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Chapter 144 — Parents and Ghosts
In the next day Christy suddenly opened her desire to move in Uncle Larry's ex-house again. Jimmy tried to dissuade her but she persisted. However she did not protest when he said that he would stay with her here.
Mary was tormented by her disturbing doubts; she just worried about her younger sister.
However Mason rather was worried with Brandon's case. It took not too much time to file the petition for rehearing of the custody case. Needless to say Gina was very glad to join battle with CC.
"What should I say to the judge?" she asked trying to read her chances on Mason's face.
"The truth, Gina," right now Mason's mind calculating all the possible combinations and trying to choose the best option.
"The truth will not return Brandon to me," Gina frowned.
"We'll see."
Firstly seeing the name of the judge Mason decided that they were just damn unlucky. Madame Randolph was known for his tough stance and hating for cases rehearing.
As Gina made her best to portray CC Capwell as an abusive father and husband as the judge frowns more and more irritably. Mason realized that soon Gina would shut up all of their chances and quickly intervened.
He unceremoniously interrupted Gina and shortly told the judge that CC Capwell did violate the visits agreement, preventing mother to see her son. The boy definitely suffers from the fact that he was not allowed to see his mother. He is too desperate that even trying to cheat his father to see her. Mrs. Capwell lost the custody not due to mistreatment of his son but because her income was diminished after her divorce.
"How I can compete with Oil Magnate!" Gina put in finally grasp what is required of her. "Of course I was not able to sustain our lives at the same level as doing millionaires. But Brandon had all the things needed when he lived with me. Yes, of course, the school was too expensive for we can afford it but CC did not want to help us and I'd just go to transfer Brandon to another good school."
"Which one?" the judge asked. And when she heard that Gina renting the house right next to the house of her former husband she visibly surprised. "To my knowledge you had a serious debt for schooling of your son."
Gina quickly explained that it was an accident and that debt already paid long ago. The judge asked a few more questions and got up: "I'll talk to your ex-husband and I inform you about my decision," she said.
"What you think she'll decide?" Gina asked when she and Mason came out of judge's office. "She's on our side, right?"
"I hope. But when it's Margot Randolph you cannot be sure for anything."
"She can relax! I have the best lawyer of the entire west coast!"
Mason grinned. None can deny Gina's optimism. However he really is the great lawyer. And he's quite able to compete with CC Capwell.
* * *
"Who is Steve?" Charlie suddenly asked.
Mary flinched and hugged Mickey even tighter. Older children were out with Mrs. Rold and just three of them were at home now.
"One bad man. He died long ago," she said briefly and placed her youngest son in the playpen.
"Then why Christy and Jim were discussing how to catch him? Just at the morning."
"Charlie, you overheard again?"
The thin smile becomes showing on boy's lips. Mary somehow thought that Mason must look like at his father and Sophia when he was a kid. Although he probably was not so straightforward like Charlie.
"So many people told you that it's bad acting. And you just not understood the conversation. Steve Bassett is dead. Lies in the grave long ago."
"He made you feel bad?" Charlie after pausing quietly asked.
Damn! Mary quickly pulled herself together.
"Yes. But it's adult business."
"I'm the big boy!"
Mary smiled and patted his face.
"Not quite yet. You still cannot get driver's license for a long time."
Charlie did not answer. Then she took his hand and sat on the sofa.
"Tell me about your mother," she asked.
Charlie blushed.
"Why?" he managed looking down.
"I'm just wondering."
Charlie pulls his hand away, stands up and walks around the room.
"Charlie?" Mary asked, it's was a strange reaction for her. "What is it?"
The boy came back and sat backwards on the sofa, his chin resting on the rounded back. He looked at Mary with his jet-black eyes.
"I can not tell you about my mom," he finally said.
"Why?"
"I have nothing to tell."
"Well, I just mean some simple things like I'm sure you can remember. I well remember how my mother and I went to the market and bought huge pineapples when I was a little girl--"
"You do not understand!" Charlie's voice sounds tensed and upset. "I hardly remember her!"
