It wasn't as though she really cared, because she didn't. In fact, on a
scale of one to ten on the caring factor, she probably cared a negative
three. Yeah, that's it! She didn't need to see her husband on Christmas
anyway. Yeah... God knows she didn't, besides, the children would be in
from boarding school by then! She always liked having the kids all to
herself -- when Ky wasn't around.
Ky Takada was a loving man and a good man, but he was an over-bearing man, and at times could not be motivated to love or care about his family. That's not to say that he didn't care about them, it was just that he didn't love them AS much as work. Work was the main goal on Takada's list of things to do; something that was becoming more apparent to Eileen "Ell" Takada with every passing day, week, or month that he wasn't at the house in Grenvale.
Ell smiled. The house in Grenvale... She never truly thought she'd be using the term "the house".
Of course the Takada's and many of the other upper-management familes at PTWM had more than one house. Eileen and Ky had four places: the one in Grenvale where Ell lived, the second one in the mountains 200 miles north near New Brisbane City. The third was a lake house on Zimmerman Lake and the final being a beach house off the coast of what had been Jamaica. That was her favourite place. It was so beautiful and the waters were so clear. She could get lost in her own thoughts out there, something she missed doing.
But her smile faded as she hung the wreath back on the front door. She had taken it down to add a few beads and tassles. It was as if re-hanging it made her think more clear. Ky wouldn't be home for Christmas and probably not for New Year's either. Ell bit her lip. She couldn't help but feel betrayed. The holidays were a time of family and friends and warmth. All he'd do is send her a tennis bracelet again, trying to make up for something that he could never fix.
She slammed the door, glaring at the red paint that covered it. It reminded her of blood. Ell wanted blood right now. The blood of that no-good-jack- ass-of-a-loser husband she had married. Who the hell did he think he was? 'Sorry Hun, can't make Christmas! Here's another piece of jewelry to go to the five hundred pieces you all ready have! I love you, say hi to the kids for me!'
Mrs. Takada let out something of a muffled scream as she balled her hands up into fists and made her way to the wet bar in the first of many parlors.
"Jingle Bells" hummed from the stereo system as she spread out on her burgundy colored couch in front of the fire. She took a sip from her freshly poured gin and tonic and sighed. There was something about the holidays that made her need to drink. Or maybe it was her marriage. She didn't know. But as the alcohol made it's way down her throat and started to dance the nighttime tango with her blood stream, she began to feel mellowed - quiet. She liked feeling quiet; quiet meant she was at peace. Ell streched out and ran her fingers through her dirty brown mane.
Ell Takada was twenty-five now, the mother of two, and the wife of one very wealthy business man. It still amazed her to this day how her life had turned out. In a million years she would have never pictured herself here, in a fifty-six room mansion on the edge of magnificent hill in the most beautiful countryside God could have ever made. She had everything she could ever want, wore the best clothes money could buy, and was living the picture perfect life.
Maybe that's why she drank.
She had grown up wealthy, lived wealthy, and of course, married the first poor bastard she could have possibly found. The life she was living now wasn't much of a change in the luxury aspect, but rather, the harmonious family setting. There wasn't one of those here. Ky had insisted that their two kids be sent off to the most expensive, most prestigious boarding school money could buy and hesitantly, even involuntarily, she had agreed. They were gone for a set of two months, came home for a week, went back to school for one month, came home for a holiday or something... Ell wasn't sure and it was all bull shit anyway.
The ice cubes rattled in her glass as she took another drink. So here she was, in this huge home, with only the servants and a stupid cat named Mr. Roger Tibbs Anthony Poop (her son had named him) that she didn't even like to keep her company. Ell just called the cat Poop, in regards to her fondness of the animal.
Sometimes, she felt like she had sold her soul to Satan. For what or why exactly, she wasn't clear, but she felt that way.
She rubbed her slender fingers over her face and yawned. "Jingle Bells" had long since faded to some other morose Christmas carol that she knew by heart. Poop came up and climbed on her chest. He purred heavily and did that thing with his paws that she hated so much. The one where his claws went through the material of her shirt and onto her chest and hurt like hell.
"Stupid cat..." Mrs. Takada mummured as she slowly stroked his head. She hated cats, but Ky refused to let them keep the family dog when they moved into the house. And of course, like the dope she was, she agreed.
Ell grinned. She would give a million dollars if she could have taken THAT desicion back.
