Lacene Lords

by Fornataro, Nancy

  "You're sure we haven't met before?"

  He smiled. "No, I don't believe so."

  "Well, at any rate, that's where we stand on the Cowell house. Do you have any ideas?"

  He leaned forward in his chair and moved a stack of papers onto an even larger stack next to him on the crowded desk. "We're on a dig in that area. Early Berilian Indians. There are skeletons and various artifacts that we're trying to time date right now."

  She nodded.

  "We think the Indians were embroiled in some kind of property boundary dispute. Some of the skulls are caved in and there are also broken bones. That was a flood area, and quite often the floods, or so we surmise, would wash away the boundary markers that the Indians had set up."

  "Wow."

  "But this is the interesting part. Listening to your recitation of the Cowell woman's dreams, I am interested because dreams were the foundation of Berilian Indian life."

  "How so?"

  "The Indians would gain prominence within the tribes by their dreams. These were called 'Great Dreams.' They held shamanistic power. The other type of dreams were 'Omen Dreams' which foretold the future. They would even recite their dreams at the tribal meetings. If the dreams were off or didn't come true, the dreamer was subject to intense ridicule."

  "And we know this how?" she asked skeptically.

  "It's been passed on through the generations. They are still that way today. It reminds me of our Bible. Passed on through generations as a guide to living."

  He continued after a brief pause. "The Shamans got their powers from the 'Great Dreams.' It was thought they could not only heal because of the dreams, but cause illness as well. And, as far as death, they believed the soul of the person would be on earth for four days after death, then transform, cremate itself and cease to exist."

  Renee was beginning to be exasperated with his long winded responses and sighed. "Any ideas on the Cowell house problem then?"

  "Let's look at the map."

  A few minutes later, they stood looking at a map of the area. "Where are they located again?" he asked.

  "The end of Joshua Tree Road. Way out there in no man's land."

  He pointed to an area. "We're excavating here, about half a mile away."

  "And you know about this area because..."

  "Some kids found a skull and some artifacts. We started right in on it as soon as the Indians gave permission."

  She nodded. Thoughts were tumbling in her mind now. "So, the Cowells are located on Tribal land?"

  "No. They're on the boundary. See, this green area is the reservation."

  "Pretty close though. Could you go out there and check it for us? Make sure it's not on Indian land?"

  "I guess so. What would that prove, though? The woman would still have a breakdown and still have nightmares."

  "I'm not sure," Renee responded. "Just checking out all the angles."

  But, as she moved towards the door, she stopped and looked back at him. Then she knew where she'd seen him before. He was a dead-ringer for Willie Cowell.

  *****

  As he waited anxiously for twelve-thirty, Willie tried to go over in his mind what he'd talk about with Susie. Cars? No, he didn't have one, and that just reminded him of Tom's sixty-nine Mustang. Maybe one of these days, he thought, Grandpa would buy him a car to drive around. Parties? He hadn't been to any lately. Drugs? She wasn't into it. School? Too boring.

  Soon, he heard footsteps approaching his bedroom door. He ran a hand through his hair and smoothed the fresh t-shirt he'd put on earlier with Spence's help.

  His mother knocked and entered with Susie.

  "Someone here to see you, Willie," his mom said with a smile. "It's okay," she motioned to Susie, "you can sit on the bed." Then, looking at him she said, "Be good, Willie. Trusting you here."

  "Ma, like I could really do anything with broken ribs and a busted eye."

  She laughed, and went out, closing the door behind her.

  Susie held a hand to her mouth at his appearance before she sat carefully next to him on the bed. "Your mom's really nice," she finally said, "and I heard she has a great singing voice, too. You are so lucky to have such a nice family. And...Willie I'm so sorry this had to happen to you. All the kids are really upset about it."

  After that, he wasn't sure why he'd been so worried about conversation. He found out they were both eighteen, although she looked younger. Also, apparently her mother hung out at Red's most of the time, and just collected Social Security for Susie. It sounded to Willie that the mother and step-father both were a couple of alcoholics. Neither worked, and he really felt sorry for her then.

