Author's Note: I hope everyone is doing fine on this Tuesday, well it is Tuesday for me, let's just put it that way. I hope you like this chapter and stay tuned for the next one. As always, thank you for reading and reviewing. I'm always happy to respond to reviews and questions.
Chapter 12
Taylor heard a door slam as she reached the second floor and assumed that hit was her daughter's bedroom door. She reached the door and pounded on it with her palm as she whispered in a frantic panic, "Carly, open the door."
"No!" the older artist heard Carly shout through the door. "You'll just think I'm crazy and send me to Troubled Waters!"
Taylor pressed her ear against the door and palmed her hand beside her face against the door. Her overwhelming concern and outright fear seeped into her voice as she responded, "Carly, sweetie, you are not going to Troubled Waters. What's going on?"
The rest of them had quickly followed her up and stood behind her just as concerned about what just had happened downstairs.
Sam raised a curious eyebrow as she asked, "What's Troubled Waters?"
Taylor spared a glance towards the blonde as she answered, "It's a mental hospital." The older brunette pressed her ear back to the door desperately trying to figure out what her daughter was doing on the other side of the door.
Freddie and Sam looked to each other with respective looks of concern.
Sam puttered out, "What happened after you two left?"
Freddie went wide eye and quickly explained, "Nothing! We went to get pie, talked about me being able to pick any college I want because of camp, kissed in the rain, Lewbert yelled at us tracking in water into the lobby after he had just mopped. That's it."
The older artist barely registered the conversation between the teenagers as she asked again, "Carly, please cupcake, let me in."
"No!"
Taylor desperately tried to reassure the web-hostess, "I'm your mother; I won't think you're crazy."
"My mother died when I was seven of leukemia! See, I'm crazy!"
The teenagers and Spencer turned to one another trying to figure out if they heard Carly correctly and if they did, what did she mean. Freddie's stomach felt like it was dropping out from under him as the gears of his mind started processing something that he didn't want to believe.
The Shay matriarch turned to the three and whispered, "Go downstairs."
Spencer started, "But mom—"
"I am not arguing with you Spencer," she interrupted with a gentle, but firm voice.
Spencer nodded in acknowledgment and turned to head downstairs. He may have been twenty-nine and hadn't really been under his mother's authority in more than ten years, but his father had made it quite clear if he was going to continue to live in the apartment after college that there would not be some silly sharing of power in the home. Taylor was the finally authority (and that he would pay her rent) or he'd be thrown out.
Freddie stared at Taylor and debated whether to listen to her or not.
"Please Freddie?"
He bit is tongue then sighed out in a defeated tone as he continued to stare, "Yes ma'am."
Freddie followed in Spencer's footsteps while Sam stood there for a moment. Another quick glance from Taylor to Sam made her realize she wasn't going to win any argument either, so she decided to head downstairs. She would just raid the refrigerator to suppress the worry.
Once everyone was out of sight, Taylor turned back to the door. "Carly, I have a key to the room and I can just get Freddie or Sam to kick the door open, so please just open the door. I sent everyone else downstairs."
"No. I told you; you'll just think I'm crazy."
"I'm a Dorfman; everyone thinks I'm crazy or a child pretending to be an adult… which they aren't far off. I'll die before I let anyone send you to Troubled Waters or anywhere else."
The older brunette waited a few seconds until she heard the locks start clicking. She waited for the door to open, but the door remained closed. She blew out a breath through her nose and opened the door.
Carly was standing in the middle of the room shifting her weight between her feet. She had thrown her damp raincoat on the floor as it looked like she didn't care if she was leaving a puddle.
Taylor's face fell as she saw the running makeup down her daughter's pale cheeks and her eyes quickly becoming red.
Carly softly whispered out, "You won't think I'm crazy?"
"I'm your mother."
Carly shook her head. "My mother died when I was seven and she's in Heaven."
The older brunette took a slow breath as she studied the girl and her heart went out to her. She whispered out sadly, "Tell me what's wrong."
Carly wiped a cheek off with the back of her hand then started, "I just came back from Granddad's after spending a week with him because of his foot surgery. I went to bed and I woke up here this morning… in this perfect life. You're alive… my mother suffered for six months worth of treatments before she finally died. She was so pale and not a bit of hair left on her head… then we had to stick you in that box and bury you in the ground… and you stand there… mocking me with something I never had."
