by Madyson Grey
From the courthouse, Rafael went to work and Victoria went to the hospital. She wanted to see her mother to see if she would repeat what she had told her the evening before. She had also brought some clean clothes for Lena to wear home.
When she got to Marian’s room, she asked Officer Adams if there had been any change in her mother yet. He said there wasn’t that he knew of.
“Will you come in with me?” Victoria asked. “I want to see if she will say the same thing in your presence that she said to me last night. If she doesn’t see you, it might be even better.”
“Sure, I’ll come in,” the officer said.
Victoria walked over to her mother’s bedside and greeted her in a cheery voice. The officer stepped inside the door and over to one side, hoping that Marian wouldn’t notice him.
“Hi, Mother,” she said.
Marian’s eyes fluttered, and then opened.
“Victoria,” she said.
Her voice was clearer this morning. Not a lot, but some.
“How are you this morning?” Victoria asked.
“Tired,” Marian said. “My head … feels … funny.”
“Mother, did you kill Daddy?”
Victoria had to force the words out. With her mother a little more alert this morning, she didn’t know what to expect.
Marian struggled to look up at Victoria, but her eyes wouldn’t stay open all the time. She tried again, and this time her eyes stayed open. She tried to raise her head off the pillow, but all she succeeded in doing was to strain her neck.
“Stop … David,” she said. “He … wanted … to leave … me. Divorce … me. No house … no money … must … stop him. Gun will … scare … him. Stop … David … don’t … leave. Bang. Oh, no. … David … no … David … sorry … didn’t mean … to.”
Marian’s head sank back onto the pillow and her eyes closed. Victoria turned to look at the officer with a question in her eyes. He nodded, indicating that he had heard. Victoria looked down at her mother. The effort expended to speak those few words had taken its toll. She didn’t respond to further attempts to communicate.
Victoria turned to leave, and the officer followed her out of the room.
“I’ll put it in my daily report,” he promised. “That’s all I can do.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I hope it will make a difference.”
Victoria went down to Lena’s room to find out when she would be released. Dr. Stevens was with Lena when she walked into the room.
“Hi, Dr. Stevens,” Victoria said. “And Lena. How is everybody this morning?”
“I’m so glad you’re here, Victoria,” Dr. Stevens said. “I need for you to take this woman home. I need this room for a sick person.”
He laughed and so did the women.
“I take it that Lena is doing all right then?” Victoria asked.
“That she is,” Dr. Stevens confirmed. “I’ve told her to take it easy for a couple of weeks, to rest when she needs to, and no heavy lifting. As her employer, I assume you will help me enforce my instructions.”
“I certainly will, Doctor,” Victoria said. “As far as I know, she’s going to have a very light load for the next few weeks. In fact, I may just send her on vacation. Did she tell you that Rafael Rivera and I are to be married in a few days?”
“Yes, she did, and congratulations. I hope you two will be very happy.”
“Doctor, have you been seeing my mother?” Victoria wanted to know.
“Yes, I have, along with the doctors who are assigned to that floor. I’m sorry, Victoria, I just don’t know what to tell you. Have you seen her?”
“Yes, I just came from her room. I also saw her yesterday after leaving Lena. Doctor, she as much as told me that she killed Daddy, but that it was an accident. Her words were so halting and disjointed that it was hard to tell. But what it sounded like to me was that she took the gun in to Daddy’s office to threaten him and try to make him stop the divorce and then it went off unintentionally. I had her repeat it this morning in the hearing of the police officer who is guarding her room. I don’t know how much stock a judge would put on her words, but it makes me feel a little better to think that she’s not a cold-blooded killer. Greedy and nuts, yes, but not a murderer.”
“That is interesting information,” Dr. Stevens said thoughtfully. “The other doctors and I have attempted to reduce her sedation a time or two, but each time we do, she becomes violent. If nothing changed within the next few days, we will probably recommend her to be moved to a psychiatric facility. I don’t know what pushed her over the edge, Victoria. She wasn’t always like this.
“When I first met your mother, she was definitely a socialite trying to scramble her way to the top of LA’s upper crust, but she was a decent lady who was in complete control of her faculties. But over the past two or three years, she has been descending into a dark place, little by little. I prescribed some antidepressants for her that seemed to help a little, but only for a short time.
“Your father came to me for help, too, telling me that she would fly into a rage at the drop of a hat. I prescribed some stronger medication for her, and as long as she would take it, she would be all right. But I suspect that she hasn’t been taking it since your father died, based on her actions over the past few days.”
“So is she bi-polar or schizophrenic?” Victoria asked.
“I don’t have a name yet for her condition, other than she is mentally ill. I’m sorry, Victoria. I know this must be hard for you.”
Dr. Stevens patted Victoria’s shoulder in a comforting gesture.
“I’ll keep you informed about your mother,” he promised. “Come and see me anytime. I’ll leave you two now so Lena can get dressed and go home. Lena, don’t forget your appointment with me next Tuesday.”
“I won’t, Doctor. Thanks for all you’ve done for me,” Lena said.
