Lavender Dawn Rose - The Lost One

Lavender Dawn Rose - The Lost One(Elizabeth Walsh) READER: PLEASE NOTE that this is the beginning of an unfinished story...

Chapter One: Late and found
Tegan's POV

I was just finishing brushing my hair when I looked at the time. 7:12am, Oh Shoot, I’m late.
I quickly grabbed my school bag, Baseball jacket, bus money and left my house, stepping into the cloudy Tuesday mourning, while shouting a 'Bye', as I shut the door behind me.

I got up to Birchgrove 15 minutes later. you see I live in South Wales, Cardiff to be precise, I live in a four bedroom house with my step-mum Katherine (but I call her mum), my two five year old twin step brothers Jac and Zac, and my older sister Morgan, who had just turned 17.
I then sent a text to my best ever friend Melissa, telling her that I was going to be a bit late, because I was walking the whole way to meet her at the end of her street. I carried on walking until I got to where she lives.

Just as I stopped to wait for her, she turned the corner and smiled when she saw me.
“Hey, are you OK?” she asked, as she stopped in front of me.
“I’m fine, you?”
“I’m good, we walking train track way?” I didn’t even need to answer the question because we both knew the answer.

We had already started walking across the road near the tracks. It was kind of an unspoken rule that we walked this way now, instead of going past Lidls, because of what happened two months ago, but I think that she had just forgotten the main reason that we were walking this way, but I will never forget it, it has scarred us both, but mainly me.
Melissa pulled the gate, and we both looked to see if there were any trains coming.

There wasn’t any, so we crossed, and I pushed the gate open, on the other side other the tracks, and down a path which lead us to an industrial estate, where the new apartments have been built and the warehouses are kept.

-------------At School--------------

We arrived at school around 30 minutes later, we checked which halls we were in for the exam, Melissa was in the drama studio as usual, because she had extra time, and i was in the boys gym. The exam wasn't that long, so we meet foyer after and then left the school grounds, talking about how we think we did in the exam, and what questions we think we did right or wrong.

------------On The Way Home-----------

We were walking through that industrial estate.
We walked past the warehouses, before turning a corner to see the office building at the end of the street, but before that was just a bunch of dying trees, with rubbish all around them on either side of the road, we could see that behind the two or three rows of trees, was a large open space, with a silver metal fence surrounding it. We were about half way down the road when I first heard it.

It was a type of strangled cry, that you would only here from an animal that was drowning painfully, but the thing was that there was no water of any type anywhere near us. I stopped, because whatever it was sounded so frightened and close by, I looked around, looking for anything that would give away what I had just heard, as Melissa carried on walking for a few more seconds, not realising that I had stopped.

"Teg, what's wrong?" She asked, once she realised that I wasn't walking any more, and walked back, the few short feet between us, to me.
"Listen" I told her, "What do you hear?"
"Nothing, Tegan co-" She suddenly stopped, as she was interrupted by the sound of the same cry that I had heard a moment ago, "What was that?"
"I don't know, but doesn't sound very good, can we please just look around to see what it is?"
"It sound's like it's in pain, We'll call our parents in a bit, they'll understand" I said, trying to reason with her.
A car drove past.
After a few seconds she sighed, "Alright, what do we do now then?"
I smiled, "Well first we need to look for any signs of movement in these tree's" I said, pointing to the tree's on the same side of the road as us, "Why don't you look that way?" I pointed a bit behind us, "And I'll look this way?" I pointed a bit in front of us, as I couldn't really pinpoint where the sound was coming from.
"OK" she said, and we both went our separate ways searching for the 'Thing' that was somewhere in the tree's.
10 Minutes Later
It was about 10 minutes later when Melissa called to me from about 50 feet away.
"Tegan, Come over here, i think I've found something!"

I quickly jogged over to where she was, I didn't want to run just encase I fell over which is what normally happens when I run. She was standing next to a huge block of cement, that looked like it had recently fallen over, she was looking down at something behind it.

I stopped beside her, and looked down to see what she had found. There was a woven brown bag with a few holes in it, but that wasn't what caught my attention, no it was the piece of, something that was hanging out of it, it kind of looked like a piece of cloth, or something similar, it looked like it should have been a pure white colour, but it was turning into a dirty brown colour and I could tell from where I stood that it was damp. I moved forward to pick it up, and show Melissa that it was just a piece of n old cloth, when suddenly moved, and the same crying/drowning sound came out from the bag, I jerked my hand back, now a bit afraid of what we might find, and that maybe what I saw a little over 2 months might come true in the next few minutes.

