Chapter 12: Movin’ On Up

Oceano, California

September 6, 2003

It was an emotional day for everyone involved. Elsa had completed her last shift as the Kingsley housekeeper the day before after cooking dinner for the family, cleaning the house thoroughly, and making sure all the laundry was put away. She had even cleaned the windows one last time. She had gone back to her quarters at 8:00 PM, as usual, and spent the last night in her bed. This morning, upon awakening, she had stripped the linen from that bed, laundered it, folded it, and then stored it neatly in the linen closet. The servant’s quarters were spotless except for all of her boxed belongings lying about.

At 9:30 AM, a large moving truck was admitted to the property and directed to Elsa’s quarters. Two men got out and began loading her belongings into the back. It took them about thirty minutes to do so. They secured everything in place, closed the loading door to the vehicle, verified the two addresses they would be going to (most of the belongings would be going to a storage facility) and then climbed back in to start their trip to Orange County. Elsa then went back inside and gave the floors a final sweep and then emptied the trash cans.

“There,” she told Jake, Celia, Laura, and Caydee. “Good as new.”

“I’m sure it is,” Jake said. He was holding Cap in his arms, rocking him gently. His heart was full of sadness.

“Well, now that everything is clean and the movers have taken my belongings away, I guess I had better get going. I’d like to make it to Gerald and Nadia’s place by one-thirty if possible. I should be able to arrive ahead of the movers since they will going to the storage facility first.”

“It won’t be the same without you here, Elsa,” Jake told her, his voice choking a bit, feeling tears forming in his eyes.

She smiled. “The couple you hired will fill my place well,” she said.

“They still won’t be you,” Celia said, tears in her own eyes.

“That is true,” she agreed, trying to remain stoic but with her defenses breaking down. “Only I am me.” She looked around. “I’m truly going to miss this place. It is so beautiful. And I’m going to miss all of you as well, all of your shenanigans.”

Jake stepped forward and gave Elsa a big hug. “Safe travels, Elsa,” he told her, the tears now running down his face. “And happy retirement.”

“Thank you, Jake,” she said, returning the hug. The tears were running down her face as the embrace broke. “As I’ve told you a thousand times, it was never boring working for you.”

Laura was next. She embraced the housekeeper. “Enjoy your retirement, Elsa,” she told her. “I’ll never forget that first day you took me in, listened to my story, kept me calm. Thank you for that and thank you for everything you’ve done since.”

And then it was Celia’s turn. She hugged her. “Thank you for taking me into the house and treating me like one of the family,” she told her. “You can’t possibly know how much that means to me.”

“You are part of the family, Celia,” Elsa told her. “I’ve known that from the first.”

And then it was Caydee’s turn. She was freely crying, her face a mask of abject sadness. “I love you, Elsa,” she told her simply. “I’ll miss you every day.”

“I love you too, Cadence,” Elsa told her. “And I’ll miss you every day too.”

She then walked over to Jake, who was still holding Cap in his arms. The baby was awake, content, looking around, oblivious to the drama going on around him. She smiled down at him.

“Goodbye, Capriccio,” she told him. “I did not get as much time to get to know you as I would have liked, but from what I’ve seen, you are both adorable and incredibly cute. You have a very interesting life in front of you. I know that for sure.” With that, she leaned down and gave him a kiss on the forehead. He smiled back up at her.

“All right,” Elsa said. “Time to hit the road.”

She gave them all one last smile and then climbed into her two-year-old Toyota Four-Runner, started the engine, and then drove away. They all watched her until she disappeared.

September 8^th, a Monday, was one of the milestones for the Kingsley family. It was the day that Cadence Elizabeth Kingsley started kindergarten. Since the new couple slated to take Elsa’s place had not started yet—Pauline’s connections were still running a background check on the two of them—it was up to Jake to make breakfast while Laura got her big girl ready for school. Jake made breakfast burritos, one of Caydee’ favorites, while Laura dressed her smartly in her new clothes and got her backpack ready to go (there was nothing to put in it just yet). At 7:30 Jake, Laura, and Caydee loaded into the BMW and made the ten minute drive to Nicholas elementary school in Oceano.

