Chapter 3 – The Only Thing We Have To Fear…
Annie stood erect and confident as she held the receiver in her hand and spoke with Pepper's adoptive mom on that early fall day in 1943. "Hello?"
Molly looked on with curiosity as Annie spoke, trying to hear whatever she could.
Finally, during a pause when Pepper's mom was talking to someone else, Annie turned to Molly. She also saw Hattie out the corner of her eye. She wants to be in on everything.
Annie whispered to Molly: "It's not the worst news, but she's worried." Annie explained the telegram Mrs. Jackson had received. It seemed to say - in code – that Pepper was hiding and that they needed to pray hard for something big. She continued to try to sound positive, though.
Molly ran to let the others know. Katherine quickly asked the others to pray with her. Jacob had kept his Jewish traditions but tended to think in Messianic terms, so he didn't mind praying to Jesus. "Lord," Katherine prayed, "We're not sure where Pepper is or what she's doing, but you do. Lord protect her, may your strength and courage and wisdom guide her, help her do whatever she needs to do and bring her home safe. Amen."
While several said individual prayers, Duffy and Tessie returned with Molly to where Annie was seated on the desk and Hattie was trying to listen.
"…I know, Mrs. Jackson," Annie told her. "It's going to be hard. Wait, I just thought of something." She put the receiver on the desk. "Duffy, Tessie, Pepper said there's what, two years of strips we didn't use without Daddy Warbucks in it?"
Duffy hummed. They'd done quite a bit at the orphanage before inventing a rich character without knowing it would be Daddy Warbucks. With that plus some ideas they'd developed since, that sounded right. "Just about. We thought of that as a memorial, but if we don't know…"
"What if we make the Germans think she's gone. Then maybe she can get out easier." The others looked strangely at Annie. "It's worth a try. We can't kill off the main character, but we can have a major one die. Call the papers, tell them to start the sequence with him gone tomorrow." Duffy seemed to understand, but Tessie was dubious. "They have a month's worth already just in case, since they knew it was to be used as a memorial. We'll explain it later as just his playing dead of in a coma or something. It's a comic strip; it's easy."
"I'm wondering about the fact you said tomorrow. We usually send strips in a couple months in advance. Plus it's kind of late on Saturday," Tessie exclaimed anxiously.
"It can be done, though; they have the strips ready," Duffy repeated. She had to chuckle at Hattie's stunned look as she tried to process all the action. "Monday will look more natural. I'll talk with the newspaper about what will flow best"
"Daddy Warbucks should announce it so nobody thinks he died," Molly said frankly.
"Good point. It's a different Oliver Warbucks, he's not married to Mama Grace – in fact he just made three-star general in the comics - but still…" Annie picked up the receiver as Duffy ran to prepare to drive to the Warbucks estate to call the paper and also to ask Daddy Warbucks to announce that his character in the comic strip was going to die.
Katherine saw Hattie follow Duffy and threw up her hands. She'd hoped to continue the story = she could tell a shorter version for the others and the full one for Hattie later - but Katherine and July both agreed that it was useless. "We'll do it after supper," she said.
Annie returned to talking with Mrs. Jackson on the phone. "Sorry about that, Mrs. Jackson." She explained her plan. "You never know if someone in Europe is paying attention."
"I admire how clever you girls are. I'm just so scared. We've invested so much; Pepper has come so far. I understand why she felt like she had to go…" Meredith Jackson trailed off.
"It's hard on all of us," Annie said.
Meredith Jackson's husband got on the phone with Annie while his wife gathered her thoughts. "Obviously, as you know, Pepper went through a lot even before she got to the orphanage. She needed a lot of babying at first; she needed time to be a little girl. Thankfully Meredith was able to cut down on her hours as a midwife - there aren't as many used nowadays anyway, and even a decade ago there were more and more births in hospitals - and be there for her.
"Once Pepper felt free to be herself, though, and got through all that, she felt like she needed to do something. She had prepared herself, I guess, for something." Mr. Jackson recalled his next words very vividly. "I remember telling her it was okay if she needed to stay back and get more of that mothering, and maybe just follow Meredith in medicine or something, along with the comic strip. But that if she felt the need to help someone else, as dangerous as it sounded, she should do it so she didn't live with the regret."
Mrs. Jackson took the phone back. "I don't fault him for saying that. I realize he's right. Something in Pepper made her feel like she needed to do this, and that meant more to her than just cutting down on the comic strip and becoming a nurse or something. I think she'd have been miserable. It's just so hard, as a mother, with a son in harm's way as a soldier, to have the girl we thought of as our baby - who we adopted when the others were out of the house - also in such danger."
