Part Two
Jim buckled his seat belt and sighed. He was tired, but the conference had been wonderful. He had learnt so much about running a school, so much more than he had learnt if he had just studied the books that were now in his luggage. He pulled out his wallet and took out Trixie’s photo. Her face smiled up at him and he smiled back at her.
"Pretty girl." The old woman in the next seat broke into his thoughts.
He turned to her and smiled. "She sure is."
"She is the love of your life. I can tell by the look in your eyes."
Jim nodded.
"Your wife?"
Jim shook his head. "I am hoping to rectify that in the not too distant future."
As the plane began to take off the woman again smiled.
"My husband and I have been married fifty years next month and there's never been one day that I regretted marrying him. I have just been visiting my new great-grandchild, but I cannot wait to see him when I get back to New York."
Jim felt something pass through his heart, but couldn’t place the feeling.
He touched Trixie's face gently. "Neither can I," he said. "Neither can I."
* * *
Trixie opened her eyes slowly. Her head ached and she could not move her arms or legs. As her eyes began to focus she realised she was inside the schoolhouse bound to a chair.
From what she could see there was no one else there and she became worried that she had left her there. She tried to figure out what had happened. She only remembered walking through the door and then...
"So, Miss Belden, you are awake at last."
Trixie looked at the woman coming into her field of vision. "I don’t understand. I thought you needed my help."
The woman laughed. "I did." She then turned around and took a pair of welding gloves off a nearby bench. "Do you know what these are, Miss Belden?"
Trixie nodded.
"They are used to protect welder's hands from extreme heat and burning metal. They also have another powerful feature."
She suddenly swung her hand across Trixie's face. She then laughed. "They make mincemeat out of someone's face."
Trixie looked up shocked. "Why."
"Because, Miss Goody Two-Shoes, you took away the only man I ever wanted."
"Jim," Trixie whispered.
"Who else?"
* * *
Mart walked into the farmhouse and called for his mother. She appeared from downstairs.
He walked over to her and kissed her. "Hi, Moms, I was looking for Trix."
"She went to take some preserves to Mr Maypenny a couple of hours ago. She told me not to expect her for lunch because Mr Maypenny might have some hunter's stew cooking."
"Mmmm," Mart sighed. "Maybe I should head over there myself. Di has gone to New York with her mother for the day."
"Well, I am here by myself for lunch and I have just finished making some of my hamburgers. They only need to be cooked, but if you..."
Mart hugged his mother. "Never been known to refuse your hamburgers. And maybe apple pie for dessert?"
Moms laughed. "Your nose could be used by the FBI, Mart."
"Only when it comes to food, Moms."
"Then let's get this food cooking."
* * *
Trixie looked at the woman sat in front of her. "I knew that you and Jim went to the same college."
"When I found out what college he was going to, I busted my buns getting there. Right from the start, we became fast friends. Whenever I was with him all he could talk about was his precious little Trixie. He would see someone in the cafeteria with the same hair as you and would comment on it. It was always 'Trixie's hair is more golden than that' or 'Trixie's hair looks so much softer'. I began to despise your name. He was always looking at that photo of you in his wallet, always talking about how beautiful you were, and how sweet and how much he loved you." She snarled. "I hated you so much."
"I did nothing to you. I could not stop how Jim felt about me."
"All those lovey-dovey letters you wrote to him and all the presents you sent him. It made me sick. So, in the end, I tried something desperate. Two nights before we left the college I called him up and told him that I needed to see him. He came over and I told him that I had to give him something to remember me by. I went into my bathroom and changed into something sexy and diaphanous. When I came out, Jim took one look at me and headed for the door. I called him and he stopped. He didn’t even turn around when he told me that he felt nothing for me, but friendship, and Trixie was and always will be his one true love."
She walked over to Trixie and smiled. "So I have had time to realise that if you were not so beautiful he would maybe give me a second look." She took off one of the gloves and picked up a pair of scissors. "Now, this is where I have some fun."
* * *
Mart was just enjoying a quiet cup of coffee when Brian and then Dan walked in.
"Mr Maypenny asked me to say thank you for the preserves," Dan said.
