The Fremont Saga
by: E Walk
(© 2009-2011 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 53

The Invitation

The real Rob and Rick Rosenberry were the antithesis of the two guys who had been impersonating them.  They weren’t in the least bit pushy.  In fact, they went out of their way to be considerate of everyone.  I noticed that Dad and Mother seemed to hit it off with Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberry.

As we were eating the pizzas around the fireplace, Timmy asked the question that we all wanted to know the answer to, “How did that family get those papers saying that they were you?”

Rob shrugged his shoulders, “Our parents don’t seem to realize that we’re fifteen and sixteen years old and can take care of ourselves.  We had checked in for our flight in New York and were waiting for them to start loading the plane.  Dad decided it would be best if he held onto the passports and tickets so someone wouldn’t lose theirs.  We didn’t lose anything, but someone picked his pocket and before we could convince the authorities that someone had stolen the tickets, the plane had taken off with our imposters.”

Rick added, “We were lucky because Dad had given Mother the traveler’s checks and the credit card to keep in her purse so everything wouldn’t be together.”

Timmy was frowning, “I don’t understand how someone could take things and you wouldn’t know it.  Why wouldn’t you feel the things moving?  Why would anyone be so mean and take things that belong to other people?”

Merry answered, “Timmy, there are people who make enough money by taking things from peoples’ pockets that they never have to work.  I’m going to bed, since it looks as if we will be able to go running in the morning.  I missed our run this morning even though it was an exciting morning with Brian playing Blizzard Man.  I’ll meet the runners in the crowd here at seven in the morning.”

I watched as Louie escorted Merry to her room.  They were followed by Lauren and Derek.  Robbie and Doreen left with Richie and Justin.  It suddenly dawned on me that Ron and Jack had disappeared earlier.

John, Tanner and I stayed and talked to the Rosenberry guys and they had similar interests to what we had.  Rob was the athlete and Rick was into the arts.  He played the piano.  I was going to have him play the piano but a great many people had retired for the night so I decided to delay his performance.

I finally called it a day and went to get ready for bed.  As I was taking my shower, it suddenly hit me that I had used some muscles that I hadn’t used for a long time.  I was lying in bed when I felt someone touching me, “Brian, my legs hurt.  Do you have something to make them stop hurting?”

“Timmy, my muscles hurt too.  Let me go see if I can find something to stop them from hurting.”

I pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt and went to see if anyone was still up.  Uncle Archie, Uncle Will, Dad and Mr. Rosenberry were still in the great room.  Uncle Will asked, “Do you need something, Brian.”

I nodded my head, “I think Timmy and I overdid it at the ice rink today.  We have muscles that are telling us they need some exercise.”

Uncle Archie went to a cupboard, “I thought there might be some people who might need some liniment to help their muscles relax.  You might want to take a tube to Morgan, too.  The Walters already picked up a tube.”

If Timmy’s legs still hurt when we woke the next morning, he showed no signs of it.  He was in my room at six thirty dressed to go running.  I climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom and dressed in my warm running clothes.  Timmy was talking and making my bed as he worked.  How Michaud could sleep through the chatter is beyond me.  We had a big ensemble leaving the lodge now that Rob and Rick Rosenberry joined our jogging group.  We still only had two female members, Merry and Katrina, in the group.

After an exhilarating run during which Timmy talked all the time, we were sitting in front of the fireplace talking when Ron and Jack appeared.  The only problem was that Ron was walking somewhat funny.  I wasn’t the only person who noticed.  Tanner whispered, “Uh oh, it looks as if Ron got his wish.  I should have made a room check while the rest of you were running.  I talked to the medic and he said I needed to have my ankle taped if I was going to ski today.  He warned me about trying to get too fancy.”

When we were seated for breakfast, I noticed that Rick Rosenberry was seated next to Vicky and Rob was seated next to Robbie.  Flags went up, and I decided that I needed to check with John as to what happened.  I looked to see who John was sitting next to and he had Tanner on one side of him and Ben on the other.  I had a sudden thought, ‘It’s none of my business about the other people’s affairs.  They’re almost all older than me.’

I started to argue with myself, ‘You need to worry about them because they’re all your friends.’

‘That may be, but you have no right to interfere in their personnel lives.’