"What? No, you just think like that. Surely you're--"
"I do not think!" And Charlie told Mary in a nutshell all that he kept to himself for so long time.
* * *
CC Capwell was in a rage. He just had been visited by the judge who asked all sorts of awkward questions about Brandon. The fact that she came to him directly and personally he saw as very suspicious one. Previously all custody issues have been resolved by long sessions in the court offices. Furthermore Brandon appeared here just at the moment of her visit and judge questioned him too. And leaves clearly not in the spirit.
"Bloody Mason!" CC spats. "He is again! Let me see, son! You will fly out of my company as a cork from a bottle!"
He already began to dial his office's number when suddenly Sophia appeared out of inside the house and pressed the levers of the phone.
"Don't!"
"I do! Of course, I do! He played a dirty trick on me and you want I'll thank him for it?"
"If you please, yes!"
CC's face become angry red but Sophia do not remove her hand.
"I often do not agree with Mason but he is absolutely right now!"
"Actually?" CC's tone ominously softened. "And how he is?"
"You're using Brandon as your weapon against Gina!"
"Even if I am? Brandon is well here. And Gina cannot provide for him all that I can."
"Except his mother, right? You know I cannot stand this woman but Brandon suffers without her. Beside he and Charlie always are outs with each others."
"Charlie will go to the boarding school very soon and everything will return to normal being."
"The boarding school? But I thought he would go to the same school as Brandon does."
"May be. I'm not decided yet. Or I will send them both to the boarding school. They both need have a good discipline. Their mother completely spoiled them."
"CC..." Sophia feels almost dizzy. "I thought you wanted to be the real father for Charlie. So you needs see him just little more than just on holidays."
"Charlie is my son, not yours," the patriarch said. "So do not interfere in. That's what I call be the real father. Charlie needs a strict discipline. He constantly lies, overhears and runs away."
"CC..." Sophia's voice rang and CC even turned to her. "I thought you learned something after Mason's experience."
He grimaced, his hand waved.
"I did just not the best choice of the school then. I'm not going to do the same mistake anymore."
"Your "not the best choice" almost broke Mason's life. And I will not let you break Charlie's life too."
"I wonder how?"
Sophia said nothing and went to the stairs intending go up to the second floor. Then she turned around: "You'd better think twice about what you are doing with our lives. With life of Charlie, Brandon, Mason, mine and yours in the end. You will no longer be able to crush us under."
"Where are you going?" the patriarch blurted.
"Collect my belongings. You see you were bearable when there was Mason's school problem. I do not understand what happened to you now."
"I hardly changed," CC snorted however feeling that somehow he's gone too far.
Sophia runs upstairs.
* * *
When Mason returned home he feels strangely excited. He's replaying meeting with the judge in his mind over and over and not immediately realized what Mary said.
"I'm sorry, what of you are?"
"You're not hear me! Your brother... Charlie told me about his life in England."
"And?" Mason involuntarily tensed. "By the way where he is now?"
"Helps Mrs. Rold cooking the dinner."
"Wanting to become a great cook?" Mason chuckled.
"No," Mary sadly shook her head. "Just want to be a normal kid."
"Well, "Capwell" and "normal" usually do not match each other. But I still do not understand why you're so worries."
"Mason, he did not live with your mother!"
"What?" He blinked puzzled. "And who is with he lived?"
"In the boarding school."
"Well--"
"Throughout all his life! Since he can remember!"
"No. Mom could not..." He caught his breath.
"Could. That's what she did. Put him in the boarding school when he was five. Originally she visiting him for every weekend and then she came only for the school breaks and for the last year he saw her only once, at Christmas. And he still remembers those couple of days as the best gift for Christmas."
"What is an enviable constancy," Mason pained utters after a long silence. "She even left us when we were the same age."