"Is Trixie still with him?" Moms asked.
Dan shook his head. "She left after a few minutes. She told him she was coming straight home to have lunch with you."
Moms stood up worriedly. "Then where is she?"
"She is all worked up about Jim coming home tomorrow. Maybe she took a walk," Brian soothed her.
"By the way," Dan told them. "Mr Maypenny mentioned to me that he had seen a strange woman in the preserve yesterday. He thought she was one of your friends that had gotten lost. He called to her, but she disappeared."
Brian frowned. "Did he say what she looked like?"
Dan nodded and proceeded to tell them what Mr Maypenny had told him.
Brian looked at Mart and they both gasped.
"Where was she when he saw her?" Mart asked urgently.
"Near the old schoolhouse."
"Moms, I know who it is," Brian told her. "I think that Trixie might be in danger. Get Honey and Di over here and we will go and get her."
"What...?" Moms asked.
"Moms, it will be okay. Please, do as I say."
The three men ran out of the farmhouse. Moms picked up the phone and rang Honey. All she could get out was "Di, you, here" before she burst into tears. Honey took the hint. She rang Di and then ran down to the farm knowing something was terribly wrong.
* * *
Trixie looked with contempt at the woman in front of her. "Jim will never let you get away with this."
"He will never know." She again laughed.
Trixie watched in horror as she began to pour petrol around the floor and the walls.
"No one will ever know that I was involved. By the time Jim is home, you will be gone and so will I. Then I will come back for your funeral and cry many tears. Then I will begin to get my Jim back."
Trixie shook her head as tears began to fall unbidden down her face. "You cannot be that cruel."
"All is fair in love and war, Miss Belden." And then she lit a match.
Trixie watched, terrified, as her abductor walked towards the corner of the room. And then Trixie watched in horror as she slipped on the petrol and the match flew out of her hand and landed on the petrol-soaked wooden floor, which instantly ignited. In the fall, she cracked her head violently on the stone fireplace and went still.
As the smoke began to fill her eyes and her lungs, all Trixie could think about was her Jim.
"I love you," she whispered, as darkness covered her eyes and she dropped her head against her chest, unconscious.
Part Three
Her pain was slight, but enough to cloud her mind. She felt pressure on her hand and knew instantly it was her mother calling her from the darkness.
Trixie opened her eyes to the worried look of her mother.
"Oh, baby, I am so glad that you are awake. We have been so worried."
Trixie’s mind was fuzzy but she remembered one thing. "The fire," she gasped, surprised by the huskiness of her voice.
"Brian, Mart and Dan found you in time, thank God."
"How did they know?"
"Always asking questions, sis."
Trixie turned and held out her hand to her older brother. "Brian. What happened?"
"Shh, sis." He squeezed her hand. "If you calm down and be quiet, I will tell you what happened."
She nodded.
"I was at Crabapple Farm when Dan came to drop off the basket you had left behind. Moms was a little worried about you because you had been gone for so long. Dan told us that Mr Maypenny had told him about a strange woman near the old schoolhouse and, when Dan described her, Mart and I knew exactly who she was. I knew that Jim had problems with her at college, so I put two and two together and came up with danger. We headed towards the old schoolhouse. When we got there, the place was already on fire. Mr Maypenny was trying to douse it out. We ran in and carried you out, chair and all. Thankfully, you only sustained a few minor burns."
"And...?" Trixie knew the answer to her question as soon as she saw his face change.
"She was already dead when we carried her out. Her neck was broken."
"She slipped on some petrol and hit her head on the fireplace," Trixie whispered.
Brian nodded. "We suspected as much."
Trixie suddenly remembered part of her ordeal and put her hands to her head. Her mother stopped her.
"I must look," she said as tears formed in her eyes.
"The most beautiful girl I have ever seen," her brother told her and she saw tears in his eyes. "Your cuts and bruises will heal and your hair will grow back, but if anything had happened to you I don’t know how we would have coped."
Trixie squeezed his hand and then turned to her mother. "I want to go home."
"The doctor wants to keep you in overnight for observation, honey. We will take you home early in the morning before Jim arrives."
