The Feven
By Nita Dee
nitadee@aol.com
Date: 28 Aug 1995 14:12:31 -0400
Disclaimer: This is a crossover between characters of "The X-Files"
and a popular children's novel "Where the Lillies Bloom". I'm writing
the story as the novel's heroine, Mary Call Luther, so please hang
with it. It'll hopefully get "X-Filey" enough for our board.
The characters of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully belong to Chris Carter
and Ten Thirteen Productions, in association with 20th Century Fox
Television.
The characters of Mary Call, Romey, Ima Dean Luther and Kizer and
Devola Pease belong to Vera and Bill Cleaver, authors of the wonderful
novel "Where the Lillies Bloom" (which, by the way, has a wonderful
movie about it that pops up on cable around Christmastime)
~~~
The Fever
by Nita Dee
Mornings bring a sign of a new beginning daily to the mountain we
Luthers call "Old Joshua". As usual, I am up at the crack of dawn to
begin our chores and to get my family together to go up on the
mountain to gather roots and herbs, which I sell to the local drug
store in the town of Trial Valley, which is located at the basin of
"Old Joshua".
My brother, Romey, and my sister, Ima Dean complain that its not
fair to treat children the way I treat them, but I remind them that
I'm a child too--or was until I graduated from Trial Valley High
School last spring. But I haven't been a child for a long time, at
least not since four years ago when my father Roy Luther passed away.
Since that time I have had to be both mother and father to my younger
siblings.
By right, this should have fallen to my older sister Devola, but
she married our landlord Kizer Pease just after my father died and
he's more concerned with having a child of his own than raising
someone elses. Kizer and Devola came close to adopting a child two
years ago, but it turned out he was a missing child and his natural
parents came and got him. Kizer's dreams, however, are fixing to come
true. My sister Devola is expecting their first baby in September.
This summer, Kizer has let his farm go in order to spend the summer
with his ailing father, who lives in Asheville, North Carolina with
his sister Goldie. Devola has gone with him, so as usual it is up to
be to keep Romey and Ima Dean in line and try to scrape up enough to
live on.
It was a sunny hot morning in mid-July when we discovered the
body. It was badly decomposed and stank to high heaven. Romey got up
close enough to see it and he said that it didn't look like no human
being to him, because it was short and had pointy ears.
"He looks just like Spock on 'Star Trek' Mary Call" Romey said as
he ran back to where we were working.
"Now Romey" I said, "What would Spock be doing here? Besides,
you watch too much TV. I tried to tell Kizer after he bought us that
satellite dish last Christmas that for God we needed everything else
in the world but a 27 inch color television and a satellite dish!"
One of the main problems I have with Kizer is his foolishness.
He has more money than God and yet can't see the purpose or good in
letting me take a loan from him to go to the Community College over at
Pigtail Hollow this fall. I wasn't able to get a scholarship to go to
school on, and due to the fact that we are "officially" the chattel of
Kizer Pease I couldn't qualify for a grant. A loan is out of the
question too. Besides, as Devola kindly points out after Kizer and I
have our weekly Sunday after dinner college fights "Whose going to
watch the children? I'm going to have my hands full with the baby."
I walked over and looked at the body myself. I hated to admit it
to Romey, but he was right. He did look like Spock.
I decided right then and there that we needed to call Sheriff
Buddy Goodhill in on this. We hiked down the mountain to Kizer's
house, where I used the phone to call him. About three hours later,
Buddy and his deputy Maynard Graybell came sondering up the mountain,
following us as we lead them to the body.
"Yeah, he's dead alright" Budy said. Buddy ain't right bright.
His daddy had been the sheriff here in Yancey county for 42 years
before giving it over to Buddy last year. From the looks of things
Buddy will also get in 42 years.
Buddy called the coroner to come get the body, and that was all
we thought about it until about three days later. Thats when we found
out that Buddy had died of a fever and that the FBI had been called in
to investigate.
