Chapter 28

"So how much is he?" asked Abilene.

"About $145," said Lucius Clarke. You have to. thought Edward.

"Please!" begged Maggie

"Okay. But on one condition, we are having a yard sale and it has 1 or 2 of your other old dolls," said Abilene. Please! thought Edward.

About 7 minutes later Maggie made up her mind. "Yes," she said.

As they walked out of the shop Maggie asked: "What shall I call him Mama?"

"I guess Edward?" said Abilene

"Why do you say that?" asked Maggie.

"Well," she said, "Well it is a long story I'll tell you later."

When they got to the hotel in Memphis, Abilene started the story. "A while ago, about 20 - 25 years, when it was my 10-year-old birthday," Yes yes. thought Edward " your great-grandmother Pellegrina bought a rabbit for me." continued Abilene "I named him Edward. He was a very unique creation. There were none other like him."

"And how do you know that?" asked Maggie.

"Because," said Abilene "Oh, we will get to that later. It's all in the story." and then she winked at Edward.

"Okay back to the story. Only Pellegrina treated Edward like I did. He had lots of fashionable silk suits, like this one." Abilene said as she pointed at Edward's suit. "I loved him so much. I thought I could never let him go. And one day, when we were on a ship all the way to London Edward, got thrown off that boat by two horrible boys!" it sounded to Edward and Maggie that Abilene's temper was rising. Her tone was going up, she was starting to yell and her face was turning bright red.

For about 2 minutes Maggie just stared at Edward in disbelief. Finally, she spoke. "Mama is never like this," she said to Edward. "Calm down Mama," Maggie said trying to calm her Mother. suddenly she started crying.

"Those awful boys took my greatest treasure away from me."

"When we got to London we looked and looked. We couldn't find anything like him. We also looked when we went on other trips. Also, we looked at every store on Egypt Street and places near our house. That is why there are none other like him." she said as she wiped her tears away. "And then when you asked me if we could go into the doll shop a couple of hours ago I saw Edward I knew that if you wanted him, I would probably get him for you." suddenly Maggie spoke "That's why you looked over me and muttered something private just between you and Edward."