So many finals........................sorry I haven't written as often as I have before. I have too many tests this week. AGH! ELA Monday, Latin Tuesday, and Math and Science Wednesday. TOO MUCH!!!! AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH! And I keep writing Sahar instead of Sarah! Which is weird because that's my name. Oh, well. Anyways, I think I'm going to make this part of the episode "In Praise of Ben". Here's chapter 8. Hope you like it!
Chapter 8
"What?!?" James and Henri cried at the same time. Cecile turned to Sarah with her eyes widened. "You know this guy?" she said to her.
"Unfortunately, yes," Sarah said, her face emerging from her hands. "He is my cousin. But why did you do it?"
The man looked crazier than before. "Why? WHY? Sarah, dear, look around you! You're surrounded by rebels! What kind of person are you?"
Sarah looked at him in the eye, her face firm with determination. "For your information, I am an American, whether you like it or not."
Cecile looked at her three friends. "I am, too."
Henri stepped forward. "And me, too!"
James smirked. "Well," he said, "According to our new country, majority rules. Not Tories." Sarah's cousin looked both horrified and mortified. "Fine, Sarah. Be the way you want to be. You'll meet the same sticky end as these rebels," he said, casting a dirty look at James, Cecile and Henri.
And he left.
The next day, Sarah decided to take a walk around town, looking at the world surrounding her. She took several deep breaths before she headed back to the print shop. She burst into the shop, placing her fingers on Dr. Franklin's glass armonica, and she started to play the song that Cecile made up. Suddenly, she heard a clarinet playing behind her. She stopped playing, and so did the clarinet. She started to play again. The clarinet played on behind her.
"Caught you!" she said, turning around when she stopped and the clarinet didn't.
James smiled. "I guess you didn't know I could play, huh?"
"Apparently not. Do you play professionally?" James scuffed his heels on the floor. "Not exactly," he said. "But Cecile let me borrow her sheet music and I've been trying to play ever since. I was practicing up in my room and I heard you playing the armonica. So I thought, What would Sarah say if I surprised her with my training?"
Sarah was awestruck. "You did that for me?" she asked him. He nodded, but his fingers were drumming on the clarinet. He brought it back up to his lips. "Shall we?" he asked. "All right, I guess we can play together," she responded. But as soon as her fingers touched the glass, she heard a scream. Then she heard a muffled voice say, "That's it!" Another voice was saying, "Hey! Stop it! Ow!"
The two teens automatically stopped what they were doing and thrust the shop door open. The next thing they saw was unbelievable.
Henri pinned a Tory boy to the ground. Cecile was standing in the background, her hands behind her back. She saw Sarah and James and ran to them.
"Stop it! Both of you!" Sarah said.
Cecile ran over to Henri and said, "Henri, please stop fighting before I have to use your secret weapon on you!"
"You wouldn't dare!" Henri hissed. "Oh, no?" she said. She pulled him off of the ground, pinned him against the print shop wall, and kissed him. She broke off breathing heavily. Apparently, Henri was still annoyed with the Tory boy and started to fight him again.
"I've had it with this fighting! Why can't we all just get along?" Cecile said, and ran into the shop crying.
James was so frustrated with the day that he hauled Henri off of the ground and pulled him into the print shop.
"What did you do that for? I almost had him!" Henri complained. Sarah took him into the room with the armonica, and James sprinted upstairs. He knocked on Cecile's door.
"Go away!"
"Cecile, it's me. Would you like to talk?"
He heard footsteps and the knob turned. Cecile opened her door, the white part of her eyes covered with a forest of red trees. Her light blue dress was wet with tears, and so was her pillow. "Oh, sure. You can come in. I guess I just need to talk. That's what my parents always told me to do when I felt sad or uncomfortable." Her eyes became two pools of tears.
"What happened back there?" he asked her, sitting on the foot of her four- poster while she sat at the head. "Well," she began, "Henri and I wanted to stay away from Sarah's cousin, because he's crazy, you know? So we took a walk, and we found this Tory boy who said his name was Charles or something like that. The three of us started talking and then he asked us what nationality we were. We told him we were French and then he said, 'French people are so spineless. They don't know anything. And the girls there are so stupid!' A surge of anger went through me and I clenched my fist. I wasn't really having a good day. Then Henri said, 'Take that back, or else!' Charles wouldn't take it back and then he started saying really mean things about girls and French people. Henri and I couldn't take it anymore. He squeezed my hand and said 'That's it!' and he pinned Charles to the ground. James, I can't take it anymore. I want to go home."
