The lady reminded Susy of Ava. It brought on bad memories. Susy looked to her daddy.
“ . . . I think she wants to hurt me.” Susy’s eyes drifted back out to the fussing lady.
Henry was surprised. “Hurt you? Who?”
“She wants to hurt me . . . Real bad.”
“What do you mean, Susy?”
Susy didn’t answer. She turned again to her father, who was looking perplexedly to the restaurant entrance, trying to find out what had taken his daughter’s attention so. Susy decided not to try and explain things. In the end, it would only lead to her daddy defending Ava, of which she was getting sick and tired.
“Nothing, Daddy,” she responded. “Let’s just keep enjoying ourselves. I love you, Daddy.”
Henry smiled broadly. “I love you too, Sweetcakes.”
They both returned to their food, relishing the moment. Somehow, Susy was starting to sense something about these days, as well as the days that lie ahead – she’d better enjoy every moment that she could.
Chapter Seven
Susy was all smiles as the school bus made its way down the street of her neat little neighborhood. She looked out the window briefly to see how close they were coming to her house. It wouldn’t be long now. She couldn’t wait to get inside and give her father the good news. There were small brick homes on both sides of the street. Tall trees hovered above. The lawns were neatly kept.
“Susy, how did you get so smart?” a little blonde girl asked.
“I don’t know,” Susy answered, blushing. “I just work hard I guess.” She held her report card in her hand.
The bus was full of kids. About half of the kids on the bus were congratulating Susy, and the other half was picking on Jimmy. Susy actually felt sorry for him, but she wasn’t about to defend him against all her friends. In the two weeks since the TV incident, he had done more rotten things to her; still, she felt sorry for him – but not sorry enough to challenge her friends. She noticed him as he sat on the front seat alone, his head down, and looking sorrowfully at his report card. The bus driver was in front of him. Susy knew that the driver didn’t really care about Jimmy being picked on; she didn’t like him, anyway. He was always being a troublemaker. She rather enjoyed him being attacked, shone by the slight grin on her face.
“Why you so stupid?” a child yelled at Jimmy. “Why your sister make all A’s, and you make all F’s?”
“’Cause he double stupid,” another child yelled. “He even failed PhysEd.”
All the children laughed. Susy didn’t laugh. She felt rather uncomfortable, but still, she didn’t want to look too sour.
“If they gave A’s for eating so much,” yet another child shouted, “he’d be the smartest one on the bus. In the whole school.”
There was still more laughter. Jimmy looked as if he wanted to cry. Susy frowned a little.
The bus pulled to a stop at the corner adjacent to the Edwards’ house. It would make a turn from there. Susy hopped up and picked up her book bag, which was beside her. She threw it over her shoulder. Everybody cheered for her.
“Susy smart, Jimmy dumb. Susy smart, Jimmy dumb.”
All of the children chanted that statement over and over as Susy walked down the aisle. She had a half-grin and a half-frown on her face. Jimmy continued to sit where he was at.
Susy arrived at the front of the bus. Just as she was about to walk past Jimmy, he jumped up and sprang through the doors of the bus.
“Boo! Boo!” all the children yelled.
As Jimmy ran across the street and onto his lawn, one of the children shouted: “That’s it. Run off some of that flab, Blubber Boy.” More and more laughter. Jimmy sprinted on across the driveway, past his family’s Ford SUV, and also past the glass garage doors. He seemed to not be able to get inside the house fast enough.
“Bye, Susy,” they all said together, including the bus driver.
Susy waved at them all. She too hurried across the street, while a couple of cars waited behind the bus. Susy and Jimmy were the only two get off at this stop, and Susy waved some more as the bus pulled off. She rushed across the lawn and onto the small porch. The door was already open due to Jimmy, and she hurried inside the house.
“Daddy! Daddy!” she shouted.
She immediately saw that Jimmy was lying face-down on the couch, beating it with his fists and screaming and crying. Henry rushed into the room from the kitchen; he was still dressed in his gray factory work clothes.
