*all ages
Author’s note: this originally appeared as a Group Writing Project on The Other Side. The following criteria needed to be included. Part of the story had to take place on Valentine's Day, a box of chocolate, flowers that couldn’t be red white or pink, a minor medical emergency, super glue and last but not least there were several different scenarios to choose from. I chose: ‘Who said Valentine's Day was Romantic? This means you may use ANY characters from the series or any combination of couples BUT it cannot be a typical happy / romantic day. This includes such areas as a break-up / one character telling another they don't love them, unrequited love, being alone on the holiday, etc.’ This was my first effort. Thanks to Sjaye for being such an excellent editor.
The Valentine's Insanity
By Bonni
February 1, 2000
The date was February 14th. Or D Day as Trixie called it. It’s the one day of the year that she truly hates. Oh, it wasn’t because she didn't have the required boy friend. She did. It wasn’t because she hated chocolate. She didn’t. As a matter of fact, Trixie lived for it. Well, that and a good mystery, most of the time, chocolate came in second And anyway, I digress. She expected a very nice box of chocolate from above said boyfriend. It also wasn’t because she didn’t like hearts and flowers. She did. Just because she didn’t go gaga over them like most girls do...anyway, back to the point of my telling you this. What Trixie hated most about Valentines day was what she called Valentine Insanity.
I’d like to say this insanity went back generations in the family, but I’d be lying. It started a few years ago and I’m sorry to say I did nothing but sit back and watch it all take place. The men it affected in our family were Dad, Brian, and Mart. I’m Trixie’s younger brother Rob. You probably never knew I hated being called Bobby, but as soon as I got old enough, I put an end to that. Anyway, it (the insanity) didn’t bother me at all. I really did get a kick out of watching them all.
Poor Trixie. It’s hard to be alone on Valentine’s Day even when you have someone to spend it with. Jim was away in school and wouldn’t be coming home because of work obligations. Brian, on the other hand, was able to get the weekend off and told Jim he would make sure that Trix wouldn’t be left alone to feel sorry for herself. But, what you need to realize is that Trixie didn’t want to be part of Brian and Honey or Mart and Diana, or Dan and ......well, one never knows who Dan’ll be with. You can never tell with him.
Trixie wanted to be by herself to wallow in self pity and chocolate. Unfortunately for her, fate stepped in and took over. I guess you could call it fate, I’m sure Trixie wouldn’t. To her it’s just her brothers stepping in to keep her out of trouble. Or in this particular case, heartache. When Trixie got up to go to class at the University she found not one, not two, not even three boxes of candy beside her plate at breakfast, but five of them. And not one of them was from Jim. By his own admission, Dad went a little overboard and bought two. Here’s how the scene went down. (How’s that for detective lingo?)
‘Good morning, Moms, hi Bobby, sorry, ROB.’ Trixie said and kissed her mother before going to grab a plate off the table. ‘Ahm, Moms?’
‘Yes, honey, what is it?’ Moms was waiting for Trixie’s reaction to the boxes on the kitchen table. She turned around from the stove, spatula in hand to watch.
‘Are all these mine?’ She picked up the boxes to read the name on the accompanying cards. They all read "Trixie". ‘I guess that makes them mine.’ Trixie sat down and started opening them and soon five cards stood on the table in front of her plate. (Which of course has now been filled with hot cakes and sausage from Moms’. But you knew that didn’t you?)
‘I think your brothers and father are being very sweet, Trixie. They know you’re feeling a little down because Jim has to work this weekend. You were feeling left out and they went out of their way to include you.’ Moms sat down at the table and squeezed my sister’s hand.
‘And I think you’re right, Moms. It is sweet. Literally!’ Trixie laughed and picked up her fork to start eating. ‘I never thought I’d ask this, but how on earth am I going to eat my way through 5 boxes of chocolate?’
‘I’m sure you won’t have any problems, Trixie.’ Moms answered.
I watched as Trixie kept glancing back at the boxes with a gleam in her eye and knew that not only would she eat it all, but she wouldn’t be sharing it with the rest of us, either. When she was done eating, Trixie got up from the table and cleared her plate, ran the chocolate upstairs to her room, grabbed her books and left for school after kissing Moms and ME (If you can believe it?), good bye.
This next part of the story I have to explain. I wasn’t there to witness it, so I got it second hand from Honey. According to her, Trixie picked her up for school and told her all about the candy, but once they’d reached the University, they had moved on to other things. Honey did notice that Trix never mentioned Jim’s name. Not once. Not a good sign, in Honey’s opinion.
Trixie went through the motions of going to class that morning until her class right before lunch. Honey shared all her classes with Trixie, (they were both majoring in criminal justice to be prepared for their detective agency), when, in the middle of the lecture, a delivery boy walks in to the hall. (Honey’s watching the professor while taking notes and saw the whole thing.) He was carrying a huge bouquet of flowers. Not just ordinary flowers like roses or carnations, but Birds of Paradise or something weird like that. Honey said Trixie was so busy taking notes, that old eagle eyes hadn’t even noticed. It wasn’t until Honey nudged her that she even looked up to see what the rest of the class was gawking at. ‘I wonder who those are for?’ Trixie whispered. ‘They’re beautiful.’
