middle school during P.E.—she told me her P.E. teacher let her run ‘cause the teacher could see that she needed the cardio more than muscle development or playing games with the other kids. She said that she ran around inside the athletic field fence or around the gym when it was cold. Hey, let me rescue her; the guys are starting to throw suggestions at her and she doesn’t look comfortable now.”

Tamara pulled Winnie away from the guys, saying, “You jocks are hogging this gal. She needs to talk to some of the others, okay?”

“Thanks for rescuing me, Tamara. The guys were telling me about the sports I should go out for and suggesting training regimens but I like the way I exercise now. But did you see how they were looking at me! And the emotions I felt coming from them were so positive! They weren’t making fun of me; they thought I look good!”

“I saw how they were looking, sweetie. Like me, they think you look gorgeous. Let’s hop in the pool and chat with the gals there. Hey, talk to Emma about Emma. The novel.”

Winnie giggled as she slid into the pool and gasped. “Oh, Tamara, this feels unbelievable! The water on my skin feels silky, like it’s caressing me.”

“I won’t say I told you so, but I told you that you’d like it, didn’t I?”

Winnie turned and shot her the stink-eye.

They swam over to where Emma, Sam, and Abi were floating on some noodles wrapped under their armpits.

Abi pointed to the pool side, “Grab a noodle and join us.”

Tamara got two and returned and she and Winnie copied how the others were using the toys.

“Emma, thanks for inviting us,” Winnie said. “I was kinda nervous at first but I’m okay now. The water feels wicked awesome; this is so rad.”

Emma smiled and nodded as Winnie continued, “Hey, I wanted to tell you this—I just finished reading Jane Austen’s Emma a few weeks ago and did a report on it and Tamara said that you did a book report on it in high school too.”

Emma chuckled. “Indeed I did. After reading the story, I so identified with Emma Woodhouse that I wrote how I had become like her. Remember how she organized her acquaintances to try to push them into what she considered to be suitable matches? How she tried so hard to be a proper matchmaker? I was the same way in high school, but not for that romantic rot. I organized people to try to make study groups so stronger pupils would help weaker ones. I do say that I was somewhat more adept at doing that than Emma was at making romantic matches.”

The others laughed at Emma’s description, and then Tamara told Winnie about how she had used Emma and Pride and Prejudice in her Clarke Scholar essay.

“Oh, I have a question, Emma, about those yellow boxes in your guest room...”

“Sam can tell you, it’s her story to tell, innit,” Emma laughed.

Sam described what the boxes were for and how she had gotten them, and the story kept Winnie giggling at Sam’s madcap explanation.

“You did all that and got away with it too?” she asked, incredulously, when Sam finally stopped.

Abi and Emma looked at each other, nodded to each other, and said together, “She did.”

“But I can’t believe that kids were forced to be naked like that back then. How did the kids stand to do it?” Winnie asked.

“That’s a long, long story, sweetie. Later, Peter and I can tell you more about that time, so hold off those questions, okay?” Tamara told her.

“Winnie, I’m curious about something from the time I lived in Alaska,” Emma said. “In my high school, there was a fairly large number of First Nation people. I recall specifically about a dozen Athabascan families and several Inupiaqs families too. I remember those First Nations’ names because after I left Fairbanks, I endowed a community foundation to give four scholarships for needy First Nation pupils to go to the University of Alaska. But whilst in high school, I saw that those children were taunted for their shabby clothing and also how their families experienced discrimination in the community, particularly in getting jobs. Did you face any discrimination whilst you were in school?”

“Emma, where I lived, everyone was kinda poor; we all scratched out a living. I think Papa was about the best off ‘cause he had a state job that he retired from. Most of the kids in my grade school came from the nearby hollers and no one had fancy clothes. I wasn’t picked on and I’m pretty sure that I was the only Native American in my grade. All of us kids had to work hard to help our families. The middle school was larger and there were townie kids in it, but I was in the system then and had other problems to worry about.”

“‘Hollers’?” Abi asked.

