In 1939, Pepper reacts to events with a bold, perhaps crazy plan recalling her fire drills worrying about Miss Hannigan. Annie brings interesting guests to Warbucks Home For Girls, and she and the others must handle an orphan who acts like Miss Hannigan. July - left with no name - ponders family. Kplus for Holocaust references.
A/N: My fic "Unending Trust" reveals the results of this plan a little more, but this won't give any bigger spoiler warnings than one review for it does. This goes into more detail on how Pepper's plan began and other things, as well as showing more about the Quiet Orphan and how she develops and helps Annie. So by all means, read the other also, you'll enjoy it.
Young Annie fans who wish to learn more about the Holocaust will enjoy Lois Lowry's excellent book "Number the Stars," about a girl helping her friend during the occupation of Denmark. It, and the movie "Miracle At Midnight," are good intros to a horrible time in history which still inspired some to heroism. The world of Annie - where, like the musical, I add real people such as Senator Tydings, etc. - sees things brighter for some. May we all make the world brighter for others regardless of whether they are like us.
Overcoming Evil With Good
Chapter 1 - Fierce Opposition
"This is an outrage! Doesn't he remember Maryland's Senator Tydings asked the Senate for a resolution - which some blustering idiots kept from getting out of committee - condemning that man and his party in January of 1934? That was over 5 years ago! And look what happened last November…"
Molly Warbucks gazed worriedly at her adoptive dad from well outside his office. "I've never seen him this mad," the eleven and a half year old timidly told her adoptive sister, Annie, and their mom, Grace, in a hushed voice. It didn't totally remind her of Miss Hannigan back at the orphanage, and yet….
"It'll be alright," Annie told her as she put an arm around her. "He asked whoever that was to put the president on the phone. Maybe that will help."
"I can understand why he's upset. Even before he adopted you, he always cared about his employees." Grace told them a story or two about individuals he had helped.
Molly was glad to hear this. She knew in the back of her mind he'd never start screaming like Miss Hannigan. Still, it seemed very odd. He had become a lot calmer and warmer since meeting Annie and eventually adopting her and Molly.
"He didn't mind what race they were. He was upset whenever people weren't allowed to take part safely in the free market that America had offered him. As long as he was on top he didn't care," Grace, now his wife of 5+ years, noted. "Once he got there, he figured that the more people he supported, the more people could keep him on top. He supports equal treatment."
"I remember when I first got here. He came in and Mama Grace told him one of his messages was from Gandhi. Remember, Molly, he's that guy who keeps trying to get the British to give India independence? He let me listen in when he called back in the evening the next day, and gave me a globe to see where that was while he did. I couldn't believe how far away that was," Annie said. She supposed that Gandhi might have been in San Francisco when he called but even then it was astounding.
"He's probably the only person who could afford to call India," Grace said with a chuckle. She knew there weren't many, even now. She, too, recalled Annie's look and shout of "Leaping Lizards" as Oliver told her it was about 8 in the morning in India, and then her look of awe as she scanned the globe while Oliver and Gandhi talked. Oliver had friends in Britain, too, and walked a fine line, but the fact Gandhi supported peaceful protests -and, perhaps, some chances for new markets in a free India - allowed Warbucks to support him. The mere fact Gandhi could call and know he'd get a reply said something about Oliver Warbucks.
"...Listen, Franklin, the British have promised to take in many Jewish children from Germany - and elsewhere if needed. I know you are worried about how these children would be treated here in the United States, but my Warbucks Home for Girls is close to bringing in our first black girl orphan. And we have a duty to others-"
Grace wasn't sure if Oliver would support forcing the South to integrate, but at least they were in New York. "I think he is bothered by the way Southerners act, and I think he blames them for what he is complaining about to President Roosevelt right now."
"What happened?" Annie asked a moment later as Warbucks left his office while still fuming a little.
"Oh, President Roosevelt promised he would think about doing something for the children in Germany. Sometimes I wish we could kick some of those Southern states out of the Union; that d-...arn Reynolds in North Carolina is keeping a bill to bring up to 20,000 children in from even getting out of committee. I'm sure Eleanor would support bringing as many people in as possible."
"Is there something we could do on our own?" Molly asked.
As expected, Oliver calmed down as he looked at his girls and spoke. "It's not that simple. Anyone coming from overseas needs a passport. They need identification. And, there are enough hard-headed people that President Roosevelt worries that people wouldn't be allowed to settle here because they are Jewish," Warbucks explained before forcing himself to take a deep breath.
