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What is Valentine’s Day?
Wednesday is looking forward to Saturday; she has science club and a visit to the restricted areas of the library. There are also a couple of hours in the afternoon which coincides with Enid’s free time. It would be nice if she could spend the time with Enid, just watching her, listening to her voice, taking in her perfume. She shakes her head, that does not sound like her, but it does sound pleasant.
Across the room Enid looks unhappy as she searches for something. Drawers are opened and closed loudly, bedding and cushions scattered to the floor as Enid searches.
“Is anything wrong? Have you lost something?” Wednesday asks when she stops and stands glaring at the ruin of her side of the room.
“No. Nothing” Enid snaps grumpily as she shoves her arms into the sleeves of her jacket before heading off for breakfast slamming the door behind her as she leaves.
Wednesday shrugs and returns to her notes as she does every day before breakfast. She has not written more than a page when Thing clambers onto her desk and waves for her attention.
“What is it Thing?”
The hand signs to her.
“Of course, I know what day it is, it is Saturday.”
There is more frantic signing from thing.
“What do you mean which Saturday? It’s the second Saturday in February, the fourteenth.”
The hand flops back in exasperation and then signs at her again, this time with more exaggerated emphasis and points at her calendar.
Wednesday dismisses the calendar. “I don’t need it, I know what day it is.”
Thing hops across the desk and jabs a finger at the date on the calendar.
“St. Valentine’s day? Well lucky for him, he gets an entire day.” She sneers at Thing.
If he could Thing would sigh, instead he settles for flopping on his back and waving his fingers in the air.
“Stop being so dramatic.” Wednesday chides him.
He rights himself and looks at her before beginning to sign again.
“Valentine is a patron saint, yes most are. Some do double duty as patron of many things. What’s so special about this one?”
Thing launches into a long sequence of signs. He pauses when Wednesday starts to interrupt and holds up a single finger to silence her, before resuming his diatribe.
Wednesday’s eyes widen as she understands the situation and puts down her pen and closes her notebook to focus on Thing.
“You mean that is why Enid is so unhappy?”
Thing signs a yes.
“She thinks because I have ignored this Valentine’s Day ritual that I don’t love her.”
Thing signs a big yes.
“That’s not true Thing.” She slumps back in her chair staring at the multicolored chaos that is the other side of the room.
Thing leaves her to her thoughts and scampers off on quick fingertips to his private space behind the walls.
Wednesday is still staring at the kaleidoscope of color that is Enid’s half of the room when Thing returns dragging something large, flat and in the most dreadful shade of pink. She backs away from the pink monstrosity and pulls out her anti-color gloves.
Thing drops the pink envelope on her desktop and taps it meaningfully with a finger. Carefully as if expecting it to explode and shower her in pink debris she carefully turns back the envelope flap. With gloved fingertips she pulls out the contents.
It is worse than she could have imagined.
She is holding a greeting card obviously created by someone under instruction to use up all the pink in the world. The background is pink, the text is pink, the cutesy cartoon caricatures are pink. It is all pink. As she runs her finger over it, she realizes that part of it has a soft texture as if someone has glued fine short pink bristles to it. If she did not have her gloves on it would probably feel incredibly soft to the touch.
She puts it down; it is too much. “What is the purpose of this creation, Thing?”
Thing does his best to explain to Wednesday’s increasing horror. As he signs, she shrinks away from the card.
Then he asks her to open it. With great reluctance and only touching the card with her fingertips she lifts the cover and opens the card. Then she recoils from the garishness and shoves her chair away from the desk.
It is too much for her, there is even more pink, more cartoony people and worse. So much worse. There is a message in a pink cursive font that is all flourish and minimal letter. But worse than the ridiculous font is the message itself, it is the most saccharine drivel she has ever read.
“And people like this?” She asks and when Thing signs in the affirmative, she whispers as the grim reality of the situation hits her, “and Enid, she wants something like this?”
“Yes” Thing signs
“And that is why she is so upset?”
Thing signs a big yes and Wednesday almost collapses in her chair.
“What do I have to do?” She asks resigned to her fate and dreading the answer.