"I can’t let him see me like this."
"Trix, you cannot hide away for the next couple of months."
"I can’t let him see me." She began to cry and Brian looked at his mother.
"Okay, Trix, if that is what you want. I am now going to get your doctor to give you something to help you sleep and I will go outside and tell everyone you are fine."
Trixie closed her eyes and nodded. "Thank you for saving my life again, Brian."
"I hope that it is the last time, sis."
"So do I," she sighed.
* * *Jim was so glad when the plane finally landed. He hurried off the plane and went to get his bags. He was surprised to see Honey and Brian waiting for him.
He hurried over and hugged his sister.
"What a pleasant surprise. I thought Tom was picking me up?"
He then saw the look on his sister’s face.
"What is wrong and where is Trix?"
Brian put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Let’s grab your bags and head for the limo. We can talk in private better there."
Nothing more was said and Jim had to control his impatience until he got into the car. As Tom drove away from the airport, Jim turned to his future brother-in- law.
"Okay, what gives?"
* * *Trixie lay in her bed, thankful she was home. The doctor had wanted to keep her longer to check on her injuries, but he let her go knowing that Brian was around if she needed medical attention.
When she heard footsteps coming up the stairs, she knew instantly whose they were. She turned quickly and buried her head under her covers.
There was a knock on the door and the door opened. She hoped he would get the message but a moment later she felt the bed move as he sat beside her.
"Trixie, honey, please look at me."
"I told everyone that I didn’t want to see you," she told him, her voice muffled by the covers.
"And you think anyone could have kept me from you, baby. I thought you knew me." His hand rested on her shoulder. "I am so sorry, Trix. It is my fault this happened. I should have told you what she was like and then you would not have been in the situation. If anything had happened to you I would not have wanted to go on."
Trixie heard the break in his voice. She turned towards him and moved the covers away from his face. She sat up and faced him.
His hand moved unsteadily to her face, as if he was unsure that she was real. "I have missed you so much, Trix. I love you so much."
An instant later she was held securely in his arms both crying tears of pain and gratitude.
Trixie lay back against his chest as he began to talk.
"I was surprised, but pleased to realise she was at the same college as me. It was nice to see a familiar face. I missed you more than I ever imagined I would. I knew that I talked incessantly about you, but she didn’t seem to mind. Brian seemed a little worried about the time we spent together, but I never saw anything but two friends hanging out.
"On the last night before I came home, she asked me to her dorm. I was shocked when she came out wearing practically nothing. I never imagined she felt anything more for me than I felt for her. I didn’t see her again until Mart and Di’s wedding and she seemed fine. I thought her infatuation with me was over. If only I had known."
"It is not your fault," Trixie assured him. "When the police notified her parents, they told them that she had been under psychiatric care for many years and she had disappeared a couple of weeks ago. They are coming here tomorrow to take her body home."
"I wish I had known," Jim sighed. "I would have tried to help her."
"Many had tried, but no one could reach her."
Jim saw Trixie reach again for her hair. "It’s okay, baby."
"I feel so ugly now. I don’t know how you can look at me."
Jim thought for a moment and then smiled down and gently kissed her forehead. "I want to tell you a story and I want your promise you will not interrupt until I am finished."
"But?"
"No buts. Now, promise me."
She nodded her head slightly and he smiled.
"Many years ago, a young man ran away from his evil stepfather. He met a young girl with as stubborn a nature as his. In a short time that same little girl gave him a home and a family. She also maneuvered him headlong into many mysteries and danger. But he didn’t mind. As long as he was by her side he knew that she would be okay.
"Then he had to leave for college and he missed her immensely. He couldn’t wait for her to join him. A few months before she left, her father was involved in a near fatal accident. Thankfully, he survived, but the hospital bills and physiotherapy was enormous. So, she had to make a sacrifice. She gave up college and put her college money into an account to send her younger brother to college. She got a job at Crimper's and in the evenings went to night school and studied to be a secretary. She put most of her money towards her father’s medical bills. When her father returned to work, he pleaded with her to apply to college, but she refused. Instead she got a job at the local high school.
