“I love it when you get that look of ruthless ambition on your face. It turns me on.”
“What? You want to hop my bones right here on the table?”
“Why not? If they come in and catch us, it won’t matter. They know I’m doing you, anyway.”
Ava reached over and caressed his hand.
“There’s a time for fun, and there’s a time for business. Right now, it’s business.”
She smiled broadly. “But trust me, we’ll get into some fun time too.”
Joe picked up her hand and took it to his lips. He kissed it.
The two just sat there, smiling treacherously at one another.
Chapter Five
Tori was practically on her father’s back as she walked back and forth in the den behind him, angrily trying to make her point. Henry was rather harried by the whole situation.
“Tori, will you please give it a rest? If I did something wrong, I’ll. . . I’ll make it up to Susy.”
“You did do something wrong. And you always have to say that, Daddy. Why don’t you just treat her right in the first place?”
“I do treat her right.”
“You mean, considering that brat’s feelings,” she pointed at Jimmy who sat comfortably in the recliner, “over your own child’s is treating Susy right? You have a warped view of what’s right, Daddy.”
“Hey, Tori,” said Jimmy with a smile on his face, “I know you don’t like me.”
“I can’t stand you, you big jerk.”
“But you don’t really know me. Let me take you out sometime. I’d love the chance to eat your pussy and dick you in the ass. How ‘bout it, you superfox?”
Tori stopped walking; so did Henry. Tori stared at Jimmy for a second or two with hands on hips.
“You are such a disgusting cretin. I could wring your fat neck.”
Jimmy laughed. “Bring your black friend too. She’s a knockout. I ain’t got nothin’ against black stuff.”
“Why don’t you do something about this?” Tori yelled at her father. “You let him talk like that right in front of you.”
“Well . . .” Henry looked halfheartedly at Jimmy. “Now, Jimmy, that’s not nice language to use.”
Jimmy purposely let out a huge belch at him and laughed some more.
“Oh brother.” Tori threw up her hands hopelessly.
“Tori, just let it go. This is between me and my family. You just make Susy upset when you argue with me. That’s why she went upstairs. She hates us to argue.”
“Well we’re going to argue until you act like a man and stop letting that damn phony preacher of yours henpeck the hell out of you. At least stand up to her when it comes to Susy. She’s your child, daddy.”
“I know she’s my child,” Henry said angrily, with just a touch of guilt in his voice.
“Mom!” cried out Jimmy.
He hopped out of the recliner and ran to the doorway. The door had just come open. Ava stood there. He hugged his mother. Ava indifferently wrapped her arms around him. Ava’s eyes were actually on Tori. She knew it was wartime.
“Well, well,” said Tori, “if it isn’t good old Miss Religious. Or better yet, Miss Phony Ass.”
“Tori,” Ava said calmly. “Del Toray’s finest private detective. Or better yet, finest unemployed private detective.”
“You better stop mistreating my sister, Ava. If he won’t do anything about it,” she motioned her head towards Henry, “then I damn sure will.”
Ava let go of Jimmy, who excitedly rushed back to his seat; he looked forward to the oncoming battle. Ava shut the door.
“Why are we always in such a bad mood, Tori? Since you lost that gorgeous boyfriend of yours, you’re walking around horny. That’s what’s making you so grouchy.”
Tori took a couple of steps toward Ava, but Henry grabbed her and held her. Tori broke free, but she didn’t make another move at Ava.
“I’m not going to let you make my sister’s life hell. You got that?”
“The little brat gets whatever she deserves. And rest assured, she’ll always get what’s coming to her where I’m concerned.”
“And you’ll get what’s coming to you where I’m concerned.”
“Miss Martial Arts expert, you don’t scare me one little bit.”
“You don’t have to be scared to get your tail kicked. It won’t change anything any damn way.”
Henry decided to break in and mediate.
“Now, Ladies, there’s no need to talk about violence. We –”
“Shut up!” both Tori and Ava yelled together.