As it moved again, closer to the edge of the bag, we both gasped when we realised that the piece of cloth was actually a very thin and worn blanket.
"Oh God, is that what I think it is?" Melissa said, nervously.
"Let's hope not, and just hope that it's an injured kitten or something like that" i said, as i slowly crouched down again, and slowly moved my hands into the bag.
"Yeah, let's hope" She whispered in agreement, she was just as nervous as i was.
I felt around in the bag, afraid to look, and gently wrapped my hands around the 'thing' in the bag and slowly pulled it out of the bag, and saw that it was definitely NOT a kitten.
"Oh Gods" we both whispered, in shock, as it came into view, and when we saw we both seemed to realise that what i had seen 2 months ago had just officially come true.


Chapter Two: Hospitals and Phone Calls

There, in front of us, in my hands, was a tiny, little baby, wrapped loosely in the damp, dirty blanket. It looked to be only a few days old.
"Aww, the poor, little thing" she paused, before she said nervously, "Um, can you check for a strong or weak pulse?"
"Sure" I whispered back, still in shock, i shifted the baby, so it was balanced on one arm, and i slowly placed my hand on it's chest, gently to check the heartbeat.
I waited a few seconds, before sighing, and looking up at Melissa, as she lent on the cement block, looking down.
"I can barely feel it, it's getting weaker, but it is there"
"That's good, but it's probably freezing"
Of course. "Can you grab my jumper from my bag please, so I can wrap it up?"
"Yes, of course" She gently pulled my bag from my shoulder, and pulled out my black school jumper as I checked the gender of the baby, as it was only wearing a nappy under the blanket.
As Melissa gave me my jumper, I moved the baby again, as I pulled the blanket off it and put in back in the bag, I told her the gender of the baby.
"It's a girl"
"Oh" she said blankly. "Um, we need to call an ambulance"

I wrapped the baby in my jumper, and held her close to my chest, and pulled my jacket around her.
Melissa had already taken her phone out of her bag and called '999', but the call didn't go through, because she didn't have any signal.
"Use mine" I told her, "It's in my pocket" she then reached into my jacket pocket, and gently pulled my phone out, unlocked and dialled '999', and this time it didn't go through. I was still concentrating on keeping the baby warm that I didn't really here Melissa's conversation with the hospital, until she called out to me, from where she was sat on the curb, which was probably where she had a better signal.

"Tegan, they want you to put your hand back on her chest and count the beats per minute, I'll time you"
"OK" so I put my hand back on her chest gently, and started to count on Melissa's signal.
"Time" she said, after a minute.
"22 over 60, but it's getting stronger" I replied, as I stood up, walked over to her, and sat down next to her, as she said 'Thanks' and hung up.
"So" she said, and turned to face me. "They said that they would be at least 15 minutes, it's the fastest that they can get here."
"That's fine, do you want to hold her now, my arms are going a bit numb" I smiled when I said the last bit, and so did she.
"I was just about to asked, but i have an idea first, so maybe you should switch arms"

I moved the baby from my left arm to my right, and held her back to my chest, while Melissa took her bottle of water out of her bag, and untied her jumper from around her waist, she then soaked the end corner of the sleeve and I moved the baby into view, as Melissa gently placed the corner against the babies mouth, and let some of the water drip from the sleeve, so that the baby would drink it, and thankfully she did.
Once she had finished I moved pasted her over to Melissa, and I took the jumper off her, picked the bottle up from beside her, soaked it and carried on feeding the baby.
A car drove past.

