Chapter 2: Prelude 2 - Candy
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After telling Candy that he was her prince of the hill, Albert invited her to live with him and Aunt Elroy in Lakewood. It was like a dream came true for Candy. With Albert by her side, all life problems were solved. Neal never came to disturb again, not even once! Dark memories with Terry fluttered away like a gentle summer breeze - it wasn't painful at all anymore. Candy's heart bloomed counting her blessings. In fall, Candy went back to school to become a doctor, following her heart desire to care for others which stayed strong.
Then, Annie and Patty got married and moved to Argentina with their husbands, Archie and Stear. After Stear came back from the war, his parents just didn't want to be far apart from their sons anymore and took them all with them to Argentina, the headquarter of their business enterprise.
This summer, Annie and Patty visited Candy, the first time they met again in more than three years. Last summer Candy was busy with her summer classes in medical school. The previous summer, Annie and Patty were busy adjusting their new life in Argentina. This year, they were still busy, but Annie and Patty wanted so much to show Candy their baby sons.
The three girls met in the Andrew's upscale private beach in New York. Candy who naturally loved children just had a blast with Annie and Patty's babies. They took a walk along the beach, played in the water, and picked up shells - sometimes with the babies sometimes not - like what they're doing this afternoon.
"Candy I need to go!" Annie yelled to her friend who's busy combing the ground looking for shells. "Get to nurse Archie junor!"
"Me too!" Patty added. "Stear junior must be hungry now!"
Candy looked at her watch. Time flew when they're together. They had been looking for shells for more than two hours!
"Coming!" Candy gave a quick final survey of the ground one more time. Other than empty carapaces of crabs, she got pretty much nothing. She ran to the secluded area behind a large rock to have one last quick check hoping to get at least one shell worth showing off to her friends.
"Ekkk!" Suddenly Pouppe shrilled. The skunk jumped down from Candy's shoulder to sniff on a tiny moving crab. Candy laughed watching the skunk trying to catch the crab. It's her idea to take Pouppe to the beach. She was grateful when Albert let her take Pouppe. Her prince never failed her.
The crab disappeared under one large elongated object and Pouppe stopped there waiting for the crab to come out. It caught Candy's attention.A large shell?, she thought, hopeful.
Candy moved forward to better observe the peculiar looking object that's partially hidden by seaweed.
Bah! Only a wine bottle!, Candy sighed in dismay. Disappointedly, she straightened up. Her last hope to get the coveted shell dashed.
"Come on Pouppe, let's go back," Candy called the skunk who was busy sniffing the bottle.
"Forget the crab, Pouppe! We go home! You heard Annie and Patty!" Candy said again.
Pouppe was ignoring Candy.
"Pouppe! Pouppe!" Candy called again and again. "POUPPE!"
Still Pouppe ignored her. Candy came forward to pick up the skunk. "What's the matter with you? We've seen so many broken bottles -"
Suddenly, it occurred to Candy that the bottle was not at all broken. And… it was corked! The cork was sealed meticulously well – too well - with additional wax protection around it. It seemed... someone on purposely wanted to protect something inside!
Candy stopped to examine the bottle closer. It looked so unlike other bottles she often found on the beach. Curiously, Candy pulled the bottle up, all flushed by the idea that it might have a message inside just like the book she read when she was little. She scrubbed the bottle quickly with her hand to wipe the vegetation from the surface.
"What on earth…?" Candy whispered. She lifted the bottle and turned it toward the sun to have a better view of the bottle inside. Whoa!, she gasped seeing a scroll like object inside the bottle.
"Ekkk ... eekkk," Pouppe shrilled loudly startling Candy.
"Yes… yes… You saw that Pouppe? A scroll…!" Candy murmured. Message in a bottle? A century old message ? A letter from lost lover? A treasure map?, Candy thought excitedly. "Annie! Patty! Come!"
"Eek! Eeek!" Pouppe could feel the excitement. He jumped up and down.
Patty and Annie quickly came.
"Candy, what?"
"Look...!" Candy held up the bottle and showed it to the two girls. "A scroll! There's a scroll inside inside the bottle!"
Excitedly the two girls moved a step closer to have a better view of the bottle.
"MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE!" Patty and Annie gasped simultaneously. They stared at the bottle in awe.
"Good heavens!" Annie shrieked.
"I can't believe that this finally happens to me!" Patty added excitedly. She always dreamed of finding a bottle with a message inside like stories in the books she read.
"Open it, Candy!"
"Yes. Open it!"
Candy tried to pull the cork out. "I can't! It's too well sealed."
"Oh goodness... a love letter that's for sure! Must be!" Annie sighed.
"Or a sailor who sought for help before their ship sank," Patty guessed, trembling.
They're so overcome by their own guesses. Annie and Patty tried to pull the cork too but they couldn't either.
"Let's go home first," Candy suggested. The babies were hungry!
Annie and Patty nodded. "We try with tools!" Patty said.