=================================================
The afternoon after we found out about the death from the
druggist who buys our herbs and roots, Romey, Ima Dean and I were
sitting on the front porch after having eaten our evening meal. Romey
and Ima Dean were having some fool squabble about some character on
"Melrose Place"--which I really shouldn't let them watch but who could
stop them. Off in the distance, we saw a new gray car driving up the
dirt road that leads to our house.
I thought for a minute "Kizer's done gone and bought himself and
Devola a new car" when I saw that the driver wasn't Kizer, and the
woman with him wasn't Devola. The car stopped it front of our house,
and the man stopped the car and got out. He was a hansome man, tall
with medium long hair and a sneaking looking face. He called up to us
"You know anyone around here named Luther?"
I hollered back "We're Luther's--what can we do to help you?"
The man said to the woman "Scully, those must be the kids that
found the body." The woman got out of the car, and I thought Romey
was going to bust a gussett when he saw her. Romey's at that horrible
age where he thinks every woman he lays eyes on is a sex goddess. She
was pretty--short build, curvy body in the right places, red hair and
blue eyes. Dressed nice, too, in something that didn't come from
Goodwill or Walmart like the threads we Luther's wear.
"Good afternoon, I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder and this is my
partner, Special Agent Dana Scully. We'd like to take a moment to
talk to you about the body you found three days ago." Special Agent
Fox Mulder said.
"Is your name really and truly Fox?" Ima Dean asked stupidly.
Then I said something completely stupid "Yes, Ima Dean, and his
Momma named him right!" And here I was thinking Romey was awful!
The two FBI agents got a good laugh out of that one, and I felt
like dying.
"Yes, we found the body," I said, trying not to look the
Fox--Agent Mulder in the eyes.
"Are you two married?" Romey asked.
Both FBI Agents shook their heads and went back to talking to me.
"Where did you find the body?" Special Agent Dana Scully asked
me. "Could you show us?"
"Do you think her momma named her right, too?" Agent Fox asked
me, trying to be cute.
"Mulder, be quiet, can't you see she's embarressed enough by it?"
Agent Dana snapped at Agent Fox. To me she said "We would really like
to see where you found it."
"You ain't exactly dressed right for it" I explained. "It's way
up on old Joshua. How about if you come back around eight o'clock in
the morning with some hiking boots on and jeans, and we'll be happy to
take you up there."
The two FBI agents looked at each other, and Agent Fox said
"You've got a point, besides Agent Scully has a body she wants to cut
in to."
I looked puzzled "Cut in to?"
Agent Dana said "I'm in forensic medicine, and I'm doing an
autopsy on the body you found."
Agent Fox said, "We'll be back in the morning around eight
o'clock, and we'll bring some orange juice, coffee and donuts. You
kids would like that, wouldn't you?"
"Yes!" Ima Dean said jumping up and down.
"Just be sure you bring Agent Scully, too" Romey said with his
arms around the porch post.
"You don't have to do that, we've got food" I began, but Agent
Fox interrupted.
"It's our treat. Besides, you gave me the best laugh I've had in
a long time." Agent Fox said, and with that the two FBI agents got
back into their car and drove back down the dirt road.
That night, I dreamed that I, Mary Call Luther, and not Special
Agent Dana Scully was cutting into the Spock man. I would give
anything to be an educated woman like her.
~~~
Around 7:45 A. M. the next morning, the gray car sped up the dirt
road leading to our house. I stood on the front porch while Ima Dean
and Romey ran out to the car like a couple of two year olds and not
their respective ages of 9 and 15. Agent Fox and Agent Dana got three
boxes of donuts out of the car, along with a big thermos and two
gallon size containers of orange juice. I couldn't help but notice
how well Agent Fox filled out his jeans, just like Alan Jackson, my
favorite singer. To be fair to Agent Dana for Romey's point of view,
she filled hers out well, too.
I took the three boxes of donuts out of Agent Fox hands and took
them into the house and laid them on the table in the kitchen. Ima
Dean wasted no time in cramming three of the most sugary ones into her
mouth, one after the other. And Romey couldn't for the life of him
stop staring at Agent Dana.
