Bold and Simful

Francis Mendenhall furrowed his eyebrows and stared at his wife. He had just arrived home from work and was enjoying his first gin and tonic, he thought his wife was too but by the way she was talking this was more than her first.

“Ain’t that right?” Catherine slurred and leered disturbingly at her husband.

Francis retreated further, wondering who this woman was who stood before him and knowing that he had no choice but to finally confront the problem.

Instead of magnifying any problems they may have, of which there were few, the departure of the girls had brought the Bettencourts closer together. Cuddled up on their couch, watching a movie, they were as happy as when they were first married, except one thing was nagging at Maxine’s mind.

“I know something wasn’t right with Elizabeth and I’m pretty sure of what it was,” she confided.

“What’s that, hon?” Robert had been promoted to CSI at work after cracking another case, but this thing with Elizabeth was escaping him. He didn’t see what made Maxine so suspicious to begin with, much less could he guess at the conclusion she had drawn.

“I think she was pregnant.” Maxine finally said it out loud, “and I think that Sister Mary Katherine was lying.”

“No? little Elizabeth? She never looked pregnant,” Robert answered, completely shocked by his wife’s declaration as he recalled images of the deer-legged teen.

“Neither did I until nearly the seventh month and if you remember, she went away to that boarding school for almost 3 months. That’s just long enough…” Maxine’s words trailed off as she calculated in her mind, aloud she concluded, “I’m going to visit the convent again tomorrow.”

“Ok, hon but you should be doing all of this for the right reasons and don’t go jumping to conclusions,” Robert returned his attention to the movie but beside him his wife pondered what it would be like for Elizabeth to have to tell her mother that she was pregnant. She was sure that Catherine knew and had probably orchestrated the solution that would save her family’s reputation.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Bettencourt, but I don’t know what you are talking about,” Sister Mary Katherine protested. “We do occasionally take in children who have lost their parents, but it is only me here now and I can not care for little ones with all my other responsibilities.” Sister Mary silently prayed that Lydia would remain sleeping.

Maxine could see that she was going to get no where and took her leave. She was going to have to find another way to ferret out the truth, this was no longer about being better than the Mendenhalls this was about helping a kid who probably had no where to turn.

“But Mrs. Mendenhall, we have to do something. Lydia can not stay here, I can not care for her and Mrs. Bettencourt is more than suspicious, she knows,” Sister Mary tried to make the situation perfectly clear to Catherine who didn’t seem particularly coherent today.

“Then do something,” Catherine said without an ounce of emotion.

“Won’t you reconsider and bring the baby home?” Sister pushed the issue even though she couldn’t imagine Catherine raising an infant.

“No, I will not. How would I explain a baby? Tell me that! We made a deal before I even brought Elizabeth here, along with a hefty donation I might add. Now you have to hold up your end, how you’ll do that is your problem,” Catherine exploded.

Sister Mary said no more and showed Catherine to the gate. Now that she had seen Catherine at her worst, she hoped this was her worst, she would never again suggest that the baby go to Mendenhall Manor.

Catherine returned home and went straight for the bar, “Damn that woman!”

Robert had mentioned Brenda Gibson’s visit to his wife in passing, not thinking much of the incident at all.

Now the phone number had come in handy as Maxine had insisted that he invite Jay over under the pretense of having found him work. The true purpose was to pump him for information about the Mendenhall situation, Jay had been in the house everyday during the period in question.

Maxine had left the interrogation up to Robert, who handled it as a casual conversation about references for the potential job. Robert was a CSI after all and he did manage to find out something interesting.

Arcadia Santander, their very own maid, had been sent by the agency to replace Jay as the Mendenhall’s daily. At his wife’s insistence, though he had thought of it himself, he offered Arcadia a little extra cash to keep her eyes and ears open while at Mendenhall Manor.

Francis had been pondering what to do about his wife’s situation for days and finally he came up with getting her away from the temptation to drink.

“We’ll take a holiday, just for a few days. I can’t take off work for long, but it will be a nice get away, we haven’t been to Twikki Island in ages,” Francis told his wife.

Catherine was more excited than Francis had seen her in a long time, she was so anxious to go that he felt bad for not having already called the cab. This he remedied quickly and they were off on holiday, just the two of them.

Their arrival at their old beach house rekindled romantic feelings immediately.

When they weren’t….ah hem…otherwise occupied, they explored the island and the shipwreck pirate vessel. It had been a long time since they had had fun together, they even loosened up and bought new clothes after Catherine chided Francis for building a sandcastle in a three piece suit.

“Where are you going, Cat?” Francis used his old pet name to call after his wife who was beating a hasty retreat. “I thought you were going to raid the captain’s cabin? Are you getting something to eat?” Without turning around, Francis followed his wife down the rickety staircase.

“We should do this more often,” Francis suggested, he wasn’t one to share his feelings or even acknowledge that he had them, but the past two days had been so much different than their life at home. “Maybe we should move out here when I retire. Elizabeth will graduate in a few years and she’ll take over at the office. In the mean time, we could fix up the house. You know, pop out for vacation now and then to keep an eye on the contractor…”

At the mention of her daughter, Catherine’s back went ram-rod straight. Elizabeth hadn’t invited her or Francis to the dorm, Veronica had invited her parents but Elizabeth hadn’t even called. Neither had Xavier, but mothers expect that from boys. “We could…we’ll have to see if Elizabeth is right for your job.” Catherine was non-committal.

“I’m sure she will be,” Francis asserted but dropped the conversation, maybe his wife wasn’t having as good a time as he was.

The next morning, Francis found his wife slumped on the cheap patio furniture, staring out at the ocean, a bottle on the table next to her. He was completely disgusted.

“Shit! Catherine, you can’t even make it through a three day vacation without a drink?” Francis was enraged. Things like this didn’t happen to families like his.

“I just had a little…” Catherine attempted to protest, but was only wasting her breath.

“You’re just like your mother, I should have listened to my own mother when she warned me…”

“Don’t bring my mother into this, you bastard. This is your fault, with your constant pressure to be perfect, perfect house, perfect kids, perfect wife but you don’t put in any effort. You think it just happens magically, you’re ridiculous. ..”

“I am ridiculous?!” Francis was astonished at his wife’s temerity, “You can barely hold your head up and it’s not even noon yet. You have to get help before this becomes a public problem, which I’m sure it has if anyone has eyes… or a nose, your breath reeks.”

“Oh, shut up,” Catherine reached for the bottle but couldn’t make it past Francis.

“Go upstairs and pack, this vacation is over and I’m committing you to Horizons the minute we get home.” Francis stormed off without waiting for his wife’s reaction, but returned through the sliding glass door a moment later, just in time to grab the bottle from Catherine’s hand.

(Note: Happy Holiday Weekend, everyone. Hope you are having a great time, see you Tuesday )

 

Posted on May 25th, 2008 under Mendenhall. Tags: Bettencourt, catherine, francis, maxine, Mendenhall, robert, twikki island. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.