Henry’s mouth immediately shut, and his head instantly went down. He looked like a lost little kid.
“I’m warning you, Ava, you’d better leave Susy alone.”
“I’ll raise that child appropriately, and if you put one finger on me, you’ll be in jail or the hospital faster than you can say Kotex.”
With that remark, Jimmy threw back his head and roared with laughter. He even had to hold his stomach. Ava grinned proudly at the humor she had given her child.
“I can see why he’s so disgusting,” said Tori in response to Jimmy. “With a mother like you, it can’t be helped.”
“At least I am a mother. I’m not a baron slut like you.”
“I am not baron. But you’re right, you are a mother . . .” Tori trailed off the word, knowing that she didn’t have to add the “F” part.
“You go to hell,” Ava assaulted.
Tori decided she had had enough. She quickly charged for Ava. Ava set herself, with fists solidly clenched, ready to defend herself. Henry was able to grab hold of Tori just inches from Ava.
“Let me go, Daddy. Let me go, damn it!”
“Why don’t you just leave, Tori,” Henry pleaded. “Please.”
Tori snatched free from her father’s arms, nearly throwing herself to the floor in the process. She regained her balance and fell against the wall. It was then that she saw her sister. Susy sat at the top of the stairs. She wore khaki shorts and a jacket, having been outside when her sister had first arrived. There was a look of fear on her face, but she also looked as though she wanted to cry. Her expression seemed to tell Tori – that you’re only making things worse for me.
Tori couldn’t help but soften. Her baby sister looked so helpless. Tori looked at Ava, who was as determined as ever to take her on in a fight if need be. She was still set to throw punches. Tori then looked to Jimmy, who had a smirk which Tori would have loved to stuff down his throat. Finally, she looked to her father. Terror ruled his face even more so than Susy’s. To Tori, he was simply pathetic. All of a sudden, she didn’t want to be in this house of crazies anymore. She had to get away from them; she needed some fresh air.
Tori looked back to the top of the stairs. “Let’s get out of here, Susy. Come on, let’s go. Right now.”
Susy stood up, but unsure of what to do. She looked at her father.
“It’s . . . It’s close to dinnertime,” said Henry to Tori.
“Daddy, will you just stay out of this? You don’t do any good anyway. I’ll see to it that she gets fed.”
“Let them go,” said Ava, loosening from her boxing-type stance. “Maybe we can have some peace around here.”
“Come on, Susy,” said Tori.
Susy took another look at her father, who motioned with his head that it was alright. Susy then rushed down the stairs, her whole being showing that she was grateful for the temporary escape. Tori threw her arm around Susy.
“Everything will be okay, Sweetheart. These people are all gonna get theirs one day.”
“Just get out,” said Ava. “And she can spend the night with you, if she likes.”
Tori didn’t say a word. With her arm still wrapped around Susy, she stepped to the front door and opened it. Afterwards, she stopped and took one final look back at the disgusting threesome. Gruesome, ignorant, and pathetic – she saw in the three of them. She and Susy then whisked through the door. Tori slammed the
door behind her.
Dinner had ended over an hour ago. Henry sat in the kitchen alone at the table. He was tired. He had chopped some wood in the backyard before dinner. He had his elbow on the table, and his hand thrown up against his head. He looked drained.
Darkness shone through the kitchen window. Ava had gone upstairs to study for tomorrow’s sermon. She had church service throughout most of the week, but she always prepared a special one for Sunday. Jimmy still sat in the den and watched TV. Henry could hear the cartoon music coming from there. It made him feel so shameful. He knew that some other type of show should have been heard from that TV. He knew that it really was Susy’s TV day. She wouldn’t have been watching cartoons this late. She did have a little more maturity to her than that idiot Jimmy.
Oops, better make sure thoughts like that stay only in your head, Henry contemplated cautiously. Don’t let Ava hear you call her kid an idiot, even though she’s done it to yours. Henry filled with yet more shame.
