"Are you okay?" Sebastian asked, startled as Abby pulled away from him.
She closed her eyes and gradually the nausea passed. She nodded and watched Cody, who had turned back to stare at her.
Finally, he broke his watery gaze and flapped up the stairs.
"Something is not right," Abby whispered to Sebastian, clutching his hand.
Chapter 8
The door banged open behind them and Oliver strode in.
He looked keyed up and ready for a battle. He seemed surprised to see Abby and Sebastian standing calmly by the door.
"What's happened?" he asked.
"Nothing," Sebastian reported, but looked at Abby. "Is it the guy? I mean he's pretty dodgy, but he hardly seems dangerous."
"I saw something outside," Oliver said. "Upstairs. A flash of red. It freaked me out."
Upstairs they all heard a scuffle, followed by a thud and then silence.
Abby ran toward the stairs with Oliver and Sebastian on her heels. She knew that she might be racing into a trap, but she didn't care. A vision of her mother, beaten, held captive flashed through her mind.
She burst through the master bedroom door to find her mother angrily batting Cody away from a heap of blankets on the floor.
"I said no, Cody," she shrieked as he leaned over and tried to pry her from the nest of comforters.
"Mom?" Abby asked, surprised.
Her mother, hair a halo of snarls, looking bedraggled to say the least, glared up at Abby.
She frowned and snatched away the blanket in Cody's hand. He stumbled back and landed on his butt with a loud thwack.
Oliver snorted and Abby saw that he was trying to keep his laughter at bay. Sebastian held out a hand and helped the disheveled, and annoyed, Cody from the floor.
"I told her you was here and that she ought to see her own daughter on Christmas Day. Didn't I?" Cody accused, looking pointedly at Becky.
Becky rolled her eyes and shooed him toward the door.
"Get out of here, all of you. I'm trying to sleep for God's sake."
"Mom, it's four in the afternoon."
"So, what's it to you, how I spend my time? You suddenly have a conscience because it's Christmas? No thank you, Abigail Daniels. I definitely won't be listening to a lecture from you today."
Exasperated, Abby turned to Sebastian and Oliver. She offered them a tight smile.
"Why don't you guys go back downstairs?"
Neither of them look thrilled at the prospect of leaving Abby alone with her apparently nutty mother. Sebastian stepped forward and leaned in to kiss Abby's cheek.
"I'll just wait in the hallway," he whispered.
The three left and Abby looked around the room. Near the heavily drawn curtains, Abby noticed a tall lamp that had fallen and smashed on the floor, likely the red light that Oliver had seen. Hundreds of porcelain dolls lay in heaps along the base of the wall, nearly stacked as high as the window ledge. Becky had collected the dolls all of Abby's life. Her mother insisted that Abby collect them as well. She remembered countless Friday and Saturday nights watching the Home Shopping Network and carefully gluing the doll parts together. She shuddered at their wide, vacant eyes watching her.
She sat on the floor next to her mother, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them.
"I'm sorry I haven't been around, Mom."
Becky continued to stare fixedly at the opposite wall, refusing to meet Abby's eyes.
"So much has happened. I got caught up in it all and I should have checked in."
"Hmph, checked in? Why on earth would you do that? I only raised you, fed and clothed and cared for you. Ungrateful! You never appreciated all that I sacrificed for you."
Abby cringed and tried not to argue. She wanted to. She wanted to remind her mother of all that she had sacrificed. How she, Abby, lived those eighteen years in constant fear of her mother's emotional flux. Would her mother go on a rant and smash half the dishes because Abby forgot to empty the trash in her room? Or would it be a silent, brooding mood where Becky stared into nothingness and didn't speak for days?
"I'm grateful that you took care of me, Mom. I know it wasn't always easy."
"What do you know?" Becky sneered. "Living in some paradise now? Check out of reality?"
"Actually, Sebastian and I bought a house."
"Sebastian? One of those thugs you brought in here?"
Abby snorted. She couldn't help it. Thugs?
"Sebastian and I are getting married."