"The following year she took stock of her life. She knew she wanted more but wasn’t sure what. One day a girl came into the office distraught. Her mother had been taken ill and she did not know what to do. She spent a long time talking to her and arranging help for the girl and her family. She had many other talks with the same girl and suddenly realised that counselling was her calling. So she took another night course, and headed to New York once a week to go to school to fulfil that dream."
Trixie gasped when she realised he knew.
He hugged her closer.
"It was her goal to help her boyfriend with his school by being there for all the boys and their problems. Now, that girl may look at herself in the mirror and see burns, scratches and cuts, and one terrible haircut, but the man sees the beauty that comes from within, that glows from within her. Her hair will grow back and her scars will heal, but she will be no more beautiful to him than she is right now."
"Jim I..."
"I haven’t finished. I didn’t get to the finish of the story."
"What is the ending?"
"Where that young man asks that beautiful young woman to marry him."
Trixie sat up and smiled as tears formed. "I am positive that young woman would definitely say yes at least a million times."
The room became silent as the young man and the young woman sealed their love with a kiss.
* * *One Year Later
Jim heard voices as he walked towards her room.
"What do you want to do now, Joey?"
There was silence for an instant.
"I want to play basketball in future paralympics."
He heard his wife laugh.
"Let me talk to Mr Frayne about getting you lessons."
"Really?"
Jim watched as the young boy hugged her.
"Thank you, Mrs Frayne."
"Now go on. Lunch will be served soon."
Jim dodged the wheelchair as it came flying out of the room.
"Oohh, sorry, Mr Frayne."
"No harm done, Joey."
The boy grinned as he hurried away.
Trixie looked up and smiled at her husband.
He took in her face, all healed, her hair so beautiful and curly again. He saw the slight mark on her neck where she had been burnt, and the one on her arm.
He smiled as she stood up and put her hand protectively over her still flat stomach.
"Well, Mr Frayne, to what do I owe this pleasure?"
"I came to invite the most beautiful woman in the world to lunch."
She smiled. "Now that the morning sickness has passed, I will accept." She walked over to him and gave him a hug. "Did you hear what Joey said?"
He nodded.
"I thought you might have some ideas?"
"Well, my dad is friends with Andrew Martinez."
"The paralympic basketball champion?"
Jim nodded. "I know that he visits kids who are interested and gives them lessons. He also helps finance the correct athletic wheelchairs."
"Mr Frayne, you amaze me."
"How so?"
"Whenever I have a problem, you seem to know someone to solve it."
"That is what husbands are for."
"Well, I am hoping you can solve the problem of my growling stomach."
He smiled. "Sure can."
She went to move away, but he drew her closer.
"I once told you that you could never be more beautiful than you were that day." He looked down at her sparkling eyes and smiled. "But I was wrong."
She looked into his eyes and saw the mistiness in them. She reached up and gently kissed his lips.
"It is you who makes me beautiful," she whispered as his lips joined again with hers.
* * *She cut out the clipping from the paper. She looked down at the words, fighting the tears.
TO OUR BELOVED DAUGHTER.
TAKEN AWAY SO TRAGICALLY ONE YEAR AGO TODAY.
WE MISS YOU SO MUCH DARLING BUT KNOW THAT YOU ARE FINALLY AT PEACE.
SLEEP WELL OUR BABY UNTIL WE SEE YOU AGAIN.
YOUR LOVING FATHER, MOTHER AND SISTER.
"Mums, where are you?"
She put the clipping down. "I am in here, Sally."
The young girl walked in, so different from her older sister.
She carried a hockey stick in one hand and a pair of in-line skates in the other. She dropped them on the floor and went and sat beside her mother.
"We won, Mum."
Her mother smiled. "I knew you would."
Sally looked down at the scrapbook and the clipping.
"I have decided that I want to be a psychologist, Mum. To maybe help people like my sister."
Her mother hugged her. "That is wonderful, baby."
When her daughter looked up at her, there were tears in her eyes. "I still miss her."
"So do I, baby, but Dot would be so proud of you."
The End
Oohh aren’t I naughty. Leaving the name until the last line. Hope you enjoyed this story.