Trixie Gets the Blues
By Diann
Fifteen-year-old Trixie Belden was staring miserably out of her bedroom window at Crabapple Farm. The constant gray rain of the past few days was certainly a reflection of her mood. The tear-stained stuffed cow she clutched to her chest was providing little comfort to the emptiness and pain she felt inside.
Trixie Belden, get hold of yourself, she told herself sternly. For just a moment, her head cleared, she sat up straight, and thought, There! That's much better! But a nanosecond later, she flung herself back on her pillows and a fresh ocean of tears streamed down her face.
It had been two days since she had last talked with Honey, or talked to Honey might have better described it, since the communication had been one way. For the three days prior to that whenever she had tried to talk with Honey, all she got was short, vague answers. She knew that Honey had deliberately avoided her at school and had even had Tom take her to school rather than riding the bus. Trixie had tried to ask Honey what was wrong but that just brought even shorter responses. So two days ago, Trixie just gave up.
It was Friday afternoon. She was supposed to have spent the night with Honey and they were going to a movie and then do a little Christmas shopping with Miss Trask the next day. I guess that's out. Oh, boy, now I'll get to do all those fun projects I can't seem to find the time to do, like straighten up my closet and re-organize the entire attic. Maybe I'll even clean and groom all those lovely chickens we have.
The thoughts that her best friend was no longer her friend at all caused Trixie to roll over and bury her face. She shook as uncontrollable sobs took over her body.
To make matters worse, there was no one to whom Trixie could talk. It seemed as though everyone was against her. She had tried to talk to Moms, but she was so wrapped up in helping Bobby's class get ready for their Thanksgiving play and feast that all Trixie got from her was a wave of her hand and a mumbled answer about she was sure nothing was wrong.
Her dad always seemed so tired in the evenings that she hated to bother him during dinner or his quiet time in the study with his newspaper and other reading materials. When he did have a little free time he enjoyed discussing "guy" things with Brian and Mart and probably didn't want to hear about Trixie's "girl" problems anyway.
Brian had told her she was just letting her imagination run away with her--again. Mart, of course, only offered some sarcastic words in five syllables or more that she didn't understand. Di was too busy getting the last of her paintings ready for the art show for high school students in White Plains to listen to Trixie's troubles.
And Jim, goodness only knew where he was, or if he would even care. Last she saw of him he was getting on a bus heading toward Washington DC with the rest of the History honor students, including that blond girl Patsy, who had a brazen crush on him. They're probably having a wonderful time together. How perfectly cozy.
That day at school Trixie had tried to join a group of girls who were chatting about the new good-looking boy in their English class and the great first edition of the school newsletter that their friends Cynthia and Annette had published. They had all been cordial when she first walked up, but every time she had tried to join the conversation she received short replies, if any at all. She felt as though she had crashed some private party.
"I guess nobody really cares about me!" Trixie wailed out loud. "They just love me for whatever I can do for them, like dust or take care of Bobby or help fix the clubhouse or clean saddles. They just love me whenever I'm acting like they want me too. Why does it hurt SO BAD? WHY DOES NO ONE LOVE ME?"
To Trixie's surprise, a small voice answered from her doorway. "I love and care about you, Trixie. You're my best friend."
Trixie wiped her eyes with her sleeve and sat up. Honey! She didn't know whether to laugh or cry some more. "Oh, I, uh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you come in."
Honey gave her a weak smile and handed Trixie an envelope with Trixie's name written in Jim's handwriting. "We just got a package from Jim and in his note he asked me to bring this to you right away."
Trixie looked glumly at the envelope. He probably just wants to tell me what a wonderful time that he and Patsy are having together, how much fun she is, and how they're going to get married and have a whole herd of kids.
Honey shuffled her feet and was having difficulty in deciding what to say. "If you can, why don't you get your things together and come on over now. That way we get a bite to eat before we go the movies. Well, I guess, if you still want to go."
Trixie was confused and the jumbled thoughts in her head momentarily prevented a coherent answer. "Of course I want to. I figured you didn't want me around anymore."
Honey ran across the room and flung her arms around Trixie. To Trixie's surprise Honey began crying almost as hard as Trixie had been herself. After a few minutes, Honey began to hiccup and both girls starting laughing.
"Oh, Trixie, I'm so sorry. I know that I've been a difficult old bear for the last several days. Last Saturday night Mother and Daddy called me into the den and said they had something to tell me. They also asked that I not say anything to anybody until all the final arrangements had been made. That statement plus the solemn looks on their faces made me think that there had been a death in the family. But when they told me what it was, it was like I had died. They told me that Daddy was giving serious thought about relocating his company to California and that we would move if he did."
Trixie's whole body went numb. She felt all the color in her face drain away. Her vision narrowed to two small pinpoints of light. She had never felt such shock in all her life. Nothing was as bad as this--not being kidnapped or having a gun held to her head or anything she had ever experienced compared to this. All that she could manage to whisper was, "When?"
Honey's face then lit up. "Never--thank goodness! Last night they told me that after thinking things through that he had decided against it."
"But why didn't you tell me? Do you know the agony I've been through these last few days?"
Honey hung her head. "Yeah, tell me about it. I wanted to tell you so badly. I even prepared a speech for your parents so that I could ask them if I could live with you guys and not have to move away. I knew that if I was around you any that I would spill everything. So, I just avoided you since I had given my word to my parents I wouldn't say anything. I tried to call you last night when I heard the good news but I chickened out every time I picked up the phone. I knew that I had probably angered you and I was afraid that you were probably too mad at me to be my best friend any more."
"Honey, I could never be that mad at you. I thought you didn't want to be friends with me!"
The girls started laughing and hugging and telling each other everything that had happened during the week.
The whole room lit up. All was right with the world. And even the sun was shining.
The End