Fenix made it back up to his room without having to be quite as careful this time. He figured if he did run into somebody he could easily just say he was restless, being as he was heading back to his room. In his room he lay there with a myriad of thoughts swirling in his mind. He tried to fall asleep but instead he wondered how Jewellyn would fare with her reply to Aunt Tildy's request. He thought he had his end of it worked out fairly well. He had written his part out, but figured he would tell most of it. Finally, he fell asleep.

Before he knew it, the shouts for them to awaken were already underway. The assistants would go around knocking on doors, yelling for them to 'get going'. They knocked on Fenix's room and he almost jumped out of bed. He felt like he was hardly aware or intact as of yet. He rubbed his eyes and stumbled around looking for his clothes. He thought of how hungry he was, and that reminded him of the meeting with Aunt Tildy.

Downstairs, in the basement rooms, Jewellyn was waking up as well. She crawled out of bed and immediately her stomach began to make the usual demanding noises. She couldn't wait for breakfast and wondered what Fenix was going to say in their meeting with Auntie. She got dressed and she walked upstairs to go to the bathroom to wash up.

On the main floor was a raucous of sound and quite a bit of activity. The two assistants from town were scurrying about. Breakfast time was by far the worst as far as noise went. There was steam issuing forth from kettles and fry pans, and babbles of conversation bubbled up from the crowd of children who were eagerly awaiting their morning gruel. On some days they were lucky, and warm blueberry muffins would be handed out.

Aunt Tildy was busy in the main part of the kitchen. Almost simultaneously, Fenix and Jewellyn emerged into the dining hall and joined the rest of the children for breakfast. They looked at each other, and exchanged glances with Aunt Tildy who was now stirring one of the battered kettles which contained the roiling gruel. She had that stern knowing look on her face which always conveyed that hers was an authority to be reckoned with. Then, they sat down at the long table, awaiting their breakfast.

Some of the boys who were present at the taunting of Fenix yesterday, including Simon, pointed at him and Jewellyn too, snickering, gesturing at them, and in general, having a grand old time; at least from their point of view. Simon made weird faces at them for good measure. He knew his presence and actions intimidated Fenix and irritated Jewellyn even more.

After a good, hearty breakfast, Fenix and Jewellyn attended to their chores. Fenix had to take the garbage out, while Jewellyn swept the hardwood floors. They dawdled just a little, without even realizing it; semi-consciously attempting to delay the inevitable. Then they crossed paths in the dining room, sat down at one of the long tables and discussed a little about the upcoming meeting.

"Well did you"- they both said simultaneously. They glanced at either briefly, giggled a little, then they broke off the eye contact. This was followed with a brief period of silence where it seemed as if either one was afraid to speak first. Fenix noted how nice she looked with her light brown dress on. The collar and the end of the sleeves had a nice lace trim without being too gawdy. "Yeah well, most likely she'll step in any time now," he said somewhat morosely.

"I've given it a lot of thought," said Jewellyn. She looked up at the ceiling, as if looking there somehow helped her to think. "I think I know what Aunt Tildy was trying to tell us with her demand to us that we express how we loved her." Here she stood up, then looked back down at he floor, took a couple of steps, then turned her back to Fenix. "I think love, to her, is either proven by actions...or not. When we were late the other day I know it wasn't totally our fault, and really, as we found out it did no good to argue the point with her. I think Aunt Tildy, more than anyone else I know, proves her brand of 'tough' love to all of us with her actions. I am certain she feels that deep down inside, if necessary, that she would even sacrifice her life to save one of us."

Not many people, and no-one at the orphanage knew about what Jewellyn's father, Leonard, had done to save her life one day...she would never forget. She really felt like bursting out in tears when she visualized what had happened to him. She saw it all too clearly. At first, she never thought she would recover from the emotional trauma. Fenix stood there reflecting. He was thinking about some of the same things, yet Jewelyn was putting it all together very nicely. "In other words, as far as she is concerned, all the talk in the world would do little to prove anything unless it were followed by actions. She"--

Jewellyn interrupted again and laughed as she said, "Well obviously Fenix, thats what I've been saying all along here, do you have your head in the clouds yet again?"

This time, Fenix wasn't upset about being cut off by her in mid-sentence. He realized that it was a reduntant thing to say, after all. He smiled at Jewellyn and said, "Your observation was correct, my dear. That appendage at the top of my neck was floating up in the nether regions of the air again, where the clouds lazily dwell. You would think that by now I would have quite a lengthy neck." He paused, expecting her to go on. Somehow when they talked, she always had this effect of calming him, making him feel more relaxed.

