My Fair Peach
Disclaimer: I do not own the Lorax
Prologue
The sky was a deep violet as he walked towards the house in the distance. He remembered when it used to be part of a mansion. The same mansion he worked in for 10 years. It hurt to think of everything the owner of the mansion did. Of everything he did as well. He was half way towards the house when suddenly he stopped. "What brings you out here?" the old man said without turning around. There was no reply. "Come now, girl. I know you're here." He said
Audrey walked up next to the old man "I was worried about you. Why are you out here so late at night, Grandpa?"
"I just needed to go for a walk." Said the old man
"This is a very odd place to walk. You shouldn't be out here this time of night at your age. You're 102 years old." Said Audrey
" Yes, Iam. I'm also old enough to know what my body can handle. There is no need to worry about me, dear. I'm fine." Said the old man
"Why here though?" asked Audrey looking around
" You know as well as I do that I don't have much more time left. There is something I need to do while I still have time." Said the old man
" Grandpa, you're sick. You need to be at home. Being out here in the dead of night will not help your condition. " asked Audrey
" This isn't about helping my condition it's about saving my soul." said the old man
" Saving your soul? Your soul doesn'tneed to be saved. You have never done anything wrong in your life. " Said Audrey
"Of course, I have. I turned an innocent young woman into a heartless witch." He replied
" How did you do that?" Audrey asked
"I gave her lessons on how to be an awful person. I did it because she asked me to. I should have said no. I should have tried to help her think of other ways to get through to him but it was my professional policy not to go against my employer's wishes. No matter how awful the wishes were. Now, that the trees are back I know they have both gone back to the way they used to be and now, that my time is almost..." Said the old man without realizing it they had walked all the way up to the lerkim.
" Grandfather, can't you take care of this in the morning? It's the middle of the night and everyone is a sleep." Said Audrey
"Not everyone." Said a voice from by the front door. They looked over and saw the lorax.
"Hello, Mr. Lorax. I see you've come back too." Said the old man
" The trees needed me. Beanpole needed me." Said Lorax "It's great to see you, November."
"You as well, Mr. Lorax" said November
"November? Your name is Jacob." Said Audrey
"Jacob?" asked Lorax
"After I resigned and saw that I had help turn things from bad to worse I moved out of thneedville and changed my name. About 10 years ago I was deemed too elderly to take care of myself so I moved back to Thneedville with my family. And changed my name O, by the way, this is my granddaughter Audrey… Audrey this is the legendary Lorax. " said November
"I've met your granddaughter. I met her and her boyfriend a few months ago. In fact, it was the same time Peach moved back in. " said Lorax "It is great to see you again."
"You too." Said Audrey
"You have a boyfriend?" asked November
"We're just friends ,Grandpa." Said Audrey "He has a crush on me, though. But I think that he thinks that I don't know about it. Ted's really sweet though."
"Anyway, the others are sleeping if you're excepting to see them tonight." Said Lorax
"How have they been?" asked November
"They just got back together a few months ago so they taking things slow. As I mentioned before Peach moved back in. They are trying their best to reconnect and find out more about each other but it's starting to be like it was before the trees were chopped down. " said Lorax
The sun started to rise in the horizon opened in front of them and Ellen screamed when she saw people by the front door.
" What's the problem?" asked Once-ler coming down the stairs.
He went over to his wife who was standing by the front door "We have guests. I was just startled because I wasn't expecting them"
Once-ler looked and saw who was at the door "Good morning." Said Audrey who was at a loss for an explanation
"Good morning. " said Once-ler "It's nice to see you, Audrey but I wish you had given us a little advanced notice that you were coming."
"I'm sorry. It wasn't my idea. It was my grandfather's and it was very sudden." Said Audrey
"Hello, Mr. Beanpole. Hello, Mrs. Beanpole… it's great to see you both. May we come in?" November asked
"Who are you? How do you know us?" asked Once-ler moving out of the way to let Audrey and November in. Audrey helped her grandfather into a chair.
"I'm not surprised that you don't recognize me it's been a very long time." Said November "My name is November James Butler. "
"November?" Ellen asked "What are you doing here?"
"I was at the doctor and my time on this earth is almost up, Mrs. Beanpole. Before I moved on I needed to apologize for everything that happened between us." Said November
"No need to apologize. I'm the one that forced you to change me. I shouldn't have done that. I should have gone back to Lorax and told him that we needed to figure out another plan." Said Ellen
"Plan? What are you talking about?" asked Once-ler
"Well why do you think I suddenly came back to you after 5 years of complaining and protesting against you? I knew what you were doing was wrong but you got the idea that I had an affair and I needed to get you to trust me. You're mother didn't believe my act though so I needed to bring it up a few notches. November told me he worked for many different people so I asked him to teach me to be like the mean wives of the men he worked for. Unfortunately, it worked too well." Said Ellen " We did have some fun though."
"Yes, we did." Said November
"Corruption lessons were fun?" asked Audrey
"Yes." Said Ellen
"So, you and my grandfather spent a lot of time together." Said Audrey
"Yes we did. " said Ellen
"May I?" asked November
"Go right ahead. It's your story as much as it is mine." Said Ellen
"Thank you, Madam." Said November "It all started one afternoon when Ellen and Once-ler had just come back from a morning of shopping in town…"