The two women turned and fled from the room, the officer right behind them. Just as they were leaving the room, a nurse came to see what all the yelling was about. Victoria briefly explained to her that her mother was yelling at her to get her out of there.
“I’m going to call her doctor, because he needs to see this,” the nurse said. She pulled a cell phone from her scrubs pocket and pushed one button.
“Yes, Dr. Cole,” she said. “Mrs. Thornton is having an episode that I think you should come and witness.”
Pause.
“OK.”
“He’ll be here in just a minute if you’d like to wait,” she said.
“Thanks, I think I will. I’m interested to know what he thinks,” Victoria said.
It was only a minute or two until a short, middle-aged, balding man dress in a casual suit came walking down the hallway toward them.
“I’m Dr. Cole,” he said to Victoria and Lena. “And you are?”
“I’m Victoria Thornton, Marian’s daughter. This is Lena Petersen, our housekeeper and friend,” Victoria said.
“What just happened here to set Mrs. Thornton off?” The doctor asked.
“We went in to see how she was doing and she started by telling me that she was chained up like a criminal because she supposedly assaulted Lena here, and some others at my dad’s office building. I told her it was true. Then she demanded that I get her out of here, and when I refused, she started going off on me,” Victoria explained.
“I see,” Dr. Cole said. “So either she really doesn’t remember the assaults, or else she is lying. Do you know which?”
“Not really, but if I had to guess, I’d say that she’s in denial. Not really lying, because in her mind, if she remembers what she did at all, she feels it was justified. There is much more to her story than just this one incident,” Victoria told him.
“You say this is the woman who she assaulted?” Dr. Cole asked, motioning to Lena.
“Yes, Mother hit her in the head with a pewter statuette and cracked her skull. She just got out of the hospital yesterday. Her doctor told us that there is no other serious injury,” Victoria said.
Meanwhile, Marian had changed from yelling for Victoria, to merely screaming.
“That’s what she was doing the morning before she assaulted Lena,” Victoria told the doctor. “She wanted me to do something that I was refusing to do, so she started yelling at me and ended up just screaming and screaming and screaming until Lena called nine-one-one. The paramedics came and sedated her and put her to bed. I thought she would be out long enough for me to go see her doctor, but by the time I got back with Dr. Stevens, Lena was lying on the floor unconscious and Mother was gone. You probably know the rest.”
“Yes, and I had heard some of that, too,” he said. “Does she have a history of rage and violence?”
“Well, kind of, but not to this extent,” Victoria said. “All my growing up years, she would yell at me and slap my face if I didn’t conform to her wishes, but only when my dad wasn’t home. She never would hit me when he was home. I think she knew better. I left home when I was nineteen to go to college in Seattle. I haven’t been home since then until earlier this week when she called to tell me my dad was dead.”
Lena spoke up just then.
“She would yell and scream at me, too, when no one else was around, if I didn’t do something just as she wanted it. Sometimes I would have done something just like she told me to, then later she would yell at me for it. I knew it didn’t make sense, but since it didn’t happen often, I just dealt with it,” Lena said.
“Do I understand correctly that you think that yesterday your mother confessed to killing your dad?” Dr. Cole asked.
“Yes,” Victoria replied. “His death has been treated as a suicide, because that was how it looked, until I got to discovering little things that just didn’t jive. I now have a couple of police officers looking into the death as a possible murder. In fact, one of my errands today is to go to the police station and tell the lieutenant what she said. This officer here heard her, too.”
The doctor looked at the officer for confirmation.
“Yes, I heard it, and it went into my report last night when I went off duty,” he said.
“Well, I’ve got to get in there and get her sedated. She can’t keep up this screaming here,” Dr. Cole said.
“Maybe it would be best if you leave. If your presence sets her off like this, it would be best if you didn’t visit,” the doctor told Victoria. “I am very sorry. I know she is your mother, but we have to do what is best for her.
“I understand,” Victoria said. “I don’t really want to be around her when she’s like this.”
“No, I don’t suppose you would,” Dr. Cole said. “If you’ll leave your contact information at the desk, I’ll try to keep you informed on her condition, and when you might be able to see her again.”
“OK, I will, and thank you, Dr. Cole,” Victoria said.
With that, the doctor went into Marian’s room, but before Victoria and Lena had gotten ten steps away, he came back out and asked the police officer to come in and hold her down while he gave her the necessary injection. Victoria and Lena paused, waiting for the silence that would indicate that the sedative was kicking in. It came very quickly, so they moved on down the hall to the nurses’ station. Victoria gave the nurse at the desk her name, phone number and email address for Dr. Cole.
On their way out of the hospital, Victoria told Lena that she hadn’t been aware that her mother yelled at her, too.
“But, I’m not surprised,” Victoria said, shaking her head. “But I never heard her yell at Daddy. Have you?”
“No, not really,” Lena said. “I heard her raise her voice to him on several occasions, but I never heard her go off on him like she did you and me. She may have cheated on him, but I think in her own selfish way, she loved your dad and respected him.”
Their next stop was a shopping area where they spent the next hour looking for a dress for Lena and a going-away outfit for Victoria. At last they were successful on both counts. Lena chose a becoming red dress that Victoria deemed perfect for her red and white color scheme.