"She's beautiful" Melissa said, and I nodded in agreement as I feed the baby, and Melissa held her, until finally the ambulance arrived just over 10 minutes later.
The first thing that we had heard in the least 10 minutes, was the sirens from the ambulance.
Which woke the baby up, so we both stood up, and Melissa pasted the baby to me so I rocked the baby back to sleep, just after to sirens stopped, because there wasn't any traffic near us, as the ambulance came around the corner, and stopped in front of us.
The two paramedics, a balding man and a dark haired woman with her hair up in a bun, jumped out of the ambulance and ran over to us. The woman gently took the baby from me,
"She's about a month old" I told them as they checked her over, and then they turned to us.
"Looks like you found her just in time" and then they turned around, leaving us shocked, and walked back over to the ambulance, the man opened the door, and the woman started to get into the back of the ambulance, but was stopped, when me and Melissa ran over to the ambulance.
"Wait," She called to them, "Can't we come with you?"
The two paramedics looked at each other nervously, before turning back to us.
"We don't think that that is such a good idea" the man said.
"Why?" I asked, This is weird, why won't they let us go, "We will be worrying about her all day other wise, and calling whenever we have time"
"And the police probably want a statement from us too" Melissa added, she probably thought it was weird too, that they weren't letting us go to the hospital.

They looked at each other again, before sighing and looking back at us.
"OK" said the woman, Me and Melissa looked at each other, smiled in relief, and jumped into the back of the ambulance, before the man shut the doors behind us, and jumped back into the front, and started to drive again, as me and Melissa sat down on the two chairs, and the woman sat down, while holding the baby, on the bad opposite us.

We got to the hospital and twenty minutes later, but the two paramedics looked really nervous as we got out and headed towards the entrance.
We were just out side the entrance, when their stances suddenly changed. The woman quickly placed the baby in Melissa's arms, and then the two of them took each others hands, turned away from us and ran.
"Well that was just weird" Melissa said, after a minute.
"Yeah, the scary things is though, I don't think that they were real paramedics"
"Did you get that idea when they wouldn't let us come, or when they past me the baby and ran, before even going into the hospital" she replied, sarcastically.
"Funny, now lets just get her inside, and worry about everything else later"
"OK" and then we entered the hospital. We walked up to the front desk, and an older, graying woman looked up from some file in front of her.
"Hello dears, how can i help you?"
"We called earlier about finding a baby, so here we are" I answered. She looked at the baby, still wrapped up in my jumper.
"Just wait here for a moment, while I page the doctor" she said, and then paged the doctor.
While we waited the receptionist started a conversation with us.
"While you wait, why don't you two call your parents, they're probably worried"
"Yes please, could we us your phone please, ours are dieing?" I asked.
"Yes Yes, that's fine" and then she past the phone to me. I dialled my Step-Mums number, and she answered on the third ring.
"Hello?" She asked.
"Hey Mum, it's me Tegan"
"Hi sweetie, are you in the park again? shouldn't you be at home by now?"
"No Mum, I'm not at the park or at home, me and Melissa are at the hospital"
"WHAT! Are you OK? Is either of you hurt?"
"No Mum, we're fine, something just happened, I'll explain in a minute that doctor has just arrived"
"OK, well I'm glad your OK" I held the phone against my shoulder, so she couldn't hear what was being said.
"Hello, I'm Dr Langdon, and you are the girls that found this baby?" As he finished speaking, I realised that he had taken the baby from Melissa, and was checking her over properly.
"Yes" Melissa answered.
"Just so you know, she's a girl and about two weeks old" I told him.
"OK thank you, I am going to take her up to the Maternity ward, if you would follow me?"
"OK, Melissa have you finished explaining?" Melissa asked.
"No, but you can go with her now, and then come back down in abut 10 minutes, to see it i have managed to calm her down, and then you can call your parents, while I go up to the Maternity Ward, to see how she is, and I can meet you there, OK?"
"OK" she said, and then she followed the Doctor the lift, which was down the corridor.
I put the phone back against my ear, took a deep started to explain everything in simpler terms to her.
"Oh, that poor baby" she said, once I had finished.
"I know, so that's why we're going to stay here, and the police will be here some to, to get our statements"
"OK, and your sure that you don't want me to come?"
"Yes Mum, you need to stay in work, anyway Melissa's mum will come whether she wants her to or not, but maybe you could pick us up once you've finished work, text Morgan and asked her to pick the Twins up on her way home, and that we'll explain everything when we get back"
"OK, and I'll call the school and just say where you are, I won't give any details" I looked around and saw Melissa Getting out of the lift, and make her way towards me.
"That would be great Mum thanks, But I've got to go now, Melissa just got here 'cause she needs to call her parents, OK? I'll see you later, Bye"
"Bye" she replied, and then I hung up, just as Melissa stopped in front of me, and smiled as I past her the phone.
"Hey" I said, "Is she OK?"
"Yeah, she's in room 478, with a bunch of nurse's, you won't miss the room, it's almost over flowing with the nurse's who want to see the 'Cutest baby alive'" I laughed, and then headed towards to lift, leaving Melissa to deal with her overprotective mother, who will probably be her in the next half an hour, from when they hang up.

