Oddfellow's Orphanage (14 page)

The dining room lights were dimmed and the little lights along the stage’s edge lit up. Rustlings came from behind the curtains. The audience waited, looking at folded programs. Lucy and Louise began to play the piano, and the curtains parted.

On the stage were Snow White and Rose Red. Delia wore an ivory dress and had a wreath of white flowers circling her head. Ava wore the same, only in shades of vermilion and crimson. The backdrop was painted with a cozy wooden cottage.

The story was about two sisters and their poor mother (played by Imogen in a gray bun) who lived in a tiny cottage in the woods. One night, there came a loud knock at the door. When Delia/Snow White opened it, there was a brown bear (no one could tell who it was) shivering from cold. The girls treated the bear sweetly and let him sleep by their fire, until one day he disappeared as mysteriously as he had come.

The curtains closed for the second act, and applause filled the air. When the curtains opened again, Snow White and Rose Red stood in front of a lovely forest. The girls saw a little dwarf (played by Hugo). His beard was tangled in a tree branch, and the girls freed him by snipping his beard with a pair of scissors. But instead of thanking them, he screamed at them and ran off into the forest. The girls helped the dwarf out of two more scrapes and mishaps. Each time he was ungrateful and horrid and mean.

The curtains closed again to more applause. In the third act, the dwarf sat in the forest, polishing a heap of jewels. When Snow White and Rose Red came by him, he yelled at them to go away. Then, from offstage, a growl was heard, and in came the brown bear!

“Dear Mister Bear! Please don’t eat me,” cried the dwarf. “Take my jewels, and eat these wicked girls instead.”

The bear knocked the dwarf to the ground with a single blow. Hugo lay there as still as could be, trying to play dead,
even though the whiskers of his beard tickled him terribly.

The bear called out to them (in a voice trying very hard to sound gruff), “Don’t be afraid, Snow White and Rose Red! It is your friend, the bear. That evil dwarf put a spell on me long ago.” As he said this, the bear’s fur began to fall to the floor to reveal Felix. “Now that he is dead, I am back to my princely self,” Felix/the prince said, putting a golden crown on his head.

From offstage, Imogen’s voice called, “And they all lived happily ever after in a castle surrounded by rosebushes of red and white. The end!”

The audience stood and clapped.

Ava, Delia, Felix, Hugo, and Imogen joined hands onstage and took a bow as the curtains closed once again.

“A Christmas gift indeed!” shouted Headmaster Bluebeard, his voice rising above the hubbub.

After the play, since there were no nearby houses to visit for caroling, they all sang Christmas songs around the piano. Finally, everyone made their way up the stairs to bed.

Exhausted, Delia and Ava flopped into their beds. One was tucked in with a little woolen bear and the other with a rumpled paper book, both happy and cozy as a pair of kittens.

A KNOCK AT THE DOOR

“A
NYONE
who wishes to stay up for the stroke of midnight is welcome to try!” Headmaster Bluebeard proclaimed on New Year’s Eve, waving at the large clock on the dining room wall. “I always stay up to see the New Year come dashing out of the gate, and I welcome any company!”

Instantly, all the children made up their minds to stay up late.

Now, just a few hours before midnight, almost everyone was still awake. The dining room was lively with music from the piano. Professor Silas swept Professor Stella out of her chair, laughing. They danced across the wooden floor, a whirl of ginger-colored hair and swirling skirt. When they sat down again, both were flushed and laughing.

POP! POP! POP!
went the New Year’s crackers as children pulled them (only a little early). Small toys and paper hats fell out of the shiny cylinders. Everyone sat in the dining room wearing their silly hats and drinking fizzy drinks. Delia and Ava toasted with their glasses, practicing for midnight.

“An idea occurs!” called Headmaster Bluebeard. “Everyone stand up.” He whispered something to Hank and Professor Silas, and together they pushed the dining tables to the walls. This created a big, open space in the center of the room.

“Fetch your roller skates, children!” said the headmaster.

Delia and Ava exchanged looks.

“We can skate inside? Really?” Ava called out.

“Only on New Year’s Eve, Miss Ava!” Oddfellow Bluebeard replied merrily.

The children thundered up the stairs to get their skates. A few moments later, the dining hall was filled with the whooshing of dozens of little wheels zooming around the room. Skating made Delia very nervous, and she wobbled along slowly until Ava and Imogen sailed up behind her. They
each linked an arm into one of Delia’s and pulled her smoothly along.

As the night wore on, little skaters plunked down into chairs until the last set of wheels whirred to a stop. The hands of the clock inched closer to midnight. Some sleepy children and grown-ups made their way upstairs for bed, too tired to care about waiting for the clock to strike twelve. Finally, the only people left among the paper hats and empty chairs were Nurse Effie, Delia, Ava, Daniel, and Headmaster Bluebeard.

“Well, we five night owls will ring in the New Year together!” said the headmaster, smiling.

The clock’s hands ticked closer and closer to midnight. When only a sliver of space remained between the little hand and the twelve, a loud knock sounded at the front door. Startled, everyone jumped up from their chairs and hurried into the hall.

“Everyone stay here while I see who’s out there,” instructed the headmaster.

Nurse Effie stood back with the children. All eyes were on the great wooden doors.

Oddfellow Bluebeard drew himself up to his full height and unlatched the door. He cracked it open and peered out. “Hmph,” he muttered. He threw open the door.

They all stared out the door and saw what the headmaster saw.

And what was there? A wild-eyed vagabond? A stray bear looking for hospitality? No. As far as they could tell, it was nothing but the black night sky.

“Strange!” said the headmaster, slowly closing the door. Just before it latched, Delia saw something on the ground. She ran forward and caught the door.

“Did you catch a glimpse of a New Year’s ghost, Miss Delia?” Oddfellow Bluebeard joked. Daniel went to help Delia pull the heavy door back open.

When Delia bent down, everyone saw it on the ground: without the traditional basket, or even a blanket, there sat a small baby. It sniffled and shivered in its light cotton nightshirt.

“Oh, my! It’s Baby New Year!” exclaimed Oddfellow Bluebeard.

The baby’s cheeks were chapped from the cold. It blinked up at the figures crowding into the warmly lit doorway.

Nurse Effie gently picked the baby up and brought it inside.
The baby looked around with interest. Delia stroked its little feet as Nurse Effie brought it into the living room. Ava gathered blankets that were thrown over the backs of the chairs and couches, and made a soft mound on the couch. Nurse Effie laid the little creature down on the nest of blankets.