Once Upon Another Time (11 page)

Suddenly, the
ferret’s words caught my attention and I quickly stated, “Objection, your honor. 
The plaintiff has demonstrated inflexibility, unreasonableness, and
uncooperativeness toward my client in regard to the exchanges and issues
concerning the minor child.”

“And what are you
specifically referring to counselor?” the judge asked, as he thumbed through
the paperwork in front of him.

“Besides the
five-page document that the court reviewed in our last session, your honor, the
plaintiff’s conduct in regard to his daughter’s ballet recital, which now has
her wetting her bed, is representative of his behavior.  He has exacerbated the
already deteriorating custodial visitation situation by adversarial use of
couriers to deliver messages to my client, just so he won’t have to speak to
her.  I cannot stress enough, to this court, the irrefutable harm he is doing
to his own child.”

“Objection, Your
Honor.  Counselor is speculating,” yapped the ferret.

“Overruled,”
bellowed the judge as he visibly compared the files on his desk that included
new evaluations, enthusiastically given to me by two leading psychiatrists. 

I turned toward my
client seated to my left.  Her eyes brimmed with tears.  As my hand found hers
I whispered, “Come hell or high water, I will win you full custody.  I
promise.”  Instantly, the words from the dream I had about Matt came back to
haunt me. 
Aubrey, promise you won’t stop looking for me.

* * * *

By the time I
returned to my office, a sharp stabbing pain had settled between my shoulder
blades.  I assumed it was a residual effect from missing yoga class the night
before.  I slowly twisted my head from side to side to loosen the muscles and recalled
my tortured experience of attempting to master the art of Bikram yoga.  A
series of twenty-six poses performed in a room hot enough to melt plastic.

While trying the
full
locust
, my belly was on the mat, my back twisted into a backward bend with
arms and legs pointing skyward, while perspiration dripped from the tip of my
nose.  That was when I forgot to breathe and fainted.  I opted for a beginner’s
yoga class, held in an air-conditioned room. 

“Aubrey,” Ashley called
over the phone intercom.  “Are you going out for lunch?”

“Yes, and I’m
leaving soon.  Please do me a favor.  Seems people like leaving their life
stories on my voice-mail, just take a quick message and tell them I’ll call
back.” 

“Sure, no
problem.”

“Also, could you
run down the hall and catch Melanie before she leaves for lunch?  She has a
file on the Jenkins case that she’s never returned.”

“Okay, I’ll go
right now.  Oh, one more thing, someone stopped to see you while you were in
court this morning.  Said his name was Gavin.” 

“Gavin who?”

“He didn’t give a
last name.  I asked if he wanted to leave a message, but he said he’d get in
touch with you later.  He seemed secretive, but he was really cute for an older
guy.”

“Older guy?”

“Yeah, you know,
like middle thirties and tall, maybe six foot four--or five.  He dressed kind
of business casual.”

I smiled inwardly
thinking back to when I was Ashley’s age.  At twenty-four, anyone over thirty
seemed ancient. 

“He didn’t give
any clue as to what he wanted?”

“No, nothing, but
he seemed anxious to talk to you.” 

“Well, it’s not
the first time someone walked in off the street needing the immediate services
of a lawyer,” I said, as I rummaged through my purse to find my tube of
Strawberry Mocha lipstick and a mirrored compact.  “I’ll see you when I get
back from lunch.”

I touched up my
lipstick, blotted with a tissue and left to meet Laura at her office.  She was
sitting ramrod straight at her desk, talking to someone on her speakerphone,
when she motioned for me to enter. 

“I see,” she said,
tapping her ballpoint to the desk, her lips twisted into a tight knot. 

 “Really, babe,
I’d love to see you tonight,” said David over the speakerphone.  “But I’ve got
work piled up on all four corners of my desk.  Let’s not make a big deal over
this, okay?” 

I grimaced and slipped
off Laura’s jacket and draped it over the back of the chair facing her desk
when I heard David’s voice again.  Only this time it was in my head. 

“I can do this.  I
can keep it together so Laura will never find out,”
he voiced in my
head.

I gazed at the
phone as if it were a snake slithering across the desk. 
Are there no
boundaries to this strange, psychic ability?