  Susie chatted on, while he checked her out. She wore bright pink short-shorts, flip flops and a white t-shirt. And, he thought, her bra must have been the sheer type, as the lace was apparent, along with the outline of her large, dusky nipples. It was distracting and he was having a hard time concentrating on what she was saying.

  "So what do you think Willie?"

  "What?" He smiled.

  "God, you look sexy when you smile like that. You're taking pain pills, huh? You're spaced out and your pupils are huge." She moved closer to look at his eyes and one of her breasts brushed against his hand. He didn't move. Neither did she. "I love your eyes," she said softly, "they're sort of turquoise color, like a gemstone."

  She smelled like mint and flower perfume. He moved the fingers on his hand slightly. She quickly sat up again.

  He moved his hand up to her face. "Susie...I like your eyes too. They're like a tiger's eye, brown with a little yellow."

  His eyes roved across her face then. She was flushed, her cheeks pink and her pouty lips enticingly red.

  "Kiss me," he said, as he moved his left hand to the back of her neck. Her soft lips came down on his, delicately at first, a bit reluctant, then harder. His tongue came out and moved against hers.

  "Willie," she said breathlessly, as he kissed her again, softly on her lips then across her cheeks.

  "I've wanted to do that since I first met you," he whispered in her ear.

  But steps sounded in the hallway and he said softly, "We've got company."

  They'd just righted themselves before Meg came in with Dana. "Willie, someone else here to see you," his mother told him, as she winked at him and left the room.

  Dana looked Goth, Willie thought, dressed in black jeans and a black sleeveless top, with a new sparkly nose piercing and black lipstick. But she looked distracted and uncomfortable as she said, "Willie, I just came to see how you're doing."

  "Right," muttered Susie.

  "I'm doing okay I guess," he said. "Nothing that won't heal with time. You staying away from C?"

  She smiled as she looked out the window. "Nice place you got here Willie. Perfect view of the desert." She fixed her eyes on him then, ignoring Susie. "Ever go out there and shoot guns?"

  "Yeah. Spence and I went one time."

  The silence in the room grew.

  "Well," Susie said, "I'd better go. Your mom is taking me home." Impulsively, before she stood up, she gave him a long, possessive kiss.

  After she left, Dana said, "Sorry to interrupt Willie. Just checking on you. How's your eye? Joe told me he tromped you hard."

  He nodded but didn't say anything. His pain pill was wearing off and he held his side with one hand. "I need a pill," he told Dana.

  "Hydrocodone...not bad." She gave him one before she left.

  "You take care now," she said at the doorway. "And, don't worry Willie. What comes around goes around."

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Meg chatted on her cell phone as Lila came in the kitchen that afternoon. Maria stood at the counter with a corn tortilla in her hand.

  "Maria," Lila said, "that smells delicious. What are you making?"

  "Enchiladas, Senora."

  "Willie's favorite. Bless you Maria. How is he doing?"

  Maria smiled, filled the tortilla with meat and cheese, and said, "Fine. He ate a beef sandwich a
nd fruit about three o'clock, Senora."

  "Wonderful." Lila moved to the sideboard and poured herself some wine. "Who was that?" she asked Meg, "And where are Mark and Karl?" She returned to the kitchen and sat at the table.

  Meg sat across from her. "Mark and Karl went to Rushburg for dinner, and the phone call was from Lex and Renee. Now mother, don't start. They're going to stay here for a few hours tonight downstairs."

  "Do I have a choice? For what?"

  "They'll have a camera rolling. They want to see if the white light I saw the day before Chad's wake will come again."

  Lila shook her head. "It's conjuring up the devil. No tell what form it will take. I thought you had forgotten that night."

  "Oh mother, you are overreacting as usual."

  But Lila was silent, pursing her lips. They didn't need cameras or ghost hunters. They needed a stronghold against devils. God forbid any offers to devils. "Like the twelve," she said softly, "they had the authority to cast out demons. In His name they will cast out demons."

  Meg watched her curiously. "Do you really think it's a demon?"