She relaxes a little as he explains the ordeal she has to undertake. It is something she feels she can manage, she is Wednesday Addams and she can deal with this. However.
“NOT IN PINK!” she barks having recovered a little from the pink overload enough to try to exert some control over this process. “I’ll do it, but not in pink.” She says in a more measured tone and picks up her pen. Thing signs again.
“Anonymous, but why?”
Thing shrugs and lets her carry on, then he sighs, realizing that there is only so much she can take. While Wednesday is composing her Valentine’s message to Enid, Thing scurries off the desk and heads back to his hideaway to fetch the next part of his plan.
He returns a moment later with a single rose which he carries up to the tabletop to find that Wednesday has finished.
Wednesday has returned the card to the envelope and has written ‘Enid’ on the front in neat black ink.
Thing puts the rose on top of the envelope.
“Now What?” Wednesday looks at it with suspicion.
Thing does his best to explain in the face of Wednesday’s incredulity and gestures to Enid’s side of the room.
She picks up the envelope and the rose and then stands, staring across the line at the other side of the room. Straightening her shoulders she marches toward Enid’s bed, pausing momentarily before she crosses the line. Thing scampers alongside her before crawling on top of Enid’s bed.
With Thing signaling frantically, Wednesday carefully positions the envelope for maximum visibility.
Breathing a huge sigh of relief Wednesday backs away from Enid’s bed towards her own half of the room. Once on her side of the line, she pulls off her gloves and almost falls back into her chair. She grips the side of the desk for a moment, ignoring Thing who is signing at her.
Methodically Wednesday packs her satchel with the books and materials she will need for the day. Then she tidies her desk clearing everything off the desktop and locks away her notebook. Satisfied that everything is in order she picks up her satchel and heads off for breakfast. Alone.
###
After spending most of the afternoon in the gloomy restricted archives of the library, Wednesday returns to her room. She marches along under her own personal cloud of doom; other students dodge out of her way more rapidly than normal.
She returns to their room and stops outside the door, not moving to open it. She just stands looking at the wood, trying to process how she is feeling. At this moment she does not want to open the door, she does not want to go into HER room.
She tries to focus, the only people likely to be in the room are Enid and Thing. Perhaps some of Enid’s friends but they would not be the cause of this malaise as she would just ignore them as usual.
It must be Enid, Enid who stormed out of their room this morning, Enid who slammed the door. Enid who was upset. She realizes that she does not want Enid to be upset.
Why was Enid upset? It cannot have been anything she has done. She has a memory of Thing signing. The ritual with the card and the rose. Enid can’t be upset by that, can she?
Could she have made Enid sad because she did not participate in this ritual earlier?
She has not seen Enid all day since she stormed out of their room. Wednesday had been unusually unfocused during science club, nothing they discussed and experimented on excited her as it usually would. Not even he explosions.
Even the restricted areas of the library were mundane and unexciting, today it was as if they were just rooms with books in them. Nothing could distract her from worrying about Enid.
During her break for lunch, she did not see Enid, nor could she find her with her cohort of friends in the quad. Not that she had been searching for Enid, she tells herself.
What has she done to upset Enid like this?
Will Enid forgive her or even speak to her again?
Wednesday closes her eyes and reaches out to open the door, to her surprise the door opens. She realizes that Enid must be inside.
Taking a deep breath, she steps inside the room ready to face Enid, no matter the circumstances.
Someone, she suspects Thing, has tidied up Enid’s half of the room, there are still too many colors for her, but it looks like it is in the arrangement Enid prefers. But there is no sign of Enid.
There is a heavy black cloth hanging from the ceiling masking off the big window and their balcony. When she moves to the cloth, Thing appears from under the barrier and waves her away.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Things signs “a surprise.”
Wednesday scowls at the hand and Thing signs that he has prepared a change of clothes for her and points excitedly at her bed.
“Have you seen Enid today? I looked around school and could not see her.”
Thing hesitates before signing “no” and points at the bed. Laying on top of the bed is the black lace dress she wore to her first party here at Nevermore. She had not considered wearing it since.
“Really?”