No sooner had she finished speaking when the kid delivering the flowers called out Trixie’s name. ‘Sorry to interrupt sir, but I have a special delivery for a Miss Trixie Belden. Is she here?’
The professor laughed and said yes, indeed she was there and called out to her.
‘Miss Belden, I believe these are for you.’ Knowing Trixie, I’m sure she was blushing all the way to the roots of her sandy blond hair. Long hair, short hair and every hair in between. Trixie was embarrassed. I can just imagine what was going
through her mind. "Jim would never send me flowers in class like this. I wonder who they are from?" It wasn’t long before she found out. Taking the flowers from the delivery guy, she reached up and pulled out the card, quickly read it and put it back in its little envelope, before going back to her seat.
‘Miss Belden,’ Professor Butterworth said, ‘since we’ve been interrupted by your flower delivery, the least you can do is tell us who they are from.’ Seeing my sister turn red is quite a sight to behold.
When Trixie mumbled under breath who the flowers came from, the entire class roared with laughter. Of course, the whole class had no clue, because they hadn’t heard her. But the kid sitting next to her was close enough to understand the mumblings of my elder sister and announced to the entire class that the flowers were from her father.
Trixie most of the time is good natured and not only gives when she teases but takes as well. By lunch time, it was all over school that her father had sent her flowers for Valentines Day. Honey said Trixie was mortified.
Her next two classes weren’t much better. She received two more bouquets. One in each class. I’ll bet you can guess who they were from. If you guessed Brian and Mart, you’d be 100% correct. (as if I had any doubt in your detective abilities.) Mart sent a huge purple hibiscus that he got on sale at the florist because the wedding they were intended cancelled. Brian found some yellow daffodils (which were silk) and sent those. Either way, the guys were really thinking with their hearts and not their heads. By the time school was over, Trixie was not in a good mood.
Walking out to the car, Honey had both back packs and Trixie was carrying all three vases of flowers. The Birds of Paradise towered over the top of her head and the Hibiscus hit her right at eye level. Needless to say, she couldn’t see. Not the road, her feet, or the big rock that she tripped over. Down she went like the proverbial ton of bricks.
‘What a way to end my day,’ Trixie said in disgust. Flowers lay strewn on the ground all around her, her hose were torn, knee bleeding. ‘Great, just great! Of all days to decide to wear something besides my jeans. I have to have on a skirt and hose. Honey, what is going on with my family? Have they lost their minds?’
Honey stood in shock, first in horror as she watches Trixie fall because her warning came too late and then in helpless laughter at the expression on her best friend’s face.
‘Oh, Trixie, I’m sorry. It’s really not funny that you got hurt, but all those flowers. Especially the ones that look like a big purple and orange beak. It’s just too funny. Here let me help you up.’ Honey stopped laughing and helped Trixie get to her feet. ‘Come on, you go get in the car and I’ll pick up the flowers for you. By now I’m sure Brian is home and he’ll be able to clean your knee. Dr. Belden is just what’s been ordered for both of us.’
‘Here, you drive.’ Trixie passed the keys to her best friend and limped to the passenger side of her car. ‘This really smarts.’ she said, referring to her knee. Trixie carefully pulled the torn hose away from her knee and winced.
‘Well, don’t touch it. It’s dirty and needs to be cleaned.’ Honey advised. ‘Just put your head back and close your eyes. We’ll be home shortly.’
It didn’t take long before Honey was pulling into the drive way at our house and was helping my sister limp her way into the house. Brian was home by this time and the doctor in him took right over. He ushered Trix up to the bathroom, sat her down on the toilet and started to pull stuff out of the medicine cabinet to clean and bandage her knee.
Unfortunately, Brian thought he was grabbing a tube of liquid skin and grabbed a tube of super glue instead. No one realized it until after the bandage was in place and he was putting everything back into the cabinet. ‘Uhh, Trix?’ Brian said. ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but I just put super glue on your cut..’ He held up both tubes and found that they did indeed look alike and it was easy to see how he could mix them up. ‘I’ll be right back.’ He left the bathroom to go use the phone.
One thing you have to understand about my older sister. When she reaches her limit, get out of the way. You could just see that in a few minutes steam was going to start pouring out of her ears.
Brian came back to the bathroom. ‘I just called the emergency room at the hospital and they said you need to come in. They can get the bandage off, but you’re going to need to have the cut cleaned deeper. They’re afraid that the glue will be down inside the wound. I can’t believe I made a mistake like that. Trixie, I am so sorry.’
