The Rearranging of Grandmother Emmaline

Emmaline Raleigh believed that her son, Edward (Ned) had married beneath him and was unaware that her husband had not only attended the small wedding but, knowing that his son loved this well educated, lovely girl, had supported their plans. Long after the death of her husband Emmaline continued to mentally call Belinda ‘River Run trash’ and when Ned tried to change her mind she had ordered him out of her house.

Ned and Belinda each had work they loved; Ned as a photo journalist who was often away on shoots; Belinda was trained to identify and date antiques and worked at the local museum during Timmy’s school hours.

Belinda’s mother had died recently and her father had suffered a heart attack and was a semi invalid. Timmy’s class in school was learning how to write letters so Timmy, who had loved his grandmother Bolton very much, decided he needed another grandmother and should write to Ned’s mother. Ned was not sure this was a good idea Belinda however thought this might just be the way to heal the breach.

Timmy wrote his letter using crayons so his letter would be beautiful and make his grandmother happy. Emmaline received the letter and when Timmy finally convinced his daddy to call her, Emmaline invited him to bring his son (not his wife) to lunch with her the next Sunday. She told her butler, George to arrange for the meal. George had been a surrogate father for Ned during the times when his father had to be away and was delighted.

Lunch was formal and included much more tableware than Timmy was used to but he remembered his mother’s voice saying, “If you are in a social situation where you are not sure what to do, just watch what everyone else does and do the same thing.” The first course was a little glass with shrimp in spicy sauce and before he had to figure out what to use, George came over and handed him the little fork. Timmy thanked George and Emmaline scolded him for thanking the servants as they were only doing what they were paid to do. Timmy replied that his mother had told him that if someone did something to help you it was polite to thank them. There were a few similar incidents during the meal in which Emmaline criticized and Timmy calmly explained that he was only doing what his mother had taught him to do. She certainly was not coming up with the answers she had assumed she’d find.

After lunch Emmaline took them to the drawing room and while they waited for George to bring coffee Timmy whispered to Ned, “Where are the drawing things? Were they put away so I wouldn’t get into them?” Emmaline saw the whispering and stated that it was impolite to eliminate anyone from the conversation. Ned humorously responded, “Timmy was just asking where the drawing things were, after all this is a drawing room.” Emmaline, rather than getting angry, explained to Timmy what a drawing room was. Timmy wanted to know why the guests didn’t sit together and enjoy their conversation, “That’s what we do at home. I learn lots of interesting things that way.” When Emmaline asked what kinds of things he learned Timmy told her what he had learned from a friend who had a nursery and told him how to prune rose bushes. At this point Ned decided it was time to close the conversation and go home while things were still peaceful. Several times Emmaline had tried to get Timmy into situations where she could trap him into saying or doing something to prove his mother was a bad influence but Timmy, in his innocence and with mom’s good training, had come through with flying colors. As they left, George walked them out to the taxi and told Ned how pleased he was that they had come, “Your mother has pretty much cut herself off from her friends with her caste system restrictions. Let’s hope this visit will change some of that.

The day after the visit Emmaline called George in. When George arrived to stand before her Emmaline and asked him what he thought of Timmy. George told her he thought the boy was a fine little man and a credit to the Raleighs. Her response surprised him when she said that it looked like his mother had trained him well. She thought about it for another week then told George to call them and invite them for a weekend visit, mother included. “Tell them to come the week after next.” Ned was going to have an unexpected free weekend so he and Belinda decided to take Timmy camping. As they were leaving the phone rang. Ned’s response was, “Sorry, whoever it is but this weekend belongs to my family.” It was George calling to offer the invitation. On the following Monday he was finally able to deliver his message. The family had obligations so they were unable to come any sooner than four weeks and of course Emmaline took this as an insult to her and George, as usual, soothed her and the plan was set in motion. The first thing that happened when they arrived home was a call from George with Emmaline’s wish for the whole family to spend a weekend with her. He explained that Timmy had so impressed his grandmother that she decided his mother might be better than she had thought. Ned was shocked, Timmy delighted and Belinda was a bit nervous but happy for the men in her family. After checking the calendar they found they were committed for the next four weeks and told George to relay the message. Emmaline was insulted at being ‘put off’ until George explained that they couldn’t just walk out on previously planned obligations.

The weekend arrived and Emmaline allowed Timmy to hug her and was gracious to Belinda, asking her about her work at the museum. When Belinda described the piece she was currently working on, Emmaline invited her to look at a piece her husband had sent to he before he died. It turned out to be the exact reverse of the piece Belinda was working on at the museum so Emmaline was pleased to hear that she had something special.

The activities planned for the next day were a horse show and rodeo followed by a picnic lunch and finally dinner at the club so Emmaline could reconnect with some of her missing friends.. Things at the club didn’t work out as Emmaline wished and she was embarrassed and as they left she wasn’t speaking to anyone and went directly to her room pleading a headache. The following morning, after the Young Raleighs left, she went to look at the museum piece and think of her dead husband. She found the glass case smashed and the piece gone. She called the police Commissioner (a political friend of her husband) and told him to arrest Belinda as she had stolen it.

That afternoon, at home, Belinda wrote a letter to her boss, Justin, with the news that Emmaline had the reverse to the piece she was working on. She mailed the letter and called her father to see how he was. While talking to him, the police came to the house, arrested her without mirandizing her and searched the house without a search warrant. They took her away in handcuffs and she was locked up. She finally found out that Emmaline had accused her of stealing the piece she had showed her. No one would listen to Belinda but, finally when she had to arrange for someone to pick up Timmy from school they allowed her one call and suggested she call a lawyer. Since she didn’t know any lawyers she called her boss and friend, Justin and told him what was happening. After calling the museum’s lawyer Justin arranged for Ned to be contacted by his office and told to fly home. He also picked Timmy up and took him to his grandfather’s house where, while Timmy was having a snack in the kitchen he explained what was going on.