Chapter Nine; Lilly Ray

The next morning Chucky awoke to find Stanley under Mary's covers and all curled up with her. He smiled down at the two of them who were fast asleep. Stanley immediately woke up as soon as he sensed Chucky standing over the bed and looked up at him excitedly perking his ears and thumping his tail down on the covers. Chucky grinned as he started to scratch him behind the ears. "Hello Stanley, how's my boy?" he asked him quietly as Mary suddenly gave a yawn and a little stretch as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Hey good morning kid, I see you had some company overnight." Chucky said with a grin. "Why don't you get up and get ready so we can go down for breakfast? I'm starving over here." He told her. "That reminds me, I've always wondered what do people think when you go out in public looking like that? Do they think of you as a midget or a doll?" she asked him. "I don't know who cares what they think. Come on I'm starving." He repeated.

"Okay let me just use the bathroom and take a shower." Mary said as she slowly got up out of bed. That's when suddenly the baby started to cry. "Tiff wake up you're on baby duty today remember? And I mean that in more ways than one." He said as Mary went into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Tiffany gave a groan as Annabelle started to cry louder and Stanley gave a few little whimpers as her cries turned into screams. "Tiffany," Chucky began louder. "get the fuck up." He told her. "The baby's crying and it's hurting Stanley's ears." He told her.

Tiffany slowly rolled over before she got out of bed. "I'm sorry Stanley." She said sleepily as she gave a big yawn and a stretch before going over to Annabelle's cradle. "I'm sorry Annie, are you hungry baby? Just hold on a second and I'll get you some breakfast." She told her as she picked her up and lifted her up inside her arms. Tiffany walked back over to the bed and sat down on top of it gently bumping her up and down to soothe her crying. The shower turned on as she started to breastfeed and Stanley looked up expectedly at Chucky.

"Come on boy, let's get your breakfast and then I'll let you out before Mary and I leave." Chucky said as he walked over to the door and started to fill his bowl with kibble. The puppy perked up his ears before he leapt off of the bed and trotted over to the bowl wagging his tail as he started to eat. Later on after Mary finished her shower, Chucky let Stanley out to use the bathroom before the two of them went downstairs for breakfast.

Afterwards Mary followed Chucky back to the rental car. "So we have the whole entire day of us kid, what do you want to do first?" he asked her. "I would like to go horseback riding with Bobby." She stated matter of factly. "Well Bobby's completely out of the picture, but horseback riding maybe. It's been a long time since I've been on a horse though." She said. "You could always ride a pony if anything else." Mary suggested.

"No fucking way." Chucky told her shaking his head. "Or you could watch while Bobby and I ride." She said. "I thought we were going to working on listening to each other today?" Chucky asked her. "Bobby's not coming so you can just forget about it." He told her. "This is father daughter day not Mary and Bobby day." He said as he pushed the unlock button and got inside the driver's seat while Mary opened the passenger's door.

"So when can I see Bobby again?" she asked him. "When I'm dead!" he exclaimed as they slammed their doors shut. "Oh come on Chucky, Bobby's a nice guy and I think you should give him a chance." She said. "I will, I'll give him a chance to defend himself if he ever goes near you again." He told her. "Oh come on Chucky please?" she pleaded. "My final answer is no, so drop it and forget it if you don't want to march straight back up to your room do you hear me young lady?" he asked her. "Yes." She answered with a sad sigh.

"Good. Now put your seatbelt on like a good girl." He told her. "Why? You never put your seatbelt on." She pointed out. "That's because I'm not a good girl, I'm a bad man who just happens to have a good family." He told her. "Oh come on Chucky, you're not entirely evil." She said as she put on her seatbelt. "I know, I just said that didn't I? If I was entirely evil then I wouldn't have a good family that loved me." He explained as he turned the engine on and started to pull away from the curb.

Mary watched out the window as they pulled out of the hotel parking lot and started driving down the road towards the highway. They drove past emus and kangaroos. She couldn't believe how beautiful Australia was and the sights and smells of the Indian Ocean. She daydreamed about horseback riding down the beach, and putting her feet in the sand as she waded out to sea.

