Chapter 54

It was around 3:35 when the "Ed Mobile" had finally reached the cul-de-sac. Eddy had taken control and decided to drive the bike home. He managed to get the boys home in ten minutes. Eddy jumped the curb at the corner, and stopped the bike in front of Double Dees lawn. Double Dee quickly took the bike out to his yard to lock it in the shed, after which he rejoined his friends to head to Eddy's house. The boys crossed Rathink Avenue, bypassing a mid-sized split level house, which had remained vacant since last summer, as well as Kevin's green and yellow residence. When the boys finally reached Eddy's house, they were of course led out to the yard so they could enter through Eddy's private door.

"Alright boys." said Eddy as he opened the door to his room and walked in, "You know the drill make yourselves at home."

Ed did not hesitate to take up Eddy's offer. He ran into the room and planted himself on Eddy's round bed, watching his lava lamp in awe. Double Dee merely followed Eddy across his room towards his stash of records.

"We're gonna bring the house down boys," said Eddy as he began going through his records. Double Dee began sorting through the records as well and was surprised that almost every record he found was a disco recording.

"You're records are a tad outdated aren't they?" asked a concerned Double Dee.

"Don't worry," said Eddy calmly, "Fad's always come back. We learned that last summer, remember?"

"I highly doubt that this music will be fit for the atmosphere you are trying to project tomorrow evening." said Double Dee, "May I suggest some selections from my own music collection."

"Relax Sock Head," said Eddy, "I got this covered, you just worry about showing Marie a good time tomorrow night!"

Eddy paused.

"And since it looks like Lumpy here is falling like a ton of bricks for May, I'm gonna be the only single guy there. Boy's tomorrow is my lucky night. I'm gonna find my dream girl. After all, I am the hippest, coolest, good-lookenist guy around!"

After chuckling slightly at Eddy's joke, Double Dee began to wonder who Eddy could have possibly had in mind to hook up with. To Double Dees understanding, only the cul-de-sac kids and the Kankers were invited, and that meant that there would only be four girls available for Eddy to choose from, five if Sarah decided to attend. Two of those girls already were in committed relationships, and a third was already crushing on Ed. That being said, only Sarah and Lee remained as possible candidates for Eddy. Either of these girls were unlikely to be Eddy's "dream girl" due Eddy constantly being at odds with both of them. Double Dee began to suspect that Eddy had something up his sleeve that he hadn't told him about.

"I believe that you are neglecting the fact that there are only a handful of females in this neighborhood for you to attempt your bizarre acts of courtship on Eddy." said Double Dee.

Eddy paused and turned around towards Double Dee grinning.

"Yeah I know," said Eddy, "Don't worry, I took care of it."

Eddy turned around to continue sorting his records, leaving Double Dee confused at his last statement.

"What do you mean you took care of it?" asked Double Dee.

"Ya know, I shot the breeze for ya," said Eddy as he walked over to his friend and put his hand on his shoulder, "I spent all morning spreadin' the word about your hullabaloo around the school and…."

"YOU DID WHAT?" asked Double Dee.

"Hey, we can't have a party with just twelve people." said Eddy, "This is a big event, you got your girl back. And hopefully you will 'become a man' tonight at the party if ya know what I'm sayin"

Eddy playfully hit Double Dee with a flurry of light punches.

"Eddy what could you possibly be thinking!" yelled a panic stricken Double Dee, "I had offered you my house as a venue for your social gathering with the assumption that it would only be for our dear friends from this cul-de-sac. I am quite unprepared to host a gathering of this magnitude in my house and Mother and Father will be furious if something were to turn up broken. And what is to become of me if the brand new hardwood floors become tarnished with scratches? The sanctity of the shelter that was once my home will be obliterated!"

"DOUBLE DEE!" yelled Eddy, "Relax, I'll handle everyone! We'll clean up. By the time it's over, you'll be able to lick those 'hardwood' floors clean with no fear of disease."