Laura peered up at
me.  I forced a smile, while thinking it was interesting that David was keeping
something from her.  I didn’t think it necessarily meant it was something bad. 
Maybe he was planning something special and wanted to surprise her.  He’s done
it before.

“David, I’m not
making a big deal over it.  I’ll just see you tomorrow.  Bye!”  Laura grumbled
something under her breath as she grabbed her purse off the credenza, almost
knocking over a stack of Glamour and Cosmo magazines. 

“Everything
okay?”  I asked.

“Yeah, fine. 
Let’s go.”

That was
convincing.  

The intermittent
deafening noise of juddering jackhammers, mixed loudly with the clanging of
trolley bells as we walked down Kennedy Plaza.  The scorching sun felt like
flatirons on my shoulders.  A city bus with its motor whining screamed past us
belching out nauseous black clouds of exhaust, as we dashed across the
intersection at Dorrance.  Slipping into the cool, air-conditioned Biltmore
Hotel, we crossed the    European styled lobby, and waited at the hostess
station at McCormick & Schmick’s.

“Katelyn should be
here any minute,” said Laura.

“Speak of the
devil,” I said while watching Katelyn cross the lobby.  She waved both arms in
the air like a flagman waving twin checkered flags at the Indianapolis 500. 
Her son Jimmy was best friends with my son, Nicholas. 

At a petite
five-foot-two with chin length strawberry blonde hair, wide-set blue eyes, and
pouty lips, the snug pink knit top she wore with form-fitting white Capri’s and
two-inch kitten Dior’s fit her figure perfectly.  Katelyn, who grew up in
Texas, was a distinguished academic, a psychiatrist with degrees from Brown
University.  Not only was she the commencement speaker and Grand Marshall for
the thirty-sixth anniversary of Brown’s medical school, she was quite the
celebrity around Providence.  Specializing in sex therapy, her newly published,
unconventional mommies’ book, “Sex, Sizzle, and the Backseat of a Minivan” was
flying off the shelves of every bookstore in town. 

 “Hey, you two,”
she said in her soft, southern accented charm as she approached us.

 “Day off today?”
asked Laura while checking out Katelyn’s attire.

“Well,” she said
in a long drawl while placing a hand on her hip.  “I was supposed to but wound
up at the office this morning.  Wouldn’t ya’ll just know that the one day I
decide to sleep in, my office called and woke me up.  My patient’s wife called
the office in hysterics, saying she was rushing her husband to the clinic.”

“Nothing serious,
I hope,” I said.

“No,” she said
while looking up at me.  “Turned out to be an erectile dysfunction, due to the
little blue pills I’d prescribed.”

“I thought those
pills were supposed to help,” I said.

“Oh, they did!  He
took too many and ended up with a stiff salute for more than ten hours, if you
know what I mean.”

“Ohhh,” Laura and
I said in unison. 

The hostess came
to show us to our table.  As I followed behind Laura’s lean, runway model
stride, and mass of platinum hair circling down her back, all heads spun in her
direction.  An invasion of jumbled men’s voices crowded my head, making me a
little dizzy.  “Oh, baby…”  “Hot…”  “Whoa…”  “Too gorgeous…”

I had a slight
wobble to my walk.  Surely, there must be an
off
switch in my head; I
just needed to find it.  Then like the sudden halt of the cicada, the voices came
to an abrupt stop.  I tripped over my own feet and stumbled into a chair almost
losing my balance. 

Laura stopped and
turned to look back at me.  “Are you okay?”

“I think you
caught your heel on that snagged piece of carpet,” Katelyn said pointing at the
floor. 

“I’m so sorry,”
said the waitress.

“Really, I’m
fine.  Just a little clumsy,” I said, hoping I had disguised my irritability
knowing full well it had nothing to do with a carpet snag. 

No sooner had we
slipped into our chairs, than a waiter and busboy rushed toward us, practically
stumbling over each other to get to our table.  I was used to this reaction
from the staff.  Laura’s beauty always stunned everyone.  Catering to her as if
they were her personal servants, the waiter finally turned his attention to me,
but only because I was jumping out of my chair.  The busboy, who couldn’t take
his eyes off Laura, overshot the glass he was holding and soaked my arm with
ice water. 

After apologies
and much kissing up from the waiter and busboy, all three of us ordered the
Seafood Cobb Salad.

