Bold and Simful

After her promotion to the international corporate division, Kitty Mendenhall had treated herself to a new SUV and seemed completely oblivious to the effect this had on her husband who saw her off to work this morning like he did every morning.

Kitty had taken the job just to get them through a rough patch but as she advanced up the corporate ladder, she worked more and more hours and even started bringing her work home with her. Gone was the meek college girl who had waited for Xavier to get over his crush on Veronica Bettencourt and in her place was a promotion obsessed work-a-holic woman who rarely made it home in time to tuck little Trip into his crib.

The daily duties of caring for toddling Trip often fell to Talia. Kitty’s mother had come into her own of late, returned to society, divorced her imprisoned husband and even started a new romance.

She didn’t mind caring for her grandson, but she did have a life of her own to get on with.

She was busy planning her wedding to Paul Last-Name-Withheld, who had recently upset her daughter by moving into Cwik Terrace.

Paul was a casual, laid-back, prank-loving kind of guy with a penchant for polyester and a regular weekly appointment with his therapist. Dr. Holdon had reservations about Paul moving out of Horizon’s rehab, he thought for sure that his patient would backslide into betting the moment he laid eyes on a poker table but there wasn’t much he could do to keep him there. You sign yourself in, you sign yourself out was the rule.

“Nothing stuffy,nothing big” Paul insisted. He hated wearing penguin suits but he hated Bay society even more. They didn’t get his pranks and people who couldn’t see the humor in a good ol’ water balloon fight were not his kind of folks.

Kitty intentionally avoided all contact with Paul, she didn’t like him and she didn’t trust him. She thought that he had taken advantage of her mother who had been vulnerable in her loneliness and basically widowed though her husband was alive, just dead to the world in a 5×6 cell.

Talia had held out for years, sure of her husband’s innocence and eventual release but just when Kitty was on the trail of the truth, Paul had arrived and Talia suddenly “moved on” as she kept putting it.

The documents Kitty had recieved from a co-worker were almost enough to convince a judge of Vernon’s innocence, she just needed one more thing and from the sounds coming from the next room, she needed it quickly.

Despite the late season snow, Francis had arrived just as Kitty had known he would. She had hinted at what she knew on the phone, sure that would bring him running but now that he stood before her, he wasn’t crumbling in the manner she had expected.

“So what proof do you have? A few papers torn out of a book? Please, child! Even your mother has come to realize your old man is guilty and if his own family won’t believe him, do you think a judge will?” Francis scoffed at his daughter-in-law’s attempt to blackmail him, but he was more bravado than confidence.

He had no idea where she had gotten the second set of books and now that he had given up control of Mendenhall Enterprises to his daughter, he couldn’t be sure that any of his things were safe.

“Call me when you have something real,” he said, leaving Kitty to think that there was something real to find.

True to her word, Talia kept the nuptuals casual and invited only non-Bay residents to keep Paul feeing comfortable.

Dr. Holdon was on hand and Wayne, who Talia found terribly attractive, and Rose, the new nanny to the Winfields and Andie, owner of H&M Heights. All were former or current residents of Horizons, people Paul knew and liked, people who could get into a good game of Marco Polo.

Paul couldn’t stand too lose and so he cheated, not that it really mattered. It was just Marco Polo, not a sign of his personality.

Andie, who had once been in love with Wayne, realized at the wedding that he was no closer to being cured than he was the day he had arrived at Horizons.

She had moved up in the world with a helping hand from Catherine Mendenhall, and was now looking to get her own apartment near her shop in Rigel Heights but Wayne was still stuck in the same place flirting with everything on two legs.

Everyone heard Rose’s screams but they assumed she was still playing, until it was too late and newly arrived home from work Kitty was on the scene.

“What is this?!” Kitty glowered at her mother and her new step-father as Rose shrunk in the background.

“Didn’t anyone hear me?” she agonized. This being out of rehab was becoming stressful, Rose didn’t like confrontation.

Hours later, most of the guests had gone home, but Kitty was still at it. Screaming about infiltrating and taking advantage, she had said it so often that even her mother’s bird got in on the act.

“Squuuak! Infiltrator!”

Paul remained calm, he could understand her point of view even if he did think she was a little old to be so upset about her parents getting divorced. He figured that she would eventually tire herself out.

Eventually, she did, but it took a few days.

A few days in which Francis Xavier Mendenhall III grew to childhood, Talia and Paul went on and returned from their honeymoon and Xavier realized that something had to change.

Posted on September 16th, 2008 under Orion Bay. Tags: cwik, kitty, paul, rehab, talia, xavier. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.