"Mrs. Takada?" A woman with a thick Spanish accent asked. Ell threw her head up and startled the cat to the point that he lunged off her chest. The woman looked over towards the doorway to see a short, stocky Spanish woman standing in meekly beside the wet bar.
"Yes, what is it Lupe?"
"Don't forget miss, that the Senor Takada is sending that man tonight." The older woman managed to spit out. Her jet black hair was pulled back neatly ontop of her head. The brunette with the cat meowing at her sighed heavily and smacked herself on the forehead.
"Christ... Did Ky say when he was coming?" Ell asked as she stood up and walked over to the doorway. The servant nodded quickly.
"Si Senora! Senor Takada say around eight tonight."
Eileen glanced up at the clock and whispered a quiet 'fuck' to herself. It was a quarter till seven all ready. This was another thing she hated, when her husband made life-altering choices that affected, well, her life and then neglected to say anything about it. For instance, this "man" that was going to show up on her doorstep in less than an hour and a half. He was a new body guard that was supposed to follow her around whenever she left the house and when she had visitors. He was going to be near her 24/7, always ready at a moment's notice.
Ell bit her lip with the ferocity of a crocodile. There were about a hundred things wrong with this particular picture. First, why the hell did she need a bodyguard?! Ky had told her it would make him feel more comfortable with all those crazy people in the world, a.k.a, he was dealing with some big-time drug czars and didn't want her winding up headless and full of holes in a ditch somewhere.
Comforting, at least we know he cares, Ell thought to herself.
Secondly, he hadn't even told her about this new addition to her life until yesterday! Yesterday! Ironically enough, it was yesterday that the son of bitch had told her he wasn't going to be able to make Christmas this year. Oh! but good news now! Her new bodyguard-friend/stalker-who-follows-her- around-everywhere can watch her and her kiddies open presents! Gee golly, gee whiz what had she ever done to deserve this?!
Eileen faked a smile and said thank you to the short Spaniard woman as she made her way back over to the wet-bar and fought the nervous breakdown that was looming just around the corner. A strand of hair fell in front of her face as she grabbed an ash tray and a bottle of the finest Tequilla money could buy and walked back over to the couch.
Part of her felt like crying. In fact, most of her felt like crying and that's what she did as she took a swig from her alcoholic lover and lit her cigarette. For some reason today, it felt as if the walls were closing in all around her and she was suffocating. She couldn't get out; Ell was trapped and there was never a worse feeling than that.
The tears fell freely and the mascara that went with them left zig-zagged, black lines all down her rose-colored cheeks.
All she ever wanted was the dream she kept in her head. To have and hold the one thing that she needed more than anything else in the world: a family, a marriage that wasn't built on a pit of lies, and the one thing that she was so sure she could never have - true happiness. Was it too much to ask for? Was that too much to want or believe in? And as the tears fell from her swollen eyes, she took another sip of the alcohol to dull the pain - the pain that she had created for herself in this emaculate Eden she called home.
The days had blurred into years, and there was no hope left for her. She was so tired of trying and God knows she had tried harder than she had ever been asked to, than anyone had ever been asked to. The fact of the matter was it was killing her. Every moment she spent in this hell hole, every moment she spent in her home, with her family and her cat and her servants and her million-dollar clothes -- every moment she wore her wedding ring, that band of gold she had come to know as her handcuff -- she was slipping away into a deeper darkness, into a deeper kind of black. And it was getting to the point where she was having trouble seeing the way out.
She was broken and ashamed of everything she had become. The petty wife, the tired mother... There were days when she layed in bed for hours, the sun mocking her while she wasted away in her satin sheets. She had pills to knumb the pain and doctors to analyze her problems but they didn't help. Hell, they enjoyed it. The broken spectacle that she called herself. They probably got off on it. Her husband, he loved to play the part of the big man, coming home to protect her, but only when he couldn't get any free action somewhere else. And that was just the beginnning. There was no husband. She didn't even consider him that anymore. He was just that fuck- up that came crawling back when he needed an ego boost. He was a liar and a snake. That's what she had always known and that was what Jose Quiervo was helping her realize.
She was a fool for trying and she was a fool for believing that she could ever be happy. Besides, she didn't really even think she had a home.
The clock chimed eight times, but all she did was sit. Let him come. Let that bastard even try to follow her around. Body guard? Ha! She didn't need one of those... She need another bottle of Tequilla. The other one was almost empty and an empty bottle of Tequilla was like an empty bottle of Tequilla: empty! And it was long about that time that Eileen realized she was drunk off her ass and had burned a hole into her five thousand dollar couch with her fifth cigarette. She wiped her eyes and took a heavy sigh. Somehow, one of her daughter's "Songs for Kids" cds had been left in the changer, and the enchanting, but not-so-enchanting-at-this-moment-and-time "Once Upon a Dream" was playing in the background.
