Secrets of Amelia

by Andrea Anderson

  “I’m so excited, let’s email the news to Chad,” said Amelia.

  “Let’s do better than that, let’s see if we can get him on the phone,” said Ida.

  When Chad answered, Amelia started chattering, “Chad, Hi! It’s me Mellie, I couldn’t wait to tell you, I’m so happy, I’m here at your mom’s, I really am going to college this time. Remember I wrote you about renting out my father’s equipment, and we would have the rental money instead of my salary. The deal went through and the contracts are signed.”

  “Wow! That was a mouthful,” he said, “What terrific news! I’m thrilled for you that’s wonderful. I know you’re happy because I can hear the smile in your voice. Email me all the details and thanks for calling me, I have to go now we are on the firing range, stay focused, I was keeping everything crossed for you,” he said laughing, even my eyes. You just made my day.”

  At supper that night, Amelia said, “Family here is my plan, Ida and I will see if I will be accepted at college, and if I am, I will work until the semester begins and save my salary and if I have enough and could get some grants, I will start college.”

  “That sounds like a perfect plan,” said Deana, “we’re so happy for you Amelia.”

  Ida wrote to the application committee. She anxiously awaited a response. Amelia wrote to Chad and gave him all the details of what was happening. Your mom and I are anxiously awaiting my acceptance letter and then it will be in stone.

  They had been using Ida’s address from the beginning and continued to do so. The following Tuesday, Ida finally got the letter. She took the liberty of opening the letter because Amelia told her it was Ok. She was shocked when she read what it said. She felt so let down, it was not good news. The letter said their quota was filled and Amelia would have to wait until next year and reapply. Ida was sick after she read the letter. She was thinking of how to tell Amelia when Chad called.

  “Hi mom how’s everything, is all going according to plan?”

  “I’m afraid not son, I’m so worried, I don’t know how I’m going to tell Amelia that I just got a letter from the college stating they have no room for her to start the next semester. She will be so disappointed. She was counting so much on starting.”

  “Mom, don’t tell me you are going to give up that easy.”

  “What do you mean son?”

  “Isn’t there anybody else you could contact there, a counselor, the administrator, or somebody? You said you wrote to them and explained about Amelia’s situation, there must be someone you could appeal to.”

  “I never thought of that Chad, maybe I could start a letter writing campaign.”

  “No mom, not letters, calls, talk to someone in person, tell them about Amelia and the hard ship she has had to endure and remember the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I think you should give it a try for Amelia’s sake you have to sell her.”

  “Son you are so right, I would have never thought to do that, I have got to go I’ll let you know how I make out. Wish me luck.”

  Ida got on the computer and looked up the phone numbers at the college. She called the registrar’s office and asked to speak to the person in charge of admissions. The admissions director was polite, but firm, “I don’t think there’s anything we can do, our Dean, Stanley James has told us we can’t take any more students for this coming term, so I can’t help you.”

  “Did you say Stanley James?”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s your Dean?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Could you put me through to him?” asked Ida.

  “We don’t usually do that,” she said, “he’s a busy man, perhaps you could write him.”

  “Let me ask you to do this,” said Ida, “put me on hold, call the Dean’s office and tell Dean James Ida Brown would like to talk with him.”

  “OK, I will try, but this is highly irregular, he doesn’t usually take phone calls.”

  “In a few minutes the voice on the phone said, “Mrs. Brown is that you?”

  “Yes Stanley, congratulations on your job as Dean.”

  “If it wasn’t for you pushing me so hard in my senior year, I wouldn’t be here. How are you Mrs. Brown? It’s great to talk to you. What can I do for you?”

  “I’m fine Stanley, but I need your help.” Ida told him all about Amelia, “So Stanley if you want to make your old math teacher happy, please find a place for this very deserving young woman, you won’t be sorry.”

  “If she is all you say, I’ll make room for her. I’ll set the wheels in motion and send you the paperwork ASAP.”

  “Thank you so much Stanley, you won’t be disappointed.”

  Ida called Chad, “How did I get the smartest son in the whole world, the Dean of the school, turned out to be one of my old students,” she said jubilantly.”

  “Mom that so wonderful, what a coincidence that you knew him,” he said, “I was sweating it out waiting for you to call. What did he say?”

  “I explained the whole thing and he said he would take her.”

  “Mom that’s super, thank you so much.”

  Ida was beginning to suspect Chad had more than just an interest in Amelia going to college, maybe she’ll be my daughter yet, she thought.

  Ida waited to get the letter and other paperwork from Stanley before she told Amelia. When she showed her the letter, she told her about knowing Stanley, Amelia was astonished. “You are so awesome,” she said to Ida, “I love you and she gave her a hug and kissed her on the cheek.”

  Chad surprised his mother and came home for a visit. She was so happy to see him. She told him all about the plans for Amelia and that they were waiting for one thing, a grant to come through and that would seal the deal and pay for the final amount needed for her tuition.

  The next day the grant letter came. Ida couldn’t wait she ripped open the envelope and nearly cried.

  “What’s the matter mom?”