Thing nods and bobs excitedly. “Why this?” She asks as she stands next to her bed.
Thing signs rapidly in response.
“You’re sure that Enid will approve of this?”
Thing signs “yes”
Wednesday shakes her head, today has been very confusing. It is only the middle of February and the feast day of a minor saint. Why is it so complicated? She loves Enid and Enid has given all the signs that she loves her back. So why all the rigmarole over just one day. She will still love Enid tomorrow, and the day after.
She looks at the dress and shrugs. Well, if it will make Enid happy. She picks up the dress and notices that Thing has also selected underwear and accessories to go with the dress. At her feet, a pair of strappy black shoes peek out from under the bed.
Slowly she begins to get undressed, Thing scampers away to give her some privacy.
###
She puts away her clothes and sits on the bed, wondering what to do next. Enid still has not appeared. She wrings her hands as she wonders where Enid is. She hopes that Enid is all right. Looking across the room at the unoccupied other half, Enid still has not appeared.
Thing hurries across the floor to squat in front of her. He beckons her towards the curtained off section of the room.
Satisfied that she has followed, he grabs the curtain and yanks it to one side. The curtain collapses onto the floor as it is ripped from its flimsy fastenings. It throws up a cloud of dust as it falls.
Wednesday covers her mouth and nose as the cloud envelopes her. Turning away from the dust she wonders how the hand managed to install the curtain in the first place.
Then there is coughing from behind her, coughing and cursing. Coughing and cursing in a voice she recognizes.
ENID!
Enid is here.
She turns back to see Enid bent over and waving away the cloud of dust. She rushes over and guides Enid away to a less dusty part of the room. Holding Enid gently she waits for the coughing to subside and whispers “I’m sorry.”
“This is not your fault I should have checked this dust trap before I helped Thing install it.” Enid wipes her eyes where the dust has got into them.
“But I ruined everything.” Wednesday continues. “I should have paid more attention to this Valentine thing. I have never cared about anyone enough for it to matter before. I’m sorry.”
Enid stands upright and frees herself from Wednesday’s embrace. “In that case, I’m sorry too. I have gotten your nice dress covered in dust.” She makes an attempt to brush Wednesday’s dress with her hands. “And I over-reacted a bit this morning. I should have trusted you. I’m sorry.” She simpers in front of Wednesday.
Wednesday holds out her hands. “I forgive you, if you will forgive me.”
“Yes” Enid steps forward to hug her.
“Although we are going to need a vacuum to clean your dress.” Enid looks heartbroken as she looks at her dust covered white dress but then smiles as she twirls in front of Wednesday scattering dust everywhere. “What do you think of it?”
Wednesday tilts her head to one side as she examines the once white party dress. “It is very you, fun and I like the color.”
Enid takes her hand a leads her back to the big window. “Let’s see if Thing’s dust storm has ruined everything.”
In front of the window, lit by the setting sun, there is a small table set with two places. A large silver cloche occupies the center of the table, forcing the candlesticks to be set close to the edges of the table. Pride of place next to the cloche is her card in all its pinkness.
Cloche, plates, glasses, candles, and silverware are all covered in a thick layer of dust, giving the impression of a low budget production of Great Expectations.
Wednesday looks at Enid, “well if you are going to be Miss Haversham, I guess I must be Pip.”
Enid looks as if she is about to cry. “This was supposed to be so nice, just the two of us watching the sun set.”
“Enid, the most important part is the two of us. Everything else is window dressing.”
Enid nods.
“What’s under the cloche?”
“Cake” Enid lifts the cloche to reveal a cake, a Victoria sponge filled with white frosting and decorated with sliced strawberries. Leaning against the cake is a white envelope addressed to Wednesday.
“Cut some cake, we’ll eat on my bed while you tell me about this Valentines Day ritual and then we’ll watch a movie.”
“My choice”
“My choice I think, but for today your choice.”
Enid smiles at her.
Wednesday smiles back at her and holds up the sall envelope. “But first I am opening my first Valentines day card.”
She puts her finger under the flap to open it, revealing a black card. When she pulls it out it is plain jet black, she opens it to reveal the message written in white.
‘I love you.’