Chapter Twenty-Nine (Part Two)

Edwin flopped down on one of the chairs in the Le Tour library. Marla looked up from her book. "Something wrong?" she asked.
Sighing, he took his glasses off and wiped them roughly on his tee shirt.
"It's Roxie and that creep Jonah again," he said, rolling his eyes.
"I thought you'd left there for good."
"I got a call from Roxie, asking to pick up a package from mom and dad. When I got there, you could hear them from outside."
Marla shook her head.
"I wish they'd stop, or at least she'd dump him."
Melody raised her eyes only ever so slightly, she was used to hearing about Edwin's sister and the massive rows that she had with her boyfriend. They were the reason Edwin had come back to live in the dorms in the first place.
"What was it this time?" asked Marla, the draw of Edwin's family life far more important than the research she was supposed to be working on.
"The same as always." he sighed, putting his glasses back on. "Now creep face is accusing her of sleeping around."
"That sucks."
"Yeah, apparently she's been spending a lot of time getting extra tutoring from one of the professors."
Marla slammed the book down.
"There's nothing wrong with that," she said, defensively.... "especially if she's falling behind with her course work. Anyway, from what I gathered, he needn't talk, he's worse than her. I've heard rumors..."
Melody raised her head from her studies. "Out of curiosity," she said softly.
Everybody turned to look at her. It was rare for Melody to get involved in anybody's business.
"Which professor was it?"
"Oh, Dr. Hyden."
Edwin's offhand remark felt harmless enough, but Melody felt sick. So, the other day, it was Roxie who'd been in Dr Hyden's office. It wasn't some random female after all. "Erm," Melody put her book down carefully and tried to compose herself, "Ed, how long has this been going on for?"
Edwin didn't say anything. He didn't have to. Melody had already made a mad dash away from the table, toward the nearest restroom.
While he and Marla sat dumbfounded, Melody locked herself in the restroom and proceeded to throw up her dinner. After wiping her mouth, she collapsed in a heap near the toilet and enveloped herself in her arms, sobbing.
Finally Marla gathered up the courage to knock on the door. "Melody?" she asked in her sweet voice. "Melody, are you okay?"
Pressing her ears closer to the door, Marla listened to another round of purging. "Can I take you to the campus infirmary?"
Motioning for Edwin to come forth, Marla shook her head. "Ed, she's locked herself in the bathroom --"
"I'll talk to her." Edwin joined Marla at the doorway to the main bathroom on the first floor. "Mel?" he asked, knocking gently. "Mel, are you all right?"
"Leave me alone!" shouted Melody from behind the doorway.
Edwin and Marla looked at each other. "Yep, she's okay," Marla told Edwin.
Just then they turned around after hearing the click of the doorknob. Melody emerged as if nothing had happened, dusting herself off.


Melody sprang from her bed before sunrise one morning, before even the dorm cook arrived. She turned the key on the padlock to her secret laboratory and walked inside, flicking the light switch. Immediately she walked to where she and Chester had placed the seeds they were making. "Yes! They're ready!" she squealed excitedly like a little girl getting her Christmas gifts.
Putting on her lab gloves, she removed the seeds from the container they'd been kept in and ran to the greenhouse in the back of the dormitory she and Chester had built specifically for this experiment. Humming to herself, she prepared a spot of ground for the seeds to be planted. She'd never gardened before, but she found that she liked tilling the earth, preparing it to bring life forth.
Next she dropped the seeds into the hole that she'd dug, covered them back up with dirt, and watered them. Now all she could do was wait. Would their experiment be a success -- or crash and burn?

Edwin joined Melody for a late-night cup of coffee. "I hate her," Melody muttered between sips, shaking her head in disgust.
Edwin knew instantly she was referring to Jessica McClellan, Chester's new girlfriend. Lightly touching her on the shoulder, he responded, with his soft calm voice, "Calm down, Mel. You hardly know her."
"I know enough about her to know that I can't stand that bimbo. He's so enamored with this girl that he can't see that she's only using him."