I made the FBI sit down and eat with us. I had also made a big
pot of grits and fried some bacon, which nobody but me ate. Agent Fox
was having a race with Ima Dean on eating donuts and Agent Dana
mumbled something about having eaten a fruit plate at 4:00 a.m. when
she finished her autopsy. She had her nose stuck in a file, which had
pictures of Sheriff Buddy Goodhill and the "Spock Man" in it.
"They look like niggers." Ima Dean said between bites of donut.
"BLACK PEOPLE for christsakes Ima Dean! How many tiems do I have
to correct you! One things for sure, you've played your last with
that trailer white trash Becky Hodges and her no account Klan loving
daddy!" I was so angry with Ima Dean I could have smacked her right
then and there, and would have if we hadn't had company.
"How come they're so black like that?" Romey asked, scooting his
chair closer to that of Agent Dana's.
"Their skin tones took on a pigmentation metamorphoses after
contact with the deceased body. I haven't gotten my results back on
the test yet." Agent Dana answered.
"I personally think that the body was not of this Earth." Agent
Fox interjected.
"See Mary Call, I told you he was a "Spock!" Romey bellowed at
me.
"You watch too much TV." Agent Dana said to Romey.
"That's what I said" I said.
After breakfast, the five of us made it up the mountain where
we found the body. The sky was dark and threatening rain. I had seen
on the Weather Channel (which was the only thing worth having a
satellite dish for) that a hurricane was threatening the coast and
would bring storms to our region of North Carolina later in the day.
Romey made it first to the site where the body was found. Agent
Fox produced an expensive looking camera and began taking pictures
while Agent Dana began clipping grass and plants and putting the
clippings into baggies.
Romey, Ima Dean and myself stood by and watched the
investigation. This began to get boring, so we kids went on up the
mountain to work a patch of goldenseal for our druggist. Ima Dean had
just started complaining good when we heard Agent Fox holler out
"Scully!"
We went running back down the mountain and found Agent Fox bent
down over Agent Dana. Her face was black as tar.
"What happened?" I asked.
"She just fell over." Agent Fox said. He reached his hand over
her brow. "She's burning up too. I thought she seemed tired this
morning, but I just thought it was because she had been up nearly all
night." Agent Fox had the look of a whupped hound on his face. "This
is my fault."
"How can this be your fault? Good Lord, it was her job to cut
up that Spock man!" I said to Agent Fox. "What we've got to worry
about now is getting her off this mountain before the rain sets in."
Agent Fox took out a fancy cordless telephone and tried to dial
out "Damn, it out of range" he angrily cursed and threw the high
dollar phone down.
I started to tell him not to do that, that the telephone looked
expensive, but instead I said "We can take her to Kizer and Devola's
house. Its closer than ours, and we can call for help down there."
With a gentleness I had seldom witnessed in my young life, Agent
Fox picked his tiny partner up in his arms and whispered "It's going
to be okay."
Agent Dana moved her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out.
The rain then began to fall.
=======================================
Trudging down the already wet mountain was no easy task for us,
but eventually we saw the back gate that lead through Devola's flower
garder to her back door. Romey ran and swung the gate open, while Ima
Dean ran ahead to open the back door. They really are good kids, I
thought, I just don't give them credit.
Once we got into the house, I told Agent Fox to lay Agent Dana
down on Kizer and Devola's bed. I had Ima Dean rummage through
Devola's night gowns to find something to put Agent Dana in.
"Will this do?" Ima Dean asked innocently. It was the loud short
red thing with white puffies where the breast go that Kizer had got
for Devola last Christmas. Devola told me in secret that she
conceived her baby in it.
"No it won't, Ima Dean. See if you can find something flannel."
Ima Dean found such an item and we set out to change her out of her
jeans and shirt.
Meanwhile, Agent Fox was having a fit because the telephone in
the house didn't work any better than the one he had on the mountain.
He came storming into the bedroom.
"I'm going to Trial Valley to get help." Agent Fox told us.