"I find that extremely hard to believe after witnessing your work ethic!" said a slightly angry Double Dee.

"Hey I'm a changed man," said Eddy, "Trust me, I won't let ya down again I promise."

Eddy smiled at Double Dee, who returned a smile of his own. Eddy's eccentricities were quite strange and seemed to be thought up with malicious intent. But deep down inside, Double Dee knew that Eddy would not attempt to double cross him again after the words he shared earlier that week.

"Besides, Marie will be there," said Eddy while grinning, "And I'm gonna choose some music to warm her up for ya!"

Eddy laughed at his own joke, which Double Dee couldn't help but join in on.

"Yo Ed," yelled Eddy, "Got any plans for tomorrow night with May?"

Ed blushed at Eddy's statement and looked down towards his feet.

"Oh come on Eddy, you know me and May are just friends." said Ed in his usual dopey voice.

"Right," said Eddy sarcastically, "Come on, I saw the way you looked at her you stud."

Ed paused and looked down blushing again.

"It's true, May makes my tummy feel all wiggly and giggly," said Ed, after which he laughed with his deep dopey laugh.

"OOOOHHHH" yelled Eddy laughing, "Looks like this guy is headed to the loony bin of love too!"

All three boys shared a chuckle.

"So Eddy," said Double Dee, "I take it that true love is something that is unattainable for you?"

"If that means I don't want it, then hell yeah," said Eddy, "I'm just a single guy ready to mingle. And tomorrow night I'm gonna mingle so much that you two wish you were single."

"Bravo Eddy!" said Double Dee, "The only thing that you have managed to convince me with that last sentence is that you are an expert at rhyming."

"That's it!" yelled Eddy as he playfully head locked Double Dee and wrestled him to the floor.

"DOGPILE!" yelled Ed as he joined in on the fun.

As Double Dee had fun with his friends, he couldn't help but wonder what Marie was up to at the moment.

Marie had in fact been thinking about Double Dee as well as she stepped out of her trailer, locking the door behind her. Tabby was off tonight, and decided to spend the free time that she had bonding with her daughters. As Marie locked the door, Tabby, Lee and May stood on the ground below, bathing in the yellow hued artificial light from the trailer park fixture. Tabby and Lee were both holding large camping flashlights, as the sun had already gone down, and there was no electricity where they were going.

Marie finished locking the door and turned to face her family.

"Ready?" she said.

"Ready." replied the rest of her family as they began walking away from their 60's era caravan they had called home for the last year and a half.

The Kanker family made their way out of the trailer park and through the construction site in silence, contemplating the journey they were making. They eventually turned onto the cross street and moments later found themselves at the inlet to the cul-de-sac.

"So?" asked Tabby, "Which one of these houses is Edd's?"

"This one right here." said Marie as she pointed to the large blue colonial house in the corner.

"Wow," said Tabby, "He's got a beautiful home. What do his parents do for a living?"

"His dad is an electrical engineer, and his mom is a doctor." said Marie. "His dad's on a trip to Guam right now to work on something for the government, and he won't be back for another week. His mom is probably on call right now. She usually does surgeries in the mornings and visits patients at night."

"That's too bad," said Tabby, "I would have stopped by to meet them if they were home before you went over his house later."

Tabby saw the opportunity to joke with her daughter.

"Caught ya!" said Tabby, "What are you doin' going over his house without anyone home?"

Marie was slightly taken aback at first until she saw a grin adorn her mom's face, as well as her three sister's faces. She joined in on the fun as they continued on their journey down the cross street.

Shortly after they crossed Rathink Avenue, Lee stopped the group in the middle of the sidewalk and glanced at her mother.

"Mom," said Lee, "Are you sure you are ready to do this?"

Tabby glanced at all of her daughters who were waiting for a reply from her. Tabby took a deep breath and gave them their wish.

"I'm sure," said Tabby as she glanced into her daughters eyes smiling.

Lee smiled back at her mother and continued making her way down the street.

