Chapter 65: Back Home Again

The concourse at Meadows Field Airport wasn’t terribly busy, but that didn’t mean that Kay couldn’t get lost.

Her mother and her mother’s lover – the “Gold Dust Twins,” she snorted at the nickname they has earned so well – were nowhere to be found. If they were in a restroom, doing what they seemed to do 2-3 times a day, now, she didn’t want to find them, anyway.

“My world for a cab stand,” Kay sighed as she looked around. She realized how silly and out of place her tropical clothes seemed in Bakersfield, so she wanted nothing more than to get home, shower and leave all of that salt and sand behind.

She trudged around another 10 minutes and realized she was passing a newsstand for the second time.

“I cannot believe I am lost in this fucking airport,” she muttered. But she paused, thinking she heard her name.

“Kay! Kay Richards!”she clearly heard that time. She looked in the direction of the voice and, sure enough, she saw someone holding a KAY RICHARDS sign high above the mob milling in the concourse. She could not see more than the hands holding the sign; clearly the person holding it was not that tall.

Kay tried making her way towards the sign; it was much like swimming against the tide. She caught a glimpse of golden blonde hair once, but then she got a little turned around when a rushing businessman got tangled with her rolling suitcase.

Kay looked again and saw no one. She tried moving in that direction again, yanking her bag hard and upending another woman was not paying attention.

“Kay Richards!” she heard again, off to her right. She turned and saw the sign and its holder were only a few feet away.

“Gina?” Kay asked, incredulously. “Gina Gerard?”

“Kay! I found you!” shouted the Daytown High homecoming queen, dropping the placard and rushing to hug her erstwhile lover.

Kay was surprised at the passion of Gina’s embrace, but returned the hug. She was even more surprised when Gina declared her emotions in front of the entire airport by kissing Kay on the mouth. Her combination of passion and gentleness touched her. She happily returned the kiss.

“I’ve missed you so much!” Gina whispered in her ear as they again hugged. “When I heard where you’d gone, I was so afraid you’d never come back. But Alice told me that Miz Castle was coming back on this flight, so I knew I had a chance.”

At that moment, Susan Castle and Missy Arnovsky, arm in arm, passed by. Missy waved and Kay thought her teacher winked at them as they passed.

“I thought maybe you’d need a ride,” Gina said in a small voice.

“Well,” Kay said, looking around. “My mom was on the same flight...”

“Oh! Well, then. I’ll see you around,” Gina said, turning to go.

“Wait a minute! Gina!” Kay pulled her around by her arm and found the beautiful, busty blonde was tearing up. “Why are you crying? Gina, I’m home! I’ll be happy to grab a ride with you.”

“Really? What about your mom?” she said, smiling through her tears.

“Do you see her anywhere?” Kay said sourly. “She and Miss Gallagher are in a stall somewhere making up for the six hours they couldn’t fuck each other.”

“Oh,” Gina said, taken aback. “I don’t really know what to say to that.”

“Say you’ll get me out of here,” Kay laughed. “I am so ready to sleep in a familiar bed.”

Gina paused. “Well, you slept in mine once,” she said, touching Kay’s arm.

“Good enough for me,” Kay said, wrapping her arm in that of the homecoming queen, pausing for the briefest of moments to squeeze one of her prominent breasts.

“Oooh. No bra,” Kay grinned. “You were waiting for me, weren’t you?”

Gina grabbed Kay’s hand and stuck it under her fashionable dress. “No panties, either.”

“I’ll match that,” Kay said, guiding Gina’s hand onto Kay’s soaked, shaved pussy. Gina’s eyes went wide and she diddled her fingers underneath the tropical skirt.

“Hey, we are in public,” Kay laughed. But Gina had transferred her four fingers into her mouth and luxuriated in the taste.

“I had ice cream every day since you and I ... met,” Gina said, suddenly blushing. “It’s not the same.”

“Damn, I hope not,” Kay laughed, taking the girl’s arm.”Take me home and I’ll explain why.”

Just then, a trio of airport security people jogged past, hands on their sidearm. Another one passed a moment later with a flashing light atop her golf cart. Kay barely heard part of the squawked message she received.

“ ... sex in the concourse ladies room...” her radio sputtered. “ ... one has a dick...”

Kay sighed.

“Welcome to my world,” she said, turning and looking directly at the lovely girl.

“You’re welcome to mine,” Gina said. “It will be so much better with you in it.”

