A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer. I also want to add that this is the final chapter of One Little Girl. As I have said in my author's note at the beginning of the last two chapters, a major character death will occur. This will not be an easy chapter to read, especially if any of you struggle with depression or have been abused in the past. Please read responsibly. Thank you for reading and supporting this story. God bless.
Chapter Summary: As Blair's condition deteriorates, Mrs. Garrett and Jo struggle to come to terms with what is happening to their daughter and sister.
Chapter 15: Coronation
Blair had (halfheartedly) celebrated her eighteenth birthday on Wednesday, the twenty-sixth of January, 1983, and she explained everything about Operation Omega to Jo the following Friday, the fourth of February, hours after Jo's most favorite English teacher, Miss Gail Gallagher, left Eastland. The next day, Saturday, February the fifth, Blair and Jo sneaked away from Eastland together, and two days later on Monday, February the seventh, WJM broke the story about David Warner for the first time. It went nationwide the next day, Tuesday, February the eighth, and it was also on that night that the Warners took her from David Warner's Manhattan mansion to their quarters in Hell City and raped, beat, and stabbed her. And while Nancy, Cindy, Sue Ann, and Molly helped Natalie and Tootie to take care of the kitchen and the cafeteria over the next two days, Mrs. Garrett, Jo, and Blair's cousin Geri stayed right by Blair's side. They all wanted to be there just in case she regained consciousness. But then after staying at her bedside in the ICU for forty-eight hours straight, Mrs. Gordon insisted on taking over for them so they could go home and get a much needed shower and some rest. They returned to Eastland that Friday night, showered, and slept fitfully through the night, and then at fifteen 'til six the next morning, Jo got up, went down the stairs to the kitchen, entered the cafeteria, and saw Mrs. Garrett staring out of one of the windows at the sunrise. Geri was still upstairs in the girls' room asleep in the rollaway bed, and Natalie and Tootie were still up there asleep as well, while Jo and Mrs. Garrett had the cafeteria to themselves. It was Saturday, February the twelfth.
"How you doin', Mrs. G.?" Jo asked solemnly, and Mrs. Garrett turned around to face her.
"You'll have to ask me that another day, Jo. I'm doing horribly right now."
"I hear ya," Jo told her truthfully.
"The last time I spoke to Mrs. Gordon on the telephone, it was at about eleven o'clock last night, and she said then that there hadn't been any change in Blair's condition."
Jo nodded and said, "If there had been any change through the night, the hospital would've called us."
Mrs. Garrett nodded as well, and then she asked, "Do you want to go the hospital with me today, Jo?"
"Yeah, I'll go," Jo answered quietly.
"You know, you don't have to go with me if it's too much. I know how much you've been hurting ever since you found out that Gail was dying. If you need to take a break from the hospital today–"
"I'm not takin' any breaks, Mrs. G.," Jo told her with a shake of her head. "When I found out what was happening to Gail, I was really selfish. I find out a friend of mine is dying, and what's the first thing I do? I get scared and run away. I make it all about me when it should've been all about her. I won't make the same mistake twice."
"You weren't the only one who made mistakes, Jo. I've made a lot of mistakes myself. Terrible mistakes. You know, before I went to bed last night, I reread the letters Blair wrote to me as 'Ariah' over these past few years. I reread them all. Every single one. And as I read them and I heard Blair's words to me in her own voice inside my mind, it changed everything. 'Ariah' wasn't just an invisible girl to me anymore. She was Blair. My Blair. She wasn't some invisible, mysterious girl who I would never meet. She was someone who'd been right smack dab in front of my face the entire time. She was someone who was always in unspeakable pain; someone who needed and deserved a mama, a real mama. Not just some dietician her boarding school set in charge of her."
"Blair went to great lengths to make sure nobody discovered the truth about her before Operation Omega happened. There was no way you could've known that Blair was 'Ariah.'"
Mrs. Garrett shook her head and said, "You're wrong, Jo. Way deep down in my heart of hearts, I did know that Blair was really 'Ariah.' I've known for over a year now. Remember back when Natalie was attacked?"
Knowing exactly where this was going, Jo told Mrs. Garrett, "Yeah, I remember."