The scene was chaotic over on the kindergarten side. There was an entire line of cars and pickup trucks and minivans in the drop off/pickup line, dozens of parents with cameras and video cameras documenting their own children’s milestones. Further down, in the main school area, were more cars and trucks and minivans as well as several yellow school buses. Kids were everywhere. Caydee looked a little intimidated by it all.

“Don’t worry, Caydee girl,” Jake told her. “There are only going to be about twenty-five kids in your actual class.

“Okayyy,” she said nervously.

Jake parked at the end of the line and they piled out. He locked the door using the key fob. They then made the hike into the crowd. Jake had the digital video camera with him and Laura had the digital camera. Jake had just had another haircut three days before, bringing it down to almost military standards, and he looked nothing like the typical Jake Kingsley. As far as he could tell, no one recognized him or Laura. They were just two more parents and a child in the crowd. Jake filmed while Laura snapped away.

Soon, a group of four teachers appeared, all of them female. Caydee’s teacher, they already knew, was Ms. Kenerson, but they had never met her and had no idea which of the females she might be. One of the four stepped forward and asked for everyone’s attention. She received it after a few moments.

“I’m Ms. Pickerel,” she said, “one of the four kindergarten teachers here for this semester. Welcome parents and students to the first day of school. By now, I hope you all know which teacher your child has been assigned to. I will introduce you all to the other three and then ask you to have your children form up behind their assigned teacher. If, for some reason, you do not know which teacher your child is assigned to, come see me when everyone else is in place and I’ll get you where you need to be.”

Ms. Kenerson was the second of the three Ms. Pickeral introduced. She was young, maybe in her late twenties or very early thirties. She was, by far, the most attractive of the four. She had short brunette hair, pouty lips, a pretty face, and a body that looked quite athletic. They would later find out that she was a competition swimmer who had worked her way through college on a women’s swimming scholarship. Unlike the other three, she had no wedding ring on.

Once the introductions were complete, the children were asked to gather behind their respective teachers. Caydee had to be coaxed a bit, but she gave her mommy and daddy hugs and kisses and then went and joined the other children behind Ms. Kenerson. Jake continued filming away at her (not failing to get a few prominent scenes of the teacher in the frame. He was a guy, after all). Caydee was the tallest child in her class as she was almost six years old at this point. They could have started her in kindergarten the year before but, despite her intelligence and quick learning abilities, they had chosen not to because she had not quite learned to use only polite words in certain circumstances at that point in her life (she still struggled with this at times and they expected occasional phone calls from either Ms. Kenerson or the principal on this matter). There were five children whose parents did not know which teacher they were assigned to. Ms. Pickerel, without even so much as an eyeroll, simply consulted a master list she had and directed them to the right place.

“All right,” she said once everyone was in place. “We’ll be going into the classrooms now to start the first day. We do all day kindergarten at this campus so the children will be let out at 2:15. Please make sure you are here at that time to pick them up. Lunch will be served at 11:30. Those of you who have not already paid for the lunch program or received the low income waiver for it, please go to the office and take care of that before you leave. And don’t worry too much. We will take good care of your children here. Our job is to educate them and get them started on their long journey through the school system and we are quite good at it.”

With that, all four teachers led their charges through a gate in a chain link enclosure and into the doors of the classrooms. Jake and Laura, who had already paid for Caydee’s lunch program (as well as donating ten thousand dollars to help with the low income program) watched until their little girl disappeared from sight, swallowed up by the public school system.

They drove home. The car seemed depressingly empty and they talked little during the trip. Upon arriving home, they found Celia sitting on the couch while Cap was enjoying a little ride in his electric swing that rocked him gently back and forth. Both Jake and Laura gave him a kiss, catching him at the top of the upswing and earning themselves a smile.

“How was it?” Celia asked. She was still dressed in her pajamas, her hair a mess.

“It was emotional,” Laura said.

“Her teacher is kind of hot though,” Jake observed.

“Oh yeah?” Celia asked.

“She is pretty,” Laura agreed. “But don’t you get any ideas, sweetie. You already have two women.”

“I certainly would not want any more than that,” Jake said truthfully—two was hard enough to handle. “I was just making an observation.”