“Ah, I guess you don’t use that word here. Okay, if you go on back roads in West Virginia, you’ll pass by lots of hollers—they’re roads that go into all the steep, narrow valleys there and the houses are jammed between the road and mountainside. Those are the hollers, those narrow valleys, and most roads in them are usually dead-end.”

“You poor thing,” Abi started to say as she hugged Winnie.

“Oh, don’t feel bad for me,” Winnie said. “I had a good childhood. Yeah, I worked hard—all the kids did, but Papa was very loving and taught me lots. And there were two girls living down the lick from us, only a half-mile away, so I got to play with them when we weren’t working.”

“Is ‘lick’ another West Virginia term like ‘holler’?” Emma asked, smiling.

Winnie stopped to think. “Um ... it’s, well, just a word? Oh, maybe it’s another local word in West Virginia. When I rode here with Tamara, I couldn’t believe how flat the land is here. Flat everywhere. Back home ... oh, sorry; this is home now ... the mountains go up and down and the roads have to wind between them. The roads that go through the valleys follow the runs, um, streams. Little streams are called ‘licks,’ and the roads along them sometimes have ‘lick’ in their name. I lived on Beech Lick Road. So maybe a lick is where the holler opens up enough so you can have a little farm like we did.”

By now, everyone was in the pool and a few pool games were organized. The pool had a net stretched across it so a spirited water volleyball game began. Tamara’s and Barbara’s volleyball prowess was somewhat diminished in the water, which didn’t allow for quick moves or flashy plays. Jay’s and Terence’s heights and strengths were great equalizers. And Winnie, while her 5-foot 6-inch height wasn’t especially tall, she had very powerful legs and could leap surprisingly high. Her long arms helped her reach well above the net when she attacked the ball and her serves were so powerful that they were difficult to return. They played several games before people began tiring.

Emma had set the air temperature in the dome at a comfortable 78 degrees and the pool water was at 82 degrees, so when they got out of the pool, most people decided to remain nude to talk and relax on the lounge chairs set under a few propane umbrella-style infra-red heaters set around the deck.

Tamara pulled up a chair next to Winnie, who had stretched out on a lounge and was apparently working the muscles in her legs.

“Hey, looks like you’re doing just great, sweetie,” Tamara said. “Are those stretches you’re doing isometrics?”

“Huh... oh ... oh yeah. After exercising, like the volleyball we just did, you need to stretch the muscles so they stay limber and don’t clamp down. It keeps the blood flowing and flushes the lactic acid out. Actually I do them several times during the day and it helps me keep my muscles strong.”

“I see that. Your body looks awesome and I think those girls who were ragging you were just totally jealous.”

“I guess. Tamara? I see the other girls here must... um... shave their pubic hair? Emma’s looks so neat; just a little triangle. The others are totally smooth but you and Barbara have a little patch right above...”

Tamara chuckled, “That’s called a ‘landing strip,’ actually. Yeah, you are a bit unkempt down there, but since your hair is mostly straight and silky, it doesn’t grow into a dense bush like mine would. See how curly my head hair is? Think of that growing down there.”

“Should I shave it, do you think?”

“I think it looks really cute like that—maybe trim it shorter. With your ab muscle definition and hip shape, that straight, jet black hair looks kinda sexy—it draws the eye there, and that’s a good thing. Even though nudists say that they don’t think about sexual attractiveness, don’t believe that for an instant. They do think about it and appreciate pretty bodies, both boys and girls do. But in my experience, their appreciation stops at just enjoying seeing a nice figure. Otherwise they’re just creeps. And you’ll quickly be able to pick the creeps and pervs out.”

“Do you get creeps at the resort?” Winnie asked.

“One time Peter caught one and clobbered him when the perv tried to sucker-punch him. Last summer, they kicked one guy out who was making suggestive comments. And I was at a nude beach once and saw a few men—and a woman too—who wouldn’t stop staring. But they’re kinda rare, especially at the resort. If you go, there isn’t anything to be concerned about. And I’d wait on trimming or shaving off that pretty hair, sweetie. Maybe do a bikini trim on it. When you see the cousins, talk to them. Also, watch to see how the girls at school do their grooming.”

