Bold and Simful

Passers-by often stopped to admire Cwik Terrace, built in 1820 it was one of Orion Bay’s oldest houses. But the solid Federal facade belied the goings on just behind the front door.

“I can’t take it anymore!” Talia Cwik was in the middle of a nervous breakdown, “What the Voice said was right, I am a mess. Just look around at what my family has come to…”

Xavier felt instantly like a loser. If he had managed to get a job, they would have been able to replace the worn out old furniture and fix the house back up to its former glory. Kitty looked on in complete shock. Sure the house was a bit of a mess, but with Xavier around she was happy and hadn’t really noticed her surroundings.

“It’s all Vernon’s fault,” Talia continued, laying the blame squarely at her embezzler husband’s feet, “if he hadn’t been so damn greedy, we wouldn’t have lost everything. Now isn’t that ironic?!”

“Mother!” Kitty exclaimed, still seated. Kitty believed whole-heartedly in her father’s innocence and she thought her mother did too.

Xavier couldn’t stand seeing his soon-to-be mother-in-law so upset, “We still have some of the bribe money left. Please, stop crying.” Xavier hadn’t wanted to spend the last of their §50,000 just in case his sister did manage to cut him off from any inheritance, but he still hadn’t found a job and things were getting out of control.

A few nights later, the Cwik family was seated for dinner (the new furniture hadn’t arrived yet) when Kitty revealed that she had gotten a job, “Just a legal assistant right now, but at least its a foot in the door and it will give me access to law books and transcripts so I can put a case together to get Daddy’s appeal going.”

Xavier hadn’t planned on having a working wife and said so, but the state they were in called for a change in attitude. Talia was concerned, not that her daughter planned on working but that she still held out hope that her father was innocent. What would happen if she found out that he wasn’t?

“Guys, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s just a job to get us back on our feet in time for the wedding. Speaking of which, have you told your parents yet? I’m sending the invitations tomorrow.”

As Kitty left for her first day of work, the entire Mendenhall family was coming up the walk to Cwik Terrace. Secretly she thank the heavens that the furniture had arrived late last night and that she would be out of the house for this meeting; outwardly, she smiled and waved a friendly greeting.

“Catherine Mendenhall, as I live and breath!” Talia greeted her former social equal as Xavier led his family into the Cwik living room. “You look great! Rehab has done wonders for you!” Talia couldn’t help but be a little bitter, it had been Francis who had prosecuted her husband and his wife who had unceremoniously eliminated her and her daughter from the social register.

“Well, I guess you and Xavier have a lot of talking to do, if you’ll excuse me,” Talia exited to her greenhouse where she had much tomato tending to do.

The fighting began almost as soon as Talia had exited. It all started with Xavier’s announcement that he and Kitty were getting married. Naturally Francis was opposed, vehemently so.

“I told you, this will not happen Xavier. I will not have a convict’s daughter in my family,” Francis exploded. “She’s only hanging around to get her hands on our money. Just look at this cheap Ikea furniture, no doubt she wants to replace it with…”

“She doesn’t want our money, Pop. Didn’t we proved that already?” Xavier answered.

“When? When she took Elizabeth’s offer?” Francis shot back, satisfied that he had proven his point.

Seated on the couch, Catherine had just become privy to a nugget of knowledge that had previously been unknown to her, “What money, Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth chose not to answer, but Catherine was slowly realizing what had happened, “You didn’t, Elizabeth! Did you? You did!”

“Pop, why can’t you just be happy for us? Why can’t you see how nice Kitty is?” Xavier wanted desperately not to break his famiy further apart, but Catherine had chosen her side. She had noticed changes in her daughter since they had both been back home, but she had brushed them aside hoping that it was just her imagination. Obviously that was not the case. While she had been living in an alcoholic stupor, Francis had turned their sweet little Elizabeth into Francis Jr.

“I will not have this, Xavier,” Francis clung to the control he had always enjoyed.

“And don’t come back, either of you!” Xavier turned back into the house and slammed the door on his retreating father and sister.

