Twisted Proposal (9 page)

              “Darling, she doesn’t have to eat if she doesn’t want to. Let her relax and get used to the idea of us. Lord, knows we have to get used to her,” Petra said.

              I bit my tongue to avoid saying something mean.

“Oh and she’s going to need new clothes," Stuart said. "Her luggage was lost.”

“Oh.” Petra glanced back at me for an explanation.

What was this some kind of joke? Hello, you threw them away.

“Are you sure you’re not hungry?” Stuart asked before I could rat him out.

“No Stuart, I’m
fine
, thanks.”

“I have to finish some work. I’ll be in my study.” He left, leaving me alone with Petra.
Awkward.

Her eyes scrutinized everything about me, but I refused to meet her gaze. “Shall we go to your room?” 

“Okay.” 

We returned to the foyer. “I should probably tell you that we have five maids, two yard men, and a pool guy. Let me know if you have a problem with any of them. Oh and a cook.”

Who needed that many people to take care of them? It was the twenty-first century.

We reached the top and turned left. She told me that there were six bedrooms in total. Three were on the right and three on the left.
What did they need six bedrooms for? Maybe they had a lot people over.

“This is Lexus’s room.” She pointed out a vivid hot pink door with Lexus’s name painted on it in black cursive. I could hear her talking on the phone.
With as much money that these people had, you’d think they would have enough for soundproof doors.
Then she led me to a door at the end of the hall that was painted white. She opened it, exposing the biggest bedroom I had ever seen.

It smelled like fresh paint and vanilla. The walls were light blue on top and a dark blue on the bottom, with a white wooden trim between the two. There was a queen-sized bed with a white wood frame and a matching dresser, desk, chair, and entertainment center with a flat screen television.

“This is my room?” I expected a room in the attic, under lock and key. I almost felt guilty.

“I know it’s not much, but it’s what we could muster up at the last minute.”

“No, it’s nice. Thank you and please tell Stuart it’s too much. You really didn’t have to do all this. A simple bed would have sufficed.”

She forced a smile. “You’re being modest. That’s sweet. Stuart told me that you were living with your mom?”

“Something like that.” I didn’t want to give her a lot of information. Who knows what she’d do with it. 

Placing my bag on the desk chair, I glanced out the window. My room overlooked a massive backyard complete with a deck, pool, and gazebo in the distance. The entire property was surrounded by trees, thick like a forest. When I turned around, Petra was still there.
What did she want? A tip perhaps.

“You favor you mother.”

“Did you know her?” I walked across the room and opened a door, revealing a messy bathroom. Lexus slammed the door on the opposite side.

“No, but I’ve seen pictures of her. I mean, who didn’t know her? Between you and me, from what I heard she got around.”

Did she really think I would tolerate this?
“Please don’t talk about my mother like you know her, because I can assure you, you don’t.” I glowered at her.

She seemed stunned into silence. I began unpacking my bag.

“Well, I guess I’ll leave you alone then. Breakfast is usually at 8:00 a.m. during the week and 9:00 a.m. on the weekends. So when you get up, just come on down. It’s informal.” She left. 

Like I would join her for any meal.
  We were definitely not going to get along. I didn’t need a mother. I hadn’t had one since I was five.

Chapter Nine

I familiarized myself with the rest of the room and found cubby holes in the back of the closet perfect for my keepsake boxes. I’m sure they were meant for shoes or something because they were built into the wall and low to the ground.
Jeez, this closet’s as big as the bedroom Elizabeth and I shared back at home. There was no way it was ever going to be filled with clothes.

I began to relax and took a seat on the blue settee at the foot of my bed and gingerly picked up the TV remote. I hit the power button and cartoons blared to life, so I lowered the volume. It was still hard to believe I was actually in California.

Sitting on the edge of the couch, I was sure Petra or Stuart would burst through the door any minute and take me to my true quarters in the basement.

But after five minutes, I decided it was safe to stretch out.

As if on cue, Lexus marched into my room with her ear plastered to her phone, glared at me, and then retreated back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Part of me wanted to chase her down and give her a piece of my mind, but that would have just made things worse. Besides I
was
technically invading her space, not the other way around.

* * *

“Here you go,” Petra announced a short while later as she walked in without knocking. She was accompanied by a woman dressed in a black and white uniform who carried a stack of clothes. Without speaking, the maid began arranging the clothes in the closet.

“I hope these will these work until we get you some new ones. They’re some of Lexus’s old things. I hope you don’t mind wearing hand-me-downs.”

“Not at all, but do you think this is okay with Lexus?” I didn’t need any more drama.

“She won’t notice. I was going to donate them anyway. Might as well put them to good use, until we figure out what to do with you.”  She held her gaze on me.