Winnie got up and stretched, then pointed to the refreshments table.

“Gonna get a water bottle, want one?” she asked.

“I’ll come with. I need to stretch my legs too. Winnie, I was thinking about getting back to running in the mornings again. I had stopped doing it when the fuss over the Nobels began and Janice told me I’d be safer not running. But now that the awards are old news, Janice told me that I could start running again. It’d be great to have someone to run with; Peter runs with me sometimes but he prefers getting his cardio in the pool. Would you like to start running with me?”

“Um, maybe. When would we get time to do it?”

“I begin my runs at 6:15 and do three miles, sometimes I go for five. I aim for 20 to 30 minutes and I take a winding route through campus and...”

“Um, you can do five miles in 30 minutes? Really?”

“I wish... well, getting there. I can do five in maybe 33 minutes.”

Winnie stared at her. “Papa loved to run and taught me. I remember him saying that five miles in under 35 minutes was an elite runner’s time. I can run that fast, but it’s a tough pace.”

“It sure is and that’s why I only do it once a week—my leg day, I call it. So if we run on early mornings like I said, you start school at 8 a.m., so you’d have time to shower and eat breakfast. Your trip to school is a half hour?”

“Yeah. A bit less. Sure, let’s try it. But remember, I need to leave for the bus stop at 7:20 to be sure I’m on time, like if the bus is slow. Say, when’d you talk to Janice? I miss seeing her.”

“Oh, just a few days ago. She’s reconnected with Cindy now and with Cindy’s dad. My dad too; she’s called him a few times to talk. And I’m gonna contract with her firm to staff my security department when our facility is built. I’m also hiring them to design the manufacturing facility security systems and Janice will be in charge of our account, so she’ll be around a lot more.”

They were standing at the table where some finger foods were set out and Winnie was making a plate with some veggies and dip for herself.

Winnie looked at Tamara. “Your facility will need security?”

“Oh sure. I saw what can happen when I was in Cambridge with Emma and those Russian thugs came visiting.”

“Yeah, you told me about what happened there, that’s right,” Winnie said.

With a twinkle in her eye, Tamara asked, “You’ve been nude for more than an hour now—how’s it feel?”

Winnie looked down at herself and blushed. “You know? I don’t feel any modesty now, so strange. The air feels good on my skin too. This must be what you meant, right?”

“Yep. I’m so glad you’re enjoying it, Winnie. Oh, I can definitely see how your JV volleyball play is helping your water volleyball play—even though most of the skills don’t translate. All of the water volleyball passing is just like setting is in land volleyball, right?

Winnie nodded, grinning. “Yeah. With the water level at mid-chest, bump-passing is impossible, so it’s all just setting.”

“I saw you make some really good plays. You surprised a lot of people here,” Tamara told her.

She caught Barbara’s eye and motioned her over.

“You saw how Winnie was in our games?” she asked.

“Totally. Winnie, you’re good. That’s quite a wicked serve you’ve got,” Barbara agreed.

“I mentioned to you earlier that Winnie’s on her school’s JV team. She played in about ten games during their season in the fall.”

“Sweet, Winnie, good job,” Barbara smiled at her. “Hey, maybe at next year’s Superbowl, she could come and play.”

“There’s a thought,” Tamara grinned.

Two weeks later: mid-January

Tamara returned a phone call from Sam.

“Hi there, Tamara. Some news about Winnie,” Sam told her when she answered.

“Hope it’s good,” Tamara replied.

“It’s good; first, there’s not much there, but the police no longer need to keep Winnie’s items from the kidnapper’s car. She probably will want to get that property back. And her grandfather’s will has been probated, so as the executors of his estate, my firm now has title to their real property and we can access his bank account. Not much there, only about five thousand. But the state stopped her grandfather’s pension payments when they got notice of his death because there was no survivorship application. We got that started up and there’ll be back payments made. Our Charleston agent checked out the property. The house had been boarded up. He found out that the neighbors did that to keep vandals out. The folk who live around there watch out for their neighbors, apparently.”