“What’s wrong, Honey?” he asked, alarmed. He looked at Jimmy, bewildered by what was going on.
“I got all A’s again, Daddy. Mrs. Leeson said I’m the best student she ever had.”
She ran into her daddy’s arms. “Ain’t it great, Daddy?” She looked up at him with a gigantic smile.
Henry still didn’t know quite what to do. He was happy at his daughter’s news, but still, he couldn’t ignore Jimmy.
Susy looked over to her stepbrother.
“Jimmy didn’t do too good,” she said.
Ava came scurrying down the stairs. She was highly upset at her boy’s tantrum.
“What’s wrong, Son?” she asked in shock. “What’s wrong, Jimmy?”
She went to the couch and sat down. Jimmy raised up enough so that he could be in his mother’s arms.
“They hate me,” Jimmy cried. “All the kids hate me, just ‘cause I ain’t smart like her.”
“That’s not it,” Susy said back. “You always causing trouble. That’s why they don’t like you.”
“You shut up!”
“Let’s just keep calm,” said Henry.
“Henry, shut up,” Ava snapped.
“Yes, dear.” He hung his head a bit. Susy hated it when Ava talked to her daddy like that.
“The kids were picking on you at school, Sweetheart?” Ava said in a pampering tone. “I’m so sorry.”
“On the bus too. Mommy, it ain’t fair. I don’t do nothin’ wrong. But they always like Susy, and they hate my guts.”
Ava looked at Susy with the angriest of eyes. She stared at her as if she wanted to rip out the child’s heart. Susy had done nothing wrong, and she decided to retaliate by rubbing in her stepmother’s anger. She looked up to her daddy again.
“Daddy, they gonna have my picture in the paper day after tomorrow. They gonna start doing that for all the smartest children in their grade.”
“Oh. That’s great. That’s real nice.”
Henry was proud of his daughter, but Susy could tell that he was afraid to let all of his pride come out, at least in front of Ava. Susy looked back to Ava. Pride abounded all about Susy, and the fury in Ava’s eyes grew nearly into rage.
“I hate life,” Jimmy shouted. “I hate life, Mommy. I wanna die.”
“Sweetheart, don’t you talk like that. You hear me? Stop it.”
Jimmy released himself from her and buried his face in the couch. He boo-hooed away. Ava hopped up from the couch. She walked over to Susy and her daddy.
“This is all your fault. You little brat.”
“But, dear,” Henry defended, “Susy hasn’t done a thing.”
“I bet she goaded those other children into picking on my boy. I bet she helped tease him.”
“I did not,” Susy shot back.
“You shut the hell up. You think you’re so smart. You think you’re so pretty, don’t you? Little Susy – always little Miss Perfect. Well one day, your world’s gonna come crashing down, Little Lady.”
“I haven’t done nothing wrong. You always picking on me.”
“Picking on you? I think I’ll just knock the shit out of . . . “
Ava raised a fist high in the air and went for the child. Henry swung the child away from his wife.
“Ava, please. The child hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Ava stopped, but she stared down at Susy with such loathing. It actually sent a chill through Susy’s body. She thought the woman wanted to kill her. Susy wrapped up tighter in her daddy’s arms
. She couldn’t help but wonder – what had she done to make this lady hate her so much?
All of a sudden, Jimmy took his tantrum up to yet a new level. He screamed uncontrollably. He slapped himself in the head. He even scratched himself.
“Jimmy, don’t do that,” Ava said anxiously.
Jimmy hopped up off the couch. He dashed to the stairs and ran up them.
“Honey, no, wait,” said Ava.
Worriedly, she ran after the boy, but when she got to the foot of the stairs, she was forced to take another hateful look back at Susy. Susy watched her back with a pout. Ava hastened on up the stairs.
Susy rested her head against her daddy’s stomach. She held onto him tightly. She just knew that something was very wrong here. She knew that where Ava was concerned, she was in some serious, serious trouble – even danger. She felt fear ooze through her body.