"I know. I still remember her worrying she wouldn't find a home after a day or two, and then Daddy Warbucks had called some medical associations and said he wanted a recommendation for a kind, tender couple who could give her individual attention. A few people in mediatalked about it with Duffy, but you took Pepper home before Duffy or Tessie got homes." July and Kate – who eventually swapped names, as it were – had found parents first after Molly was also adopted by Oliver Warbucks.
Annie wasn't sure what to say as they closed their call. She recalled how Pepper would hang back sometimes and not want to do "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" with them for a minute or two; or any dance number. Duffy especially had enjoyed leading dance numbers, and it was their favorite song. Whatever that initial talk with the envoy had been about, the adventures she'd created to escape at the orphanage had morphed into the idea that - if there was just enough help - maybe she could do a little something over there.
Then, a song came to her mind, something she'd made up about her parents as a child.
She sang part of it for them, but she changed the lyrics a little. She, Molly, and a couple others gathered there sang the last word after a pause: "…But maybe soon, you'll both wake up to find you will be holding your baby. Maybe."
"Thanks, Annie," Mrs. Jackson said before they said goodbye.
"What was that about Sweden?" Molly asked as she and the others left the office.
Annie knew Molly would keep the secret about her speculation about Pepper's discussion with the Swedish envoy. She'd really been agreeing with Mrs. Jackson – who had been the one to mention Sweden - that it was possible. Still, she didn't want to let anything out, just in case. She knew Molly understood the security risks.
So, Annie just told her about the first time Pepper had met the Swedish envoy. "You were taking swimming lessons and getting really good at it," Annie said. "I guess Pepper was, too, by then. Anyway, Pepper was talking about tennis with Daddy Warbucks and Daddy's friend the envoy. Pepper learned that zero was called love in tennis. And Pepper made the joke that if love means nothing in tennis it should have been Miss Hannigan's favorite sport."
They giggled. Molly made a voice akin to Groucho Marx to add her own spice to it. "Well, Miss Hannigan and her brother certainly had lots of rackets," she said, referring to the slang term for criminal schemes to make money. The sisters laughed.
Days later, Pepper used binoculars to look out the second-floor window of a house. "Their they are. Nazi troops coming in force," she muttered. She didn't know much Danish, but she knew enough that Tove, her friend in the Danish Resistance, didn't always need to interpret – Tove knew a fair amount of English, and the 20-somethigns had taught each other, too..
"Yes, the-" Tove heard her brother charging up the stairs. She sighed as he entered the bedroom. "I don't have to ask, do I?"
"The news has been leaked. Just as we feared. They will come for the Jews on Rosh Hashanah."
"That doesn't give us much time. The leaders are being told so they can tell their congregations tomorrow?" They were. Tove looked back at Pepper, who was surprisingly stoic as she lowered her binoculars. "Just as we feared. This is what you came back for, Pepper, as you said. Are you as confident as you appear, like that comic strip heroine you created?" Tove asked, trying to hide her own anxiety. Her friend Pepper had been taken in Germany for questioning months ago, but released quickly. Her supposed role as war correspondent wouldn't be believed easily now.
Pepper gave a short nod. "She's named after a friend. I knew she was nuts getting' out so often to try to find her parents, who I figured were dead after so many years. She thought I was, too, a few times - one in particular she really thought I was insane. I guess we both were."
"We can't promise to get you out if you're taken in this time; we will certain watch and wait if we know, so we can get you back to Sweden if you're released…" Tove trailed off.
"I know the dangers. I'm ready, if it's my time," Pepper said, though she didn't really think of specifics. "Maybe after Miss Hannigan's threats it doesn't feel as real. Or maybe it is and I justy prepared myself for it in that dump of an orphanage long ago. I just know I always needed to know I was free to do something. Not just be on some dumb ol' radio, for instance, but to get out and dance. And, when I heard how bad it was for the kids over here, I had to come to this pit that Europe has become and do something." She got out a map and studied it.
Tove helped her make sure Pepper had all the safehouses and things memorized. "We hope to get Swedish permission in a few days. Still, it will a race to make sure the Germans don't find them before we can get them out. I think your Danish is good enough, and your vision. We will help as best we can. Even though this may be another time your friend Annie thinks you are crazy trying to do all this," Tove said, trying to lighten the mood."
"She knows I needed to do something. She knows it's a deep, dark pit for people here," Pepper said. "A lot worse than that dump was. But, William Carey, a famous missionary, asked people to pray as he went to India 150 years ago. He didn't know the language, and didn't know what all he'd face with the possible hostile people and disease and things. He said it was like going into a pit. Then, he said, 'I'll go down into the pit if you hold the ropes.'
