Show And Tell (2 of 5)

Calm.

Still.

Serene.

After the couple put their five year old to bed, Daniel kissed his wife. “I’m going to…”

“You have fun with your gaming buddies. You know where I’ll be.” They kissed again. He went into his combination home office, gaming room. She watched him until the door to the room closed. Ashley went into the guest bedroom where her Mannequin Disk was. She couldn’t wait to relax.

She was just on the verge of zoning out when she was surprised by the door to guest bedroom slowly opening. A little face peered inside from just below the door handle.

“Mommy?” Little Britney was upset.

Ashley thought she’d locked the door. She usually did. How could she have forgotten?

“Mommy?” She approached the mannequin, dried tears in her eyes. She had seen her mother use the Disk before. It fascinated her. She didn’t understand why Daddy didn’t use it.

She stepped onto the Disk next to her mother and hugged her knee. “I had a bad dream.” She held her mother’s plastic leg for a moment or two in silence. “Thanks for the hug, Mommy,” she said as she let go.

Ashley would have choked up if she could. She was a mannequin. Her daughter let go of her leg and it wobbled. Ashley was off balance. She was tipping over. She landed flat on the floor with a thump. Her head rolled away from her mannequin body.

Britney hadn’t had time to react and was about to scream when she saw the head roll to a stop against the wall. She looked at the headless neck and for the first time noticed the seams on the mannequin at the shoulder. Hesitantly at first, she touched the mechanism that remained on the neck of the mannequin. She looked really close at the seam at the shoulder and realized the same mechanism was in there, too. She turned the arm on the seam. It loosened and came off. After a delighted squeal, she repeated this until her mother had been reduced to just body parts.

An idea came to her child’s mind. She crept over to the door and peaked out. There was no sign of Daddy. She picked up one of the mannequin parts and brought it to her room. One by one, she moved the parts into her closet. She went to bed with a smile on her face and her mother’s head in her arms.

*****

After visiting the cafe together, Daniel and Ashley went home again. A car with an out of state license plate was parked in front of their house. He parked in the driveway. Running toward his car was a woman who looked like a slightly older version of Ashley.

“Ashley! Oh my god, it is you,” she shouted, the joy in her voice unmistakable.

“Amanda?!” Ashley said as she ran toward her younger sister. They met in the middle of the lawn and embraced.

“I’m going to hold you and never let you go. For a second I thought Britney was trying to pull a prank on me. She texted me a pic of a disembodied foot.”

“Good morning, Amanda,” Daniel said.

“Why didn’t you call?”

“Britney said she’d texted you. Why would I need to call? Let’s go inside.”

“Fine. Fine.” She hugged Ashley again. “You better get rid of that Disk.”

“I don’t know if I can,” he said. “Britney’s been using it.”

“She’ll have to stop. Why would she do that?”

“She wanted to make sure it didn’t break from disuse,” Ashley said. “Why didn’t you bring Mom with you?”

Amanda looked at Daniel, who just shook his head at Amanda.

“Let’s get inside.”

“What happened?”

Daniel stepped between Ashley and Amanda and took both of Ashley’s hand in his. “You’re mother passed away six years ago, Ashley.”

Ashley collapsed against him crying. Amanda was tearing up as well.

Daniel handed Amanda his keys, specifically the house key. He picked up Ashley who was weeping into his shoulder. Amanda unlocked the front door and held the screen door open as Daniel carried his wife inside. He put her down on the living room sofa.

Amanda handed him his keys back. “Why didn’t you tell her?” she said as she sat next to Ashley. Ashley’s arms engulfed her sister, her body continued to shudder with grief.

“I didn’t want Britney to see this.” He handed Amanda a box of tissues.

A few moments later, Ashley blubbered, “Is anyone else dead?”

“Mom’s Aunt Susan. She turned ninety-two a few months before she passed. Dad’s mother died.” Amanda said, handing Ashley several clean tissues.

“Where is Dad?” She said as the tears stopped.

“Okinawa. He moved to Japan a couple years ago with his fourth wife, Meiko.”

“Fourth? I missed a whole wife.”

“Yes. Janice met, married, and divorced Dad in like two and a half years.”

Daniel handed Ashley a bottle of water.

“Thanks, Dear.”

“He met Meiko three or four years ago. I only met her a couple times. I guess she was nice. Kind of a dry wit. Last time I saw her she had said she wanted to be with her parents before they died. I texted Dad this morning. Because of the timezone difference, he probably won’t reply until after eight tonight. Daniel, can you get my bag from the car?”