Chapter Ten
After Dr. Stevens left, Lena got up and put on the clean clothes that Victoria brought for her. Soon she was ready to go. A nurse came in with discharge papers for her to sign and with a couple of prescriptions for pain relievers that the doctor had ordered. It was nearly eleven o’clock by the time they were in Victoria’s car and ready to leave the hospital. There was a pharmacy just down the block from the hospital, so they stopped there to fill her prescriptions.
Victoria brought her up-to-date on the wedding, Seattle, and honeymoon plans, even though they were all pretty sketchy at this point. She also reiterated what Marian had said to her that morning.
“Would you like to go out for lunch on the way home?” Victoria asked.
“Oh, honey, that would be lovely,” Lena said.
“Would you like to see if Rafael can join us, or do you want it to just be the two of us?”
“Either way is fine with me,” Lena said. “You know I like your young man, so if he can join us, that would be nice.”
“I’ll call him and see if he can get away.”
Victoria made the call and Rafael said that he could meet them a little after twelve. They agreed on a restaurant to meet at, and hung up. She could tell him about her mother over lunch.
“Well, we’ve got about an hour to kill,” Victoria said. “I have one little errand to run, if you don’t mind. The store I want to go to is between here and the place where we’re to meet Rafael.”
“Sure, I don’t mind,” Lena said.
“Yesterday when I was shopping, I decided that I want to but a gift for Rafael, but I didn’t know what. I looked and looked, but nothing struck my fancy until I thought of having a new nameplate made for him for his desk. I went to an office supply store, but then I couldn’t decide what to put on it. Anyway, to make a long story short, I now know what I want it to say, so I want to go back and order it.”
“Sure, honey, that’s fine,” Lena said.
Victoria found a parking place right in front of the office supply store. She walked right over to the counter where the nameplates were displaye
d. She knew exactly which one she wanted, so it didn’t take her long to place the order. She asked to have the finished nameplate mailed to her house so she didn’t have to come back downtown to pick it up.
Then she noticed some very elegant pen and pencil sets and inquired about them. They could be personalized, she was told. That would be just perfect for her CEO husband. She decided to do that instead of the pocketknife that she’d planned to go back and get.
She chose a set that came in a 24k gold-plated box that was lined with maroon velvet. The pen and pencil were also 24k gold-plated. She bought a box of ten refills for the pen and a box of lead refills for the pencil. That should last him a good long time. Both the writing instruments and the nameplate would be mailed to her address, insured. She paid for her purchases, and the shipping and insurance, and then they left.
They arrived at the restaurant just barely ahead of Rafael. They were just getting out of the car when he pulled in to the parking lot behind the restaurant.
“Hi, Lena,” Rafael greeted the older woman. “You look great! How do you feel?”
“Hungry!” she said, eliciting a laugh from the handsome young man who gave her a hug.
“Actually, I feel pretty good as long as the pain pills are working. Otherwise, I still have a nasty headache, but the good doctor tells me that it’s normal and will go away eventually.”
“Well, I’ll tell Victoria to put you on light duty for a good long time,” Rafael said, winking at her.
“The doctor already told her that,” Lena told him.
“That’s good. She’ll probably listen to him better than she would me,” Rafael said with a grin.
“Silly boy!” Lena said with a goofy smile.
After a nice lunch, Rafael went back to work and the two women went home. Lena was glad to be home. Victoria walked her upstairs to her own apartment and told her if she needed anything to call her.
“I’m going to fix us a nice supper, so don’t even think of coming into the kitchen this afternoon,” Victoria told her. “If you want anything, buzz me and I’ll bring it to you.”
“What I really want is to come down into the house with you,” Lena said. “I want to hear the whole story about what has happened while I’ve been in the hospital. Unless you have something else you need to do.”
“I’d love to have you come down and talk,” Victoria said. “I just thought you’d want to be alone in your own place.”
“I’ve been alone for years,” Lena said. “Now I’d just like to have someone to talk with.”
Victoria cocked her head and looked at Lena. Really looked at her. It was true. Marian wouldn’t have talked with Lena; she’d have only talked to her, giving her orders about the household. David probably didn’t spend much time talking to her. He was always busy. Victoria remembered that he was always pleasant to her and never talked down to her like Marian did. But she didn’t recall ever seeing them have a real conversation. At least not one that lasted more than a few minutes.
And Lena was always there. She was given Wednesdays off, but other than that, she was there, working or keeping to herself in her apartment. Lena’s parents would come to visit her in the evening maybe once every two or three weeks, but Victoria didn’t remember her ever having any other company. And she spent a lot of time as a child in Lena’s apartment when her parents were out for the evening. So she would know.
“Come on downstairs with me. There’s some chocolate brownie fudge ice cream calling our names,” Victoria said.
Lena put one hand behind her ear. “Yes, I hear it, too. Let’s go before it thinks we aren’t coming.”
The two women left Lena’s apartment and headed into the house, straight for the fridge, where the ice cream was. Victoria dipped them each up a big bowl and they sat in the family room and ate and talked for two hours. Victoria told her every detail that she could think of about all that she had been through since Monday when Lena was taken to the hospital.