In the past hour, Ava had managed to calm Jimmy down enough, such that he had lain on the bed in his room and stared at the walls. He had eventually fallen asleep. Ava had gone to she and Henry’s room and laid down herself. Henry and Susy had left. She didn’t know where they had gone, and she didn’t care.
She lay on the bed, watching TV. She was turned on her side. As if her anger at Susy wasn’t enough, she also had to be tortured by what was on the tube. There he was, the Reverend Joshua Holt, the man whose church was at the end of the street opposite her church. The man whose congregation was growing at a much faster pace than her own. In fact, he might would even be leaving for a bigger church before too much longer. The man whom more and more of the observers said, was a truly God-fearing man who cared about others, and who truly lived the gospel. This man was no phony, a newspaper article title had once read. As far as Ava was concerned, he was a sucker.
Ava could have switched the channel, but she just couldn’t do it. It was like she was drawn to watching Holt. It ate her entire insides out to watch him, however. It was amazing how he had that kind of affect on her every time she saw or read about him. She was even surprised that by now, her entire body wasn’t hollow, eaten out. She looked briefly at her hand. She could have almost sworn that it was green. Somehow, she felt that all of her skin had turned green –with envy.
There Holt was, being interviewed on some local night talk show, conversing about all the so-called good virtues of man helping his fellow man. To Ava, that was all a bunch of bull. The way she saw it, was that it was every man for himself. That was the way she would always see it.
Watching her rival, as she considered him, made her think even more about her own situation. It depressed her more and more by the second. She was stuck in that tiny church of hers. She didn’t see where she had any chance to move to anything bigger in the near future. She was tired of being small-time. She wanted to be on top of the evangelical world. She wanted to be on top of the world, period. She wanted fame, and most especially, she wanted fortune. However, she needed something to help her get there. She needed something to propel her. She needed what most all people needed to get started making lots of money in the future; she needed a little money in the present.
Ava rolled over on her back. She put a vicious sneer on her face. Oh how she hated that little brat Susy. Everybody loved sweet little Susy. She was the most popular child in school. She was the prettiest. She was an honor student. She was the teacher’s pet. She would get her photo in the newspaper. When she turned eighteen, she would have a nice, fat Trust Fund waiting for her. That little bitch had everything, Ava thought wrathfully.
Then, all of a sudden, Ava’s eyes squinted. She could feel them becoming beady and dark, and sinister. They mirrored her exact emotions. Ava felt a coldness zip through her that she had never felt before in her entire life. Then, before she could completely take in the affects of that one, another coldness zipped through her body yet again. That time, it just stayed there, and she felt herself almost begin to freeze. Her body lightly shook. Ava even had to cross her arms across her chest to warm herself somewhat.
She knew that if an idiot like Holt could move on to bigger things, then so could she. She wasn’t going to keep waiting for some big break to come her way. As far as she was concerned, the future was now. Two hundred thousand dollars could be at her disposal, and she could use that money to lay the foundation she needed to propel herself to the top.
It would be a cold thing to do. It would be the act of an animal. A beast. If there really was a God in Heaven and devil in hell, then she was well aware, that at that very moment, she had sold herself to the latter. She didn’t care. She would at least enjoy everything she could while she lived this life. She would have it all. Nothing would stand in her way. She would sacrifice nothing, on some belief that there would be a better day in the afterlife. Earth was all the afterlife she needed. She knew that it definitely existed. That so-called Heaven she’d heard about – she had serious doubts about that.
Beast, animal, demon. She didn’t care what she was. She would get her hands on that money. There could only be one way that it could happen. There was only one way to make Susy’s Trust Fund revert to her father, and in effect, to her.
That little brat would never shame Jimmy again. She would never laugh at him again. She would never grow up to be some doctor or lawyer, while her boy turned out to be a bum. Her boy would be the success. She would see to it. She would have all the money she would need to make it happen. But first, it all started with that Trust Fund. She had to get her hands on it, and she would do it.
