by Paul Preston
Or perhaps I’ll catch a flight to Hawaii for the weekend. I’ll call Carlotta, invite her along…
Williamson took his medication with his last sip of tea, showered and then chose one of his most expensive suits to wear. As he dressed, he looked in the mirror for a moment and observed his skin. All that was left of his battle with the Beast was a raised pink scar, with faint marks where the stitches had been removed. Phillipe grabbed his keys and walked to the elevator. On the table in the foyer he noticed the diamond collar. It was in the same spot where Bella Lisa had left it three weeks ago. Impulsively, he slipped it into his suit pocket as he got onto the elevator.
I’ll walk to the end of the Santa Monica Pier and toss it into the ocean.
He decided to drive up the coastline. His security team offered to drive him in the limo, but Williamson told them he felt like driving himself today. He got in his car and started driving, not exactly sure where he was heading.
Bella Lisa stood in the historic Catholic Chapel in downtown Los Angeles in her wedding gown, with her Father, Marc Mauricio, standing proudly by her side. He had been released from the clinic for almost two weeks and never looked better. Her mother was in the front row and looked great as well. Raoul had very considerately decorated the wedding alter with hundreds of yellow roses, her favorite color. Mendelssohn’s Wedding March played. Everyone stood up and looked at her. As she slowly walked down the aisle with her Father, she was disoriented by the flashing bulbs. It was hard to believe her wedding was actually happening. She made brief eye contact with her Mother who was crying. Bella Lisa felt indifferent to the proceedings, but no one noticed under her placid smile. Her Father gave her a hug and handed her hand over to Raoul. As she walked up the steps to the altar, she tried not to trip over her long wedding gown. As she stood stiffly in front of the large congregation, Raoul smiled and gazed into Bella Lisa’s eyes, partially hidden under her thick white veil. The Priest said a few words about the importance of marriage and then quoted in a sonorous tone from the Book of Genesis.
“So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
Bella Lisa’s mind drifted back to the evening she performed in a show with Phillipe at the Adam and Eve Club. She involuntarily smiled.
They were both naked and were not ashamed...
The young couple exchanged rings and vows. Bella Lisa’s voice was barely audible, even with a microphone held under her lips. Just after the priest repeated the perfunctory words, “Is there anyone amongst us who objects to this man and this woman joining in the bonds of holy matrimony?” she heard a tremendous crashing noise. It sounded like the doors at the back of the chapel had been violently kicked open and slammed against the wall, causing a resounding echo to thunder over the hushed silence of the chapel. The loud noise startled the crowd and everyone looked over their shoulders toward the back to see what had caused the disturbance.
“I DO! I OBJECT!” Williamson shouted out in a firm, masculine voice.
Phillipe became the center of attention as he calmly walked down the center aisle toward Bella Lisa.
“Who the hell is that guy?” Raoul asked Bella Lisa.
“Phillipe…” she said, barely above a whisper.
“Who?”
“His name is Phillipe.”
“Who? Do you know him? Who the hell is he?”
Raoul didn’t wait for her reply. He stepped off the altar and walked a few steps toward him.
“Hey! Old Man! What are you doing here! You’re disturbing our wedding!”
“The Priest just asked if there was anyone present who objected to the marriage. I do. I object,” Williamson said, speaking quite casually.
“What! Who the fuck are you to object! It’s none of your business! Get the hell out of here!”
Williamson stopped mid-way up the aisle, peered at Bella Lisa with a laser-like intensity, pulled her diamond collar out of his suit pocket and held it out to her in his outstretched arm, looped around two of his fingers.”
“What the hell? What are you doing? I told you. Get the fuck out of here before I call the police! HEY! DID YOU HEAR ME, OLD MAN?”
Bella Lisa watched the light glitter off the diamonds on her collar. The decision suddenly became quite simple. She turned to Raoul, took off her engagement ring and put it into his hand.
“I’m sorry, Raoul.”
