Another See-crud Admirer

By Bobby Belden, edited by Cathymw

    Evidently that secret admirer thing is contagious.  Because much later, someone else entirely played secret admirer.

    See, it all started at the Manor House.  Trixie was supposed to be watching me, but instead, I ended up with Miss Trask.  Not that I minded, Miss Trask is really nice and she’s way more patient than Trixie… although really, most people are more patient than Trixie. 

    Anyway, we were playing the game Clue and sitting at the humongous dining table in the Dining Room  when the doorbell rang.  Celia went to answer the door, but then she quickly called for Miss Trask.  She excused herself and went to the door.  I thought about peeking in the envelope to figure out whodunit, but I’m not a cheater so I didn’t do that.

    When Miss Trask came back, she was carrying this gigantic bouquet of flowers.  They were so pretty, in yellow and red and orange and purple.   All my favorite colors.  

    “Who gived… gave you that, Miss Trask?” I asked, all excited. “They’re bee-yoo-ti-ful.” 

    “I’m not sure,” Miss Trask said.

    “Read the card,” Celia suggested, looking as impatient as me to find out who sent the flowers.

    “It says ‘To a classy, beautiful woman... from a secret admirer’,” Miss Trask said.  And then she started blushing!  I’ve never seen Miss Trask blush!  I’ve seen Trixie blush, and Honey blush, and Diana blush, and my Mommy blush, I’ve even seen Celia blush… but never Miss Trask.   I was so surprised, I almost missed the fact that she said secret.   And I love secrets!

    “Oh boy!” I said, jumping up and down.  “You have a see-crud ‘mire-er.  I can’t believe you have a see-crud ‘mire-er.  That’s so swell.  I can’t believe it.  A see-crud ‘mire-er!  Umm… what’s a ‘mire-er?”

    “It’s an ‘ad-mire-er’, Bobby.  And it means that someone has you in high regard,” Miss Trask said briskly.

    I looked at up at her, a confused look on my face.

    “That someone holds you in good esteem.”

    Same blank look.

    “It means that someone likes her, Bobby,” Celia explained. 

    “Oh, thanks for explaining, Celia.” I said.  “Although, I thinked I’ve heard that word somewhere before.”

     Celia smiled at me and then looked back at the flowers.  “They really are beautiful flowers, Miss Trask.   Shall I get a vase for you?   And do you want these in your room or shall we display them down here?”

    “Oh, I definitely think they should go in my room.  After all, if Trixie gets a whiff of a ‘secret admirer,’ I’m sure she’ll consider this a mystery to be solved and won’t give up until she finds out exactly... Oh, hello, Trixie, are you girls done working on your homework assignment?” Miss Trask asked when Trixie, Honey, and Di walked in the room as she tried to casually drop the flowers in the vase Celia had brought for her.

    “Almost, we just came down for a snack.  Wow, those are beautiful flowers.  You guys always have the prettiest flowers at the Manor House, Miss Trask,” Trixie said, admiring the flowers.

    “They are beautiful, Miss Trask,” Honey added.  “Did Daddy send those to Mother?”

    Miss Trask looked at Celia.  Celia looked back at her, shrugged, and then walked out of the room.  So I piped up since they were obviously unsure as to what to say.  Adults seem to do that a lot.

    “They’re for Miss Trask!  From a see-crud ‘mire-er.  I mean, a see-crud AD-mire-er.”

    “Really?”  Trixie said, raising an eyebrow. “Who would actually send you --- ow!’

    “That’s so sweet, Miss Trask,” Honey said, stepping over Trixie’s words… and on her toes.  “I’m sure there are plenty of people who admire you.”

    “Yeah, that’s what I meant,” Trixie muttered. 

    “Thank you, dear.” 

    “Do you have any idea who this particular admirer might be?”  Honey asked.

    “Well, actually, I don’t,” Miss Trask answered, walking back to the dining table.  “Anyway, Bobby, I believe it was your turn to go.”

