"Love in the Great Pine Woods" by Gratiana Lovelace (2015-2016) (Completed)

Ch. 04 (PG-13, S): Thanksgiving Day

"Love in the Great Pine Woods", Ch. 04 (PG-13, S): Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2015 by Gratiana Lovelace (Post #835)

(An original story copyrighted by Gratiana Lovelace; all rights reserved) [(1) story cover, left]

[From time to time, I will illustrate my story characters with: Richard Armitage as Sam Wakeforest, Marcia Gay Harden as Sam's older sister Tessa Wakeforest Shoop Delaney, and Emily Deschanel as Tessa's sister-in-law Olivia Delaney, Viola Davis as Pauletta Perkins, Cicely Tyson as Nellie Newton, and others as noted.]

Authors Content Note: "Love in the Great Pine Woods" is a mature love story with dramatic themes of love and relationships. It will mostly be at the PG and PG-13 movie levels. Specific chapters or passages may have a further rating of: L for language, D for dramatic emotions, and S for sensual themes. And I will rate the chapters accordingly. If you are unable or unwilling to attend a movie with the ratings that I provide for a chapter, then please do not read that chapter. This is my disclaimer. And as is my habit, I will summarize the previous chapter's events at the beginning of the next chapter.

Authors Recap from the Previous Chapter: The younger Wakeforest brothers tease their eldest brother Sam about Olivia fainting into his arms--to which Sam sternly reminds them not to tease the shy Olivia about it when they go to the Wakeforest Orphanage to deliver their XMAS tree. However the boys are a little saucy--to which the Orphanage Administrator and Grade School Principal stares a stern warning. Sam helps Tessa bring down the tree stand and other decorations from the attic. Then an orphanage kid on the stairs holds some plastic mistletoe over their heads shouting kiss--then all the kids chime in. And when Sam leans down to Olivia, he whispers that he wants them to be in private when they have their first kiss together. Then Tessa calls the Orphanage looking for Sam and wanting him to pick up some plum pudding for Thursday's Thanksgiving meal--and she suggests that Olivia go along with him. She does, but both Sam and Olivia know that his sister Tessa is trying to play matchmaker. And Sam counts the lunch that he plans to treat Olivia to as their first date--to her amusement. Sam lets Olivia know that he is interested in her romantically. And surprisingly, Olivia doesn't faint, but she does let Sam know what she wants from a relationship--love and marriage.

"Love in the Great Pine Woods", Ch. 4 (PG-13, S)--Thanksgiving Day

Nellie Newton is the Delaney family's 83 year old retired Negro housekeeper and cook, living out her twilight years with the Delaneys--her only family. Thanksgiving morning around 8:00am before her own pajamas breakfast, Olivia Delaney dashes down the back servant stairway from the second to the first floor in her candy cane patterned thermal pajamas and robe. She knocks on Nellie's bedroom door just off of the kitchen.

Olivia: "It's me, Olivia. May I come in, Mrs. Newton?"

Nellie: "You may, Miss Olivia."

Peeking my head into Nellie's bedroom, I smile seeing her sitting up on the fluffed up pillows in her queen sized bed--Tessa has obviously already been here earlier since I see the breakfast tray on the side bed table. It looks like Nellie ate well this morning--only leaving one slice of toast uneaten. Nellie is so frail these days that she doesn't get out of her bedroom much. At 83 years old, her health is failing due to her heart problems--as her now stark white hair and wrinkled face attest. I dread when she is no longer with us. I have known Nellie all of my life, and I know I'm greedy to want her to live longer and to be with me always. But I can't help it, I love her.

Olivia: "Good morning." I smile and go to sit on Nellie's bed and kiss her cheek.

Nellie: "Good morning, My Livvy. And what is with all this formality. I'm just Nellie, child. That's what you called me when you were little." I touch the picture on my nightstand of the two of us thirty years ago when Livvy was just 5 years old [(2)] . The poor child lost her mother when she was so young--her first year of college, when Livvy was still learning how to become a woman. I tried to fill the void for Livvy, but at most I am like a grandmother to her. That was why I was so glad that her brother Mr. Roger remarried after his first wife died. This wife, Mrs. Tessa, I like. His first wife was too snooty and skinny--no babies for her. And the first wife didn't get to know and become friends with Livvy, like Mrs. Tessa has. And Livvy needs a loving woman's guidance--so Mrs. Tessa is like an older sister to Livvy.