At last, Victoria had to get up and go start supper.
“It feels strange sitting here watching you do my job,” Lena said from the bar stool she was sitting on at the kitchen counter. “I’ve been doing all the cooking in this house since before you were born. Your mother isn’t much of a cook. She used to try in the early days, but she soon gave it up and let me do all of it. Your daddy was relieved when she did that.”
“I may need some pointers along the way, but I’ve been doing all my own cooking for the past seven years since I left home. I certainly don’t know it all, and I’m not the world’s greatest cook, but I do all right,” Victoria said.
“What are you making?” Lena asked.
“Stroganoff, green beans, and garlic bread,” she replied.
“Sounds yummy,” Lena said. “That’s one of my favorite meals.”
“And I made a pineapple upside down cake for dessert,” Victoria added.
“That is my favorite,” Lena said, a smile brightening her face.
While Victoria prepared the food, Lena regaled her with stories from her childhood of growing up in the Los Angeles suburb of Montebello. Apparently, Lena had been quite a mischievous child and had caused her parents many moments of wondering if this child would live to grow up. She wasn’t naughty, just into mischief quite regularly.
Like the time she climbed up onto their garage roof using a ladder her dad had left in a tempting place, tied a kite to each arm, and jumped off the roof flapping her arms like crazy trying to fly. Needless to say, it hadn’t worked. A trip to the emergency room was required, however, to set her broken leg. She was six.
Or when she brought the classroom snake home to care for over Christmas vacation when she was in the fifth grade. It wouldn’t have been so bad had her cat not figured out how to knock the cover off the glass aquarium that was the snake’s home, climb inside, and proceed to make a meal of the snake. At least of part of the snake. When Mrs. Petersen happened to walk into Lena’s room where the snake was being kept and disturbed kitty’s meal, she was horrified to see the snake chewed into three segments. Lena had to mow the lawn for three months to earn the money to pay for the snake.
By the time Rafael buzzed at the gate, Victoria was laughing so hard she could barely stop. Surely this wasn’t the same quiet, unobtrusive Lena that she had grown up around. When Victoria mentioned that to Lena, she brushed it off saying merely that life happened and she grew up.
Dinner was ready shortly after Rafael arrived. Victoria had set the dining room table with the good china and silverware in honor of Lena’s homecoming. There were fresh flowers on the table, and soft music playing over the sound system. She lit the candles on the table just before inviting Rafael and Lena to come in and sit down.
“I’ve never eaten in this room in the twenty-seven years that I’ve worked in this house,” Lena said. “I’ve set it up many times for dinner parties your mother threw. But I have never sat at this table to eat. I feel like royalty.”
Rafael pulled out Lena’s chair and seated her.
“You are a princess, Lena,” he said with his mouth close to her ear.
“Oh, pshaw,” she said, blushing.
Next, he seated Victoria.
“And you are my queen,” he said as he slid her chair up to the table. “Queen Victoria.”
Victoria giggled at the thought.
“It’s kinda funny that the queen is younger than the princess,” she said.
“Yeah, well, it’s my kingdom, so it can be any way that I want it to be,” Rafael said. “So there!”
“Your kingdom?” Victoria asked with raised eyebrows. “I’m not a hundred percent that it’s my kingdom yet.”
“Details, details,” Rafael said with a dismissal wave of his hand. “Let’s eat.”
“This is fabulous stroganoff, my love,” said Rafael after a few bites. “You’ve been holding out on me.”
“It is delicious, honey,” Lena added. “But I can’t identify this meat. It’s excellent, but what is it?
”
“Ditto,” Rafael said.
Victoria looked at the other two and smiled a mysterious little smile.
“You really like it?” she asked.
“Yes. What is it?” Rafael wanted to know. “Or is it something weird that maybe we shouldn’t know about. Octopus? Rattlesnake? Aardvark?”
Victoria chuckled. “Nope, none of those disgusting things. Something much better and healthier for you.”
Rafael and Lena both looked at her with suspicious in their eyes.
“OK, out with it,” Lena demanded. “I’m not taking another bite until I know what I’m eating—even if it does taste good.”
Keeping them in suspense for only another brief moment, Victoria finally said, “It’s vegetarian. It’s made from soy protein and wheat gluten. Meat free, fat free, and good for the planet. This particular product is called Vege-cutlets. It comes in a can and you can buy it in some grocery stores and health food stores.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Rafael exclaimed. “Vegetarian? Who-da think it? Me, eating something vegetarian and liking it.”
“I must say that I’m definitely surprised, too,” Lena said. “Although I do remember when I was a kid there was a girl who lived next door to us for a while who was a vegetarian. She was always trying to get me to try her vegie-food, but I wasn’t brave enough to. I might have been missing out on something all these years.”
“Now that you mention it, there were a couple of kids in my class who wouldn’t eat the cafeteria food. They always brought their own lunches. When I asked one of them why, he said that he was a vegetarian,” Rafael said.
He took a couple more bites of stroganoff and then said, “Well, if it’s all this good, you can cook vegetarian any time you want to.”
“And you can teach me how to cook it, too,” Lena said. “This is really very good.”