A Reason To Stay (11 page)

“Daddy!”

Find a hole to slip into. Ignore the child and just keep your target in focus. No one would begrudge you going to the car. You’re tired and grumpy. No need to drag anyone else into your misery.

“Elise, run interference for me, please.” Melanie said under her breath, putting a death grip on her sister’s arm.

Before she could ask, Ben appeared with Barbie. “Hey, guys,” he said, kneeling down to give hugs to Faith and Mason.

Barbie smiled, standing beside him, looking shiny and trophy-like. Her dress was obviously from the present day generation. Form fitting and above the knee. Her sandy blond hair was straightened and the highlights were perfect.

“Hi, Mel. Hello, Elise.” Ben stood up, addressing both of them.

“Hi, Ben,” Melanie said quietly, not inviting any further small talk.

“Hello.” Elise felt like the one with the dot on her face. But it was more like she was wearing it. Why did she listen to her mother? God certainly wouldn’t have minded a nice pair of Capri pants and a polo shirt today. At least she showed up. Anyway, wasn’t Eve naked for the first part of the story? Pants were a step up from naked.

Barbie cleared her throat and took Ben’s arm. Look at me, her body screamed.

“Oh, I’m sorry. This is Beth. Beth, this is Elise. She’s Melanie’s sister.”

“You live in California, right?” Beth asked, her youthful glow beginning to grate on Elise’s un-caffeinated nerves.

“Yes.”

“Are you here for long?” She took Ben’s arm and held it like a koala bear who was tree-bound.

Hmmm, that’s interesting. Nice to meet you, too. “I’m here until I’m gone, I guess.” Elise laughed but underneath her levity was a try-me tone.

Elise could swear Ben was staring at her dress. Longer than it took to realize someone was wearing clothing and then look away. No, this was something entirely different. Paranoia at its best. Beth didn’t seem to loosen her grip on him. The kids ran around his legs, stepping all over her in the process. Her feet sprang up and down with each affliction, an annoyed grimace pasted on her face.

“Ben, don’t forget the cub scout project. Mason needs to have it finished for Tuesday’s meeting.” Melanie took Mason’s and Faith’s hands, moving away from the treed animal and her ex-husband turned zoo keeper.

“I’ve got it covered. Just have him come by tomorrow some time.”

“I took an extra shift at the hospital since Elise is here, so she can drop him by.”

Elise and Beth both looked at her with wide eyes, simultaneously. Neither one said anything and waited to break from the group.

“I’ll see
you
then, I guess,” Ben said, looking directly at Elise. “Just come to the barn after school. We’re working on it in there.”

“Okay,” Elise said slowly, with a question mark at the end of the one-worded response. She would have to wait to kill her sister later for the volunteer mission.

They got in the car, where Elise waited until the temperamental vehicle started. “What was that?” Elise asked.

“I can’t stand that girl,” Melanie whispered, so the kids couldn’t hear her.

“She
is
a little sticky to him. Is that why?” Was there a hint of jealousy from her sister?

“No, I could care less that he’s moved on. I’ve just never liked
her.
She’s such a man chaser. I don’t think there’s one doctor, single or married, that she hasn’t been with, if you know what I mean?” She raised her eyebrows while staring straight ahead, watching the car in front of her. “She has no morals, wears very little clothes, and I don’t want my kids coloring pictures of her with their daddy. Anyway, she’s always the tiny stick one with yellow hair. Do you know they draw me two inches taller than Ben with wild bushy hair?” She looked both ways at the stop sign and didn’t miss a beat with her call to justice. “I can’t have them referring to a bimbo as their step-mother. She’s a ho, Elise. A complete ho.”

“
That
would be unthinkable. Maybe, he’s just having fun. I don’t see him as the type to settle down with a girl like that.” Elise empathized with her sister and thought on that factoid before moving to the other subject at hand. “What is this about me taking Mason over there? Are you serious? I don’t want to go there.”

Melanie made a sharp turn into McDonald’s and pulled into a parking space before directing her attention to Elise. “What’s wrong with that? Mason said you all were at the playground together. Aren’t you fine with him, now?”

“It’s not that. I just don’t want to go over there. Why would you volunteer me?”

