chapter 27

Final Chapter

"Pip, these are the people who were looking for Sally," Steven whispered worriedly, his imagination going into over-drive as Sally flung her arms round the woman's waist. What if they were distant relatives of little Sal's, come to take her back to Spain with them? Surely there were laws against kid sisters being taken away from foster families? And, if there weren't, he'd fight tooth and nail to get things changed.

"I did not know that you remember me. You were so very leetle ," Isabel wiped a tear from her eye, touched by the enthusiastic greeting. "But we never forget you, Sally. Always we think of you. We look for you a long time to know you are happy."

"I am Rico. My wife is Isabel."

Not good with speaking English, the man spoke slowly and carefully as he offered his hand, which Tom shook warmly though, like the rest of the Fletcher family, Pippa was still staring in astonishment.

And then suddenly it came back to her. Of course! The detailed report at the Home, the same report that had sadly recorded

"Sally has come to the conclusion that those she loves will inevitably leave her and so the wisest course of action is never to get close to anyone in the first place. To compensate, she has created for herself an imaginary friend "Milko", who can never be taken away from her and therefore always gives Sally the love, security and stability she so desperately craves"

had also mentioned, briefly, that a Spanish couple had looked after her immediately after her parents' tragic accident although the report hadn't deemed them important enough to name. But from Sally's happy expression, it was clear the little girl thought the world of them. And anyone who made Sally happy was an immediate friend of Pippa's.

"These are...my Spanish friends!" Sally said breathlessly, turning to Pippa. "They looked after me when..."

Her face clouded over. All that she remembered of her parents was the terrible sea sweeping over the shore and taking them and their sailing boat away forever.

"Oh, Sal!" Pippa stooped down and held the little girl tightly to her.

"But I am perfectly alright now," said Sally primly, remembering that Gran always said it wasn't polite to complain or cry in company.

"Oh, yes, it is. Pippa and Tom told Steven it was okay to cry. Gran was very old-fashioned, Sally." Milko had stopped dancing and come down off the stage. He was wearing his best red hat and looking very important. "But you are perfectly alright, you know, because you have a family now."

Sally nodded. Milko was very wise. "Because I have a family now," she added.

"I too will have family soon." Isabel's eyes shone as she smiled at Rico and touched her stomach. "It is to be a girl, Sally, and we name her for you."

Stella, listening to everything from the next row, was hardly surprised that there seemed to be hugs, kisses and squeals of delight all round. She dabbed her eyes again. Drat that guitar music. What had it done to her? Even though it wasn't playing right now she could still hear it in her mind and kept thinking how much she missed her small son Dominic. Wrapped up in her career, she hardly ever saw him. Well, she was going to change things. He wouldn't grow up with cold, distant parents as she had done. If Summer Bay had taught her anything, it had taught her that people mattered far more than money.

She caught her breath suddenly. There was so much she could write about this little town, especially about how caring foster parents could turn around the lives of children who came to them damaged by early experiences. Would her editor agree to a four-page spread? She even knew how she would begin it. With a poem she had read long, long ago, but dismissed then as a head-in-the-clouds-perfect-world-that-didn't-exist-dream:

If children live with criticism,
they learn to condemn
If children live with hostility,
they learn to fight
If children live with ridicule,
they learn to feel shy
If children live with shame,
they learn to feel guilty
If children live with encouragement,
they learn confidence
If children live with tolerance,
they learn to be patient
If children live with praise,
they learn to appreciate
If children live with acceptance,
they learn to love
If children live with approval,
they learn to like themselves
If children live with honesty,
they learn truthfulness
If children live with security,
they learn to have faith in themselves and others
If children live with friendliness,
they learn the world is a nice place in which to live

Janice Drummond, recovered now from her arthritis, played a few bars on piano to regain the crowd's attention. Donald Fisher tapped on the microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, time now for our grand raffle! All proceeds will be going towards the Summer Bay Primary fund and, as you can see, we have a wonderful array of prizes..." He indicated the table with the chocolates, bottle of wine and cuddly toys that Stella had looked at scornfully on entering the town hall and now thought homely, "Including, specially baked by Pippa Fletcher, a delicious chocolate gateaux!"

"Remember the rock cakes!" Somebody yelled, disguising their voice with cupped hands.

