Chapter 7 - A Visit

The last class of the day was math, which was a favorite subject for both XL and Beeba. Beeba used to joke that XL could solve math problems faster than a computer. Of course that wasn't accurate, but XL was pretty fast for a 10 year old boy. And it is true that people tend to enjoy things most that they are good at doing.

At the end of class they got together to open the envelopes they had received from Ms. Rose. Each contained a "Thank You" card, as they had guessed, and a short letter, folded inside the card. One of the cards was in bad shape because of the incident in the school yard. However, they didn't need to read both because it was apparent that the cards and letters were both the same. The letter expressed her gratitude for being rescued, and it invited them to visit Ms. Rose. It said that she had a small gift for each of them.

"That gift better not be another one of those pills!" said Beeba.

"I am sure it won't be," remarked XL.

"O.K., so let's go find out," continued Beeba. "I could meet you at your house after supper, and then we could go to her house."

"Sure," answered XL. "We'll each check with our parents to make sure it's O.K. If you can't come, please phone me."

Beeba agreed and they departed for their homes.

Shortly afterward they met at XL's house, as they had planned. Beeba Boeboo entered the front door of the house, unzipped his coat, and removed his boots.

"Hey XL," he said, "where is Saucer 1? I don't see it floating over your house this evening."

"We don't keep it here all the time," answered XL. "We only have it here in nice weather. When stormy weather is forecast or a heavy snowfall, we keep it tied down in a field just outside of the city. But that's not why it isn't here today. Today it is busy earning money that we need so we can pay for its maintenance. There is a sports event in the park, so it's floating over the park with advertisements hanging from it."

"Can we tune into its cameras to watch the fun?" asked Beeba.

"Right now the onboard cameras are only to be used by the sports broadcasters," answered XL. "Besides, I already arranged for my dad to drive us to Florence's house."

Just then XL's sister Anna joined them in the hall by the front door. "I'm coming too," she said. "Right after you visit Florence, we will go to pick up Wilbur from his martial arts class, which isn't far away. I agreed to bring him home and baby sit him until his parents arrive. They are out this evening."

Wilbur was the 5 year-old son of their neighbor, and he had been taking Friday evening martial arts classes since September.

"Wilbur is so cute," added Anna. "Yesterday he told me that he loved his Chop Suey class. He said he was going to be a marshal when he grows up, and chop all the evil sueys."

"It's true," said XL to Beeba. "He is too little to break boards, so he breaks vegetables instead."

Beeba put his boots back on, while the rest of them put on their coats and boots. XL's father Max joined them as they were going out the door.

"What about mom?" XL asked his dad. His mom was lying on the sofa in the living room, asleep, holding a half-open book in one hand.

"She is just at the most exciting part," said Max, "so we better not bother her. She knows where we will be, and she can phone us if she needs us."

So, without further delay, Max, XL, Beeba, and Anna hopped into the van that was parked in their driveway, and they departed over the snowy streets to Mrs. Rose's house in the country.

It was a pleasant ride, and because there wasn't much traffic, they arrived within an hour. When they pulled up in front of the house, XL commented: "I see that someone has cleared the snow from the sidewalk."

XL knocked on the front door, which was opened by a lady that they hadn't met before. "I am Cynthia, Florence's older sister," she said. "You must be the people she told me about, who helped her earlier this week."

"Beeba and I brought Dr. Melcher to help her," said XL, "and this is my sister and dad."

They entered, where they met Florence Rose, sitting in her chair in the living room. After introducing themselves, they sat and chatted for a while. Florence gave each of the boys a gift card for the "Old Fashioned Flavours" ice cream restaurant. They were pleased about that, because everyone knew it was the best ice cream in the city. She also gave a photo album to each of them. "It is a very special thing to keep photos" she said, "so that far in the future you will remember all the special things about your life now."

"Do you have albums of your own family?" asked Anna.

"Yes indeed, I do," answered Florence. "In my attic, I have pictures that go back more than a hundred years."

"Can we see some of them?" asked Anna.

Florence agreed, so Anna went with Cynthia to fetch the albums from the attic. Anna's grade 8 class at school had recently been studying the history of the early pioneers, so Anna was eager to see the old pictures. When Anna returned with the albums, Florence had already rolled her wheel chair up to a table at the side of the room. Anna set the books on the table and they all crowded around to look at the pictures.

They started with the oldest album. It had soft black paper pages. The pictures were black-and-white, held in place with small paper triangles at each corner of the picture. The triangles were glued onto the page. Sometimes a photo would fall out as they turned the pages, and they had to insert it back into the corner holders.

There were pictures of an old steamship, pictures of youth riding on horses in a valley, pictures of a family in front of a small cabin surrounded by prairie, and many pictures of various people in old-fashioned clothing. XL was particularly surprised to see a picture of a boy from the early 1900s who looked very much like him. The boy in the photo probably had brown hair, although it was hard to be sure from a black-and-white photo. He was standing by a pond with ragged clothes and bare feet, holding a fishing pole. His face was slim, with fine features. He had a straight nose, and eyebrows that were almost straight lines, exactly horizontal. But the most striking feature was a very wide smile that made dimples appear in his cheeks.

"That is my great grandfather," said Florence.

They paged through other generations. Obviously Florence's ancestors had a love of photography, for they had taken photos in many different places--not just posed studio photos that were more typical in the distant past. Moving to the newer albums, they paged past pictures of Florence when she was young, and of her two children when they were little. She told XL, Beeba, Anna, and Max that her children's names were Fred and Susan.

There were pictures of her husband too, until on one page there was a cut-out section of a newspaper obituary. Her husband had died some years ago in an accident.

The last pictures in the album showed her son and daughter wearing clothes for a graduation ceremony. At that time they were young adults who were graduating from a university. That was in the last album, and the rest of the pages were blank. Florence seemed a bit sad as she looked at the last page.

"Where are Fred and Susan now?" asked Anna.

"I don't know," answered Florence sadly. "I had an argument with them a few years ago," she continued. "As I look back I feel so badly. I told them to leave, and not come back until..."

She paused for a moment. "I gave them each half of my savings so that they would be O.K. on their own, and I told them to leave. I haven't seen them since."

Beeba had an idea. He hooked his hand around XL's upper arm, pulled him aside, and whispered to him: "I'll bet we could find them. Florence is so old fashioned. She probably has no clue how to use modern technology to find someone. But we could do it."

What should XL do? Should he accept Beeba's suggestion?

Choice A	Stay out of it. XL has enough things to do already. He shouldn't interfere in another person's life.
Choice B	Offer to help find Fred and Susan. There is a chance of finding them, and probably they would all be happier.

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