Victoria found a pair of white cotton-and-spandex pants that were decorated with sparkles across the hips and down the outside of each leg. She chose a turquoise top that had butterflies outlined in multicolored sparklies. A new pair of white sandals completed her going-away outfit.
Rafael called Victoria just as they were leaving the store with their purchases to see what they were doing. He told her that he had an important business meeting/lunch that he had to attend. After they hung up, she asked Lena what she’d like to do for lunch. Lena said she didn’t care, that anyplace Victoria chose would be fine with her.
After lunch, Victoria drove to the police station where she would find Lieutenant Mobry. She asked him if he had read Officer Adams’ report when he heard Marian talk about accidentally shooting David. He had, and he had nothing new to tell her, so her visit there didn’t take long.
“So, do we have all our errands accomplished?” Victoria asked Lena when she got back into the car.
“As far as I know,” Lena said. “I don’t need anything more, that I know of anyway.”
“Do you want to go home, or do you want to shop some more just for fun?” Victoria asked.
“I think I’d like to go home now,” Lena said. “My head is starting to hurt, and if you don’t have any chores for me to do, I’d like to go lie down.”
“Oh, of course,” Victoria said. “I didn’t think. I’m so sorry. There is nothing you need to do the rest of the day. You just lie down and take it easy just as soon as we get home. Is there anything you want from the grocery store? I can run in and get you anything you want.”
“I don’t know of anything, thanks,” Lena said.
She rested her head in her hand, elbow on the armrest of the car. She was beginning to feel a bit dizzy, but she didn’t want to say anythi
ng to Victoria, because she was sure it would pass.
When Victoria pulled the car into the garage and stopped, Lena took her things and went straight up to her apartment. Victoria asked her if there was anything at all she could do for her, but Lena said she’d be fine. She just wanted to lie down a while.
Victoria went in and put her things away, then went back outside to get the mail, hoping the things she ordered for Rafael would be there. Then she realized that it was just the day before that she had ordered them and they couldn’t possibly arrive yet. The days were so full and confusing that it had seemed longer ago than just one day.
She went into the back yard and opened the tool shed where the lawn mower was kept. She looked it over and fiddled with it a little, and then decided that surely she could mow the lawn. She went inside and changed into an old pair of jeans and t-shirt that she had left here when she moved to Seattle, and found an old pair of sneakers to wear.
Then she went back outside, rolled the lawn mower out onto the grass in the back yard, and flipped the “ON” switch. The mower roared to life, startling her. She grabbed the handle and started to try to push, but it was hard. She studied the handle apparatus and realized there was a secondary handle, so she pulled it to her and the mower took off under its own power. All she had to do was to hang on and steer. So that’s what she did. All across and around and around the back yard she went, leaving a trail of cut grass blades in her wake.
Hey, this is kinda fun! She thought to herself. I should do this more often. She soon had the small back yard done and headed for the gate that opened into the front. The front yard was much larger, and by the time she had it barely a third done, she was pooped and thirsty. So she turned off the mower and went in the house for a drink of water. Revived, she went back out and finished the whole thing.
She stood there at the edge of the lawn and surveyed her handiwork. If only Marian could see me now, she thought. She would come unglued to see me actually getting my hands dirty. It felt good to have done some physical labor for once. She decided that as long as she was able to live in this house, that she would mow the lawn. Sure, she was tired. She wasn’t used to doing this kind of work, but it was a good feeling, too. A feeling of accomplishment. The same feeling she had in the art museum when she had moved things around to create a new exhibit. It felt good to be out of doors, too. Wow! I’ve just learned something new about myself, she mused. I never imagined that I would enjoy working outside, but this was fun.
Not that she’d never done anything outside before, but she had never had to work outside. Heretofore, her outside activities revolved around play—recess as a child, swimming, tennis, walking on the beach—that kind of thing. But to do something actually useful and necessary outside was a new experience for her, and one that she vowed to repeat.
She rolled the lawn mower around to the back and put it away in the shed. She had no clue that she should clean the caked grass out from underneath the mower, and check the gas tank. So she just put it away as is. She looked around the yard to see if anything else needed attention. The rose bushes were full of dead flowers, so she went back in the shed to look for gloves and clippers, both of which she readily found.
She took a large, empty plastic bucket from the shed to put the dead flowers in. There were fifteen rose bushes around the back yard fence line that had been her dad’s pride and joy. Often, when he would come home from a hectic day at the office, he would go into the back yard and walk around and admire the roses. Sometimes he would trim them, but mostly the gardener took care of them.
Now, as Victoria dead-headed the bushes, she cried a little for her daddy. She wondered how long it would take until she could think of him like this without crying. It took her over an hour to complete the task at hand. She was putting the trimmings into the recycle barrel when Lena came out to find her.
“What are you doing out here, little missy?” Lena asked. “Do you know what time it is?”
“No, hadn’t thought about the time,” Victoria answered. “What time is it?”
“It’s nearly five o’clock,” Lena said. “I’m surprised that Rafael isn’t here by now.”