Becky blinked slowly at her daughter as if examining an alien life-form.
"So that's why you're here? For my blessing?"
Abby tried not to take the bait. Her mother knew just the things to say to send her teetering into an emotional meltdown. I am a different person now, she reminded herself.
"Mom I came here to try and bring you into my life. I know I've screwed up. I ran away, I left you behind and I'm truly, genuinely sorry. Let me make it up to you? At least a little. Come downstairs and meet my fiance and my friends."
Becky set her lips in a grim line and Abby knew that she wanted to take another jab at her daughter. Finally, she sighed and started to struggle out of the blankets. Abby stood and helped her up. Becky had put on a little weight. The last time Abby saw her, she looked like a skeleton wearing skin. Now she had a slight puffiness to her face and body. Abby wondered if she'd been drinking, but dared not ask.
"Let me get dressed."
Becky opened her closet and pulled out a dress and shuffled into the bathroom. Abby waited, growing impatient after more than thirty minutes had ticked by. She spotted an empty bottle of gin next to the bed and gazed around the room. Drawers hung haphazardly from the dresser with clothes sticking out. Several glasses cluttered around a remote control on her mother's nightstand. The Becky that Abby knew did not live like this.
She heard a light knock at the door and opened it.
"Everything okay?" Sebastian asked, peering beyond her into the room.
"Don't worry, I've tied her to the bed. We're all safe now."
He grinned and shook his head.
"I'm sorry that I pushed you to do this."
"No," she sighed. "It was the right thing. I want her to meet you and as hard as it is, I need to show up for her."
The door to the bathroom opened and Abby quickly closed the door in Sebastian's face. She didn't want her mother to think she was talking behind her back.
Becky strode into the room in a full face of makeup, her hair wound in a twist and wearing a long, sparkling blue dress.
"The stilettos or the silver sandals?' she asked Abby, holding up two pairs of shoes.
"The sandals?" Abby asked, fighting the urge to remind Becky that it was hardly a formal affair.
Abby's mother had always been unhinged. Her father called her sensitive, but Sydney's death appeared to have sparked a new fracture in Becky's personality. She had never been a woman who wore shiny, fancy things. In fact, she mocked Sydney incessantly for her clothes, jewelry and general beauty. Abby didn't quite know how to manage this new version of her mom.
"You could have gotten dressed up, you know?" she scolded Abby, looking at her jeans and sweater with disapproval.
"Don't you love this dress?" she asked, doing a girlish twirl and catching a sandaled foot on her blankets. She nearly went sprawling to the floor, but Abby caught her elbow and steadied her.
"It's great," Abby lied. The dress was pretty enough. The issue had more to do with Becky's overall demeanor. She looked like a woman on the verge of an internal catastrophe. Somehow when Abby had seen her mother the last time, chain-smoking and angry, she'd appeared more together. Now, Abby realized that her mother needed help, badly.
"Mom, please don't get upset, but where's Dad?"
"Dad?" Becky sneered. "You mean your father? He comes around every now and then. Tries to run Cody out of here and gives me a sermon about turning over a new leaf. What a hypocrite! I'm sure he's shacked up with some twenty-year-old. Always did
have a wandering eye."
Abby frowned. Her father had never had a wandering eye-at least not toward other women. He avoided Becky during her moods, but he opted for work and golf, not pretty co-eds. Though Abby had never felt especially close to her father, she longed for him in that moment.
"I'd like to tell him Merry Christmas. Do you have his number or address?"
Becky narrowed her eyes at Abby.
"I'm sure it's somewhere." She waved a dismissive hand. "Are we going downstairs or should I get back into bed?"
Abby forced a smile and held open the door. Sebastian peeked around the frame and smiled.
"This is my fiance, Sebastian. Sebastian, this is my mom, Becky."
"Nice to meet you." Sebastian held out a hand and Becky took it, scanning him slowly. She paused on a rip in his jeans and cocked an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. "Beautiful dress," he added.
Becky offered a small smile and nodded.
"Thank you. Had I known you were coming, I might have prepared a meal."