Jake drank another cup of coffee and then sat down with the ladies so they could wait for it to be time to pick Caydee up from school. They watched a little mindless television but did not talk much. All were worried how Caydee was doing. Would she be able to adapt to the rigors of official public education? Would they receive a call that she had shouted out ‘fuck this’ or ‘fuck that’ or ‘fuckin’ A’? At 11:30 Jake went into the kitchen and made sandwiches from the leftover chicken he’d made for dinner the night before. He served them with pickle slices and ruffled potato chips. They ate at the coffee table in the entertainment room. Celia nursed Cap, who only emptied one breast, refusing the other, leaving Celia lopsided and asymmetrical. The life of a breastfeeding mother.

At 1:55 PM, Jake and Laura climbed back in the BMW and made the drive back to Nicholas elementary school. They arrived at 2:06 to a chaotic mess of traffic waiting to get into the pickup line. They had to stage in the bike lane of the main street, nine cars back from the turn-in to the parking lot. Soon, more vehicles pulled in behind them until the line stretched at least eighteen cars back. At 2:18, they slowly were able to creep forward, little by little. At 2:32 they were finally able to pull into the actual parking lot. They then crept forward in the pickup line for another ten minutes before they were in position. They saw Caydee standing with several other children, Ms. Kenerson watching over them.

Laura got out of the car while Jake remained behind the wheel with the engine running. Ms. Kenerson saw Laura approaching. So did Caydee.

“Mommy!” Caydee said happily, rushing to her.

“Hey, big girl,” Laura greeted her, holding out her arms for a big hug, which Caydee provided. “How was your first day of school?”

“It was badass,” she said.

“Polite words only at school, Caydee girl,” Laura admonished. “We talked about this, remember?”

“I remember,” she said. “But I’m out of school now.”

“But we’re still on school property where other kids and their parents can hear you. Wait until we’re on the way home.”

“Okay,” Caydee agreed.

Ms. Kenerson walked over to the two of them, a smile on her face. “You must be Ms. Kingsley,” she said. “Cadence’s mom.”

“That’s right,” she said. “You can call me Laura or Teach.”

“Teach?”

“It’s my nickname. I used to be a junior high school English teacher.”

“I didn’t know that,” Kenerson said. “Cadence was a delight to have in class. I’m sure she’ll do very well. She already knows the whole alphabet and all of her numbers up to one hundred.”

“She went to a good preschool,” Laura said. “It also helps to have a teacher as a mother.”

“I didn’t make the connection when I first read over the class list last week,” Kenerson said. “Jake Kingsley, the musician, is her father, correct?”

“Correct,” Laura said. “That’s him in the car there.”

She looked over at him, stared for a moment or two, and then turned back to Laura. “The two of you are divorced, right?”

“Right,” Laura said. “If you read the news reports, you know we still live in the same house together and have a very amicable relationship. Caydee hardly knows we’re not still together.”

“But he’s married to Celia Valdez now, isn’t he?”

“Yep,” she confirmed. “They just had their first baby together a few months ago. He’s a cute little thing.”

“And she’s okay with you living in the house with them?”

None of this was really Kenerson’s business, but Laura decided to answer her anyway. “She’s more than okay with it. I help her take care of the baby and she helps me take care of Caydee. We’ve been best friends for years, since long before Caydee was born. We’re still best friends.”

“That’s a very strange dynamic,” the teacher said. She did not seem offended by this; she seemed quite intrigued.

“We’re a strange family,” Laura told her. “You know how we Hollywood people are.”

“Interesting,” Kenerson said. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. I better get back to herding the crowd again. Cadence, I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll be here,” Caydee told her. “Can you do a favor for me, Ms. Kenerson?”

“If I can,” she said.

“Can you call me Caydee? The only time anyone calls me Cadence is when I’m in trouble.”

“Caydee it is,” Kenerson said with a smile. “Unless you get into trouble, of course.”

“Thank you, Ms. Kenerson,” she replied.

They went to the BMW. Caydee climbed into the back seat while Laura got in the front passenger seat. Both buckled up and Jake pulled out of the pickup line and headed for the exit. It was more slow going.

“This is going to suck, doing this every day,” Laura said.

