Full Figured Chic Ch 05

Jay stood in the hallway, wondering again, why he was here. All those years he'd thought she was insane, or at least a little mad, and now he felt in danger of believing her.

He wasn't even sure what he needed to say to her. He visited her regularly; each week, but they'd kept those visits fairly simple. She always wanted to know how he was. But she wasn't interested in how the business was doing, if he had a girlfriend or if he'd gotten a parking ticket that week. It was always about his health and if anything unusually bad had happened to him; an out of the ordinary kind of badness; something unexpected and wild, so that it was almost impossible to imagine how it could have happened.

And until now, nothing like that had happened to Jay, and over time, he'd just assumed there was something wrong with his mother.

"Good afternoon Mr Miles. I'm sorry to keep you waiting. We've had a long queue here today as you can see. I'm not sure what it is. Full moon perhaps?" The young nurse gave Jay a playful look and he scowled back at her. No time for that sort of carry on.

She looked chastened and turned to address her clipboard. "Um, you can see your mother right away. She's been very well behaved lately, we've had no incidents."

Jay followed her through the pristine white corridors of the nursing home to her room. The nurse knocked at the door.

"Mrs Myles? Your son is here to visit you. Mrs Myles?"

The door opened and Jay stood face to face with his mother.

"Hello son. Here to tell me I need to be in an institution again?"

An awkward pause involved nothing but the three people looking at each other.

"Well, I'll leave you too to have a nice visit shall I?" said the nurse clearly anxious to get away.

"Come in son. This is an unusual visit. It's not Sunday."

She had her back to him so he couldn't' see her face. She was shrewd though, with her mind sharp as a tack sometimes and other times, a million miles away. Although now Jay was wondering if she really did have those turns after all. Maybe they were just moments when she took herself out of the real world.

"Take a seat."

Jay sat awkwardly, perched on an overstuffed green velvet vanity chair. It was the chair she always made him sit in and he suspected it was to keep him feeling awkward. His mother liked to play games like that. Nothing amused her more than people off balance.

Jay crossed his legs and shifted his weight to get a grip on the chair the earth beneath it.

"Yes, it isn't my usual day. But I wanted to visit you mother."

He could feel her steel blue eyes on him. He looked around the room at the trinkets and pictures he'd grown up with as a child. He'd inherited her eyes, along with her way of staring deeply into people to unsettle them.

"It's started hasn't it?"

Jay started to wonder why he'd come. Sutomi Lim stealing all his designs didn't seem half as threatening as sitting in this small monument to a lifelong past and facing his mother.

"What do you mean?"

"That's why your here- Because it's started. The curse has begun to take its toll on you and now -- finally, you are ready for the information. I can see the impact of it on you already."

He glanced up at her and there was a strange look in her eyes. It was a look of wonderment, as if she couldn't believe what she was beheld. Almost like a cross between validation and the look of a warrior preparing for battle.

"Yes. I think it has started. I mean I don't know for sure, but something very strange has happened that is destined to ruin me forever, and I can feel myself becoming mentally unhinged because of it."

"I can see it in you, you know. You have the same look your father had and your big brother when it started to happen to them."

Jay stood up so he didn't have to battle the lounge as well as himself.

"Mother, I'm still unsure. I am very sceptical about this. I find it very hard to believe that my family is cursed."

"Even though your brother and your father died such horrible deaths?"

"Yes. I know the temptation of wanting to believe that Dad and John's deaths were inevitable and sent through time, but I can't get my mind around it. I think it's something that we do to help deal with the double tragedy."

"You mean something I do, because you apparently don't believe."

"Well, yes then, something you do. You lost a husband and a son, and I can understand you wanting to clutch at explanations that include us being cursed. It makes a kind of sense of two inexplicable tragedies."

"You'll have to do a lot better than that if you're going to fight it."

Jay swung around and faced her piercing blue eyes. They looked so intelligent, so lucid. It was hard to imagine that she had moments of such madness. But he was excited. She'd just said there was a way to beat this.

"You mean there is a way to beat it?"

The old woman smiled at him. "I thought you didn't believe in it?"

Jay turned away from her again and walked over to the window. "Something very strange happened to me Mother and I will need your help. Even if it isn't some ancient curse that's been passed down through my genes, I do feel as though trying to save this problem could be the end of me. I struggle to keep it together as it is. This may tip me over the edge."

"Come and sit boy, sit on my bed if you don't like the green chair."

Jay turned, like all children comforted by the warmth of his mother's voice, and sat on the bed.

"I'll make you a cup of tea and I will tell you what I know of the story. It isn't much of course, but I do know that two men have survived it in history. Only two, but it does give us some hope."

The old woman stood and began to fuss in her small kitchenette with making a cup of tea. As she boiled water and added fresh leaves to the pot she chatted with Jay.

"You've heard all of this before of course. Do you remember any of it?"

"No. I didn't listen to you. I thought... well... I thought there was something wrong with you mother. That the deaths of Dad and John had sent you a bit -- batty."

"I know, I know. When John died as a small boy, I was horrified." She paused and turned to face her son. "Do you know that his torso was cut in to? His entire body was sliced in half on that football field. A freak accident, the wind blew the goal posts down, but they severed your brother. The doctor said he'd never seen anything like it."

