Pretty Papaya #4

Sandy was still unpacking by the time her husband Chuck came home from work. They had bought the house in Livingston about a year ago. Chuck received a promotion at work but the position was at a branch in a small town two hours away. Commuting from Harpursville would have been difficult so they decided to move. They bought the house and were ready to move in but an unfortunate turn of events led them to delay their move. Chuck ended up having to commute every weekday for a year. One day he finally broke down and begged Sandy to finally move into the house. He could not take the stress anymore. After much hesitation, Sandy agreed.

“Sandy, I’m home,” Chuck shouted as he put his coat away.

“I’m in the kitchen trying to make dinner and trying to unpack at the same time,” Sandy responded.

Chuck walked into the kitchen and kissed his wife on the cheek as she was putting coffee cups away.

“How was work today?”

“Ok,” Chuck said briefly as he tasted the concoction Sandy was making that evening. She always liked to try different recipes.

“Not too bad. What is it?”

“Oh it’s a mixture of this and that,” she responded. Just like he didn’t like to talk about work, she didn’t like to talk about what she was cooking. It wasn’t that they didn’t enjoy working or cooking, it was just that they knew from experience that the other person was just asking to be polite; Sandy was not interested in hearing about stocks and he wasn’t really interested in cooking. Asking was really just courtesy… and responding briefly was really just courtesy as well. It was kind of a marital understanding.

“So, did you get a chance to meet any of the new neighbors?” Chuck said as he grabbed a beer from the fridge.

“Well, yes actually; the woman from the blue house next door came by. Her name is Helen. She wanted to welcome us to the neighborhood. Her husband Bob is the town sheriff.”

Sandy chuckled.

“What’s so funny dear?” Chuck inquired as he sat at the kitchen table.

“Oh nothing, it’s just that she reminds me of the stereotypical small town wife. She brought over a pie. Then she invited herself in. Then she started asking a thousand and one questions about you, me and Alex. Nosy little woman.”

“What did you tell her?”

“About what?”

“About Alex?” he said, this time being more insistent on her for specific details.

“Oh she just asked how old Alex was, what Alex liked to do, things like that.”

“And, what did you tell her?”

“What do you mean, what did I tell her Chuck,” Sandy said, with a sense of annoyance. “I told her Alex is 19, that she has a huge collection of antique dolls, that one day she hopes to work as a stage manager for Broadway.”

Chuck slammed his hand down on the table. “Those were all lies,” he asserted.

“Lies? No they weren’t lies. Maybe you want them to be because you never wanted Alex to pursue the theatre.”

“Sandy, dear,” Chuck said more calmly as he got up from the table, put his arms on his wife’s shoulders and starred into her eyes, “Alex was 19. Alex had a collection of antique dolls. Alex wanted to be a stage manager for Broadway. But Alex is gone.”

“No. Alex is going to come home. She wouldn’t have left us,” she said as if a combination of sadness, hopelessness and anger consumed her. Quickly changing the subject, she said, “Dinner will be ready soon. Go relax and I will have it for you shortly.”

As Chuck walked out of the kitchen, Sandy said one last thing, “I showed Helen Alex’s homecoming picture. She said she is beautiful, and that she is not surprised she was crowned queen.”

“She was beautiful dear,” he said.

“She is beautiful dear.”
…
As the week rolled on, Sandy continued to unpack her house. On Friday Chuck teased her on how long it was taking her to unpack and organize each room.

“You’re such a perfectionist dear.”

“Well, I don’t want people to think I have a messy home.”

“Who’s the stereotypical small town wife now, huh,” he laughed. She smiled but was hardly amused. “Would you rather me not unpack, not clean and leave everything unorganized?”

“No dear, of course not.”

On Saturday morning, as Sandy continued to unpack and organize the house, Chuck decided to clean up the front lawn. The hedges needed to be clipped and the lawn needed to be mowed. So he woke up bright and early and began his chores. As soon as he walked out of his house, Bob hollered from next door, “Well good morning neighbor!”

