Girl in the Shadows Read online

  "It's coming," I said.

  "Good. After dinner you can return to the hospital to see my mother. I'll give you the papers for her to sign. You'll leave Echo here," she added. "I don't like her going back and forth to a hospital. Kids can catch something. right. Skeeter?"

  He laughed. "Yeah, like a sexually transmitted disease."

  They both laughed. I bit down hard on my lower lip and went out to speak with Trevor.

  "They giving you trouble?" he asked the moment I appeared in the winery doorway.

  "No, but I think they're getting very bored here," I replied.

  "Very likely."

  "It's probably best to just avoid confrontations. I don't think they'll hang around much longer."

  He nodded.

  "I mean, if they make more trouble or we get into fights with them. Mrs, Westington will just get so upset and that won't help her get better."

  "Uh-huh," he said, scrutinizing me with eyes that went over my face like a fine-tooth comb. "They ask you to come over here and tell me to stay away?"

  I looked up.

  "It's all right," he said. "I know they just making things miserable for you and Echo over there. I'll stay out of their faces until they go or unless you need me. All you gotta do is holler my way. understand?"

  "Yes."

  "The truth is she's blood and I ain't and the courts and law will side with her against me and you anyway. We just got to do what's best for Echo and Mrs. Westington right now.

  Sometimes going around a fire is better than confronting it head on. It'll burn itself out and those two will surely burn themselves out eventually."

  "I know you're right. Trevor,"

  "I'm here if you need me," he emphasized.

  "Okay. Thanks," I said, and returned to the house, grateful for Trevor's understanding.

  Skeeter and Rhona had gone upstairs. I looked in on Echo, who had put on her grandmother's apron and was preparing the salad. Stepping into her a grandmother's shoes made her feel closer to her. I imagined, I complimented her on her work and told her I was going upstairs to wash and change for dinner. When I got to the top of the stairway, I went to what had been my room, not thinking or remembering what Rhona had said she had done.

  I opened the door and confronted them both naked, making love on the bed. Rhona's legs wrapped around Skeeter's waist, The bed was shaking and rocking with his thrusts. The sight was so surprising and shocking, I didn't move or speak. Rhona looked around Skeeter's arm and smiled at me. He saw she was looking my way and turned his head.

  "This is how normal people do it," she said.

  "Come on in and watch if you want," Skeeter said, not pausing for a moment.

  I gasped, backed out, and closed the door. My heart was pounding. They were both laughing loudly. I turned and ran to the guest room, where my things had been tossed over the bed and the floor. I shut the door behind me quickly and caught my breath. They're like two animals. I thought, and yet I couldn't deny to myself that I had been intrigued and fascinated by the sight. Did that make me as bad as they were? I shook myself as would a dog shaking off water, trying to get rid of my mixed feelings and disgust. Then I picked up my things, hung up my clothing, and put my other clothes in drawers. I gathered all the tricks and the posters that they had scattered about and put them together in a corner. After that. I went to the bathroom in the hallway, locked the door behind me, and took a quick shower.

  Echo was sitting at the kitchen table when I went down, still feeling dizzy and stunned by what I had seen. I did my best to hide my nervousness from her and put up the steaks. I sauteed some onions and mushrooms to go with them. The aroma traveled through the house and up the stairs. Soon. I heard their voices and laughter as they descended.

  "Sex stimulates the appetite,'" Skeeter said, poking his head into the kitchen. "I hope you made enough."

  "If she didn't, we'll eat her portion," Rhona told him. They went into the dining room and sat like two people who believed everyone else existed to serve and honor them. I started Echo on bringing in the water, bread and butter, and the salads. Not realizing all that was happening around her, she was simply trying to impress her mother with her work and looked desperately for a compliment. None came. Just as before. Rhona and Skeeter behaved as if they were the only ones there or we were invisible. Echo's signs went unnoticed except by me.

  "Couldn't you at least tell her she did a good job on the salad?" I asked.

  "Sure," Skeeter said. He turned to Echo, pointed to the salad, smiled, and circled his mouth.