“I was about to ask if you were staying the night.”

“Night? I’m staying as long as it takes to get Ashley’s life back together.”

“We have an appointment tomorrow with a lawyer.”

“Good. And I’m making sure you don’t get back on that stupid machine.”

*****

“You look amazingly happy,” Darla said to Britney as they sat down to eat lunch.

“I am.”

“Did you finally talk to Gerry?” Beth said.

“Who talked to Gerry?” Tabitha said, joining them at the table.

“No one. I found the foot.”

“What foot?” Tabitha asked.

“No way,” Beth said.

“You know about my Mom in the attic?”

“The mannequin story? Why would you bring that up?” Tabitha said

“Look at her. She’s been smiling all day,” Darla said

“People don’t believe my story about my Mom?”

“It’s a little far fetched, Ashley,” Tabitha said. “Even seeing you demonstrate the Disk and seeing the mannequin in the attic, it can feel like an elaborate prank.”

“You weren’t there for Show and Tell,” Beth said.

“No, I’ve only heard about it from you.”

“I believed it,” Darla said.

“Well, none of that matters any more. I found the missing piece of Mom. She’s a person again.”

“You’re missing mother is back?”

“She was never gone. She just wasn’t…”

“You haven’t had a mother for years and now you do?”

“Yes. I can’t stop smiling.”

Beth gave Ashley a hug. “I’m so happy for you.”

“You could have had my mother, any time,” Tabitha said.

“As much as I wanted to have a Mom, I wasn’t taking yours.”

Beth gave Ashley a hug. “Don’t rain on Ashley’s happiness.”

“I didn’t mean to. I’m so happy for you, Ash.”

“What about that other woman?” Tabitha said.

“Selena?” Darla said. “I like her.”

“Me, too,” Beth said.

“I don’t know. We’ll worry about that later. I’ve got my Mom back. Dad will have to stop seeing Selena, I guess,” Britney said. Her eyes dimmed. She physically deflated. “Now, I’m sad.”

*****

Ashley was standing in the attic. Stuck as a mannequin, she had been suspended on a makeshift doll stand since she couldn’t stand missing a foot. The light was on but no one was around. She was a mannequin. Time didn’t matter. There was a small creek from the staircase. Someone small was creeping up the stairs. She saw her daughter peak over the top of the stairs. She was the cutest five year old on the planet.

She hurried over to the mannequin. “You’re lopsided.” The little girl said.

Her voice sounded funny to Ashley but she wasn’t sure why.

The little girl twisted the right foot of the mannequin until the foot and calf above it came off. She set it down next to her and stepped back. “That was it. Can’t have just one foot. But, now you’re lopsided the other way.”

She twisted the left calf until it came off along with half her left thigh. She set the leg down in the exact same spot where the right foot had been but there was no sign of the right foot and calf. They had disappeared.

“Nope, still no good.” The seven years old Britney said, again in that same voice that wasn’t her five years old or seven years old voice.

The nine years old Britney removed too much right leg.

The ten years old Britney removed too much left leg and hip.

The eleven years old Britney removed too much right hip and abdomen.

Left chest, shoulder, and arm.

Right shoulder, arm, and neck.

Today’s Britney held her mother’s head. “I have no need for a mannequin head. I’m far too old to have show and tell in school.” This was the sound of the voice from before. She put the head down in the spot where all the other body parts had been placed and had disappeared.

She turned and left the attic. The light faded and the mannequin watched as the attic faded into oblivion. No, she realized. It was her who had disappeared. Lost. Gone. Forgotten.

“Aaahah,” Ashley awoke with a start. Her hands rushing up and down her body, taking inventory.

“Ashley, what’s wrong?”

“Hold me.”

“What? Nightmare?”

She just nodded.

He held her firmly.

As he did, she stared toward the end of the bed. She lifted her left leg out from under the blanket to make sure her foot was still there.

*****

On the way home from the lawyer’s office the next day, they stopped at the bank to get her a new debit card. They stopped at a mobile phone store. They bought her a phone and to her delight, she found out Daniel had been paying to hold on to her number all these years.

She was soon crying when she saw she had texts and a few voicemails that were six to nine years old. Several were from her mother. She decided to deal with them later. She looked at her contacts list. “How am I going to call half of these people to say, ‘Hey, I’m alive again.’?”

When Britney got home from school, Daniel called them all into his home office. “I have something for all of you to see. I hoped… I knew this would be necessary someday.” He opened a folder on the desktop and opened the first file within. It was an image of Britney’s first day of school as a first grader.