Chuck walked over to Bob to shake his hand. “Well good morning neighbor. I’m Chuck. I assume your Bob. Your wife Helen introduced herself to my wife Sandy the other day.”

“Oh yes, Helen has gotten to you already. She’s a bit…. nosey…. but don’t tell her I said that.”

“What dear?” Helen yelled from the house.

“See,” Bob said to Chuck. “Nothing dear, I am just talking to our new neighbor Chuck.

Helen quickly came out of the house, wiping her hands on her apron. “Oh hi, I am Helen. I met your wife.”

“Yes she told me.”

“You have a lovely family. She told me all about you and your daughter Alex.”

“Yes, well…”

“Your daughter Alex, will I get a chance to meet her,” Helen inquired.

“Helen, what did I tell you?” Bob annoying responded.

Chuck just looked at the ground. It was obvious that Helen already knew.

“Well…” Chuck began, “Alex… Alex disappeared about a year ago, right before we were about to move here. But you probably already know that. I mean, someone buys the house next door to you and doesn’t move in. I am sure I would be suspicious.”

He continued, “After Alex disappeared, Sandy didn’t want to move here because she was afraid Alex would come back to our old house. I told her it was silly; Alex knew where we were moving, but she insisted. I finally convinced her only a few weeks ago. Of course that was only after…” he paused.

“After what?” Helen insisted.

“Well, her friends were really supportive at first. They helped her look for Alex. They comforted her almost every day. For almost a year Sandy and her friends revolved their lives around Alex’s disappearance. But eventually it consumed them, all of them. And traveling back and forth everyday from work here back to Harpursville consumed me as well. So one day we all sat down and talked about it. All of us except Sandy agreed that we had to accept the fact that Alex may be gone forever. We would never forget her. We would still hope that she was alive. But we had to learn to live our lives again. Of course, my wife wouldn’t accept it. She said she felt so alone after that; she felt like no one cared anymore. I told her that maybe we needed a new start and convinced her that Alex would know where we were. And then we moved here.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what the realtor told us,” Helen added.

“Helen, get back in the house,” Bob yelled. Embarrassed that her husband yelled at her, she scurried in the house.

“So,” Chuck continued, “I think it would be best for Sandy if she didn’t get to the point again where we revolve our lives around Alex’s disappearance. I try to avoid talking about it too much. If it wouldn’t be too much to ask….”

Bob interrupted. “Oh, I will not try to bring it up, and I will tell my wife not to either. Sorry about her. She’s…”

“No, don’t be sorry. Sandy needs friends. I am glad she came over. It’s just this one thing.”

“Understood,” Bob finished. Then they started talk about sports.
…
Monday came and Chuck went to work. Sandy continued to unpack and organize. She was working on the living room when she heard a knock on the door. It was Helen. When Sandy opened the door, Helen invited herself in.

“Would you like to chat over coffee? Oh, you don’t have to stop unpacking, I will make it.” Helen said to Sandy. Sandy was totally shocked at her rudeness, but she figured she could use a break.

“Ok, just one cup though because I have to finish working.”

They both went into the kitchen. Helen fumbled through everything to find the coffee, the filters and the coffee maker. Sandy just sat down, finding it amusing that Helen had to work that much harder to make the coffee. She thought, “That’s what you get for being rude,” as she faked a smile.

“Your husband came over on Saturday and introduced himself. Nice man,” Helen began.

“Thank you.”

“Yes, he told me all about your daughter.”

“He did?”

“Yes. I was just wondering, when was the last time you saw her.”

Sandy became suspicious. “One morning she left for work and told me she would be home late because she wanted to stay go for a swim at the Y. She never showed up to the pool. No body knew saw her after she left work. Why do you want to know?” Sandy said, but this time with a rude tone to her voice. “I really don’t think….”

Helen interrupted as she brought the coffee over. “I just think I can help you. Here’s your coffee. Sandy took a sip.

“How can you help me and my daughter? You don’t even know us.”

“Oh, I do know you, and I know your daughter.”

Sandy put her cup down and looked at her confusingly. “What?”