"As crazy as she was, I know I can trust Annie and the others arfe holding the ropes."
Days earlier, back in New York, the workers and orphans had finished supper, Hattie tried to inch away into the playroom. Once she knew she'd been spotted, Hattie said, "Come on, Miss Duffy, let's sing like the Boylan Sisters!"
"You love doing that with me," Duffy said as she scooped her up. "It's good to get positive attention, isn't it?" Hattie nodded. "I'm glad I came here again. I've met you; that's so much fun. I gave you a treat by letting you come with me. But we still have to talk about your lying habit. And, this is part of it," Duffy insisted as they sat with the others in the living room.
The girls who weren't so young they were getting bathed or put to bed were gathering already. Katherine spoke lowly to Duffy, "Hattie loves testing you. I think she knows you care."
"Maybe that's why Molly tested us by shouting 'Get to work' and stuff like Miss Hannigan," Annie suggested. "She was doing that by this time; she did it within weeks of coming in fact."
Katherine said that was possible. It was a way for her to let off steam without fear of reprisal. "July – well, Kate then – had been the same way a little, but she was shier. Molly needed more of an outlet, though she was still well-behaved. Miss Hannigan did scare her, and that meant she stuck to Annie and I a lot. She needed to know she was safe," the group's mother figure finished.
"So," Jacob summarized the last couple minutes of the story, "Annie saw July – who is now Miss Katherine - for an instant after she was brought back to the orphanage after running away. Annie gave her the address the store owner had written and whispered that it was someone who cared and she'd tell more later."
"She probably had you all doing busy work, too," one girl asked.
"That was the last time, when Grace was there soon after Annie got back. Then, we worked through lunch and got the sewing project mostly done, we ate and Miss Hanigan let us play outside a few minutes and said we wouldn't go out the rest of the month since Annie had left – except she forgot about that since she was a little anxious," Duffy said.
Annie agreed. "Right. July – well, she was July back then - was concerned for me…"
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
July took the napkin and stuffed it in her blouse. She would hide it with some personal items after Annie went downstairs. For now, as she led a curious Molly and Kate away, she noticed both looking back and seemed a bit scared as Miss Hannigan went from a fake hug of Annie as Boris left to dropping and slightly shoving her as she released her and began yelling.
"It's okay. She won't do any more pushing." July, still eleven and not catching everything, only now realized that was the first time Molly had seen Miss Hannigan this mad at Annie. She felt bad that she hadn't warned Molly so the little girl would be more prepared.
"Now, get up," Miss Hannigan ordered Annie. Annie was very slow to do so, - she wasn't hurt, though she was good at flopping as if she was – but she didn't want Miss Hannigan to have it easy. Miss Hannigan repeated: "Get up, you rotten orphan…"
"I'm not an orphan!" she said defiantly as she stood.
"Don't give me that! Until your supposed parents supposedly come for you, you are an orphan here, and that's that!" Having shouted Annie into silence, Miss Hannigan rebuked her more before grabbing her arm and marching her toward the cellar, where she opened the door and jerked her back slightly. "You'll go down there and stay there till I let you out!"
"Yes, Miss Hannigan," Annie said through clenched teeth.
She marched down into the dusky cellar as she heard the lock click behind her. She thought about her missing parents. She sat on the bottom step with her head in her hands.
"I know they're out there. I'm not a rotten orphan. No orphan is even a rotten one," she told herself as a tear inched down her cheek. "But, I guess he's right. It's still better than it could be here. And it could get better. And, it will. Someday." She got up after a moment to sing the song she'd invented down there before - "Tomorrow" - while walking around. Finally, she found a place to curl up for brief nap. After that, she'd find a way to entertain herself.
She wouldn't have to wait hours this time, though.
Later that morning, Molly ran up to July in the kitchen; someone had donated a few loafs of bread and July was slicing it.
"What is it, Molly?" July asked tenderly as the little girl hugged her waist. "You look scared."
"I didn't mean to," Molly said. "Miss Hannigan scared me."
July knelt down. "Didn't mean to what, Molly?" She knew they'd all had to scrub different parts of the orphanage since Annie had snuck out.
She found out the next moment as Miss Hannigan stomped into the kitchen. Pepper looked over from where she was slicing apples as Miss Hannigan spoke. "All right, Molly. What do I always teach you? Never tell a lie? It couldn't have been Kate who broke that glass like you said. She was clear on the other side of the orphanage cleaning with Tessie!"
