Thanks a lot, everybody for the beautiful responses.
I'm sorry that I wasn't able to be here for some time because of mysickness
but I'll try to make up for that
.
The First Meeting
"Morning at last! I thought it will never stop raining. I've heared Mrs.Slim once saying that if it rained for a whole night, it is a sign of bad luck. Maybe my father is going to do something bad to me to embarress infront of his guests whom are supposed to arrive today. They will surely hate me just like my father. That’s what I'm used to. But Barry said once that raining for a whole night is a sign of good luck. Maybe I could be lucky for once in my life and my father will leave me alone. Jimmy got depressed when he knew that the Sanders have no sons to play with, but he got over it when Tom Telney told him that it is even better because he will have the chance to bully the two girls. I don’t like Tom. He is very mean. He saw me only once when I was reading by my window and he laughed at me. He even called me little Miss Richy. I think that Jimmy likes him because he is the rudest and toughest boy around. I think that he didn’t notice his big belly, his square shaped head or his nose which is similar to that of a pig".
Richy lay still in bed. He had no desire of getting up or having breakfast. He looked towards the window which hid behind the curtains. If only he could walk to the window to open it and feel the morning breez touching his pale cheeks. It was no use of wishing for all this. All what Richy was able to do was to climb into his wheel-chair, which was next to him, and turn its wheels to move towards the window. As he drew the curtains and let the lights of dawn slip into his room. He took a look outside, into the garden. There, something made him have another closer look. He had read so many fairy tails. One of them was about Snow White, a princess whom he thought of as a vision and a non-real beautiful heroine. But there she was, sitting by the white flower bushes with a white flower in her hand. Her hair was long, thick, shiny and as dark as the night. She looked up. Her eyes were wide and dark, but they shone with pleasure and excitement. Her mouth curved into a little smile when she saw the boy but her smile was enough to incourage him to move a way from the window. He backed away and headed for the door to call one of the servents. It was time to wash and meet the Sanders.
"Do you think that they’ll like me, Mrs.Slim?" Richy asked Mrs.Slim while she was combing his golden hair.
"Of course, they will. You're smart and you know how to behave you're self very well".
"Don’t you think that my father will embaress me infront of them?"
"You must be sure of yourself, son, and nothing your father does will affect you".
"Who was the girl sitting in the garden this morning?"
"Which one?"
"She has dark hair and dark eyes, and she looks like little Snow White".
"Ah! You mean little miss Abbigale. She is a nice little angle. I liked her from the moment I saw her stepping out of the carriage with that delightful smile on her face".
"She sounds like a nice person".
"O, wait until you meet her, lad".
"What about Mr. and Mrs.Sanders? Are they as nice as Abbigale?"
"I think they are. I didn’t speak to them but I don’t like their snobby, light headed daughter".
"Who is she?"
"Her name is Lucy. She is beautiful but too cold for a young child like herself. You take one look at her and you think that she is no child at all but a grown up lady. Yet, her snobish behaviour makes her less glamorous".
Richy was helped by two servents to get downstairs. As the wheels of his chair roled into the guest room, where everyone gothered, Richy had a look around the room. His father was busy having what seemed a delightful conversation with Mr.Sanders while Aunt Martha and Mrs.Sanders were busy talking about how fashionable a person could become in a city like Paris. But where was Jimmy? O, there he was, sneeking from behind a sofa in which sat a little girl with curls of golden hair. She sat quietly, gazing at the fire place. She didn’t stay like this for long because she gave a cry and jumped in horror when Jimmy threw a little kitten into her lab. "How could you!?" she cried. "How could you throw such an ugly, dirty creature like this on me? Aren't you afraid of of catching a dreadful disease by merely touching it?" Her green eyes flashed in anger and her ears turned red.
"Oh, you can't say such things, Lucy", said Abbigale, who moved towards the little creature and took it in her hands. "It is so adorable and cute that no one could say that it could cause any harm".
"Then, make your hands dirty if you want to", Lucy said angerly. "But I'm not touching this thing. It could spoil my dress".
Abbigale said nothing, but carried the kitten and walked away from Lucy. "She is really nice", thought Richy. "I wonder if she will like me as she liked the little animal". His thoughts were interrupted by someone calling for him. "Young man!" called Mr.Sanders. "You must be Richard. Mrs.Clame told us lots about you". He walked to Richy and gave him his hand. "I'm very glad to meet you".
"I'm very glad to meet you as well, sir", said Richy as he took Mr.Sanders's hand.
"Why, you've got a handsome son here, Mr.Harder", Mr.Sanders told Mr.Harder.
"He sure does", said Mrs.Sanders, in a snobish tone, as she walked towards them. "He is charming, dear Mrs.Clame. He is just the way you described him".
"It’s a shame he is weak", said Lucy coldly while she remained in her place in the sofa. Richy looked at her but she looked away from him arrogantly. Richy was invited into the room to have a good time with the other children. It was nice of Mr.Sanders to push his wheel-chair to a corner where the children gothered. As soon as the children were left alone, Jimmy pulled one of Lucy's golden curls and ran a way while she cried in anger, but soon regained her calmness and sat quietly. She didn’t even look at Richy and this made him feel a good need for crying. It was true that Lucy wasn’t nice. It was true that she was scornful and proud, but she was also very beautiful. She had something in her that made people like her.
"My name is Abbigale", Abbigale told Richy, as she took his hand in hers. "But you may call me Abby".
"And it would be better if you would call me Richy".
"Your father doesn’t call you Richy".
"Does your father call you Abby?"
"Neither does he or my Mama ".
"You are different from Lucy. You are much nicer".
"And you are nicer than Jimmy. You don’t hate girls like him. He said that he hates girls. You are not like him".
By lunch time time, Abby and Richy became good friends. When the two families sat together to have lunch, Richy was able to absorve the Sanders more closely. Mr.Sanders was quite a fat man with a round face and it was easy to recognize the wisps of grey hair on his head. But Richy liked his jolly smile and relaxed expression. Mrs.Sanders was rather a thin woman but she was beautiful. Richy figured that Lucy must have inhereted her mother's green eyes although Lucy's eyes were more attractive. Then, he had a look at Lucy. She was very beautiful. She looked like a little doll with her shiny, golden curls and her wide, green eyes which were framed by her long eye-lashes. But her behaviour was not that of a little girl but that of a proud young lady. When Richy turned towards Abby, he saw that she was so unlike her sister. It was true that Abby wasn’t stunningly beautiful like Lucy, but Richy considered her very beautiful with her rosy cheeks and her dark, thick hair which shone in the light of the lamps. What made Abby more beautiful was her nice attitude towards everyone. As they all finished their lunch, Richy moved the wheels of his chair to move to the liberary and sit in his usual solitude when he felt someone pulling his chair. "Don’t you like to go out to the gardens with me, Richy?" Abby asked him. "I'd like to see your flowers".
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