"How do you know that?" Edwin asked. As Melody washed the cups up, a dim realization crept through his caffeine-fogged brain. Listening to her caffeine-tinged rant, he wondered, is it possible? He shook his head, trying to remove the thought, but it stuck there, unwilling to go away. What if he was wrong? Quite out of character, Edwin asked, "You like Chester, don't you, Mel?"
Melody's jaw dropped to the floor. "C'mon, Edwin, he's my best friend in the whole world. Of course I like him."
"You know what I mean -- you know, a different kind of like. For a boyfriend."
As Melody continued to categorically deny that she liked Chester 'that way,' Edwin realized that the more he thought about it, the more he realized Chester felt that way towards Melody. He thought about the amount of times he'd seen Chester following her around like a puppy, and the way his face lit up whenever she was in the room and darkened when she left it. Could he possibly dare to intervene and knock their heads together? Or should he leave matters be and see what happens next?
Melody sighed heavily, dark rings beginning to appear under her eyes. "I'm turning in now," she said, a defeated tone in her voice.
Edwin raised his eyebrows. Mel? Tired? It was never heard of.
This left him alone in the dorm, alone with his thoughts and feelings. Sure, he loved and respected Melody, but he also realized she was wearing herself thin too. Oh, he knew about the late night trysts. Being a light sleeper, thanks to Roxie and Jonah's loud music, he often heard Melody's soft footfalls and hand claps as she passed his door. He also heard the low whispers of two voices -- one was distinctly Melody's, raspy and throaty but with a distinctly feminine cadence, and the other, a lot more muffled, he was sure, belonged to Chester.
He also wondered about the fluctuations in the dorm's power grid that occurred at about midnight every night, and the sudden appearance of a greenhouse out back. He knew something was going on, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Melody found herself face-to-face with Chester's girlfriend, Jessica McClellan, over the starchy macaroni and cheese served in Aldrich that evening. Melody stared Jessica in the eye and waited for her to blink.
"Just who do you think you are?" Jessica asked, staring straight into Melody's brown eyes.
"That's funny," retorted Melody, "I was just about to ask you the same question."
"This is about Chester, isn't it?"
"So what if it is?" Melody was adamant. "He's my best friend in the whole world, and I don't want to see him get hurt. Especially not by the likes of you."
Jessica's cheeks turned beet red through her porcelain skin. "What makes you think I'm going to actually hurt Chester?"
"I know your type, Jessica. Girls like you are a dime a dozen. You tease guys into thinking they're your one and only when it turns out you've got 3 or 4 others on the side."
"Why are you sitting here making all kinds of assumptions about me? Is it because of my blond hair? Or my outfit? Well, all your assumptions are wrong. I love him and he loves me."
"Oh, don't give me that bull, Jessica! You wouldn't know what love is if it stared you in the face and made you beg for mercy!"
"As if you can talk, Melody Tinker. I've heard all the rumors. Everyone around campus has. Everyone around here knows you've never been on a date."
"That's none of your business anyway! Remember what you just said about assumptions, Jessica? Just because you hear something, doesn't mean it's true. And besides, you're belaboring the point. The point is, I know you've been a notch on Chaz Whippler's bedpost."
Jessica was aghast. "Who told you that?"
"Doesn't matter who told me, just that I know. Besides, I'm tutoring Whippler in math. Now, if I tell that to Chester, you're finished. Case closed."

Back in Bluewater Village, Malcolm Landgraab IV was in his mansion on the telephone, screaming to his lawyer. "Lawson, we have got to act now! Time is money, and we're wasting a lot of both with this kid and her little toy store. Do you have something, anything you can use to try to force them off the property?" Banging his fist on the table, Malcolm screamed louder. "Well, Lawson, you've got to do something. Say anything! Say something to make these people wake up!" Slamming the receiver on the hook, Malcolm vowed, "Tinker Toys will be mine if it's the last thing I do."
