The Mandie Collection (33 page)

Mandie

and Mollie

&

the Angel’s Visit

For

Steve Oates,

Dear Friend of Mandie,

and

in Memory of

Winslow,

RIP

Dedication

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Mandie and Mollie & the Angel’s Visit
(A Drama in Three Acts)

ACT I—Scene 1

ACT I—Scene 2

ACT II—Scene 1

ACT II—Scene 2

ACT III—Scene 1

“Mandie Shaw, do ye be havin’ leprechauns in this place where ye live?” Mollie asked as soon as she stepped inside the Shaw house. She darted ahead of the others down the hallway and quickly peered into the parlor.

“Let’s take off your cape, Mollie,” Mandie said, catching up with her and stopping to remove the garment.

“We’ll be back down shortly, dear,” Elizabeth, Mandie’s mother, called to her as she led Jane Hamilton on toward the staircase.

Celia Hamilton, Mandie’s longtime friend and roommate at school in Asheville, North Carolina, hung her coat and tam on the hall tree and joined Mandie and Mollie as they went into the parlor.

“Celia, I’m so glad you and your mother could come and spend the Easter holidays with us,” Mandie told her. They sat down and Mollie roamed about the room. “And that you could bring Mollie, too. I do believe she has grown a couple of inches since we brought her home with us from Ireland.”

“She is growing fast,” Celia agreed. “And she also gets around fast, you’ll find out.”

Mollie, after inspecting everything in the room, finally came to stand by the fireplace, where the fire was crackling brightly. “Mandie, ye niver told me. Do ye be havin’ leprechauns around here?” She frowned as she looked at Mandie with her bright blue eyes and pushed a carrot-red lock of hair back from her face.

Mandie sighed and said, “Oh, Mollie, are you still chasing leprechauns? I don’t believe we have any in this house, or in this town, in fact.”

The little ten-year-old girl walked up closer to Mandie and said, “But there might be one here some place. I’ll be lookin’ and watchin’ for one while I be stayin’ here with ye.”

“But you don’t need to find a leprechaun now to get his pot of gold,” Mandie reminded her. “You have a nice home with Celia.”

“When Celia finds me aunt, the lady may be needin’ the gold,” the girl said.

“We may never find your aunt, Mollie,” Celia told her. “So far the detectives my mother has had looking for her haven’t found any trace of her, so you may have to live with us until you grow up.”

Mollie looked at Celia thoughtfully and said, “I still be lookin’ for a leprechaun.”

Snowball, Mandie’s white cat, wandered into the room right then and Mollie quickly grabbed him and picked him up. She took him over to a stool, sat down, and began talking to him as she stroked his fur. “I know ye. Yer name be Snowball, and ye came to Ireland with Mandie last summer.”

Mandie asked Celia in a low voice, “Is your mother still trying to find Mollie’s aunt, or has she given up?”

“No, she hasn’t given up, but so far no one has found a trace of her,” Celia replied. “Remember the police authorities in Ireland told your grandmother that the aunt had come to the United States when Mollie was a baby, so that’s a long time ago.”

“But they also told us the aunt was last heard from somewhere in Virginia,” Mandie said. “Of course she might have moved on to another part of the country after that.” Then lowering her voice to a whisper she asked, “Does your mother plan to keep Mollie if she never locates the aunt?”

“I think so,” Celia whispered back. “She is quite a handful, never having had any discipline in Ireland and being allowed to roam the streets there, but Aunt Rebecca has become attached to her, and I sorta think she hopes we never find her aunt so she can keep Mollie.”

“How is your aunt Rebecca doing in trying to educate her?” Mandie asked.

“Well, you know Aunt Rebecca used to be a schoolteacher, and this gives her something to do,” Celia said with a big smile.

“Have y’all heard anything more about Mrs. Wiley, the woman who was keeping Mollie in Ireland?” Mandie asked.

“Yes, Mother stays in touch with her,” Celia replied. “I’m sure Mother sends her money, too. The woman is in such bad shape now—after that accident she had and no one to support her. Even though she is in that rest home for the poor in Belfast, she does need some money.”

Mandie rubbed her arms and said, “It still gives me goose bumps just thinking about that awful fire. I’m so thankful we were able to save Mollie and Mrs. Wiley, although the lady did get seriously injured.”

“I know,” Celia agreed. “Never in all my thirteen years have I been so frightened.”

Mandie happened to glance at the door. Liza was standing there staring through the doorway at Mollie. Mandie called to her, “Come on in, Liza. This is Mollie.”

When the little girl looked up, she added, “And, Mollie, this is Liza.”

Mollie instantly jumped up and ran to the young maid. She dropped the cat in her haste. He meowed loudly and ran out the door. “Do ye be knowin’ if there be leprechauns in this house?” she asked.