Eventually, the family arrived at their destination. In front of them stood a large mansion that seemed as if it had seen better days. The worn exterior siding was beginning to fall off due to neglect in the upkeep of the building. The front yard was bare, although in the summer it always managed to become infested by dandelions and other invasive weed species. The shingles were in a similar state, and there were some portions of the roof that were missing entire rows of shingles. The bottom pane of the right upstairs window was broken allowing the purple drapes to protrude out of it, flowing in the cold breeze. The shudders bordering the large first floor picture window were in state of disrepair. The front door was cracked and in fact was not able to be shut, due to missing its doorknob assembly.

"That siding was once the prettiest sky blue that I had ever seen." said Tabby, breaking the silence. Tabby walked towards the house slowly, "Mother Nature did quite a number on it over the years."

The girls stood in silence behind their mother as she observed her childhood home for the first time in 27 years. Tabby could previously not bring herself to walk past the old house because it reminded her too much of her happy childhood with her family as a little girl.

"Apparently someone else helped her out with the damage to the window and the missing doorknob," said Tabby jokingly, somehow managing a chuckle at her statement.

The girls turned to each other at the mention of the doorknob. May began giggling under her breath uncontrollably as Marie silently gestured for her to stop, even though she herself was attempting to hold back a laugh.

"Shall we go inside?" asked Tabby, "I'll give you girls the grand tour as I remember it."

Tabby began making her way down the decrepit concrete path that led to the front door of her childhood home, with her daughters in tow. The wooden front door was still intact, although the brown paint was peeling off. The three vertical rectangular window panes were smudged with filth, and it was almost impossible to see though them due to years of neglect. Tabby placed her hand on the ajar door and pushed it open. It was no surprise that the foyer was pitch black and Tabby waited for her daughters to enter before she flipped on her flashlight. Lee followed suit and switched hers on as well.

The light from the two flashlights managed to illuminate the foyer quite nicely. Tabby took a moment to shine the light around the foyer before she began speaking.

"Not bad for being vacant for years." said Tabby as she walked toward the wall adjacent to the front door. The bottom of the wall was lined with the same brown 70's style wood paneling that the Kankers trailer was lined with. Above the paneling, the rest of the wall was painted a beautiful ocean blue all the way up to the vaulted two story ceiling.

"I can't believe this paint didn't chip off yet," said Tabby as she touched her hand to the blue wall. Although Tabby appeared to be calm, she was in fact highly emotional seeing her beautiful home in such a lowly state.

Tabby's three daughters watched as she made her way over to the fire place on the other side of the room. Tabby examined the mantle surrounding the fireplace, which was built out of brown bricks. The chimney rose all the way up the ceiling eventually passing through to the roof.

"Poppy put this in when I was 6." said Tabby, "I can remember him and Uncle Jack laying the bricks one by one and watching it grow larger every day. He was really handy and loved projects like this."

Tabby paused.

"It still looks just like I remember it as a little girl." said Tabby.

Tabby walked back out towards the center of the foyer and shined her flashlight directly up, illuminating a large light fixture hanging from the center of the ceiling. The chandelier consisted of four arms, each holding up its own ornamental glass casing.

"If I trusted it, I would light that chandelier so we didn't have to use flashlights." said Tabby as she looked up towards the ceiling.

The girls stood confused.

"But Mom," said Marie, "There's no electricity in here."

Tabby looked at her daughter.

"We don't need it." said Tabby as she walked over to the wall adjacent to the fireplace, "That chandeliers just a big kerosene lamp."

Tabby walked up to a small door on the wall. She opened the compartment to find what appeared to be some kind of winch. Attached to the winch was a cable that appeared to travel out of the compartment up through the wall in the direction of the ceiling.

"I never did this myself, but I remember seeing Poppy do it a few times. It can't hurt to give it a shot. Stand back in case I screw up. I don't want that thing falling on ya!"

