Faces of Beth, page 12
for the two.
The two. Where’s The Quiet Man?
“She’s fine now,” Andrew informed the guards. “Thank you for
your help.”
“You need to get that ear looked at,” the first guard to respond,
Tony, said.
“Trust me, I will.”
With a nod at Andrew, Tony followed the other guards out of the
room, leaving Andrew alone with Old Lynne.
Her eyes were closed now, her breathing was normal, and she
was covered with a blanket. Later, he’d return with Olivia and try to
dress her in one of her gowns, but he wouldn’t dare try that on his
own.
“You got me, Old Lynne,” he whispered to her as he backed out
of the room and closed her door.
He backed right into The Quiet Man.
Andrew spun around and looked up into the skeletal thin face of
the towering figure staring down at him, flinching in the process, and
barely squelching the shout that wanted so badly to call out to the
guards who couldn’t be far away.
“Mr. Grainger,” Andrew said, “you surprised me there. You know
you should be inside the rec room right now.”
The Quiet Man put a finger to his lips as if to say, “Be quiet.”
“Don’t try to hush me,” Andrew warned him. “I’m serious. I need
you to—”
The Quiet Man’s mouth opened only enough to let words spill
out, and his lips didn’t move with them. It was like looking into the
face of a wooden ventriloquist dummy.
“Andrew, it is not what you think. Be careful. It will live with you
until you die.”
“What are you talking about?” Andrew asked.
“It’s her he wants.”
“Her? Her who?”
The Quiet Man put his finger to his lips again and then turned and
walked away. Andrew followed him as he slowly shuffled his feet
down the hall, into the atrium, over to the other hall, and into the rec
room where he found his seat and continued watching the movie
with the others.
Andrew still held the towel to his ear when he approached Olivia.
“My God,” she said, “what happened to you.”
“Old Lynne happened to me. I think I need to see a doctor.”
“Andrew—”
“I hope none of your boyfriends ever want to go down on you
ever again.”
11
It was late when Andrew arrived home with his ear stitched and
bandaged. For a moment, he leaned against the entry hall wall and
rubbed at his temples. Tonight was already a doozy and he
wondered what kind of excitement lay ahead.
Please let them all stay in their rooms tonight. Give me Beth. All
of her for at least one night.
His hopes were shattered when he heard Peter call out from the
living room, “You like that? Huh? You want some more of that?”
Some hard rock song played on the TV as Peter revved an
engine on his video game. The boy must not have heard him enter.
Andrew jingled his keys a little louder to get the nightly ritual out of
the way.
“Did you bring pizza?” Peter called out.
And there it was. As much as he wished Beth would come greet
him at the door, the familiarity of Peter’s usual question wasn’t too
bad. It would have to do.
I can deal with Peter. But, please, can Beth come back to me
next?
If the rotation went as usual, she would be next, but nothing was
a definite around here and even if he did get to spend time with his
wife, it was unlikely she’d last through the night.
Andrew slid down the wall until his ass hit the floor and buried his
face in his hands. Peter wouldn’t budge from the couch and Paloma
would already be in bed, so he’d have a moment alone.
Why did he feel so defeated? Why was it hitting him so hard right
now? This had been his reality since their marriage. Before that
even. Yet this was the first time it seemed to kick his ass the way it
was now.
Because, yes, this has been your reality, but it was never like
this. It was never this extreme.
You’d never actually seen your wife standing over a bleeding
body like some crazed serial killer.
Your coworkers never dreamed of Father Dennis.
Old ladies didn’t bite your fucking ear off!
Andrew dug the palms of his hands into his eyes and rubbed. It
wasn’t until he pulled his hands away that he realized they were
damp. He wasn’t full-on crying, but tears had formed in his eyes. If
his dad hadn’t taught him at a young age that it wasn’t manly to cry,
he might sob right now. It wasn’t like he never shed tears, but he
wasn’t able to ugly cry like he wanted to. Sometimes he thought if he
could simply fucking bawl it all out, maybe he’d pour it out of his
system and feel better.
Sitting by the door wasn’t going to fix his problems, so Andrew
left his work bag on the floor and shuffled into the living room. There
was Beth in her backward baseball cap, chewing gum and letting it
pop. Her clothes were typical Peter attire right down to the Killswitch
Engage T-shirt and ripped jeans. Most of the young man’s shopping
had to be done online since he had his own unique taste.
In truth, there was nothing unique about it, but Andrew wouldn’t
dare start that argument again. At least he wasn’t wearing Insane
Clown Posse gear anymore. For two months straight, the kid would
only drink Faygo brand root beer and referred to himself as a
Juggalo.