Edna then laughed bitterly at herself, and she said, "You know, it's so funny now. Funny in the worst possible way. When I gave my atrocious advice to Natalie, when I manipulated her into going to that women's safety course and I laid guilt trips on her, I actually patted myself on the back for it inside. I was so proud of myself. I thought I'd given Natalie such wonderful advice. Instead, my 'wonderful advice' was actually arrogant, insensitive, self-righteous, and horribly disrespectful. Blair eventually called me out on it and put me in my place. She really made me see how wrong I was to treat Natalie the way I did. She gave me a new perspective on how to help those who have been through sexual assault. It wasn't long after that that a very tiny part of me, way deep down in the pit of my stomach, began to suspect that it was possible that Blair might actually be 'Ariah.'
"But I wouldn't allow myself to consider it. Not for a moment. I wouldn't allow myself to imagine for one fraction of one second that 'Ariah' might actually be one of my girls. No, it couldn't possibly be one of my girls going through so much suffering. Oh, no. 'Ariah' had to be some other student in another dorm. Had to be. But if I'd faced those fears I'd had about Blair being 'Ariah,' I could have found out the truth much sooner, and if I'd just faced my fears and dealt with them and asked Blair about this and gotten to the truth, I could have talked her out of Operation Omega.
"These past couple of days, I've actually been blaming you for Operation Omega, Jo. Deep down, I've been so angry at you for not talking Blair out of doing the mission. But then I realized that by blaming you, I was being the ultimate hypocrite. It's not your job to parent Blair. I adopted her, and being her parent is my job. It's my responsibility to be Blair's mother. Blair's safety and well-being are my responsibility. I owed it to her to face my fears so that I could help her. I had the audacity to judge you and give you a hard time for running away when you found out Gail was dying, all the while I was running away from the truth about Blair the entire time. I ran away from it, I buried it, I refused to face it, and I refused to face it because it made me uncomfortable. At the end of the day, I cared more about my own selfish comfort than I did about Blair's well-being and safety, and I had the nerve and the gall to look down on you for running away from your problems when I was doing the exact same thing the entire time. I even had the gall to blame you for not doing my job for me. Oh Jo, can you forgive me for being such an arrogant, self-righteous hypocrite?"
"You're not an arrogant, self-righteous hypocrite, Mrs. G.," Jo said kindly. "You're just human."
The two women then clung to each other tightly and cried. Several minutes later, after things had calmed down a little bit, they sat down at one of the tables together.
"Ever since Blair fully explained Operation Omega to me, I've been in turmoil inside."
"I can't even imagine what all of this has been like for you two, Jo."
"I wanted to try to talk Blair out of this, Mrs. Garrett. But at the end of the day, I didn't because I knew Blair was right. If Blair just exposed the Warners' pedophilia, there was a chance that they still could've bought their way out of prison and continued their life of child trafficking in secret. Children were suffering and dying in Hell City because of them and they had to be stopped at all costs. Had I not supported Blair's decision to go through with Omega and had she backed out, there would still be children being abused and killed in Hell City right now. And I want you to know, Mrs. Garrett," said Jo as tears started streaming down her cheeks, "that if Blair would have allowed it, I would've gone into Hell City with her. I would've gotten beaten and raped and stabbed right along with her. I would've died by her side, and I would've considered it a privilege to do so."
Mrs. Garrett reached over and gave Jo another long hug, and then after holding her for a good long while, they ended the embrace. Mrs. G. then said to Jo, "Listen to me, sweetheart. Listen to me. That was never your responsibility. And it was never Blair's responsibility. I adopted Blair. I became her mother, her real mother. It should have been me getting beaten and raped and stabbed on national television. I should have been the one to make the sacrifice so that you girls could be safe and those children could be rescued. I should have carried this burden, not you, and definitely not Blair. I've failed you both so badly, and I'm sorry, Jo. I'm so very sorry," she said as she and Jo continued to cry together for the next several moments. Then after they composed themselves once again, Edna said in a heartbroken voice, "How Blair has suffered."
Jo then told her, "Mrs. G., there are some things Blair went through that she never told you about in her letters. Do you want me to tell you what the full extent of her suffering has been like? Do you want to know everything?"
Edna nodded and replied, "I do."
"Okay. You really need to brace yourself, Mrs. Garrett. This is gonna hurt."
She nodded again and told Jo, "Go ahead."
"You know that Blair didn't just use her wealth to buy a kid's freedom. You know now that there was a man who owned child sex slaves in Hell City, and you know that Blair would sleep with him sometimes, and whenever she did, he would release a child into her care. Basically, she chose to endure further rape to rescue a child from that terrible place whenever she had the chance."
"Yes, I know that now," Mrs. Garrett gasped as she fought off yet more tears.