Eileen stared at the player for a moment and gave it the finger. The power button was pressed and with it the music died. She attempted to stand up which was rewarded with an instant pain sent straight to her head and she went tumbling down. The couch softened the blow to her back and she laid there for a minute, trying to regain the courage and mental capacity to try and stand up again. On the third try, she managed to make it upstairs to her bathroom and wake herself up with cold water.
The brunette looked at herself in the mirror and felt her heart break quietly. She was a mess, an absolute mess, not just on the outside, but on the inside too. She hated to see herself like this...
Ell took a wet wash cloth and wiped away the mascara from her cheeks and eyes. She took her hair down and brushed it out, a little distraught to see her blonde roots were starting to show again. Eilleen Takada sighed a sigh of a defeated woman and ran her fingers through her long, long hair. Ky had made her color it brown. Ky had made her ruin her gorgeous hair, the hair she had loved and had taken such good care off. Now it was dry, dry and nappy. Of course the nappy part was all due to the fact that she hadn't bathed in a day and she had been crying and drinking for the last hour or two.
Eilleen put her hair in a bun and ran herself of bath, soaking for awhile. She had lost all track of time and frankly, she didn't care. She just wanted to lose herself in the bubble and soapy world of relaxation. She wanted to lose herself and never come back. The sad part was, she always wanted to lose herself.
The sad part was, she did this most every night. Wished for what she couldn't have and wished the what she did would go away.
It was a never-ending cycle that was on the verge of bi-polar but really just depression. Ell was like a soul-searcher who had gotten lost in the woods, in the dark, in Maine. She wanted to be happy so bad; she wanted to have her little dysfunctional party finally end so much that she had really made it worse. Looking inside herself for the cure to the common miserable woman had only made her more miserable of a woman. Now, all she had were the bubbles to comfort her.
There was a knock at the bathroom door.
"Senora, the man is here. I told him to wait in the library... You want to meet him?" Senora Faladez asked.
Ell looked at herself in the mirror that hung on the wall in front of her. She looked better than she had, but still, she had no desire to meet this new addition to her all ready complex life. Sleep was overcoming her and so was the alcohol. All Eileen wanted to do was close her eyes and pass out under the heavy warmth of her bed sheets and let her dreams take her to places she longed for. She ran her fingers over her long, long legs and sighed for the ump-teenth time.
"No, not tonight. I'll meet him tomorrow." Ell said as she stood up and wrapped a towel around herself. Senora Faladez made a reluctant kind of grunt.
"The Senor say he wants to meet you tonight. He say Senor Takada told him too." The maid said with a shakey voice. By now, Eilleen had put herself in her silk nightgown and matching robe and was slowly brushing her hair. She could almost her Ky telling the man to make sure he met her. She could even imagine the arrogance and power he had had in his voice. It was something that made her quite, quite angry.
"Well," Ell said non-chalantly as she opened the bathroom door and walked out into her massive 17x16 bedroom, completely with a terrace, fireplace, and the finest furniture made this side of the universe, "I don't give a damn what he wants to do. He can spend the whole night in the library if he wants but I'm tired and I have every intention of going to sleep." She put her pearl handled brush down on her end table beside her bed.
Senora Faladez gave an understanding nod and made her way out of the room. Eilleen watched as the woman closed the door gently with a smile. That was one reason while Eilleen had hired Faladez; she always smiled. And, in some ways, Ell felt that Lupe Faladez understood her better than she understood herself. Lupe always had a comforting word to give her, always had a smile when she needed one, and had more than once held her when she needed a shoulder to cry on. Ell considered Lupe a member of the family, well at least of Eilleen's real family -- the pretend family she had in her head. It was a family where she felt like she could finally be a peace. It wasn't anything like the one she had now. No, in fact, it wasn't even remotely close. God forbid anything should ever happen to her children whom she loved more than life itself, but, they weren't a part of this family. It was simply her and two other people. Two other people that she missed more than anything else...
Minutes had apparently flown by while she was raptured in thought, because the door opened again and Senora Faladez was standing there.
"The sir say he will no leave the library until you meet him. He say, "Tell Mrs. Takada that her husband say to meet him first thing, and that..." Faladez let her words die down. Ell looked at her with a twisted, confused expression.