  She looked at me to explain and I properly signed what he meant. She was really looking for Rhona's reaction. but Rhona was busy eating, her head down. How could someone carry a child in her body and ignore her existence like this? I wondered.

  "Don't overcook those steaks!" she warned me when she noticed I was staring at her.

  I hurried back into the kitchen. I had forgotten them and they were no longer medium. I put them on a serving dish nevertheless and brought them into the dining room. As soon as I placed the dish on the table. Skeeter stabbed a steak with his fork and put it on his plate. Rhona served herself slowly. He cut his and smiled. "Very tasty." he said.

  She cut hers and grimaced. "Overcooked!" she cried, and flipped the steak at me. I shifted my body to avoid it and it went sailing into the doorway and slid over the floor. "Make another one and stand there watching it cook this time," she ordered.

  "Hey. I would have eaten that." Skeeter said.

  "Take hers if you're still hungry. She doesn't have time to eat and she doesn't need anything. She can live off her fat fora week." Rhona said.

  I looked at Echo. Her mouth was open and she was in a state of shock and fear. She was actually trembling.

  "Look what you're doing to her." I said.

  "Not me, honey. you. If you had cooked that steak right, this wouldn't have happened, so don't blame me. Blame yourself. Go on. I'm not waiting forever."

  Echo couldn't eat after that. I saw she was having trouble swallowing anything she put in her mouth.

  "You could wait until my meat is cooked. Skeeter," Rhona cried.

  He paused and looked at me. I hurried back into the kitchen and took out another steak. Cooking them right from the freezer usually made them tougher, but what choice did I have? I couldn't marinate it as my mother had taught me. I waited and continually tested it.

  "What's taking so long?" Rhona cried. "You're not overcooking it again, are you?"

  "No. I'm watching it." I told her. Echo was just sitting there staring down at her plate.

  "What's wrong with her? Why isn't she finishing her food?"

  "You frightened her," I said.

  "Oh, what a sensitive baby. If that frightened her, she had better not set foot out of this house. There's a lot more frightening stuff going on out there."

  I wanted to say I had been out there and there was nothing more frightening than her. but I bit my lower lip and returned to the stove. When I thought it was medium. I brought it in and stood by while she cut it and considered it.

  "That's more like it," she said.

  I noticed that Skeeter had taken my steak. I didn't care. Like Echo. I had lost my appetite as well. See. I told myself, even in this there's a silver lining. The longer you're around Rhona, the more weight you'll lose. I signed to Echo that if she wanted to leave, she could. She nodded and started to LFet up.

  "Where does she think she's going? I'm not finished eating. Tell her to stay until everyone is done. That's impolite," Rhona said. "Tell her!"

  I did and Echo sank back into her chair, only glancing at her mother. Skeeter was eating like it was truly going to be his last meal on earth.

  "You're such a slob. Skeeter." Rhona told him. He grinned from ear to ear, his lips greasy and some meat on his chin. "I lost my appetite," Rhona said, shoving the plate away from her. He eyed her meat. "You're not going to eat that, too, are you?"

  He shrugged.

  "See what a pig I
'm with?" she told me. "Clean up. I want you off to the hospital with the paperwork in twenty minutes,'" she said. "Tell her she can leave the table, too. She's making me nervous sitting there like that."

  I started to sign., but Echo picked up on Rhona's lips and was up and out of her chair before I finished, She ran upstairs to her room.

  "My mother's done some terrible job with her," Rhona quipped. "She doesn't belong here. but I don't see why she has to go to one of those very expensive places. They can do just so much for her and after a while, it doesn't matter where she is."

  "How do you know that?" I asked,

  She spun around on me. "Don't you get snotty with me or I won't even give you a chance to get out of here gracefully. Just be grateful I am and do what I tell you," she said.

  Skeeter burped and pushed himself back.

  "Are you finally finished?" she asked him.

  "For now," he said, and looked at me. "What's for dessert?"

  "There's a piece of apple pie left over."