Francis was still seething, not only to have lost control of his son but at the disgrace of actually have been thrown out of a convict’s home. Elizabeth was more despondent than enraged. She and Xavier had always gotten along so well, they had kept each other sane through high school and warned each other if their father was in a bad mood, but Xavier had changed since college.

Talia had returned from the greenhouse and had been pleasantly surprised to find that Catherine’s personality was completely different than the catty, vindictive drunk she had known before. By the time Xavier returned, the women had laid out the details for the entire wedding.

“We’ve decided you’ll have it here. We’ll hold it mid-morning so guests won’t expect more than a light brunch, I can do all the flowers, no charge of course,” Catherine added with a chuckle. Her small flower business was doing well, but adding a wedding to her portfolio would be a boon and it would help keep costs down for her son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law.

Xavier couldn’t have cared less about the details. Finding a justice of the peace would have suited him just fine but he let the women plan away and stopped answering the phone over the next few days after he realized that all calls were wedding related.

The small crowd stood as the newly wedded couple was presented. Kitty glanced around, noting the empty seats. She had been so focused on getting to the arbor without tripping on her dress that she hadn’t noticed before. Naturally Elizabeth and Francis had refused to attend, but other of their friends had suddenly gone missing.

The rice hadn’t even been thrown yet and Kitty was already worrying, it was in her nature, “Xavier, where is everyone? Jodie’s here but where is Maleena? What about Monica and Randal? Turner? Oh my god, what happened to the buffet?”

Kitty had yet to realize that these social slights would be the least of her worries. Behind her, both Maxine’s and Veronica’s eyes bored holes into her and Robert, seeing the expression on his wife’s face, was filled with anxiety at what was to come. Before Robert got a warning out, his daughter ran straight up to the groom and slapped him across the face, then ran crying into the house.

Talia rushed over to see what all the commotion was but was confronted with a new problem when the man Catherine had brought to introduce her to suddenly hit Maxine full in the face with a water balloon, ruining her silk dress and giving Robert reason to be angry.

Robert escorted his soaking wife off the premises and listened to her complain the whole way home.

While Kitty was learning from Jodie that Maleena had stayed home with Alexa because they couldn’t find a sitter, and that Turner had gone on a retreat, the balloon bomber was at it again.

Kitty tried to placate the bomber’s latest victim, but Veronica was having none of it. She was angry about more than just the balloon ruining her new dress, but Kitty was unaware that her friend had given up Xavier because she thought he would come back. If he had come back, Veronica wouldn’t have wanted him, but now that he couldn’t come back, he was suddenly the most desirable man in the Bay. Veronica’s logic was usually twisted.

“How was I to know Paul was nuts?” Catherine shrugged and pleaded ignorance when Kitty confronted her about her friend.

“He was in rehab! He has a pet brick!” Kitty’s very special day couldn’t have gone any worse. “Why would you bring someone like that to meet my mother? She’s still married, for god’s sake!”

“I thought…well, he seemed to be getting better,” Catherine protested, “I’m sorry, I’m really so sorry.”

Xavier stepped in and calmed the situation down, “It was an innocent mistake. You were just trying to help, right Mom?”

Returning from bidding Catherine goodbye, Kitty’s worst day ever got even worse.

“I’m looking, Veronica. Wait one minute,” Maxine said, “ok, here it is…” she began to read the column aloud.

“…keep your ears open. The Voice” Maxine concluded.

“That’s it?! I’m a “Bettencourt woman hit by a water balloon?!” What do I have to do to get in this column?” Veronica lamented loudly.

——–

Note: Now that’s what I call a bad wedding, I hope it isn’t an omen for these two.  Paul hit everyone with a water balloon but Talia had a lot of wants for him anyway so I ran with it, who am I to deny an old woman romance. I am actually really disappointed in the Ikea SP, I like the store but their SP leaves something to be desired. Anyone else feel this way?

 

Posted on August 15th, 2008 under Orion Bay. Tags: catherine, cwik, elizabeth, francis, kitty, maxine, paul, robert, talia, veronica, xavier. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.