Tales From Sechs City
-- welcome to Sechs City, a wealthy, middle-class costal area of Western America in the state of California. A gorgeous, quiet largely uneventful place, people move to the city to follow their dreams, to live their day-to-day lives. It's almost too perfect to be true...
*
Though they had been able to push the barbeque to one side so far that day, at nine o' clock there was no way to ignore it. The doorbell rang and immediately a long line of deliveries began to arrive. Soon the large white marquee was making its way towards the back garden of the Smith house, carried by four strong men who knew how to put it up backwards.
Wanda had reluctantly kissed Oliver goodbye and was dressed in smart work clothes, pointing out where the marquee was to be set before heading back into the kitchen for the three staff catering company that were beginning to work their magic in there. Though the meat had already been bought and was placed in a large cooler by the back door, the salads, vegetarian options and desserts still had to prepared before the first guests arrived at half past two.
Jack was helping as much as he could by watering the various flower beds and bushes that were scattered throughout the garden. It had already been predicted that the temperatures would rise to even higher than the previous day, so the plants needed to be well looked after before the midday sun really began to take its toll.
Lewis and Lianne were helping too, but they had held so many of these events that they both knew when you hired experts it was best to leave it to them. They concentrated on drinks, even driving quickly to the local supermarket to stock up on bottles of beer, which were strangely going missing in their own house. Both parents knew the fault lay at their son helping himself to a crafty bottle every now and again, but they decided to keep quiet on the matter. There had been too many arguments in the house that week to start another one now.
It was coming up to eleven o' clock and things were beginning to look under control, mainly thanks to the steely glares and severe tones of Wanda, who ran the kitchen like a military outpost. The caterers didn't mind; they'd worked with her before and knew really she had a heart of gold. They had also noticed, despite her professionalism, little smiles kept breaking out over her features.
*****
Elizabeth had kept herself away from the madness, telling herself that she would be no use to anyone not having the first clue what to do. Instead she sat in her room; the windows open fully, a cold glass of water by her side. She sat at her dressing table with official documents to write concerning her progress with the Smiths. Unlike the papers that Lianne had found, these were more up to date, though Elizabeth knew there were still gaps missing in the story of this family.
Already she had seen a change over Lewis and Lianne; when they had come down to breakfast their arms were around each other, and they sat close together, instead of Lewis sitting at the head of the table like he usually did. Occasionally he would whisper something in her ear, and vice versa, and it seemed like the two were sharing some sort of secret joke that Elizabeth wouldn't dream of asking them to explain.
Only Jack looked a little put out by the public displays of affection. "Get a room," he said, but with a twinkle in his eye; he winked at Elizabeth when his father told him to shut up and eat his toast.
Now as Elizabeth sat, her pen in her mouth, she wondered how much more work was really necessary with the Smiths, how much longer she would need to stay. Her record had been two days and nights, but breaking that had long since passed.
The family had, like all her clients did eventually, grown on her; at first she had looked at the house here on West Avenue, had studied its insides and regarded it as just another big property owned by just another rich family. She had seen the family members as stereotypes -- the hormonal teenager, the forgotten wife, the workaholic father. But now more than ever she saw them as people, real people, and the ingredient to this new focus was the love that she felt all of them carried for each other. It was stronger and more of a healer than any therapy Elizabeth could have provided. As usual, it had conquered the worst of life.
She raised her glass to it now in a mock toast. "To Family and to Love," she said to her reflection in the dressing table mirror. It made her think of her own family -- when was the last time she'd called her mother? When was the last time she'd seen her mother? "Another of the cons of this job," she sighed out loud.
There was a knock at her bedroom door. "Just a second," she called out, replacing the files back into her case before walking over and opening the door. Lewis and Lianne were standing out on the landing, holding hands. They both looked nervous.
"Hi, can we come in for a moment?" asked Lewis.
"Of course," replied Elizabeth, stepping aside to let them through.
The husband and wife sat on the end of her bed, while Elizabeth drew the dressing table chair over so she could face them.
There was a silence while the two briefly looked at each other. Then Lianne said, "We want to talk to you about something."
"Ok," said Elizabeth smiling.
"Something that happened three years ago," continued Lewis.
"Go ahead."
Lianne put her hands together and as she started to talk her gaze went slowly from her feet to looking into those green emerald eyes of the blonde sitting in front of her. They were full of kindness and concern, and gave her momentum to keep the story going.
"Three years ago Lewis and I went on a short holiday to a place in New England called Sailor's Cove. It was an amazingly beautiful place, and there was just this feel in the air of mystery and romance that carried us both away. We quickly made use of the bedroom, obviously, and...er...various other places too, and when we came back to Sechs City we obviously thought well, nice holiday, too bad it's over, oh well. And then I noticed my period was late."
She stopped for a moment; her throat felt dry though she'd only begun to talk. Lewis took her hand and squeezed it. He felt an overwhelming desire to hold her in his arms, to take on the burden of telling the story, but they had both agreed Lianne would be the one to tell it.
After a while she began to speak again. "Obviously we were both surprised and thrilled. Jack was fifteen and would be moving to college in a few years time, and Lewis' business was doing so well that he could afford to stay at home and help me raise the child. We had it all planned out. It was going to be wonderful."
Lewis felt her squeeze his hand tighter still. Already he could see teardrops starting to roll down her smooth cheeks.
"Then one day I was out shopping with Wanda, and I felt a pain in my stomach. I couldn't breath properly, it was that painful. I'd never felt anything like it before in my life. Wanda rushed me to a hospital, but it was too late. I'd...I'd lost the...the, er..."
"...baby," Elizabeth finished softly for her.
Lianne nodded and buried her head in Lewis' chest, silent tears streaming down her face.
"We never told Jack," Lewis said, feeling a lump in his own throat now. "We had been planning to but...we thought it best not to worry him with it after it happened."
Elizabeth nodded. "And in the process you started to push him away from you both. He may not have known it at the time but he went looking for a substitute. His raging hormones found him one."
"Porn," said Lewis slowly.
Lianne raised her head sharply. "Porn?"
"I wouldn't be too surprised, Lianne," said Elizabeth quietly. "Actually it's very normal; he's a young man, he's curious about women. We were all like that once...some of us still are. But you shut yourselves off from yourselves, too. At the time you needed each other most."
"I thought I'd put too much pressure on Lianne," said Lewis. "I forgot how strong you were inside."