"And that what?" She asked. Faladez gave a forced smile and fumbled with her hands. Eilleen walked over and stood in front of the nervous maid. She looked down at her (Senora Faladez was a short woman) with the look a mother gives a child when they're hiding a secret.
"And that what, Lupe?" Ell stared at the woman with a forceful gaze. Finally, the little woman sighed and looked up at her employer.
"And that he could no do his job as long as you was being stupid and rude."
Eilleen's mouth had fallen open and her face had grown a light shade of red. She could feel her blood pressure boiling and as she went over the sentence in her head again and again, she knew that it was about to boil over. In fact, it all ready had.
Ell balled up her fists and started swearing in French. It was a habit; she always swore in French. Faladez took a step back and watched Mrs. Takada pace in circles around her room, swearing and talking to herself in a different language, waving her arms spastically around. Lupe knew that whatever explosion Mrs. Takada was fixing to have, it was going to be extreme. If it was one thing that Eilleen did not deal with very well it was insults from people she didn't even know and being told what to do. Both had pretty much occured and Faladez was afraid that Ell might shoot the messanger.
And just as soon as she had started, Ell came to a dead stop. Her eyes shot to the hallway and she made her way to the door. She was furious, she was beyond furious - she was blind with a white anger that had completely taken over. Calling her stupid?! Calling her rude?! Who the hell did he think he was anyway? Stomping down the stairs she let the anger wash over her like an ocean to the sand as she made the long trudge through the east hallway. Her eyes burned with a fire that couldn't be explained. She heard the now distant shoutings of Lupe who had been hopelessly trying to call Ell off, but she didn't care. She wasn't stupid and she sure as hell wasn't rude and for anyone, ANYONE, let alone some punk-ass man in her home hired by her husband to call her that was more than a violation. It was a slap in the face, a kick in the crotch, and an all too painful realization that she just didn't want to put up with right now.
She wanted blood, she wanted pain, and she wanted his head mounted on her wall. She didn't know who he was, she didn't care who he was, and she didn't really want to know. It was her house and if she wanted to wait till the morning to meet this jackass, she would. He wasn't going to tell her what to do, that wasn't his "job". Can't do his job? CAN'T DO HIS JOB? Fuck it. Tomorrow he wouldn't even have a job. He wouldn't have any balls by the time she got through with him.
And she could be mean.
Eilleen Takada was a gentle woman, but she had run her course in the goverment scene. She had played a part in the lie and the scandal and she could be as cunning as a snake, violent as a cougar, and as hungry for blood as a demon from the deepest darkest pits of hell. She could give looks that made grown men cry and give looks that made you feel like you were worthless. She was the queen of torture and abuse and misery and pain. Ell's whole world revolved around her own apathy and her own misgivings and pains. She knew what it took to make a man burst into tears and she knew what to say to make another one fall to his knees.
Her tongue was a sharp as a knife and for three years she had been dying to try and see if she still had her killer touch. She wanted to see if she still had that fatal tact that she had not used in so long, too long. And now, standing in front of the library door, it seemed like a good a time as any to see if she had her old fire power. Who was this person to judge her? He didn't know her. When did she deserve to be crucified by him? And that's exactly what it felt like. Like he was crucifying her, hanging her out to dry. His two little insults had made her feel more worthless than anyone else ever had in her whole life. She wasn't sure why and she wasn't going to question it. All she knew was that she wanted to see him squirm; she wanted to see him beg.
She pushed open the door and saw him standing with his back to her, in front of an enormous desk. There was the bastard who had made her bleed. There was the relatively tall asshole with the sandy brown hair that had made her so angry she couldn't see straight. She took a heavy sigh, mellowing herself out. She was preparing for the calm before the storm.
Ell turned her back to the man and slowly started to close the door. He turned, and looked at her. She was a petite woman with long brown hair. He smiled to himself. If it's one thing that gets people running, it's an insult. Especially if they're rich and especially if they're women. And there she was, just another gullible piece of flesh. It made him sick. He was going to have to watch her, follow her every move for the next year. Wasn't that just special? He got to be Mr. Body Guard for a multi-million dollar man's anorexic brunette wife. Great fucking fun...
He turned back around as Ell finished closing the door. In a moment of quick blind action, she skipped the graceful tact part and jumped straight onto full bitch mode.
"What the hell gives you the ri---" And as she turned around, he turned too. And then...The world stood still.