The kids began getting restless, being so close to cheeseburgers and not moving forward through the drive thru. “Hurry, Mommy. Get me a drink,” cried out Faith.

“Please help me, Elise. I need this shift tomorrow. I’ll do anything for you.” She clasped her hands, praying her sister would help her.

“Fine. But can I just drop him off?”

“Will you pick him back up?”

“Of course.” What did she think would happen to him, anyway?

They settled on the plan for the next day, but still had a few hours left of Sunday, first. Melanie bought their lunch and they ate it on the way over to their mom’s house.

“I’m going to drop you off at Mom’s. I’ve got some things to do before tomorrow, so just keep her company.”

“What? I need to go home and change, Melanie. I feel like a weirdo in this.”

“You look gorgeous, Elise. Just like you always did.”

“And what errands are you doing on a Sunday that you’re dumping me with Mom?”

Melanie leaned closer to her. “I have a sort of date this evening.”

“What?!” Elise drew back to the car window.

“Jacob and I are taking the kids to see a movie. I’m going to surprise them.” She pointed to the backseat and whispered, “He suggested it. I think he wants some brownie points with me.”

“Oh, my. Well, I hope you have f-u-n.” She didn’t think Mason was old enough to spell words yet. What did she know? It had been years since she was in the first grade. 

“Have fun with Mom today, and I’ll call before I come get you.”

Elise got out with her extra-large coffee and watched as Melanie drove away. She went into the house and saw her mom at the dining room table eating a ham sandwich.

“Hey, Mom. You feeling good today?” The whole weirdness of being around her mother was dissolving the more she got around her.

“Look at you, Elise Newton. You look like you’re eighteen again.” She wiped her mouth and put her hand on her hip. “Really pretty.” She sat on that thought a moment before moving forward. The past seemed to be visiting everyone with the help of that blue dress.

“Thanks, Mom.” She had never called her pretty before. Elise wasn’t used to the soft side of her mother. She wondered if it was like ear hair; it only came out when you were past a certain age. Maybe her mother had grown some feelings in the years Elise had been gone.

“I feel fine. Why didn’t you want to go with Melanie? I can handle myself today. I’ve been able to put more weight on my foot, now. These crutches, however, are chaffing my underarms.” She kicked the bottom of one of the crutches that leaned against a chair.

“I wanted to spend some time with you. What do you want to do?” White lies after church service. God would not be proud.

“I have a day of sappy love stories planned. You know, they have a channel that plays only love stories? They’re all alike, but it gives me something to do while I have to lay chained to the sofa. I think I’ve seen all of them twice. Who cares anyway? I like watching all the cute men in them.”

“Mom, you never used to watch so much television, let alone love stories. What’s changed?”

“Your mother, I guess. Call me crazy, but I love those stupid movies.” She looked down at her plate. Elise noticed how thinned her mother’s hair had become. With the natural white came a wirier texture. This woman was not the woman she left years ago.

The mother Elise knew never wasted her time on such nonsense as those kinds of movies. Lifetime man-killer movies were more her speed. Lyla ate the last bite of her sandwich and Elise cleared the table before helping her to the sofa.

“Melanie told me you saw Ben.” She propped two pillows behind her as Elise pulled her legs up on the cushions.

“Yes.” That’s all you’re getting. Nothing more.

“That’s good.
Was
it good?” Her eyes followed Elise as she walked to the window.

Large bear trap up ahead. Circumvent it. Don’t get caught.

“I guess.”

“He’s such a good father. And he would have been such a good husband if they would’ve been more compatible.”

Excuse me? Anti-marriage woman referring to Ben as a good father and husband?
And
she liked love stories? Where was her mother and who was this crippled woman with feelings and a heart on the sofa?

“Mom? You never liked Ben. Albeit, I never understood why, but I do remember you never wanting me to date him. In fact, you said he was a waste of my time. You practically paid for my out-of-county school tuition just for me to leave.”

Elise stood in front of her mother, demanding for the real Lyla Newton to come out and answer for this gross misrepresentation.

“Elise, I never said I didn’t like him. And anyway, a woman can change her mind, can’t she?”

