"What's Mr. Fletcher going to do?"
"Dave. Call him Dave. Stop calling him Mr. Fletcher!" Mama screamed at me. "He's going to be your stepfather."
"I'm sorry," I muttered, and quickly turned away from her raging eyes.
"You're stony." She fumed a few moments. "What do you think he's going to do? I'll tell you what he's going to do. He's going to finally put her in her place. He promised me he would be more stern with her." she said, but not with as much confidence as I expected. "Oh, he's suffering from the usual guilty conscience, blaming himself for how she's turned out. She takes advantage of that guilty feeling he has. She's smart, the conniving little creature, and knows how to manipulate him. She's been doing it for years and years. He gives her whatever she wants, and if he puts up some argument, she wails about how he drove her mother away, how he was too occupied to give her and Elliot the attention they needed. She's good at it. I'm sure. From the way he describes her, I can see she can give Satan himself lessons. Wait until she's living in my house. Things will change and quickly. too."
"She's going to move in with us?"
"What are you talking about? Of course she's moving in with us. I just told you she's returning after another disastrous love affair and I've told you how Dave is selling his home. Once we're married, she will be with us as well. Whether she likes it or not, she's going to be part of the family. Believe me, I don't relish the thought, but it is what has to be for now."
"What do you mean for now, Mama?"
She turned and gazed at me a moment and then looked forward. "I would assume that someday she will be on her own, that she might find some poor fool, some idiot, to marry her, but until then, we'll have to deal with the problem, for that is all she is to me, a problem.
"Of course," she continued. "she blames Elliot's death on Dave as well."
"She does? Why?"
"Same thing. He didn't provide enough attention, take enough interest in him, left him in harm's way. Whatever reason she can invent, she'll use. Its part of what she does to manipulate him, only this time... this time she is up against far more than poor Dave," Mama vowed, "It won't take her long to see that and shell change her tune."
The very thought of her coming to live with us made me shudder. Too well I recalled the time Elliot talked me into spying on her through a hole in the wall in his room. It was something I did after he and I had first met and he still thought I was going to become one of his new buddies. I was afraid to resist the invitation, and at the same time I had to admit to myself that I had a eat curiosity, a longing, to observe a girl like Betsy and see her durin
g her most private moments.
At the time she was the sexiest girl I had ever seen. Buxom with pretty hair, she had a rounder face than Elliot with small, brown eyes and a weak mouth that drooped in the corners. giving her a habitual look of disgust when she was with Elliot and her father. However, I couldn't help being fascinated with her clothes, her makeup, the way she walked and spoke.
It was after I had seen her naked in her room, experimenting with her makeup and hair. that I had gone into Mama's room and first used her makeup. I recalled it now as if it were just hours ago when I had done it.
I had opened one of her lipstick tubes. It had looked all right so I had brought it to my lips and carefully traced along, pressing my lips together and then padding them the way I had seen Betsy do it in her room. The sight of bright red lips on my face made me smile. Encouraged. I had opened one of the jars of cream and rubbed it into my cheeks and under my lower lip, around my chin. My fingers were rough against my face. so I had to rub gently.
After that, I had opened one of the cakes of makeup and begun to experiment with color the way I had seen Betsy do it. Once I had finished that. I found an eye-lash brush and started to darken mine. I was nearly finished doing that when I heard Mama's shrill scream. I had been so involved in it all that I hadn't heard her coming up the stairway. She was standing in the doorway watching me, her eyes wide with honor. 'She looked as if she might pull the hair out of her head.
Just like this recent event, she accused me of being contaminated, and soon after that she decided it was Cleo's fault. Betsy Fletcher had brought me only bad luck. I had no doubt she would do it again. She had only disdain for me and I had no respect for her. How could we ever coexist in the same house? How could I ever pretend she was part of my family? Why wasn't Mama worried about that?
Sometimes, even now, when I recalled the sensuous way Betsy touched herself and gazed at her body. I would touch myself. The tingling I felt surging through me frightened and yet delighted me. If I longed for it too much. I pressed my face into my pillow as hard as I could. I would hold my breath while I chased away the images and visions. But just like what had happened after I had seen Mama and Mr. Fletcher kiss so romantically, it was impossible to stop the dreams, dreams in which I felt lips on mine, hands on my breasts, and dreams in which I recited pages and pages of wonderful romance.
Betsy would surely rekindle that in inc.
Her being with us won't be pleasant for me. Mama," I muttered almost under my breath as these thoughts flowed through my mind.
"It doesn't have to be pleasant for you," she retorted. She smiled to herself. "It just has to be. That's all. The rest will take care of itself.
Her self-confidence, which was normally reassuring for me, wasn't this time. If she saw any anxiety on my face, she ignored it. but I couldn't help thinking about all the responsibility I would soon be carrying on my shoulders. Betsy would snoop. Betsy would do her best to make us look bad to her father. Was this all just another great test?
I felt as if I were standing at the base of a mountain and an avalanche of unhappiness was tumbling down at me. I couldn't stop it and I might not be able to get out of its way.
Mama gazed into the rearview mirror at Baby Celeste, who still sucked on the lollipop. "Wasn't she just marvelous all day?" Mama looked at me. "-Wasn't she?"
"Yes."
"Yes." Mama nodded. "Yes. The looks an all their faces when they saw her was priceless."
The outing was obviously a big success for Mama. but I felt like someone waiting for the next shoe to drop.
9
Princess Betsy