This is Part 3 of a four part series. To make sense of it please read Parts 1 and 2 first. The story comes together in this Part with just a light dusting of sex thrown in.
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Anne almost called her meeting off with Sybll several times. An odd circumstance caused her to want to meet Sybll again. Anne was angry and wanted some answers.
A new Grade nine student was troubled. A file about the new student was circulated. It had a lot of information about the girl. Anne had seen such files before, but this time she noticed that at the top of the first page was the date of birth and lower on the same page details of the two grades the girl had been held back. The kid was nearly two years older than her peers. It was a factor in her troubled behaviour.
Anne unconsciously made the leap to Jamie, and such information would be recorded about him. She was curious about it and what was said about him. Anne invented an excuse about giving a reference to see the file relating to his artwork. Her friend in the administration office did a deal whereby she would retrieve the file from archives for a dinner at the newest restaurant in town - they met for dinner every six months anyway, but this time Anne would pay.
Anne was excited as she opened the file. Then she was angry. Sybll had lied. Jamie was indeed eighteen. Sure he had skipped two grades, but he had also lost a complete year due to T.B. Anne then laughed. She was certain she was off the hook, but any thoughts that they could become friends vanished in that moment. Anne needed to get some answers from Sybll.
Anne planned to lay into her. Sybll had bluffed her and made her anxious. She would pay, but she would also play it cool. Sybll had deep pockets. If she took the legal route Anne was certain Sybll would win, but her reputation would be in tatters and moreover Sybll would make sure Anne ran up significant legal costs. Sybll would put it into the hands of the police, for certain, so Sybll would not be subject to counter suits. She knew she had to be careful.
Anne rolled up to Sybll's house exactly on time, entering the gates using the key card Jamie had given her. Sybll was looking out of the Library window as Anne arrived, and noted that she would have to change the key card code for the gate. She met Anne at the front door before Anne had a chance to knock.
"Come in my dear." Anne thought 'I'm not your dear', as she followed Sybll into the family room at the back of the house.
They were both dressed casually in loose slacks and fairly shapeless sweaters. Anne had her hair up and Sybll let hers hang down loose. They looked less alike but still very similar.
"I still cannot get over how much we look alike," Sybll opened the conversation.
"The Chinese will be here in about half an hour. Drink? Red wine Ok for you?" Anne nodded. Sybll moved over to a sideboard, pulled out and opened a bottle of Merlot, and poured two large glasses, almost emptying the bottle with one pour. Anne registered that Sybll was trying to loosen her up. Lots of luck with that she thought, knowing when drink was concerned that she could see most 250 pound guys under the table.
Sybll returned to her favourite subject. "We could be sisters, don't you think. When were you born?" Anne saw no harm in telling her. "I'm almost precisely one year younger than you. One day off. Who were your family - tell me about yourself?"
Anne saw no harm in this and gave her a brief story of her life as a child and growing up. She explained how her father and stepmother were real hippies and they travelled around a fair amount, Anne told how she was born locally but they had moved out west when she was about three.
She recalled how they were often hungry as a family and relied on the charity of others for clothes and food.
"We went to Church a lot. I later learned that it was a good way to get food given - this was before food banks." No sisters or brothers. Anne was a bit melancholy when she told how she had never met her mother who died when she two. Her father had told Anne that she resembled her mother. "In short. Sybll, we are not sisters."
Sybll started. "You must be right. I was born and raised in this area. My parents were good solid, middle class, God-fearing citizens. Both dead now. They were older folks. Good to my younger brother and me. Ensured we both had a solid education. The only doubt I have about them was that neither my brother nor I looked a bit like them. In my teenage rebellious - very mild rebellion I should add - I did wonder if they really were my parents."
"Any chance they weren't?"
"Don't think so. There was never any hint we were adopted."
They had been sipping their wine. A bell rang. "Must be the Chinese." It was.
Sybll came back having transferred the meal onto small bowls on a trolley with a heating plate on it. She plugged it in. "Help yourself. There is plenty, and if we can't finish it I am sure Jamie will when he returns home."
They dug in.
"Jamie. Our common connection." Anne opened. "You lied to me."
"Lied?" Sybll looked puzzled.
"Yes. You told me he was seventeen. He's eighteen. You lied to me to make me frightened. You scared the shit out of me and now you are denying it?"
"Oh my god. I am sorry. Oh, shit. Oh. Oh." Sybll dropped her chopsticks on the floor. "I can explain."
"Really?' Anne gave a disbelieving smile. "Tell me."
"You've never had children. You cannot ever know the depth to which a mother is affected by the death or near death of a child. I lost my first child when she was one to a rare neurological disease. She suffered for a year. Then Jamie contracted Tuberculosis when he was eight. He was a super bright energetic kid, big for his age. I doted on him. Then he became ill."