James stared at her, his face paler than usual. "You can't go home!" he shouted. "It's not going to make much of a difference. The battle's everywhere. So let's think this whole situation through." He leaned forward a little. "Why do you think Henri fought Charles?" He handed her a tissue.
"Thanks," she said, wiping her eyes. They weren't as bad as before. "Well, I don't know. Maybe he did it because Charles was making him angry."
"Do you remember anything else Charles said?" James gently pressed.
Cecile thought for a while and exhaled. "He was saying a lot of mean things about me," she finally said.
"So can you think of another reason that Henri fought Charles?" James asked her again.
She thought for a little while more. Her head snapped up.
"He did it to defend me."
"But there's one thing I'm still confused about," James said, and he saw that Cecile had reddened and started to stare at the ground. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's all right," he added quickly. She sighed and brought her head up. "No," she said, "It's ok. You can talk about it." "Are you sure?" he asked her seriously. "Something like that isn't something to joke about."
Her face had turned back to its normal peach tone. "Yes," she said firmly. "I'm sure. But you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not Henri, not Moses, not even Sarah."
"I promise."
"Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye?"
James winced, but he knew he had to do it. "Yes," he said firmly, and he tossed his quill and notebook aside. "I promise."
"Well," she said, "If you tossed your notebook and quill...I guess it's all right to talk about it. But it is a little embarrassing," and she giggled.
"What are you talking about?" James eyed her suspiciously.
"Oh, well of course you wouldn't know," she said. "Well, I guess now's a good a time as any to tell you." She sighed. "When we were at Washington's camp, Henri told you that we were in that barrel because we were paying our dues for a day off." She took a deep breath and went on. "That's not entirely true. We were hiding from some Redcoats. The two of us were taking a walk and we saw you and Sarah. We saw you and ran off, but we inadvertently ran onto a battle field and Henri saved me from getting a musket ball in my head." She smiled a little. "We saw you again a few days before that, but we swore to each other that we wouldn't tell a single soul what we saw that day." And she pulled out a piece of parchment, and James read aloud:
"With God as my witness, I solemnly promise not to tell any person of the embarrassing situations which we saw these past five days. The only person or persons we shall tell are the people acting in the situation."
Scrawled underneath that was:
"Henri Richard Maurice Dutoit LeFebvre"
Underneath that was a loopy signature that read:
"Cecile Marie DuMont"
It was James's turn to be awestruck. "You did that for us?" he said. Cecile nodded and gave him another small smile. "That's what friends are for," she replied, and James couldn't help but grin.
"Thanks for talking about your problems to me," he said. "Yeah," Cecile agreed. "I'm sorry that I didn't trust you and told you to go away." "That's okay. I can understand why you told me to leave."
"James?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks," Cecile said after 5 seconds. She stood up and brushed the tears off of her dress. Then she reached up to give him a hug. "You know, you really are like a father to me," she confessed. "Even if you are embarrassed about me saying that Sarah is like my mother."
"What?!" James said. "I'm not embarrassed!"
"Oh, le détache, James. C'est évident que vous aimez Sarah. Juste aller la dire maintenant ! Si ne vous faites pas, alors je la dirai. Et, à propos, comment savez-vous Sybil ? Vous l'aimez aussi ? Pourquoi aimez-vous deux filles tout de suite, James ? Rester avec Sarah. Vous avez su son plus long. Dire son aujourd'hui, James, avant que ce soit trop tard," Cecile retorted in spit-fire French.
"Huh?" James said, confused.
"James, je suis désolé pour avoir à vous parler en français, mais Henri et j'ai consenti que ce serait meilleur si vous n'avez pas compris que j'ai juste vous a dit. Voici quelque conseil. Allons en bas maintenant et vous allez dites Sarah exactement comment vous vous sentez d'elle. Je sais que vous couchiez quand elle est revenu de l'Angleterre. Me fier. Je sais ces choses. Vous vraiment ne riiez pas nerveusement juste comme cela. Vous essayiez de cacher quelque chose. Ne pas nier la vérité, James. Ce sera dur à avouer, mais je sais que vous pouvez le faire," she spoke again.
James was still flummoxed.
"¿Por qué habla usted con mí en un idioma que yo no entiendo? ¡Afortunadamente puedo hablar español! ¡Hay un idioma que puedo hablar, y usted puede no! ¡Ah! ¡Estoy tan orgulloso de yo mismo! ¡Y, para su información, no hay nada entre yo mismo y Sarah!" he roared back.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Cecile said."¡Ah ah! Lo siento de decir usted que puedo hablar español. ¡Y entendí todos y cada uno de los palabras usted dijo! ¡Usted adora Sarah! ¡Usted no lo puede negar! ¡Vaya abajo y diga ella antes yo hago lo para usted!"