Taylor reached up with her left hand and pulled her bandana back and off of her head. She blew out a breath as she fiddled with the cloth in her hands. She looked to the floor and was finally able to speak, "That's what you meant with I couldn't be real. I'm sorry."
The pair stared at each other for a few moments before Taylor asked, "I assume my Carly is wherever you are from?"
"I don't know. I guess we probably just switch places… assuming this is actually real."
Taylor's brow furled under her glasses. "Actually real?"
"I ah… two Christmases ago, I wished that Spencer was born normal after he made an electromagnetic tree that set all the presents on fire instead of getting a real tree like I wanted. This angel named Mitch showed up and granted my wish. He showed me what it was like if Spencer was normal and it wasn't a pleasant life. After I realized that I shouldn't have said that about Spencer, I was dropped home."
Taylor nodded along to the story then answered, "I think, therefore I am… so I'm real. Do you think Mitch did the same thing here?"
"I don't know who else could have done this. I tried calling for him, but he didn't answer."
Taylor shrugged a helpless shoulder as she suggested, "Maybe he's waiting for you to figure out what you're supposed to figure out here? You have to be here for a reason."
The younger brunette snorted out and motioned with her hand to the older artist. "To show me how much my life is chizz compared to this Carly's life?"
She gave her daughter's counterpart a patient smile. "I highly doubt that is what the Lord is trying to get you to learn… how are things different?"
"Besides you not being alive?"
She gave a soft nod and sad smile, "Yes."
Carly glanced around the room as she debated where to start. She looked back at Taylor and began, "I saw the exposes and shows that you and Spencer have with your art. Spencer's not that famous. He's actually struggling to get recognition."
She asked rhetorically, "I'm not there to support him? But there's Steven—"
"Dad doesn't know Spencer's an artist. He thinks Spencer went to law school and is a lawyer now."
The older Shay blinked as she was unsure if she heard Carly correctly, "Why?"
"He didn't want to disappoint dad and that's what Granddad wanted him to be."
Taylor frowned whispered out with a hint of annoyance, "I see your grandfather doesn't know how to keep his nose out of what isn't any of his business either. Why does Steven think Spencer went to law school?"
"Spencer enrolled for three days then dropped out to be an artist. He never told dad."
Taylor gave a disappointed expression. "So instead of just telling Steven he wanted to be an artist, he's been lying to him for how many years?"
The younger brunette looked somewhat embarrassed as that was exactly what they had been doing for the last several years. She lamely spoke up in her and her brother's defense, "He thought dad would be disappointed in him just like granddad seems to be."
"If your father is anything like my Steven then he would have never disapproved of Spencer becoming an artist. The only way I could see him disappointed is if Spencer isn't giving it his all. He is giving it his all isn't he?"
Carly looked down to the floor trying to think the best way to phrase her answer.
The more experienced artist answered her own question in a surprisingly firm voice, "Then he's not."
Carly snapped her head up and gave the woman a questioning look.
Taylor answered the unasked question, "If the first thing isn't a shout out of yes then he's not. You'd know it in his art. Give your Spencer a good swift kick if he truly wants to be an artist and remind him that it doesn't matter what his father says if he's truly committed to being one. It doesn't matter what your Granddad Shay thinks either… he didn't want Steven to go into the Air Force… he didn't even want him to marry me."
That was a strange and surprising bit of news she didn't know about her family. She really didn't know what else to say other than how she replied, "Okay, I'll tell him…"
The school artist gave a reassuring smile. "That's one lesson you've learned. Let's just go through what's different and see if there's something you learned. Maybe once you've realized what you might need to learn, you'll and my Carly will snap back into place?"
The teenager nodded. It was the most reasonable explanation to the whole crazy scenario. "So you really don't think I'm crazy?"
"No sweetheart."
"But what I'm saying is crazy."
Taylor gave her a warm smile. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy… I'm an artist and a Dorfman. I have a different definition to the word crazy."
Carly nodded along, accepting the answer.
"So, what else is different?"
Carly swallowed for a moment then headed to her bed to have a seat with Taylor taking the hint and having a seat beside her daughter's counterpart.
After a few moments, Carly began, "Freddie and Sam are different…"
