Like a Greek Tragedy…
Part 1 by Candylyna
It was another long night at the theatre. The play was over, the actors were getting ready to go back home. Most of them had families and they couldn't wait to go back home to them. But one was in no hurry to do so. Being out of his house was a blessing for him and he wanted to go back as late as possible. He wished he was like the others, who couldn't wait to go back to their families. He thought he would have a family like that one day, but one event, just one event, changed the course of his whole life and hers too! They saw their dream being shattered into a million pieces… She came to see him, after getting a one way ticket from him and an invitation to the premiere of his first major play "Romeo and Juliet". She was so pretty and so happy to be with him. But he was preoccupied by the events that had just occurred and couldn't really share her joy. Now he regretted it, so much, why didn't he kiss her, hug her? He wanted to so much… But he knew he was going to break up with her, so why suffer. But that wasn't fair for her, she came and she expected so much from him. She thought they were going to be together for good. She was heartbroken to leave him… A tear come to his eye. He wiped it. There wasn't a day that went by without him thinking about her. She was a part of him, she was his other half she was his soul mate! Really? Then why did destiny dead set on separating them? They had plans like every young people in the world, to get married and live together and make a family. Was that really too much to ask? The price of being saved by someone who was in love with him, was to stay with that someone for good. Because that someone lost her leg, saving him… Lost her leg!!!! So he had to pay for it by staying with her for the rest of his life. He has to marry her, even thought he never looked at her before in that way… Marry a woman he had only feelings of gratitude for… Well life really sucked sometimes!!!
Terrence Grandchester arrived late at his place and he found Susanna Marlowe, waiting for him.
- Terry, hi! She said with a smile, I was waiting for you … let's go and have dinner now…
- Good evening Susanna, you don't have to wait for me to have dinner you know… I sometimes come back late and I wouldn't want you to starve waiting for me…
- Oh, I like waiting for you Terry, I don't mind. We've made your favourite today, pot roast….
- Thank you Susanna, he said without smiling
He took his coat off and, went to wash his hand and join her at the dining room table. The pot roast was good, and Terry made an ultimate effort to make small talk with Susanna. It was almost a torture for him. But he had to do, what he had to do. After dinner, he went to his study to read a little and she went to her bedroom. She was hoping he would join her one day in her room but that had never happened. He was of ice, when it came to physical contact with her. But she had time, she was patient. He was with her, he was going to marry her. He already at proposed to her… he won't be of ice for good. In due time he will forget about his little nurse!!!! Well a girl can dream can she?
Another day of work was over, for Candy. She went back to her little apartment. Albert had regained his memory and he was living in the big mansion. He wanted her to go live with him and have all the luxury, but she had refused. She had felt that Albert had more than friendly feelings for her, and she didn't want to give him false hope by going to live with him. He might get the wrong idea. But she went to see him as much as she could. She would go there for lunch and see him with Archie and Annie. Her little heart was not ready to think about that yet. It was still broken into a million pieces, and a million pieces takes a lot of time to put it back together… She cried every time she thought about her life, how different it was from what she thought it was going to be. Terry… that obnoxious boy she had met on the deck of the Mauritania, had become the greatest love of her life. She was so happy when she went to New York for the premiere…She was going to see Terry and stay with him. She was planning to find a job in New York, and live with him and eventually marry him and have a little family. A real family, a normal family with a mommy and daddy, something she had never had growing up. But it had been a while, for Candy it was like it had just happened. She was cooking for herself and she was looking at the paper. She saw the entertainment page and also his face…. The title said he had gotten engaged to his colleague who had saved his life. It also said that love was wonderful, it had saved his life, it was at the right place, at the right time, and a leg is a small price to pay for the life of the one you love.
A leg… she had lost her leg… and that gave her the right to claim Terry as her own. Her Terry!!!! She stole him from her!!!!
"Now, come on Candy, what's with that kind of thinking? She needs Terry… you did the right thing…Did I really? Then why am I so miserable? Life isn't fair. Was it really too much to ask? To live with Terry and make a life together? Was I really too greedy? Now you're going to marry her… It think I'm going to die!!!"