The power had already gone out due to the storm, and Romey had a
little AM/FM portable radio on listening to the news.
".....as we mentioned eariler, the entire state of North Carolina
is under a Tornado Watch until 10:00 p.m. tonight. Hurricane Anne has
slammed into the Atlantic coast of North Carolina packing winds in
excess of 135 miles per hour. This is a major storm. Please stay
where you are. You can't travel Highway 35 due to the bridge leading
into Trial Valley is closed due to damage and power lines down across
the bridge......."the broadcast went on to preach doom and gloom, as
if we didn't have enough on our hands to begin with.
Agent Fox pranced around like--well, he pranced around like a
caged fox. I reckon his momma named him right in more ways that one.
Finally, he put on his black storm coat again and announce that he
"was going into Trial Valley" anyway.
"How in the Sam Hill do you intend to do that? Jump Trial Creek
like 'The Dukes of Hazzard'?" I said to the tall man. "I thought you
had better sense than that!"
He ran his hand through his hair, then took both of his hands
and rubbed his face. "I've got to do something. Scully will probably
die soon if I don't at least get her someplace that can help her."
"We're fixing to do something here. Ima Dean, you go down in
Kizer's root cellar and get onions, lots of them. Romey, you put on
Kizer's overcoat and run up to our house and get that sack of moss
we've got drying in the storeroom. Bring Ma's old herb book, too, if
you can find it. I think I can make it without it, but I want to be
sure. FBI man, you light up Kizer's barbecue grill on the patio and
get a good hot fire going. I'm going to see if I can take Agent
Scully's temperature and take the quilt off the bed. Devola would
never forgive me if I went and ruined Ma's wedding ring quilt." I was
standing there in the middle of the den hollering out orders like a
drill sergent. Agent Fox, for the first time since Agent Dana fell on
the mountain, lost that whupped hound look.
"Anything you say--little Scully". The look on Agent Fox's face
told me that he had given me the finest complement he could muster.
I went into the bedroom and dragged the quilt off the bed and put
it in the closet. Agent Dana's face was still black and her eyes were
shut. I walked over next to her.
"Agent Scully--I'm going to take your temperature. Can you open
your mouth?" I asked the sick woman.
Agent Dana opened her fever ridden eyes and choked "Please--you
and your kids--need to get away from me--get Mulder away too--you
don't want this..."
"We're the ones that found that body. We'd already have it if we
were going to get it. Now, be good and open your mouth." I stuck the
thermometer under her tongue. When I retrieved it, the gage read
105.1 degrees. A very sick woman.
Ima Dean had Agent Fox in the kitchen cutting and chopping onions
to beat the band. Romey had just gotten back, dripping wet, and he
was standing on the patio next to the grill. I took a sauce pan and
the biggest frying pan I could find out of the cabinet. I put Romey
to the task of frying the onions in the frying pan. He asked me if I
remembered the time we subjected poor old Kizer to this cure when he
had pneumonia. I said that I did.
I took a good heaping cup of the dried moss and put it into the
sauce pan with a half cup of vinegar. I let that boil together for a
while. Then, I ladled hot onions out of the frying pan into a bowl.
I instructed Romey to keep frying onions.
"Now Ima Dean" I said when I came back into the house "you will
be our go between. I'm going to need you to keep bringing me hot
onions until I say stop. Agent Mulder, you and me are going to put
these onions on Agent Scully to break the fever."
"Why are we doing this?" Agent Fox asked me as we went into the
bedroom.
"It will break the fever, and the moss tea I'm making will keep it
from coming back. We're going to cure her, you'll see. Please don't
act alarmed if she acts like this hurts her. It probably will, but
we've got to do it." I answered him.
I unbuttoned Agent Dana's gown and her bosom briefly showed. I
reckoned Agent Fox was a grown man and had seen one before. I took
the first laddle of hot onions and laid them on her chest.
Agent Dana let out a yelp of pain, and Agent Fox started getting
that whupped hound look on his face again. I laddled another one on
her chest, and she didn't yelp as loudly.