He looked to the sink where the dishes were piled. He wondered, why couldn’t Ava wash the dishes sometimes? He shared in the cooking, so she could share in the dishwashing. He worked a daily job just like she did. In fact, he believed he worked harder. Or better yet, why couldn’t that brat of hers in the den wash dishes sometimes? Susy helped out. Sometimes, she would even volunteer, seeing how tired her father would be after a hard day’s work.
The hard work was another thing. He brought the bulk of the money into the home. Yet he saw very little of it. Ava always took most of his paycheck to plow into something that had to do with her church.
“We’ve got to do God’s work,” she always told him.
Henry could understand that to a degree, but he felt as if he were working for no benefit of his own. After paying the bills, he had hardly any spending money. He couldn’t even buy a TV, specifically for Susy. He could rarely go out with the boys from work and do a little splurging on beer. He had to live so tightly with Ava. At times, he couldn’t help but ponder if it was worth . . . No, he couldn’t think that way. He loved Ava and he knew she loved him.
However, there was also Susy. He tried his best, under the circumstances, to keep it from happening, but he feared that one day his relationship with her would be completely destroyed by Ava. He was amazed at how much she still loved him, in spite of the way he allowed her to be treated much of the time. He figured that she must have simply been a goodhearted child. His relationship with Tori was already in the dumps because of Ava; he would hate for the same thing to happen with Susy. He didn’t know if he would be able to stand it if she turned on him. He did truly love his daughter dearly. He kept telling himself that he would begin standing up to Ava more, but whenever the opportunity presented itself, he always chickened out. He knew he would have to find a way to change things. He couldn’t allow his daughter to keep being mistreated like she was; there was no telling what kind of affect it would have on her as she grew up. But Ava, she was so beautiful, he thought with dignity. She was so great for his ego. Henry Edwards, who had been known as a nerd as a kid, a loser mostly as an adult – he had pulled one of the most beautiful women around. His co-workers were still dumbfounded every time Ava came to the Volvo plant to see him. They simply could not believe that mild-mannered Henry Edwards not only had reeled in a beautiful woman, but one who was half his age. They were envious, but they were also proud. Henry was their friend, and they couldn’t help but admire him for his success. They teased him at times about his motor not being able to keep up with that young chick in the sack, but each of them wished they could be in that sack.
Henry parted a smile. It made him feel so good to be admired, even looked up to by his friends. For once in his life, he had something special, and Ava gave it to him. He had accomplished something that many men only dreamt of accomplishing. When he walked somewhere in public with Ava on his arms, mens’ heads would turn. When he entered a room with her, all eyes would be on him and his gorgeous wife. That couldn’t be Henry Edwards, he was sure most people thought. How in the world did he manage it? He doesn’t have money. Maybe he’s great in the sack, though that’s to be highly doubted too. Still, he had managed quite a coup.
He had never been as proud of a woman as he was of Ava. However, his first wife Carol –he remembered – he had also loved quite dearly. She had looked all right, but she had been no knockout. She had been a great wife and mother, and she had put up with Henry always going after certain get-rich-quick schemes, and blowing his paychecks. When Henry had lost her five years ago to cancer, he had wanted to die himself. Only the need to take care of Susy was what had kept him going. Angry, he had decided to do something to get back at life. Success was the best revenge, he had always heard. He had started betting on the horses with his inheritance money. He had been determined to get rich. He had only ended up making matters worse, though, by losing most of the money. Finally, he had used what was left to move out of his apartment and make a nice down payment on the middle class home that he now lived in. He had almost gambled that money away as well, but Tori had talked him into buying the house instead.
The house had been a good choice, being that Henry believed it had had a lot to do in helping attract Ava. He was just so lucky to have his precious wife. She wasn’t perfect, but then, who was? Deep down inside, he knew she was a good person. After all, she was a Minister, and a doggone good one at that. She always told him of how she did things to help the needy. She didn’t really have that many faults, but he was sure that what she did have, she would eventually correct. A deeply religious person like her couldn’t help but eventually see the light. She would change towards Susy; Henry was sure of it. All he had to do was give it time. Ava had a heart as big as a mountain.