She had tears in her eyes, crying over her lost love. She had lost her appetite. She went directly to bed, but she was incapable of sleeping… all she could think about was Terry and Susanna… and her heart who was trying to get back together, got broken yet again into a thousand pieces.
The fog in London was almost part of the scene, and it rained almost every single week. But it was a nice city, despite the awful war. Eleonor Baker, was in her hotel room changing for dinner. She had just finished another representation of "Nana" and her troupe was waiting for her in the hotel's restaurant. They were suppose to go back to America in a week. She put on a very nice yellow dress, and she let her hair down, she was tired of having it up during the play. As she arrived at the hotel's restaurant, she heard a voice of the past.
- Ellie? Is that you? Said the voice
She turned around looking where the voice came from and who the hell was calling her "Ellie"?! She looked at the middle aged man, who was once her lover.
- Your Grace? She said ironically
- You can call me Richard, Ellie…
- Well Your Grace, I wouldn't want you, to think I'm disrespecting you, and your famous rank….How your wife? The duchess? Is she worth your sacrifice? Was it really a sacrifice? You spent your time in the bed of different actresses….
- Ellie please, we're in a public place…
- Oh, what's that? I'm an actress; I'm used to being in public, not you? I thought that's why you liked toying with us actresses…
- Could we go somewhere and talk about this?
- About what? About how you stole my son and forbid me to see him?
- Ellie….
- Do you have any idea how much I was hurt? And all you did is let your wife abuse him and make him feel miserable his whole life…
- I'm sorry about that…
- Are you really? My son was in a stupid boarding school, instead of your big castle, because he couldn't stand the atmosphere
- Ellie…
She looked at him. She might as well sit with him and tell him what she had in her heart.
- All right, let's go and sit down…
- Thank you Ellie, said the duke
They went inside the restaurant and Eleonor went to her troupe's table to tell them she was having dinner with the duke of Grandchester. They were given a table for two and Richard was looking at her.
- Ellie, how are you?
- I'm peachy! As you can see…
- You're still angry with me…
- Oh really, I wonder what would make you think that? Oh right, you stole my baby…
- Ellie, he's my male heir… I had to take him so he could inherit my title
- Oh, so let me get this straight, if I had had a girl, you would've left her to me?
- Well….
- Oh my God! So I had the bad luck to have had a boy… those who had girls were lucky and they kept their baby?
- Ellie please…
- I remember another colleague of mine you used to "eat with", he name was Marianne Pool…to talk only about her…
- Marianne, whatever happened to her…?
- Surely you didn't invite me to your table to ask me about your old mistresses?!
- Well you brought her up…
- Richard, sometimes you make me want to scream!
- Ellie, calm down… I'm sorry… Tell me how's our son?
- I have no idea; I've been on tour for months. I'm going back next week and I'll go see him. I miss him so much
- I miss him too…despite what you think, I love him, he's my son…
- I know you love him, I've never disputed that, it's just you kept me away from him…
- I'm sorry about that, I just wanted him to be my heir
- Without me the disgraceful actress who gave birth to him? You gave him to you wife who mistreated him… to the point he came and look for me, to have some motherly love…
- Can we get past all that and have dinner?
- I'm surprise you're not afraid to have dinner with me… what will your wife think?
- I'm free to do whatever I want, if I want to have dinner with an old friend, I can…
- An old friend? Is that all I am to you now?
- You're the mother of my son…Ellie…can we be friends at least?
- Friends? Are you sure about that? I was good enough to put in your bed every night, but not good enough for marriage and my son …
- Ellie
- Alright, enough with the bitterness already, let's have dinner…
- Thank you Ellie….I saw you on stage by the way…
- Really?
- I was with my wife… she was sulking for the whole evening, when she realised I brought her to see one of your plays…
- Well you can be really awful when you want to…imposing your wife to watch me on stage… said Eleonor laughing
- Maybe she should've treated my son better….
- You're really awful, you know that? Said Eleonor laughing
They spend the evening having a nice evening reminiscing about the past, the present and even the future.