“Be whut?” Liza asked, frowning as she looked at the little girl and then at Mandie. “Missy ’Manda, dat lil’ girl she don’t speak good English.”

Mandie and Celia both smiled. Mollie stood there, looking up at Liza and waiting for her answer.

“She wants to know if we have leprechauns in this house,” Mandie explained.

“If we has whut?” Liza asked, puzzled.

“Leprechauns,” Mandie replied, and then with a big sigh she explained. “You have probably never heard of leprechauns. You see, some people in Ireland believe they exist. And Mollie is always looking for one because they are supposed to own a pot of gold.”

“Pot o’ gold?” Liza asked, her black eyes widening.

Celia looked at Mandie and said, “You might as well explain what this is all about.”

“Yes,” Mandie agreed. “Liza, many, many years ago these leprechauns were supposed to live in Ireland. The English, or American, name for them is shoemaker—”

“Like dat shoemaker man named Pat whut works down in dat shop on Main Street?” Liza excitedly interrupted. “But he ain’t got no pot o’ gold.”

Mollie was listening and now she became excited, too. “Ye know where there be a leprechaun? Show me where he be.”

“No, no, no!” Mandie said loudly to stop their conversation. “No, Liza. Pat is a shoemaker, but he’s not a leprechaun. Maybe leprechauns only lived in Ireland. We don’t have any here.”

Mollie grasped Liza’s hand and said, “Will ye take me to see this Pat shoemaker? Please, I say.”

Liza looked from Mollie to Mandie and then back to Mollie and said, “But Missy ’Manda she say dis heah Pat he ain’t de right kind o’ lepcawn, or whatever you calls it. And he sho ain’t got no pot o’ gold. Now iffen dat’s all you lookin’ fo’, why don’t you find de end to de rainbow? Dey say it’s a pot o’ gold at de end.”

“Do ye be knowin’ where this rainbow be?” Mollie asked.

“Liza!” Mandie spoke sharply to the girl. “Please don’t put such nonsensical ideas into Mollie’s head. You know very well there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, which I know you must have learned in church.” Turning to Mollie she said, “The rainbow is God’s promise to us, all of us here on earth, that the earth will never again be destroyed by water. He gave the promise to Noah after the flood was over.”

Mollie looked at her in surprise for a moment and then she asked, “But how do ye be knowin’ all this?”

“Because it’s all in the Bible,” Mandie replied. She looked at Celia and asked, “Y’all have been teaching her the Bible, haven’t you?”

“Of course, Mandie,” Celia said. “But there is so much she doesn’t know that it’s going to take a lot of time for her to understand everything.”

“Anyhow, kin we find a rainbow?” Mollie asked Liza, who was still standing there with bowed head after Mandie’s outburst.

“Missy ’Manda, she be right ’bout rainbows,” Liza told the little girl. “Ain’t no pot o’ gold at de end. Dat’s jes’ ole tales.” Then turning to look at Mandie, she said, “I’se sorry for all de tomfoolery, Missy ’Manda. ’Course I knows bettuh. Aunt Lou she tell me all ’bout rainbows long time ago.”

Mollie quickly pulled on Liza’s arm to get her attention and asked, “Kin we find a rainbow? Please, I say.”

Mandie looked at Liza and said, “You are forgiven this time, Liza, but please remember that Mollie is young and doesn’t know everything you’ve been taught. In fact, you could help us teach her what Easter is all about while she’s here.”

Liza looked at Mandie with widened eyes as she replied, “Missy ’Manda, I don’t be knowin’ how to teach nobody nuthin’. Y’all be needin’ Aunt Lou to do de teachin’.”

Mandie smiled at the young girl who was not much older than her own thirteen years and said, “That’s a good idea, Liza. We’ll ask Aunt Lou to help explain things to Mollie.”

Mollie suddenly asked loudly, “Kin we find a rainbow? Kin we?” She looked up at Liza and then at Mandie.

“All right, Mollie, if a rainbow comes into the sky while you are here, we’ll be sure to show it to you,” Mandie said. “You see, we can’t just make rainbows whenever we want one. God puts them in the sky usually when the sun comes out after it rains.”

“We kin look for leprechauns then,” Mollie decided. “Maybe they don’t be made by God.”

Celia had been listening to the conversation and now she said, “Mollie, God made this earth and everything in it. So if there is such a thing as a leprechaun, I’m sure God made it, too. However, I don’t believe He made any leprechauns, because if He did, sooner or later you’d be able to find one.”

Mollie frowned and stomped both her feet as she said angrily, “Then I be wantin’ to go back to Ireland, where God didn’t make everythin’.”