‘Brian, it’s OK. You made a mistake. I won’t hold it against you. Are you going to take me to the ER?’ When Brian nodded, Trixie stood up and hobble her way to her room. ‘I’m going to change and I’ll be right down.’ To say that I was surprised the Trix didn’t blow up was an understatement. She later explained to me that it just fit in with the way she had been feeling that day, and since there wasn’t any thing she could do, why bother getting upset. Brian did feel badly and she didn’t want to make it worse for him.
We were all waiting downstairs for her. Mart and Dad were home by now and all had heard about Trixie’s day. The flowers were sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be put back into their vases, which Moms had started to do when Trixie came down stairs. Brian hustled her off to the car and on to the emergency room. It was hours before they were back. I bet that Brian will never mistake a tube of super glue for a tube of liquid skin again. I’d also bet you’d agree with me.
Meanwhile poor Jim is up at school in the northern part of New York state and has called home to talk to his sweetheart on Valentines Day. Moms left the telling of Trixie’s day to her and told him that Trixie would call him back later.
Later came and went before our walking wounded came back through the door. Jim had called three times and still wasn’t too sure of what was going on. Moms didn’t want to tell him anything except that Trixie was OK and that she’d call him when she got home. ‘There isn’t anything Jim can do, and Trix will want to tell him everything anyway, so why make him listen to it twice?’ Was Moms explained.
I think Valentine's Day was over before Brian, Honey and Trixie came home. The ER had been packed and Trixie’s injury was low man on the totem pole. I really can’t say I blame Trix for how she was feeling that day.
All in all it was a strange day. But I’m sorry to say that the next year’s Valentine's Day was worse. Once again, Jim had to miss out because of school. He’s in his last year and is doing his student teaching at a high school in Connecticut. While doing this, Jim is also helping to coach the boys varsity basketball team and since they have practice after school, he doesn’t have enough time to get home to visit my sister.
So, once again, Trixie gets up and is hoping against hope that she won’t find any chocolate beside her breakfast plate. She hoping to get through her whole day without a mishap. The only thing Trixie is dreading is the Valentine’s Day Ball at the Wheeler’s Country Club. We were all invited, (including yours truly) and my sweet, calm and sensible sister decides she’s going to stay home. (Yes, of course I’m talking about Trixie!)
My father announces to everyone at dinner that he couldn’t go the night without dancing with both his sweethearts. Trixie feels guilty because she doesn’t want to disappoint my father, but her schoolwork was done and there weren’t any tests to study for. She was so stuck for something to do other than this, that Trixie called Sergeant Molinson and tried to volunteer for anything at Police Headquarters. (Unfortunately, the good Sergeant laughed in her ear long and loud before hanging up the phone.) Since the last thing she would do is lie to our folks, off to the dance she goes. Completely miserable.
I stood beside her as different friends and family came and gave her their apologies. It was almost funeralish. Everyone was acting like Jim had died and Trix was the grieving widow. If I hadn’t realized how hard she was trying to deal, I would have laughed. I guess the fact that Trixie had on a black dress that night encouraged my thoughts about the funeral thing.
One by one Dad and Brian and Mart and Dan and Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Lynch and a whole slew of other people did what Trixie referred to as ‘duty dances’. She must have danced every single dance and all with a different guy including myself. And I’m not sure she didn’t prefer the trip to the emergency room last year to this. It’s too bad I didn’t have the nerve to ask her.
This year she swears that if Jim doesn’t come home, she’s going to kill him. Dead, she said. The flowers she’ll be planting on his grave will be (I’m sure you can guess) Birds of Paradise, Hibiscus and silk Daffodils. And to top it off, she’s going to dance on the grave itself in the dress she wore for him to the dance.
I’m not entirely sure what prompted me to tell you about Trixie’s Valentine woes or why my family has this insanity when it comes to February 14th. Maybe it’s because at this time of my life, the only Valentine in my life is my mother. (To which all I have to say is Thank God!) I have to admit it’s kind of funny to see the rest of the guys in the family lose it. They take great joy in telling me my time is coming.
PS added on February 13th, 2000
Jim was home from school about a week and a half ago and told Trixie that he wouldn’t be missing her on this Valentine’s Day. He definitely has the day off and no school obligations. He already has the prerequisite box of chocolate and the order to the florist has been placed for Trixie’s favorite flowers. The reservations for dinner at their favorite restaurant have been made. What she doesn’t know that the rest of us do, is that accompanying them on their dinner date will be a small little box with a heart of a different sort.......
The End
Author’s note: this originally appeared as a Group Writing Project on The Other Side. The following criteria needed to be included. Part of the story had to take place on Valentine's Day, a box of chocolate, flowers that couldn’t be red white or pink, a minor medical emergency, super glue and last but not least there were several different scenarios to choose from. I chose: ‘Who said Valentine's Day was Romantic? This means you may use ANY characters from the series or any combination of couples BUT it cannot be a typical happy / romantic day. This includes such areas as a break-up / one character telling another they don't love them, unrequited love, being alone on the holiday, etc.’ This was my first effort. Thanks to Sjaye for being such an excellent editor.