CHAPTER 13: MARRIAGE
Arlene turned on Kitty as soon as she and Kitty got out of the showers. They were both nice and squeaky clean after cleaning all the dirt and grime (and the blood) off themselves. Arlene took a whiff of Kitty’s freshly clean fur and smiled.
“Kitty, you smell heavenly!”
“You do too, Arlene,” Kitty replied, nuzzling his hard nose onto her chest.
“You can’t smell, Kitty, you know that,” Arlene giggled gleefully. It has been a long time since she actually had that genuine cheer on her face ever since her gory adventures trying to eliminate every ‘obstacle’ in her path. She walked towards her bed and snuggled herself into the thick, soft blanket. Isabella has gone to bed herself and, for the first time, she was sleeping well.
“Where is Mama?” Kitty asked.
“Mama’s asleep. She was really, really tired,” Arlene replied.
“Mama must be really worried about you to be up almost all night for you. She deserves a good night’s sleep.”
“Uh-huh. After all, I am her little girl,” Arlene smiled again before going into a trance, a sort of android sleeping state.
Kitty looked at her with a sort of hurt look, not knowing what to say.
“I told you, go away! I don’t need your money!”
Arlene was in the middle of hide-and-seek when she heard her Mama yelling at someone. She hurried downstairs. Kitty came out of his hiding place and followed behind Arlene. As they reached the railing of the stairs, Arlene stared from between the railings at a man standing at the front door. Isabella had her back turned, so Arlene couldn’t see her face. But she sure could see the man’s face: his hair somewhat silverish, a bit of wrinkles here and there but not much, and he seemed like somewhere in his 40’s. He was holding an envelope in his hand and Isabella was pushing the envelope away from her.
“Please, Mrs. Santonio, I’m only doing my job,” the man said apologetically. “Don’t make this hard on me. Your husband has already signed the papers from our company and we are obliged to pay him his insurance if anything happens to him.”
“Well, I am better off without his money, and I’m sure I can survive without it! I do not want to be accused of taking advantage of his death. Now go away!” Isabella made it clear to the man that she wanted nothing to do with him or the envelope he brought to her. She shoved him out of the door in an urging manner, desperate to get him out of her property.
“Oh…OK, then…I’ll come next week then, in case you change your mind…” the man’s words were cut short by the shutting of the sliding front door. Isabella sighed in relief after being rid of him. Arlene finally made it downstairs and tugged at Isabella’s sleeve.
“Mama, who is that man?”
“Ugh! Just some loco guy who has been coming to our home every week asking me to take your Papa’s insurance money. Your Papa has signed some silly insurance paper and said that if anything happens to him, either he or Mama would get the insurance money from the Cybertronics he works in. Not that it’ll bring our Papa back anyway!” Isabella realized that she had raised her voice when Arlene looked back at her with her glassy aquamarine eyes. She knelt down level to Arlene’s height and said, “It’s alright, my little girl. Nothing to worry about. So, want to go shopping with Mama?”
Arlene nodded happily. Everything was going so happily her way.
The man’s visits became quite frequent, from every week to every 3 days. Isabella would at first harshly shoo him out of the house, but slowly she started letting him in and sitting down with him in the living room having long talks together. It started out as a business-like conversation about the insurance money, but as time went by, Arlene noticed that her Mama’s interaction with that man became more and more intimate. She began to see her less and less and would often stay up late to wait for her Mama to come home when she went out with the man.
The man, George was his name, was also utterly nice and sweet to her. He would get her gifts and offer to take her out on picnics and such with Isabella. He started calling her ‘Cookie’ and did his share of looking after her when Isabella was away. At night, he would tuck her into bed before he went out with Isabella on dates and would occasionally give her hugs and kisses like a father would to a daughter. Arlene’s little heart began to have that uneasy feeling again.
Her worries came true when she played a secret hide-and-seek with Kitty after she was sure that her Mama was asleep. She was the ‘It’, and while she was looking for Kitty, she passed by her Mama’s bedroom. She saw a dim light shining out of the not-so-closed door and peered inside, curious. The night light was on and she could make out the silhouette of her Mama on bed…with George. She and George were completely bare and George was on her, kissing her neck whispering sweet nothings to her ear. Isabella was moaning with pleasure and kissing his lips hungrily, letting out more moans and groans as George thrust himself into her. They were completely drowned in their sea of passion and love-making to realize that they were being watched.
Arlene’s aquamarine eyes glared dangerously bright at them.
“Do you want a new Papa?”
Isabella and Arlene were enjoying breakfast together (well, only Isabella was eating) while waiting for George to come down and joined them—evidently, he spent the night there—and Isabella suddenly popped out the question to her little girl. Arlene stared at her with questioning eyes.
“Well, it’s just that…you’ve seen Mama and George together for quite some time now and…well…” Isabella tried to put her feelings into words for her little girl to understand. “Everyone said I should move on after your Papa…you know. Even George said so. Mama has been thinking a lot and I think they’re right. I should move on with my life and not staying in the past all the time.”
Arlene nodded without a word.
“And George and I have been talking for a long time and we realized that this was for the best. So…what do you think of having George as your new Papa?”
“What about Paulo?” Arlene asked, staring straight at her Mama.
“Oh, sweetie dear, I would never forget your Papa. Getting married to George doesn’t mean I’ll not think of your Papa. We’ll always be able to visit him at the cemetery at times. I love your Papa too, but like everyone said, I have to move on. So what do you say?”
It took 5 minutes of long silence between the mother and daughter before Arlene finally said, “Am I still your little girl?”
“Of course you are, sweetie. You’ll always be my little girl.”
“Are you girls talking about me?” George’s voice butted in as he descended from the steps towards the dining room. He gave Arlene a smile and a pat on the head and walked over to kiss Isabella, then realized that Arlene was looking and asked Isabella, “Have you told her about…?”
“Yes, I have and I’m not sure if our little girl is accept you or not,” Isabella had a slightly worried tone.
“Really?” George said as he walked towards Arlene and fell on his knees exaggeratedly and took her hand. “Then I’ll have to ask her myself. My dear sweet little Arlene, will you be honoured to let your Mama be my wife and you be my little girl? Please? Pretty please?”
After staring blankly at George with her aquamarine eyes, she giggled gingerly and said, “Welcome, Papa.”
George grinned and carried Arlene up onto his shoulders, sending her into peals of laughter. He winked at the surprised and amused Isabella and said in triumph, “See? I told you she would understand.”
“Thank you so much, George. I feel so much better,” Isabella said as she went up to him and gave him a hug, with Arlene still laughing in the background. She seemed so glad that both Isabella and George were convinced that she had absolutely no problem with their marriage and bonding together.
Only Kitty, who remained seated at Arlene’s chair, could hear the slight trace of malevolence in Arlene’s laugh.
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