“And I’se got to go back to de kitchen ’fo Aunt Lou start lookin’ fo’ me,” Liza said, quickly leaving the room.

Mandie and Celia looked at each other in dismay.

“So far only Aunt Rebecca has been able to get through to her,” Celia remarked.

Mollie suddenly sat down on the floor and asked, “Where be Grandmither? She took me to this United States. Now I be wantin’ Grandmither to take me back to Belfast. That I do.”

“Oh, Mollie, we love you, and we don’t want you to go back to Belfast,” Mandie said, slipping out of her chair and sitting on the floor next to the little girl as she put an arm around her. Mollie had claimed Mandie’s grandmother for her own when she brought her to the United States. “Grandmother will be coming later this week, but we don’t want her to take you back to Ireland. Remember the cold place in the cellar where you lived? And lots of times you didn’t have enough to eat. We want you to stay in the United States so we can take care of you, at least until we can locate your aunt.” She reached to smooth Mollie’s carrot-red hair, but the little girl pulled away from her.

“But I might be findin’ a leprechaun in Ireland, and then I could git his pot o’ gold, and I could be gittin’ me a new home to stay in, that I could,” Mollie told her.

Celia joined them on the floor as she said, “Mollie, have you ever thought about the fact that if you did find a leprechaun and he had a pot of gold, you couldn’t take the gold away from him because it would belong to him? That wouldn’t be nice to take something away from someone that it belonged to.”

Mollie looked at her for a moment and then replied, “But he would be knowin’ where he could be findin’ another pot o’ gold. That he would.”

“But suppose he had to work many long years and save to fill that pot with gold, like you had to work for your food when you lived in Ireland?” Celia asked.

Mollie didn’t reply to that but asked another question. “Where be that Indian uncle? He helped me look for leprechauns in Ireland, that he did.”

“Uncle Ned,” Mandie said. “He’s not actually my uncle. He was my father’s Cherokee friend. He and his family will probably meet up with us on the mountain at sunrise Sunday.”

“On the mountain? Sunrise?” Mollie asked.

“Yes, we will be going up the mountain Sunday to see the sun rise and to hear the Easter sermon,” Mandie explained.

“Then kin we look for leprechauns on the mountain?” Mollie asked, looking at Mandie and then at Celia.

“There aren’t any leprechauns on the mountain,” Mandie told her. “We’ll find something else to do up there. We’ll sing.”

“Sing? And kin we dance, too?” Mollie asked.

Mandie was becoming impatient with the young girl. “No, Mollie, we will not dance,” she said. “Easter is a special holy day. We’ll be celebrating the time that Jesus rose from His tomb.”

“Celebratin’? Will we be havin’ a party?” Mollie asked. “Like a birthday party?”

Mandie got to her feet and said to Celia, “Let’s take this child to Aunt Lou and ask her to explain a few things. I don’t seem to be getting anywhere with it myself.”

Celia smiled and also rose. “You are doing better than I have been able to do. But Aunt Lou sounds like the perfect teacher.”

Mandie reached for Mollie’s hand as she still sat on the floor. “Come on, Mollie, we want you to meet Aunt Lou. You’ll love her, I’m sure. She’s in charge of everything here—cooking the food, sewing clothes, and running everything.”

Mollie stood up without saying a word and allowed Mandie and Celia to take her down the hallway to the kitchen. When Mandie pushed open the door, she found not only Aunt Lou but Liza, Jenny the cook, and her husband, Abraham, all working toward getting the evening meal ready. They stopped what they were doing to stare at Mollie.

“Here’s dat lil’ angel from Ireland,” Aunt Lou said with a big smile.

Mollie frowned at her and said, “I don’t be no angel. Mollie I be.”

Aunt Lou quickly walked toward her, holding out her arms. “I knows you ain’t no real angel,” she said as she bent down. “Come to Aunt Lou.”

Mollie allowed the woman to embrace her as she asked, “Will ye be me aunt? Celia and her mither they look and look for me aunt and don’t find her. Will ye be me aunt?” She looked up into Aunt Lou’s smiling face.

“ ’Course I’ll be yo’ aunt,” Aunt Lou said as she squeezed the little girl tightly. “Now you jes’ call me Aunt Lou and I’ll be proud to be yo’ aunt.”

Mollie, still staring at the woman, asked, “Do ye be needin’ a pot o’ gold then?”

Aunt Lou glanced at Mandie with a puzzled look and replied, “A pot of gold? Whut would I do wid a pot of gold? I don’t need no gold.”

Mollie looked up at Mandie and said, “Then I don’t be havin’ to take his pot o’ gold when I find a leprechaun.”

Aunt Lou straightened up and looked at Mandie. Mollie held on to Aunt Lou’s big white apron.