Bold and Simful

“So you’ll be getting out soon, huh?” Paul asked Catherine as she cleared the dinner dishes.  “You’re so lucky.” Paul sounded wistful at the last, he was still having slip ups.

Andie looked up, “I’m so jealous! When will you be leaving? You won’t forget about me will you?”

Catherine smiled, at one time these people would have been bit actors in her life but she had come to see that all, ok most, people were important and had something to offer regardless of their bank balance or street address. “Only one more step to get through and Dr. Holdon says I can go home and I won’t forget you when I get there,” she assured Andie.

The conversation had spurred Andie to action.  She and Catherine had talked numerous times about Andie opening a dress shop when she got out, she being the designer and Catherine the financial backer, but she had never taken the proposition as more than rehab hoping.  Until the day on the patio of Court’s Cafe when they discovered that their Catherine was actually Catherine Mendenhall.

‘With Mendenhall money behind me I could be the next Santino Rice!‘ she thought, ‘but I have to show her that I can sew what I sketch and I don’t have much time left.‘

“Thank GOD!” Catherine looked to the heavens. “Not that I ever doubted you.”

“The rooster is about to get hen pecked,” Robert said, confusing Catherine completely but she was too elated to worry about what he was talking about.  She had the pictures that would return her to her rightful station as the lady of Mendenhall Place.

“He’ll never let these be seen in open court. Robert, dear, you are a great investigator.”

“Well,” Robert was suddenly shy, “All in a day’s work, ma’am.”

Once inside, Catherine began to sob in spite of herself. “I don’t know what I’m crying about, Rose,” she hitched between gulps of air. “I knew what the pictures would be, but seeing them!”

“It’s ok, honey,” Rose tried to comfort the woman she had grown to admire.  “All men have moments of stupidity.  He made a mistake, but you of all people can forgive an error in judgment,” she added pointedly.

‘She thinks I’m going back to him because I still love him,’ Catherine realized, then wondered if she did still love Francis.

The thought of Catherine returning to the home and husband that had sent her so deep into the bottle caused Rose great inner turmoil.  Then again, without her pills to calm her nerves, everything caused Rose great inner turmoil.

She had realized long ago that she would never be rehabilitated enough to leave Horizons, even if she was, she didn’t have anywhere to go.  She had burned down her own house and her kids were pushing her into a nursing home.  Nope, Horizons was her home now and the residents that came and went were her family.

Catherine breathed deeply at the sight of her children,  ‘This is it, the last step,’ she reached out to touch Xavier, who had yet to look at her.

“I don’t see why not, Doctor,” Elizabeth admitted with slight reluctance, “I’ll be there in a few weeks to keep an eye on her.”

‘Keep an eye on me? Who’s the mother here?‘ Catherine bit her tongue…hard.

“That’s good, that’s good,” Dr. Holdon agreed, “but you should remember that she is your mother, not the other way around.”

‘Yay! I knew I liked him,’ Catherine cheered silently.

“Doctor, can we talk in private?” Elizabeth started toward the door and Dr. Holdon followed behind.

Catherine watched and couldn’t help but think that her daughter had grown into a remarkably self-assured young woman, ‘almost to the point of obnoxious.’

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Xavier crossed his arms over his chest and looked away from his mother.

“I can’t help you if you won’t tell me what’s going on.  Is it school?  You are going to graduate, right?” Xavier shook his head, “Is it your father?” Catherine hit upon the most likely cause of Xavier’s anger.

“I’m going to marry Kitty, Mom.  It doesn’t matter what her father did or didn’t do, she’s not her dad and I’m not mine, thank god.  He completely embarrassed her, I had to chase her halfway back to Hunter,” Xavier ran on, while Catherine stared at him confused but caring.

“Ok, ok.  Kitty Cwik, I assume? Yes, well, I see where your father would be concerned,” Catherine started thoughtfully.  Xavier huffed and turned further away.  “I didn’t say I agreed, Xavier.”

“You’ll need to remove stressors and most importantly instances of temptation, the bar for instance,” Dr. Holdon ticked off the requirements for Catherine’s success on his fingers.

“Right, I know all that Doctor,” Elizabeth interrupted, “I would like to talk about me.  My father says that alcoholism runs in families, he says that in our family it stems from the maternal side.  My grandmother was an alcoholic too you know, but they just put her away. What I want to know is, did I inherite my mother’s weak mind?”

Dr. Holdon was blown away. He had only run into Francis Mendenhall twice and his daughter just once but he couldn’t help but see the similarities. “Well, I…uh…that’s a theory,” Dr. Holdon consented slowly, “but not one that has unquestioned support among the scientific community.  Of course there are studies…” he trailed off, then resumed on a new tact, “Miss Mendenhall, you are the child of your mother and your father but you are your own person.”

Xavier and Catherine were just disengaging when he and Elizabeth returned to the living area and despite the fact that he had just been sitting, Dr. Holdon felt the need to sit down.   He stared straight ahead, wondering if he was handing Catherine a round trip ticket back to rehab with a layover at Mendenhall Place.

“You’ll be home soon, Mom,” Xavier patted his mother’s elbow. “Hey, we’re all graduating at the same time,” he chuckled.

Elizabeth didn’t seem to find her brother’s joke very funny.

Sadly, not everyone would be graduating.

Posted on July 16th, 2008 under Horizons Rehab. Tags: catherine, elizabeth, rehab, robert, xavier. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.