Chapter 16: Maria

Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Those words are just as true now as they were when the Bard wrote them centuries ago.

Last night was supposed to be the start a new journey for us. Grace and Connie were going to join our family. It was just one in a long line of things that would never have been possible in the world of our birth yet seemed so right in this time and place.

Things didn't quite turn out that way. Grace spent the night away from us while Connie went on a mission to notify and warn our neighbors about Kyle.

I like Grace. She's lived a completely different life from me and came to realize that she was more suited to our way of life than the rat race, buy stuff and more stuff to impress a bunch of people you don't real know or care for life she'd spent most of her marriage striving for. The one thing our lives had in common was that we both had children and we wanted the best for them.

I can't imagine what I would do if Val mistreated his sister the way Kyle did Christina. It's inconceivable to me that a brother could do that to his sister, yet Kyle did. If it was a non-family member who did that to Vicky, my reaction would be to cut his balls off, scratch his eyes out or both. I would have no problem demanding the enforcement of the death for rape mandate. I don't know if I could sentence my own son to death but I do know I couldn't stand seeing him. Banishing Kyle with the warning that he faced death if he showed his face again seemed right to me. Maybe I'd feel different sending my own son away, knowing I'd never see him again.

Seeing his cold body with its throat ripped apart hours later would definitely shake me up. If he was sentenced to hang and the sentence was carried out, that's one thing. But to be told you're going to be killed if you even show your face, then you not only show your face but viciously attack someone close to the one who rules on the life or death decisions is just plain stupid. Kyle had to have been insane, thinking he was above the law and couldn't be hurt. Whatever it was, arrogance, stupidity or insanity, it had to hit Grace hard.

So, Grace drove away with the hunk of meat that was all that remained of her son, leaving her daughter alone to cope with God knows what going through her mind. If Tina hadn't spoken up at dinner last night, none of this would have happened, although it was obvious now that her brother had been a time bomb, just waiting to go off. Like the child who lives the rest of his life thinking he was responsible for his parents' divorce, this was going to affect her for years. Insanity can be contagious and Grace could back away from Christina, blaming her daughter for her son's death.

My husband was already questioning his own judgment. He had the responsibility to ensure that people like Kyle did not exist, protecting the rest of us, and he had been extremely merciful when he banished the boy instead of hunting him down and putting him out of his misery immediately. It was a situation in which duty trumped personal desires and he had acted properly. His actions and the subsequent carrying out of the penalty by Connie and Alfie were the right steps to take. Connie's follow through, making sure all our people at The Town were aware of the order and its completion would serve to show that we are just, that lawful people have nothing to fear while the unlawful do. I don't think anyone alive faulted Burt with the possible exception of Grace.

I had no idea how Grace would finally react. I sincerely doubted that she would ever be comfortable becoming a member of our family, even if she accepted that Kyle's banishment and death were right.

I squeezed my husband's hand as the wagon turned onto the road at the end of the drive. "You did the only thing you could have done. He didn't give you any choice."

"I know. I've gone over everything that's happened since Tina told us about him and I can't find anything I could have done differently. If he had only come back so we could straighten him out."

"Never happen. Our daughter gave him another chance and look what good it did her. We're lucky he didn't beat her. You know that was next, don't you?"

He sighed. "Yeah, I know. What did I ever do to earn all this responsibility? I would have been just as happy being a rancher."

"No you wouldn't. And even if you would, this world wouldn't be as good a place without you watching over it. You were chosen because you care, because you're good. All that shit that's going through your head right now? That's what tells me it was a good choice to make you the Senior."

He hugged me to him. I lifted my head and he leaned over to kiss me. The fact the he's almost a foot taller than me generated a lot of comments when we started seeing each other but we've never found it to be a problem. Burt's strength has always been a comfort to me and it's one of the things I missed the most when he was attacked by that damned cancer. The changes in him after our son took him to the cave made it possible for him to crush me like a peanut if he so desired yet I never feared him, I just felt more safe in his arms than before. Now that my body was in a similar condition to his, I still felt that security when he put his arm around me and squeezed me.

"Are you going to be alright?" I asked him. "Somebody should talk to Tina."

"I'll be fine. Go up to her. I'm sure she's confused right now."

I went in through the kitchen and up the stairs. As I got closer to Vicky's room, I heard voices and some sniffling.

Vicky and Connie were sitting on Vicky's bed, side by side, their backs against the headboard. Christina was lying on top of their legs, her feet on Vicky's, her head on Connie's. She had her back to me and Connie was talking to the two of them in a soft voice, telling them about some horses Burt had brought back from the outlaw camp, going over the poor condition they were in and how it was going to take some loving care from the two of them to bring them back to health. Connie was gently running her fingers through Tina's hair, more like a mother than a girl just a few years older. Tina sniffed and brought a cloth up to her nose. Vicky was as entranced with what Connie was saying as Tina and was idly moving a hand back and forth, rubbing Tina's calves.