Just like Melissa had said, it wasn't hard to miss, but I squashed past all of the nurse's and sat in a chair next to her cot, as Dr Langdon walked into the room and told all of the nurse's to leave, unless they had been told, by him, to look after the baby.
All, but two, nurse's left and I just sat next to the cot, waiting for them all to leave, and for Melissa to return.
After a few minutes the Doctor and Nurse's left, and a few more minutes after that Melissa walked in and sat in a chair on the other side of the cot, and looked at me and said, in a calm voice,
"My Mum will be here in less than 20 minutes"
I looked back at her and tried to keep my face as straight as possible, "WOW, I would have given her at least 30 minutes"
And then we couldn't that any more, and we were both crying with laughter, which ended up waking the baby up from her much needed sleep.


Chapter Three:
Police and Social Services

By the time the three of us had finished laughing, the baby had joining in after she saw us laughing our heads of, the Nurse was just walking into the room.
"Hello Girls, There are some police officers waiting in two separate rooms, so you can give them your statements"
"Okay" Me and Melissa both answered, we said 'Goodbye' to the baby, and then the Nurse took us down the corridor, and into two different rooms that were opposite each other. I went into the one on the left of the corridor, and Melissa went into the one on the right.

----------15 minutes later----------

After about 15 minutes of telling the police officers the whole story, even about the very nervous looking paramedics that left us at the entrance, I was aloud to leave, where I meet Melissa, who had also just come out of the room opposite.
"You OK?" I said, smiling slightly at her.
"Yeah fine, you?" she replied, smiling back at me.
"Yeah, I'm good, shall we go back to the baby, your Mum's probably here by now?"
"Yeah, she's probably in the waiting room" there wasn't any Doctors or Nurses to take us back to the babies room, so we just wait back round the corner and down the corridor, to the babies room.

Sat in two of the three chairs outside if the room was Melissa's Mum, and a youngish women, in a dress suit, hair dirty blond hair was tied up in a really tight bun at the back of her head, and as we stopped in front of then, I don't think me or Melissa needed to see any ID to know who she was working for. Social Services.
"Hello, Girls" She said, standing up and putting her hand out in front of her, so that we could shake it, as we stopped in front of them.
Melissa shook her hand, and I just stared at her until she put her hand back by her side, I could tell that she was trying to keep the smile on her face, But it wasn't her fault if I didn't like physical contact from someone that I have never met.
"Well, I'm Stacy Silver, But you can call me Miss Silver, and I'm from the Children's-"
"We know who you are, we just want to know why your here?" I interrupted her.
"Well I have come to take the baby" Me and Melissa shared a look, and I could tell that we were both asking each other one question. "to a foster home fo- "
Melissa interrupted her this time, "Why? Me and Tegan will adopt her now"
She looked at us funny, as if we were making a joke. "It's not as simple as that, you two are still in education, and neither of you is over eighteen"
"can we just spend some time with her first then?" I asked.
"Of course, she's being discharged tomorrow morning"
As she finished speaking, Melissa's Mum got up and hugged us both,
"Well I'm glad that you are both OK, that poor baby, she's very lucky that you happened to be walking past her when you did" she said, once she had released us.
"I know Mum" and I nodded in agreement.

The four of us walked into the babies room, then me and Melissa sat in the only two chairs available, on either side of her cot.
We spent about 5 minutes just staring at the baby and letting her hold our fingers when we both looked up at each other, and I saw, in her eyes, that we both wanted the same thing.
We turned to Melissa's Mum and Miss Silver,
"Do you mind if we spend a few minutes alone with her?" I asked.
"That's fine, we'll both be waiting just outside if you need anything" Miss Silver said, and then they both left the room, closing the door behind them.
"Are you sure they'll let us?" I asked.
"It only seems fair, we did find her and keep her warm and feed"
"Yeah your right, I'm already thinking of some, are you?"
"Yes, I have a few ideas"
A few minutes after discussing our plan, and finally settling on one final idea, we went back out into the corridor, to tell them that they could come back in.
Once we were all back in the room, Me and Melissa sat in the same seats.
We all sat in silence for a few minutes before Me and Melissa made eye contact over the cot. We both slightly nodded, and we knew that it was time for, as we had discussed earlier, for me to ask the killer question.
"Miss Silver?" I called to her, from where she was stood near the door, staring at the baby.
"Yes" she said, after blinking a few times, before finally concentrating on me.
"Me and Melissa were wondering something, and it would mean the world to us if you would?"
"Well that all depends on the question, doesn't?"
"Yes, but this would make us feel better, for not being old enough to adopt her yet, and that, so, well we were wondering if..."