Looking at the boy now, it was pretty easy to forget that was his
wife sitting there.
“Whoa, did you get in a fight?” Peter asked as soon as he
glanced up from his game and noticed the bandage covering his ear.
“Yes,” Andrew said sarcastically. “Sucker punched me right in the
earlobe.”
“Hope you kicked his ass.”
“I totally did.”
Andrew looked over at the screen and watched the boy run over
unarmed citizens in the game. It dawned on him that each of the
personalities seemed to have his or her own violent side. Gore, of
course, was the truly violent one, and Father Dennis was a
meanspirited, self-righteous son of a bitch.
Thinking back to the look on Alex’s face as she stabbed the fruit
on top of her pancakes earlier and watching Peter violently attack
people in his games, it dawned on Andrew that any of them could be
as mean as Gore. Even Ruby and some of the stuff she said during
sex was questionable. She had a bit of a dominant side.
They were all the things Beth wasn’t. She was sweet, innocent,
and absolutely glowing with an aurora of light and goodness. The
others filtered out all her anger, judgment, and vengefulness.
How had he never thought about it before? She was a diamond,
and they were all her blemished facets. They circled up around her
and protected her. But protected her from what?
The nun. When he’d asked Alex about her at breakfast, she’d
said, “She had black eyes. And a long tongue. Like a snake. She
wanted to touch me.”
“Peter, you have a second?” he asked as he sat down on the
couch a full cushion away from the boy.
“Not really,” he replied.
Typical asshole teenage boy.
“Gotcha,” Andrew said, “I guess I won’t really have any money to
give you for whatever you need next time for your gaming. For one
of your skins or whatever you call them. Or so you can level-up or
whatever it is you need to do.”
Peter rolled his eyes, mashed the pause button, and dropped his
controller onto the carpet.
“I’m also not buying you another controller if you break that one,”
Andrew warned him.
Peter scoffed. “God, man. You don’t have to be so mean.”
“You have an attitude, kiddo. Don’t have one with me and I won’t
give you one in return. Deal?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“Thanks for pausing your game.”
“Wasn’t like I had a choice.”
“I really need to talk to you. I won’t waste much of your time, but
this isn’t going to work if you have an attitude problem.”
Peter took a deep breath and blew it out. “Okay, sorry. What do
you want to talk about?”
“The nun,” Andrew said, and the moment he said that word, Peter
squinted a little and stared back at him suspiciously.
Sure, Andrew could have eased them into the conversation, but
Peter wasn’t one to give up much of his time, so he’d decided to go
straight for the jugular.
“Nah,” Peter said, shaking his head. “We don’t talk about that.”
“What don’t you talk about?”
“That,” Peter replied stone-faced.
“I won’t pry… much, but give me something, Peter. You said
yourself you try to stay away from Gore. I think whatever happened
with that nun is what’s driving Gore to do the things he’s doing.”
“What’s he doing?” Peter asked.
Andrew wasn’t sure how this worked. How much of what one
personality did would the others be aware of? It couldn’t be much, or
Beth would know about his flings with Ruby. Perhaps she did and
was fine with it or was too disturbed to mention it.
“You don’t already know?” Andrew replied.
Peter laughed. “You’re acting strange tonight.”
I’m acting strange?
Andrew decided to come right out with it. “I think Gore is hurting
people.”
“Probably,” Peter said. “Do you mind if I get back to my game?”
“Tell me about the nun first.”
Peter shook his head. “I already told you we don’t talk about
that.”
Andrew knew this probably wouldn’t be the strategy
recommended by doctors, and he hated to threaten the boy, but it
was the only thing he could come up with that might work.
“Fine,” Andrew said, “then you’re grounded from your games.
Hand me the controller.”
“What?” Peter asked. It was the first time he looked concerned
about anything other than the nun.
“You’re grounded,” Andrew replied, “and to be honest, it’s been a
long time coming. You’ve been really sarcastic lately.”
“Andrew, come on.”
“Peter, talk to me.”
“Andrew.”
“Peter. The nun.”
Peter chewed on his bottom lip. “I’m afraid.”
It might have been the boy’s words. It might have been the long
day at work. It might have been a malfunction with the house’s
electrical system.
Andrew could have sworn the lights in the house dulled a little
and the temperature in the room dropped. A light wind seemed to
float from the front door to where they both sat now.
“You see?” Peter asked, obviously reading the look of worry on
Andrew’s face. “That’s why we don’t talk about it. Besides, Gore took
care of that.”
“Took care of what?”
The lights flickered but stayed on.
“Andrew,” Peter said. “Please, stop talking about it.”