  “Chad this is like that last straw, we were turned down for the grant, and they have given all their grant money away for this year. Amelia will have to wait until the new fiscal year to re-apply. Oh, Chad how will I ever tell Amelia, she’s coming for supper tonight after work, I didn’t tell her you were here so she would be surprised.”

  “Mom, how much was the grant for?”

  “It was $2000 the final amount for her tuition.”

  “Is there any other way to get it?”

  “I don’t think so son, we have looked under every rock and I don’t know where else to turn to.”

  “I can do it mom.”

  “What do you mean, son?”

  “I have been saving money to buy a car, but it would break my heart to see you and Mellie disappointed again. I can give her the rest of the money she needs for tuition.”

  “You would do that?”

  “Yes, but only under one condition.”

  “What’s that honey?”

  “You must find a way to give it to her without her knowing it came from me. I would never want her to think there were any strings attached and she probably wouldn’t think it was proper and neither would her family. You know how proud they are.”

  “I can do it,” she said, “I will send it to the college toward her tuition and tell her that’s how the grant people did it, I hate telling her a fib, but you’re right about her not wanting to take the money.”

  “Done then, I will go into town and go to the bank and it will be all set.”

  “Chad I’m so proud of you, I know you will get it back in some way, someday.”

  That evening when Amelia came for supper, Ida told her that the final grant money came, and everything was all set. The three of them danced around and hugged and Amelia cried she was so happy.

  “Ida you are so wonderful, Chad, you are the luckiest person to have such a great mom.”

&nbs
p; Chad thought to himself, “seeing her so happy is such a joy.” He took her home that night and they sat on the porch for a while. She was so excited and couldn’t stop talking about her plans and he kissed her on both cheeks and hugged her she hugged him, he didn’t want to leave her embrace.

  [ Chapter 17 ]

  The dorm room was small and there were three of them in it, but Amelia didn’t care. She only needed a bed and a small desk to study and she was happy, she was finally at college after very long time with so many setbacks and sacrifices. Her roommates were Betty Jacobs, who was from a wealth local family and lived about 25 miles from the college. Betty’s parents could have easily afforded a bigger school or even an Ivy League college, but Betty wanted to stay close to home and preferred a small school. She was a very pretty girl with blond hair and blue eyes and a good figure. She had a lot of clothes and knew how to dress, she always looked great. Their other roommate was Shelly Moore who came from California. Shelly’s parents were moving to the east coast, so she wanted to go to a school that was fairly close to them. She has long brown hair and was attractive as well. She was more interested in becoming a doctor than anything else. They got along well, especially Betty and Shelly, because Amelia was hardly ever in their room. She was either in class, at the library or at work. Amelia had only been at school for two weeks, when she got a package from Ida. It was a laptop computer and Amelia was blown away by it, though she felt that it was too much for Ida to spend on her. She got on the phone and called to thank her.

  “Ida,” said Amelia, “I don’t know what to say, you shouldn’t have spent so much money and got me this computer.”

  “Amelia my darling,” said Ida, “I want you to succeed and every student today needs a computer for college, besides you are like a daughter to me and I want to see you succeed.”

  “Ida, thank you so much, I miss you very much,” and they chatted on about her classes and work.”

  Ida didn’t tell Amelia that she sold a piece of her jewelry to buy her the computer.

  Amelia had no trouble adapting to college life. The online courses she had taken were all accepted, and she was working hard to catch up on missing so much time.

  Things were going well for Amelia until one day, when the supervisor of the cafeteria, where she worked told her he had to cut back on some student jobs and hers would be one of them.

  Secret thoughts: (I’m so upset I don’t know what to do. Here I am in the dorm thinking that the big black cloud may have followed me to college and is once again hanging over my head. How many times can it open up and rain again?)

  Betty and Shelly came back from class and were surprised to find her there.

  “What are you doing home this time of the day?” they asked.

  “I got laid off my job,” said Amelia, in a distressed voice, “do either of you know where I can find another job?”

  “Gee,” said Betty, “I can ask my father if he needs anyone, but that’s pretty far away and you would spend a lot of money on gas going back and forth. Let’s think about how we can find you a job around here. In the meantime, we’re having a party tonight because it’s my birthday and it will be fun to have you here for a change.”

  “OK, I forgot about it being your b-day,” said Amelia, “I guess one day won’t kill me.”

  The guys they invited to the party brought several other boys who did not go to school. The party was going great. Amelia had a beer and talked with the other people at the party. One of the boys, who did not go to school, had been eyeing Betty all night. After a few beers, he finally made his move, he walked over to her and put his arms around her. He asked her if he could give her a happy birthday kiss and when she consented, he French kissed her deeply.

  “Wow!” said Betty, “that was some kiss.”

  “There’s more where that came from,” said Luke, “I was waiting to do that all night.” He and Betty sat in a chair and kissed the rest of the night. The party was over, and Betty and Shelly had a lot to drink and fell asleep quick. Amelia had a few beers and could not stand all the empty pizza boxes and other garbage in their room, so she cleaned up and took care of all the trash.