  "Just bring it out before you go," he said. "I'm a little full at the moment."

  "You're such a slob." she told him again, and he laughed.

  "Don't let that fool you," he said to me. "You saw how she loves me. I have the scratch marks on my rear end to prove it." I felt heat move into my face, picked up dishes, turned, and hurried into the kitchen with his laughter resounding. Sex had been turned into a weapon they could use freely against me.

  Before I left for the hospital. I made sure Echo was all right. She was lying on her bed. embracing Mr. Panda. Of course, she wanted to know why her mother was being so mean and why she had thrown her steak at me.

  I told her Rhona had drunk too much whiskey and was drunk and not to worry about it.

  "Just stay away from her tonight," I said. "She'll be better tomorrow."

  "No. she won't," she replied. "She'll never be better."

  I couldn't disagree and Rhona was shouting for me below,

  "I'll be right back." I told her. "I need to do some errands. Just do your work andI'll look it over and help you with anything you get wrong."

  "Why? Ty isn't coming back?"

  "He'll come back." I said, but she simply waved off my signing as would someone wave off annoying flies and then turned away from me.

  I was crying inside for her, but I couldn't stay any longer and help her feel better. Her world was in chaos and I was sure she felt she was spinning like a top in outer space. There was nothing to stop it.

  I turned and walked to the door. Just before I left. I noticed something was different. What? I wondered, and then my gaze fell on the pile of torn picture pieces.

  She had torn up the old picture of Rhona, the mother she had once known and had lost forever.

  12 Bats in the Belfry

  .

  I took the paperwork from Rhona,

  "She won't listen to me." I insisted. "I'm just a

  guest here. I don't have a right to tell her what to do with her money.' "She'll listen if you tell her we're promising to leave. I saw the way she looks at you. You're mare than just a guest here. You've become her daughter. You've replaced me. I'm not jealous or upset about it. Better you than me be stuck here. Just do it and do it well, sweetie, or you know what news bulletins will be released,'" she threatened.

  I left the house and walked to my car. Trevor must have been watching the front door all evening, I thought, because the moment I appeared, he came hurrying out of the winery to meet me.

  "What's happening? Is everything all right? Where are you going? Where's Echo?" He fired his questions at me without taking a breath.

  "I'm going to see Mrs. Westington. Echo's up in her room."

  "And?" he said, seeing the papers in my hand. "What's all that?"

  "Rhona believes Mrs. Westington will listen to me and sign this power of attorney giving her rights to money."

  "Why doesn't she go to see her mother herself and ask?"

  "Mrs. Westington has already told her no. Actually, she's already called her attorney to prevent Rhona from doing anything. but Rhona doesn't know that yet."

  "You shouldn't have agreed to show those papers to her he said.

  "I was going to see her anyway. I'm just humoring Rhona. Like you said, sometimes it's better to go around a fire and let it burn itself out."

  "Yeah, but I don't like it," he said, looking at the house. "She's a lot different, meaner. sneakier. I can't even imagine the places she's been and the things she's done. Sending you to do this makes me suspicious."

  "Don't worry. Trevor. When they finally realize they won't get anything more, they'll leave," I told him.

  He looked at me, thought a moment, and then shook his head. "I don't like it," he said, and walked back to the winery.

  How I wished I could tell him the real reason I was doing all this. how Rhona was blackmailing me. how Tyler had made it all possible for her. but I was afraid of seeing it all blow up into a bigger mess that would hurt all of us. especially Echo. Swallowing back the truth. I got into my car and drove to the hospital.

  When I arrived, Mrs. Westington was making a scene with the nurse, complaining about the food and demanding they send the cook up to her so she could instruct him or her in how to prepare chicken so it tasted like something other than cardboard. The nurse was just trying to get her to calm down. She looked to me for help.

  "Please stop this." I said. "Immediately."

  Mrs. Westington widened her eyes, blew air through her lips, and fell back on her pillow with her arms folded under her breasts, pouting like a child. Uncle Palaver told me when people get older, they act more and more like children. He called it the second childhood. That was what I thought I was witnessing at the moment.