“What’s the house’s condition?” Tamara asked.

“He didn’t go in, but from the outside, it looks reasonable. I’ll send you the neighbors’ contact info since Winnie might want to go to the house to see it and decide what she wants to do with it, and see if there’s anything she wants from there. The neighbors told our investigator that nobody’s touched any belongings in it. Oh, the taxes were in arrears so we cleared that with the county. Probate’s done, as I said, so now Winnie has access to her grandfather’s estate, such as it is.”

“How can Winnie get her stuff that the cops released?”

“It’s being held at the prosecuting attorney’s office in Franklin pending what we do. That’s the county seat and where the kidnapper’s car was taken. The prosecutor determined that her possessions had no real continuing evidence value except for her school ID card and they transferred that to the FBI. I could have one of our people get her stuff and send it on to her, or if you go to visit the house, you can pick it up yourself on the way.”

“Okay, thanks a bunch, Sam. I’ll talk to Winnie and see what she wants to do.”

At home later, Tamara told Winnie the news.

“So how do you want to handle this, sweetie?” she asked.

Winnie was both happy and sad at the same time, and answered, “Ooh, I’d love to see the house again, but it’ll be sad going there. And I’m really happy that I can get back my little poke too; I really miss the few things I was able to keep,”

“Um, ‘poke’? What’s that?” Tamara asked.

“Oh, that must be another West Virginia word,” Winnie smiled. “People call it a ‘bag’ here. My little bag of things I had in the group home. It’s all I had. Can we go? I’d like to see some of the folk in the holler again and let them know that I’m okay.”

Tamara arranged to take off on a Thursday afternoon and she, Peter, and Winnie would make the trip. It would take about four hours to get to the prosecutor’s office in the county seat and the house was about another hour further away. They stayed overnight in the same hotel in Harrisonburg where Tamara and Winnie had stayed, and on the following morning, stopped at the prosecutor’s office. Winnie got her bag of belongings and was very happy; one of the items was a little photo album with pictures of her parents and grandparents.

She hugged Tamara when she found the picture album. “I thought my poke was gone forever. Now I have my pictures again.”

They went on to Winnie’s house and as they approached, Winnie began pointing out some landmarks, including the elementary school she had attended. Sam’s Charleston contact had gotten the contact information for Winnie’s former closest neighbors, and Winnie had called to tell them that she was coming. When she arrived, several of the neighbors had already gathered and two men were taking the plywood boarding off the front door of the house.

Winnie jumped out of the car when they stopped and ran over to one of the men and hugged him.

“Tamara, Peter, this is Ben Parsons, the daddy of my girlfriends when I lived here,” she told them after bringing Parsons over to meet them.

“Mr Parsons, thanks for seeing that the house was looked after,” Peter told him.

“It’s Ben, and nice meeting y’all. Hell, on the lick here, we’s all like family. I knew in my heart that Nita would be back so’s we watched the place fer her. After the county took her, they didn’t come back fer anythin’ so’s we figured we should board it up till we heard som’thin’.”

The plywood was off now and Peter looked at the door. “Winnie, do you have a way in?” he asked.

Winnie took out her little purse. “I have a key here. I kept it hidden away ‘cause I thought I might have a chance to sneak away and come back home. But I never got the chance. There should also be a key in a fake rock on the side of the house.”

Inside the house, Winnie found a number of things that she wanted to keep. Several items were her grandfather’s, including a box of old diaries. Apparently her grandfather, and even her father, kept diaries. Winnie didn’t know this and was overjoyed at the discovery. She had kept a diary herself and found it where she had hidden it in her room.

“Papa taught me to keep a diary. I didn’t know that he did it too. Now I can keep all my diary stuff together,” she told Tamara.

“You kept up with writing a diary?”

Winnie smiled and took a spiral-bound school notebook out of her “poke” and showed it to Tamara.