  Lila lit a cigarette. "I think it's something we don't need to call up again. The further we get from Chad's death, the better you are. You're sleeping well and you look beautiful and happy. Why would I want you to be scared again and see the ghost or whatever it is?"

  Meg smiled. "I won't be alone this time. Spence will be there and Renee and Lex. You have no idea how Renee helped me the other day, Mother. I felt like I was free for the first time in years. I wasn't a prisoner in mental handcuffs anymore."

  "That's wonderful, sweetie. But you'll understand if I don't come down when they're here?"

  "Sure."

  Spence and Harv came in the back door, both dirty and sweat-streaked. "We finished fixing the fence Ms. Lila," Harv said, as he sat heavily at the table.

  Spence gave Meg a kiss then whispered something in her ear. She pushed him away playfully then blushed. He poured himself a tequila at the sideboard, Harv a lemonade from the refrigerator, and sat down with them.

  "They're coming tonight, Spence," Meg said, "for the ghost filming."

  Harv gulped. "There's a ghost?"

  "It's just in the house, Harv," Spence laughed, "don't worry. It doesn't frequent the barn area."

  The front doorbell sounded.

  "I'll get it," Meg said. She moved past the living room and opened the door.

  She was temporarily speechless. He looked almost the same as she remembered from eighteen years ago. Blond hair, blue eyes, wearing a t-shirt, cargo shorts and sneakers. Her mind drifted back to his class at the university. From there he'd asked her for a drink and to his place afterwards. She was a willing participant in a less than spectacular lovemaking session with him. Then, she found out about her pregnancy.

  Stupid, she'd berated herself. And her father had called her a fornicator. She'd gone to confession and was forgiven. She made sure that Tim never knew. He didn't know he had a son. She'd never needed or asked for child support.

  Now, she felt doubly guilty. She'd deprived Willie of a father. One he needed badly.

  "Hello Tim," she said as she opened the door. A blast of hot air blew in, along with dust from the front stoop.

  "Um," he said, once inside, he snapped his fingers a few times, "Margaret. I never forget a name."

  "First time for everything," she said tightly, "people call me Meg."

  "Sorry. Meg."

  She looked up at him. "What can I do for you, professor Grainger?"

  He smiled his boyish, charming smile. "Renee sent me out. We're trying to determine whether your house, here, is on Berilian Indian land or not."

  "Well, first of all it's not my house. My parents own it. And second, how on earth can you determine that?"

  "Maybe I could speak with your parents then. We search for potential dig sites on the property, and consult maps of the area. Way back when the Indians would mark their property lines with rows of rocks or even draw them in the dust. Then-"

  She raised her palm and cut him off. "I'll get my mother." And on her way to the kitchen she realized he hadn't changed in eighteen years. He was still a pompous ass. Aside from that, she really doubted he even remembered sleeping with her.

  But look what came of the thing, she thought. Her beautiful, handsome Willie. She really thought, at this point, some things were better left unsaid. And today, at least, Willie was safely upstairs, free from any scrutiny.

  Meg poured herself a shot of whiskey and returned to the kitchen. "He's all yours, Ma," she said to Lila.

  "Salesman?"

  "You could say that."

  Meg had two more drinks. In a row. Gulped down with anger and frustration.

  Spence sat back and watched her, noticing every move. "What's going on?" Harv had gone to the barn and Maria to the store, so it was just the two of them alone in the kitchen.

  "Did you ever regret," she began, "doing something in your past? And did you ever wonder how different your life would be today if you just hadn't done that one little thing?"

  "That sounds like morbid curiosity to me. If someone makes a choice, they live with it. Life is a series of choices. You can't go back Meg."

  She was feeling the liquor now. "I'd like to go back. Go back to the beginning and start over." Her eyes met his across the table. "I'd have a baby with you. No bastard, either. No charges from Dad about fornication. We'd get married, you and I. I'd be a virgin on our wedding night. We'd honeymoon in Hawaii. Then I'd have another baby. We'd have two eventually, a girl and a boy."