  The nurse thanked me and left,

  "You know they make you sicker in hospitals, don't you?" Mrs. Westington quickly began in her own defense before I could say another word. "They feed you slop. They wake you at all hours of the night to see if you're alive or give you some pill. They don't want me walking about either. They've turned me into aninvalid."

  "You promised you would behave. All you're doing is prolonging everything."

  I shook my head and she looked away a moment and then sat back.

  "Where's Echo?"

  "She was tired and I thought you were right about this not being a good place for her. She's in her room, doing her lessons."

  She looked at me askance, her eyes two slits of suspicion. "What's that in your hands?" she asked,

  "Your daughter asked me to bring this to you to consider. She and Skeeter promise they'll be leaving immediately if you do this." I said. "I didn't tell them anything about what you've been doing with your attorney."

  "What is it exactly?"

  "A power of attorney document so they can get money."

  "You know where you can put that," she said. Then she stared a moment and added. "How did they get you to bring that to me? They threatened you?"

  "No, they just asked me to be their spokesman," I lied.

  "Spokesman? That girl's got bats in the belfry. She could send the governor here to see me and I wouldn't change my mind. What made her think you could do it for her? How come she's not comin g here herself?"

  I thought I would try the same logic on Mrs. Westington that I used with Trevor.

  "I think they're getting bored and want to leave." I said. "All Skeeter is doing is eating and drinking and watching television. Rhona is getting tired of it,"

  "Very, likely. She had the attention span of a four-year-old when she left. I don't imagine it's improved."

  She leaned over to her side table, opened a drawer, and took out a pen. "Hand those papers to me," she said.

  Was she going to sign? I gave them to her and she wrote a tremendous "NO" over each sheet.

  "There. Even Rhona might understand that response. You let me know immediately if she gives you any trouble. April. I'm depending on you," she said, which only made me feel worse. "How did dinner go
?"

  I sat and described what I had made and how Skeeter had attacked the food. That amused her at least. Of course. I left out anything about Rhona throwing the steak, complaining, and frightening Echo.

  "I'm truly sorry about Tyler Monahan leaving us, leaving you before you took your test," she said when I finished describing the evening.

  "I think I'll do all right on the test when I take it anyway," I said.

  She nodded and smiled. "That's what I like to see and hear, optimism coming out of your mouth. I'm no fool at my age. I know after we get Echo established that you have to move on, maybe join up with your sister again. Whatever. You have to take care of business, start your own life on the right track. April. You don't belong in an old house with only an old lady and an old man vainly trying to resurrect a dead dream. You deserve to go off and pursue your own dreams and not be stuck in the mud with ours. You promise me you'll do that, April. I'm not saying you can't stay in touch, but you promise."

  "I promise, Mrs. Westington."

  "Good, good." She closed her eyes. "Something they're giving me makes me tired early. I'll lay into that doctor when he shows up tomorrow morning."

  "They're just trying to keep you calm and get your pressure lower."

  "Yeah, well, you'd think a woman my age wouldn't have so much pressure in her anymore." She smiled. "Take care of my baby until I bust out of here.'

  "I will," I said.

  She lay back on her pillow. She fought to stay awake, but in moments, fell asleep. I rose slowly, quietly, fixed her blanket, and then picked up the papers and left. I had a great temptation to just keep driving. Fear of Rhona, especially when she saw what her mother had done to her legal papers, made me shiver. Of course. I was more afraid of how she would treat Echo and how frightened Echo would be if I didn't return.

  Both Rhona and Skeeter were waiting for me in the living room.

  "Get your rear end in here!" Rhona called the moment I opened the front door.

  I took a deep breath and entered.

  "Turn that off. Skeeter," she ordered, and he clicked off the television set. "Well? What happened? Did she sign? Did you convince her?"

  I shook my head. "She said she gave you as much as she intended to give you," I said. "I couldn't change her mind. I tried. I told her you were planning on leaving, but she was adamant."