Yes, there were only two people in the family that lived in Eilleen Takada's head. The woman she once was, and the man that had loved her. And it was funny, because, things in your head are never supposed to be real...
Ky Takada was a loving man and a good man, but he was an over-bearing man, and at times could not be motivated to love or care about his family. That's not to say that he didn't care about them, it was just that he didn't love them AS much as work. Work was the main goal on Takada's list of things to do; something that was becoming more apparent to Eileen "Ell" Takada with every passing day, week, or month that he wasn't at the house in Grenvale.
Ell smiled. The house in Grenvale... She never truly thought she'd be using the term "the house".
Of course the Takada's and many of the other upper-management familes at PTWM had more than one house. Eileen and Ky had four places: the one in Grenvale where Ell lived, the second one in the mountains 200 miles north near New Brisbane City. The third was a lake house on Zimmerman Lake and the final being a beach house off the coast of what had been Jamaica. That was her favourite place. It was so beautiful and the waters were so clear. She could get lost in her own thoughts out there, something she missed doing.
But her smile faded as she hung the wreath back on the front door. She had taken it down to add a few beads and tassles. It was as if re-hanging it made her think more clear. Ky wouldn't be home for Christmas and probably not for New Year's either. Ell bit her lip. She couldn't help but feel betrayed. The holidays were a time of family and friends and warmth. All he'd do is send her a tennis bracelet again, trying to make up for something that he could never fix.
She slammed the door, glaring at the red paint that covered it. It reminded her of blood. Ell wanted blood right now. The blood of that no-good-jack- ass-of-a-loser husband she had married. Who the hell did he think he was? 'Sorry Hun, can't make Christmas! Here's another piece of jewelry to go to the five hundred pieces you all ready have! I love you, say hi to the kids for me!'
Mrs. Takada let out something of a muffled scream as she balled her hands up into fists and made her way to the wet bar in the first of many parlors.
"Jingle Bells" hummed from the stereo system as she spread out on her burgundy colored couch in front of the fire. She took a sip from her freshly poured gin and tonic and sighed. There was something about the holidays that made her need to drink. Or maybe it was her marriage. She didn't know. But as the alcohol made it's way down her throat and started to dance the nighttime tango with her blood stream, she began to feel mellowed - quiet. She liked feeling quiet; quiet meant she was at peace. Ell streched out and ran her fingers through her dirty brown mane.
Ell Takada was twenty-five now, the mother of two, and the wife of one very wealthy business man. It still amazed her to this day how her life had turned out. In a million years she would have never pictured herself here, in a fifty-six room mansion on the edge of magnificent hill in the most beautiful countryside God could have ever made. She had everything she could ever want, wore the best clothes money could buy, and was living the picture perfect life.
Maybe that's why she drank.
She had grown up wealthy, lived wealthy, and of course, married the first poor bastard she could have possibly found. The life she was living now wasn't much of a change in the luxury aspect, but rather, the harmonious family setting. There wasn't one of those here. Ky had insisted that their two kids be sent off to the most expensive, most prestigious boarding school money could buy and hesitantly, even involuntarily, she had agreed. They were gone for a set of two months, came home for a week, went back to school for one month, came home for a holiday or something... Ell wasn't sure and it was all bull shit anyway.
The ice cubes rattled in her glass as she took another drink. So here she was, in this huge home, with only the servants and a stupid cat named Mr. Roger Tibbs Anthony Poop (her son had named him) that she didn't even like to keep her company. Ell just called the cat Poop, in regards to her fondness of the animal.
Sometimes, she felt like she had sold her soul to Satan. For what or why exactly, she wasn't clear, but she felt that way.
She rubbed her slender fingers over her face and yawned. "Jingle Bells" had long since faded to some other morose Christmas carol that she knew by heart. Poop came up and climbed on her chest. He purred heavily and did that thing with his paws that she hated so much. The one where his claws went through the material of her shirt and onto her chest and hurt like hell.
"Stupid cat..." Mrs. Takada mummured as she slowly stroked his head. She hated cats, but Ky refused to let them keep the family dog when they moved into the house. And of course, like the dope she was, she agreed.
Ell grinned. She would give a million dollars if she could have taken THAT desicion back.
"Mrs. Takada?" A woman with a thick Spanish accent asked. Ell threw her head up and startled the cat to the point that he lunged off her chest. The woman looked over towards the doorway to see a short, stocky Spanish woman standing in meekly beside the wet bar.