The conversation was interrupted by Uncle Archie, “Brian, there is a gentleman on the phone who would like to speak to you.”

“Uncle Archie, I don’t know anyone who lives here.  It must be a mistake.”

“Brian, it’s Herr Strasser.  I don’t know him very well either but he says he knows you.   He owns the Palladium.  It can’t hurt to speak to him.”

“This is Brian Benson speaking.”

“Brian, it’s Fredrick Strasser.  I realize you don’t know me, but you saved my daughter and her children in the blizzard yesterday.  I understand I saw you and your friends ice skating at the Palladium yesterday.  I’d like to offer you a reward for saving my daughter and my grandchildren.”

“Mr. Strasser, I had a lot of help rescuing your family.  We can’t accept a reward for saving peoples’ lives.”

“Brian, there aren’t many people who would turn down a reward.  What if I were to offer you and your friends free passes to skate at the Palladium when the competitors for the show aren’t rehearsing each day.  In fact, I’ll provide all the people who are guests at the Chalet Lafontaine and the employees tickets for the Saturday show.”

“That’s very generous of you Mr. Strasser.  Those of us who skated yesterday had a great time.  We even found some muscles we had forgotten about.”

“Why don’t you get Archie or Will to bring you to town about ten o’clock.  The grandchildren want you to come and skate and have lunch with them.  You can bring as many people as you would like but call and let us know how many people will be coming so we can have enough food.”

“Thank you for your offer, sir.  I'll call you as soon as I know who will be coming.”

Dad intercepted me on my return to the dining room, “Brian, in order to not call attention to the people who have wizard powers, I think you should limit the number of people who are going skating and to lunch.”

“I was listening to your conversation and you need to be careful and not upset Mr. Strasser by refusing his offer of a reward.  You could give the money to an organization that helps needy children.  I’m sure Mr. Strasser would have no difficulty accepting that idea.  In fact he might be impressed with your gesture.  I guess you need to find out how many tickets to the competition you will need.  I think that is reward enough for what you did.”

I took the members of our group aside after breakfast and asked if any of them would want to go skating over the lunch period instead of skiing.  There were no takers.  Even Michaud and Antoine wanted to stay and ski.  That left, Timmy, Morgan, Kristina and me to go skating.  Dad and Mother decided to go with us.  Dad was going to be driving Uncle Will’s vehicle, since Uncle Will had some business he needed to take care of.

When we arrived at the Palladium, we were met by Mr. Strasser, “I’m glad that you could come today.  The help tells me you are very good skaters.  The grandson and the granddaughter are waiting for you in the snack area.   Why don’t you pick out some skates if you need them and we’ll eat in the snack area?”

Dad suggested, “Mr. Strasser, why don’t you fit Brian and Timmy for their own skates since Morgan and Kristina have their own.  They can break them in while their skating today.”

Pietro, who was ten, announced, “Granddad, I’ll show the guys the good skates.  They’ll be able to tell the difference from the inexpensive skates that you use for rental skates.  Liesel, why don’t you show the girls some of the new costumes that just arrived.”

Not only did Timmy and I have professional skates before we were done, but we had costumes that matched Morgan in red, white and blue.

After lunch of soup and sandwiches, we started to skate.  Even Dad and Mother surprised us when they joined us.  They must have been very good ice skaters in their younger days.  They finally quit complaining that their arches were hurting.

After the parents had gone to sit with Mr. Strasser and his daughter and wife, Timmy skated to where they were sitting, “The Benson family has a little show they would like to do for you.  Please don’t laugh at us; we’ve never done this before.”

Both Morgan and I frowned.  Morgan asked, “Timmy, we can’t just put on a show without practice.”

“Morgan, Brian and I have special powers and can talk to each other without speaking.  We know that Kristina has limited special powers and can hear us.  Listen very hard to what Brian and I are saying and I’m betting you will be able to hear us, but you can never tell anyone.  Let’s go line up.”

I don’t know how it happened exactly, but Morgan was able to hear us and we did a rather silly routine that had the onlookers laughing.  When we finished, the other paying guests applauded.”

Liesel who was a very good skater, looked at Kristina and me, “I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if Kristina and Brian skated together.  They would make a handsome pair.”

Kristina nodded, “I’m willing if Brian is.”