“Yep,” Jake agreed. “So ... Caydee girl, how was the first day of school?”

“It was badass,” she said. “We went over the alphabet and our numbers. Most of the kids knew the alphabet but I was the only one who could count to one hundred without stopping.”

“That is badass,” Jake agreed. “How did you get along with the other kids?”

“They were nice,” she said. “There’s one boy that picks his nose and was wiping it on his desk. Ms. Kenerson made him clean it up and then go wash his hands.”

“Seems appropriate,” Jake said.

“It was gross,” she said, making a sour face. “Anyway, we also learned crisscross applesauce, and we sang the song from Toy Story. You Got a Friend in Me. I told Ms. Kenerson I knew how to play it on my guitar but I don’t think she believed me. Maybe I can bring my guitar in and show her.”

“Why don’t you wait until you’re a little further along in the semester for that request,” Jake suggested.

“Right,” Laura agreed. “Maybe when they have show and tell.”

“Okayyy,” she said, a bit disappointed.

“What did you have for lunch?” Laura asked.

“It was pizza,” she said. “It was okay. Nothing like the pizza that Elsa makes.”

“That would be a tough act to follow,” Jake said. “Did you eat it all gone?”

“Yes,” she said as if talking to a moron. “It was pizza. I always eat pizza all gone.”

They arrived home and went inside. Celia was still sitting on the couch in her jammies. She was now holding Cap in her arms, nursing him again, this time from the larger breast, hopefully bringing herself back to symmetry.

“Brother has a boob,” Caydee commented.

“Indeed, he does,” Celia agreed. “Hopefully he’ll go down for his nap after he’s done draining me.”

Caydee went over and gave her baby brother a kiss on the top of his head. He took his mouth off of Celia’s nipple long enough to give his big sister a smile and then went back to feeding.

“How was the first day of school?” Celia asked.

And so, Caydee told the story again. All in all, she had a good first day of school, though the day was long.

“Can I have a snack now?” she asked, giving the puppy dog eyes.

“How about crackers and cheese?” Jake asked.

“Pepper jack? With the salami slices to go with it?”

“That can be arranged,” Jake said. “Only six of them though. I don’t want you spoiling your appetite for dinner.”

“Awww,” she said. “What a rip.”

“Life is often a rip,” he reminded her. “Let me go put that together for you.”

Jake went back to work the next day, showing up at The Campus at 9:00, leaving Laura the duty of taking Caydee to school and picking her up after. That would become the routine from this point forward until all music projects were complete. He spent half the day helping V-tach lay down tracks in the main studio building. After lunch, he walked over to the rehearsal studio to see how Brainwash was doing. They were doing quite well, incorporating Jake’s “suggestions” into their tunes, drilling them into their collective memories. Their new CD was going to be incredible since they had extra time to work the tunes up before hitting the actual studio.

Laura and Celia did the actual housework while Jake was in the studio. They cleaned and vacuumed, swept and dusted, did all of the laundry, scrubbed the toilets. Neither of them enjoyed this one little bit as they had been spoiled by Elsa over the years. Neither was afraid of work, however, and they did the job well, but they could not wait until the new couple was able to start. All they were waiting for was the completion of the background check.

That occurred on Thursday, September 11, the second anniversary of that awful day in 2001. When the phone rang, the number on the ID screen simply said UNLISTED. Celia picked up the cordless handset. “Kingsley residence. How may I help you?”

“Hey, C,” said Pauline’s voice. “It’s me.”

“Hey, Paulie,” she said. “What’s up?”

“I need to have a discussion with Jake,” she said. “I assume he’s at the studio right now?”

“He is,” she said. “He’ll be back home around 4:30 or so.”

“When he gets home can you have him call me? But have him use his cell phone to call my cell phone.”

“How come?” she asked, curious about the spy craft.

“I have the backgrounds on your prospective domestic servants to discuss with him.”

“Is it good news or bad news?” Celia asked.

“I don’t want to say any more than that on a landline,” Pauline said. “Both of us use cordless phones so there is always a chance that there’s a reporter or some government snoop out there with a scanner on your end or mine. Cell phones are much more secure for this type of conversation.”