"Could we just change their names?" Annie reminded him: "That Rooster guy knew someone who forged a birth certificate."
"Annie!..." Molly gawked at her, dumbfounded, her mouth so wide she looked ready to swallow a bird whole. She wondered why Annie would think of using that person, not thinking that others might be able to, as well. All she could think about was that Rooster had planned to kidnap Annie - and who knew what else?
Warbucks smiled. "You are so clever, Annie. But, I think - at least I hope - I can trust President Roosevelt to do the right thing. And, don't worry, Molly, if I would use anyone like that, I'd make sure they had no way of getting at Annie - or you. I'd make d…arn sure I had them on our side."
"Pepper would probably come out and say whatever Molly's thinking," Grace added as Molly's look softened a little. "She's coming over. She's been through a lot, but she really has overcome it all," Grace said happily. When they rescued Annie and her friends from Miss Hennigan's orphanage. Pepper had been quite grumpy and doubtful about finding happiness.
Annie noticed Molly's still shocked gaze. "I guess I did sound crazy mentioning that, huh? But, I'd never use Rooster himself, Molly." Knowing she should probably redirect Molly's thoughts, she added: "Let's think about the new orphan we might have coming."
"Who wants to lick the spoon?"
Several girls jumped excitedly as July looked on and heaved a wistful sigh. She gazed at her surroundings with a broad grin.
One orphan girl, not understanding July's look, asked: "Do you need to lick it, too?"
"Sure, why not," July, almost 19, said as she walked over to where the girls had just finished helping the cook, MIss Sophie, make a cake. Sophie liked to volunteer there, though she wasn't the regular cook. As Sophie put the cake in the oven to bake, July was glad to have the distraction.
Sophie whispered to July as the girls scattered. "I get the same feeling sometimes. Five, six years ago I was cooking in a Hooverville."
"The floor plan is even a little different. They had to knock out some walls and so on. You'd never know it was the same place. For me, I guess it's about what I missed…"
July was interrupted by Miss Rose, the "on site headmistress" for the Girls' wing and helping to oversee the Boys' wing, too, while someone gained a little more experience. Although Grace had left the position of full-time private secretary to Oliver Warbucks, something she'd done less and less since their marriage. Grace now oversaw the care of the orphans in the boys' and girls' homes.
"Good news," the fifty-something Rose said merrily. "We have a special orphan girl coming." To the others' expectant looks, Rose said, "I need to gather the girls and remind them what we talked about."
"So, this is it," July said. She inhaled deeply as she pondered the talks about how any girl might look different but was really just like them. "I hope the others treat her well."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Miss Kathy knelt down to where Pepper, who was six, was trying hard not to weep. "I didn't like having to react like that," Miss Kathy said tenderly as she took Pepper's hands and held them. "But, that was very mean to push little Tessie so hard like you did just now. We've talked before about that, haven't we?" She had put Pepper in the corner for it not too long ago, in fact. And "push" hadn't really been the right word. What Pepper had done was more like throwing the little girl to the ground.
"I'm sorry," Pepper muttered. She knew she'd been closer to throwing Tessie to the ground than pushing, and knew if she pushed she had to be gentler, especially with younger kids. She still found it hard not to react harshly when she got frustrated, though. She hadn't had very good role models at times.
"I know. I've been very proud of how you've tried to stop being a bully since you got here a few weeks ago. We've worked hard on that, haven't we." Miss Kathy really wanted to tell Pepper she had tried to be rather gentle, but she didn't want to push it. Miss Kathy was glad to be able to be a live-in house mother. They had a nice staff there.
Still, she worried about the headmistress. She'd made sure that Miss Hannigan would never be abusive, and that she would never go near the girls when really drunk, but all she said about sewing and what she got the older teens doing made Kathy wonder what would happen if there were enough layoffs… no, the economy couldn't get that bad, could it? It was 1927, and it was booming as powerfully as the mighty Yankees.
Still, as Pepper allowed herself to rest in Miss Kathy's embrace, the house mother realized she needed to help these girls not only learn to get along, but to get along on their own.
Pepper quickly sat down next to Tessie at a writing desk. The girls didn't go to school - Miss Hannigan insisted that Miss Kathy teach them since she had a teaching license. But, they'd have a few such things before Miss Hannigan would sell them all in the early days of the Depression to feed her drinking habit.
"I'm sorry," Pepper told Tessie matter-of-factly.
"It's okay," Tessie said very timidly.