Henry stood up and stretched and yawned. All of a sudden, he didn’t even know why he had been having any doubtful thoughts about Ava. He had nothing to worry about. He had a good wife, who was also a good person. She would change, he told himself again, not only towards his daughter, but in some other seemingly selfish ways as well. The woman was a saint. After all, her entire congregation loved her. Everybody who came in contact with her, loved her.
Could all those people be wrong? Henry put on a big smile.
“Of course not,” he said to himself.
Feeling much better, Henry decided to go upstairs. He wanted to be with his saint of a wife. He loved her so truly. He had no doubts that she felt the exact same way. Henry turned. Out of the kitchen, he went. He even gave a light whistle.
Tori lightly kicked at Susy’s feet, and the little girl lightly retaliated – giggling. They both had their shoes off, and they sat on the bed together in Tori’s bedroom. Their backs were against the head post. In their laps were bowls of ice cream, from which they both would spoon some into their mouths. They watched a Christopher Lee Dracula movie. The small flat screen television was on the dresser across from the foot of the bed.
Tori tried to bite into her sister’s neck like a vampire, and Susy laughed, while pushing her big sister’s head away. Tori loved Susy so much. The past few months had been rough in her life. The only constant happiness she’d had, had been Susy. She didn’t know what she would have done without her.
“You just wait’ll I grow up,” said Susy. “You won’t pick on me so much, then.”
“You want to bet. I’ll beat you up even worse. I’ll take no mercy.”
“You probably could; you such a good fighter. Simone is too. I want you both to teach me how to fight like that.”
“Why?” Tori put on a sly look. “You have somebody in mind you want to beat up?”
“Yeah. That fat rat Jimmy. He makes me so sick.”
“Actually, I thought you were gonna say Ava.”
“I’ll save her for when I get bigger.”
“She may not last that long.”
Susy looked at her and laughed. “You really think you might beat her up one day?”
Tori sighed with a bit of weariness. “I’ll te
ll you, Honey, I’ll try and hold back. But if she keeps treating you like she does, I just don’t know. My patience is wearing real thin.”
“Susy spooned a big glob of strawberry ice cream into her mouth. Her expression changed to one of genuine seriousness.
“Why does daddy let her get away with it?” she asked.
“I don’t know, Sweetheart. I guess he’s just . . . blinded by love.”
“Don’t he love me?”
“Of course he does. He’s just misguided right now. But he’ll come around. The question is, how much longer is it gonna take?”
“I love daddy. I want him to love me, like I love him.”
“Everything will work out. Just give it time.”
“Everything was going so nice, then, mommy had to die.” Susy bowed her head and pouted. “Why did she have to leave us, Tori?”
Tori put her arm around her sister. “Things like that happen sometimes. God felt it was time to take her.”
“I want a mommy who loves me, just like all my friends have. I want one who treats me like you do.”
“I don’t know if you’ll have a mom like that, anymore. But don’t worry, you’ll always have plenty of love from me.”
“I want daddy to love me too, like he used to do before Ava came.”
Susy laid her head against Tori’s breast. She looked so somber. At that moment, Tori couldn’t help but feel such anger against her daddy. How could he let that woman bring such sadness onto his own child? This child did not have the happiest of lives, and it was through no fault of her own. As much as she herself needed Susy, she knew that Susy needed her even more. Tori was the only unconditional love in this child’s life. There was no telling what would happen to Susy if she lost her big sister.
“Aw, come on now. I brought you here to perk you up. Don’t go getting sad on me.” She mussed Susy’s hair. “Now you put a smile on that face, so the Dracula movie can wipe it back off.”
She gently pinched Susy’s face, and Susy did crack a smile, though somewhat weakly.
“Don’t even think about mean old Ava,” Tori said.
Princess Reigns Page 4