“I relied on you to tell me what to do. You knew Ben was going to ask me to marry him. I told you. And I know what you told me.” She waited for Lyla to come clean and reassure her she wasn’t making it up. Instead, the woman barely changed her breathing pattern.

“You told me to leave while I could still have a life. Because one around here just wasn’t one. You told me he would break my heart, leave me like Daddy did. I couldn’t have gone through that, and you knew it.”

Lyla fumbled for the remote control underneath her. “Honey, I don’t remember saying that. What I remember is how much you wanted to be more than this place could give you. You wanted an education and the dreams that came with it. If you stayed here, you couldn’t have had what you have today. I supported your dreams.”

Like hell, she did. Sure, she felt the support and strong bond of family all the way out in California, where her mother hadn’t visited her once. And the fact till this day, she couldn’t even commit to stray cats for fear they’d end up leaving her. Yep, Elise sure had it all out there. So much more than everyone in Kentucky had.

“I guess so, Mom.” She sat down, not able to argue with her amnesiac mother anymore. Her mother was never going to admit to anything less than the fabricated lie she believed all these years about Elise’s life. School spelling bee champ? What?

Elise pulled out her phone and read the three messages that Darren sent while she was in church that morning. ‘Thinking of you.’ ‘Going crazy without you.’ ‘Can’t wait until I can pick you up at the airport.’

She sighed heavily, closing her eyes and feeling the task of living a double life. One that she knew she couldn’t move forward with until this one was a closed. And suddenly it felt very much like opened swinging doors. Pandora-type ones.

Elise pressed out a message and turned her phone off. ‘Be home in no time. Miss you, too.’

She watched movies with her mother until dinner when Elise ordered another pizza. It was all they could eat, seeing that her mother’s car was at Melanie’s house. After they finished eating and before another movie began, Elise put her mother to bed and waited for Melanie. The house was unsettling in its absence of noise. Loud memories began to knock on the four walls of the living room, trying to get out. Mirages of her as a child took ghostly forms and Elise couldn’t stand it any longer.

“But Mom, I know I saw Daddy today. He was standing at the fence watching me.” Elise pulled on her mother’s skirt as she was scraping gluey oatmeal out of the pan.

“Watch what you’re doing, Elise. Do you want this hot mess dumped on you?” Her mother elbowed Elise’s head, trying to get the tenacious girl to leave her alone. “I told you already. Your daddy’s gone. He’s not coming back. What, do you think he’d come back just to see you? You’re the reason he’s gone in the first place. I should’ve never had kids. We were fine when it was just him and me.”

Elise took her phone out, hoping to cast away the demons of her past with a call to the only one who knew how to soothe her in this particular situation. Only Ben wasn’t an option these days. Instead, she saw there were three missed calls from Darren. She dialed his number and spoke lowly, so her mother couldn’t hear.

“Hey, what’s up?” She hoped the casualness set the tone that she didn’t want to be bogged down with gushy talk. Her constitution couldn’t handle anything heavier than mention of the weather.

“I miss you so much, Elise. I’m over here at your place, watering your flowers.”

“Darren, I told you not to worry about it. They won’t die while I’m gone.”

“Yeah, but I might.”

“Funny, Darren.” Keep it light. Don’t follow him down the road to serious. “I’m sorry I haven’t called. It’s been busy here. What did you need yesterday? You left a message to call.”

“Oh, there’s a medical conference in Vegas next month and I need to RSVP.”

Confused with why he was checking with her, she replied, “So, why don’t you?”

“Well, they need to know how many. And I want to take you along with me. I only have to go in the day to the meetings, and the night I can spend with you. Does it sound like something you would want to do?”

Vegas? Wow, that sounded like just what the doctor ordered. A little sin city recuperation from the Amityville horror of her visit back home. “Sure, why not? Maybe I’ll let you get me drunk and we’ll swap vows.”

Her own voice played back like an audio recorder in her head. WTH? Kentucky was messing with her mind more than she knew it would. Her need to escape home and the unresolved feelings she had for Ben seemed to be pushing her headfirst into Darren’s plan for their future together. Safety nets could look so appealing when you were backed into the corner of self-awareness.

“I think I’ll call ahead now and make sure the fridge is stocked with your favorites.” He paused. “Were you kidding?”