The Brooch

In The Silence Of Words

Have you, or someone you knew, ever slept walked? Moreover felt like a zombie in the land of the living? It's evident their body's moving, but their mind is another dimension? Well I can tell you right then and there, that's exactly how Maple felt and looked as Beth Anne forcibly dragged her back into to that quaint back chapel room.

You would have thought Beth Anne, was the tornado in the reincarnate, from Kansas that took Dorothy to the land of Oz. Just the way she tore into that room with Maple in tow...

"Glory alive, child!" Mama Woods exasperated as Beth Anne slammed that wooden door shut...

"Good Lawdy almighty, the prodigal child has returned!" Annelle sarcastically expressed rolling her irritated dark brown eyes at a flustered looking Maple.

"Maple, shuga lamb, where have you been?" Mama Woods questioned walking up to her.

"I found her standin alone in the corner all dazed in a stupor, Mumma!" Beth Anne fussed! "No doubt doin as she always does... jest daydreaming like Alice in wonderland! Or should I say the madhatta that slumped down the hole!"

"Whutchu mean she was daydreamin?" Mama Woods concernedly wondered.

"When is she neva ain't day dreamin?" Annelle sharply expressed in a snarky tone.

All the while, Beth Anne and Annelle ranted about Maple and her endless day dreaming, Mama Woods and Cornelia noticed Maple's flushed cheeks as she fidgeted with the veil.

"Come ova here and sit hon-nay." Mama Woods said.

Mama Woods, made Maple sit on the off white velvet upholstered, cushioned bench that was just right in front of that cozy little open window...

"Maple? You alright?" Cornelia softly whispered as she delicately sat down right beside her.

"Oh she's right as rain." Annelle interjected snatching the veil from Maple's hands. "But rat naw, we need to get you ready foe my Uncle Jeffy."

"Yeppers." Beth Anne agreed.

Annelle pulled a very engrossed Cornelia away from Maple taking her back to the vanity and several feet away from Maple. But Mama Woods, didn't leave her baby's side. Feeling bothered from her unusually mum child, she took Cornelia's seat, and sat right beside her...

"Maple hun-Nay?" Mama Woods said grabbing her daughter's face.

"I'm fine Mumma." Maple half smiled.

"Why do I have a hard time believin that shuga?"

"Mumma, I promise you I'm fine." Maple said trying to reassure her mama.

"Who are you tryin ta convince, hun-nay? Me? Or yo self?"

Mama Woods stared her blushing daughter up and down. Grabbing her daughter's hand, Mama Woods saw Maple suddenly wiggle her nose, just like her daddy always did when he told an outright fib. Just as she was about to give Maple the third degree, Mama Woods suddenly stopped as she felt something foreign. Looking down at her daughter's hand, there it was... The ring.

Astonished and floored out of her mind, Mama Woods couldn't believe her eyes. So much so, she gasped so loud you would have thought she had ate the poison apple! Her face was suddenly filled with overwhelming joy!

"May_"

Maple grabbed her Mama's mouth so fast before she could utter another syllable from her stunned lips...

"Shhh Mumma." Maple quietly pleaded!

But Mama Woods was so overjoyed she nearly jumped out of her skin and out of her seat so fast, you would have thought she could fly.

"Please mumma!" Maple desperately whispered!

She pleaded with her mumma not to get the attention of her sisters and Cornelia. As her sisters rambled on and nearly chewed off, poor Cornelia's ears. But to her surprise, something told her that Cornelia already knew. Especially the way Cornelia looked at her from the corner of her eye when he heard Mama Woods gasp.

Just then, the conversation she had earlier with Cornelia became all so clear as day, when the words came flooding back, and echoed in her mind,

CORNELIA: "Uncle Jeffy and I have different expectations for you."

It was like the lightbulb suddenly flickered in her mind. Maple now knew exactly what that meant in that point in time. She knew Uncle Jeffy had different reasons for inviting Andrew. And she now knew, Cornelia knew it too. And it suddenly dawned upon her, that Cornelia was trying to warn her that whole time, before Maple had ran out of that room. There was no qualms about it. But for now, Maple found herself having to deal with her Mama...

Mama Woods could hardly contain herself....

"Mumma please..." Maple once again pleaded.

"Andrew?" Mama Woods uttered elated gawking at the ring.

"Yes... But Mama__"

"Oh baby that's great news!" She said bouncing in her seat!"

"Wait... Mumma? How did you know it was Andrew?"

"Why, Pifft! Who else would it be?" Mama Woods said brushing off the question. "Sides yo daddy swore up and down he saw Andrew just on the other side of town the otha day. But I didn't wan say anythang... cuz I wasn't foe sure. And how you would feel. But it doesn't matter now! He came back! And it's evident he came back for you! "Oh darlin!" She said as her green eyes sparked... "We need to tell yo sista's and yo daddy!" She brightly beamed! "Oh Cornelia and Uncle Jeffy will just be ecstatic hearin this on their weddin day!"

"Mumma, I beg you, whut ever you do, don't say uh word!"

"But why?"

"Mumma?" Beth Anne suddenly interrupted that deep conversation. "Whut are you two doin over there? You alright?"

Maple looked at her Mumma with the eyes of desperation...

"Mumma please..." She lowly whispered speaking through her teeth.

"Mumma?" Beth Anne asked again.

"Why we are jest dandy Bethie." Mama Woods replied. "Oh why Cornelia, if you don't like stunning, like uh live angel in all yo beauty just standin there like uh vision!" She said cleverly changing the subject.

Just as Maple had so desperately desired...

"Don't she though?" Annelle and Beth Anne agreed.

And just like that, the focus was back on Cornelia.

"We'll talk about this lata." Mama Woods whispered into Maple's ear.

She joined her daughters in celebrating Cornelia, all the while distracting them from what was on Maple's finger...

Nonetheless, through it all, there was a perplexed expression on Cornelia's face at the hidden revelation. Maple could see it in her eyes. With a slight smile and wink, Cornelia nodded at Maple. But in the back of her mind, she secretly knew what had just taken place. However for the time being, Cornelia did as the others as she and Maple joined in and they all now focused on her upcoming nuptials to Uncle Jeffy...

A sudden knock was heard on the door...

Coming in with pure bliss and joy upon their faces, Cornelia's mother, a tag along Dorothy Burl and Grandma Hastings came with a freshly picked bouquet as they said...

"It's time..."

That day, on that blissful spring afternoon, with all of Ponchas Avenue Row sitting in the sanctuary of the Abba church, Cornelia Pumpkin Lee, walked down that isle. And became what she and many others had always dreamed... The first and the only... Mrs. Jeffrey Hastings...