"That's a nice picture. Wanna help me draw pictures for a story?" Miss Kathy praised Pepper for starting something constructive, and Tessie for accepting Pepper back into the group so readily. "Hey, Miss Kathy, is it okay if I make fun of Tessie 'cause she doesn't like eyeballs?"
"That's fine, we've talked about how we can tease and joke in a nice way." She would talk later with Pepper about how she could learn to be gentler, even if she "shoved" someone.
Right now, she saw another girl who had been quietly watching the whole scene, when Pepper and Tessie had argued and Pepper had practically thrown the three-year-old to the ground.
Miss Kathy sat and put her arm around July. July smiled up at her and said, "Pepper makes you mad sometimes, huh?"
"She's had it rough. The hardest job of being a mother is enforcing limits. I try to be gentle, and show you girls I still love you, even when I have to be tough." She knew July understood the distinction - Miss Hannigan didn't love anything about them or being there. "What are you reading?"
"That Gideon's New Testament. Listen to this." July, 7, read from Romans 8:14-15. While Miss Kathy had to help her with a few words, she read excitedly that: "We have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry 'Abba, Father.'" She thought for a moment. "Could that be for me?" she asked hopefully.
"If you call on Jesus to save you from your sin and come to live inside you and make you new inside, yes. That's what repenting is, turning from your sin and letting Jesus make you new." Miss Kathy didn't want to get too deeply into that now, lest July make a decision just to please her. She would let it go for a little bit.
July wasn't quite ready to think about what that meant either yet, though she would in a couple years. For now, the seven-year-old thought for a moment, and then the quiet orphan piped up: "That means I could be God's child."
"That's right, Dear," Miss Kathy said simply. She knew that their quiet orphan was very pensive sometimes, and - while she would react to someone like Pepper - she was good at observing and trying to find the right time to intervene, at least really good for her age. She wondered what was going through July's head as the girl grinned broadly and looked upward.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
July finished her thought back in the present. "It's hard enough being an orphan without getting belittled all the time like Miss Hannigan did to us. We do the best we can to love all these girls while also honor their birth family somehow. From what I hear, this girl, Lucy, was named after a famous black educator. But, she'll need the others to care about her, too."
"I hope they accept her, too." Sophie couldn't help but think about how accepting they had been of anyone back in their Hooverville; even of a kid just wandering around looking for her parents. "Bein' in that Hooverville taught me something. We're all in this together."
July understood. "I remember what a joy I had reading that Gideon's New Testament." She didn't dwell on the fact she had been left at only two months old and had no idea who her parents were or even what her name would have been on the birth certificate. She was a child of God and loved unconditionally by her Heavenly Father - and now by her adoptive parents, too.
Annie, Molly, Pepper, and the warbucks arrived first. Pepper had been over that Saturday afternoon when they got the call.
However, a previous discussion came to mind as they waited for the city official to bring the first black girl into the orphanage.
"I'm glad I'll be done with school forever in a few more months," Pepper blurted. "What do I care what hypothesis a triangle came up with?" She grinned at Annie as Annie was close to correcting her. "I know it's a hypotenuse, I'm just having fun. Like when I tease Tessie 'cause she can't figure out where to put eyeballs well, so she decided to never put them in our characters."
Annie snickered. "I'm glad you can joke around now. With things like what Daddy Warbucks is facing in trying to get even a few Jewish children out of Germany, this world really has problems."
As Annie and Molly explained what was going on, and the roadblock Daddy Warbucks faced, they were glad to see that Pepper wasn't totally flustered. She did, however, quickly become very determined.
With a mixture of a scowl and something the other girls couldn't really describe, Pepper turned to Daddy Warbucks. "You know that Swedish ambassador you play tennis with?"
"Why, yes, what about him?"
"I'd like to talk to him. If things are this bad…" she trailed off, lost and thought for a second. As she did, Annie and Molly were reminded of how she would look just before one of her fire drills at the old orphanage, like if Miss Hannigan was drunk.
Whatever came out of Pepper's mouth next, they had a great sense of foreboding.
—-
A/N: The first transatlantic call came in 1927 in our world. 6 years later, they *might* have been able to call India. There's also the idea that technology can be a few years ahead due to Warbucks' investment and research and development in the right things, so let's say it's where it would be in the later '30s… On the other hand, even if Gandhi reverses the charges because he's so close to Oliver (possible, he has to have had some connection if Grace bothered to telll Oliver he called) it might be easier to argue he's calling from the U.S.. While he never visited the U.S. in our timeline, having a benefactor like Warbucks might lead him to. Oliver would still show Annie the globe to help her understand and distract her during the wait, which could be 5 minutes back then for such a long call.