    “Wait,” Trixie interrupted.  “You don’t know who the flowers are from?”

    I tried not to laugh as Miss Trask rolled her eyes before turning around to Trixie.  “No, Trixie, I don’t know. That’s why they’re from a secret admirer.”

    “Hmmm… I wonder if we can call the florist and find out.”

    “Trixie!” Honey said.  “I’m sure that Miss Trask would prefer if you didn’t treat this as a mystery.”

    Miss Trask arched one eyebrow.  “I definitely have to agree with Honey there, Trixie.  This isn’t a mystery.”

    Trixie looked embarrassed.  “I’m sorry, Miss Trask.  I just thought it would be interesting to figure out who sent the flowers.   But I should respect your personal life, I apologize.”

    “That’s okay, Trixie,” Miss Trask said, patting Trixie on her hand.  “I know you’re just impulsive.  Anyway, let me just put these in my room, and then I’ll be right back down to finish the game, Bobby.”

    “I didn’t even know she had a personal life,” Trixie said after Miss Trask left the room.  “I mean, other than watching wrestling with Mr. Lytell and that’s just… well, blech.”  Trixie shivered.

    “Well, honestly, I think McDuff was her last real ‘boyfriend’,” Honey said, doing that quote mark thing with her fingers.  “So I hope she does find someone who recognizes how beautiful she is… although gosh, I hope she doesn’t, like, marry him or anything.  Then she’d have to leave and I don’t want her to leave.  Although I would like her to be happy.  But I’d be unhappy if she left, but happy for her of course, but… oh, you know what  I mean.”

    “Yes, I know what you mean, Honey.  And I’d hate to see her leave.  She’s so nice and so good with the little terror.”  She meant me, of course.  I hate it when Trixie acts like I’m not going to understand that she means me.

    “She’s much nicer than you, Trixie.” I said, sticking out my tongue.  She stuck her tongue right back at me.

    “Ah, as always, the more juvenile members of our familial unit are behaving in a manner befitting of their less advanced age,” Mart said, as he walked into the room, followed by Jim, Dan, and Brian.

    So we both stuck our tongues out at Mart.  I don’t know what he meant, but I know he was teasing us.

    “Hey girls, what’s happening?” Jim said as he walked up to Trixie and tugged on one of her curls.  Jim seems to do that a lot.

    “Miss Trask received flowers today from a secret admirer,” Diana explained.  “And we were discussing the implications of what it would mean if she had a real love interest.”

    “Implications?  You’ve definitely been hanging around Mart too long,” Trixie snorted.

    “That’s odd though,” Jim said with a frown.  “Weren’t we just talking at the last Bob-White meeting about how Miss Trask seemed lonely lately?”

    “That’s right,” Trixie answered.  “We did just talk about that.  But I really do want to know who sent her the flowers.  I just hope to God it wasn’t Mr. Lytell.”

    “Hey, maybe it’s Harrison,” Dan said with a smirk.

    “I like Harrison,” I said.

    “Hey, he’s better than Mr. Lytell,” Honey agreed.  “And besides, I was thinking recently that Harrison kind of reminds me of that Summerset character from the ‘In Death’ books.”

    “Oooh!” Diana squealed.  “So does that mean Roarke gets to live with me too?”

    “Roarke,” Trixie, Honey, and Diana all sighed together, causing Brian, Jim, and Mart to roll their eyes.

    Dan just grinned.  “Hey, can you blame them for having the hots for the dark-haired Irish bad boy gone good?”

    Mart punched him in the arm.

    “Hey, Moms said you’re not supposed to hit people,” I scolded.

    “Yeah, Martin.  You’re not supposed to hit people,” Brian said, slugging Mart in the arm.  Mart hit him back, and they wrestled for a while until Jim broke them apart.

    I rolled my eyes.  Sometimes my older brothers just aren’t the best role models. 

    Luckily, everyone had stopped fighting before Miss Trask walked back into the room.

    “Oh, hello boys.  How are you doing today?”