“Oh ... okay,” Celia said. “I guess that makes sense.”

They chatted a little about the baby, about life in the Kingsley household, about the impending move of Celia’s parents to the United States. Now that the Valdez elders were safely back in Venezuela and unable to protest, Celia and Laura had found the perfect house for them and put down ten percent of the total cost—having Jill (who was appalled at the cost of the domicile) wire eighty-six thousand dollars to the escrow account out of Celia’s primary accounts (she had had to cash in quite a few certificates of deposit to free up the cash). They were now embarked upon a thirty day escrow, the shortest possible. Celia had, in fact, just finished telling her parents the good news via international long distance.

Celia wrapped up the conversation and then went back into the entertainment room, where Laura was holding Cap on her lap by holding him by the armpits and encouraging him to put his feet down on her thighs, the precursor to one day being able to stand on his own two feet.

“How’d your parents take the news?” she asked Celia.

“They’re very excited,” she said. “They already have all of their paperwork in order thanks to the attorneys over here and over there that we hired. They can come over at any time. We haven’t set a date yet, but probably within the next week or so.”

“That’s awesome,” Laura said with genuine happiness. She liked the elder Valdez couple and they would be four more sets of hands to help out with babysitting and such. “What about all of their stuff?”

“Most of it they’re leaving in the old house,” Celia said. “Eduardo is going to operate it as a rental house and it helps that it’s already furnished, has a refrigerator, and a washer and dryer. It’ll also be cheaper to just buy them all new furniture and appliances for the new house than to have all the old furniture brought by ship through the Panama Canal and then trucked over from Long Beach. Their personal items like their clothes, their photo albums, framed pictures of the family, things like that, we’ll arrange for air shipment to SLO Regional and have a truck take it to the house from there.”

“Makes sense,” Laura agreed. “And you’ll get to have fun going furniture shopping with them.”

“I am rather looking forward to that,” Celia said.

“If Sean and Westin pass the background, we can have Sean help out. Remember, he has a degree in interior design. Plus, he’s gay. You know he has to be good at it.”

“That’s a wonderful idea,” Celia said with a smile, “though perhaps you’re stereotyping Sean just a tad.”

“Perhaps,” Laura admitted with a shrug. “You know me though. I lived with a gay guy for years before I met Jake. Phil, obviously, did not and does not have any sense of fashion or interior design, but stereotypes do exist for a reason. There is often some truth behind them. It seems natural to assume that since Sean majored in interior design by choice, he is likely one gay man who fits the stereotype.”

“A good point,” Celia allowed. “And speaking of Sean and Westin, that was Pauline that called a few minutes ago. She says the background is done on them.”

“Yeah? What did it say?”

“She wouldn’t tell me,” Celia said. “She wants to tell it to Jake, and only cellphone to cellphone.”

“Hmm,” Laura said. “Very Tom Clancy like.”

“I thought so too, but that’s how she wants to play it.”

“What a rip,” Laura pouted.

Laura left at 1:45 to go pick up Caydee for the 2:15 dismissal. She had figured that this was the best time for her level of patience and frustration. It got her there early enough that she could at least pull into the parking lot line—usually near the back of it, but at least off the street—but only made her wait for a half an hour in the car listening to the local jazz station before she was able to move forward toward the pickup area.

She got Caydee into the minivan at 2:25. Ms. Kenerson made a point of waving and smiling at her, but she did not come over to talk. Mother and daughter were home by 2:35. Caydee let her know that she had her very first homework to do. It was a worksheet on the sounds that went with the first eight letters of the alphabet. Parents, obviously, would be required to help with it. Caydee and Laura went inside and Laura fixed her a snack of Beenee Weenees and apple slices. Caydee loved both of these things and devoured them. After cleaning up the kitchen table, the two of them sat down to start working on her homework.

“Do we have to do it now?” Caydee whined. “I want to go out back and play.”

“The guys are working on the pool out there today,” Laura reminded her. “Besides, it’s best to get your homework done right away. That way, you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“Okayyy,” Caydee said reluctantly.