Jay looked at the floor between his feet wishing they didn't have to do all of this just to get to the story that he needed to hear. But somehow, he felt she'd need it.

"I couldn't' believe that it happened. I refused to believe that my son could have been taken in such a way. A child can hold that thing up, and yet it somehow had the strength to cut my boy in two. So I went to a psychic. I wanted to find out why this had happened to my son. Well, I got more than I'd bargained for there."

The shrill squeal of the kettle alerted her to turn and add water to the prepared pot. Placing the tea pot on a tray that had two cups and saucers and some biscuits, she walked over toward Jay.

"Get that for me would you dear?" she indicated a small trestle table with her foot. Jay pulled it into place and his mother placed the tray on the top.

"What did the psychic tell you Mother."

Jay had to wait as she sat into her comfortable chair, and poured them both teas made the old fashioned way. Jay felt sure she was milking the suspense, but he sat patiently letting her have her moment after all these years.

"As soon as I walked in, she came out from behind the counter and said "I will see you right away. I know why you are here." She took me into a back room and said "This is about your son isn't it? The one who has died?" and I told her it was. She said that she was not supposed to help me, but she would anyway. She was told in a dream it would be very bad if she helped me. I begged her to tell me all that she knew and she said 'because of your other son, I will tell you what you need to know."

"And she began to unfold the story that I have told you many times about the daemon who wanted Aoide but your ancestor stole her away from him. The daemon had been promised life again because of his excellent behaviour despite many obstacles with the woman of his choice. He had chosen Aoide, but your ancestor took her."

Jay picked up a small honeyed biscuit. "Took her where?"

"Took her Jay. You know. Had sex with her. Do I still have to tell you that information as well?"

Jay nearly choked on his biscuit. "No mother, it's really okay. I think I can cope with the information that has gotten me thus far. But I am beginning to see why the daemon was so upset."

"Yes yes... apparently he had your ancestor killed but as he was dying the daemon told him that the children of Aoide will all be cursed, and they will all die ugly untimely deaths."

"And you think John, dad and potentially me are all part of this curse." Jay had heard this one many times, and it came back to him as he heard her telling the story again.

"Your father didn't believe me either, but the reader had told me he wouldn't and that he would be taken by a huge black car one day. I became paranoid. We weren't allowed to buy any black cars and I cried out in terror if we saw any on the road. Eventually your father, god bless him, just gave up driving to make me happy."

"Till he was killed that day by the trains large black catering car, as it fell over on top of him."

"That's right. With not a wind to push it, or knarled track to trip it. For no reason at all, it just fell on him."

"I don't suppose this woman told you how I was supposed to die?"

"Yes. Madness. You will throw yourself off a tall building."

"Suicide? It'll never happen Mother."

Jay's mother lifted her cup to her mouth and drank. As she put the cup back into its saucer, she looked up at her son. Jay met her gaze, but as always he was unable to hold it.

"The first thing you said to me today is that something terrible has happened to you and you feel as though you're becoming unhinged."

Jay put his cup down and lay back on his mother's bed. He didn't want to talk for a minute, but to let what she said make its way into him. She was right. He did feel unhinged. He'd known there was a disturbing feeling connected to rage at the back of his skull, lurking, always threatening him to come to the surface.

"I think this conversation is the thing that will drive me mad." He finally said.

"Mmmm... yes. Is it the thing itself or the idea of the thing? That is your dilemma. People could easily say the idea drove you to madness."

"Perhaps that is how it is Mother. Maybe if I never think about this, I would be alright."

"Really? Then what brought you here today?"

Jay sat upright. "Good lord, your right. Something very strange has happened to me, and that is why I wanted to come to see you."

"What happened?"

"My arch rival has stolen my groundbreaking designs. These are designs that will revolutionise the fashion industry Mother."

Jay swung his legs off the bed to the floor, thrilled to be able to tell her about his work.

"I am perfectly situated in history for these designs to come to the fore. I am the vehicle -- I am about to change everything for women -- and now my arch rival... he's stolen them. He took my ideas and he's made mock ups and it looks like he will bring the line out before me."

"But doesn't stealing go on in your industry all the time?"

"Yes, but not like this. This work was all done on paper, no computers, because I recognised the seriousness of the lines. It was kept locked up and only my assistant and I had the key. Gregor is completely trustworthy. There is no way on earth that this work could have been stolen. No one would even know to steal this work. "

"Are you sure it wasn't Greg?"

"Completely; as sure as I am that it wasn't me."

"Then you're right. It's started. Its task is to drive you to madness. My guess is he will continue to receive your designs."

Jay leapt to his feet. "Come with me Mother. I want to take you to the studio. I want you to see where I work and I want you to help me get rid of this creature that is making a misery of my life. I need you, and I need you to work with me at full strength."

Jay's mother clasped her hands in front of her chest. "I'd love to son. I'm so thrilled you want me there!"

Jay moved to the cupboard and pulled out his mother's large suitcase and travel bag.

"By the way," he said. "What happened to the psychic that helped you?"

"Oh, she was killed in a road accident the next day."