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

Ch. 24 (PG-13, D): Alice & Bobby

"Love in the Great Pine Woods", Ch. 24 (PG-13, D): Alice & Bobby, February 29, 2016 by Gratiana Lovelace  (Post #879)

[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 Wakeforest, Viola Davis as Pauletta Perkins, Cicely Tyson as Nellie Newton, Anna Sophia Robb as Alice Trent, Kevin Spacey as Roger Delaney, Sam Heughan as Todd Wakeforest, Idris Elba as Dominic Perkins 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: Olivia Wakeforest and Pauletta Perkins share their pregnancy and Civil Rights concerns, respectively, on Monday, February 22, 1956. Later Tessa stops by Olivia's home and finds out that Olivia is pregnant. But an unexpected phone call brings news that they had been dreading, that Tessa's foster children Alice and Bobby Trent might be taken from them. And Alice overheard and tries to run away again.

"Love in the Great Pine Woods", Ch. 24: Alice & Bobby

Fourteen year old Delaney foster daughter Alice Trent tenderly holds her baby brother Bobby as she sees the furtive nature of her Aunt Olivia and Mommy Tessa's frantic phone call in her Aunt Olivia's bedroom in Wakeforest. And Alice wonders what is the matter. Then she overhears her Aunt Olivia saying that her Uncle Sam is a lawyer whose area is family law. As realization hits her, Alice repeats those words—family law—neither her foster mother Tessa Delaney, nor her foster Aunt Olivia notice the panic in Alice's eyes because they are so focused on calling their husbands.

Alice slips out of her Aunt Olivia's 1st floor bedroom with Bobby and races to the front hall closet where the coats are put when you walk in the door. Alice knows that she has to get Bobby bundled up from the cold before she takes him outside. Where she is going once she gets outside is anyone's guess-including hers.

But providentially Olivia's cook walks to the front hall foyer.

Cook: "Missy Alice! Are you leaving us so soon?"

Alice: Jerking her head to look at the cook, Alice sputters. "Yes! I mean, I have to get Bobby ready to go home. But I can't find his winter coat!" Alice is agitated and tense—which the cook notices.

Cook: "It's not there. Mrs. Tessa came in the back way and their coats are in the kitchen."

Alice: "Oh! Good! My coat is there, too." Alice rushes past the cook to get to the kitchen.

Cook: "Missy Alice!" She calls after her, not understanding why the young girl seems so upset.

Having looked up from Olivia as she dials Sam, Tessa realizes that Alice and Bobby are not in Olivia's bedroom. So Tessa sprints for the bedroom door. Tessa bursts into the hallway just as Alice flies past.

Tessa: "Alice, wait!" Tessa cries out as she flails her arm, but fails to catch Alice. And Tessa follows Alice into the kitchen.

Alice:  : Twirling around in the kitchen, Alice looks sorrowfully at her foster Mommy Tessa. "We have to go. If the law is coming, they'll take Bobby away from me and adopt him to another family. He's my brother! We belong together!"