12
Before she went upstairs to speak with her daughter Rene had a little chat with one of her long-time waitresses and introduced her to Nora.
"Janie, here's the deal. I have some Carli stuff to deal with. My friend Nora here is in charge. She and my friend Sheldon will be having dinner later. Sheldon is very particular about how his food is prepared but I know how he likes it and we're fine. However, nothing that goes to their table is to come into contact with Kurt. Nothing. They'll be drinking bottled water and tea prepared in the kitchen. This is really important."
"No problem, ma'am. I never want to go near that guy or his friends anyway. They treat us like we're their property. Groping and pinching and leering. It's disgusting."
"Yeah, well, his time is almost up. Kurt!"
"What."
"I have some stuff to do. My friend Nora is in charge while I'm gone."
"Bull Shit. I'm in charge of the bar."
"No Kurt. You think you're in charge of the bar. And we already know what you think with. Anything comes up, it's Nora's call. Not yours."
"Fine. People come here to see me, not you. And certainly not some dyke. Just try and screw with how I run the bar. I dare you."
"You two will play nice. I'll be upstairs. I'd rather not be disturbed. Nora, if you have to do anything I prefer you clean up the bodies before I come back down. And Kurt, don't assume that you can come up after closing a fuck me into changing my mind. You'll get a very unpleasant, very painful surprise."
"Y'know, fer two women who say you want nothing to do with me you talk about my dick a hell of a lot. Maybe you two just want a party."
"Kurt, your dick defines you. And any party that involves the three of us will be the last party you ever attend. Now clean up your damn bar and set it up for the night."
While Nora kept an eye on Kurt, Penny headed up to her apartment to have a long-overdue chat with her daughter.
"Hi mom. I picked up some Chinese. I figured you wouldn't want to cook."
"You figured right. Come over and sit down. We need to talk."
"Still pissed about Sheldon and Nora."
"Yeah. But that's for later. Right now it's time we talked about you."
"What about me?"
"Where you came from?"
"Mom, we had that talk a long time ago."
"Not this one. Okay, this isn't exactly easy for me."
"Mom, I know more than you think."
"Sweetie, you don't know shit. It's my story. I get to tell it."
"Okay."
"When I was your age I left my parents' farm in Nebraska to go to California and become a big movie star. I didn't leave alone. I left with Kurt. I thought I was in love with him."
"How long were you with him?"
"Almost four years."
"I don't understand."
"To be honest, I don't really understand it myself. I guess I was stupid and I thought I was in love and I was willing to do anything for him."
"Not sure I want to hear about that."
"Good, 'cause I'm not going to share all the details. What I will tell you is that he was unfaithful almost from the start but I let it go. He hardly ever worked and I worked all the time. I had to battle with him over every little thing. We fought over every audition. I had to sneak away to take classes at the local college because he didn't want to pay for them and he didn't want me meeting anyone. I'd be at work or at school and he'd be at home fucking the neighbor or neighbors. I knew it but I let it go because he was all I had. Finally he just up and left. He cleaned out our bank account, took every decent piece of jewelry I had and hocked it and he even took the TV. He didn't leave hardly anything."
"What did you do?"
"I had become friends with Nora at school and she saved my life. She convinced me to take a job dancing at Manny's and let me sleep on her couch instead of in my car until I had enough money to get my own place."
"So you guys have known each other for a long time."
"She's my oldest friend. And she's been a much better friend to me than I've been to her."
"When I told her you needed her she didn't think twice about coming."
"Yeah. Anyway, about a month after Kurt split I found out that he didn't quite leave me empty-handed."
"Me."
"Yeah. You. I never thought twice about having you. I still think it's the best decision I ever made. But here's the thing. I never told him. I knew where he was but I never told him. And I never will."
"So he has no idea that he has a kid. That he's my father."
"He's not your father. He's nothing but a sperm donor. Sheldon is your father."
"I know that, mom. I do. And I want that asshole Kurt out of our lives. Why do you let him stay?"
"I wish I had an answer. At first, I guess I was lonely. It had been so long. And then it went right back to how it was before. Me supporting him and him taking advantage."
"I'm not blind."
"Yeah, I know. You're a lot smarter than I was at your age."
"Thanks."
"Not entirely sure that was a compliment."
"What are we going to do?"
"Well, I'm probably going to take up Nora and Sheldon on their offer to help me get rid of him. It's not going to be easy and I will need their help. It's probably going to be messy around here while that happens and I want you to be extra careful."
"I can take care of myself, Mom."
"I know you can. It's just that with what's going to happen with Kurt and the stuff that's likely to happen with me an Sheldon..."
"What going to happen with you and Sheldon?"
"I really hurt him, sweetie. I know he doesn't act like it. I know he makes it seem as though we could walk back into his life like nothing ever happened but I know him. He's angry with me. He doesn't really trust me. And there's a part of him that wants to run away from me, run fast and run far."
"Mom, I hate to say this but in this relationship you're the one who's been doing the running. He's still in the same place he was ten years ago."
"Fair point. The thing you have to know is that our relationship is really the first one Sheldon was ever in. At least it was the first one he was aware that he was in. When I left I'm pretty sure I broke him and I'm not sure I'm the one to fix him."
"He's not the only one who's broken, Mom. And I do know for sure he's the only one who can fix you."
"How did you ever get to be so insightful?"
"I've been here for this whole ride. Whether you intended to or not, our entire life is set up as a monument to your love for Sheldon. You named us after his favorite character. We eat on his schedule. You named our bar after him. You've been mourning him for ten years and he's still alive and right now he's just a few feet away. And you know he loves you. And you love him. Oh, and I bought myself some noise-cancelling headphones because I figure there's going to be a lot of arguing and fighting. Maybe even some fucking and I'm pretty sure I don't want to hear that. But if you don't at least try to fix things with him I will never, ever forgive you."
"I guess I have a bunch of things to figure out."
"You do. But first we get rid of the asshole. Forever. I want him out of our place and out of our lives and you'd better not fuck him again and I sure hope you were using protection. If I'm ever going to have another baby brother or sister Sheldon better be the father."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Asshole first. After that I just don't know."
"Mom, can I ask you one other thing?"
"Sure."
"What was Nora like in bed?"
Penny turned bright red.
"Can we have that conversation another time? And in answer to the questions you really want to ask. Yes, Sheldon pretty much always knew about me and Nora and no, there was never a three-way, even though Nora really, really tried."