"Burn the wax seal!" Annie pointed out.
Pouppe and the girls ran back to the mansion. Like what Patty and Annie had predicted, their sons were crying wildly in hunger. Patty and Annie hurriedly nursed their baby sons. Candy rewarded Pouppe with nuts then took the bottle to the kitchen to melt the wax with the fire in the stove.
It was super amazing!
Staring at the bottle, impatiently Candy waited for her friends to take care of their babies. She knew they wanted to see her open it. Then… with three of them taking a deep breath, Candy energetically pulled the cork out. Their hearts thudded when they heard the pop sound.
Candy took the bottle upside down and shook the content out. It's a leather pouch tied neatly with a leather string. Equally unblinked, Pouppe stared at it. Annie passed scissors to Candy so she could cut the string. The pouch was opened and inside there's a roll of paper... Gently, Candy pulled it out and unrolled it.
"A letter!" They gasped, looking at the handwriting on the paper.
Their heart missed several beats. They looked at one other and read the letter together.
Patty finished the first. "Wow...," she whispered softly.
They stared blankly at the letter and sank to the sofa behind them.
Annie recovered first. "Touching..." She wiped a tear that fell over her lashes. Archie never wrote a touching letter to her.
Candy nodded in agreement. None of Albert's or Terry's past letters, even at the height of their romance, was a tenth as romantic as this. The lover Neo referred to must have a heart made of ice to make Neo suffer this much.
Patty took of her glasses to wipe her wet eyes as well. She remembered the desperation she felt when Stear went to war and could understand what Neo meant that he couldn't tell the difference between being awake or asleep.
"Neo...," Candy reflected after she could speak again. "It's a she or he, I wonder?"
"A-a man... I think," Patty said, blushing. Her voice was so low almost like a whisper. She really didn't want to talk about men except her own Stear, but this topic was too intriguing to stay quiet.
"A man!" Annie snapped decisively. "It's obvious. The blocks of the letters look bold and masculine."
"That's what I think too," Candy said, staring at the handwriting. Undeniably alpha. Candy thought of some men she considered masculine to help imagine Neo better... Was he like Albert? Terry? Her chest felt stiff when she thought of how Anthony might have looked if he had grown up. Unfulfilled love... Very sad.
"Does it have an address?" Patty asked.
Candy flipped the paper. "A box number in Chicago," Candy muttered.
"Chicago!" Patty and Annie exclaimed at the same time. "A small world!"
"It was written about... four years ago." Candy pointed at the date.
Her friends nodded.
"I wonder how he's doing," Annie reflected.
"We'll never know," Patty murmured.
They were silent for a minute, buried in their own thoughts. Candy broke the silence.
"We can find out...," Candy whispered.
"Uh?" Annie and Patty frowned looking at Candy.
"I will write to Neo," Candy said quietly.
Incredulously, Annie stared open-mouthed at Candy. "NO! What if he's a lunatic?"
Patty, next to Candy, was equally wide eyes. "Everyone knows the Andrews in Chicago, while you don't know Neo." She trembled worriedly. "It's dangerous. What if he came to harm you!"
"Yes Candy. Don't write to him," Annie said.
Candy scratched her nose, thinking. Her kind heart couldn't simply ignore this sad man. It's against her value as a health-care worker to ignore someone who's in need of help either mentally or physically.
"I'll do it anonymously," Candy said slowly after some consideration.
"What! How?" Annie and Patty cried at the same time.
"The Andrews are too famous. Impossible!" Annie added.
"Candy, you should talk to Albert first." Patty shivered imagining dangers.
"Albert is in California," Candy replied. Aunt Elroy always warned her against disturbing Albert when he's away in a business trip. "Don't worry," she added assuringly. "I'll talk to George. I am sure he can arrange an anonymous identity for me!"
Annie and Patty looked at one another before nodded slowly.
"Let's do it!" Candy quipped.
Candy called George to tell him her request. In the morning of the second day, George called back with one anonymous address for Candy to use.
Sadly, Annie and Patty already had to go back to Argentina. Candy took them to the port in New York. Tearfully, they hugged and bid farewell until the ship whistle shrilled loudly and the wooden step was about to be removed. The three girls waved to each other until they're lost to a distant fog.
Then, Candy remembered Neo and stopped crying. She busied herself preparing and composing her first letter to Neo all the way through the train journey back to Chicago.
Back in Chicago, Candy confirmed her anonymous identity plan with George. George explained about the special box number assigned for her. A letter that came would subsequently go through two steps forwarding system. There's no way one could associate the box number with "Candice Andrew". George would handle the forwarding personally…
It sounded complicated…
Convinced, Candy went to the post office to mail her letter to Neo.
-To be continued-
Thanks for reading
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. NOTE.
Pouppe = Poppi = Albet's skunk (from manga)
Neo = Neal. Check chapter 1
"alpha" here means: very man. (Something like that :)
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