The girls stepped out from under the chandelier as Tabby began fiddling with the winch. Eventually she was able to lower the large light fixture to floor level. Inside each of the four glass encasements were series of "nozzles" and "wicks" intended to be lit with a flame. The girls observed the antique fixture as Tabby walked over to examine it.

"I figured," said Tabby, "All of the oil dried up, or else I would have used my cigarette lighter to ignite it. I guess we're not getting any light from this thing tonight."

"How bright was it?" asked May.

"Not too bright," replied Tabby, "We usually used lamps to light this room, and we only used the chandelier on family nights where we'd sit in the dim light and watch the fireplace."

"We never even thought that there was a winch to lower that chandelier to the floor," said Lee, "I always thought it was electric."

"Oh there are a lot of little secrets to this house." said Tabby, "But I'm already sure that you girls found all of the hidden passages and stairways from your time hanging out in here."

The girls giggled with their mother for a few seconds, after which there was a small period of silence. Tabby interjected.

"Annemarie," asked Tabby, "Where did you say Edd found my music box?"

"Oh," said Marie as she began making her way to the small room adjacent to the curved staircase, "In here, it was sitting right here on the vanity."

Tabby made her way into the room that she and her sister had once used as a playroom. She was heartbroken to see the magenta and pink striped wall paper torn in various places, as well as cobwebs growing in the corners. The once mauve carpet was now a dingy grey.

Tabby glanced around the room with her flashlight and eventually laid eyes on something that she hasn't seen in years.

"Stephanie!" yelled Tabby as she walked towards the vanity.

"Stephanie?" asked Lee.

"Yeah Stephanie," said Tabby as she reached towards the vanity and grabbed an old school stuffed rag doll. The doll had rosy red cheeks and blonde stringy hair.

"Me and Aunt Kate took Stephanie everywhere." said Tabby

Tabby chuckled with her daughters.

"We could never figure out what happened to her." said Tabby as she examined her doll.

"Well at least now you know she's safe." said Marie as she smiled.

Lee walked over to her mother and placed her hand on her shoulder.

"Take her with you," said Lee, "She's yours."

"Yeah, I bet she really missed you too!" said May.

The girls shared a laugh with Tabby

"We hardly ever come in this room," said Marie, "If we knew that all of this stuff that was special to you was in here we would have brought it home a lot sooner."

Tabby smiled into Marie's eyes.

"You don't know how glad I am to see this stuff again girls." said Tabby with watery eyes.

Tabby began walking out of the playroom with Stephanie cradled in her arms. She turned and began ascending the curved staircase.

"Let's see how the upstairs fared over the years." said Tabby as she led her daughters upstairs.

When the group reached the upstairs balcony, Tabby began leading them down the hallway towards her old bedroom. She calmly opened the door to the small room, and was amazed that the wall paper had not peeled away from moisture build up.

"Well, at least my room held up!" said Tabby cheerfully, "Let's go check on Aunt Kate's."

Tabby led her girls out of the room and made a left turn at the door, leading the girls through an archway at the left end of the balcony. She stopped at a wooden door to her left and opened it. The girls observed their aunts bedroom, which was lined with the same pink wall paper as their mothers was. The rooms were strikingly similar to each other, apart from Kate's room being slightly smaller than Tabby's.

"Alright, now time for Mom Mom and Poppys room." said Tabby as she turned around walked out of her sister's room. Tabby led her girls to a set of wooden double doors. Tabby grabbed the rusty golden handle of the left door, which once glistened brightly, and began to turn it slowly.

Tabby was quite nervous entering her father's bedroom. She and her father had been really close, and she missed him dearly. She was already battling intense emotions by merely being in her old house, but even more so now that she was to enter the room where her father once slept every night.

Tabby opened the door and shined her flashlight into the relatively large room. The walls were covered with green wallpaper which somehow managed to stay intact much like Tabby's room. The once bright blue carpets had lost their luster, although they still retained their blue hue. The room was bare of any kind of furniture, the only highlight being a large walk in closet in the corner of the room.

"You girls ever been in here?" asked Tabby.