“I thought this was lost too,” she said. “I kept it secret like this in a school notebook ‘cause I didn’t want to have the girls find it. They thought it was my schoolwork.”

After a thorough search in the house, Winnie said she had everything that she wanted, and had decided that the house could be sold.

“I had good memories from here, but I have a new life now,” she told the others. “Mr Ben, you know if anyone’s in the market for a house on the lick?” To the others, she added, “Mr Ben’s a part-owner in the auto shop out on 35-2 and hears the area gossip.”

“Actually I do, Nita, but he cain’t afford much. My son Ben Junior got hitched back this past summer; he ‘n his gal live with us. He’s got a decent job in the shop but money’s real tight.”

Tamara caught Winnie’s eye and an unspoken message flashed between them.

“Yeah, Tamara, I know what you want to say and I’m fine with that,” Winnie told her. “Tell him.”

“Ben, I’ve become Nita’s guardian and we call her ‘Winnie’ now, like her papa did,” Tamara said. “Winnie will never again want for things that money can buy. She doesn’t need the money from selling her old place and you and your family have been great friends for her while she was growing up. She’s also told us about how the folk on your lick look after each other. You’ve watched over her old home like it was your own, too. I think that Winnie would like to ask you something, right, Winnie?”

“Yeah, Tamara. You talked so nicely about how all our neighbors care about each other. Anyway, Mr Ben, would you allow me to make your son a wedding gift of this property?”

Parsons looked pole-axed; he stared at Winnie and Tamara open-mouthed. “Y’all would do that, really? That’s way too much—we can pay som’thin’; just not the amount this place is...”

Winnie went to him and took his hand. “Mr Ben, you and Missus Sally were so good to me when I lived here and Bennie was like a big brother. I would love to have him own my old place. But he’ll need to get those vegetable gardens all weeded out and back working again!”

Parsons nodded, grinned, and they hugged each other.

“So do you think that Bennie will accept the gift?” Winnie asked.

“Fer sure he will,” Parsons replied.

Tamara thought for a few seconds and then commented, “I think that all we’d need would be a quit-claim deed. Bennie would be responsible for things like taxes, transfer fees, title search, whatever.”

“No problem, he c’n handle that,” Parsons said. “I gotta call him and git him down here.”

Tamara took out her phone and called her Charleston contact and spoke to him about transferring the property. As the estate’s executors, they would handle the transfer, so Tamara told him to go ahead with the necessary paperwork.

Bennie Parsons and his bride were a very happy and thankful couple as they greeted Winnie a half-hour later.

On their trip home the following day, Winnie was still on an adrenalin high.

“That was just an awesome time,” she gushed. “Bennie couldn’t stop thanking me and seeing his sisters, my friends Jill and Linda, was so nice. And everyone is so grown up too.”

“It’s been what? About four years since you saw them last, right?” Peter asked. “You’ve grown too, dear.”

“So they’ll get to have new lives, just like me,” Winnie sighed. “I love doing things for others, just like you, Tamara.”

“I won’t say I told you so, but didn’t I tell you that having money is most useful for helping others who are in need?” Tamara grinned at her.

“You might have said that a time or twenty,” Winnie smirked.