“I had no idea it was so late,” Victoria said. “I’ve been working out here and actually enjoying myself. I had no idea that yard work was so pleasant. Looky here—I mowed the lawns, front and back!”
“Good grief! So you did,” Lena exclaimed. “Whatever got into you, child?”
“Well, I saw that it needed to be done and figured I could do it if I could just figure out how to start the lawn mower. When I figured that out, the rest was easy. And I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed speculating on what Mother would think if she knew what I was doing. That was the best part,” Victoria said with a mischievous grin.
“Your mother would come unglued to see you out here getting dirty and ‘engaging in activities unbecoming to a girl of your station’,” Lena said, mocking words that she’d heard Marian say dozens of times.
Victoria laughed out loud at that, remembering all the times she’d heard those very words when Marian disapproved of something that Victoria wanted to do.
“Well, anyway, I mowed the lawn and I trimmed the dead roses, and I plan to do it again as long as I’m here. And just think of the money I saved by not calling a gardener in.”
“This is true,” Lena said. “I overheard your dad telling your mother one time a couple years back that the gardener had asked for a raise from eighteen to twenty dollars an hour, and your mother had a hissy fit. Your dad said if she wanted a nicely manicured yard that they would have to pay for it. And trust me, they could afford it.”
“Oh, I know they could. She was just tight with anything that didn’t go directly on her back or mine, pretty much,” Victoria said.
“Do you want anything in particular for supper, or shall I just fix something?” Lena wanted to know.
“Are you sure you feel up to cooking this afternoon?” Victoria asked.
“Oh, sure,” Lena said. “I feel a lot better after a little nap. I took one of the pills Dr. Stevens gave me and that did wonders for my headache.”
“No, I don’t care what you fix. Just make it something simple and easy for you. Spaghetti would be fine, then we can eat up the garlic bread that was left last night. If that works for you,” Victoria said.
“Spaghetti it is,” Lena said. “Is there salad fixings in the fridge? I’m out of touch with what we have around here.”
“Yeah, I think there’s enough for tonight anyway.”
Just then, Rafael called Victoria.
“Hey, are you home?” he asked.
“Yeah, out in the back yard,” she said.
“Can you let me in the front gate, please?”
“Oh, sorry. Sure. Just a minute while I run in the house.”
Pretty soon Rafael was driving in the driveway. By that time, Victoria had run out the front door to meet him and show off her handiwork. He was duly impressed, but asked her if she had cleaned up the lawn mower before putting it away. She told him she didn’t know it needed cleaning up.
He asked her to take him to it, so she led him around to the back yard and the tool shed. He rolled the lawn mower out of the shed and tipped it over on its side.
“See all the grass clippings compacted under here and on the blades? All that has to be scraped out, and it’s easier to do it now while the clippings are fresh than after they’ve dried on,” he explained.
“Oh, I didn’t know,” she said contritely. “I’ve never used a lawn mower before.”
“It’s OK, Vic, I’m just telling you so you will know next time.”
Rafael cleaned it for her, and then checked the gas tank for gas. It was low, so he filled it up.
“Now it’s ready to use again the next time,” he told her. “But you don’t have to do this. We can hire someone to come in and do the yard work.”
“But I had fun doing it. Really I did,” she protested. “I want to do it again. At least as often as
I can.”
“You liked it?” he said. “I always hated mowing the lawn when I was a kid. That’s why I moved into an apartment, so I wouldn’t have to mow a lawn.”
“I loved it,” she said. “It felt good.”
“Well, whatever,” he said, shaking his head in wonder.
How anyone could enjoy mowing a lawn was beyond him. But if she liked it, more power to her.
It wasn’t long before Lena called them in to supper. They sat down to a good meal of spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. As usual, they asked Lena to eat with them. Victoria told Rafael about their visit to her mother than morning and what all had taken place. She told him that the doctor had advised her not to visit any more until he gave her the okay.
“Which really suits me just fine,” Victoria said. “I hate seeing her like that, and I was dreading having to visit her every day. And how was your day?”
Rafael told her that Mr. Hall had come to see him about the company ownership. He said that the attorney had told him that the company was reverting now to Victoria, but as soon as they were married, then he would be joint owner. The main thing was that although David and Marian were technically married at the time of David’s death, that the way he had set up the transfer into Rafael’s name circumvented Marian from having any claim to it. Also, with her criminal charges, it wasn’t likely that she would receive anything other than her own bank accounts, some of which would go to pay her attorney’s fees.
“Well, that’s a relief to hear that,” Victoria said. “I wonder, though, now about the house and the cars. Even Mother’s car will have to have some change, I would think. I can’t see her driving again, at least not for a good long time.”
“He didn’t talk to me about the house and your personal inheritance,” Rafael said. “Only about the business part that pertained to me, too.”
“Yeah, I suppose he wouldn’t.”
Victoria helped Lena clean up after supper while Rafael went into the family room and turned on the TV news. After the cleanup was done, Victoria got out three ice cream bars for them to enjoy while they watched some TV. Lena lingered for a little while, then excused herself to go to her apartment.
The Perfect Revenge: The Couplete Series Page 27