You get to call your mother a monster while revering the Monster of Mifflin St.
Henry pulled a twig from his hair before sighing. He'd left right as the sun began to rise, hoping to avoid any more possible wrath from Grace, though Jefferson had assured him she probably wouldn't be out of her room anytime soon. Still he thought it best to remove himself from her presence which brought him here, the park. He'd tried dozing on the bench he sat for the better part of the morning but soon came to the frustrating realization that sleep just would not come.
Instead he thought over every second of his life. About the blood on his hands, about how it was his entire fault that his mother had almost lost her life. About how Peter had tricked him so awfully and how he should have listened to Lance when he had the chance. If he was honest with himself… everything was his fault.
And now he had nowhere to go except to grandparents who, from the assurance of every person he knew that also knew his mother, were the very definition of evil.
So he did the only thing he could think to do.
He cried
That's where Grace found him hours later. He was surprised to see her but grateful when she pushed a plastic wrapped sandwich into his hands.
They sat in silence while he munched thoughtfully on his sandwich and she sat throwing cracked corn at the birds. It was odd to see her so eerily calm. Even before she always had an angry look on her face, now she just looked… done.
"I had a crush on you," she murmured softly as she threw the last of the corn from her pocket. Henry looked over at her, his face flushed red and his eyes wide with shock.
"I… wow," he breathed, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.
"Don't worry, I'm over it now. Way past over it," Grace said with a sad smile. She stood and dusted her lap off before offering him a hand. Henry took it slowly and allowed her to help him to his feet before looking around them suspiciously. What exactly was she playing at?
"Come on," she said sternly as she began to pull him from the park. He reluctantly followed her, more to keep her from ripping his arm out of its socket than because he really wanted to be anywhere with her.
"Where are we going?" he asked once they were a good distance from the park.
"To the library. So you can see for yourself," she nodded as she pulled him along determinedly. Henry rolled his eyes before digging his feet into the ground and halting their movement. Grace stopped and turned to face him then, confused.
"Look, fine, okay? I mean, everyone who I've met who knew my mom when she was young has told me the same thing. My grandmother is evil, so what? It's not like I'm going there," Henry said, exasperated. And he hadn't planned on going, even if he told Jefferson he was. Instead he thought about maybe finding somewhere not so cold to squat in for the next few days. Just until he figured out what to do.
"Don't be stupid. You aren't coming back to my house and that's the best place for you," Grace resorted with a snort. Henry rolled his eyes and rubbed his face with a sigh. How in the world had the sweet little girl whose pigtails he used to pull turn into such a mean spirited girl.
"Why is that, Grace? I don't even know them all that well, who knows if they'll even take me in. And why would I even want to go there after you show me whatever you think is so damn important for me to see?" Henry asked, annoyed by her shift in moods and by her present circumstances. All he really wanted to do was go home. But there were things waiting back in DC he didn't want to face and more things in New York just waiting to ensnare him into a life he never wanted to go back to.
"Because you need to see for yourself, you idiot. You talk all this crap about how you just want to get to know them and now that you've gotten tired of hearing about how horrible they are you're just giving up. Well you don't have that luxury, stupid. I don't want you back in my house, I really don't, and that's the truth. But I do want you to get your head out of your ass.
That's why I'm taking you to the library and that's why you're going to read everything I put in front of you and then you're going to march your ass to 108 Mifflin St and you're going to face the truth, Henry. Maybe everyone else will take your whining and mopping about but I won't, so let's go," Grace ordered, her hands planted firmly on her narrow hips. Henry nodded mutely and followed her as she turned and headed to what he supposed was the library.
They walked in mostly silence, save Grace off key humming as they continued on. As much as she didn't want to admit it she was just like her mother. His Aunt Mallory never took crap from anyone and it seemed, if nothing else, that part of her had rubbed off on her daughter.
"Why do you hate your mother so much?" Henry asked once they'd finally entered the library. Grace shrugged.
"I don't. I love her. But she doesn't love me the same way," Grace muttered darkly before leading him past the librarian, an older woman with her white hair pulled into a severe bun. She was dressed in what Henry supposed was the stereotypical librarian garb, a long floral dress under an ugly beige sweater with a bleach spot on the right sleeve. She waved Grace along as the younger moved towards the very back of the library. Henry took in the towering shelves and earth tones of the library. It was nice.
"So where are we headed?" he asked after a moment.
"To look through the old records. Mother Goose back there won't mind me digging through stuff as long I put things back as they were. I've done it before," Grace said with a shrug.