"No worries at all," Sebastian assured her. "We brought the meal with us. I love to cook and we already had everything prepped."
Becky gave him another look as if reconsidering her first impression.
"A man who cooks? Now that's a rarity."
"Dad cooked," Abby argued, wishing she'd kept her mouth shut.
Her mother shot her a dark look and continued.
"If you consider fish sticks cooking, then you're right, darling, he did cook."
Becky teetered on the stairs and Sebastian crooked his arm through hers. Abby watched her mother as they descended. She swayed as she walked and her head bobbed loosely on her neck.
Cody sat in the living room flipping through the channels on an enormous flat-screen TV. Containers of takeout lay scattered across coffee tables and tucked into spaces on the bookshelf. Oliver and Lydie both stood by the front door looking like they wanted to make a quick getaway.
"Mom, these are my friends Oliver and Lydie," Abby introduced them as they moved into the foyer.
Becky curtsied awkwardly.
"What beautiful hair you have," she told Lydie, fingering a bouncy strawberry-blond curl. "Like Heidi."
"Heidi?" Lydie asked.
"You know, the little girl who lived on the mountain and yodeled or some such thing."
The expression on Lydie's face revealed that she clearly did not know Heidi, but she offered a polite smile.
"Smokin' hot dress," Oliver offered. "Looks like you're ready for a beauty pageant."
Sebastian rolled his eyes and continued into the kitchen.
Becky lit up and held out her hand for Oliver to kiss, which he did.
"I bought it online. You can get the very same dresses that movie stars wear on the Internet."
Abby followed Sebastian into the kitchen.
"Is everything okay with your mom?" he asked, keeping his voice low.
"No." Abby shook her head. "She's in a weird place. I'm not sure what to do."
Abby walked to the kitchen counter piled with dirty dishes.
"This is all so unlike her. She used to scream at me if I left a water glass in the sink. I don't even know how to wrap my head around this mess."
Sebastian's eyes drifted over the kitchen. Near the back door, stacked bags of garbage leaked an unpleasant rotted food smell. Several of the cupboards stood open with a mess of cups and dishes piled together.
Abby opened the silverware drawer and found several balled-up socks.
"She needs help," Sebastian agreed. "Where's your dad?"
Abby shrugged.
"Who knows, she gave me some delusion about another woman, but I highly doubt it's true."
She strode to the refrigerator and pulled off a large sheet of white paper with her dad's writing scrawled across the page.
"This is my number-call me if you need anything!" in large bold letters as if he went over the words several times to make them darker.
"Will she freak out if you call him?"
"I'll sneak out, say I'm running to the store. I'm sure we'll need to anyway," Abby added, scanning the room. "I don't think we're going to want to cook with any of the food in here."
"No, and first this place needs a good cleaning. I don't want to upset her though."
Abby considered. Old Becky would have balked at someone else cleaning her house. She would have taken it as a personal insult, but this new version seemed to be a wild card.
"Your mom had a great idea," Oliver called from the front room. "She said there's an awesome restaurant downtown that's open today. And," Oliver bounded into the kitchen, "they offer real live oysters!"
"Not live, you joker," Becky giggled.
"Sounds great," Sebastian volunteered. "Yes," he mouthed at Abby.
****
They arrived at Sophia's Lantern, an Irish-creole fusion restaurant that occupied an old train depot in downtown Lansing. Despite the holiday, cars packed the parking lot and most of the tables were occupied.
Their host, Georgina, led them to a large round booth on the second floor.
Abby pretended to have forgotten her wallet and ducked back out of the restaurant. She found an empty bench in the lobby and quickly dialed the number from the paper.
Her dad picked up on the first ring.
"Merry Christmas, Dad," Abby said, suddenly lost for things to say now that she had her dad on the line.
"Abby? Oh thank God. I've been trying to reach you for a month. I tried your old cell, but it was disconnected. Your mother kept telling me she didn't know your new number."
Abby sighed, relieved. A part of her had believed her father had abandoned her. Obviously, she had forgotten that she was the one who abandoned him.