    “Not as good as you are, Miss Trask.  I understand someone has a secret admirer,” Mart said with a cheeky grin.

    Once again, Miss Trask blushed.

    “Any idea who could have sent them, Miss Trask?” Jim asked.  “Not that I want to pry, but I’m afraid Trixie is going to just die if she doesn’t find out.”

    “Actually, I don’t have any idea who could have sent them, Jim.  But the flowers are quite beautiful.”

    “As are you, Miss Trask,” Dan said, smiling.  “As the card said, you are definitely a classy, beautiful woman.”

    “Thank you so much, Dan.  That’s very sweet of you to…” Miss Trask paused and narrowed her eyes at Dan.  “Wait a minute, I didn’t tell you what the card said.”

    Dan started stammering.  “Well… uhh… Trixie told me what the card said.”

    Now it was Trixie’s turn to narrow her eyes at Dan.  “No, I didn’t know what the card said either.”

    “DAN!” The entire group yelled together.

    Dan blushed.  “What?”

    “Daniel, did you send me the flowers?” Miss Trask asked softly.

    “Well… uhh.. maybe.  See, I just wanted you to know that people appreciated you, and I thought flowers would be nice.  And I was just thinking about how you are a total hottie for an older woman… although I totally respect you as a person,” Dan rushed to finish.

    “Thank you, Daniel.  That really was sweet.  I don’t suppose you… no, wait, you couldn’t have, you weren’t around Sleepyside then,” Miss Trask said quietly and then quickly changed the topic. “Anyway, Bobby and I still have the game to finish, so why don’t you seven finish up your chores or homework and then you all can stay for dinner.”

    “Yay!” I said as the Bob-Whites all put in their agreement with the plan as well.  Although Moms’ cooking is much better than at the Manor House, at least here I didn’t have to help set the table... and I can get almost any type of ice cream I want for dessert.

    Miss Trask sat down to play the game, but she looked a bit distracted.

    And I bet I knew why.

    “So, Miss Trask.  I guess we figured out who your see-crud admirer was, huh?”

    “I guess we did, Bobby.   It’s odd though, this wasn’t my first see-crud --- I mean, secret admirer.  I had another one who sent me some cards and gifts when I first moved to Sleepyside, before Dan was even here.  Anyway, never mind, it’s your turn, have you figured out who killed Mr. Body?”

    I sat there smiling for a few seconds.  I didn’t know who killed Mr. Body, but I sure did know who had sent Miss Trask the gifts before.

    As I picked up the dice, I thought:

    Like uncle, like nephew.

Authors’ notes:  I definitely need to thank Dani for her idea for this story.  I often feel that I really don’t get Dan, so when I... I mean, when Bobby volunteered to write a story with Dan’s see-crud, I had no idea what to do.  Dani suggested the idea that Dan played the role of a see-crud admirer for Miss Trask since Dani totally gets Dan and his sweet, vulnerable side.

Thanks so much to Cathy, Pat (Amygirl), Trish (PBahr), Charly, Dani, Dana, Mary, Malficient, Carol (C_M), AprilW, Rachele (Wingnut), Julie (macjest), Deanna (cestmoi1),  for their kind donations to the Horrorcane FUNdraiser for Dan's see-crud.  Oh, again I donated a dollar as well in an attempt to misdirect anyone who was trying to guess who was playing Bobby. 

And heeeeeeeeere's Bobby.

Now, back to the alphabet. Thanks to Imp, and Janette, and Janice, and Janienne, and Jayne, and JellyBelly, and Jenn!, and JennieC, and jennileigh, and Jennileigh'BFF, and Jessica, and Jme13, and Joan, and joslyn25, and justlyssa, and Kate, and Katrina, and Kaye KL, and KayRenee, and kimberly, and Kimjo, and KinNC, and klr, and Kris, and Kristin, and Kyrie...

We have two more stories, Bobby, so why don't you shut up... I mean, be quiet for a while.  *sigh* Who am I kidding?