"Once last summer," replied Lee.

Poppy's bedroom played in integral role in getting the Ed's down to the basement in their barrels, and was the first room they passed through on their ride down to their surprise wedding.

"We usually hang out in your room, the foyer, the library or that big room in the basement." said Marie.

"Don't forget about the balcony." said May.

As the girls continued talking amongst themselves, an emotional Tabby made her way to the closet in the corner of the room. She grabbed the handle on the door and opened it. From years of inactivity, the door was quite difficult to open and emitted a loud creaking sound as Tabby pulled on the handle. The girls took notice that their mother had entered the closet, and followed her in to do a little exploring themselves.

The rails of the closet were completely bare, as was the closet floor. However as Tabby shined her flashlight around, she took notice of a few boxes stacked up on the shelf above the rails. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that the boxes contained several different board games.

"Alright," said Tabby enthusiastically as she reached her arms up in an attempt to grab the games, "All of these are still here."

Tabby paused.

"We can take these back to the trailer and finally have something to do besides watch TV all of the time," said Tabby, "Although all of them are kids games, except Trivial Pursuit."

"No matter," said Marie, "We could always use something to do."

"Let's get em'" said Lee as she reached up to assist her mother in removing the games from the shelf. As much as they tried, they couldn't jar any of the boxes loose.

"They're stuck for some reason," said Lee as she continued to pull.

Eventually, the entire stack of games tumbled down due to the force that was being applied to it by both Lee and Tabby. With a quick glance of the flashlight, they were assured that none of the games had opened as it would not be fun to have to attempt to find small game pieces in the dark.

"Good thing these didn't open." said May as she picked a box up off of the floor.

It was then that the girls noticed that Tabby had her flashlight pointed at a small black box that appeared extremely similar to a shoe box. The box had been hidden on top of all of the board games and had fallen at the same time as the other boxes. As Tabby examined the box, she noticed gold lettering on the lid in the cursive style. The letters formed the words:

London Sole

Tabby sat down on the closet floor "Indian style" not saying a word as she placed the black shoe box on her lap. The girls joined her sitting down on the floor as Lee used her flashlight to illuminate the box.

Tabby began to remove the lid of the box and was surprised with what she found inside. There was a letter, written on fancy paper addressed to her. She began to slowly read the handwriting on the paper.

Tabitha Jane,

We are so proud of you and the beautiful young woman you are becoming. It seems like only yesterday that we looked down into your little blue eyes for the first time, and now we are celebrating your 10th birthday. You have grown into a beautiful, smart dignified young lady. I think you deserve something special this year for all of those straight A's you had through grade school. Get used to wearing these, because you're going to be wearing them every Thursday night from now on. We can't wait to see you up on stage during your first recital, you're going to be the most beautiful ballerina in the world!

We love you Tabitha, thank you so much for always making us proud,

HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Tabby had finished reading the letter and placed it down on the floor next to the box. The three Kanker girls watched as their mothers lower lips began trembling, she was trying as hard as she could to hold back tears. Tabby reached into the box and began unfolding the tissue paper that covered up the contents.

Tabby's eyes could no longer hold back her tears when she finally laid eyes on what was inside the box. Sitting in the box were a pair of bright red, brand new pirouette ballet flats with black bows. The shoes still maintain their shiny luster from being carefully stored.

Mr. Kanker was going to surprise Tabby with the shoes and the news that she was going to be taking ballet lessons on her tenth birthday. He had received the shoes in the mail earlier than expected and decided to hide them in his closet to keep little Tabby from finding them. Unfortunately, right before Tabby's 10th birthday, Poppy lost his land, and was no longer going to be able to afford his daughters ballet lessons. It would have torn his heart in two to give his daughter the shoes without living up to his promise to provide her with lessons. Thus, the box was shoved out of sight and out of mind, and forgotten during the move

Tabby's eyes began filling with tears as she stared down at the shoes, she placed her hand over her mouth as a flood of tears suddenly burst from her eyes.