No idea where this came from yet still here it is. This is the completed story. Just one chapter. So no asking for more. Actually can ask if you feel so inclined to however it likely will not happen. I do not own the rights to the established characters but I can claim all others. Enjoy.
"Hello may I speak to Mrs. Bell please?" I hated to be called that, it made me feel old as if being called Mrs. or Mr. had an aura of greatness and importance to it, I was neither. Not as if it mattered all or even a little I wasn't a Misses anymore.
"Speaking," No reason to correct the error and to risk possible explanation as of why, though it was no ones business still they shoved their noses right in.
"This Beverly Hoopler at All Saints Regional Hospital in Charlotte North Carolina. Do you know a Carey Bell?" I do or I had at one point of time now long past and yet memories still linger brightly. The tempo of the beats of my heart slowly begins to speed up.
"Yeah I do, what's this about?" Before the ringing of the phone I had been watching a soap opera and sipping on a nearly emptied cup of cheap imitation flavored hot cocoa. Just trying to pretend there wasn't a world of life outside the door and windows.
"Well Mrs. Bell I am sorry to be the one to inform you of this but Carey Bell passed away yesterday." What ever happened to telling a party of this altering information gently, with care, and face to face? The sorry I had been told barely held any sincerity. And why I was being told? Why would anyone tell me?
"Wow um how?" What else could be asked at that moment?
"Brain hymeridge, there was nothing to be done. I am sorry." This time the sorry meant something yet still not enough.
"Have his parents been notified? Actually I am sorry I should say has his father been contacted?" I had forgotten for a moment that Irene had died of breast cancer a few months after it all came head to head.
"That's why I am calling you Mrs. Bell we could only find your name and number within his things." Just like Carey not a minuscule different. Only caring the littlest possible with him at any given moment.
"His father is Ned Bell he lives in Hope Springs Colorado," I had given Ms. or Mrs. Hoopler the telephone number while hoping it hadn't been changed. Lots of things change including phone numbers.
"Thank you very much Mrs. Bell and again I am sorry." I tell her thanks and place the phone on the cradle staring at it as if I excepted it to get up on it's own. Carey is dead. I pause for a moment to calculate the numbers and dates, he was 34 years old. I hadn't laid an eye on him or him on me for three years. Some days it felt like a century in hell and other days it barely felt as if a day had come to an end. Poor Ned. And what about my mother would this blow be enough to crumble her into a pile of dust? I replace the phone against my ear and dial the number to reach her. The phone is picked up on the third ring.
"Hello." It was Vinny, I think or perhaps Dave I hadn't seen them enough to distinguish the difference in their voices.
"Hi it's Fiona I was wondering if my mom was there?" There is a pause of hesitation and shouting for her to answer or not to.
"Sorry she's not here you wanna call back later?" Who taught this kid to take a proper message?
"Actually is your dad home?"
"Yeah."
"I would like to speak to him please." I hear the phone thud against a counter followed by bare feet running on tiled floor. A few seconds later a voice fills my ear similar to the one of Vinny or Dave but deeper, full of more life and experience.
"Fiona what a pleasant surprise. What may I do for you my dear?" He and my mom had been married for seven years after only dating for four months. But they both claimed it was right and they were ready. Seven years seems to show they had predicated the outcome correctly. Vinny was four years old at the point, he barely knew his father then, his mother had full custody have the separation and later divorce. Dave was not quite two years he served as the product and reason of why Vinny no longer had his mommy and daddy together; a one night affair that came complicated with the failure of the birth control.
"I was wondering if you knew when my mom would be back?" I hoped I didn't sound rude or impolite not to speak to Lyle, but it wasn't his business, at least not yet.
"She's at a spa for the weekend she won't be back until Sunday night. Is there anything I can do?" Okay it has to be asked how stupid was that kid? Not to know his stepmother was away for the weekend? I decide not to question Lyle about it. I had to tell him, my mom always went to the same spa, and it's the type where telephones are not allowed.
"I wish I was calling for a happier reason but I am not. Carey died yesterday in North Carolina." There is a slight gasp of what I think is genuine shock and sorrow even though he had barely known Carey.
'Oh my god I am so sorry to hear that. How is Clu doing?" Clu the one person I didn't want to think about. The reason for the consist flip-flopping and changing of my name. All because like Lyle and sadly like 90 percent of men having sex with just your spouse isn't enough. Three years doesn't heal wounds enough.
"Actually I don't know how he is," Shitty I hope.
"I'll contact the spa and let your mother know. You still at the same number?" I tell him yes, surprised he questioned me on that, sure I didn't call to chat weekly more like every few months, but enough not question about altered phone numbers. I than tell him thanks and hang the phone back down.
I wanted to be one to tell her of Carey's death, to be the one to comfort her over the words. She didn't like to talk about it; she only confessed it once after we both had too much to drink. Clu and I were still married and newlyweds at that. Having exchanged the vows two months earlier. I had told her I once had a crush on Carey and on several accusations spied on him while he changed clothes. It was hardly my fault the keyhole was so large. Than she told me of her own crush on him but for her it was more than peeking. It was sexual relationship or as she put it pure fucking. No strings attached on either end. It hadn't been love just animal passion that lasted about three months. She told me neither was to blame for the conclusion it just ended one day. The power and excitement having faded. They lost touch not because of sour memories but just because that's how life works out sometimes. Plus Lyle and his sons being painted into the picture only served to make the distance between conversations deeper and longer.
I had lost touch with him for similar reasons but I had the added pleasure of wanting to run from anything with Clu was attached to. I had tried to retain a relationship with him after the divorce papers were signed; the pain was too deep though. I hoped he understood that. I used to think I married the wrong Bell; Carey would have treated me like a Queen every minute not just at selected moments. Life doesn't work that way. Life has no rules. And we all know it and hate it.