Raoul looked at her with a shocked face.
“Bella! What are you doing?”
Bella Lisa turned away from Raoul and walked slowly and steadily toward Williamson.
“Bella! What are you doing? Where are you going?” Raoul shouted.
“I knew it. Bella! Go back to the altar,” her Father hissed loudly, through clenched teeth.
Bella Lisa met Williamson and they embraced. Williamson lifted the veil, attached the collar on Bella Lisa’s throat and they walked out of the chapel together, without looking back.
“BELLA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU LEAVING ME? FOR HIM? HE’S OLDER THAN YOUR FATHER! WHERE ARE YOU GOING? BELLA! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? IT’S OUR WEDDING DAY! COME BACK! BELLA! I LOVE YOU! DON’T LEAVE! BELLA LISA!”
Raoul’s loud shouts faded away as soon as they escaped the cathedral. Williamson opened the car door for her and drove away toward the coastline, holding her hand and giving her a warm smile. Bella Lisa breathed out deeply.
“I’m terribly sorry for interrupting your nuptials,” Williamson said.
“That’s OK. Phillipe. I’m glad you came…”
They went up to the Penthouse and Bella Lisa changed out of her wedding dress into more comfortable clothes. Williamson led her by the hand onto his balcony. A cool thick fog had drifted in off the sea. It was as if they were standing in the clouds.
Williamson stared at her and smiled shyly.
“What?” Bella Lisa said.
Williamson got down on one knee and pulled out the ring from his suit pocket. He held out his hand and Bella Lisa took it.
“Oh my God… What are you doing? Phillipe!”
Tears pooled in her eyes and ran down her cheeks.
“Ms. Mauricio, you are the love of my life. There is no one else on the face of the earth I want to spend the rest of my life with. I bought this ring the day after I saw you in the dark of the theater four years ago. I knew you were the one for me, but I never had the courage until this moment to… Bella Lisa Mauricio, may I ask for your hand in marriage? Say yes and make me the happiest man alive…”
Williamson gave a large crystal-cut diamond ring.
“Oh, it’s beautiful!”
“Is that a yes?”
“Of course, it’s a yes. YES, YES, YES!”
Bella Lisa kissed him all over his cheeks and lips. Williamson tasted the salt from her tears.
“You stay right here. I’ll be back in thirty minutes I want to buy you a ring too!”
“Now? Can’t we get it later?”
“I’m afraid it will be gone. I saw it while shopping the other day. It’s the perfect ring!”
“Let me come with you!”
“I want it to be a surprise.”
“OK.”
“It’s perfect, you’ll see. I want you to wear a ring too, to keep all the ladies away from you!”
“You don’t have to worry about—”
She ran toward the elevator, pushed the button and went in. She brushed the tears off her cheek with the back of her hand and blew him a kiss as the elevator doors shut. Suddenly, Williamson felt chilly. He walked back to the balcony and shut the sliding door. The thic
k fog continued to roll in.
Suddenly Williamson had a nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach. He ran across the room in four large strides to the elevator, pressing the down button frantically. He changed his mind and ran down the twenty five floors to the lobby, cursing himself for buying the top floor. He knew the exit out of the parking garage was dangerous when he bought the building. He had petitioned the city council through his lawyers to have a traffic light set up at the entrance to the garage, even indicated in the petition he would cover the cost of it himself. Cars were parked up and down the busy road, making the exit onto the esplanade tricky, especially in traffic. He had warned Bella Lisa many times about the blind turn, always reminding her to drive safe, to buckle up…
At the moment he entered the lobby, he heard the sickening sound of metal colliding. Williamson ran out of the building and saw the carnage. She was hit on the driver’s side, T-boned by the oncoming vehicle driving too fast through the fog and thrown violently into the windshield. She was so excited about buying him a ring she had forgotten to wear her seat belt. Williamson immediately climbed over the hot smoking wreckage, kicked in the glass of the windshield and reached out to grab her limp arms. The engine exploded underneath of him. Williamson’s body was thrown like a mote of dust to the curbside. As he opened his eyes, his skin felt hot and raw. Amazingly, out of the flames engulfing the car, Williamson saw a large butterfly appear and gracefully flutter toward him. He sat absolutely still as it landed on his shoulder, opening its bright yellow wings. It lingered there for a brief moment, showing off its beauty in the light of the blaze. Then a gust of wind took it heavenward. Williamson watched it rise higher and higher into the orange sky until he passed out.