“I don’t have that photo,” Britney said.

Every milestone, every achievement, every vacation, the folder was all the pics he had taken of their daughter. He let Britney explain the context of them unless she didn’t know.

“Hospital room?” Ashley said.

“Appendicitis.” Daniel said.

“I was only in the hospital like ten hours.” Britney said.

Ashley hugged Britney tight. “I couldn’t take it if you had died.”

“I didn’t. It’s okay.”

“I didn’t even hear about it until she was back to school a few days later,” Amanda said. “Who took care of you?”

“Dad. And Selena.”

“Oh,” Amanda said, her mood darkened.

“I know about Selena, Mandy.”

“I don’t want to talk about her,” Amanda said.

“I invited her for dinner, Aunt Mandy.”

“Why?” Amanda said.

“If you would give her a chance you would like her,” Britney said. “And until she’s here with Mom and Dad, there’s an elephant in the room. I’m not a child.” She turned to look at her mother. “I understand you’re probably hurt by her very existence. She did things you were supposed to do. We can’t change the past. And she did it all while my aunt was rotten to her.”

“I’m...”

“Tell her,” Britney said defiantly. “This trip down memory lane reminds me of events that weren’t photographed, thank god. Dad was there for those events. He did his best. Selena lent a different perspective on those events.”

“Like what?” Ashley said.

“I was going to say my first period. But, Dad actually did okay with that. It was the part after it first happened where I needed to learn about hygiene products that he was useless.”

“I’m glad I was partially sufficient.”

“Oh, Dad.”

“Any other time I wasn’t up to the task?” he said.

“Brad Calloway.”

“The boy you kissed and decided not to date?”

“I may have lied to you about Brad. I was crushing on him hard and after I kissed him he said I was a terrible kisser and he didn’t want to see me any more. He was the first guy who dumped me. Selena was critical to my recovery from that devastation.”

“You’ve already been dumped? At your age?” Amanda said. “Why am I hearing about this only now?”

“You’re four hours away, Aunt Mandy. And I don’t ever think about calling people. I text them. Being dumped would have been impossible to talk to you about through texts.”

“That’s why you dial the phone and talk.”

“Selena was right here. Dad didn’t ask her to do this. I asked her. She held my hand. I cried on her shoulder.”

“I told her explicitly not to talk to you about dating,” Daniel said. “She called me an idiot.”

“You were,” Britney said.

“I find it amusing you’re more mad about Selena than I am, Amanda,” Ashley said.

“You aren’t mad.”

“I’m a little put out. And Daniel and I and Selena will have things to work out. But, Sis, Selena took care of me, too. I heard about that Brad fellow from her. I knew about the appendicitis. She went out of her way to tell me every time Britney came to her for advice.”

“How did that start?” Daniel said.

Britney began, “The first time I saw Selena here too early in the morning to make sense – Sory, Mom – I was seven...”

Her mother just nodded.

“Selena asked me about Mom. I’m guessing you were rather vague about her.”

“Yeah,” her father admitted.

“I just burst into tears. She held me close and said I didn’t have to tell her if I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to. I held out my hand and she took it. I led her up to the attic without a word. We stood in front of the mannequin for a moment. Selena said nothing, she is so patient. I said, ‘Selena, this is my mother. Mom, this is Selena.’ I left the attic. Selena didn’t come downstairs for a few minutes. She found me crying and held me. She didn’t ask me to explain what just happened until a week or two went by. I’m a little hazy on that.”

“I remember that,” Ashley said. “She stood there after Britney left for a moment. She said, ‘I think I need to have a conversation with Daniel where he doesn’t deflect my questions. Nice to meet you, Ashley.’”

“I am not telling you how that conversation went,” Daniel said.

“After that, whenever I asked her a question that should have been for Mom, we would go up to the attic and she’d have me ask again and only then would she give me an answer.”

“At first I was outraged,” Ashley said. “Then, I figured out what she was doing. I didn’t always agree with the answer she gave you. But, she tried to include me. Early on when she would give you advice, she would remind you that she wasn’t sure what I would say. She could only give her own advice. I’m rather fond of her now.”

“I had no idea,” Daniel said.

*****

Selena and Ashley greeted one another like they’d known one another all their lives. Both of them were in tear when they separated.

Britney gave Selena a hug.

When they separated, Ashley said, “You can give her a hug, Daniel.”

It was still awkward. Not as awkward as when Selena looked at Amanda.

“I’m sorry,” Amanda said. “I’ve learned I’ve been wrong about you. I’m supposed to give you a second chance. But, I think it’s you who would have to give me a second chance.”