"His symptoms were not diagnosed immediately - it was never clear how he contracted TB - he almost died. Died - think about it. But he survived and has thrived by some miracle. The year he was sick and then in a sanatorium was a lost year. For him. For me. I literally lost that year. It was a year that didn't happen. I have totally blanked it out."
"Jamie Is seventeen going on to eighteen now. I know this sounds whacky, but part of me - no, all of me - believes Jamie is still seventeen. Its not rational but it is true in my mind. That's the best I can explain it."
Anne was silent. This was the biggest truckload of BS she had ever heard. Yet the way Sybll related it, and the tears welling up in her eyes made her into a Shakespearean standard actor, or she really did believe Jamie was only seventeen.
"I'm supposed to buy this story?"
"It's the truth. I know it sounds cockeyed, but that is how it is for me. I did not mean the harm you took from it. I believed every word I said to you. I thought you had violated a minor - my son. I truly believed it. God, I need help sometimes. What can I say to make you believe me? Tell me."
Anne thought for a moment. "Sybll, after I leave tonight you will write me a letter, in the form of a contract, telling me that you will not take any action against me concerning the events of the summer. Ever. Will you do that? You will put in a forfeit clause that if you do not observe the terms of the contract that says you will reimburse me for all my lost earnings, benefits and pension rights plus half a million dollars. Agreed?"
"I have no problem agreeing to that, because I really have no intention of going after you." The pragmatic business side of Sybll had clicked in at the sound of the word contract. But I also have a demand: you will agree to meet with me once a month for the next two years so we can work out an understanding that is not based on hostility and has the best interests of Jamie in mind. I get to choose where we meet and I will carry the burden of the costs, if there are any. Can you agree to that?"
Anne felt and expressed her need to think about that, before reversing herself quickly. "Why not? Do it."
"Not a ringing endorsement, but it'll do. I'll draw up a contract - one of my specialities - and send two copies over to you for signature. Have the signature witnessed by a lawyer. Have the fee invoice sent to me. Now let's toast to that and finish the meal. Then we must open a Chinese cracker each."
They raised their glasses to each other and ate some more. They simultaneously picked up a cracker each and opened them.
"Swap the pieces of paper."
"Ok."
"Now read yours." "You will receive a big surprise soon."
"Huh, the cheap shits. Mine says exactly the same."
"Jamie will be home soon. He'll probably need to get his rocks off after an evening with his cock-tease, but it'll be better if you weren't here, I think."
"Yes, I'll go and await our contract. Do me another favour though. Please check on that thing you said about not being sure if our parents are your parents - biological parents if you know what I mean."
Anne left. She felt she may have been sold a bill of goods, but if the contract came through as promised she knew she was basically in the clear. She also felt conflicted - part of her felt close to Sybll - part hated her.
The rest of the weekend Anne kept returning to her conversation with Sybll. Anne resented the play that Sybll had used on her about the death of her first born and Jamie's TB. She wondered if these so called facts were really true, but concluded it did not matter one way or the other.
What she resented was the real fact that Sybll had implied Anne could not understand what it was like to be a mother. Anne felt like a mother. In fact Anne felt even more than a mother to her over ninety students each year. She had experienced the death of eight students over her years teaching. She remembered their names clearly. She could see their faces. Four had died from afflictions, two from accidents and two committed suicide. The latter two had sent Anne into a state of depression for months. She always wondered if she should have noticed something and prevented the tragedies. Anne knew loss of her children. She could match Sybll for parental experience every day of the week and more.
* * * * * * * *
Anne returned to work on Monday. As usual she lost herself in her students. She revelled in their successes and railed at their failures. She also railed at the administration making her fill in forms and changing the syllabus every school year. She was back into full teaching mode and the summer events were eclipsed by the present for two weeks.
A large envelope arrived in the mail. It was the contract. Anne scanned over it and saw it was pretty well what she had demanded and included Sybll's request for the monthly meetings. The following day Anne called her lawyer to make an appointment. As it happens the lawyer was free that day and was leaving for a three-week holiday. Anne scuttled over to see her.
It was generally satisfactory, but they made a few changes on the spot, signed and had the contract witnessed, including initialling the changes, and wrapped the whole thing up in an hour. Anne mailed it back with a hand written covering note the next day. Sybll called her at home to thank her for the speedy response and that she had agreed to the changes. Sybll was sending the signed copy back. Anne thought, "Done and dusted."
Anne set the whole arrangement aside in her mind and was back into full teaching mode.
After two weeks Anne received an e-mail from Sybll at school. The school e-mail addresses were easy to discover. "Can we set up our appointment? My place again? In the next two weeks, please."