July began to say that Molly was too scared of Miss Hannigan right then, but knew that wouldn't work. Not directly, anyway. "Don't worry, Miss Hannigan, I'll teach her a lesson. It'll be better coming from me, since I'm usually so nice." She knew lying was a very serious offense to Miss Hannigan, so she would have to do something. But, Mis Hannigan also knew July had punished Kate and Molly before and they listened well.
"You're just a no-good orphan," Miss Hannigan complained to July.
"Remember you said you didn't want the responsibility of dealing with us," July reminded her.
It seemed like it might work. Miss Hannigan's will power was wavering a little as she ran into what she'd said before.
"I've punished all the younger girls before, remember? I'll make sure she learns her lesson real good, and it'll have more impact," July said. She started to list a time or two. She knew she had a good chance of winning the right to punish Molly, with no further complications.
Then, Pepper spoke.
"Yeah, Miss Hannigan, why let July handle Molly when you can force Annie to do it?" Pepper asked. Miss Hannigan still looked angry, but she began to look a little intrigued as she gazed at Pepper; more so than she had at July at first. "That Annie protects Molly like she's her mother, and then she drives you up the wall by running away," Pepper reminded her.
"Pepper," July said lowly, "Molly was scared because of how Miss Hannigan was screaming at Annie, I'm sure I can handle-"
Pepper remained undeterred. "That's right, Miss Hannigan, you can even blame Annie for that. Molly would have told the truth if it hadn't been for being scared after you were so mad at Annie because of what Annie did."
"What's important is Molly told a lie." Miss Hannigan maintained angrily.
July knew Pepper's strategy wasn't a sound one. However, then Pepper switched gears.
"Then you tell that Annie she needs to handle her so-called 'little girl.' Tell Annie if she can't find the parents she imagines she has somewhere, at least she can punish the little girl she thinks she has here. It's your chance to drive Annie up the wall for a change. And you better believe coming from Annie, whatever she does will make ten times the impression you could make no matter what you did," Pepper finished with a flourish. July gawked at her.
She did so even more when Miss Hannigan looked harshly at Molly and put a finger in her face. "Your days are numbered!" she scolded loudly. That was something she had said at other time to the girls when little, from innocent things like playing in the laundry to other things. She knew the girl wasn't big enough to be handled like the oldest ones – this was why she said it that way, and would even a couple years later just before they got out. "You'll make sure what you and Annie do will have more of an impact than what I could do?" she asked July.
"Yes, Miss Hannigan. Of course." What else could July say? Miss Hannigan was about to do what July had hoped to get her to see was needed and let a gentler, more loving person handle Molly. It was just that Pepper had taken her diplomatic approach and… how would she even describe what Pepper had just done? "We'll be in the dorm area."
As Miss Hannigan stomped away, Pepper answered July's stare by approaching and speaking in a whisper. "Hey, I made it so one of us girls punished Molly, and even sprung Annie for ya."
July was still stunned as the girls walked toward their dorm area. "That wasn't the best way to do it. Or probably even the easiest." She avoided saying what she wanted to – that it certainly wasn't the sanest. "This is Miss Hannigan - who knows what she'll tell Annie!"
"Well, I trust Annie to make sure it's not as harsh as she says," Pepper persisted.
July didn't want to argue. They had to remain united through this. But, sometimes she wondered what went on in that tough mind of Pepper's to make her think such things.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"Oooo, you were in trouble! You were in for it then," Hattie teased Molly in a sing-song voice.
One of the other girls knew what Hattie was getting at. "Annie might not have hit her, Hattie. Remember Miss Katherine said they useta wash mouths out with soap?"
"That sounds like Miss Hannigan. I mean, touching the soap a bit with your tongue I can see if need be. But, she sounds like the type who would shove it in your mouth," Jacob said.
"She would. It was dangerous unless you made sure no soap got swallowed because of the chemicals. Miss Hannigan didn't think of that when she did it, you're right, Jacob," Duffy said.
"Yeah, she picked on us like a little kid with how she made fun of us, let alone calling us rotten orphans and such," Tessie said.
Hattie's friend Nancy, eager to get back to the story, tried to cut Hattie off when Hattie kept teasing. "You punished them sometimes, Miss Katherine. What would you do when you punished them?"
"How I handled it depended on the situation. We always promised to keep it private, just like we do with you girls so we don't embarrass you," Katherine said.
"You like that we keep it private, right, Hattie?" Duffy said as a warning, as the girl was clearly going overboard with her teasing.
Molly had ignored her just like when Miss Hannigan would say "Your days are numbered" and the like. But, when Hattie turned the name "Warbucks" into "war-butt," Molly spoke forcefully.