Selena smiled and pulled Amanda into a hug. “I accept, even if it wasn’t necessary. You were worried more about your sister than your brother-in-law. It was natural.”

With everyone trying their best, dinner wasn’t too weird. After dinner, Daniel went to his office to finish his work for the day.

Selena, Ashley, Amanda, and Britney were in the living room talking. “When he would go into the office after dinner, Britney would usually lock herself away in her room,” Selena said. “This is when I would go to the attic and tell Ashley about whatever needed to be said.”

“You were a lifeline,” Ashley said.

“I’ll make sure I tell you stuff,” Britney said.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

As they spoke, Selena paused to say to Britney, “Are you all right?”

They all looked at her and she was holding back some tears. “I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed.”

“Why?”

“I don’t… I don’t know you, Mom.”

“What do you mean?”

“You aren’t like I always imagined. I don’t know. You’re more outgoing than I fantasized.”

“Is that bad?”

“It’s different. We need to make up so much time.”

“We’ll have plenty of time to do that.”

“Will we? What if I go away to college in a few years? Is that enough time?”

“Britney, we don’t need to do it all tonight. You told me that yesterday morning.”

“I know. That’s part of what set me off. I’ve never lost it before. Now, I have.” She wiped her eyes. “I don’t like it.”

“It’s okay, Honey.” She sat closer to her daughter to hold her.

“No, it isn’t. I almost got up to get a hug from Selena.”

“You can still get hugs from Selena. I don’t have a lot of experience with it but she seems to give good hugs. Just hug me first.”

“What she said. Hug her first,” Selena said. She had moved to sit on the opposite side of Britney who had leaned against her and her mother.

There was a flash. Amanda said, “Poo. I didn’t know it would flash.” She started tapping on the phone she had just used to snap a pic of the three women.

Daniel entered a moment later. “What did I miss?”

“Just some tag-team mothering action.”

“I don’t think I tagged in,” Selena said.

“And I didn’t tag out,” Ashley said.

Selena left shortly after dinner. “I’ll see you in school tomorrow.”

“Good night, Selena.”

“She’s your teacher?” Amanda asked.

“She’s never been my teacher,” Britney said. “She teaches at the high school. Dad met her… I’m not sure where. But I was in elementary school at the time. And since I’ve been in high school, she’s never been assigned as my teacher.”

“She teaches history,” Daniel said. “You’d probably have to take a specific elective to end up with her as your teacher. As for where we met, it was the supermarket. I’m glad she already left. It was a few weeks after show and tell and I was clueless about shopping. She rescued me. We started meeting at the store regularly. I thought it was coincidence at first. But you’d have to ask her if she was stalking me. We didn’t go on a date until after I figured out there was a lost foot.”

“I didn’t know you knew her that long ago.”

“It wasn’t important until it was.”

Britney got up. “Mom, I don’t want to let you out of my sight. But, I have homework to do.” She gave her mother a long hug. “Stay out of the attic.”

“I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“I know, Mom.”

Amanda got up. “I’m going to my room for the evening. You two probably have a lot to talk about. You don’t need me butting in.” The two sisters hugged. Amanda gave Daniel a brief hug before she left.

“How are you doing?” Ashley said. She got up and sat close to Daniel.

“Me? I’m fine.” He pulled Ashley closer, his arm around her waist.

“I saw you looking at Selena. There’s some disappointment in you that she left when she did.”

“I’ll figure that out eventually. I’ve spent the last five or six years with her sitting here on the sofa with me. All I know is I had a wonder date at the cafe this morning with a lovely woman.”

“I’ve heard she’s a lot younger than you.”

“That’ll only be awkward for a little while. Everyone ages.” He looked at her. She was looking at his face. He leaned toward her. She closed her eyes and kissed him.

“That was nice,” she said when they stopped.

“That was nearly the same kiss we shared after our first official date in high school.”

“It was similar to that,” Ashley said. “I’d rather recreate the evening we spent the second night of our honeymoon.”

“I’ll never make it to work tomorrow if we fly to Cancun right now.”

“So silly. It doesn’t have to be a perfect recreation.”

“If I remember correctly, you went back to our suite while I settled the bill at the restaurant.”

“And you returned with a bottle of wine.”

“I will never forget finding you au naturel on the bed.”

“You’ll never forget? Do you remember the pose?” She got up, trailing her finger along his arm as she headed for the doorway.

He stood up with her. “Now I’m not so sure. If I get the wine, will you remind me? Just in case.”

“Just in case.”