Chapter Five
The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away
It had been several weeks since the accident which took the life of Bella Lisa Mauricio. Williamson had lost all track of time during his recovery at Cedars-Sinai and later at the Burn Center. After recovering from being thrown off the top of the car, the doctors felt Phillipe was strong enough to treat the badly damaged skin on the right side of his face, suffered from the explosion. After undergoing several skin graft operations, there was not much else they could do. The time had come for Williamson to be discharged. As always, Andre Firmin was there at his friend’s side to escort him to the limo. Williamson was dressed in his best suit and appeared to be in perfect health, except for a white bandage which was wrapped around his face, with holes cut into it for his eyes, nose and mouth. The doctors had attempted to remove the bandages before he was discharged, but Williamson refused. As they walked silently together through the burn center, Firmin noticed people giving quick nervous looks at Williamson.
“Are you in any pain, Phillipe?” Firmin asked.
He shook his head no. Williamson had not uttered a single word since the accident. At first the Doctors thought Phillipe may have suffered ruptured ear drums or a hearing loss from the accident, but after conducting several tests, his hearing was normal. The doctors assured Firmin that Mr. Williamson could speak if he wanted to. They surmised he was recovering for the post-traumatic stress of the injury and eventually would start conversing again.
“Time heals all wounds,” one of the physicians had said to Firmin.
His friend hoped what the doctor said would turn out to be true.
On the way out, Williamson saw the frightened look in a child’s eyes. He wished he was The Invisible Man and could remove the bandages covering the red singed flesh and just disappear. Carrying his I-Pad, which he used as a method of communication since his accident, he typed a few words in capital letters and showed it to Firmin.
I AM A MONSTER.
Firmin met the cold lifeless eyes of Williamson through the slits in the gauze and handed the I-Pad back to him.
His security team greeted Williamson warmly at the limo, trying not to stare at his face. Williamson nodded formally to them, got in and stared out the window. Everyone was silent on the trip over to Forest Lawn Cemetery. Of course, no one had invited Phillipe to the funeral. Williamson instructed his security team to follow Bella Lisa’s father to the location of where she was put to rest by her family, so he could pay his respects to the only woman he had ever loved. They stopped at a floral shop along the way and purchased two dozen yellow roses to lie on her grave. The limo pulled up to the parking area and the men walked over to the plot. Williamson glanced at the various headstones as he walked down the manicured path. He saw a stone angel on top of one of the larger and more austere monuments with the words, “The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away,” etched into the marble.
As Williamson approached Bella Lisa’s grave, the other men stood back at a respectful distance. Williamson kneeled in front of the elegant slender headstone, where tiny shoots of young light green grass had sprouted up through the dirt. Williamson gently laid the roses down across the grave. After seeing the dates of her short life memorialized in stone, Williamson dug his hands in the earth, pushing the dirt deeply under his fingernails. He clenched his fists and clawed at the dirt, as if he wished he could pull her out of the grave and embrace her one last time.
It was my fault. I killed her…
Williamson felt the bandages dampen around his eyes. The salty tears stung his cheeks. He stayed absolutely still at the grave for several minutes or an hour, he did not know. He held his head down, eyes closed and chest collapsed, with his hands buried in the earth.