"I'm sorry, Dad. I moved to the upper peninsula and my old cell service didn't work. I've just been so busy with school." She hated telling the lies, but couldn't imagine the truth would go much better. Dad, I found out I'm a witch and moved to a coven on a secret island. Now I'm living with my non-witch boyfriend and I'm pregnant.
"Sounds like a paranormal soap opera," she muttered.
"What, honey?"
"Oh nothing, sorry. I'm talking to myself. Listen, I'm in Lansing with friends. We picked up Mom and came to Sophia's Lantern for dinner."
"Your mom? You actually got her out of the house? I'm happy to hear that. Cody isn't there, is he?" Her dad asked grimly.
"No, he's not. Who is he anyway? And why did you move out?"
Her father sighed. Abby could picture him rubbing absently at his balding head.
"It's a long story, honey. One I'd rather not tell over the phone. Could you come by? After dinner? I can whip up a mean strawberry shortcake."
"Maybe you should join us here at Sophia's?"
"I don't think that would be a good idea. Your mother has not reacted favorably the last few times I've stopped by. I'd rather she enjoy her time out. She needs it."
Abby reluctantly agreed and hung up the phone. She felt lighter having talked to her dad, as if the life she used to know had not completely crumbled.
"Oliver ordered champagne," her mother exclaimed when Abby returned.
"Great," Abby mumbled, reminding herself to kick Oliver under the table. Her mother did not need more alcohol.
"I ordered you tea," Sebastian said, as she slid next to him. He tucked his hand under her and gave her bottom a little squeeze.
She jumped and elbowed him playfully.
"They have fried green tomatoes!" Lydie announced, pointing at her menu.
"You like those?" Oliver asked, surprised.
"My mom used to make them," she admitted shyly.
"I like them too." Sebastian winked at her.
"Well I think a toast is in order," Becky announced when the waiter returned with the bottle.
Oliver filled each of their glasses.
"To Abby's new friends, who I guess are better than her own family."
She beamed and gulped her entire glass of champa
gne. The rest of them took a sip and tried to make awkward conversation. Becky glared into her menu as if it had insulted her.
Sebastian wrapped his arm behind Abby and pulled her a little closer. Oliver gave her a questioning look and Abby shrugged. What could she say? As strange as her mother's behavior seemed, the sudden mood shifts did not surprise Abby. She'd spent the first eighteen years of her life navigating the cyclones of her mother's emotions.
They ordered and Oliver tried to make polite conversation. He asked Becky questions about her working life, but since she'd been a stay-at-home mom, a source of both pride and resentment, she soon lapsed into another lengthy silence.
Finally, Oliver shifted his attention to Lydie and they chatted amicably about their favorite Christmas movies.
"Scrooged," Lydie insisted. "I love Bill Murray. Why don't we have a TV at Ula?" she asked suddenly and then clapped a hand over her mouth.
Becky's head shot up and she stared at Lydie for a long time.
"What's Ula, honey?" The sticky sweet voice she used made Abby's skin crawl.
"It's a city in the U.P.," Abby said at the same moment that Oliver explained it was Lydie's boarding school.
Becky looked coolly between them.
"Do you all think that I'm stupid? Is that why you came here today? To share your little secrets and mock me?"
Becky's voice rose and Abby reached across the table, trying to clutch her mother's hand.
"Mom, it's okay, no one is trying to keep secrets."
"Ha," she laughed and stood, staring down at her daughter.
For an instant, she reminded Abby of Ursula-the sea witch from The Little Mermaid as she rose out of the ocean with Titan's trident blazing in her hand.
"I know what you are," she hissed at them. She looked triumphantly from one face to the next. "I've seen what you become. Slithering monsters that live in holes and feed on little girls."
She suddenly clambered onto the bench and then the table, kicking over their glasses in her sandaled feet. She jumped off the table and ran down the stairs.
Chapter 9
"Let me out, I have to go after her," Abby demanded, trying to push Sebastian out of the booth.
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