"It's been a long time, Mason," Mary stroked his arm knowing that he remembers how his mother left him forever.
"For Charlie it's not," he briefly said.
"Yes, of course. But it seems to me that he somehow leaves it behind. He was more worried about the fact that he cannot tell you about your mother."
"It is impossible to leave behind," Mason quietly said. "It will be stuck with us for all our lives. Now I clearly can see."
"Yes, I know. And I know that you're hurt. I wish I could take your pain away!"
"Capwells are tough. We will survive. Especially if we are together."
"Mason... tell Charlie about Pamela."
"Why?" he winced.
"You are brothers. Tell him all you remember."
Mason vaguely shook his head. Mary pulled him closer and kissed in the cheek.
"Do you want to be alone now?"
Mason raised his eyebrows in surprise and after a moment nodded.
"Then I'll go to Christy's to see how she is doing. I'll back soon," Mason frowned and Mary adds hastily: "It's perfectly safe. There's Jimmy and burglar alarm of the latest technology."
Mary left out and Mason stayed alone. But he did not feel abandoned. On the contrary he had growing warm feeling that it's his own home. His own fortress. He heard children's laughter and screams upstairs. And laughing voice of Charlie. His jealousy and envy vanished without any trace. He'll take care about his youngest brother. And not just about him.
* * *
Christy sat in ex-uncle's office and watched old black and white cartoons. She could not remember when and with whom she watched it when she was a little girl but she knew that it's was the best times of her life. She was surrounded by love and happiness then. As far as she remembered. No faces, no words — just those old cartoons and a sense of overwhelming joy. She never shared those memories with anyone. For a long time she even waved them away considering such feelings as unreal. But then her life come to a kind of semblance of normality she increasingly allows herself to enjoy these sweets like a child stolen minutes.
And of course she was not happy when the older sister suddenly caught her in the act.
Christy presses on-off button and said angrily: "I did not need be constantly patronized!"
"I'm not patronizing you, just some worries."
"It's the same thing."
Christy bit her lip, trying to cope with embarrassment. Although Mary did not seem aware about her confusing and talks about something else: "Why are you here?"
"Just because."
"No, I mean why did you choose this room to sit here? So strange to see you in "the crypt"," Mary could not help but remembering how she and Mason were led by the guards here when they did break in the mansion for searching Christy. After his uncle's death she learned that all stuff call this room "the crypt" because it had no windows.
"I like it here," Christy shrugged unable to put her feelings into words. "These cabinets... chairs... they seem so... alien. Once we'll catch this bastard I immediately throw everything away and furnished quite differently."
"And why not now?"
"It's silly but I think about this house somehow like it's marred. Firstly I want to get rid of all evil. Do not you feel it? These walls really asking to be free--"
Mary stares at her sister as she blushed.
"Forget it. No matters after all."
Mary looks around the room and shakes her head: "It's just an old wall for me."
The room fell silent.
"Chris?"
"What?"
"Do not you think about the making of comics again?"
"Are you kidding?"
"Not at all. You're really enjoying when you did these."
"It was in another life," Christy just remembered how she's drawing so many notebooks with some stories about monsters and ghosts when she was a child. But it was before her mother married Willard Bassett and a real monster appeared in her life.
"I see," sighs Mary. "I was not able to collect my life together for long time also. But you cannot feel happy without this, Chris."
"I'll manage somehow."
"May be you are not ready yet. I was not ready till the time will come and then you can connect all your past lives into one whole."
"You sound like a spiritualist," Christy chuckled.
"No more than you," Mary smiled. "May be this room really brings something like... I'm just seeing how the door is opening, a ghost's appearing in and--"
She does not finish her sentence because some dark substance began to separate from the opposite wall and floating to them.
Sisters screamed in horror.
At the same moment something thundered in the hallway, the door swung open and the lights came on.
"Jimmy!" Christy squeaked and falls on his neck.
Mary tried to keep her presence of mind but failed and rushed to Mason too.