I lifted an eyebrow.
Did I do something wrong?

“Stuart failed to mention how much you looked like your mother.”

“You’ve stated that a few times. Is that a bad thing? If it is, maybe you could convince him to send me back to Illinois. Just so you know, I never wanted to come here in the first place.” I tried not to sound rude, but my tolerance for her was waning fast.

“No, of course not. I’m sure everything will work out.” She waved her hand around again. “Esther,” she pointed to the woman still in the closet, “comes in the morning to make the beds. If you can just leave your dirty clothes outside the door, she’ll pick them up. Feel free to call anyone. We have long-distance.” She picked up a white cordless phone, which was on a nightstand next to the bed and placed it on the glass table in front of me.
Dr. Franklin. I wonder if she had a chance to find out information on that Henry Maddox guy.
Maybe I could just find him myself?

Esther finished and waited near the door for Petra, who took me in one more time. “Come along, we have lots of important things to do,” she said, and they left.

Should I lock the door?
I decided against it.
I had my very own room. Everything was mine. Well, not everything.
My gaze fell on the bathroom door.

I decided to see how messy it really was, so I got up and peered inside. Clothes were scattered across the tiled floor and draped over the shower rod. The toilet needed to be flushed, and the marble countertop was covered in makeup, glitter, and dust.
The maids apparently didn’t clean every room.
No way was I going to take a shower in here. I’d been to homeless shelters with cleaner rooms than this.

I took a deep breath, trudged through the mess and knocked on Lexus’s door.

“What?” She yanked open the door and I noticed she’d changed into a skimpy blue dress.

              “Uh…do you mind if I clean the bathroom?” 

              “Eww… gross! Are you kidding me?” Her nose wrinkled like her mother's.

              Did I look like I was kidding?
“Not really.”

              “I don’t care what you clean!” She closed the door in my face.

              “Okay, then.” I found cleaning supplies under the sink and went to work. The girl had at least seven tubes of the same lipstick lying around and a truckload of fake eyelashes spilled all over the place. Then I spent at least thirty minutes scrubbing the grime and scum from the shower and bathtub. After separating her makeup into the pre-labeled drawers, I cleaned off an area for me, closest to my room. I stepped back to admire my handiwork. My pink toothbrush stood in an empty plastic cup on one lonely side of the sink. Lexus’s stuff was neatly stacked in her corner.

Thinking about Lexus made me reconsider the way I had arranged the counter. I grabbed my toothbrush; there was no way I was keeping it in here.
Who knew if she would sabotage it or not.

“What the hell did you do?” shrieked Lexus, causing me to jump about a mile in the air. I whipped around to see her standing in her doorway with a freaked out look on her face.

“Clean. I asked you, remember?” I raised the bucket and scrub brush.             

“How could you do this to me?”

“Uh... simple it’s called a bucket and bleach water. This place should have had hazard signs up.”

“You skank! I don’t know where anything is!”

Pointing to the labeled box, “It’s all there, neatly organized. You can still find whatever you’re looking for.”
What was the big deal? I’m sure I saved her from a fungus waiting to destroy her perfect toenails.

“What’s wrong with you? Daddy!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

“You’re asking me what was wrong when there was about an inch of dust in here. It was disgusting! You should be thanking me.”

“There’s no way I’d ever do that. Why don’t you just go back to the streets where you came from and leave my family alone?”

“Gladly.” I dropped the empty bucket and sponge.
Bring it on.
She stepped back with wide eyes.

“What’s going on here?” Stuart demanded, staring at me and then at Lexus for an explanation.

“Can’t you see? She ruined everything. How am I ever going to find anything?” She pawed at the organizer on the counter, as if she didn’t know how to open it.

“Lexus, you needed to clean anyway. I told you that you’d be sharing a bathroom.” He glared at me.
What’d I do?

“I’m sorry. Sheesh.” I fled to my room and shut the door behind me hard. I reached for the doorknob, ready to turn the lock, but Stuart was already barreling into the room.

“Don’t even think about locking this door, young lady!” 

“I wasn’t going to. Look, I didn’t mean to piss her off, but she told me she didn’t care if I picked up or not.” I shrank back. He was frozen to his spot. “And I even apologized.” I clenched my fists, unsure of what was going to happen next.

“Addison?” His voice relaxed.

“What?”

“I’m not going to hit you or anything,” 

“So what if you did? It’s not like it’d be the first time.”

He sighed. “Geez, I’m sorry about earlier. I was stressed out. From now on, just be mindful of what you’re cleaning. Okay?”

“Whatever.” I avoided his eyes. He should be yelling at her, not me. I didn’t do anything wrong.

“Okay, well good night.” He left.

I didn’t move for a full minute, and then slid down the wall, pulling my knees up to my chest crying.
Elizabeth, why did you have to die?