Chapter Four:
Name, Please? And...

"Um, well if we could name her, and it be written on her birth certificate, and not be changed?"
She was silent for a minute, before she finally spoke, "Um, I don't know i you are aloud to do that"
"But we did find her and kept her alive, and if we had her heard her and then just left her to die, and her later be found dead, we would feel guilty because we would have known that there was something there and we hadn't done anything." I let out a breath once I'd finished, and instantly felt calmer.

"And we think we have the perfect name, that's match's her perfectly, and it will match any last name that she has once she is adopted, so we won't put a last name on the birth certificate either." Melissa added, seeing that I was out of breath, for the moment.

"Oh, well, wow. I think that, that does sound fair, I'll go and talk to the Nurse's about bringing in a birth certificate"
Smiles quickly lit our faces, and we smiled at each other, before Looking at the baby.
"We think we have the perfect name for you, Baby" I said.
"Wait, didn't you say that there was two things that you wanted to ask, what was it?" Miss Silver asked.

Melissa answered this time, "We want to be her legal guardians, from the moment we turn eighteen, or at least be in her life, because we don't want her to, when she finds out the truth, when she's older, come looking for us, and being angry that we didn't try to keep contact with her after we saved her life, and after she was adopted."

She was silent for another few minutes, watching our hopeful faces, before answering, "Well that does seem like a good idea, but only if they people that adopt her are OK with, understood?"
"Yes, thank you soooo much" Me and Melissa squealed at the same time.
"I'll just go and get everything that we will need then"
After Miss Silver had gotten the birth certificate, Me and Melissa looked at each other and smiled.
"Shall i write everything down apart from the part that you need to sign?"
"Yep, that'll be easier"
Where it said 'Mother' and 'Father' I wrote down 'Unknown', and then put my name where it had 'guardian' written. 'Tegan.R.Rilley' and then put my signature under my name, I also wrote down Melissa's full name, so that she could sign it underneath too. 'Melissa.D.Anderson'.
I then went back to the top of the page, and just before I wrote the babies name, I looked at Melissa.
"Are you sure on the name now?" I asked, nervously.
"Yes, you?"
"Yes, I'm sure"
I then looked back at the paper and wrote down the babies new name, in my most fanciest handwriting that I have, as a few of our friends like to say.
'Lavender Dawn Rose'

Her new first name was a name that Me and Melissa have always loved, and the two middle names were mine and Melissa's middle names.
Miss Silver took all of the paper work, and I looked at the time.
9:17PM, Mum should be waiting out side by now.
Once everything was sorted, and all of the paper work was signed, we all said 'Goodbye' to Lavender, and promised to come back again tomorrow, before she was discharged.

We all walked out of the exit together, and just before she left, Miss Silver promised to meet Me and Melissa in Lavender's room again tomorrow morning at 7AM. Once she had safely gone Melissa's Mum, Sheryl, offered to give me a lift home, but I could see Katherine across the road in the car, so I kindly declined her offer, and arranged to meet Melissa at the entrance to the hospital tomorrow morning at 6:45AM, then say 'Goodbye' to them both, before running across the road, and jumping into the car.
As soon as I was buckled in Katherine started to drive, while asking me how I really was, to which my reply was, "I think I'm in shock" and then she started asked me for the full story about today, and how the baby was, and if she had a name yet.