“I might have.”

~~~~

About a week later, Tamara got a phone call from Werner. After they greeted each other, Werner had some news for her.

“We heard that starting in a month or so, large sections of US50 and some connecting roads between Annapolis and D.C. are to be replaced. Usually the old pavement is recycled by crushing concrete and grinding up the asphalt and reusing what they can. But the capacity of the current recycling equipment can’t handle everything that will be removed, mainly areas affecting the road sections where asphalt was used over the original concrete. The pavement is very old and separating the old material by grinding the asphalt off and recycling everything isn’t cost-effective. So they need a site to dispose the removed material and since we’re not charging a dump fee, we’ve been picked as the disposal site. We’re negotiating with the contractor now that if they send in crushed pavement—the maximum chunk size will be specified—and provide the necessary equipment to do the compaction and grading of the lifts, they can use the old quarry. Oh, a ‘lift’ is a layer of fill before needing compaction.”

“That sounds good—how much fill will they have?”

“The estimate is 600,000 cubic yards. With what we’ve filled already, that will get us to over 90 percent of where we’ll need to be, and the balance of the needed fill is already been contracted for—from other demo projects. The time frame for this fill dumping will end about a year from April and we’ll just about be filled.”

“That sounds excellent. And so does the progress you’re making on the properties nearby.”

“Yes. Three large parcels are non-producing agricultural, one is a sod farm, and two are soybean farms. We now have purchase options on all six.”

“Looks like my plans are starting to come together,” Tamara mused. “Perhaps in five years, that’s my hope.”

Three months later: May and June

Tamara had completed her research project in the middle of April and her committee arranged for a quick dissertation defense. She had completed the experiments that showed that her theory about dark energy was not only supported by the mathematics, but also showed that certain predictions made by the math could be confirmed by physical evidence. She was graduating with a PhD in physics in May’s commencement ceremony. She was preparing a paper based on her dissertation to be submitted to Nature, whose physics articles were highly ranked in academic respect.

Terence was completing his first year in graduate school at Maryland; he had chosen the school so he could be close to Barbara, and because he was also able to secure a research internship with NASA-Goddard in nearby Greenbelt. And in June, Winnie finished her first year of high school with excellent grades.

And also in June, Tamara got a surprise from Denise. She told Tamara that yet another super-empath would be joining their group—actually this discovery was really Amelia’s, who would explain what this was all about.

“So we’ll be celebrating the end of the school year at our home; can you, Winnie, Peter, Barbara, and Terence come? Cindy and Tom can’t be there but the rest of us will. Then Amelia will tell you her news.”

Tamara replied that they’d be delighted to come. Since Denise and Kevin’s property was very private, they had declared their pool to be a nudist facility like Emma’s.

So there was a nice-sized group present: Tamara with Peter and Winnie, Barbara and Terence, Amelia and Jeremy, and of course Denise and Kevin. A few minutes after Tamara and her group had arrived and changed into the recommended clothing, i.e., none, and came out to the deck to greet everyone, Denise asked Amelia to give her news.

Amelia laughed and commented, “This many empaths all in one area is gonna wreck the world’s stability, you know.”

“I’m sure it will,” Denise laughed. “So don’t keep them in suspense, dear; tell them.”

Amelia nodded. “Remember when we were back at the London embassy residence when we were talking about the Avery Program? Err, except Barbara and Terence weren’t there. Or Winnie, of course. Anyway, that’s when Denise told you how Jeremy and I helped change the curriculum to make it work better? Denise was gonna send a copy to your cousins’ school, Peter and Barbara.”

“Yep, she did and the school got the new version and started it last year; Audrey and Eddie really loved it,” Barbara said.

Amelia laughed. “Actually they really got the new, new version, ‘cuz of what happened just before Denise updated it for U.S. schools. So here’s what happened. Beginning of the school year two years ago—this is a year before we came here—two kids in our London school couldn’t do the Avery Program bonding exercises and ran out of the classroom at the beginning of the first session. The bloke, name’s Tom, couldn’t handle the emotional intensity of the bonding part, the rapport-building that’s done at first. I got to meet Tom later that autumn when we began rehearsing a musical play and he was in it. Anyway, to skip over lots of incredible things that happened between Tom, his sister Lynette, Jeremy, me, and some other friends, he figured out something major about the Avery Program, a way to fix its biggest problem. [Naked in School - Tom’s Troubles]