She laughed a little, visualizing Fenix with a long neck. "I think it is true unconditional love. The kind that, no matter what the ones she cared for have had happen to them, or no matter what they did, that she would always keep the door to her heart open for them. I think she has faith that love can conquer all eventually; maybe not right away, or maybe not exactly how she wished it would; just that it would someday reconcile all things. When I think of this, it kind of makes me want to cry a little." Jewellyn's eyed did moisten, then she continued, "I think we could use a lot more Aunt Tildy's in this world. With this being the second day of end-week, I think we should give her a day off from everything and let her relax. Also, we could do it more than just once. In this way we could show her our love with action."

Fenix stared at her, being amazed at the depths of her conlusions. With his hopes of being a Bard someday he hoped he could wax as eloquently as her about the puzzling ways of love. "Alright, lets go tell her, then-" At this point, Aunt Tildy burst into the room, slamming the door behind her. She strided forcefully to the table where they were sitting. She had that stern look on her face again.

"Alright you two lovebirds, why aren't you doing your chores?" she asked Besides the shock they felt at her loud and abrupt appearance, they glanced at each other, feeling uneasy at the mention of the word 'lovebirds.'

"But Auntie," Jewellyn offered, "we were just talking about figuring out what we could do to prove our love for you. And we've come up with something I think you will like." Auntie shook her finger in the air, shaking her head in a negative fashion. "If you are doing it just to appease me, forget it!" "Sometimes the way you kids come up with bright ideas, only to forget about them later..."

At this point, Jewellyn stood up abruptly, knocking the chair backwards and causing it to tip over loudly on the floor. Tears were streaming down her face. She thrust her arms down by her side as if emphasize her point. "We've given this a lot of thought and I can't believe you would dismiss us so casually!" Aunt Tildy raised her eyebrows, being slightly dumbfounded at this emotional display. Fenix thought about some of the things they had done to her. Had they not, on more than one occasion, casually dismissed her and her feelings?

Jewellyn resumed her emotional tirade, "You know darn well we love you, we would do anything for you, in fact we love you so much, we would, we would"- Here she couldn't contain herself any longer. She cried loudly, covered up her face with her hands and quickly turned around. She felt as if she could run away, but at this point she was rendered helpless by her emotions.

Aunt Tildy came up behind her, and put her hand on Jewellyns' shaking shoulder. A tear rolled down from her eye now. "You would even sacrifice yourselves, if it were to somehow save me."

Jewellyn turned around to face her, still sobbing. "Yes! that's just what I was going to say!" Auntie reached out and tried to hug her. Jewellyn accepted and embracing, they cried together a little. Fenix couldn't help it, a tear rolled down from his eye. He felt the same way and would do anything for Auntie. He watched them together, feeling strong emotions well up inside of him. They settled down a bit then, sat down and joined Fenix at the table.

Auntie looked at them with a much softer expression on her face and said. "I'm really sorry for being so rude like that. I guess sometimes even I forget how ill thought out words can hurt. I hope you can accept my apology for not even giving you a chance to finish what you were going to tell me." She held out her hands and looked at them both questioningly.

Fenix and Jewellyn nodded. "Of course we can accept, " Fenix replied. "On a couple of occasions we have been thoughtless as well, we hope you can accept our apology. What we want-"

"On only two occasions!" she said with mock surprise and raised eyebrows.

This caused an uneasy look between them , they fidgeted, and Fenix said "Well, we were only speaking..." Aunt Tildy cackled loudly here, startling Jewellyn and Fenix. As she continued to laugh they looked at her with concern. Hopefully she won't go into one of her choking episodes here, Jewellyn thought to herself. "What we want to do Auntie, is to give you a day off from the chores, at least once a week." Jewellyn said. "You work so hard for us, sacrificing yourself, that we want to help you out. We can sacrifice as well."

Aunt Tildy replied, "Well of course it isn't a contest, nor is it a tit-for-tat kind of thing." Here she raised her finger in emphasis, "But I know you mean it from the heart and that makes me feel really good about it all. Of course if you screw something up, I'll be lurking about," here she paused for effect, then resumed, "in case you need any help." After that, they all felt better with things being smoothed out. Fenix went up to his room just to lay down for a bit. Of course, as Fenix knew, there was always more going on just around the corner. He thought about later in the day when they were all going to meet at the tree again.