Part 6: Cold hands and warm hearts.

We left our friends Phil and Frankie, in the company of Officer Carson and  Mary Elizabeth.  Phil has just realized that Mary Elizabeth is the sick little girl from next door, except she isn’t sick at all, and her mother has not been in a terrible accident.  We rejoin them with Phil feeling foolish, just as they are about to enter the home of Mary Elizabeth’s grandparents:

“Grandma, I brought Officer Carson and these other two nice gentlemen for some Christmas cookies, just like you asked me to.”

“Welcome gentlemen, and Merry Christmas.  Please come in.  Officer Carson, it’s so nice to see you again.  I hope everything is well with you.”

“Yes, Mrs. Springington, I’m fine.  Allow me to introduce my friends here, this is Paul Bunyan, and this is Curly.  Guys, this is Mrs. Springington.”

To which Phil and Frankie replied:

“Very nice to meet you, Mrs. Springington.”

“Nice to meet you, gentlemen.  Paul Bunyan and Curly, my what unusual names you have.  Are you by any chance familiar with the legend of Paul Bunyan, the lumberjack, and his blue ox Babe?”

Officer Carson interrupted  to say:

“Yes, Mrs. Springinton, of course they are familiar with that, but the fact is, we can’t stay long, I only, that is we only wanted to see that Mary Elizabeth made it home all right.”

“Made it home all right?  Why, whatever could you mean by that?  I could see all of you the whole time right out the kitchen window.”

“Well, anyway, I told Paul Bunyan and Curly here that I would help them go look for Moe and Larry.”

“Oh, I get it, you’re playing a game.  I have time for just one round.  Let’s see, I’ll pretend to be Ingrid Bergman, and you can help me go find Humphrey Bogart and Dooley Wilson, then, after we find them, we’ll all sit by the piano and one of us can play As Time Goes By.  I hope one of you gentlemen can play the piano, because I don’t know As Time Goes By.”

“Mrs. Sprinington, this is not a game, it’s like this, you see they, I mean we–.”

At which point Phil broke in saying:

“You see, Mrs. Springington, it’s very important that we get Officer Carson here down to the station to look for some friends of his, isn’t that right Officer Carson?”

“Yes-I mean no!  It’s very important that I get you down to the station to look for some friends of yours, Curly.  Or am I talking to Babe now?”

“Babe?  Where does Babe come into this?”

“Now, now,  Curly don’t get excited.”

“That’s right Officer Carson.  I mustn’t get excited.  None of us must get excited.  If you want to talk to Babe, you go right ahead.  Paul Bunyan is right here, so Babe must be nearby.  We can search for Babe when we go to look for Moe and Larry.”

“You gentlemen all seem a little confused.”

“No, Mrs. Springington, I’m not confused.  If I could only make you understand without exciting anybody–”

“We’re not confused either Mrs. Springington.  It’s Officer Carson here, I’m sure he’s been working very hard lately, and he probably just needs a rest, and we want to make sure, that is we–”

“Excuse me gentlemen, the telephone is ringing.   See if you can sort this out while I answer….Hello…?  Oh, hello  Mr. Gordon… Merry Christmas to you too…Officer Carson?  Yes, he’s here, just a moment…Officer Carson, Mr. Gordon is on the telephone, he wishes to speak to you.”

“Thanks Mrs. Springinton.  Now we’ll see who’s confused.  Hello, Carson here…Yes, you got a hold of them, all right.  What did they say?…Yes, yes said they would get right on it, good… wanted to make sure who was missing, good… head count…What!…they couldn’t find anyone missing?…all accounted for!  Ask them to check again…you did?…Still all accounted for? …All right.  Thank you Mr. Gordon… I’m afraid I owe you two an apology.  That was Mr. Gordon on the phone, and he just told me that Morning Rise Rest Home is not missing any patients.”

To which Frankie replied:

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“No, you don’t understand.  You see, Mr. Bunyan, I thought that you two were, say, what is your real name anyway?”

“Me?  You mean you know I’m not really Paul Bunyan?”

“Of course I know that.  What do you think I am, mixed up?”

“To tell you the truth Officer Carson, we thought that you thought that we really were Paul Bunyan and Curly Howard.”

“No kidding?  I thought that you two thought that you really were Paul Bunyan, and Curly Howard.  Except I thought that you sometimes thought you were Babe the blue ox.”

“Whatever gave you an idea like that?”

“You mean you don’t know?  It’s the jumpsuits.”

“These hunting coveralls, what about them?”