Pippa's reputation for being a hopeless cook was well known and the audience burst into laughter as Pippa turned swiftly. Carly looked round in wide-eyed innocence. She must have thought the voice had come from a corner of the ceiling because she was staring at a certain spot in fascination.

Stella found herself laughing along with everyone else. How could she ever have thought the world so cold and cynical when family and friends were always filling it with touches of love and affectionate humour?

"El GATO...?!!" Rico turned to his wife in bewilderment, as though he half expected to see Toby offered as one of the raffle prizes.

Isabel laughed. "In this country I believe it is cake - bizcocho. Ah, yes. How can I forget? We have message to give - Toby, el gato, he is very well now."

She was interrupted by a sudden burst of applause. Kathy Murray, as organiser of the talent contest, and Lance Smart, as the previous talent contest's winner, had begun making the draws and the first winner, one half of the very snobbish lamp-post lookalike couple from the extremely expensive cards-and-china shop in Yabbie Creek Shopping Centre, collected her chosen prize of a life-size cuddly toy puppy.

Everybody watched in surprise as, still walking as though her head might drop off at any minute, she bypassed both her husband and exclusive front row seat and glided elegantly towards the Fletchers, where, finally, she deigned to look down and even smiled - although, it has to be said, it was a peculiar smile and obviously hadn't been practised for some years.

"For you. I saw the look of longing on your face earlier when you were playing down by the stage," she said to Sally, who accepted the cuddly puppy in delight and turned to Milko in astonishment, but Milko didn't know either and could only shrug.

Ticket after ticket was drawn and prize after prize collected. Nobody seemed to mind that, in many cases, they had spent far more on raffle tickets than on the prizes they won and the applause threatened to bring the roof down. The vote counting was finished just as the last raffle prize was collected and a little old lady happily walked off, smiling broadly, the proud owner of a second-hand heavy metal CD.

"And now on to the winners of our talent contest," Donald Fisher announced. "In third place, that very talented band, The Gold Stars..."

Lance, of course, was placed second. Everyone knew who first place would go to. Except Steven Matheson. He frowned, wondering who on earth could have toppled Lance. He'd voted for Lance himself and assumed everybody else had. Maybe there'd been a mix-up in the counting. After all, Lance was just being nice when he'd suggested Steven would take first prize. He watched curiously, unaware that his family exchanged secret smiles. They were well aware of who'd won even if Steven wasn't!

The thin, long-haired amateur drummer, a student from Summer Bay High and last year's runner-up, played the requested drum roll. As it ended, Donald Fisher opened his mouth to reveal the name of the winner when, as though on cue, the doors burst dramatically open and Penny Bryant and Billy Jackson made their grand entrance.

"Wait! Wait! We have an announcement!"

All heads turned as Penny Bryant raised an imperious hand and strode down the aisle, closely followed by Billy Jackson, who was cradling a smug-looking, battle-weary ginger cat. Toby's hind leg was in a splint but that didn't seem to perturb a superstar like Toby, who, from behind Billy's shoulder, surveyed his loyal subjects with catly disdain.

"I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that Toby is going to make a full recovery," Penny spoke down into the microphone, making it give ear-splitting whistles. She paused, waiting for the cheers to die down before she resumed. "Which is a good thing, considering he has responsibilities now. My cat Fudge has just had a litter of six kittens. Toby is the father."

The crowd burst into laughter. Billy Jackson grinned. It had been easy to identify the culprit. Fudge was a lazy cat who rarely left the comfort of her large garden in Penny Bryant's house based in the school grounds and Toby had been the only cat to visit. What Fudge thought of her new status as a parent was anybody's guess, but Toby himself calmly licked his paw and washed his face.

For a few minutes the two principals were locked in serious, hushed conversation before Donald Fisher turned back to the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it seems we don't just have a winner tonight. We have a hero."

Donald Fisher went on to relate the story. Of how there'd been a fire at Summer Bay Primary caused by a carelessly discarded cigarette (Stella Nolan blushed). Of how the fire crew had discovered mice had chewed through electrical wiring, which meant the alarm hadn't sounded when the school was set ablaze, but, thankfully, two tourists and a local had been on hand to put out the fire before it did any serious damage. Of how at least one of the kittens would be needed to help Toby keep down the mice problem, but that the others would need good homes.