Instead of going to bed, I went into the closet, turned on the light, and sat on the floor where I took out the keepsake boxes. It was like I had pieces of a puzzle. Nothing made sense to me anymore, but I sure the hell was going to find out even if it killed me.  A short while later, I put my things away.  When I crawled into bed and lay my head on the pillow, sleep came in an instant.

* * *

I woke up drenched in sweat, forgetting where I was. Dark shadows danced along the wall and my eyes settled on my book bag on the floor near the bathroom door.
That’s right. I'm in my new room at my father’s house
. 

Sitting up, I flipped on the lamp near my bed to chase the shadows away. It was so quiet here; I swear I could hear the faint whisper of water moving in the pool. At home there was the sound of the bar down the street or people talking on the front stoop. My television was off adding to the silence. I flipped it back on. The noise was comforting.

Taking some of the clothes Petra lent me, I snuck into the bathroom.  At least the room was still clean for the most part, except for toothpaste smeared in the sink. I locked both doors before stepping into the spacious stall and turned on the water.

Hot water cascaded down my body from three different heads, and I smiled. It had to be one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life, and I didn’t want to get out. There was more than enough pressure, and the water stayed warm.
I could get used to this.

No!
Shutting off the water and drying off, I chastised myself for being
so easily seduced. I wasn’t supposed to like anything here.  After returning to my bed, I scanned through the channels, hating the feeling of indifference that had settled over me.

***

Someone rapped on the door a short while later.
What was I supposed to do?
 

They knocked again, a little louder, so I got up and opened it.

Petra, gasped, covering her mouth.

“What?” I asked, confused, and then realized it must have been my eye.

              “You poor thing. Does it hurt?” She rushed into the room, shutting the door, as if she was afraid some invisible person would see me.

              “Uh, no, not anymore.” I touched my cheekbone, staring at the ground.
It’s not that big of a deal.

“I guess that’s a good thing. I brought you some more clothes.” She handed me another pair of shorts and a tee shirt.

“Thanks.”

“Will you be joining us for breakfast?”

So that’s why she was here.
“No, but thanks for inviting me. I’m just not really a morning person,” I lied. I loved the mornings, the sunrise, and the birds chirping.

“Okay, well, I have some errands to run today, so I’ll be in and out. Shall I have Esther bring your lunch up?”

“I can go down and make it myself.”

“No, that’s not necessary.” She turned to leave. “Try and have a good day.”

“Easier said than done.” But she didn’t hear me. She had already closed the door. I stretched and put the clothes in the top drawer of the dresser. At home I only had a plastic container that I kept all my clothes in. Elizabeth got the closet because she had way more clothes.

The sound of footsteps behind startled me. Turning around, I found Stuart staring at a photo on my nightstand. 

“What are you doing?” He was so nosy. I placed the picture face down.

“I have to go to work. I just need to know you won’t try to run away.”

“I’m not promising anything.” It was the truth.

“Okay, that’s what I thought, so you leave me no choice but to lock you in your room.”

“Seriously?  You can’t do that.” Now I wanted to run.

“If you can’t promise you won’t try to leave, then I have no choice. I don’t have time to waste looking for you.” He turned to go.

“Gee, glad to know I mean so much to you.”

“More than you’ll ever know.”

He went to the nightstand and removed the phone.

“Why do I get the impression that I’m here for some reason you’re not telling me about? I don’t have any money or anything.”

“You’re imagining things. I’ll have someone bring up your lunch.” He faced me, but I didn’t believe him. “When I come home, I’ll unlock the door. Feel free to join us for dinner.” He left and the door locked into place.
This wasn’t happening.

Gazing out the window, I searched for something that would assist my escape but found nothing. There was an old rickety drain covered in moss and within reach, but I didn’t trust my luck not to land on the deck below. I was adventurous but not stupid.
No, I would just wait it out for now.

After checking Lexus’s door, which was also locked, I decided to watch television to calm my nerves.

An hour later I was bored out of my mind.
Screw this.

I rummaged through my desk where I found a stray paper clip.
Time to blow
this joint.
It took me only a few minutes to pick the lock. The door popped open. I was free.
Now what?

I stood, fully intent on leaving, but paused.
Did I really want to do this?
So far things hadn’t been that bad. I mean I was still alive, wasn’t I? I shut the door and dressed in my dirty clothes.
Maybe I would just explore a little
.

              I pulled my hair back and applied the makeup just in case I ran into Petra or someone else, then left my room. The house was silent as I made my way downstairs. Instead of leaving out the front door, I caught a whiff of something amazing, and my stomach growled. I took a deep breath and walked through an elegant dining room, taking in another elaborate chandelier hanging above the table.