“Toward the end of that school year with Tom, we were brainstorming how to fix those problems ‘cuz we weren’t getting any help from the government powers that be. But Tom, with his negative experience and native empathy, had a whole different view of how he saw the Avery Program working with the pupils. He had an idea about it that he wanted to investigate, so he figured out a way to go through the bonding exercises with Lynette while hidden from the other pupils who were doing them at the same time. And he and Lynette went through the rest of the Avery Program, acting as if they were serving in a mentor’s role. With his empathic senses, he learned things about the bonding sessions that everyone else had totally missed, too.

“What he finally worked out was something that turned the whole Avery Program completely around. All the parts are still there, but now they’re done in a different order. Doing it Tom’s way made teaching those classes a whole lot easier for the teachers and removed a significant problem about the participation of the reluctant kids; he himself was one of those and figured out what was wrong. It turns out that he and his sister are emotion... I should say, empathy, dynamos. And they’re coming here to study at Westphalia this autumn! Their names are Tom and Lynette Armstrong. They’re such amazing people; I can’t wait till they’re here.”

Denise broke in before anyone could speak. “I met them a year ago in the spring when the Brits brought me over there to consult on some issues that they were having in running the Avery Program. Amelia’s right—Tom and Lynette are amazing people. Tom suggested the change—there were several of them—and they were excellent ones, actually. I presented his recommendations to their Department for Education and they accepted them. When the pilot school ran the program with his changes, they got outstanding results, not only for the pupils but also in their ability to train the teachers who were being introduced to it. And that latest version is the one that Audrey and Eddie’s school used, Barbara.”

“Um, this Avery Program thing?” Winnie said. “I heard that my school is looking into starting something like that in the fall.”

Everyone turned to look at her.

“No shit!” Barbara exclaimed. “I’m gonna be in hog heaven if it does. If it’s in a nearby school and all its developers are in the area too, I’m gonna have me a party working on a project to study it. Ah, a question. Tom’s a Brit? Right? How come he decided to go to college over here? Jeez, there’ll be two Toms here then, you know?”

Denise chuckled. “That’s true. For names, we’ll have to come up with something better than Tom 1 and Tom 2.” The others laughed. “His family’s Canadian, not British. Actually why Tom and Lynette are coming here is because of a couple of circumstances. Amelia’s kept in touch with Tom and Lynette. What did he tell you, Amelia?”

Jeremy interrupted, “Yeah, before Amelia goes, she might not mention this, but you lot will think that this is bloody barmy: they’re coming here straight from their honeymoon in Tenerife and...”

Now Barbara interrupted. “Wait, what? Honeymoon? You said they’re brother and sister, I’m sure I heard. How could they get married?”

Amelia giggled. “Those two were married even before they took any vows. They were like a couple who were married fifty years, so cute. Actually, they weren’t related until Tom’s daddy married Lynette’s mom when they were something like 10 or 11 years old. Lynette told me that she met Tom when their parents, who had been dating, became serious, and the two of them were strongly attracted to each other back even then. That developed into romantic love and when Jeremy and I met them, they considered themselves engaged.”

“And their parents...?” Tamara began.

“...knew all about it,” Amelia said. “In fact, their parents looked into any legal impediments to their getting married and arranged it after they graduated, as the two wanted. Since there was no blood relationship, it was okay, but to some people it might have been unseemly. But legal.”

“Tell them the rest—why they’re coming here, sweetie,” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, the major reason is that Tom’s daddy got a post in the U.S. He’s a banking executive and an expert on international trade. He was recruited to be the executive vice president of the Inter-American Development Bank in D.C. Tom didn’t want to remain in England if his parents weren’t gonna be there, so he told me that he’d be looking at unis in the U.S. or Canada. He has a brother who just graduated from uni who’ll be going to grad school in Canada. Tom’s got top marks; so’s his sister, so I told him to consider Westphalia and they even might offer financial aid ‘cuz I heard that the uni wants to build up their international student presence. Both of them are fluent in French and lived in Germany, so they know German too. So he applied here and the uni offered them scholarships and they’re coming.”

“What do they want to study?” Barbara asked.

“Tom’s a maths ace,” Amelia said. “He wants applied math, not research. And get this: Lynette wants to be a psychiatrist.”

Kevin laughed. “I can see it now. Cindy, Barbara, and Lynette in a psych practice together. Look out, world.”

Everyone laughed.

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