“Those aren’t hunting coveralls.  Turn around, here it is stenciled right across your back Property of M.R.R.H.’

“We were wondering about this Mister R.H.  Is he some kind of mental case?”

“M.R.R.H. is not a person, it’s a place:  Morning Rise Rest Home, it’s a big place  just a few miles outside of town. They care for people who’ve had nervous breakdowns and who are, well, confused and such.”

“Oh, so you thought that we were..?”

“Yes, and you two thought that I was..?

“Yes.”

Mrs. Springington placed a large tray with an assortment of Christmas cookies on the kithcen table, followed by another tray with four cups of steaming cocoa and said:

“Well gentlemen, now that that’s all settled, as soon as you’ve finished laughing, would you care for some  cookies?   Be careful, I think the cocoa is still very hot . Mary Elizabeth, you may have some too, but only one cookie, it’s getting close to dinner time. Officer Carson, there are some chocolate chip, I believe they are your favorites.  I took them out of the oven only a few moments before you gentlemen came in. ”

“Chocolate chip?  Just out of the oven?  Gentleman, I think you’ll agree that few things in life are more enjoyable than a chocolate chip cookie that is still warm and gooey from the oven.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Say what are your real names anyway?”

“My name is Paul, uh,  Webster, and my friend here is Frankie Elliot.”

“Well, nice to meet the two of you for real.  But I’m surprised you didn’t know what people would think when they saw you wearing those orange jumpsuits.  Every one in town knows about Morning Rise.”

“I just arrived in town yesterday, never been here before that.”

“What about you, Mr. Elliot?”

“I guess in the excitement of welcoming Phil here, and wanting to help him build that snowfamily, I just forgot.”

“Well, no harm done.  But seriously, where did you guys get those things?”

“We found them in the closet of my new house.  I’m from Arizona and don’t have any winter clothes yet, so we put them on. ”

Mrs. Springington said:

“Our next door neighbor, Bill Travers used to work at Morning Rise, and he was allowed to take some of the old jumpsuits.  I believe he and his brother used to wear them went they went up north.   He moved away not long ago.  I wonder if he’s having a nice Christmas?”

“Then you must have known, Mrs. Springington, that Frankie and I weren’t really from Morning Rise.”

“Must I? Why?”

“Because I just moved into the house next door.”

“You did?  Good gracious, welcome to the neighborhood.  I must apologize for not getting over with Arthur, that’s Mr. Springinton, and bidding you a proper welcome, oh it’s just with all the baking, and the preparation, and then the show too.  I do hope you’ll forgive me, Mr. Webster.”

“That’s quite all right Mrs. Springington,  I  understand;  you probably remember how we unmarried men don’t mind if we miss out on those kind of niceties.”

“Yes, I know.  That’s why you need someone to watch after you.”

“That’s very kind of you Mrs. Springinton, but are you saying that you didn’t know that I had moved into the house next door?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And so you thought that Frankie and I were really patients at Morning Rise who had wandered off somehow?”

“Yes.  I recognized the jump suits, just like Officer Carson.  I do hope you’ll forgive me for jumping to conclusions.”

“That’s all right, Mrs. Springington.  But, you  thought we were really patients from the rest home, and yet you invited us in to have cookies, you even started an extra batch for us, before Officer Carson arrived to make sure it was, well, to make sure we behaved ourselves.  Weren’t you concerned?”

“Of course I was.  That’s why I invited you in.  I saw you two gentlemen out there in the snow,  and I thought, if that was someone in my family, some person I loved, I would want someone to offer them to come in out of the cold and have some cookies and hot cocoa, especially on Christmas Eve.”

“That’s not what I meant.  I meant, weren’t you  concerned for Mary Elizabeth or yourself?”

“Good heavens no.   I  asked Mary Elizabeth to go out only after I saw that  Officer Carson had arrived.  I could tell by the actions of all three of you that there was no cause for alarm.  I just saw two kind and gentle- looking men who appeared to be lost, who needed someone to provide them rest and warmth.  I did what I would do for any neighbor.”

Neighbor?  But I thought you said you didn’t know I had moved into the house next door.”

“I didn’t mean neighbor as in someone who lives near me.  Any person who is affected by my actions is my neighbor.”

“That includes a lot of people in some way or another, Mrs. Springington.”

“Yes, I suppose it does.”

“Don’t you get tired, worrying about how to treat so many people?”

“Good gracious no, I never worry about it.  I just do the right thing.”

To be continued…