"Yes, what is it Lupe?"
"Don't forget miss, that the Senor Takada is sending that man tonight." The older woman managed to spit out. Her jet black hair was pulled back neatly ontop of her head. The brunette with the cat meowing at her sighed heavily and smacked herself on the forehead.
"Christ... Did Ky say when he was coming?" Ell asked as she stood up and walked over to the doorway. The servant nodded quickly.
"Si Senora! Senor Takada say around eight tonight."
Eileen glanced up at the clock and whispered a quiet 'fuck' to herself. It was a quarter till seven all ready. This was another thing she hated, when her husband made life-altering choices that affected, well, her life and then neglected to say anything about it. For instance, this "man" that was going to show up on her doorstep in less than an hour and a half. He was a new body guard that was supposed to follow her around whenever she left the house and when she had visitors. He was going to be near her 24/7, always ready at a moment's notice.
Ell bit her lip with the ferocity of a crocodile. There were about a hundred things wrong with this particular picture. First, why the hell did she need a bodyguard?! Ky had told her it would make him feel more comfortable with all those crazy people in the world, a.k.a, he was dealing with some big-time drug czars and didn't want her winding up headless and full of holes in a ditch somewhere.
Comforting, at least we know he cares, Ell thought to herself.
Secondly, he hadn't even told her about this new addition to her life until yesterday! Yesterday! Ironically enough, it was yesterday that the son of bitch had told her he wasn't going to be able to make Christmas this year. Oh! but good news now! Her new bodyguard-friend/stalker-who-follows-her- around-everywhere can watch her and her kiddies open presents! Gee golly, gee whiz what had she ever done to deserve this?!
Eileen faked a smile and said thank you to the short Spaniard woman as she made her way back over to the wet-bar and fought the nervous breakdown that was looming just around the corner. A strand of hair fell in front of her face as she grabbed an ash tray and a bottle of the finest Tequilla money could buy and walked back over to the couch.
Part of her felt like crying. In fact, most of her felt like crying and that's what she did as she took a swig from her alcoholic lover and lit her cigarette. For some reason today, it felt as if the walls were closing in all around her and she was suffocating. She couldn't get out; Ell was trapped and there was never a worse feeling than that.
The tears fell freely and the mascara that went with them left zig-zagged, black lines all down her rose-colored cheeks.
All she ever wanted was the dream she kept in her head. To have and hold the one thing that she needed more than anything else in the world: a family, a marriage that wasn't built on a pit of lies, and the one thing that she was so sure she could never have - true happiness. Was it too much to ask for? Was that too much to want or believe in? And as the tears fell from her swollen eyes, she took another sip of the alcohol to dull the pain - the pain that she had created for herself in this emaculate Eden she called home.
The days had blurred into years, and there was no hope left for her. She was so tired of trying and God knows she had tried harder than she had ever been asked to, than anyone had ever been asked to. The fact of the matter was it was killing her. Every moment she spent in this hell hole, every moment she spent in her home, with her family and her cat and her servants and her million-dollar clothes -- every moment she wore her wedding ring, that band of gold she had come to know as her handcuff -- she was slipping away into a deeper darkness, into a deeper kind of black. And it was getting to the point where she was having trouble seeing the way out.
She was broken and ashamed of everything she had become. The petty wife, the tired mother... There were days when she layed in bed for hours, the sun mocking her while she wasted away in her satin sheets. She had pills to knumb the pain and doctors to analyze her problems but they didn't help. Hell, they enjoyed it. The broken spectacle that she called herself. They probably got off on it. Her husband, he loved to play the part of the big man, coming home to protect her, but only when he couldn't get any free action somewhere else. And that was just the beginnning. There was no husband. She didn't even consider him that anymore. He was just that fuck- up that came crawling back when he needed an ego boost. He was a liar and a snake. That's what she had always known and that was what Jose Quiervo was helping her realize.
She was a fool for trying and she was a fool for believing that she could ever be happy. Besides, she didn't really even think she had a home.
The clock chimed eight times, but all she did was sit. Let him come. Let that bastard even try to follow her around. Body guard? Ha! She didn't need one of those... She need another bottle of Tequilla. The other one was almost empty and an empty bottle of Tequilla was like an empty bottle of Tequilla: empty! And it was long about that time that Eileen realized she was drunk off her ass and had burned a hole into her five thousand dollar couch with her fifth cigarette. She wiped her eyes and took a heavy sigh. Somehow, one of her daughter's "Songs for Kids" cds had been left in the changer, and the enchanting, but not-so-enchanting-at-this-moment-and-time "Once Upon a Dream" was playing in the background.