"Are you alright?" Mason began to touch her, making sure she don't hurt.
"I'm fine," Mary gasped and looks at Mason. "But what are you doing here? I thought you stayed with Charlie."
"My brother is in good hands, do not worry. You'd better tell me what is happened here. You're made so awful scream."
Mary pursed her lips not wanting to admit in the fearing of ghosts. However Christy did not care about such conventions.
"We've seen a ghost!" she immediately informed. "It was right there!" she gestured on the wall. "And it goes directly to us."
"Is it true?" Mason seriously looked up Mary but his eyes sparkled with evil flashes. "You saw a ghost too?"
Mary bit her lip.
"Well--"
"She saw! We both saw it!" Christy intervened.
"So what, Mary?" Mason insisted. "What did you see?"
"I do not know!" she finally said. "Really there was appeared something like... like some part of a fog--"
"A fog?"
"A fog or a blob... really I have no idea, but it... this thing flew to us," Mary angrily turned away.
Mason pulled her closer and looks at Jimmy. The two men exchanged knowing glances.
Then Jimmy gently moves Christy away and approaches to so-called ghost's place. He touches the wall, then turns around and looking at others.
"I think its where was built the secret passage. Maybe there is a door."
They began to feel the wall but nothing came until Christy accidentally leaned against the pedestal of ugly eastern lamp nearby. There was the click and the wall splits with the slot.
Mason gently pulled the part of the wall and it quietly moved aside. They saw inside the dark passage.
All four look into the darkness. Jimmy took a step inside but Christy silently clung to him. Mason picked up some rag from the stone floor and closed the door of the secret passage.
Then he gestured to others to keep quiet and go out.
He led them into one of the rooms that were not connected to the secret passage and then he threw the found cloth on the coffee table with his wide gesture.
"Meet your ghost."
"And what is it?" Mary disgust fingered the thing.
"I think it's someone's veil, slightly modernized. Our magician stuck it on the pole and successfully scared nervous ladies."
Mary darts the murderous glance at Mason and Christy frowned.
"Why you did not say it when we were in the room?" she angrily asked. "I'd shivered along all way."
"Because it's better to let the bastard thinks that his idea was a success. Chase him is the pointless acting now so much better to follow him by bugs."
"It is goes on and goes on," Christy sadly said.
"I think he will catch in our hands in the next few days," Mason surely said.
"What are we going to do with him?" Jimmy asked practically. "The police will not take our statements."
"We'll look as the case goes. But I'm take care about. He will not bother you anymore."
"Christy, do you like to spend the night at our house?" Mary asked her younger sister. "I can--"
"No, no!" Christy shook her head and bravely looks at Jimmy. "This is my home. And some veiled lunatic cannot scare me off."
"You do not know how many the person can be dangerous," Mason warned.
"If he would want to hurt me he had many chances to do. This passage allows coming in any room. He could kill me in bed a 100 times!"
Mary shivered.
"Do not say that," she asked. "I've got goosebumps."
"Sorry. But I'm not afraid of him. Not anymore."
"I'll stay with you," Jimmy said and looked up Mason. "Do not worry, she'll be safe."
Mason nodded, and he and Mary went out.
On the way to the car, Mary turned to home and shrugged.
"I do not understand what she like in this house. Ugly, creepy... even haunted by a lunatic!"
"Love is blind..." Mason chuckled and pulls Mary to the car. "Let's go home."
"Okay... Mason... do not you think that we were wrong trying to look for a man? Maybe it's a woman?"
"I do. Since that day."
"Do you really think that we will catch him or her... soon?"
"I'm sure."
Mary reluctantly walks after Mason to the car continuing to look at the house. Mason could not resist the temptation and howled in her ear with the sepulchral voice: "Boo-oo-oo-oo-oo!"
Mary jumped up on the spot.
"Mason! I'll strangle you right now!
"You'd better kiss me!" And he backs up his words with his acting.
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