He gasped. She can speak Spanish as well?
"Sí, James, yo puedo hablar español," she said quietly.
"I'm really sorry that I had to do that, James. So how's the clarinet going?" she said to make conversation. "Pretty good, I guess. Sarah just found out that I play."
"How'd she do that?"
"When she came back from going into town, she went into Ben's office and started to play his armonica." Cecile looked puzzled. "What's an armonica?" she asked. "Come with me," he said, and they went down the stairs. James was carrying his clarinet, Cecile was carrying her flute.
"So, like I said, Sarah was playing the armonica. She didn't hear me sneak into the room, and I started playing the clarinet behind her. She didn't know it was me until she turned around!" Cecile laughed to herself. "Where are we going?" she asked him. "We're going to the place that'll answer your question. We're going to Ben Franklin's office," James said, his blue eyes shining with excitement.
They finally reached the bottom of the stairs and arrived at the oak door that led to the wonders that are more formally known as Benjamin Franklin's inventions. "Where are we?" Cecile asked. "You'll see soon enough," James answered her, and he knocked on the door three times.
"Come in," Sarah's voice said through the door. Cecile's shaking fingers touched the doorknob and turned it. Sarah's flaming red hair was the first thing she saw. She became shy but amazed when she entered the room. She stayed as close to Sarah as possible.
Cecile was no longer the adventurous little girl she once was.
"Hi," she said as she moved away from the scene.
"Hello," Sarah and Henri said. "Are you feeling better?" Sarah asked.
"Yes, much," Cecile said, and she smiled shyly. Henri bit his lip and he smiled shyly, too.
"I hope you didn't take you-know-what the wrong way," she mouthed to him.
"What?" he said. Cecile walked over to him and whispered in his ear what she had tried to mouth to him.
"Oh, no," he said and went a little pink. "You had to do what you had to do. Unfortunately, the weapon didn't work...this time." The two children smiled and Cecile apologized for what she had done. "It wasn't really nice, but I had to do something to calm you down," she finished.
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked them.
"Oh, nothing," Henri said, and to Cecile he said, "Thank goodness she didn't see it." "Yeah," Cecile acquiesced, "But James did."
James took a step backward and laughed nervously. "I'll just go," he said, and headed for the door. "No," Sarah said, "Stay a while, James. You've been upstairs for a long time." She put her fingers on the glass bowl. It hummed softly.
"How did you do that?" Cecile asked. "And what is it?"
"That," James said, "is the answer to your question. That is an armonica."
"It's one of Ben Franklin's inventions," Sarah explained. "See how the glass bowls turn when I move the crank?"
Cecile looked at Sarah's foot, pushing the pedal which was making the bowls move.
"Now watch," Sarah said, as she put her finger on the edge of a glass bowl. The bow hummed a note. She began to play "Through My Own Eyes", and James joined in with his own instrument. Cecile came in later on, while Sarah was singing, "I'm hoping and praying for a brighter day, I listen to my heart and I obey. How can I see it any other way? I'm looking at life...through my own eyes..." And Cecile finished off the song with her flute finale. Henri applauded all three of them.
"Um...Sarah? James? We kind of have something to say to you," Cecile said, holding her flute apprehensively. "Don't we, Henri?" And she nudged him in the arm with her elbow.
"Oh! Right!" Henri said. "Yes, we have something to say." The both counted to three and then Cecile said, "We wanted to apologize for spying on you. We didn't really mean to, but when we were taking our walks we just saw you and we thought that it was really nice."
"Oui," Henri agreed. "We even made a contract saying that we wouldn't tell anyone what we saw." He took out his copy of the contract out of his pocket and showed it to Sarah and James.
"We're really, really, REALLY sorry about what we did and we swear that we'll never do it again."
"Are you angry with us?" Henri asked shyly, and Cecile was staring at her feet looking more embarrassed than ever.
"Well," Sarah and James said together.
"If you didn't tell anyone," Sarah said. "And if you swear you won't do it again," James continued.
"Yes, we both forgive you," they said at the same time.
The two children sighed with relief.
"Henri, can I ask you something?" Cecile said abruptly. "Why did you fight with Charles?"
"Oh," Henri said. "That. Um...will the three of you promise not to tell anyone?"
"Yeah! You can trust us!" the three of them said.
"Well..." he wrung his hands. "I did it to defend Cecile. Charles was saying really mean things about her and I could see that he was hurting her feelings."
Cecile's head whipped around to look at James.
"You...you really were right after all!" she said to him. She twisted one of her sleek curls and let it go. "Boing!" James, Sarah and Henri said. "What was that for?" Cecile asked them.
