Bold and Simful

Maxine Bettencourt had returned from her investigative trip to the convent of the Sisters of Blessed Mercy no wiser than when she had left, but far more suspicious. She did not want to accuse a nun of lying but when a baby cries from the next room while someone is telling you that there aren’t any babies in the house, there isn’t really another word for it.

Now she was more suspicious than ever, so when her daughter asked if her boyfriend could stay for dinner, Maxine jumped at the chance to question him about his sister. She started simply, asking how Elizabeth was doing at her new school, how Catherine was getting along without her daughter in the house and Xavier answered easily. When she began to get more pointed, asking how Elizabeth had been feeling before she left, her husband glared at her over his lobster.

“Really? Do we need to talk about vomiting at the dinner table?” Robert asked.

“Hon, you know she wasn’t feeling well. She looked so despondent and sad the last time we saw her, I am concerned, that’s all,” Maxine tried to sound innocent.

Veronica looked at her sister Maleena across the table, questioning with her eyes “did you tell mom?” Maleena almost imperceptibly shook her head in answer and looked toward Xavier who smiled uncomfortably at the turn the conversation had taken. Robert shot Maxine the “let it go” look and conversation turned to the pending graduation.

“I left one uniform for each of us for our last day, but I think I got everything else,” Maleena surveyed the near empty armoire.

“It’s about time,” Veronica commented from her chair. She had been done packing for more than an hour, “You do know that they have clothing stores at college, right?” she asked her sister.

“Yeah, but who knows what they sell? What if they only have polyester?” Maleena shuddered and shut the doors then turned to her over flowing suitcase, ” How am I going to close that? Crap!”

“Sit on it, fatty,” Veronica laughed, her sister was by no means fat, but the comment would have her turning round and round in the mirror for hours. “I’m not waiting for you anymore, I’m going swimming.”

While Veronica and Maleena were going for a late night dip in the pool, Xavier was chilling on his bed watching a movie. Finally he had raised his grades to the coveted A+ and had been granted the scholarship that was most important to his father, the Will Wright Genius Grant given for advanced logic skills.

Francis Mendenhall valued logic and reasoning above all else, business required a cold, calculating mentality and the ability to grasp the finer details of a situation quickly in order to make the most profitable decision. Since Xavier was his son, Francis had always imagined that he would take over Mendenhall Enterprises one day, but he had almost lost hope in his slacker son until the boy finally pulled it out at the very end.

Having fired her last maid due to poor job performance, Catherine called the agency to send another. She was disappointed to see that they sent a female, she should have been more specific but she was more than tired of cleaning her own house, so Arcadia Santander would have to do for now.

Just as she was finishing her final instructions to the new daily, the phone rang.

“Mrs. Mendenhall, I wish to announce happy news for you and your family. Elizabeth gave birth to a healthy baby girl late last night,” Sister Mary Katherine said into the phone. “Both mother and baby are doing very well.”

Catherine barely glanced at the sleeping baby, “You can come home tomorrow, Elizabeth. Everyone will be finishing their last day of school, it will make perfect sense that you arrive just in time to go off to college.”

“Yes, Mother,” Elizabeth’s face fell. She had hoped that the birth of her first grandchild would soften her mother. “I named her Lydia Catherine, after Aunt Lydia and you,” Elizabeth offered, “and isn’t she sweet?”

“Yes, dear she is but you can not be diverted from your obligations at this stage of your life. I have covered your mistake as best I could and now we will let it go. You will return tomorrow in the afternoon so as not to raise suspicions further.”

Sister Mary Katherine stood stunned in the background, observing the interaction. ‘The woman has to be made of steel, cold, hard, unbending steel,‘ she thought.

When Catherine left a few moments later, Elizabeth sat rocking her daughter and wondering what would happen if she stole the baby and ran away to Rigel Heights.

Francis had asked his son what he was planning to do after graduating from Hunter, a seemingly simple question, run Mendenhall Enterprises obviously, but as the words flowed out of the child’s mouth he began to wonder if his wife had had an affair with the mailman.