  He smiled, took her hand and kissed her palm. "I don't know what to say. I love you and should have married you back then." He sighed. "I guess life is a crap shoot, isn't it? We only have the one time to get it right. But then, when you think about it, what's right? The right thing for one is wrong for the other. I can't see how you've done wrong by Willie. He's growing up fine."

  She smiled briefly before it disappeared again. "Seen him lately? He doesn't look so good."

  "Trust me, you're doing everything right. He'll be fine."

  She heard a light rap on the back door. Answering it, she saw a boy Willie's age who said, "Is Willie here? I'm Mike, a friend of his."

  "Well," she said, letting him in, "he's a little under the weather, but that doesn't seem to be stopping him. There's been a steady stream of girls up and down there all day."

  "Must be nice," he said with a big smile. "Okay if I go up?"

  "Sure. Go ahead. Fourth door on the left."

  Meg and Spence continued drinking, she with her whiskey and Spence with his tequila. Pretty soon, they were rehashing old ghost stories they'd told as kids.

  Lila walked in with a dazed expression on her face.

  "Ma," Meg slurred, "you look like you've seen," she looked at Spence and pounded the table, "a ghost." They both laughed hard at that, while Lila watched patiently.

  She said, "The professor, Meg. Is he..."

  Meg saluted her. "Ya-vol, commandant."

  "Oh my Lord," Lila said, laughing as she sat down, "wasn't there a movie about this? Called 'Drunk in the Afternoon' or something?"

  Then Meg and Spence really laughed hard.

  Mike made his way upstairs and peeked in the doorways on his way to Willie. "Workout room," he muttered, "sweet."

  He found Willie's bedroom and entered. "Dude," he said, after he'd adjusted to his shock at Willie's beaten state, "how the hell are 'ya?"

  He sat in a chair next to Willie's bed and turned it around to face him.

  Willie mumbled something.

  "Can't hear 'ya man. Step it up a notch."

  After swallowing hard, Willie said, "I been better. But Susie came this afternoon, so that made me feel really good."

  "Oh, you mean Susie came this afternoon or came over this afternoon? World of difference, my man."

  Willie tried to smile and managed to grimace. "She wore a fine bra."

  "Fine, like I need more of a description
, dude. With no girlfriend on the horizon, I'm living vicariously through you."

  "Whew," Willie slurred, "white and lacy. I could see it through her top. Never saw tits like that before."

  "What are you taking?" He picked up Willie's medication bottle. "Vicodan. Never took it. Heard it kicks ass, though. So," he sat back in the chair, "tell me about this bra stuff. And don't leave anything out."

  Willie told him what happened, with a few embellishments which Mike saw through immediately.

  "Sweet," Mike said, "she's a stone fox. And, from what I hear, a good little girl. You must be the fruit by the snake in Eden, guy."

  They were silent for a moment, before Willie said, "What's the deal with Dana? She looks totally Goth."

  Mike chuckled. "Yeah, she finally dumped Joe. She's dating Tom now. Big surprise. She's a total stoner. Why?"

  "Just wondering."

  "Don't be gettin' ideas about her, Will. She's damaged goods. Used merchandise and I mean used."

  "Yeah," Willie replied. "Hey, Mike, you have a car?"

  "Yup. An old Toyota my Dad gave me. He should throw something my way after all those years. Finally came and saw me last year. Says, 'Here, kid, have your mom deduct this from the child support I owe.' Christ. What a loser."

  Willie murmured sympathetically. "I don't know my Dad. At least you got a glimpse of yours."

  Mike laughed. "A glimpse into the vast unknown of bastard kids."

  "Wow, we've got a lot in common. Your mom wasn't married to him?"

  "Hey, she may have been careless but she's not dumb. I wouldn't want his last name anyway. Can't even pronounce it." He jiggled his lips, and said, 'pfah' a few times as Willie smiled.

  Then they both heard laughter from below the stairs.

  "What's going on down there?" Willie asked him.

  "I don't know how to tell you this, dude. But it's four o'clock and they're getting drunk."

  "Wow," Willie said, "that's unusual. Especially for my Mom."