“Kay, you rock, girl,” Kay turned and looked over her shoulder to see Stacy Childers, similarly clad in an extremely inappropriate Hawaiian skirt and sandals. Behind her, her mother, Alyssa, was dragging four huge bags behind her and a half-dozen more were being wheeled along by skycaps.

The gates to the imposing chateau stood open. The grounds were unkempt, the dogs were gone and there was nary a guard in sight; it did not take long for Chateau Micheaux to go to seed.

Sara was the first to step out the cab; there were no more town cars. She stepped directly into a pile of slush, drawing a “whoop” of surprise; no one told her not to wear sandals. But she did not ask Casey or Althea, both of whom wore boots.

“Doesn’t look as scary as I remembered,” said Casey, who had stayed in Windsor for the years she attended school there.

“Still looks like a Nazi stronghold to me,” said Althea, who was armed with a signed contract from Casey to finally write the biography of the megalomaniac.

Each woman was there with a purpose. Casey was to decide what she wanted to keep, what she wanted sell at auction and (secretly) what she wanted to burn to help erase his memory. Althea was there to gather any and all documentation Michaux kept recording his controversial life. Sara, she was there to support her daughter.

“Funny, mom. You were banished from here and I swore I’d never come back,” Casey said, taking Sara by the hand. “I never believed we’d outlive him.”

“Ladies, perhaps you could be just a tad more morbid?” Althea rolled her eyes. She held her bag, which contained a semi-automatic pistol she knew how to use well, close at hand.

There was yellow tape across the door, but that was put in place when the search for the missing billionaire was wide open. Eventually authorities were able to track his movements to his rented chopped, then ID’d enough fragments to know that they would not find said helicopter or its passengers.

“He had a safe in his study as well as hid bedroom,” Casey said, handing a piece of paper to Althea. “The executor said I couldn’t give them to you until we arrived. Good luck.”

Althea clutched the paper containing the combinations and quickly moved up the stairs. Her goal was to be here as brief a time as humanely possible.

“While you start on the inventory, I’ll get us some coffee started,” Sara said. She paused to remember where the kitchen actually was. Guessing correctly, she flipped on the light switch and screamed.

Casey stumbled into her a few moments before Althea, brandishing her pistol, followed suit.

“What is it?” she asked the two horrified women.

“I think I scared them,” came a weak, shaky voice. Althea pointed her gun, but only for a second, as a starving, shaking, barely alive Shay Micheaux sat there. Too weak to stand, the gratitude at being saved could go no farther than her eyes.

Mother and daughter small talked and laughed their way across the county as it appeared to the world as if Alyssa Childers and her daughter had properly reconciled and began the healing and bonding process.

Nothing could be further than the truth. Alyssa, duly programmed, knew she was to play a part, pretending to be Stacy’s loving mother when she was nothing more than a slave to the goddess. Pleasing her was now the only thing that mattered, and putting on a public show of love and family was the way she could do it at this moment.

Declining help from the skycap, she hefted each suitcase and loaded them in the trunk of the town car they’d left in the long-term parking zone. He began to excuse himself, but Alyssa called, “Wait!”

He turned to see her pulling a $!00 bill from her bra.

“You did all the work,” he protested. “I’ll be torn a new one if my boss knew.”

“But you did keep us company. Watched us. Kept us safe,” said Stacy, who also was offering a C note. “Take it with our thanks.”

He nodded his thanks and disappeared. Skycaps did not get rich by walking from job to job.

“Are the bag loaded sufficiently, mistress?” Alyssa asked, head bowed.

“Stay in mother mode,” Stacy commanded. Alyssa’s head immediately rose and she had a very authentic looking smile on her face.

“Sure, baby,” she said. “You want me to drive? I’m pretty sure I remember the way.”

“The keys are under the visor,” Stacy said. “The bags are fine, mom.”

“Thank you, sweetheart,” Alyssa said, opening the back door for her daughter. Stacy slid into the back seat and Alyssa secured her seat belt and pulled out of the parking lot. Neither one spoke again until they approached their own neighborhood.

“Not much has changed,” Alyssa said as they wove through the maddening series of curves the sadist of an architect laid out.

“The biggest change is that Miss Castle’s new studio is going up on the plateau,” Stacy said. “I really enjoy climbing up there.”

“Climbing? Wow,” Alyssa said, saying nothing further as that detail sank in. “You know, people are going to think you went to the Caribbean for a boob job. Both of us, in fact/”