“Oh yes, we met quiet briefly about a year ago.” Helen’s demeanor changed. This wasn’t the same nosey woman Sandy met a week ago.

“Alex actually met my son Eric first. They met online through some local chat room. She was looking for some new friends here. You know how teenagers are. He even sent her a picture. She sent him one too. She was quiet beautiful in the picture. Though she had on a little too much make up I must say. And her skirt, it was a bit short.” Helen continued, with a disgusted look on her face. “Anyways, I had an idea of what Eric was doing. He was supposed to pick her up and bring her here one day after school. He was going to show her around.”

“Your son…. your son took Alex?!?” Sandy shouted at Helen.

“Not quiet. I found out about their meeting. I waited for him to bring her here but he didn’t. So I went looking for them. I found them at the Poppins Park. They were making out in the back seat of his car.”

“So, WHAT HAPPENED?” Sandy shouted even louder as she slammed her hand on the table.

“I yelled at them from outside the car but Eric told me to go away. I quickly went home and told Bob about it. He said he would take care of it. That is the last I heard of it. I haven’t seen Eric since. But if you want to know where Alex is, you have to go through Bob.”

Sandy was enraged. “Get out of my house! LEAVE NOW!!!” She burst into tears and grabbed the phone to call Chuck.

“Hello?”

“Chuck…” Sandy said through panting and sobbing, “Chuck, Helen said Bob knows where Alex is. She said she met his son. They came here, but Bob did something to them. Come home, hurry!”

“What? What are you saying Sandy?”

“JUST COME HOME!” Sandy said as she slammed the phone down.

It took Chuck 10 minutes to get home. Sandy was waiting for him by the door. As he got out of the car she started shouting and pointing at Helen and Bob’s house.

“He knows where she is! HE KNOWS WHERE SHE IS!”

Bob came out of the house to see what all the commotion was about. Chuck ran over to him, grabbed him by his shirt, threw him up against the door and shouted, “Do you know where my daughter is? Do you? Come on!”

“No… no I don’t know what….”

“Your wife told Sandy that she met your son…”

“What? What are you talking about?” Bob looked confused. Their other neighbor Rick was now in the middle of the commotion. He ran over to help. “What’s going on here?” he said as he tried to pull the two men apart.

“Rick… Rick, this lunatic is trying to tell me that MY SON met his daughter.”

“But Bob, you don’t have a son.”

Chuck took a step back. “What?”

Sandy ran over. “But your wife just told me….”

“My wife… she’s ill. Don’t believe a damn thing she says.”

“I’m so sorry Bob, I didn’t know.”

“No Chuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for her to cause you any more heart ache.”

Chuck walked away quickly, with his face at the ground in embarrassment. “Come on dear, let’s get you inside the house,” he said to Sandy.

Sandy cried for the rest of the day. Chuck felt terrible. Even though he promised himself he wouldn’t let Sandy revolve a day around Alex’s disappearance again, he went back on his rule for just this day. It was justified.
…
It was nighttime. It was quiet. Chuck kissed Sandy good night.

“Try to get some sleep Sandy, ok?”

“I will try,” she said sadly.

She turned her back to Chuck. Then she began to think, “I haven’t had a day like this in a while. Chuck was so attentive. And I didn’t have to do a damn thing! I hope all the people in this town are as loony as Helen. Your husband followed Alex and Eric! HA. Very funny. No, I made sure Alex never came here. I was the center of attention in Harpursville before Alex came. I was the homecoming queen. I was the center of Chuck’s work. I couldn’t just let her come here and get a job until she decided when she wanted to go to college. She would get too involved. This is my territory, not hers. Besides, she is much better off dead. I’ve never had so much attention in my life. Sure those dumb bitches at home, they were just too self absorbed to keep paying me attention. But not Chuck. Oh no, he’s the best. And I am off to a good start here. Already getting sympathy and I didn’t even have to try. Ha! Well… I guess it’s time for sleep. Have to get my beauty rest. Eyes are probably puffy from crying…” She began to yawn and faded off to sleep.