"Well…do you remember how Tootie got all drunk at the beginning of the school year last year?"
"Of course."
"You knew that Blair sneaked two bottles of wine on campus and I went out and got beer, and you knew that Tootie drank one of the bottles up and got drunk because she was angry at us for throwin' a secret party and leavin' her out."
"I remember."
"But what you didn't know was why Blair ever wanted to bring alcohol on campus and throw a secret party with Nat and me and get drunk in the first place. Several months before, Blair slept with that terrible man from Hell City to get him to release a child into her care. When it happened, she was distracted by some other things that were goin' on in her life at the time and she forgot to take her birth control pill like she usually did, and…she got pregnant."
"What?!" Mrs. Garrett gasped, unable to believe her ears.
Jo nodded and said, "When we all left for summer break at the end of the last school year, Blair was two months pregnant."
"Oh, my Lord," Mrs. G. gasped.
"Blair never told me about it. She never said a word. But after we got busted with the alcohol that night, I got to talkin' with Blair about it, and she explained everything. Blair was gonna stop all the heroics. She was gonna stop puttin' her life on the line to meet with pimps. She was gonna stop everything and leave Eastland for good and run away to someplace safe and have her baby and be a mom. But then when she was in France during summer vacation, she had a miscarriage. She lost her baby."
"Oh God, no," Edna whispered as she wept.
"When she came back to Eastland in the fall, she just wanted to forget all her pain and stress for a while and be a typical teenage kid and do somethin' crazy. That's why she sneaked the wine on campus and tried to have a party with Nat and me and get drunk with us. I think she was hoping that if she could do something wild and crazy and just have a few carefree moments and be a teenager for a while, it would help ease the pain."
For the next few minutes, Edna just broke down and sobbed. Then after regaining her composure and wiping her tears, she said, "How could I have possibly been so clueless? So utterly blind? How could one of my girls, my girls, have endured rape and gotten pregnant and had a miscarriage and I didn't even know?"
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Mrs. G. I didn't even know that Blair had been pregnant until after she'd had her miscarriage, and I'm her best friend."
"I should have known. I should have been there."
"Blair didn't want you to know, Mrs. Garrett. If something had gone wrong, if her Spoiled Princess Mask had ever slipped at the wrong time and word of Blair's fight against child trafficking had gotten back to the Warners, she and anybody else close to her could've gotten killed. If she had told you everything and let you get involved with what she was doing, the Warners would've come after you just like they did her. That's why Blair always kept the worst of it from you, Mrs. Garrett. Not because she was tryin' to shut you out. Not because she didn't trust you. But because she wanted to protect you. And she also wanted to protect Natalie and Tootie and her cousin Geri."
"Protecting Geri and the girls is one thing. Protecting me is something else. As I said earlier, I adopted Blair. I became her mother. I was the parent and Blair was the child. It should have been me protecting her, not the other way around. She shouldn't have been keeping the worst of it from me. I should have been keeping the worst of it from her."
"I know," Jo agreed. "But Blair chose to protect you from all of this because she wanted to. She loves you, Mrs. G. She really does."
"I'm not worthy of Blair's love. I'm not worthy of Blair."
"I don't think any of us are," Jo admitted, and then once again, she and Edna hugged.
Jo, Mrs. Garrett, and Blair's cousin Geri spent a lot of time at Blair's bedside in the ICU while Cindy, Sue Ann, Nancy, and Molly stuck to Natalie and Tootie like glue back at Eastland. Thankfully, the hospital was very lax about visiting hours and they allowed Blair's loved ones to spend as much time with her as possible. They all took turns spending time at Blair's bedside over the next several days. Then at around seven o'clock on the night of Sunday, February the twentieth, when Blair opened her eyes, it was an answered prayer for Edna and Jo, who were both still by her side that evening in the ICU. The doctors had been saying for the past two days that they could lose Blair at any second now, and they didn't think it was likely that she would ever regain consciousness. Edna had been fervently praying that they were wrong, fervently praying that she could have one final conversation with the daughter she loved so very much before she left this world, and when Blair did regain consciousness that night, Edna was so grateful, and Jo felt the same way.
"Oh, baby," Edna whispered while holding Blair's cheek. "Mommy's here, baby. Mommy's right here."
Blair then took her oxygen mask off, looked straight into Jo's eyes, and asked, "Meimei, did it work?"
Jo nodded and answered, "It worked, jiejie. It worked. Hell City fell right after Operation Omega went down. A big mob burst in there and killed every single pedophile with their own hands, even your DNA donors, and all the children were rescued."
