Bold and Simful

‘A celebratory drink,’ Catherine Mendenhall told herself. She knew she was slipping, had been since Francis had moved out, but one more wasn’t going to hurt anything besides, she had a lot to celebrate.

Francis had ended up in a cramped Nephila flat while she had taken full possession of the Mendenhall family estate, her flower business had just received the coveted 5 star rating, her granddaughter L.C. was doing well in college and now that Elizabeth had finally found her heart again she was considering introducing the two, plus Kitty and Xavier were bringing Trip over today. There was a lot to be happy about.

Xavier cringed at his wife’s words to their son. So he worked in his mother’s flower shop, while she filed briefs and torts at some international law firm. So what? He had never been interested in money and neither had she, they were supposed to enjoy life but lately that was becoming harder and harder.

He had heard about enough about this “frame-up”, as Kitty insisted on calling it. His father was an ass, to be sure, but he wasn’t evil enough to send an innocent man to prison, besides he didn’t even live here anymore.

“Can’t we just let it go for one day, Kit?” Xavier almost pleaded as the door opened.

Xavier was pleased to see that Kitty did let it go. She and Elizabeth talked business while his mother made breakfast and Trip explored his father’s old room, which hadn’t changed a bit since Xavier left for college.

He wasn’t so pleased to see that the bar had returned, he would have thought Elizabeth responsible enough to see that it remained gone.

“It was scary!” Trip lamented his latest movie night to his grandmother while Xavier proudly looked on. He was extremely proud of his son, Trip was outgoing, if not always nice, and had already earned a spot on the soccer team and straight A’s on his report card apparently without effort.

One wouldn’t think so but Catherine was extremely good with children. She ooo-ed and ah-ed at the appropriate moments and feigned fear when Trip revealed that the main character was a werewolf. Looking at Trip, who was the spitting image of Xavier, she suddenly longed for a house full of grandchildren.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, was as bad with children as her father had once been. She and Trip had nothing in common and spent most of their interactions arguing.

Even a friendly game of chess turned unfriendly when Elizabeth caught Trip cheating and rather than let it go as most adults would, she called him on it,”Where did you learn that?”

“No where, it’s the way you play. Play to win or there’s no reason to play,” Trip answered logically.

“But if you cheat, you make sure you don’t get caught,” Elizabeth advised. “The old, look over there trick wasn’t your best option there. You should have…”

While Elizabeth was advising her nephew, Xavier was trying to patch things up between his mother and his wife. Apparently Kitty had not let her suspicions go as he had hoped and had only succeeded in making Catherine angry with her insistance that a wife always knew what her husband was up to.

“What she means, Mother, is that there is a chance that Vernon wasn’t the only one embezzling,” Xavier explained.

“That’s not what I mean at all,” Kitty turned on her husband. “What I mean is that your father took the money, then pinned it on my dad.”

Catherine sat stone faced, not believing what she was hearing. Francis was ruthless when it came to business and she had never questioned how they were the only gilded age family to keep their fortune through stock market crashes and governmental regulations, but she wasn’t about to believe that her husband was so heartless as to frame an innocent man.

Catherine had seen her son and his family to the door soon after and as she turned to join her daughter for a much needed drink, a premonition so real that it could not be ignored planted itself in her path.

Elizabeth cried out as her mother crumpled to the floor, stretching for one last drink.

Thankfully, Catherine did not languish long. Death arrived and barely needed to check his clip board, he wasn’t going to be denied by the rich residents of Orion Bay twice. It was, indeed, time for Catherine Mendenhall to go.

“Here’s to you, Mother,” Elizabeth raised her glass in a solitary toast.

—-

Notes: Catherine’s death was arranged and despite Elizabeth’s show of emotion at the scene, she recovered immediately and went to make herself a drink, which I though quite rude.

Posted on September 23rd, 2008 under Orion Bay. Tags: catherine, elizabeth, francis, kitty, Mendenhall, trip, xavier. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.