They spent the next four hours looking through records from the past thirty or forty years. It wasn't until they were just about to give up that Henry spotted it.
Monster of Mifflin St Found Not Guilty, the title read. Henry ushered Grace over and they scanned over the article together, feeling sicker and sicker with each word.
"Cora Mills, wealthy socialite and mother, was found not guilty of the murder of her daughter's fiancé, 25 year old Daniel Stapleton. Mrs. Mills claims that she mistook Stapleton for an intruder and shot him while he stood on her back porch. Her daughter, Regina Mills, was present for the attack but has refused to testify against her mother and or make any comments to the press. Friends and family of the victim and his fiancé have told this reporter that Ms. Mills is having a hard time and wishes to be left alone.
When asked if she thought Ms. Mills was at fault in any way for her son's death, Mrs. Stapleton, the mother of the victim, told the press that she didn't at all believe that to be true…"
Henry stopped listening as Grace went on, reading the rest of the article out loud. His hands trembled in his lap as he thought over what he'd just read.
His grandmother had killed his mother's fiancé and had gotten away with it.
"There's more," Grace said, placing another book of old newspaper clippings on the desk before him. She pointed to another article, this one came along with a picture of who he supposed was his grandmother and an older man he'd never seen before.
"That's Leo, the old mayor of this town," Grace informed him. Henry nodded his head and listened as Grace as she read the article.
"Sex Scandal leads to mayor stepping down from his position. The entire town has been shocked with the recent sex scandal and rumors surrounding our dear mayor Leo Blanchard. Rumor has it that he's fathered a child with at least one underage girl within these very town lines. The most shocking revelation comes in the form of a leaked phone call recording between Mrs. Mills, the Monster of Mifflin St, and Mayor Blanchard. In the phone call they discuss how best to force Mrs. Mills' daughter Regina Mills into a marriage with said Mayor. During the phone call Mayor Blanchard admits to his long time obsession with said young woman.
The press has been unable to get a hold of Ms. Mills for any comment but a private source has informed us that Ms. Mills has left town with her four year old son, Henry…," Grace trailed off and looked up at him, shocked.
"This means… that my mom was telling me the truth," he whispered shakily.
They spent hours in the library until eventually the librarian ushered them out, the sun having long since descended into night. They decided that the best course of action was for to Henry to instead rent a room in the small diner in town. Grace paid the resident drunk to rent the room as a cover, knowing how strange it would look for someone her age to be doing it. They laid up in Henry's rented room and stewed over what exactly all their snooping had found them.
While Grace munched loudly on a bag of chips Henry sat on his bed feeling the most queasy he'd probably ever felt. It crushed him to know just how right his mother had been. And it killed him to think about how much he hadn't believed her. How he'd cursed her. And it turned out, once again, that he was the wrong one.
"So what are you going to do?" Grace asked after a pregnant pause. Henry looked up from his lap and shrugged his slumped shoulders.
"I need to go home," he murmured with a nod.
"So you aren't going to confront them?" Grace asked curiously.
"I need to apologize to my mom more than I need to see them. I have to make things right," Henry said firmly.
"But won't you always wonder? I think you should go and see them. Look them in the eyes and tell them exactly what you think of them. It isn't fair for them to be living happily after everything they've done," Grace said, as she rolled on her back on the carpet floor, still stuffing her mouth full of chips.
"Besides… how would you even get home? It's not like you have any money left. And I'm not going to weasel any more money out of my father to help you. Me helping you right now has nothing to do with me liking you or anything. It's just that I'm a good person. Better than you and my mother," Grace stated nonchalantly. Henry chuckled and rolled his eyes at her statement. Maybe she was a better person than him, that didn't mean she had to keep rubbing it in.
"Yeah, whatever. So then… I go and confront them and then what? I still have to figure out a way home," Henry said.
"Maybe they'll feel so moved they'll offer you money to get home. Doesn't matter too much to me, really. I need to get home," Grace yawned. She stood and gathered her coat and other things before throwing her half-finished bag of chips to Henry.
"Enjoy your dinner. This room is paid for for the next two days. I'm not coming to visit you again," Grace stated before leaving the room. Henry listened to her make her way down the stairs and continued to watch the door even when the sound had longed stopped.
He was a lone again. And by his own design, no less.
He left the room on the second day, starving after eating nothing but stale chips the day before.