"Oh, thank God," said Blair as tears of relief came to her eyes.
"Yeah, thank God," Jo agreed. "Thank God and thank you, too."
"Amen to that," said Mrs. Garrett. "Oh Blair, I'm so sorry. I can't even begin to imagine how painful all of this has been, especially having to endure it in secret."
"I think one of the hardest parts was…knowing that the people I loved the most…thought I was so spoiled and selfish and stupid."
More tears came to Edna's eyes then, and she took Blair's hand and said, "After I gave all that terrible advice to Natalie when she was assaulted and then you put me in my place…way, way deep down inside, I knew then that you were 'Ariah.' But I wouldn't allow myself to think it, not for a moment. I couldn't bear the thought of it being you who was enduring such suffering. I'm so sorry, Blair. I'm so very, very sorry. The instant my gut started telling me that it was you, I should have listened. If I hadn't been such a selfish coward, if I had faced my fears, I could have been by your side through all of this. I could have helped you. I could have been there for you. It should have been me doing Operation Omega, not you. There's no excuse for what I've done, Blair. There's no excuse for the way my cowardice and my selfishness caused you to suffer," Edna told Blair as rivers of tears were now streaming down both their faces, and Jo's. "You are the most remarkable child I have ever had the privilege of knowing. I know the name 'Ariah' means lioness, and that's precisely what you are. A strong, courageous, priceless lioness. And when it comes to parents, you deserve the absolute best, and I am not it. Not by a longshot. I'm so humbled that you actually chose me to adopt you."
"You've always been my hero."
Edna shook her head fervently in that moment, and she told Blair, "No, sweetheart. No. I am not the hero, here. You are. You were always my hero. And you always will be. I love you so much, baby girl. So, so much."
Even more tears streamed down Blair's face in those moments as Edna told her that. Then a little while later, she said, "You know…I'm a mom, too."
Edna nodded and said, "I know, sweetheart. Jo told me all about your son James. I know you have a son in heaven. And I have a grandson."
Blair smiled and asked, "You want to know why…I named my son James?"
"Jo already told me. You named him James after Jesus's half-brother, the author of the book of James in the New Testament, because that's your favorite book of the Bible. It's your favorite book because in it, James says that in the eyes of God the Father, true religion means to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. You also love the book of James so much because in it, it says that if a brother or sister doesn't have the daily food and clothing they need, and a professing believer in Christ just says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' and does nothing to help them, that believer's faith doesn't profit anything. As far as that brother or sister in need is concerned, the faith of that professing believer is absolutely worthless. All your life, you have been a poor, destitute orphan in need, starving to death on the inside of parental love and affection that most of us take for granted. All your life, professing Christians have told you, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' without making the slightest effort to be there for you and feed you with the love, the parental love, you were starving for. It comforted you to read those verses in James and know that God was willing to call out any professing believer who behaved in such a disgusting manner. That's why you love the book of James so much, and that's why Jesus's brother James meant so much to you that you named your son after him."
"I can't wait to hold my James," said Blair.
"I know, my precious girl. I know. And this mama would like very much to hold her little girl now."
Blair smiled through her tears and gave her permission with a nod, and then after Edna helped her put her oxygen mask back on, she climbed into bed beside her little girl, put her arms around her, and held her close. Jo then reached out and held Blair's hand, and in the following moments, Blair drifted off into the sweetest sleep. And then the steady beeping of the heart monitor filling the background erupted into a high-pitched whine. At twelve minutes after seven on the night of the twentieth of February, 1983, Blair Nicole Warner went to be with Jesus and with her beloved son James, both of whom she'd yearned to be with for so long.
When Blair was buried two days later, the entire nation mourned the extraordinary young lady it now adored. The entire WJM newsroom staff flew out to New York from Minnesota for the funeral, and even the typically childish Ted Baxter and his sweet wife Georgette were there as well. Amazingly enough, even a buffoon like Ted was able to stop acting like a five-year-old for once and conduct himself like a mature, proper adult during that heartbreaking day. And every person who attended the funeral wore a blue bracelet on his or her wrist to honor Blair and James.