They started with letter A and all the various sounds it was responsible for representing. There was, of course, the simple “Ay”, the same as the name of the letter. There was also the A as in action and apple. Then there was the “ah” sound as in father and auto. They went over these variations several times, with Laura making her daughter repeat them until she had it down. Once that occurred, she signed her off on A and they moved onto B, which was a lot easier because the only sound one could make with it was “buh”. Laura knew, of course, that there were many words with silent Bs in them—bomb, subtle, lamb, doubt, debt, just to name a few—but there was no mention of this in the worksheet as it was too complex an idea for kindergarteners, so she did not mention it to Caydee.

In all, it took them the better part of an hour to complete the first eight letters of the alphabet. When they were done, Laura verbally quizzed Caydee on what they had just gone over and Caydee scored one hundred percent.

“You’ve got quite a brain in there, big girl,” Laura told her with a smile.

“I know,” Caydee said simply. She looked at the clock, seeing it was just after four o’clock. “The pool peeps are all done for today.” She knew very well what time they left the property each workday. “Can I go out back and play until Daddy gets home?”

“Yes, you can,” Laura said. “But change out of your school clothes first and put them in your hamper. And stay away from the pool site.”

“I will,” she said happily.

Jake actually did not make it home until 4:50 because he had stopped at the grocery store in SLO city to pick up some groceries for dinner. It would be simple fare tonight, something easy and quick. He had a few boneless, skinless chicken breasts, some red bell peppers, an onion, a can of refried beans, and a package of small flour tortillas. With a few spices from his spice cabinet, he would have chicken fajitas for everyone and there would be leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

After putting the groceries on the kitchen island, he went into the entertainment room to give Laura, Celia, and Cap hugs and kisses. He spent a few minutes snuggling with his son and holding him up on his lap in the standing position. Cap, as always, was happy to see his daddy and did not even throw up on him. Caydee, through some sixth sense, realized he was home and came inside and gave hugs and kisses of her own. She told him about her day, including her first homework and how Mommy had made her do it before letting her outside to play.

“Mommy knows best, Caydee girl,” he told her. “She used to be a teacher, remember?”

“I know,” Caydee said. “And she was right. It’s good not to have to worry about getting it done now.”

“There you have it,” Jake told her, giving her one more hug. She smelled of child sweat from running around and playing on the jungle gym and the swing set.

“Pauline wants you to give her a call,” Celia told him. “Cell phone to cell phone only.”

“Really?” he asked. “How come?”

“She wants to talk about the backgrounds on our potential new housekeeping team. Apparently they’re in and she’s afraid that someone might be monitoring our cordless phones either on her end or ours.”

Jake nodded. “That makes sense,” he said respectfully. “Some of the information her sources gathered might have been acquired in ... well ... not exactly a legal manner.”

“That was kind of my impression,” Celia said.

“If someone would cut up the onion, peppers, and chicken for me, I’ll call her right now.”

“I’ll do it,” Celia said. She plucked Cap from Jake’s arms and handed her over to Laura. “Here you go, Teach. Keep an eye on this thing for me.”

“I’m on it,” Laura said happily. “I’ll take holding our little dude over cutting up food any day of the week.”

Jake pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket and then went into the office and sat down at the desk. He scanned the camera views automatically, seeing that nothing amiss was going on outside. He then opened his contacts list and pushed the button for Pauline’s cell phone. It rang twice before his sister accepted the call.

“Hey, little bro,” she said. “You’re a little late getting home today, aren’t you?”

“I had to stop at the grocery store for dinner stuff,” he said. “Remember, we’re flying without any staff in the house right now and I live with two ladies who can’t cook worth a shit, although Laura can make a decent breakfast.”

“Your staff is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,” she said.

“C told me you have the backgrounds back on our two potentials.”

“Indeed, I do,” she said.

“How’s it look?”

“They are both so squeaky clean it is almost suspicious,” she said. “Neither one has ever had so much as a parking ticket in their entire lives. No arrests, no traffic tickets, and, as far as can be determined, neither of them has ever even been detained by any law enforcement agency in the United States, at least not to the level that their IDs were run through the system. Neither are in the known persons computer that all police agencies in the US share. The only official documentation we have are their educational records and their driver’s license, social security files, and tax filings. They don’t even cheat on their taxes.”