To Tennessee and Back Again...The Tale of Brooklyn's Travels-Part Five

The new day started out very warm. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell went to town, taking the Liberian's with them. Hannah continued to teach me about the office, and outside the storm clouds rolled. As the day wore on, it grew more and more humid, and lightening began. It was the scariest lightning I had ever seen, and more than a little unnerving. Hannah said that it was normal though and not to worry.

By this time I had met Serene, Pearl, Bowen (Pearl's 8 year old son), and Jireh (Evangeline's 8 year old son). My memory is beginning to fade now, and I can't remember which day I met them all!! But I do happen to remember Bowen and Jireh coming up to me and asking for rubber bands. "Sure!" I replied, then asked "And what are your names?" Bowen spoke up and said, "I'm Owen!" then continued to make up a name for Jireh, which I forget. That was so funny! They were confusing though because they kept switching it around. :o)

Anyways, the end of the day came, and Mr. and Mrs. Campbell still had not returned. So Hannah and I made our way upstairs and tidied up our room. Hannah packed a few things, and then wanted to watch "Madagascar" (which I had never seen). We also finished up the snacks that I had brought on the plane trip over. During all this, the telephone rang and Hannah answered. It was Mr. Campbell saying there was a tornado warning out, and we needed to keep an eye on the weather! That was so strange!! Curled up on the leather sofa in their living room, I kept looking out the window above it. The sky turned a dark greenish color, and it was very frightening!

When I called my parents that night, it felt so good to talk to them. I was starting to get homesick again, and the tornado warning frightened me. As I paced the deck, I encountered many HUGE nasty bugs of unknown origin. In the middle of describing one of these strange phenomenons, my cell phone went silent and I lost reception. For the rest of the trip, my cell phone didn't work unless we were outside of Primm Springs. I ran back inside to use the landline, when Mr. and Mrs. Campbell came home. I talked to them for a bit, then called my parents back.

After our conversation ended at 10:00 pm, I went back inside to get ready for bed. The next day was going to be a big change, because Hannah would be leaving, and I would be alone to face the office with all it's daunting tasks. A new girl named Kaylene, was scheduled to come in 2 weeks, but that wasn't soon enough for me!

I went to sleep and woke up againg quite refreshed. Since Brittnie was gone, I was able to take over her bottom bunk, which really made me happy. :o)

Now that the girls were gone, I had one-on-one time with the Campbells'. I began to realize that just about everything I had been told was wrong. Mrs. Campbell began to say, "Okay, forget what they taught you, just listen to me!" On my first exploration through the office, I came across a huge box of 'partial orders' which were Mrs. Campbell's especial abomination. Her theory is that if we are out of an item, go ahead and ship the rest of the person's order, just remember to include a kindly note explaining that it was on back order and would be sent as soon as possible. These particular orders had been left in a box with the packing slip, and hadn't been shipped out at all. Mrs. Campbell became horrified when I unearthed an order from 3 months before. She guided me through the steps of calling the customer, explaining, shipping, recording etc. The following weeks were so busy and stressful. Everyday Mrs. Campbell and I would hear of orders misplaced, misshipped, unsent, and more. Mrs. Campbell's best phrase for these misshaps was, "That's simply disgusting! I can't believe it!" Mrs. Campbell and I also ran several months back through the credit card machine, because they had been authorized, but not made out as a sale. In other words, Above Rubies made no money from all those transactions. That involved another large set of phone calls, and it was so intense! I daily looked forward to Kaylene coming, because by this time I was beginning to be lonely, and I desperately wanted a friend. Mr. Campbell was really sweet and was like a grandfather, but you couldn't necessarily talk to him all day long, because he had work to do. Mrs. Campbell was the kindest grandmotherly personage too, but the same thing-she was sooo busy.

The day Kaylene arrived, I made a sign for Mr. Campbell to take. Mrs. C was on a retreat and was not there to welcome Kaylene, so I cleaned our room and picked a bunch of wildflowers to put in vases. All that day and into the evening I was so excited I could hardly stand it. So when Mr. Campbell called from the airport, I couldn't resist begging to talk to the new girl. Mrs. Campbell had informed me that she was 20 years old, and from San Francisco, California, so I thought I knew a little about her. She sounded very nice but also tired on the telephone. The next hour was so hard to bear! I played the old piano in the basement some, and ate dinner, then went down to the office. I heard the other door open, and I ran out into the long room. There was Mr. Campbell and Kaylene!! I gave her a hug and started drilling her with questions. It turned out that she was really 17, and from Oregon! Isn't that a funny mix-up?? That night it was so great to have a friend. We talked about our interests and our families, and just everything. The next day was going to be so exciting!! I couldn't wait to show her Nikki's Cabin (A cabin up in the hills that Brittnie and Hannah took me to.), and fun places to walk, and the wildflowers and everything!