For two solid hours, we kept this up--pushing aside the cold
onions and laddling hot on her chest. Then, I took her temperature
again. It was down to 100.1. The cure was working.
Finally, we scraped the last of the cold onions off her chest,
and I buttoned her up and let her get back to sleep. I then went to
check on my tea. It was nearly ready, just needing a drollop of honey
to sweeten it along and some water.
Romey and ima Dean were laid up on the couch listening to "doom
and gloom" reports on the radio. The reporter said that we were in
the "eye" of the storm and that the worst was yet to come.
=============================================
At 8:30 p.m. that night, all hell broke loose. The storm had
been bad all day, but nothing compared to what the weather was doing
now. The world seemed bright as day due to the constant stream of
tropical lightening and the thunder rolled continously. The rain and
wind whipped Kizer's house, and I was certain that it had taken the
old roof off our own house by now.
To make matters even worse, the radio station went off the air,
but not before telling us that there was a tornado "on the ground in
Trial Valley" and that citizens of Yancey county needed to take cover
immediately. I put Romey and Ima Dean in the root cellar with Ima
Dean squalling bloody murder, which I can't blame her for. Ima Dean
was in a tornado at school when she was six years old and she's
deathly afraid of them.
Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Agent Fox had his hands full, too.
Agent Dana was delirious. This was probably due to the high fever she
had run nearly all day and definitely due to the moss tea I had been
ladling down her hourly since about 4:00 o'clock. Anyway, she kept
thrashing around the bed, begging Agent Fox not to let someone named
Duane Barry "take her" again, that she didn't want to go back "there".
The other one she didn't want around was some character whose name
sounded like "Faster".
===============================================
"Mulder, Duane Barry's out there--HE'S OUT THERE! Don't let him
take me again! They'll hurt me--oooooooooooooooooooooooooo........"
Agent Dana was thrashing around moaning this when I went into the
bedroom with another cup of moss tea.
Poor old Agent Fox. If he had looked pitiful during the
afternoon, he doubled that now. Looked like a whupped hound who'd
been sent to bed without his supper.
"Agent Mulder, I'm going to give Agent Scully some more tea. We
heard on the radio that there's a tornado coming and if you want to
get into the root cellar you can. I'll stay with Agent Scully." I
said to the tall man.
Agent Fox shook his head no. I didn't reckon he'd leave her. I
went over to Agent Dana and held her head up so that she could drink
some more tea.
Agent Dana drank the tea and seemed to rest peaceful for a bit.
Agent Fox took a seat in the rocking chair Kizer had bought for Devola
the day she told him she was pregnant and seemed like a little old
man. That's what touched me about Agent Fox--that a good looking,
smart man like that would have such old, experienced eyes. Poor
thing. I reckon being an FBI man you see a lot.
I went down to check on the kids in the basement. Romey was
still trying to get the radio to tune it. Ima Dean, bless her heart,
was kneeled in prayer.
Her child's voice rang out sweet and pure."Dear God, don't let the
bad tornado come to Old Joshua. Let it go home to it's tornado family
and leave us alone. And, God, please let Agent Dana get better.
Agent Fox needs her, needs her bad--he just don't know it sometimes."
I hadn't realized that Agent Fox had followed me down to the root
cellar. He heard every word of Ima Dean's prayer. When I finally
noticed him, he had tears welling up in his eyes.
He walked over to Ima Dean and knelt down beside her. "Can I
pray with you?" He seemed so childlike at that moment when he bowed
his head down and prayed to himself.
Agent Fox then got up, mussed Ima Dean's hair, and left the root
cellar. I followed him this time.
"You know, me and my sister used to kneel together and say our
prayers like that" Agent Fox said as we went back into the bedroom.
"She disappeared when she was about your sister's age."
I started to ask him where she disappeared to, but Agent Dana had
started up again. She was hollering this time about cannibals
chopping her head off and eating her. Someday, I'm going to have moss
tea marketed as a street drug.
===============================================
The morning broke quietly on the mountain we call "Old Joshua".