"We always think that whenever you play with your hair," Sarah construed. "And we decided to speak what we were thinking, that's all."
"It sounds funny!" she said. "And thanks for showing me what an armonica is."
"You guys, I have a confession to make, too," James mumbled. "Oh?" Cecile said. "What is it, then? Go on. We won't laugh." James looked nervously at Sarah. She gave a look that said, "You can do it. Just take a deep breath and say what's on your mind."
James took a deep breath.
"I can't do this," he said, and he ran out of the room.
Cecile turned to Henri. "Henri, je lui ai parlé quand nous étions en haut. Il n'a pas eu un indice que j'ai dit. Il m'a répliqué dans espagnol, donc je devais parler dans espagnol s'il pourrait me comprendre entièrement. Maintenant vous devez aller le discours à Sarah. Le faire maintenant, pendant qu'elle est toujours ici. J'aurai raison à côté de vous.
"Aller sur, vous pouvez le faire."
Henri took a deep breath and walked up to Sarah. "Sarah? Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure." She turned away from the armonica and looked at him. "What's on your mind?"
"Well," he started. "Sarah, c'est évident que vous aimez James. Si je suis correct, il était juste essayant de vous dire qu'il vous a aimé ! Cecile m'a donné la confiance pleine pour vous parler en français et pas anglais.
"Le regarde, Sarah. Il n'est pas effrayé, il nerveux et il ne peut pas sembler dire que vous quel est sur son esprit. Nous faire une faveur. Le faire une faveur. Aller sur et avouer pour que c'est beaucoup plus facile pour lui." Cecile was nodding vigorously at his side, to help boost his confidence.
I wonder what he's saying, she thought. Uh-oh. He said James's name. He knows. They both know!
"If you really have something to say, you might as well just say it in plain English," she said.
"Je suis désolé, Sarah. Je ne peux pas faire cela. Nous avons les deux juré de parler dans une langue autrement que l'anglais. Malheureusement, Cecile a trouvé une échappatoire et a commencé à parler espagnol, et James a compris chaque mot seul." He gave Cecile a look and continued. "Sarah, ceci est pour votre propre bon. Si vous avez entendu le couple premièrement de mots, vous seriez probablement de disant déjà James la vérité. Ne pas le nier, Sarah. Juste le dire. Il fera des choses un améliorer de lot entier pour vous et pour lui."
Guys I'm sry there are so many translations, but I liked to do this idea!!!!!
Here are the translations of what Cecile says:
1) Oh, come off it, James. It's obvious that you love Sarah. Just go tell her now! If you don't, then I'll tell her. And, by the way, how do you know Sybil? Do you love her as well? Why do you love two girls at once, James? Stay with Sarah. You've known her longer. Tell her today, James, before it's too late.
2) James, I'm sorry to have to speak to you in French, but Henri and I agreed that it would be best if you didn't understand what I have just told you. Here is some advice. Let's go downstairs right now and you go tell Sarah exactly how you feel about her. I know you were lying when she came back from England. Trust me. I know these things. You really weren't laughing nervously just like that. You were trying to hide something. Don't deny the truth, James. It'll be hard to confess, but I know you can do it.
Then James says:
Why are you speaking to me in a language I don't understand? Fortunately I can speak Spanish! There is a language that I can speak, and you can't! Ha! I'm so proud of myself! And, for your information, there's nothing between myself and Sarah!
Then Cecile says:
1) Ha ha! I'm sorry to tell you that I can speak Spanish. And I understood every single word you said! You do love Sarah! You can't deny it! Go downstairs and tell her before I do it for you!
2) Yes, James, I can speak Spanish.
When she talks to Henri, she says:
Henri, I talked to him when we were upstairs. He didn't have a clue what I said. He talked back to me in Spanish, so I had to speak in Spanish so he could fully understand me. Now you have to go talk to Sarah. Do it now, while she's still here. I'll be right next to you.
Go on, you can do it.
Then Henri says:
1) Sarah, it's obvious that you love James. If I am correct, he was just trying to tell you that he loved you! Cecile has given me full confidence to talk to you in French and not English.
Look at him, Sarah. He's not scared, he nervous and he can't seem to tell you what's on his mind. Do us a favor. Do him a favor. Go on and confess so that it's much easier for him.
2)I'm sorry, Sarah. I can't do that. We have both sworn to speak in a language other than English. Unfortunately, Cecile found a loophole and started to speak Spanish, and James understood every single word. Sarah,this is for your own good. If you heard the first couple of words, you'd probably be off already telling James the truth. Don't deny it, Sarah. Just tell him. It'll make things a whole lot better for yourself and for him.