Andrew stood and walked to the front door, making sure it was
closed and locked the way he’d left it. He jiggled the knob and found
it was closed tightly. The breeze wasn’t coming from there.
“Huh,” someone did a half-chuckle behind him.
Andrew spun around and stared into the dark space ahead of
him. Past the carpet-covered staircase and back toward the laundry
closet and door to the basement, someone stood in the middle of the
hall. It was a dark, shadowy presence wearing what looked like a
large, round hat. Its hands appeared to be at its sides, dangling
down.
“Peter?” Andrew asked.
No response.
“Peter?” he called again.
“Yeah, hurry up,” the boy replied from the living room.
Impossible.
Peter was in there. And if Peter was in the living room, who was
standing at the end of the hall, staring right back at him? It looked
like Father Dennis, but if this was the priestly old man, how was he
here in the house with Peter around? Beth could only be one
personality at a time.
“What’s wrong?” Peter asked, suddenly standing in the archway
between the hall and the living room.
Andrew looked at the boy and then pointed at the figure in the
hall. “Who’s that?”
“Who’s what?” Peter asked, looking in the direction Andrew was
pointing.
The figure was gone.
Father Dennis wasn’t there.
You’re losing your shit.
He really was losing his mind. Only one personality could leave
its room at a time and right now, Beth was Peter, so Beth couldn’t be
anyone else.
“Did you really see something?” Peter asked.
“It was nothing,” Andrew replied. “Maybe it was Paloma.”
“Paloma isn’t here. She’s on a date.”
“A date?” Andrew asked.
“Yeah, remember? She’s seeing some dude from Paraguay or
Uruguay or, you know, one of those places. I think she’s screwing
him, bro.”
“Peter.”
“Nasty, huh? Thinking of someone wanting to have sex with
Paloma?”
Andrew instantly calmed down with the thought of it. Then he
vowed to never think about it again. She was an attractive older
woman, he would give her that, but she was also an employee, and
thinking about her like that was inappropriate.
“Would you hook up with Paloma?” Peter asked on his way back
to the couch, crouching down to pick up his controller.
“No,” Andrew said. “No, I wouldn’t.”
Peter held the controller in his hand and was about to press the
pause button to get back into his game when he looked back up at
Andrew like he’d just gotten busted and said, “Wait, were you serious
about me being grounded?”
Andrew rolled his eyes and headed for the hallway. “No, you’re
not grounded.”
“Thank God,” he heard the boy say.
After a quick glance around the house, Andrew convinced himself
he’d been seeing things. It had been a long day. He needed to rest.
12
Orphan X was one bad dude. Andrew was in the middle of reading
one of Gregg Hurwitz’s fight scenes when the bedroom door opened.
In the fuzzy haze of his peripheral, he saw Peter’s clothes rush by.
Then he listened for the lock of the bathroom door. He found it was
best not to interrupt the changeover. How it went down was always a
mystery to him. Did she change to Beth downstairs and then come
up to the bathroom to switch clothes?
Or was Peter aware that the change was about to happen, so he
came upstairs and changed clothes so as not to startle Beth? If he
investigated, he could discover the answer, but it seemed wrong to
pry. Beth and the others had their system down pat. Who was he to
get in the way of that?
After a short shower, Beth came out wearing only a long T-shirt.
Andrew’s imagination told him there would be sexy panties beneath,
quite possibly a thong, but he doubted he’d get to see it. Her hair
was still wet when she made her way to bed and lay down beside
him. Reaching for her own book on her nightstand, she opened it
and leaned over to kiss his cheek before settling in to read.
Andrew watched her, stunned that she was ready to sink into her
book without talking to him first. It was a sure sign something was
bothering her.
He reached over and put his hand between the pages of her
book. “Wait a minute. I’ve missed you. Talk to me a little bit.”
Beth closed her book and turned onto her side, facing him, and
he slid down to look at her. They used to lay like this often, talking
late into the night, giggling at jokes, and feeling each other up like
horny teenagers.
Looking at her now, he wished they could go back to that easier
time. Sure, they had the same issues back then, but marriage was
new. Everything was fresh. Who knew what the future held? He
finally had the woman he’d fallen madly in love with at the hospital,
and he wasn’t going to miss a second of this life with her.
Here he was all these years later, wishing he could avoid her
when she let the others out of their rooms. Wishing he could show
up only when it was Beth in his bed and then disappear before
anyone else took her place.
God, I love this woman. How could I love a woman so much and
be forced to miss her so much even when I’m face to face with her
so often throughout the day?
“You’ve zoned out,” Beth said, interrupting his thoughts.