Meanwhile Wanda Tinker had gone to her mailbox, like she always had done every three days. Among her stack of bills was a thick package coming from the law offices of M. Quincy Lawson. "Oh boy, I hope it's not jury duty again," she sighed. She opened the letter and read its contents: "Dear Mrs. Tinker, according to city council records, there have been a few land disputes in and around Bluewater Village. In order to clarify your land rights, we suggest you hand in a copy of your registry documents as proof that you are, indeed, the rightful owner of both your residence and your business...Sincerely, M. Quincy Lawson, Attorney at Law."
Puzzled, Wanda wondered what the attorney's words meant. She didn't understand the legal language of the letter, so she called someone who she thought might know more. "Florence?" she asked, listening to the Delarosa phone ring once, twice, three times.
Florence was busy dealing with customers in her flower shop who'd mostly come in to seek the new shipment that had arrived. But the tone in Wanda's voice told her something was wrong. Discreetly she tried to carry on the conversation while tending to the customers. "So you got a suspicious letter today in the mail?" she asked while showing a customer a blooming lily plant.
"Really strange, Florence. From some lawyer."
Florence frowned. "A lawyer, huh?" she replied while talking to a customer. "This is trouble. I knew he'd try this."
"Who?" asked Wanda.
"This is the handiwork of none other than the man himself."
Wanda, warming a jar of toddler food for Harmony in the kitchen, heaved a sigh. "Malcolm Landgraab."
Florence's voice was sweet, but firm. "You've got to tell her."
"Call Melody at college?" asked Wanda while feeding Harmony her strained carrots. "No way! I can't bother her with this. She deserves to have a normal college life, free from all this stuff."
Florence nodded. "I know she does. Heaven knows the child's been through more stuff than people twice her age -- and she's handled it a whole heck of a lot better than I would, that's for sure." Managing a chuckle, Florence suddenly turned serious. "This is as important to her as it is to you. Perhaps more so." Taking a deep breath as she rang up a customer with the phone in her ear, she then asked about the contents of the letter.
"I didn't understand it really. Something about land rights."
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Florence while ringing up another customer. "He's disputing your claim to your property. He wants copies of your deed. Do you know where they are?"
Wanda whispered "no" sadly.
"That's the point. He thinks you don't know where the papers are, so he's putting pressure on you to find them. Typical."
"Okay, so now what do I do?"
"I'm coming over to help you as soon as I'm done over here."
The phone rang in Aldrich again. "Hello?" asked Melody, bewildered.
"Hi sweetie, it's me, Florence."
Melody piped up at Florence's sweet-sounding voice. "Hi, Ms. Florence, what's up?"
"Melody dear, Malcolm is turning up the heat again. He's asked your mother for proof the land the toy store is built on is actually your family's land."
Melody shook her head. "Un-believable!" she shouted. "He'll stop at nothing, won't he?"
"And as you can probably understand, your mother is freaking out about it."
"Is she there right now? Can I talk to her?"
"I'm in the flower shop. She doesn't know I called you."
Melody sighed. "I see. So in other words he wants the deed to the property."
"Basically, yes."
"And she's freaking out because she can't find it and she doesn't know where it is."
"Basically, yes."
Melody took a deep breath. "Could you tell her to look in the file cabinet by the computer in the master bedroom? I'm sure that's where Daddy kept his files."
Wanda had just put Harmony to sleep when the doorbell rang. "Knock, knock, it's me, Florence." Florence let herself in because Wanda had left the door open. "Do you have any idea where to find those papers?"
"What papers?" asked Wanda absentmindedly, but then she remembered. "Oh, yes, those."
"I talked to Melody on the phone right after I closed down the shop for the afternoon."
Wanda was surprised. "What? I thought we said --"
"Wanda, she's so calm and reasonable."
"Isn't she?" reminisced Wanda with a deep, wistful sigh. "She doesn't get it from me, that's for sure. I'm a quivering wreck most of the time -- but there she is. I can't take any credit because it's all her."
"She says to look in the file cabinet in the master bedroom." The two of them went upstairs to try to locate the paperwork.