And real soon. Her sneer disappeared. Instead, it turned into a wily grin. Indeed, it was a grin that the devil himself – could not have done better.
Chapter Eight
Tori rubbed her eyebrows; her head had begun to ache a little. She sat on the couch in her den; Susy was beside her. Susy had called and asked her to come over to the house and pick her up. She needed to talk to her big sister. She had informed her of how Ava had been acting so cold towards her in the past week, so aloof. She hadn’t really acted mean, just distant. She hadn’t looked at Susy much, but when she had looked, it had absolutely frightened Susy. Susy had never had someone look at her before with such evil. She had imagined that the meanest monster alive could not have had a more intense look of hatred.
“I know she wants to hurt me,” Susy said. “I can feel it, Tori.”
“She won’t do anything to you, Susy. I won’t let her.”
“But you can’t be with me all the time.”
“I don’t have to be. Ava knows she’d have hell to pay to me, if she ever hurt you.”
“She’s always hated me. I don’t want to keep being around her. I want to come live with you.”
Tori saw the pleading look in her baby sister’s eyes, and it made her almost want to melt with guilt. They had talked about this before. She had thought about the possibility of wresting Susy away from her daddy, but she knew she’d have one hell of a fight. Plus, being a self-employed private detective didn’t provide for a stable home base. All of a sudden, Tori felt the pain in her head become a little more intense.
“Honey, you know I would like to do that.”
“Then why can’t you?”
“You know it would be so hard. Daddy would never let you go.”
“But I don’t want her to hurt me.”
“She won’t. I promise. Have you talked to daddy about this?”
“He said it was just nonsense. He don’t think Ava can do nothing wrong.”
“Well this time, I have to agree with him. Ava will not put her hands on you – not in the way you’re thinking.”
“She will too.” A tear crept down Susy’s face. She pouted. “I thought you loved me. You’re just like daddy. You’re scared of her.”
“Don’t talk like that. You know how much I love you.”
Susy turned away from her. “You would let me stay here if you loved me.”
“It’s not that simple. Your daddy can be a weakling with Ava, but he does really love you.”
�
��He don’t love me enough. And you don’t, either.” Susy folded her arms in anger. Another tear drifted down her face. “She’s gonna do something real bad to me. I know she is.”
“Susy . . . Honey.”
Tori got ready to put a hand on Susy’s shoulder, but she quickly returned it to her eyebrow. She could see that she had a bad migraine coming on. She watched her sister and rubbed her aching temples at the same time. She needed to find a way to comfort Susy right now, but the pain wasn’t going to let her. This was all Ava’s fault. Oh how she despised that woman. How could she have such a young and sweet child wallowing in this state of mind? She was a beast.
Tori did manage to finally put a hand on her sister’s shoulder.
“It’ll be all right, Susy. I guarantee it. As God is my witness, I’ll never let Ava harm you.”
Susy wouldn’t turn to look at her. Tori could tell – her words had had no kind of reassurance whatsoever.
Chapter Nine
Ava walked down the musty-smelling hallway. She had her purse thrown across her shoulder. This was a dark, smelly apartment building, with paint chipping off the walls, creaky staircases, and ceilings with leaky tiles. It was far from being the Waldorf. However, it was Joe’s place of abode. Ava was never crazy about coming here, but when nature’s desires called, she had to answer them, and this was probably the safest place to meet. But nature had nothing to do with this visit. She had something extremely important to talk to Joe about.
She arrived at apartment 3-D. She knocked on the door. She waited a few seconds for an answer, and when she didn’t get one, she knocked again.
“Wait,” she heard Joe snap through the door. An instant later, the door opened. Joe was surprised to see her.
“Ava? What are you doing here?” Joe wore nothing but a bathrobe.
“We need to talk.”
Ava pushed on past him and into the apartment. She walked to the couch and sat down. It made a loud creaking sound as she did so. She dropped her purse at her feet.
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