"You!" Molly said sternly, sticking a finger in her tormentor's face and bringing up something Hattie had done a couple weeks earlier. She spoke the word "you" a bit more forcefully than the others each time. "The kids all remember you being scolded by Miss Duffy for something bad you did, Hattie. And you kept talking over her and making silly faces to distract her while Miss Duffy tried to talk to you more calmly." Hattie leaned back a little now, her teasing grin slowly turning into an embarrassed one. "And when Miss Duffy got louder and tried to put you in the corner chair… Should I go on?"
Hattie was really blushing by the time Molly asked her question. The incident was very fresh in her mind. "No." She turned and threw her arms around Duffy, who hugged her.
Lucy had become friends with Hattie by this time, having accepted her apology and the great change in how Hattie treated her. Still, like before, Lucy felt the need to scold her friend. "The only reason Miss Molly would be called that is you wouldn't stop scaring the little ones telling them about Hansel and Gretel and what would happen to them. Miss Molly made-"
"She doesn't need reminded of that," Molly whispered tenderly to Lucy, knowing the joke Lucy was going to make – which made Molly sound a lot harsher than she had been. She'd acted in love just as Duffy had the time she'd begun to mention and as had happened a few other times with Hattie; indeed, like Miss Kathy had a few times years ago, from what she'd been told. Hattie had used words destructively at times, and her tormenting reminded Molly and her friends of Miss Hannigan's cruelty – which had always been emotional, not physical. But, they all knew it was important to teach Hattie – and the others – not to get like that. "I stopped because I knew one bit would remind her without saying any more. And, it made her stop, right, Lucy?"
"You're right, Miss Molly," Lucy said apologetically. She was around Hattie age, and knew Hattie had had a very difficult home. In fact, she tried to remember if Hattie had been placed in another orphanage and been too much for them. It was probably just a rumor spread by other girls, but one never knew.
Lucy wasn't the only one starting to tease Hattie back after Hattie said what she did. The friends had to keep Hattie's other fellow orphans from teasing Hattie. It might have been unseen but Hattie had told them what had eventually happened, and they would remind her in the same tone Hattie had used if Annie and her friends didn't act fast.
"You've been a handful sometimes, Hattie. But no matter what I – or anyone here – have to do to help you learn to behave, I'll always love you," Duffy said once the remarks from the other orphans quieted down. Hattie heaved a contented sigh and said "I love you, too" to Duffy. "Do you have something to say before we go on, Hattie?"
"I'm sorry, Miss Molly." Hattie and Molly hugged, too. Molly knew Hattie tried to get attention in mean ways sometimes, ways which reminded all of them of Miss Hannigan a little. Hattie was improving. Her next statement showed this. "I know I'm real bad when I sound like Miss Hannigan," the little girl said out of the blue.
Hattie would always remember the disappointment and sadness in any of their faces no matter how they had to punish her. It was so different from what she'd lived with before she'd eventually become a ward of the state and ended up there. She was just starting to make the connection without having to be told that some of her taunting not only crossed the line but might remind them of Miss Hannigan.
"I love you, Hattie. You'll have your own stories to tell someday to help kids learn. About how we loved you and helped you with all you've gone through, no matter how sassy or mean you'd got." Molly and others all knew Hattie needed someone to model kindness for her. They were determined to show how she should act and treat others. Molly looked Hattie in the eye. "The key to having those stories is learning to be good and not tell lies. Anyway, back to this story," she said.
Hattie rested in her lap. "Okay," she said, now content to listen. She knew she'd been in worse trouble several times. Hattie knew Miss Katherine – then July – could be trusted back then, just like she could trust her, Duffy, Molly, and all of them to always care for her.
A/N: I loved how Hattie grew in my mind from some real liar's sidekick into a main character. I don't have time or ideas for more, but if you want to use her you can if you keep to how I do characters like this Miss Hannigan, as Annie says in the '99 movie, she's worse because she doesn't hit but they don't know what she'll do; making attempts to help Hattie more interesting.
Funnily, idea of a connection to "Hurricane Hattie" of the Born Loser comics remained as she developed. Is she her grandmother? For that matter, when the main comic strip characters aren't there, does a weird vortex make us see this Hattie answering questions at a much higher grade level than the comics one, or interacting with her mom, over the years? One Sunday one decades ago where she's in trouble for just making funny faces could only be true if there was part we don't see before the first panel where she's doing it while being scolded for having done something bad. Or, maybe we're seeing this one before she gets to the orphanage, or maybe I'm going crazy with sci-fi stuff like time travel vortexes.