Although Blair's life had ended, the extremely powerful impact of her life on those closest to her did not. Blair's cousin Geri and Natalie came to faith in Christ because of Blair's example, and years later, they and their husbands all ended up joining a special group of missionaries from their church that specifically worked with victims of child trafficking in various third world countries all over the world. Tootie's faith in Christ also strengthened immensely in the following years, and after meeting the love of her life, football player Jeff Williams, she married him right after her college graduation when she was twenty-one, and they went on to have and adopt a total of five children, three daughters and two sons. And rather than becoming a star in Hollywood like she'd originally dreamed, she became a star in the eyes of her husband and children as she devoted herself to being a full-time mother. Jo followed in the footsteps of her role model, Miss Gail Gallagher, and became an English teacher at Eastland, using her position at her old school to touch and inspire the lives of hundreds of Eastland girls. At age twenty-four, Jo also met and fell in love with the headmaster at Bates, a thirty-year-old man of Irish descent named Scott O'Rourke. He was a tall, slim redhead who had also come from a rough neighborhood similar to Jo's. They married the following year shortly after Jo's twenty-fifth birthday, and they went on to have two redheaded children, their son, Scott James, and their daughter, Gail Nicole. And finally, Mrs. Garrett went back to school and got her master's degree in child psychology six years later, and then she became Eastland's official counselor, pouring every ounce of herself into the psychological health of hundreds of Eastland girls through the years. And during every moment that they all spent pouring themselves into the well-being of all the children in their lives, they were always, always inspired by Blair Nicole Warner and the extraordinary difference she made in her short life.
And that was just on this side. Many years later in July of 2021, Mrs. Garrett finally died in her sleep at the age of ninety-four. The girls were heartbroken, of course, and none more than Jo, who had remained the closest to Mrs. Garrett in all the years after Blair's death. Weeks after Mrs. Garrett's death, in the middle of August, Jo humbly asked the Lord in her bedtime prayers to allow her to see Blair and Mrs. Garrett again because she yearned to have the peace of mind of seeing them happy and safe in heaven, even if only for a second. Jesus graciously granted Jo's request that night, and in her dreams, He allowed her to see a vision of the future. It was a vision of Blair's judgment at what was sometimes referred to by Christians as the Bema Seat of Christ, where all Christ's believers would gain or lose rewards and crowns based on how well they lived their lives for Him on earth after salvation. Jo saw the stunningly powerful impact this one little girl, who had been so mightily used of God, had had on eternity. Yes, Blair received abundant rewards and she was compensated for all her great suffering on earth beyond her wildest dreams, but what meant the most to her was when it was revealed how so very many people had actually come to faith in Christ because of the impact she had had on their lives, not to mention the huge smile of approval she knew she had put on Jesus's face. Blair certainly received more than one crown from Jesus at her judgment, and at the end of it, Jesus, Himself, personally placed one of the crowns on her head. And the instant Jo saw that happen, tears of joy began streaming down her face. Her joy was then made even more complete when Jesus signaled for Edna and James to join them. Seeing Blair's coronation, seeing her in her glorified state with a crown on her head, seeing her as the true princess she'd always been all along, was Edna's proudest moment as a mother. And seeing Princess Blair standing with her true mother and her beautiful son James by her side comforted Jo's heart beyond anything she could've hoped for when she'd prayed for the Lord to allow her to see Blair and Edna in heaven.
Jo was also thrilled to see that Blair's son, James, was tall and handsome with his mother's brownish-blonde hair…and his mother's precious chestnut eyes with green and gold flecks. Jo's heartache and grief over their deaths was transformed into indescribable joy in those moments. Jo had often wrestled with the Lord over the years, angry at Him for allowing her dear older sister, her jiejie, to suffer so immensely. But after the vision, it gave Jo amazing comfort to know that every ounce of Blair's suffering on earth had been worth it. More than worth it. All of eternity was impacted so incredibly powerfully, and God didn't use a perfect, powerful angel to do it. Nor did He use a famous televangelist or a famous pastor. No. Eternity itself was impacted in the most powerful way by just one little girl who trusted God with her suffering.
Jo woke up from the brief vision of the future in that moment with rivers of tears streaming from her eyes, and then without waking her husband, she looked up at her bedroom ceiling in the dark and whispered, "Thank You for that, Jesus. Thank You." In that instant, she knew that no matter how utterly insane the world became because of the coronavirus and no matter how badly it hurt to lose Blair and Mrs. Garrett, she could and she would keep going, for the Lord's sake and for theirs, until He came back for all His children. No matter how much it had hurt Blair and Edna to keep pushing through their pain to help others in Christ's name, they did it, and now, they would know nothing but joy and glory for all eternity. And Jo would continually honor Jesus and honor them by following in their footsteps, forever inspired by one little girl.