It was early evening by the time Williamson felt the arms of Luman and Cogworthy pick him up off the ground and escort him back to the limo. They drove back to the condo. After refusing the help or company of the men, Williamson rode the elevator up to the 25th floor alone. He went directly up to the roof of his building and stood near the outer ledge in the ocean breeze, looking down into the grayish ocean water below. He opened the clenched fist of his right hand and rubbed his palms together forcefully, grinding the dirt from Bella Lisa’s grave into a fine powder.
Goodbye, Bella Lisa…
In a gust of wind, Williamson threw the powder upwards into the fading light and saw the dirt disperse into the breeze and fall downward over the ocean into the setting sun.
Williamson had instructed Firmin to let go of his entire staff, even Mrs. Potcia, who wept when she heard the news, even though Williamson had set up a very generous pension for her to live on. He walked through the silent wings of his penthouse, shutting the blinds and curtains over each window, so he would be shrouded in shadows. He walked into his bathroom and took a hot shower in complete darkness.
He shampooed his hair, careful to not get his facial bandages wet, and completely shaved his body. He toweled off and changed into his black silk robe. He took a Clozapine out of his cabinet and popped it into his mouth, wincing at the bitter taste of the medicine. He ran cold water and cupped a hand underneath, and then abruptly spit the pill into the palm of his wet hand, opened up the lid of the toilet seat, dropped it in and flushed. He tilted his wrist and watched the rest of his medication fall from the pill jar, disappearing into the swirling water.
Fuck it. What’s the point? There’s no point anymore…
Williamson placed the empty pill jar back in the cabinet and walked back into his bedroom. He lit a candle, placed it on the dresser, put a disc in the DVD and pressed play. It was a tape he had secretly recorded on the first day Bella Lisa had first arrived at his condo. In the video, she was standing in front of the mirror naked and looking down at the aroused state of her body in the reflection. Her body had just been pinned to the bed and her shirt and bra cut from her body by a sharp knife, exposing her beautiful breasts and hard excited nipples. Her jeans and wet panties had been peeled off in preparation for a bath. She kept staring at the swollen lips of her sex in an innocent and wondrous manner, as if she couldn’t believe or make sense of how or why her body had become so aroused by the bondage and the knife. It was the exquisite moment of her awakening as a submissive, captured for eternity
by the hidden camera. Williamson had never photographed her, so this was the only image he had left of Bella Lisa. The vision of her innocent beauty emanated out of the screen into the dark of the room looked like a shimmering sensuous ghost. Williamson felt himself become fully aroused by the image of Bella Lisa’s pretty soulful eyes as she looked down at her own large rounded breasts and the pink glistening flesh of her vagina. Ashamed by his arousal, he turned off the DVD player and stood up, directly in front of the wall mirror. As he slowly began to unravel the bandages covering the burns on his face, he saw a slight movement of a shrouded figure in the far corner of the glass. Startled, Williamson picked up the candle and whipped his head around to look.
“Bella Lisa!”
Out of the shadows a beautiful blonde woman appeared, dressed in white silk lingerie. She quietly approached Williamson’s large hunched body and bandaged face.
“Don’t be afraid, Phillipe. It’s only me…Carlotta…”
Williamson backed up against the wall, the candleholder trembling in his hand.
“It’s just me, your friend… Carlotta…”
Carlotta calmly placed her hand on the candleholder and took it, placing it back down on the dresser. Carlotta opened up the blinds of the balcony windows and shafts of moonlight flooded the room. Williamson shielded his unraveling face from the soft light, leaning against the wall in the darkest corner of the room. Carlotta walked over to the candle and blew it out. She slowly approached Williamson and untied the black silk sash of his robe, exposing his massive erection to her eyes. With a fingertip, she traced the long scar running across his pelvis and gently cupped and squeezed the underside of his thick shaft with her palm.
“It’s just me, Phillipe. I’m here for you. You look so scrumptious, you shaved…”
Holding his shaft in one hand, she reached up to touch Phillipe’s face. Williamson shook his head.