Before long they had been driving rapidly down the highway headed for the woods. Mary thought about her parents and how much they would have wanted to be here with her to see this. She thought about Stephanie, Devon, and Amber and hoped that they were doing alright with their father.

Mary and Chuckie's brains seemed to unite as they thought about each other. They may have had a lot of differences between them, but they also shared a lot of things in common. No matter what they knew that they would always love each other and be together, and nothing in the whole wide world was ever going to change that.

Chucky turned off of the highway and headed towards the woods and started to drive down a long gravely path. "The ranch is down here." He explained as he glanced over at Mary and grinned at her. As they continued to drive further into the woods, Mary gasped with amazement as riders and their horses walked down the side of the road. She had always wanted to take horseback riding lessons, and eventually learn to gallop and jump like they had always done in the movies.

"Wow." She whispered with disbelief when finally Chucky pulled into the parking lot. "I feel like a fuckin hillbilly." He said. "And I feel like one too." He added as he parked the car and turned off the engine. "Then what are you doing here?" she asked him. "Spending time with you." He answered. "By the way when we get back we'll both have to take a shower. Not together of course." He said as a sudden vision of Chucky standing outside the shower with a knife as a woman showered inside it, and him pulling back the curtains and stabbing her death flashed inside her mind. She stifled a laugh as she pictured the Psycho music playing.

"What's so funny?" he asked her. "Nothing, I was just thinking about something." She answered as Chucky rolled his eyes. "I swear, I may be able to understand more about life than I used to, but I don't think I'll ever understand women." He said as he shook his head and the two of them got out of the car. Mary quickly slammed her door behind her before she took off running down the gravel path. She accidentally almost ran into a woman with a big black horse.

The horse gave a snort as the woman pulled him to a stop. "Whoa boy." She told him. "I'm sorry if we startled you." The woman said as Mary looked at her and started to study her. "That's alright." She told her. There was something very familiar about her eyes, and she had ginger hair pulled into a tight bun and was rather short and stout to be leading a big horse like that around. "You know, it's very rude to stare dear." She told her. "I know I'm sorry, but do I know you?" Mary asked her.

"Not yet but you will now," she began warmly with a smile. "My name is Lilly Marie Ray." She said as Mary stumbled backwards with a gasp and almost fell over. "I'm Mary." She said once she regained her balance. "You wouldn't have any connection with a Charles Lee Ray would you?" she asked her. "I would think so since I'm his mother." She said. "Holy shit!" Mary exclaimed. "Hey! I'd watch your language if I were you." She began with a point.

"A nice young lady like yourself shouldn't be talking like that. Especially when you're around me. My ex-husband was such a terrible role model on Charles, and to think that he would have turned out to be a perfect young gentleman if I had had the chance to raise him properly!" she scolded as Mary tried to picture Chucky as a perfect gentleman. "I'm sorry it took so long, but I was smoking a cigarette." Chucky said as he walked up behind Mary.

That's when suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks and looked up at the woman standing there before him. "Mother?" he asked her. "Charles?" she questioned him back before he eyeballs rolled back inside her head and her mouth gaped open before she fell hard onto the ground. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed. "That's what I said." Mary told him. "You can't swear in front of my mother!" Chucky began with disbelief. "She's a Jesus freak!" he told her pointing at his mother's body. "Now you tell me." Mary said. "Come on, help me get her up." Chucky said as he slowly lifted up his mother's head while Mary put an arm around her to help her stand. Chucky then let go of her head and put his arm over her other shoulder while the two of them walked her to the check in cabin.

…..

Lilly groaned as she slowly moved her head and opened her eyes. Mary wrung out a washcloth inside the bathroom sink before she walked over to her chair and handed her the rag. Lilly took it from her and placed it to her forehead. "Are you alright Mrs. Ray?" Mary asked her knowing better than to call her by her first name. However the first thing she saw was Chucky in front of her face staring down at her. Lilly gave a petrified scream sending him tumbling over backwards to the ground and landing on top of his bottom.