Of course, that "girl" who was comforting them was to be our new wife. Somehow I'd known that she was right for our family before I really knew anything about her. Well, I'm sure Dreamer had a lot to do with that. But the way she was able to comfort both of them made it evident to me why she was a good choice.

Connie looked at me and smiled. "Is everything OK?" I asked her.

"As well as can be expected. How is Burt?"

"As well as can be expected. Shaken up and questioning himself. He needs to work things out in his own mind," I said.

"Ah, yes. Our big strong men are the most fragile about these things. You should go to him and be there for him."

"You're right. Thank you, Consuela. You have the wisdom of someone much older than your years."

"I've done a lot of growing up over the past few days."

"I imagine you have. It looks like Tina's asleep. Do you want some help getting her off your laps?"

"No, we'll stay with her for a while. Go to your husband."

"Our husband," I said, blowing her a kiss as I left.

Tina

Vicky was the best thing to happen to me in a long time. All my life, I'd been totally lost, the little girl who didn't fit in.

My mom appeared to love me but she was always too busy doing her rich bitch things. That's what all the girls my age called their mothers and most of their older sisters. It wasn't meant to be a bad thing, because that's what all of them were hoping to become, you could say they were all in training. No, rich bitch was a lifestyle. It included days at the country club, with drinks starting at lunchtime, unless there were bloody Marys or screwdrivers available earlier. For many of them, there was a variety of pills that helped them "cope with things." Thank God my mother hadn't gone that far and was able to pace herself with the drinks so she didn't became falling down drunk.

And then there was the shopping. Clothes, jewelry, cars, houses. Find the best of them and convince your husband to fork over the money. The blowjobs they used to hook their men before marriage became rewards for buying the right thing. If it was really expensive, there even might be a piece of ass in it, literally. Of course, that was a valuable commodity and was rationed out like water after a week in a lifeboat. Small purchases might reap sex a couple of times during the following month. Most of the rich bitches got their cock from their personal trainer, tennis coach or the doctor who filled and shaped their tits with silicone. Or a combination of them, with a new gardener thrown in once in a while.

Their main pastime, other than spending their husbands' money, was gossip. Missing a gathering made you fair game, and like a bleeding tuna amongst a school of attacking sharks, you were torn apart in their feeding frenzy. Unlike the sharks, who at least had the decency to let their prey see who was devouring them, these women waited until your back was turned before they attacked.

My mother wasn't a bad person, she just found herself living in a world where she had to play by the rules if she wanted to survive. The dollar value of the car you drove, the size of your home and opulence of its furnishings, the number of servants you had all determined your place in the pecking order. Of course, they weren't called servants, which is what they were. They were all grouped together into one faceless group known as "the help."

So, while I had the best of everything, I didn't have much of anything that counted. I had some decent clothes that the help got for me, my cell phone for texting and checking out everyone's Facebook pages and sending and reading Tweets, a room full of DVDs and CDs (they were sooo OLD!) and gigs and gigs of mp3s. I-Phone, I-Pod, I-Pad - if it started with an I-, I had it.

I didn't think like the other girls my age and the boys were such pigs I didn't want to have anything to do with them. Mom was too busy to spend any time with me, my brother was a complete ass and every time I got close to one of the help, Mom would figure out that Dad was screwing her and she'd be gone the next day.

As if things weren't bad enough, Mom decided she'd had enough of Dad screwing himself through the female half of the phone book and hit him with a divorce. Dad was tired of being a husband and a father (not that he ever was either of them) and didn't give her a lot of grief. Mom got the house, her car and some money and Dad got to keep his businesses. That wasn't too bad because it didn't make a whole lot of difference in our lives. But then she sold the house and moved us to a completely new area.

That meant a new school, having to make new friends (not that I had any real ones) but the big difference was where we were going to live. A freaking farm. Eee I Eee I Yo.

So, when Vicky and my brother got together and she started talking to me like I was a real person and that who I was and what I thought mattered, it was amazing. She was with Kyle a lot but she somehow found a lot of time to spend with me. She taught me about horses and I learned how to saddle them, ride them and take care of them when I was done. She even convinced me to invite some of the girls from my old school over to ride and they weren't so bad when they lightened up some. Of course, they had to fill me in on the latest gossip about everyone else. I had three different girls over, one at a time, and it was interesting to compare their stories. I discovered they didn't matter to me and I could care less who was bad mouthing who.