I had just finished answering her last question, telling her about tomorrow, and that we would be late for school, and if she could call them in the morning, when we pulled into the drive.
As soon as the car was parked I jumped out of the car, and ran inside as she unlocked the door, telling me that there was some dinner in the microwave if I wanted it, but I just shock my head and told her that I was too tired and going to go straight to bed, and if I woke up hungry later, I'd have it then. She agreed, and as we entered the house she told me that she had explained everything to my sister and brothers, I said 'Thank You', before running up the stairs. Once in my room, I quickly changed into my Light blue PJ's before laying on my bed, pulling the covers over me, and fulling into a dreamless, deep sleep.


Chapter Five: Adoption
Two Months Later, Thursday August 2012

It has been about two months since Lavender had been discharged from the hospital.
Everyone we know, and a few others, know that it was Me and Melissa who found a baby, and everyone else just knows that someone in our school found her, as it was on the news the day she was discharged.
Me and Melissa have been to see her almost everyday, because we had finished our exams just over a week after we found Lavender. Lavender now had light brown hair with red tinted ringlets and her eyes were now a dark, but bright blue.

I was broken from my thoughts by the sound of the phone ringing. I jumped up from where I was sat at the table, eating my breakfast, and grabbed the phone off the counter next to the sink, and pressed the green button.
"Hello?" I asked into the phone.
"Hi Tegan, its Stacey Silver, from the children's protective services"
"Oh yeah, hi Miss Silver, how are you? Is Lavender OK? Is she hurt?"
"I'm fine, and nothing is wrong with her, I'm calling with good news actually, but I need you and Melissa to come down here if that's alright?"
"Yeah that's fine, I'll call her now and we'll be there within the hour"
"OK, thank you, bye"
"Bye" i hung up, and called Melissa explaining what Miss Silver had just told me, and we arranged to meet in about twenty minutes at the park halfway between our houses.
I ran into the living room, where Katherine was sat with the twins, watching some random children's cartoon, and told her where I was going, she passed me money for the bus, and I left the house after slipping into a pair of flip-flops, stepping out into the blazing heat of the summers day.
I got to the park just over twenty minutes later, and saw Melissa sat on a bench in the corner of the park, so I ran over to her and she stood up as I stopped in front of her.

-----------At The Care Home----------

We got to the home about twenty minutes later, and just walked straight through the red door, and saw Miss Silver standing next to the front desk.
"Hi, Miss Silver" Melissa said, once we stopped near her.
"Hi girls, If you would follow me to my office, I'll explain everything then, alright?"
"Yes, that's fine" I agreed, and Melissa nodded along with my agreement.
We followed Miss Silver through to her office, where a couple, maybe in their late twenties sat at her desk, the woman was holding Lavender, and the man was playing with her, holding a toy up and shaking it from side to side, while she laughed.

They all looked up as we stepped into the room, Me and Melissa both grabbed a share chair and sat at either end of the desk, while Miss Silver sat in her seat behind the desk.
"So Tegan, Melissa I would like to introduce to the Millars, their thinking about adopting Lavender, but we made sure that they read everything in her file, and they wanted to meet you, to discuss some things"
"Really?" I asked.
"Yes, we read through the file and know that the two of you care greatly for Lavender, and have since the moment you met her, and she seems to love you to, so we have agreed to all of your conditions. And so you can come and see her whenever you want, but you'll have to call us, just encase we are doing something" Mrs Millar said, smiling at us, as she moved a piece of her dark brown hair out of her chocolate brown eyes.
Wow.
"Thank you Mr and Mrs Millar" Melissa said, and i nodded in agreement, still in shock,
"Yes, thank you very much"
"It's fine, but please call us Debra and Tom" Mr Mil - Tom said
"OK" We both mumbled in answer.

We spent the fifty minutes discussing the adoption, before we all decided that it was time to leave, as it was near twelve, and it was Lavenders lunch time, and she looked tired, and we had to be home before one.
"So" Miss Silver said, as we all stood by the door, i had just past Lavender over to Melissa, so that she could say goodbye to her too,"The adoption should be final by the end of next week, and you can come with us when we take her up to the Millars, if you want to?"
"Yes, please?" Me and Melissa said at the same time, and then looked towards the Millars, who were getting ready to leave.
"That's fine with us" Debra said, and Tom nodded in agreement, while looking up at us from the drivers seat of their car, "And if you want to, you can come to our house the day before, and we'll show you around."
Me and Melissa looked at each other, before agreeing with them.
Debra quickly dug through her handbag, and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, then she wrote down their address and home number, before passing it to me and arranging to meet one week from today...

To be continued...