Finally Fred said all he intended to say about Flora Soto’s murder. And George made it clear that he didn’t want to know more about it.
“And Higgs?” asked George.
“Higgs? Well, you know the old joker as well as I do. Wearing his white monkey suit he wasn’t hard to find. He wasn’t in a bar or city hall nor was it fair to say that he was intoxicated. I think he’s trying to redeem himself. But this is a fight that he’ll have to win on his own. He looked pretty damn good, and he told me that he felt great,”
“You’re not going to tell me where you found him, are you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Disgrace is still pursuing him. He deserves a chance.”
“I think he’s already above suspicion.”
Anna would give George a kiss and, to illustrate how much she loved him, would lie down beside him. Her scent, remembered from the last time, always aroused him. Staying in a motel room then he was as happy then as he’d ever been.
It so happened that George, whom Anna always treated in a hot and cold fashion, cherished these intimate moments, while at the same time he always felt as if she withheld part of herself. But even if he could never have meant more to Anna, it kept him from giving himself completely to Angela. Because of this Angela couldn’t help but resent Anna, and this resentment had everything to do with how Angela mistreated George.
All smiles, just smiles. Daggers in the form of smiles. Likened it to when they were girls and coveted each other’s dolls. In any case other people couldn’t have known what was going on. There were only hints, innuendoes and riddles. Their mother probably knew anyway.
Mothers have a way of sensing when their children are unhappy. Maria saw how Angela mistreated George and how she acted around Charlie. It depressed her and angered her. Here was something that had to be immediately resolved, but it was out of her hands.
Let us repeat: Angela was a real beauty. And it should’ve been easy for George to say I’ll take this one. Perhaps. The whole story was never told, but eventually it all came out. After all George was a prince, and…and…well there was a lot more to it. So George kept smiling. You could’ve poked him and he wouldn’t have noticed.
Weren’t George and Angela a perfect match? Then what went wrong?
Sad.
Yeah.
First Maria Martinez had to consider her own standing, which had fallen of late because…. When she thought of Anna her outrage grew and grew. It was “unforgivable and really foolish, stupid and absurd!” Unfortunately Lenny wasn’t around.
George kept remembering the scent, the scent of a randy-ass woman. No it wasn’t her perfume, and was more like a scrap from the past, a memory that was impossible to forget. Moreover it was disturbing for someone engaged to someone else, especially when that someone was his fiancée’s sister.
Molly, dragging Angela along, tried to derail the inevitable. They met George in the park. There the scene he dreaded happened. With no enthusiasm from him. Before hand Angela had a feeling. She knew it wouldn’t work but thought that might change. And she ended up hating Molly for making it worse. Of course Ms. Fix-it already knew that Angela and George couldn’t have been happy together.
Anna had been careful not to show her emotions. The more she talked, however, the more emotional she became. She, for one, stood up for George and wouldn’t agree that he was a fool. As for his worth, everyone knew he was rich.
This prince, wasn’t he insane? He was also a fool who knew nothing about the world. Here was someone who’d always relied on his parents.
Shortly thereafter Anna drove to Phoenix to see Danny. She’d stayed in touch with this her closest and oldest friend. By then, however, he was engaged, and she felt betrayed.
Mrs. Martinez felt as if everyone was plotting against her, particularly Angela and George. All she could think of was what Angela was doing, doing to her family. “Why can’t they make up their minds? Why can’t things be worked out?” she asked. As far as she could see, nothing had changed.
George came by, and when Angela came down, they held hands and talked. No one besides the couple knew what they talked about.
George was a sorry sight. Angela seemed very distant and a little sad. There was some laughing. She suggested that they play “Sorry,” and Angela immediately beat him. She cheated, which she wouldn’t have been able to do if he’d been paying attention. When he finally caught her and called her on it, she became furious. In fact she said so many horrible things that he pushed his chair back and got up to leave. That was when Angela told him that she never wanted to see him again. And given all that had happened she felt such an ultimatum seemed justified.
After that, despite everyone’s effort to calm him down, George left as if he were coming from a funeral. Then it wasn’t fifteen minutes before Angela ran after him so fast that her eyes hadn’t dried yet.
Molly bought Angela and George a toy poodle puppy for an engagement present. They’d all been looking for the right dog. Molly explained how she bought it from a friend and how she’d paid three hundred dollars for it.
Molly felt that she bought the perfect gift for Angela and George. Getting it made Angela feel very excited until she realized that she’d just told George that she never wanted to see him again.
Angela tied a ribbon around the poodle’s neck and pleaded with Molly to take the dog at once to George as a peace offering. Molly readily agreed but immediately wanted to know why a peace offering was needed. Angela just said that she thought George would like it.
George was wallowing in a black hole when Molly appeared with the puppy. A smile immediately brightened his face, and he seemed resuscitated. He questioned Molly, hanging on her every word.
“She loves you George,” Molly asserted.
It seemed certain that Angela had forgiven him and that he’d go see her that very evening. For him at that moment this was everything. From then on he had trouble containing his exuberance.
But Maria Martinez’s mood hadn’t improved. Fighting a headache she took to her bed and didn’t appear until George arrived. She spent most of the time crying.
Randy Ford
