Даниэла Стил - Neighbors

“We’d love it,” he spoke for all of them, and knew Arthur would be pleased to see them too. “Are Debbie and Jack gone?” He sounded surprised.

“They are. It’s a long story, but we made some unpleasant discoveries.”

“I thought they’d been there forever.”

“They were. They’d been stealing from me for years. It was very upsetting.”

“I’m sorry, that’s awful. See you tomorrow,” Peter said, and went to tell Arthur and Ava, and about a new incident with Andrew the day before.

—

Charles told Meredith that night when he got home that he had spoken to the police about Andrew’s arraignment, and he was being sent to a psychiatric hospital with a locked facility for a thirty-day psychiatric evaluation, to see if he was competent to stand trial.

“Is that good news or bad?” she asked Charles, not sure how to interpret it.

“Both possibly. It means he’s not going to be out wandering the streets for the next month, but it could mean that the charges would be dropped, and he would be sent to a mental hospital instead of prison. It depends what they decide, and if he has a good lawyer, they’ll probably do everything to plead insanity to get him off, and then get him out of the psych hospital later and claim he’s cured.” She didn’t like the sound of it and neither did he.

—

The next morning when she came down to breakfast, she saw what Tyla had feared since the beginning. The story of the charges against Andrew, and how severely he had injured her, was on the front page. There was an old photograph of him looking distinguished and intelligent and very handsome. It spoke of how prominent he was, and listed the charges, and said there had been a second incident yesterday. Several newspapers and a TV station had called Tyla on her cellphone for comment by nine A.M. It meant that all the parents of Daphne’s and Will’s school friends would be aware that Andrew was being charged with attempted murder. It added a sordid element to what was already a painful time in their lives.

“I’m sorry,” she said to Tyla over coffee after the children had gone to school.

“I feel bad for the kids,” Tyla said with a sigh. “It was bound to come out eventually. He’s a prominent physician with a busy practice. It wasn’t going to stay a secret forever, or even for very long.”

Two news vans were parked in front of their house all day. They didn’t know that Tyla and the children weren’t living there at the moment, which was some relief. She was letting all her calls go to voicemail so she didn’t have to talk to the press.

—

They talked about it with Peter, Ava, and Arthur after the children left the dinner table that night. Arthur was still shocked that an educated, intelligent man, who could be so pleasant and entertaining to talk to, could almost murder his wife.

“He should be hanged!” he said in a stern voice. Ava had just confided to Tyla and Meredith that she had seen Joel a few days ago, helping a pretty young blond girl who looked like a model carry a mountain of suitcases into his house.

“So I’ve been replaced,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Do you care?” Tyla asked her gently.

“Not really,” Ava said with a smile. “It feels a little weird. It never takes him long. The girl looks about eighteen. She’s probably twenty-one or twenty-two. It’s just a little awkward living next door to them. But we’ll probably never run into them.”

“Did he say hello?” Meredith asked her.

“He didn’t see me. I was in the car…spying on him!” She laughed. “She’s a pretty girl.”

“So are you,” Meredith said firmly. “Better than that. You’re beautiful, and smart and interesting, and better than he deserved.”

“I’m not complaining. If I hadn’t been living with him, I would never have met Peter and all of you during the earthquake,” she said, smiling. It was nice being together again, although two members of their earthquake group had disappeared from their ranks now, Joel and Andrew. In two short months, all of their lives had changed dramatically.

—

They talked about their plans for Thanksgiving. Peter, Ava, and Arthur were staying home, and so were Tyla and the children. Meredith hadn’t seen Kendall for the holidays in years. She never invited her mother, and she had declined Meredith’s invitations for ten years before her mother finally stopped inviting her. Meredith had spent all holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and her birthday, with Jack and Debbie for years.

“Why don’t we spend it together?” Meredith suggested. “You can all come here.” It sounded like a good idea to all of them. None of them went home for the holidays usually, and they agreed that it would be fun to be together. Charles normally went to his daughter in Texas, but he was going to ask her for a pass this year so he could be with Meredith. He had told his daughter about Meredith, and she was happy for him.

As always, it was a wonderful evening, and Tyla felt strongly supported by her friends. She tried not to think about Andrew, who was going to be spending the holidays alone this year, either in a psychiatric hospital, or in jail. She remembered what the social worker said about abuse being the hardest thing to get away from, and forced her mind back to the present. She had her children, she had friends, she was living in a gorgeous home for the time being, and miraculously, in spite of Andrew, she was alive!

—

When Charles and Meredith woke up the next morning, after dinner with Arthur’s group, they both admitted that they were tired. It had been a long stressful week, with Andrew nearly committing mayhem again and stopped in the nick of time, Will running away, their spending half the night looking for him, a visit from CPS, Charles’s regular meetings to attend to, and Meredith breaking in new housekeepers, and Tyla and her children in residence.

“What do you say I spirit you away to my chateau in the Napa Valley?” Charles said good-humoredly. His small, cozy house there had special meaning to them, since they had made love there for the first time.

“That sounds heavenly.” Meredith smiled at him. She still had a mild headache from the bump on the head Andrew had given her, but she was grateful it hadn’t been worse. “I need some quiet time with you,” she said gently.

“I thought recluses were supposed to have small, boring lives, with nothing to do. We haven’t stopped for five minutes.” And they had gone from one drama to the next. “Your recluse card is seriously out of date. How fast can you pack for the weekend?” he asked her.

“Give me twenty minutes and I’ll meet you in the car,” she said, looking delighted. It was a chilly, blustery weekend, but even sitting in the house set among the vineyards would be a nice break from city life, and the issues they had been dealing with all week.

True to her word, she was ready twenty minutes later. She had told Tyla they were going, and Charles drove out of the courtyard, and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge.

They both enjoyed the drive, and when they got to Napa, it was cold, but bright and sunny. They set their bags down in his house and went for a long walk through the vineyards, breathing the crisp air, and they could smell wood fires in the distance.

“I love it here,” she said, taking a deep breath of the country air, which smelled of earth and recent rains. “I’m so happy you have this house.” She’d been to his city home too, which was small and spare, and practical for a man living alone, but he hadn’t put much effort into decorating it. He traveled a lot, and preferred to entertain in restaurants since he was no longer married. She liked having him spend nights with her. His city house was just a closet and a home office now. He rarely spent a night there since they’d been together. But his little Napa house had charm, and was a welcome change from the grandeur of her home and all the people in it on a daily basis, with security men, cleaning staff, workmen, repair people, and the new housekeeping couple.