“Why not?  I’m not going to have a Dutch girl show me up.  Let’s show them what we can do.”

If the Strassers and my parents could have heard the conversation between Kristina and me while we were skating, they would have laughed their backsides off.  Timmy had to leave the area to keep from laughing.

When we finished our routine, a gentlemen approached where the Strassers and our parents were sitting. “Fredrick, these young people are just what we need for the show on Saturday.  They could be billed as our amateur talent.”

Mr. Strasser shook his head, “Herr Menninger that would be up to the young people and Mr. and Mrs. Benson.  They are visiting our country and are staying at the Chalet Lafontaine.”

“Alas, Monsieur Nappy has gone to a better place.  We are sorely going to miss his donations to the homeless shelter for young people that he so generously gave each year.  It’s going to be difficult to make up for the loss of those funds.  I understand that there are three young people in charge of his funds and they don’t even live in the area.  I understand that they live in the United States.”

Dad was riled, “Mr. Menninger, I suggest you be careful what you say.  Two of the three young men who are in control of Monsieur Lafontaine’s funds are present, as we speak.  One of the young men has already donated a significant amount of money to a fund for homeless and hungry in England with proceeds from his artwork that has sold.  At Christmas time, the three young men personally organized a special Christmas party at a home for the homeless with their own money.  I’d like for you to meet two of our sons, Brian and Timmy Benson.  The two ladies are Kristina VanLeuen from Amsterdam and our daughter, Morgan.  We have another son and daughter but they chose to stay at the chalet and ski.”

Mr. Menninger turned bright red, “I apologize.  I spoke without knowing all the facts.”

I decided to save Mr. Menninger, “Mr. Strasser, I’d like to change my mind and accept the reward you offered for saving your daughter and grandchildren.  I could present the money to the fund that Grandpa Nappy so generously supported at the conclusion of the competition on Saturday night.”

Mr. Menninger countered, “I’ll even add to the amount if the four of you would agree to be in the show.”

Mr. Strasser nodded, “We would provide you a private time when you could practice your routines when there was no one else around.  It would need to be between nine and ten in the morning since there are lessons from six a.m. until nine.  There is open skating between ten and two.  The rest of the day is dedicated to the competitors until after Saturday.  Let’s keep the fact that you’re going to be in the show a secret.  We’ll advertise that there will be some surprise guests making appearances.  I take it you knew Monsieur Lafontaine rather well.”

I shook my head yes, “Yes, we were fortunate enough to know the gentleman quite well.  I gave the eulogy at funeral service.  Is there any way that his name could be in the program for the competition?  If I were to pay for the programs, would you be willing to somewhere include the statement that the competition is commemorating the memory of Monsieur Napoleon Lafontaine?”

Mr. Menninger waved his hands no, “Brian, you don’t need to pay for the programs.  The people who attend the competition buy them as souvenirs and more than pay for production.  In fact the programs are a big money maker for the competition, because the advertisers are willing to pay big money to advertise in it.  I’ll go make sure that it’s not too late to make the change you requested.  We should have thought of that.”

The arena was beginning to fill up and Dad stood, “We'll have the four young people here at nine in the morning.  It’s going to be fun to see what happens.  Knowing Brian, I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised with the result of the young people’s effort.

To be continued...

Editor's Notes: 

I am sure that Brian and the others will do a wonderful job. It's too bad that the Safi brothers couldn't make it to Swiss land for the competition. Grin.

I am sure that Grandfather Nappy will be pleased at what the kids are going to do, in his name.

I can hardly wait to see what happens next.

I have one more thing to mention which I haven't brought up lately, but I think it is time to mention this again.

I expect that most of you are aware that E Walk has been ill.

He is one very special person, and I don't think for a minute that I could handle what he is having to deal with, and still be able to write new chapters of his wonderful stories. 

I would be very grateful if you would take a few minutes and drop a letter of support to E Walk. 

I know that sometimes it takes him quite a while to answer e mails. 

But he has expressed his appreciation for all the support he has had since has been ill. 

Those of you who have God in your lives, please take the time to say a prayer for E Walk, wishing him a speedy and complete recovery.  Others, could you just keep sending him warm loving thoughts.  

Darryl The Radio Rancher

Posted: 01/14/11