"Could we have one? Pippa, Tom, could we? Please?" Sally pleaded excitedly, cuddling both Mrs Martha and the toy puppy to her, remembering how long ago, when Gran and her neighbour Mrs Bellamy were both still alive, that Mrs Bellamy's two funny cats would run to her to mew all about their day.

"Heavens! I don't know. I never fostered a kitten before!" Pippa teased, her eyes laughing.

"Though, like you say every time the Home contacts us, there's always room for one more," Tom grinned.
"Of course. It's the Fletcher family motto." Pippa agreed, nodding gravely as though Tom had only just talked her round. "Okay, Sal. We put our names down to foster one of the kittens."

"Yay!" Sally yelled excitedly.

"...And so the winner of our talent contest is STEVEN MATHESON!"

Like the rest of the family, Steven was busy laughing at Sally and he jumped sky high when he heard his name. Even when Flathead had been talking about the school fire, he still hadn't connected it with himself. Had he really done that? Helped put out a fire when fire was his greatest terror? It was strange what you could find the courage to do when you had family to back you.

"Knock 'em dead, bro!" Frank handed over his beloved guitar.

"We'd say break a leg, like you're supposed to, but Toby's already done that," Tom observed, unable to resist.

"Pleee-ase, Tom," Carly groaned. "No more bad jokes! I can't take it anymore!"

To deafening applause, Steven walked up on to the stage, still feeling as though today was all a dream and he was likely to wake up any minute.

"We need a title for your guitar solo," Donald Fisher was saying.

Steven shrugged. He hadn't thought about titles. He didn't know any. And then he looked at his family.

Pippa and Tom, his foster parents, always there for their kids, watching his moment of triumph as proudly as his own parents would have done.

Frank, his hot-tempered, generous-to-a-fault older brother, with his arm wrapped round girlfriend Jenny's waist.

Carly, his kind-hearted, beautiful, headstrong sister, sitting beside boyfriend Zammo, their hands locked in each other's.

Lynn, the dreamer, his gullible, good-natured younger sister, talking nineteen to the dozen to old Lizzie, no doubt about some harebrained plan.

Little Sally, making him and everyone around her laugh when she carefully sat Mrs Martha and the toy puppy on her lap so that she could raise both arms to give him an enthusiastic double thumbs-up. For a minute there, he was sure he even caught a glimpse of Milko!

And suddenly the title came to him.

"It's called Going Home," he answered.

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If children live with hostility,
they learn to fight

"Go!" Scott said.

Kane and he sprang out of their hiding place. Taken by surprise, the kid didn't stand a chance. He was bigger than Kane, smaller than Scotty, and he was to regret ever looking at Scott Phillips the wrong way in school a few days ago.

Scott pushed him against the wall and delivered a hefty kick on the shin that made him howl in pain. Kane curled his fist like he'd often seen Dad do, aimed a punch at the kid's chin and grinned up at Scotty as he drew blood. He was heaps less sooky these days and Scotty reckoned he'd be top dog of Summer Bay Primary by the time Scotty himself left for Summer Bay High.

In the distance, another world, cheering and applause could be heard from Summer Bay Town Hall.

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If children live with acceptance,
they learn to love

Sally stopped. Why was she hopping up and down, first on one foot and then on the other foot? It didn't have anything to do with superstition and counting and keeping away the terrible sea. She wasn't even sure she was afraid of the terrible sea anymore.

She looked round at the people who had risen to their feet to clap Steven's guitar playing and to shout for yet another encore. How could she be afraid of the terrible sea with Pippa and Tom and Steven and Carly and Frank and Lynn and Isabel and Rico and Miss Murray and Lance and old Lizzie and all her other friends to protect her? But she still couldn't understand why she wanted to hop up and down.

"Well, it's because you're a kid," Milko explained. "And kids like to play. Anyway, I thought you were going to ask?"

"I am," Sally promised. "Pippa..."

"Yes, sweetie?"

And from Pippa's warm smile as she looked down and pushed back Sally's stray tendril of hair, the little girl somehow already knew what the answer would be before she asked.

"Pippa," she said, returning the warm smile. "Do you think it would it be okay if I called for a day or two longer?"

THE END

This story is dedicated to the character of Sally Fletcher 1988-Present Day

Children Learn What They Live © Dorothy Law Nolte