Sometime during the night the storm had ended, and I could hear the
water dripping from the roof onto the patio. I was curled up in the
rocking chair where I had fallen asleep listening to Agent Dana rant
and rave about someone named "Skinner" and something called "X-Files".
I remember thinking as I drifted off to sleep "What the devil are
X-Files."
Agent Fox was talking to Agent Dana and from the sound of things
she must be somewhat better. He was bragging on me to no end--telling
her how I took hot onions and moss tea to cure her and that I'd make
one hell of a FBI agent.
I opened my eyes and what I saw amazed me. There was Agent Fox
laid up in bed with Agent Dana and she looked great! Her face was no
longer black and she didn't appear to be weak from her illness at all.
In fact, you could say she looked "daisy fresh".
"How are you doing" I asked Agent Dana.
"I'm fine, Mary Call. Mulder has been telling me about how great
you were yesterday when I was sick. You know, I don't really remember
anything about being sick or coming here for that matter. The last
thing I remember was working on the body you found." Agent Dana has a
most beautiful smile. I had not seen her smile before this.
"Mary Call, you need to be a doctor or a FBI agent--you've got the
guts to make it in either field" Agent Dana said.
I shook my head and looked away. "I'd like to be a teacher, but
I can't be."
"After the way you ordered us around yesterday, you can be
anything you want to be." Agent Fox said.
"I can't. College takes money and I don't have any." I said,
getting up suddenly. If I don't get out of here soon I'll start
bawling like I do on nights after me and Kizer have our "college"
arguments.
I went into the den to check on the kids. Ima Dean and Romey were
having a heated argument about who was going back to our house to get
the rest of the donuts from yesterday. I told them that we weren't
having donuts for breakfast again today, that I was going to light up
the grill and cook some grits.
"Yuck! Mary Call, you must love grits, you cook them enough" Ima
Dean whined. Looks like she's back to normal too.
After breakfast Agent Fox and Agent Dana tried using the regular
telephone and the high dollar cell phones with no success. The radio
station had come back on the air still preaching gloom and doom
despite the fact that the storm was over. We found out that the
funeral home had been literally blown away during the tornado and that
they were glad that the funeral for the sheriff had taken place
yesterday. The school was damaged again, but we had been lucky. No
one badly hurt or killed.
"I guess that the body blew away too, damnit!" Agent Dana swore.
She had taken a shower before breakfast and had on a cotton shirt and
a pair of Devola's jeans, although she had to roll up the pants.
She's a short little thing. Agent Dana put the clothes she had on
yesterday and the nightgown in a sack for "evidence".
Agent Fox and Romey kept their ears on the radio. Agent Fox
wanted to get back into Trial Valley as soon as the bridge opened so
that he could get Agent Dana checked out. Agent Dana wanted us to go
to be checked out too.
Around 1:00 o'clock the news came on the radio that the bridge
had opened back up. Agent Fox went back to our house to pick up the
car, and we Luthers piled into the back seat and went to town.
The damage we saw amazed us, and we realized how lucky Trial
Valley was that no one was hurt or killed. The roof at Connell's
grocery store was gone, as was the roof on the service station. Ruby
Nell's diner had not a window left, and Trial Valley Elementary,
Junior and Senior High Schools (our school is in one building--Trial
Valley isn't that big of a town) would be hard pressed to open in time
for classes the day after Labor Day.
The funeral home was gone, literally. I think the thing that
surprised us the most was seeing Deputy Maynard Graybell up and
around, surveying the damage. We'd come to find out later that he was
now "Sheriff" Graybell.
Agent Dana and Agent Fox jumped out of the car and went over to
see Sheriff Graybell.
"The last time we saw you was in the hospital over in Pigtail
Hollow and you weren't expected to make it through the night" Agent
Dana said to Sheriff Graybell.
"Yes, ma'am, I thought I was a goner. I have to hand getting
well to my wife Minnie and not the city doctors at that hospital that
had given me up for dead. Miz Scully, would you believe that Minnie
brought our microwave oven from home and kept putting hot onions on my
chest until the fever broke? The woman musta thought I was a
cheeseburger or something. Anyway, after my fever broke she kept
dosing me with elderberry wine with moss ground up in it. She says
thats what made me well, not no hospital."
