Some of you have mentioned that it is strange that Maggie never saw Della's picture in the paper since she was photographed with Perry several times...I did think of that, but I'm going to ask my readers to suspend their disbelief and pretend that Maggie just never happened to see one of those photos of Perry and Della together...

Also, just to clarify (since I am realizing from the comments that some people are a bit confused about this)...the deed which Della returned to Mr. Garner was NOT the deed for the property which Perry made her tour and give her opinion on. Perry DID buy the sandstone mansion and he had its deed on his desk. He continues to own that place as our story unfolds. Della retrieved another, unrelated property deed for Mr. Garner and gave it back to him.

One week later, the Street family was gathered in their parlor in the evening. Maggie and Robert were sprawled on the floor, reading books. Mr. Street sat on the sofa, reading the latest edition of the Treeland Gazette. And Della and her mother were knitting.

"Della, turn on the radio, please," her mother said, looking over at her eldest daughter. "A new musical, 'Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella', is supposed to be on today."

The young woman smiled, nodded, and obediently turned the radio's knob. Readjusting to getting most of her news and entertainment from radio had been more difficult than she had anticipated. Her parents had not yet invested in a television, and she missed the movies and shows which she had watched in Los Angeles.

As the dialogue and beautiful tunes from the musical filled the room, Della found her thoughts again wandering to all the evenings she had spent in Perry's company, taking notes for him, looking out at the Los Angeles skyline from the balcony in his office, pouring him coffee and…oh, why was it so hard to forget a man?!

"What a lovely song this is!" Mrs. Street suddenly exclaimed, bringing Della's mind back to the present. Along with the rest of the family, she paid closer attention to the music.

Impossible, for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage!

It was a lively tune, and Della found herself smiling.

Impossible, for a plain country bumpkin and a prince to join in marriage!

The smile immediately disappeared from Della's face as pain, once again, gnawed at her. The lyrics were like a slap in the face. For most of her life, she had been a 'plain country bumpkin' and Perry Mason was the modern definition of a prince – wealthy, handsome, famous, well-connected. Of course it was impossible that such a man should marry a farmgirl from a poor family, with only a degree from a secretarial night-school to her name!

But the world is full of zanies and fools, who don't believe in sensible rules. And won't believe what sensible people say.

She had not been sensible. She had not remembered the rules that had been instilled in her by her instructors and friends. She had let her imagination run away with her, and now she was sitting back in Treeland, heartbroken, as a result, while Perry was lying by some fishing pond in Scotland, dreaming of Isabella.

Unwilling to hear any more, Della stuffed her knitting back into its basket and rose.

"I'm tired. I think I will go to bed. Goodnight."

"Don't you want to listen to the rest of the broadcast?" Maggie asked her with disbelief. "We're likely just getting to the good part – I bet there will be a lovely love song between Cinderella and the Prince in just a few minutes."

"No, I'd rather go to bed. Goodnight."

Ignoring the disappointment on her family's faces, Della made her escape upstairs.

…..

A few minutes after she had changed into her nightgown, Della heard scratching at the bedroom door. Walking to it, she opened it a crack and let Meowie in. The family cat always seemed to know who was retiring first and would follow them to bed, trying to get a warm place to sleep as early as possible in the evening. Della was about to shut her door again when she heard Maggie's plaintive voice floating up from the parlor.

"I just can't understand Della," her little sister was saying. "She seems more graceful and elegant than I remember her being, and she keeps saying that she means to stay in Treeland forever, but it is as if she doesn't want to spend any time with us. I could swear that she's particularly avoiding me. Why?"

"Don't be too hard on your sister, Maggie," Mrs. Street answered. "Do you remember how you felt after you lost the chess championship in sixth grade? It had been a dream of yours to win it for a long time, and you mourned when it was lost. You just wanted to ride your pony all alone on the farm, for hours and hours."

"Yes, but what does that have to do with Della?"

"Della's also just lost a dream, Maggie. Ever since she was your age, she wanted to be a sophisticated city woman. She wasted four years of her life chasing that dream, and probably worked herself to the bone, waitressing in restaurants and picking up insignificant typist jobs. I have to give her credit – she was more determined than I thought she would be. Your father and I expected her to come crawling home over three years ago. However, she has finally realized that it was not going to work out for her, and now she's home, and probably realizing quite a few other things. All her friends from school are married and have children, and all the nice young boys her age are already wed. The chances that Della will find a decent bachelor around here to settle down with are slim to none. So, on top of everything else, she has to contend with the very real possibility that she will end up an old maid, always being the third wheel and the single aunt. It will take a while for her to be content with, or at least fully resigned to, that possibility. She gambled with her life, and lost."

"I see," Maggie murmured. "I didn't think of that before. Poor Della!"

Della softly shut the door and leaned her forehead against it. Grief washed over her. She had not realized that Maggie had noticed her avoidance. Her behavior was unfair to her sister, and to her entire family. If she had come back to take advantage of their company, their pantry and their roof, the least she could do was to be less sullen and glum towards them.

She would do better. She had to.

Our Della can't catch a break...even a random song reminds her of Perry and her situation! I chose Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella because not only did the lyrics perfectly fit Della's situation, the musical also debuted in 1957, just around the time when my fanfiction story is set.

What will happen as Della and her family (especially Maggie) grow closer? And...Perry's arrival back in the United States is also drawing nearer.

Please review!