Eileen stared at the player for a moment and gave it the finger. The power button was pressed and with it the music died. She attempted to stand up which was rewarded with an instant pain sent straight to her head and she went tumbling down. The couch softened the blow to her back and she laid there for a minute, trying to regain the courage and mental capacity to try and stand up again. On the third try, she managed to make it upstairs to her bathroom and wake herself up with cold water.
The brunette looked at herself in the mirror and felt her heart break quietly. She was a mess, an absolute mess, not just on the outside, but on the inside too. She hated to see herself like this...
Ell took a wet wash cloth and wiped away the mascara from her cheeks and eyes. She took her hair down and brushed it out, a little distraught to see her blonde roots were starting to show again. Eilleen Takada sighed a sigh of a defeated woman and ran her fingers through her long, long hair. Ky had made her color it brown. Ky had made her ruin her gorgeous hair, the hair she had loved and had taken such good care off. Now it was dry, dry and nappy. Of course the nappy part was all due to the fact that she hadn't bathed in a day and she had been crying and drinking for the last hour or two.
Eilleen put her hair in a bun and ran herself of bath, soaking for awhile. She had lost all track of time and frankly, she didn't care. She just wanted to lose herself in the bubble and soapy world of relaxation. She wanted to lose herself and never come back. The sad part was, she always wanted to lose herself.
The sad part was, she did this most every night. Wished for what she couldn't have and wished the what she did would go away.
It was a never-ending cycle that was on the verge of bi-polar but really just depression. Ell was like a soul-searcher who had gotten lost in the woods, in the dark, in Maine. She wanted to be happy so bad; she wanted to have her little dysfunctional party finally end so much that she had really made it worse. Looking inside herself for the cure to the common miserable woman had only made her more miserable of a woman. Now, all she had were the bubbles to comfort her.
There was a knock at the bathroom door.
"Senora, the man is here. I told him to wait in the library... You want to meet him?" Senora Faladez asked.
Ell looked at herself in the mirror that hung on the wall in front of her. She looked better than she had, but still, she had no desire to meet this new addition to her all ready complex life. Sleep was overcoming her and so was the alcohol. All Eileen wanted to do was close her eyes and pass out under the heavy warmth of her bed sheets and let her dreams take her to places she longed for. She ran her fingers over her long, long legs and sighed for the ump-teenth time.
"No, not tonight. I'll meet him tomorrow." Ell said as she stood up and wrapped a towel around herself. Senora Faladez made a reluctant kind of grunt.
"The Senor say he wants to meet you tonight. He say Senor Takada told him too." The maid said with a shakey voice. By now, Eilleen had put herself in her silk nightgown and matching robe and was slowly brushing her hair. She could almost her Ky telling the man to make sure he met her. She could even imagine the arrogance and power he had had in his voice. It was something that made her quite, quite angry.
"Well," Ell said non-chalantly as she opened the bathroom door and walked out into her massive 17x16 bedroom, completely with a terrace, fireplace, and the finest furniture made this side of the universe, "I don't give a damn what he wants to do. He can spend the whole night in the library if he wants but I'm tired and I have every intention of going to sleep." She put her pearl handled brush down on her end table beside her bed.
Senora Faladez gave an understanding nod and made her way out of the room. Eilleen watched as the woman closed the door gently with a smile. That was one reason while Eilleen had hired Faladez; she always smiled. And, in some ways, Ell felt that Lupe Faladez understood her better than she understood herself. Lupe always had a comforting word to give her, always had a smile when she needed one, and had more than once held her when she needed a shoulder to cry on. Ell considered Lupe a member of the family, well at least of Eilleen's real family -- the pretend family she had in her head. It was a family where she felt like she could finally be a peace. It wasn't anything like the one she had now. No, in fact, it wasn't even remotely close. God forbid anything should ever happen to her children whom she loved more than life itself, but, they weren't a part of this family. It was simply her and two other people. Two other people that she missed more than anything else...
Minutes had apparently flown by while she was raptured in thought, because the door opened again and Senora Faladez was standing there.
"The sir say he will no leave the library until you meet him. He say, "Tell Mrs. Takada that her husband say to meet him first thing, and that..." Faladez let her words die down. Ell looked at her with a twisted, confused expression.
