Oddfellow's Orphanage (8 page)

Delia smoothed Ava’s hair back and smiled at her friend.

Headmaster Bluebeard looked terribly relieved. “Hooray!” he said softly, and then added in a loud whisper, “And good work, Imogen! Good work, Delia!”

“She
does
still need her rest now, my dears, as do we all,” Nurse Effie said. “So everyone try their best to get a little bit more sleep.”

One by one, the little girls padded back to their beds. Delia closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but her covers were still too warm and she was just too wide-awake. Delia turned on her lamp and looked over at Imogen, who winked sleepily before falling fast asleep.

Delia quietly propped her notebook on her pillow. She opened to an empty page and drew brave girls and fever flowers until the first inkling of morning showed in the sky.

A VERY GRAND PICNIC

O
NE
late-summer day, when the students were scattered away playing and the teachers were working in their respective studies, Headmaster Bluebeard sat in his study.
My, it has gotten very warm in here
, he thought, so he opened his biggest window. A cool breeze blew in.

The headmaster smiled as he looked out from his window over the garden and the grounds, to the woods beyond. The trees and topiaries were a lovely green, and the flowers bloomed in pale salmon pinks, whites, reds, and golds. The flowers reminded him of little cakes. At the thought of cakes, he had an idea that excited him so much, he couldn’t keep from exclaiming aloud: “Picnic! Why in the wide world haven’t we had a good picnic this summer?”

Since the headmaster wasn’t very good at patiently putting ideas aside to think about later, he set to tearing about the orphanage like a spinning top. His first stop was the kitchen, where he merrily informed the two cooks to prepare for a picnic that would occur in three days. “Not just a picnic,” he said. “A
grand
picnic! You have until Friday to prepare! Ha
ha
!” And he cheerily smacked the worktable, sending up a cloud of flour. When the flour settled on the table, Headmaster Bluebeard was gone.

The cooks turned to each other and exchanged a look that almost certainly meant: “Here we go again.”

BY
the end of the afternoon, the school was full of excited chatter about the Very Grand Picnic. The following days were full of making and baking (mostly in the kitchen) and choosing exactly what outfit was best for a picnic (mostly in the girls’ rooms). Hank carefully strung fairy lights through the trees and filled the yard with picnic tables.

At last, Friday arrived. When the trees shaded the tables, everyone spilled out into the hot, sunny back lawn. Headmaster Bluebeard sported a very fine seersucker suit he had sewn the previous summer. The boys wore soft cotton shirts, and the girls wore airy dresses and skirts covered in polka dots and flowers.

The children surrounded the picnic tables, which the cooks had piled with platters and plates, each one filled with a different delicious thing to eat. Bunches of little sandwiches were heaped in baskets lined with red-and-white-checked fabric. Pies filled with apple, cherry, blackberry, and strawberry lined the tables. Beautiful fruit was piled high in bowls, and small jewel-colored cakes towered on glass stands. Sparkling pitchers sat filled to the brim with fizzy lemonade and sweet iced tea.

It was so bright that Delia had to carry an enormous parasol to shade her pale skin from the hot sun. She and Ava traipsed over to the tables, fetching their plates and filling them with little heaps of this and that. Lucy and Louise selected all the same things and ended up with identical plates of treats. Tom was attempting to serve himself a slice of blackberry pie and read a book at the same time. Hugo followed behind, his plate covered in a small mountain of cakes.

“Hugo! Save some for everyone else,” Ava said to the little hedgehog.

“Oh, yes!” Hugo smiled and nodded. He chose one of the smaller cakes from his pile and put it back.

Everyone sat on quilts spread under the big trees and had their feast. The warm late-afternoon breeze gently ruffled napkins and hair. Robins chirped and hopped around close to Ava, and little gray squirrels darted around the picnic blankets, looking for lost crumbs.

A sharp
clap! clap!
came from across the yard, and everyone looked up to see Hank heading toward them. Behind him galloped Boris, Greta, and Delia’s favorite, the little bear cub.

Delia noticed that the baby bear was a little bigger every time she saw him. He scampered toward the picnic blankets, looking for scraps of food. Felix knelt on a blanket holding out a honey cake, and the little bear ran to him and snarfled it up, while Hank treated Boris and Greta to handfuls of salmon sandwiches.

All that afternoon, there was happiness in the air. Professors Stella and Silas sat beneath a big tree, deep in their respective books. The cooks rested happily on the quilts, chatting and laughing. Greta the bear tumbled in the grass, chasing her rascal baby, while Professor Flockheart played her accordion.

The children took turns riding on the back of the papa bear,
who kindly offered short rides across the yard. The headmaster gave tours of his beehives, where the bees were hard at work making honey. Ava and Delia picked wild strawberries, staining their fingers and pockets red.

As the sun crept down the sky, Headmaster Bluebeard gathered everyone around. He cleared his throat. “Who would like to hear the story of the founding of the orphanage?” he asked grandly.

Quiet groans rippled through the group. Delia wondered why.

Daniel went to the headmaster, who stooped as the small boy whispered in his ear. “Fabulous idea!” Headmaster Bluebeard exclaimed. Then he called to Daniel, who ran toward the house, “We’ll ready the stage.”

When Daniel returned with a mysterious bag, Hank and the headmaster had strung a line of rope between two trees and draped two sheets over it. The children, grown-ups, and bears waited excitedly on the quilts, facing the makeshift theater. Daniel gestured to Felix, Ollie, and Tom, who disappeared with him behind the curtains.

When the curtains parted (pulled by Tom), Daniel stood
sweating beneath a big brown overcoat. He wore a bushy blue beard fastened with string.

Felix walked onto the stage wearing a black coat and a crooked blue moustache. “Why, hello, Odd,” said Felix. As an aside, he told the audience, “I am George Bluebeard, Headmaster Bluebeard’s brother.”

“Hello yourself, George,” replied Daniel in a gruff voice. In his aside, he said, “I am young Oddfellow Bluebeard.”

“Once Father is gone, I’ll do what I like with my fortune! And you can do the same,” Felix/George said angrily.

“I don’t even want it! I don’t know what to do with it,” Daniel/Odd replied, crossing his arms. “But you, you will use it for something awful, I know it in my bones.”

With that, Tom pulled the sheets closed and the first act was finished.

When the curtains opened again, Felix/George and Daniel/Odd stood next to a blanket and pillow on the ground. Resting on the blanket was Ollie, wearing a light blue beard that went nearly to his feet.