“Hey, I thought Cacey
was supposed to be back from Spain this week,” Laura said, as she unfolded her
napkin across her lap.  “That horse show was held last week, right?”

“Horse show?”  I
repeated, as I rubbed my arm trying to get it warmed.

Laura nodded and
gave me a vacuous smile.

“It was the
equestrian competitions in
Jerez de la Frontera
and later the horse
races held on the beaches of
San Lucar de Barremeda
,” I responded. 

“Yeah, that’s what
I just said; she’s at a horse show.”  Laura rolled her eyes. 

The busboy came to
refill my water glass and I quickly shifted my body to the far left, while
Katelyn scooted her chair to the right. 

 “Aubrey,” said
Katelyn.  She stared at me with an overzealous smile that showed her entire
gums and straight white teeth.  It was her fiendish looking Seabiscuit smile
that always preceded something she wanted to say, but knew I might not
appreciate hearing it. 

“You remember me telling
you about my sister Teri’s divorce attorney, the single, good-looking one,”
Katelyn said.

“Yes,” I answered
hesitantly.

“Well, Teri
happened to bump into him at the ArtBar on Chestnut.”

“Oh,” said Laura,
“did she tell you I saw her there?  She looks absolutely fantastic!”

“It’s the diet,”
said Katelyn.  “Aubrey’s the one who gave her the book.”

“What book did I
give her?”

“You know the one
on avoiding carbohydrates and starchy foods.  Well, she followed it and lost
twenty pounds.”

“Wow, glad I could
help.”

“Anyway,” said
Katelyn, “Teri had that newspaper article on you winning that big lawsuit case
last week.  She wants to send it to you with a congratulatory note.”

“That is so
sweet,” I said. 

“Yes, well, she
had it folded up in her purse.  By the way, that was a great picture of you
standing on the courthouse stairs.  Anyway, they got to talking, her lawyer mentioned
the boring dating scene, one thing led to another, and she took the newspaper
clipping out of her purse and handed it to him.  She then asked if he’d be
interested in dating you.”

“She what!”

Katelyn threw her
hands up in mock surrender.  “Ya’ll know how loose-lipped Teri gets when she’s
drinking.  But aside from that, he’s a good catch and very handsome.  Teri said
he was practically salivating when staring at your picture.  So, if it doesn’t
work out with Jack, there’s your other option.”

“How
embarrassing,” I said, rolling my eyes and hoping I never run into the man.

“Oh, I forgot to
tell you,” said Laura as she snickered.  “Before Cacey left for Spain, she told
me when she gets back she’s going to consult with a few of her California
friends, no doubt the Hari Krishnas of Hollywood.  She’s thinking maybe you
could try psychic channeling to find answers to your men problems.”  Laura was
barely able to contain her laughter.

 “Ha, ha, very
funny,” I said sarcastically.  “Can we for once just not talk about my dating
life?” 

“Of course honey,”
Katelyn said, trying to control her giggle.  “I just want to say one thing and
then I promise to shut up.  I know Jack.  He’s very sincere and above all, he’s
honest.  Plus…”

As Katelyn rattled
on about Jack, I knew she and Laura meant well by trying to help with my
non-existent love life, but that was the furthest thing from my mind.  I was worried
about Matt.  I had read in the research book I have that ghosts sometimes
return because they died tragically and unexpected, like Matt.  They may feel
they have unfinished business on earth.  I was scared Matt could get lost while
crossing different planes of the universe.  And if he did, could he ever make
his way back?   

I suddenly heard
someone speak in my head.  “Yeah baby, your legs wrapped around my waist.”  I
looked around wondering who the jerk was that said that.  I noticed a
barge-like forty-something man seated to the right of our table chewing his French
fries like a cow chewing cud.  He raised an eyebrow and winked at me.

 “Pig!”  I blurted
out. 

“What did you just
say?”  Laura spouted.

“Huh?”  I gave a
cursory glance at Katelyn and Laura.  “Oh, nothing.”

“You know,” Laura
said, “you’ve been acting stranger than usual lately.  Something’s up with you.”

“I’ve noticed
too,” said Katelyn.

“No, no,
everything’s fine,” I said, as I turned to sneer at the cud-chewer.   

Laura’s eyes
narrowed.  “You sure?”

“Yes, quite.”  I
quickly picked up my glass and gulped my water.