He wandered through town and took in the sites. It was quaint looking and a place he was sure his mother would have loved if most her memories of it hadn't been so terrible.
He continued walking until he found himself on the very street she'd grown up on. He continued making his way to her childhood home unconsciously. By the time he realized what he was doing he'd already rang the doorbell.
Before he could scurry off an older bald man answered the door wearing a tan sweater vest over a pressed white button up. He smiled kindly down at Henry and waited for the young boy to announce his reason for stopping by.
"I'm Henry, your grandson," Henry blurted out before he could stop himself.
"She's sleeping," Henry Sr. said as he placed a cup of tea before Henry. They sat in the older man's office silently watching one another. The older man had been surprised by the younger boy's admission before taking in his features and realized that there was no way this boy was lying.
They'd been in the study ever since. Just chatting lightly until Henry mentioned his grandmother.
"She's sick," the older man said calmly as he sipped his tea, frowning when the hot liquid stung his thin upper lip.
"What's wrong with her?" Henry asked his grandfather, swirling the confines of his own cup with a small spoon.
"Cancer. Liver cancer to be exact. It wouldn't have been so bad if we'd caught it earlier. As it is all the doctors say she doesn't have much time left. Not that she listens," Henry chuckled softly thinking of his wife's bullheadedness.
"Why… didn't you ever stop her?" Henry asked after a silent moment. Henry Sr. sighed and coughed awkwardly as he thought of the best way to answer the question.
"I was raised in a home where violence was expected. My father never hit my mother but I was never spared his wrath. I thought that was normal. When I met Cora she was… this beautiful cutthroat woman. I wanted her impeccably. And when I finally had her I made her suffer. Every little thing she did would set me off back then, it didn't help that there were rumors that she'd slept around with a few of my friends. It wasn't until she was pregnant that she finally left me.
Eventually I tracked her back down and found her wasting away in a shabby apartment with her daughter, Zelena, and your mother set up in the living room. Your aunt looked so small and malnutrition back then. And I knew that it was all my fault. I'd pitch a fit if she ever left for too long which left her no time to spend with Lennie. And then I beat her almost entirely through her pregnancy. I was a monster. Even after I whisked her here I still kept on. It wasn't until my stroke that I calmed my temper. By that time your mother was nearly two and Cora had already hardened her heart.
She was determined to never allow her daughter any sort of weakness. It hurt my heart to see her treat the girls how she did but… I felt far too guilty for my own behavior to stop her. I was… a coward," Henry Sr. answered wearily.
"So you just let her torture my mother and aunt?" Henry asked in disbelief.
"I did," the older man said calmly.
"How can… how can you be so okay with this?" Henry question, beginning to tear up. How could his mother have gotten stuck with such… horrible people for parents?
"I've lived a very long, sad life. I've accepted my mistakes and it's not that they don't still wear on me, because they do, it's just that there is no way that I can fix the past. All I can do now is take care of my wife and try to ease her pain while she's still around. She is still, with no question, the woman I love most in all my life. When I lose her, I lose everything. And that is no less than what I deserve," the older man spoke quietly.
"That isn't fair," Henry said after a pause, his tears falling finally.
"My mother… everyday has to live with what the two of you have done and you're so self-absorbed… as if her pain doesn't even compare to your own. As if you losing your damn wife means anything?!" Henry shouted, standing so abruptly that he shook the oak desk before him, his untouched tea spilling over.
"What do you want me to say? That I'm sorry, because I am. A thousand times I am sorry. I wish I had been a better parent, a better person. But I wasn't and all I can do now is pray that my daughter finds happiness. Pray that she never turns out like her mother. There is nothing else I can do," the older man said stiffly.
"You're impossible…," Henry trailed off as he heard a cough behind him. He wheeled around sharply taking in the sight of his frail grandmother leaning against the doorway in a satin night gown and robe set. She looked impossibly thin and brittle.
"Now what's this?" she croaked out as he husband rushed to her side and helped her stand straight.
"Darling, you shouldn't be out of bed," he whispered softly, lovingly. She just shrugged and faced her shaken grandson with a wicked twist of her lips.
"It's good to see you, Henry," she rasped.
Dum dum dum!
So there it is. There's another companion piece coming, probably Monday if I can manage it. I originally thought that there only needed to only be two pieces before the next installment of the main story (this one and the previous one) but I was wrong.
So yeah, look for that Monday or Tuesday before the main piece.
Don't forget to drop be a line and tell me what you think.
All mistakes, as always, are my own.