"And that what?" She asked. Faladez gave a forced smile and fumbled with her hands. Eilleen walked over and stood in front of the nervous maid. She looked down at her (Senora Faladez was a short woman) with the look a mother gives a child when they're hiding a secret.
"And that what, Lupe?" Ell stared at the woman with a forceful gaze. Finally, the little woman sighed and looked up at her employer.
"And that he could no do his job as long as you was being stupid and rude."
Eilleen's mouth had fallen open and her face had grown a light shade of red. She could feel her blood pressure boiling and as she went over the sentence in her head again and again, she knew that it was about to boil over. In fact, it all ready had.
Ell balled up her fists and started swearing in French. It was a habit; she always swore in French. Faladez took a step back and watched Mrs. Takada pace in circles around her room, swearing and talking to herself in a different language, waving her arms spastically around. Lupe knew that whatever explosion Mrs. Takada was fixing to have, it was going to be extreme. If it was one thing that Eilleen did not deal with very well it was insults from people she didn't even know and being told what to do. Both had pretty much occured and Faladez was afraid that Ell might shoot the messanger.
And just as soon as she had started, Ell came to a dead stop. Her eyes shot to the hallway and she made her way to the door. She was furious, she was beyond furious - she was blind with a white anger that had completely taken over. Calling her stupid?! Calling her rude?! Who the hell did he think he was anyway? Stomping down the stairs she let the anger wash over her like an ocean to the sand as she made the long trudge through the east hallway. Her eyes burned with a fire that couldn't be explained. She heard the now distant shoutings of Lupe who had been hopelessly trying to call Ell off, but she didn't care. She wasn't stupid and she sure as hell wasn't rude and for anyone, ANYONE, let alone some punk-ass man in her home hired by her husband to call her that was more than a violation. It was a slap in the face, a kick in the crotch, and an all too painful realization that she just didn't want to put up with right now.
She wanted blood, she wanted pain, and she wanted his head mounted on her wall. She didn't know who he was, she didn't care who he was, and she didn't really want to know. It was her house and if she wanted to wait till the morning to meet this jackass, she would. He wasn't going to tell her what to do, that wasn't his "job". Can't do his job? CAN'T DO HIS JOB? Fuck it. Tomorrow he wouldn't even have a job. He wouldn't have any balls by the time she got through with him.
And she could be mean.
Eilleen Takada was a gentle woman, but she had run her course in the goverment scene. She had played a part in the lie and the scandal and she could be as cunning as a snake, violent as a cougar, and as hungry for blood as a demon from the deepest darkest pits of hell. She could give looks that made grown men cry and give looks that made you feel like you were worthless. She was the queen of torture and abuse and misery and pain. Ell's whole world revolved around her own apathy and her own misgivings and pains. She knew what it took to make a man burst into tears and she knew what to say to make another one fall to his knees.
Her tongue was a sharp as a knife and for three years she had been dying to try and see if she still had her killer touch. She wanted to see if she still had that fatal tact that she had not used in so long, too long. And now, standing in front of the library door, it seemed like a good a time as any to see if she had her old fire power. Who was this person to judge her? He didn't know her. When did she deserve to be crucified by him? And that's exactly what it felt like. Like he was crucifying her, hanging her out to dry. His two little insults had made her feel more worthless than anyone else ever had in her whole life. She wasn't sure why and she wasn't going to question it. All she knew was that she wanted to see him squirm; she wanted to see him beg.
She pushed open the door and saw him standing with his back to her, in front of an enormous desk. There was the bastard who had made her bleed. There was the relatively tall asshole with the sandy brown hair that had made her so angry she couldn't see straight. She took a heavy sigh, mellowing herself out. She was preparing for the calm before the storm.
Ell turned her back to the man and slowly started to close the door. He turned, and looked at her. She was a petite woman with long brown hair. He smiled to himself. If it's one thing that gets people running, it's an insult. Especially if they're rich and especially if they're women. And there she was, just another gullible piece of flesh. It made him sick. He was going to have to watch her, follow her every move for the next year. Wasn't that just special? He got to be Mr. Body Guard for a multi-million dollar man's anorexic brunette wife. Great fucking fun...
He turned back around as Ell finished closing the door. In a moment of quick blind action, she skipped the graceful tact part and jumped straight onto full bitch mode.
"What the hell gives you the ri---" And as she turned around, he turned too. And then...The world stood still.
Yes, there were only two people in the family that lived in Eilleen Takada's head. The woman she once was, and the man that had loved her. And it was funny, because, things in your head are never supposed to be real...