"I really wish you would stop doing that Mom." He said as he got back up to his feet. "This can't be I mean, your voice is coming from inside that doll but I don't see you anywhere." She said with bewilderment. "That's because it's really me Mom, I didn't become a ventriloquist. I simply just transferred my soul into this body so I wouldn't have to go to Hell." He explained. "Charles!" she cried with horror and disbelief. "I can't believe my own son performed Voodoo magic and used the power of Satan to save his skin instead of using the power of Jesus to save his soul!" she cried as Chucky looked over at Mary.

"See, what did I tell you?" he muttered through his hand into her ear. "Look Mom, didn't you hear about what happened to me? That I was gunned down in 1988?" he asked her. "No of course not! I've been in Australia ever since your father and I split up." She told him. "But let's not change the subject!" she snapped. "Look Mom, I know I've made a lot of mistakes but I'm trying to make up for them." He told her. "I see, you've finally decided to ask for deliverance from damnation!" she exclaimed. "Well, not exactly. Mom, I want you to introduce you to someone. This is Mary, Mary this is my mother Lilly." He said.

"Well we already met, and I don't see what this young lady has to do with anything." Lilly said. "She has to do with everything Mother, because she's the reason that I started to change my life around. I fell in love with her. She is even the reason that I married my wife and had a beautiful little girl." He explained as he took a deep breath. "And that's why I've come here, because I need your help. I would like to adopt her." He explained glancing back at Mary. "Well, as much as I think you're making a big mistake by not letting Jesus into your life, I commend you for trying to make things right. However, I don't think adopting a nice young lady like this is in either of your best interests. She needs the proper education and the best etiquette that I don't think she'll be able to get from you and to provide all of her needs." She explained.

"I know Mom but I love her and she loves me. This poor kid has had a raw deal in life, and she needs someone to love her and try their to best to take care of her." He told her softening his eyes into pure gentleness. "No Charles," she began. "My name is Chucky." He said with determination but his mother ignored him. "she needs someone who will take care of her. To be more precise, as much as it pains me to say, a human." She told him. "That's not fair!" Mary exclaimed. "Chucky has always been there for me when I needed him. And furthermore he's been trying so hard to change his ways for me. Nobody deserves to be my father more than him." She said.

"Well I'm afraid Mary that I just can't see it that way, and I don't think the court will either. To say that someone we allow custody of a teenage girl by a couple of dolls, killer dolls at that is laughable." She said. "Hey! I intend to become human again someday even if I don't know how yet." Chucky told her. "Please Ms. Ray, I don't have anywhere else to go. My parents are dead and Chucky and Tiffany are the only people I got. Please don't take me away from them." She pleaded as Lilly heaved a small sigh. "Alright I won't, but I can't say for sure that I can help you unless Charles shows me that I can trust him to raise you properly. Other than that, I wash my hands in this entire thing." She said.

"Thank you, I'm sure Chucky will be able to show you that he's more than capable of raising me. I mean after all you're his mother and your tactics should rub off on him eventually." She said as Chucky simply turned to her and looked at her with the expression; "I don't think so." On his face. "I mean he even looks exactly like you." She pointed out. "Actually technically no. I only have her eyes, I looked more like my father from birth to before I transferred my soul." He explained. "You mean you're not really a red head?" she asked him. "No, I have sort of brownish blackish hair." He told her.

"Wow, I never knew that about you." Mary told him. "Speaking of your father Charles, he's the whole reason I asked you to come here. You see I admit I made a mistake when I married him, and I'm so sorry about what he did to you when you were a boy. You should know that even though he didn't, I loved you very much despite your evil ways and that's why I left him. It wasn't entirely your fault that you turned out the way you did when he had a terrible influence on you. That's why I had to tell you, practically warn you that he's back." She said. "What do you mean?" Mary asked her. "I mean that he did that silly demonic voodoo curse that you did and he transferred his soul into a cowboy doll." She said as Chucky and Mary exchanged nervous glances.