Just then, someone hollered "Sheriff" and Sheriff Graybell shook
hands with the two FBI agents. "It's good seeing you again
ma'am--sir" as he went off. Agent Fox and Agent Dana looked
surprised.
There wasn't much more to our visit from the FBI after that. Most
people were too torn up by the tornado to worry about the whereabouts
of a "Spock man" and when Agent Dana's tests came back "inconclusive"
as she put it she and Agent Fox said their good-byes and headed back
to Washington D. C. It seems that guy "Skinner" that Agent Dana was
giving what for to had another "X-File" for them. Whatever that is.
==============================================
We didn't think too much about the FBI after that. Devola and
Kizer came back home the day after the storm--met us in town in fact.
They had seen on TV that Trial Valley was torn up pretty bad and
wanted to come home. They got to meet Agent Fox and Agent Dana, too,
before they headed back to Washington, D. C. The FBI wanted to give
the Peases a check for "any damages incurred during their stay in your
home." As much as Kizer wanted to take the check, Devola wouldn't let
him.
On September 8th, Devola gave birth to a son, which she and Kizer
named Kizer Pease, Jr. Yuck. I got a job in August. Seems that Ruby
Nell's diner was doing a bang up business what with all the tornado
construction and she needed another waitress.
The months past slowly. I worked at the diner and continued my
root and herb business. Romey and Ima Dean got to go back to school
on September 11th, and had to dodge construction workers in the halls.
We'd get letters typed on a computer with a good printer from
Agent Dana Scully from time to time, too. Mostly about the cases she
and Agent Fox were working on, but also wanting to know how we were
doing. Romey, Ima Dean and I would always write her back. Agent Fox
didn't send us letters, but he called us a few times. He always asked
me if I still thought his momma named him right.
One day close to Christmas, I was driving Kizer's old pick up
truck home from the diner when I saw a gray car in the driveway of our
house. It had to be one thing--Agent Fox and Agent Dana were here to
pay us a Christmas visit.
I went into the house where Ima Dean was playing with the biggest
doll I'd ever seen and had on a new gold cross around her neck, kinda
like the one Agent Dana wears. Romey was busy too with a new guitar.
I gave both FBI agents big hugs.
"Open your present, Mary Call" Everyone clamored aroudn to see
what I had. I opened the box and all I had was an official looking
letter. This was kind of disappointing.
"Read the letter, Mary Call" Agent Fox and Agent Dana almost said
in unison.
I opened the letter and it said:
December 21, 1995
Miss Mary Call Luther
Route 5, Box 4
Old Joshua Mountain
Trial Valley, North Carolina
Dear Miss Luther:
This letter is in recognition of your heroic efforts of July 17, 1995
in which you saved the life of one Dr. Dana Katherine Scully, Special
Agent of the Division of X-Files of the Federal Bureau of
Investigations and for you and your family invaluable assistance to
both Agent Scully and Agent Fox Mulder of said Division in regards to
the matter of unidentified deceased body and illnesses causes therein
by said body in investigation still pending.
It is the belief of Agent Scully and Agent Mulder that the best reward
that we can give you for your efforts is a college education.
Therefore, it is with great gratitude and appreciation that we inform
you that you have been enrolled as an entering freshman to begin
attending classes at the University of North Carolina at Asheville
beginning the winter quarter, which begins January 3, 1996. Your
expenses, including dormitory, books, living expenses, and class fees
will be paid in entirety for as long as you wish to attend. It is the
belief of Agent Scully that you will not stop until you receive your
PH.D.
This small token in no way begins to repay you for your assistance.
We know that you will do well in your studies and wish you further
success in your endeavors.
Sincerely yours,
Walter Skinner, Assistant Director, FBI
Special Agent Dana K. Scully
Special Agent Fox Mulder
THE END
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I hope you liked it!
Nita Dee
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