“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career,” Xavier said, then continued, seeming to think out loud, “I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.”

“What was that, honey?” Catherine raised her eyebrows.

“It was a load of crap, that’s what it was,” Francis glared at his only son.

“Was it?” For the first time in his life, Xavier argued back, “People say they know, but how many of them really know what they want, though? I mean, a lot of them think they have to know, right? But inside they don’t really know, so… I don’t know, but I know that I don’t know,” he finished triumphantly, grabbed his empty plate and left his stunned parents in the dining room.

As he stomped upstairs to his room, he could hear his father yelling below and he suddenly felt sorry for his mother. She had been listening to that for years, decades even. It was no wonder the woman always had a drink in her hand.

“Guess what?” Robert had come running in the house after work. Maxine stared at her husband. “Well, are you going to guess? I solved my first case! First day on the job, first case, first solve!” Robert was so pleased with himself that Maxine, who had been preoccupied pondering the lying nun, even had to smile and laugh.

“So there was this cat, right? Buster was his name and he disappeared after being fed his breakfast. The family was distraught, crying and imagining the worst. When we arrived on the scene, my partner took information from the family while I poked around. Right away I noticed a trail of food leading away from the food bowl and into the bathroom. As any good gumshoe would do, I followed the trail and there was Buster. He had somehow trapped himself in the toilet!” Robert told the story in almost one breath.

“Didn’t the family hear a cat screaming in their own bathroom?” Maxine asked.

“Not the point, hon,” Robert’s elation would not be denied. “And I got promoted too!”

“That’s great,” Maxine got up to hug her husband, “I’m sorry, it really is great. Good for you,” she congratulated. “I was just thinking about the girl’s graduation party tonight, making sure we got everything. Speaking of which, you and I should disappear before their guests arrive, they don’t want their parents hanging around.”

“Elizabeth, I am glad that you are home,” Francis interrupted his daughter’s preparations to go out, “You are welcome to go to the Bettencourt’s party tonight but remember that tomorrow you must begin to prepare for the future. You have succeeded where your brother has failed, so it will be you who will one day take over my job. When you leave tomorrow I want you to know that you must do your very best, I expect nothing less of you. You must eschew all distractions that will be placed before you and focus all of your attention on your studies.”

Elizabeth hung her head and all she said was, “Yes, Father.”

Everyone was starving after they went swimming and the buffet table was filled to over flowing. Elizabeth’s return was barely mentioned, everyone present knew where she had been but no one wanted to broach the subject of what would happen to the baby.

In just one day they would all be leaving for Hunter College, except for Melissa Vu who would graduate next year. Catherine Mendenhall had arranged that all the kids would live together at Wingate Hall, the dorm her named after her family and constructed thanks to a donation from the Mendenhall Foundation.

Xavier refused breakfast the next morning and continued to insist that Undeclared was a perfectly legitimate major. Naturally, Elizabeth would major in Economics, she would need comprehensive business knowledge in order to take over the family business.

His daughter’s return and willingness to bend to his will made Francis unusually chatting this morning, but his wife barely touched her pancakes and sat staring at her daughter who ate with a hearty appetite.

The taxi arrived to pick up the Bettencourt girls first. Robert had stayed home from work to see his girls off and he and Maxine rushed out to the curb with last minute pieces of advice.

The skies had darkened and a light rain had begun to fall by the time the taxi pulled up at Mendenhall Manor. Both Xavier and Elizabeth entered the cab with their father’s last words ringing in their ears, “do better than your best.”

Awakened by Lydia’s crying once again, Sister Mary Katherine sadly realized that a convent was no place for a baby. Not only was it an austere environment in which to raise a child, she was the only permanent resident and could scarcely be expected care for a newborn, maintain the house and grounds and offer spiritual services to of all of the area’s residents.

(Note: Did you catch the movie quotes?)

 

Posted on May 18th, 2008 under Orion Bay. Tags: Bettencourt, catherine, elizabeth, francis, lydia, maleena, Mendenhall, sister mary, veronica, xavier. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.