  Amelia left early for class before Betty or Shelly got up and got home early in the afternoon because, she didn’t have to go to work. Betty was getting up when Amelia got back. She opened her eyes and looked around.

  “Boy,” said Betty, “I was expecting to get up to a mess; this place looks great, who did all this?”

  “I cleaned up last night,” said Amelia, “I couldn’t stand the mess.”

  “That’s great,” said Betty “thanks a lot.”

  Shelly and Betty decided they wanted to take Amelia out for dinner for doing the entire cleanup. They assured her that she shouldn’t worry about finding a job and on Monday after class, they would help her.

  “We’ll check the bulletin boards in the student union and cafeteria,” said Shelly, “if you don’t see anything you think you can do, we’ll go down town, and we also should get the newspapers and check out the want ads to see what’s available in town.”

  The only jobs listed on the bulletin boards were for tutoring, baby-sitting, and working in the library and they paid very little.

  Amelia was getting very worried but as promised her roommates took her to town to see what they could find there. As they were walking in town, they came upon a construction site. A crowd had formed around the construction site and they wondered what was going on. The construction crew seemed to be excited about something running around and yelling orders at each other. Amelia was curious. The girls pushed themselves to the front of the crowd to see what was going on. As they got closer, they saw the problem. A backhoe bucket was pushed against a car, causing it to smash into a telephone pole, leaving the car standing on its side. The driver was held suspended by his seat belt and looked petrified. The large machine went out of control somehow, and the force of it was no match for the car. The ambulance had taken the backhoe operator to the hospital, they thought he probably had a heart attack, and passed out that’s why the backhoe went out of control. The car was still pressed tightly against the pole and they were waiting for the fire truck to come and cut the driver out.

  “Please girls! Please! Stand back!” Shouted the construction foreman. Looking over their heads he shouted, “Does anyone in the crowd know how to operate a backhoe,” yelled the foreman, as he looked around at the crowd.

  Amelia said to Betty, “Here hold my backpack.” She stepped forward and grasped the foreman’s arm, I can do it,” she said. He looked down at her with a snarl and asked questioningly, “Look sweetie this is no college gag can you really run a backhoe?”

  “Yes, I can do it,” said Amelia.

  “Are you sure? There’s a man in that car that might be hurt.”

  “I can do it, I’m wouldn’t say I could, if I couldn’t,” said Amelia in a firm voice.

  “OK, get up there and see what you can do.”

  Amelia climbed up the machine took a few seconds to become acquainted with the position of the levers and switches and started it up. With ease, she pulled back the backhoe from against the car, and with the bucket righted the car down on its 4 wheels as gently as could be. She backed up the backhoe, drove it down to an open spot on the road, and parked it. She climbed down out of the backhoe to a cheering crowd. She felt embarrassed her face turned red. She really didn’t think she did anything that was so great.

  The foreman came over to her and said, “You lied, you said you know how to run a backhoe, you didn’t say you were an expert. I can’t thank you enough for pulling us out of this jam. He handed her his card, if you ever decide to quit college and need a job, get in touch with me.”

  Betty and Shelly each took her by the arm and proudly walked through the crowd with her, amid cheers and pats on the back.

  Two weeks later, Amelia was still without
a job, she was as nervous as a cat. She confided in Betty that she was didn’t know what she was going to do, “If I don’t find a job soon, I’ll have to leave college,” said Amelia with a frown.

  “Don’t worry so much, it’s Friday and there is nothing happening on the weekend. Shelley is going to visit her family, why don’t you come home with me, I have a party to go to and you could go with me. Shelly and I will help you on Monday. We’ll go into town after class and we won’t come back until you have a job, I promise.”

  “I don’t know,” said Amelia, “I don’t have any party dresses.”

  “Don’t worry about that, I have a dozen or so and we are about the same size,” Betty assured her.

  Not knowing what else to do, Amelia went home with Betty. She was impressed with Betty’s parent’s home, and how extravagantly, they lived. She was most impressed with Betty’s brother, Don. He was a handsome, dark haired, blue-eyed fellow who worked with his father and seemed very nice. His good looks reminded her of Chad. He complimented Amelia on how attractive she looked, before they left to go to the party on Saturday night, he was going to the event too. Once there they had a drink and Betty introduced Amelia to all of her friends. Later in the evening, Don asked her if she wanted to take a walk in the garden. They came out and sat on a bench and Don began kissing her. After about twenty minutes, Amelia said, “do you want to go back and dance?” They went back in and Don saw two of his friends and introduced Amelia. They both asked her to dance. After Amelia danced with both, Don came back over and told them they couldn’t hog Amelia for the whole night, she was with him.

  They asked Don, “Does your sister have any more friends like Amelia? If she does ask her to introduce us.” Don stuck pretty close to Amelia the rest of the night. He brought her drinks and danced with her. When the party was over, they sat outside on the porch swing waiting for Betty to say good night to her friends. Don put his arms around Amelia, began kissing her again, and pulled her close to him. Amelia was all right with kissing, it felt good, but then he started touching her body, she pushed him away and said, “No, I don’t want you to do that. I just met you yesterday, I hardly know you.”