54.

~ "So if they we were ever captured, we were trained to cross our fingers and put them over our hearts like this." Alex demonstrated to Dylan over the candle lit dinner table. The little boy looked at him in fascination at he recounted his training in from his days in the Marines.

"That way our rescuers would know we were hostages." Alex told him.

"Why fingers crossed?" Dylan asked.

"You know how when you promise something and cross your fingers so it doesn't count?" Alex asked. Dylan nodded and Norma smiled.

"Sometimes bad people would make their captives say everything is okay when they were really hurting them." Alex explained.

"Okay." Norma interrupted. "That's enough. I don't want you to give him nightmares."

"Mom, I need to know this!" Dylan protested.

"He needs to know this." Alex grinned.
"No, he doesn't. He's not going to be captured by Nazis or anyone else. Alex, I packed you a lunch and an over night bag with plenty of dry socks." Norma said as the rain continued to fall down in sheets.

"You read my mind." Alex looked wearily out the window.

"You really have to leave for a few days?" Dylan asked.

"Afraid so." Alex said while Norma checked the phone line again and found it was still dead. She felt anxious that there was no communication with the outside world except for the walkie Alex was leaving with her.

"I want you boys to stay inside and look after your mother. Grown ups get washed away all the time in water like this so stay indoors." Alex ordered the two boys when he took his plate to the sink.

Norma registered his kiss goodbye on her cheek and tried not to feel worried. She'd been alone before, but why was she actually scared this time?

"Hey." Alex whispered. "It's just a few days. It's going to be fine. Just use the walkie if you get worried."

"Okay." she nodded and put on her best smile. She didn't want the boys to be afraid. If they saw she was scared then they would be upset. Alex didn't seem at all worried about the storm and he was the one having to face it.

"Do we have to have baths tonight?" Dylan asked.
"No." Norma shook her head as Alex gave Norma one last hug goodbye. "There won't be school tomorrow so we can all sleep in my bed tonight."

"Remember what I said about staying inside and looking after your mother." Alex said again and ran a hand over Norman's head and patted Dylan's shoulder.

Then, he was gone. The storm swallowing him up and Norma could barely see the lights of the SUV flashing it's hazards as it slowly maneuvered out of her driveway. Part of her hoping he would get stuck in the ditch and have to stay with them till the storm was over. But he was careful and drove out safely. He didn't come back home for three days.

~ It had ben hard sleeping with all the horrible rain. It sometimes felt like the roof was going to collapse in and drown them all. The sandbags kept the water well away and Norma was thankful they were on high ground, but she could see the valley Alex had mentioned before. It had quickly become a river and flushed out deer and all sorts of wildlife.

Norma saw a bear ambling out of the trees when the storm had cleared that second morning. It had looked grumpy and shook off water it's thick coat before it looked directly at Norma through her breakfast window, and kept walking.

She had been holding her breath the entire time the exchange happened before she made sure the doors to the house were locked and the boys were safe in bed.

"Just stay in the house." Alex's voice sounded far away on the walkie when she contacted him about the bear sighting.

"Alex it was bear!" Norma said in an exasperated whisper. She had locked herself in the bathroom so the boys would hear but she was afraid to leave them alone for any period of time. What if Norman saw something outside and decided to go after it?

"A hard rain like this drives all kinds of big animals out onto higher ground." Alex told her in an irritatingly rational voice of a trained law enforcement professional. "I've reported it. It's not the only bear sighting and animal control is on it. It will leave you alone if you leave it alone."

"What if it comes back?" she hissed.

"Keep the doors locked. Keep the boys inside." he told her.

Norma sighed and wished for the hundredth time he was there. She wanted to be able to do things on her own but she felt so much safer in situations like this when Alex was there.
Alex seemed to sense her frustration.
"Come on, Norma, you said you liked bears." he teased.

She smiled a little.

"I like certain kinds." she admitted. "Where are you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. We had to secure the hospital and nursing home right after I left you. Then there was some tension at the grocery store with looting. Wilson only gave me a couple of hours under directive 5 yesterday."

"What's directive 5?" Norma asked.

"It's apart of the town charter. It's for men with a family. It's the right for first responders to secure their home and immediate family members against impending danger first. I knew your house wasn't up to code for a flood like this." Alex explained.

Norma felt something turn over inside her. It was like that time she was walking on a frozen lake with Caleb and fell in. The ice so cold that when she went in, it she didn't feel the cold or pain at all, only shock. Mostly, she felt the sensation of being upside-down and unable to correct herself. Unable to find her way to the surface because she couldn't tell the difference between the darkness and light. Then Caleb had violently grabbed her by her jacket and yanked her out of the water. His ape like hands stripping off her coat and shirt and wrapping her in his own coat before hauling her off of the ice. The whole time Norma was too shocked to even scream. Later on she did scream from the pain finally reaching her. It took forever for the cold and the pain to find her.

"Norma?" Alex asked. "Norma? You there?"

"We're your family?" Norma asked hesitantly.

She felt the silence linger between them over the radio waves of the walkie. Felt that he was a little uncomfortable by it.

"I didn't overstep again did I?" he asked.

"No." she said. "No. I just…" she ran her fingers over the hem of her robe.

"I know." he said. "Let's worry about the details after the storm is over."

"Okay." she nodded and felt herself smile.

"Don't worry about bears and keep the doors locked. No matter what they tell you." he teased.
"Alex!"

~ By the third day the sun was out and the road to Norma's house was clear. Her power wasn't on yet and she still refused to let the boys play outside. She wasn't over seeing the grumpy looking bear shaking off all that water from his coat. True he hadn't seemed aggressive, but she didn't want to get on the wrong side of an animal that large.

Alex had radioed in a few times a day and made it seem like all he did was rescue kittens out of trees when he talked to the boys. When the boys were out of the room, Norma knew things were pretty bad around town even if he didn't go into much detail.

"How's Graceland?" he asked.

"Bored." Norma sighed. She didn't mention how she disliked keeping the dog locked up in the house. Graceland wasn't trained to use the bathroom indoors and Norma was afraid to let her go outside in case she'd be eaten by a mountain lion or something. So she had to let her do her business in the attached garage and put Dylan on poop patrol.

"It's almost over." Alex promised. "I'll be the next shift to come home and then I'll be home for a whole day."

"Just one day?" Norma asked disappointedly.

"The power will be back on today and the schools will be open tomorrow." Alex said hopefully.

"Just in time for the weekend." Norma sighed.

~ It was noon when Norma decided that the rain had stopped for good that day. The sun was out and she could at least let Graceland out to sniff around the front yard. The poor dog need the exercise and the boys needed the fresh air to.

She kept an eye out of any large animals that might wander up through the trees but saw a few of her neighbors had come out to do general clean up of their property as well.

Norma decided it was a good idea to inspect her little house to and found everything looked sound. Her roof looked to have held up well and Alex had packed the sandbags tightly around the foundation. The valley below her back yard, which was still a river, was a ways off proving the house had been built on the high ground. She'd been lucky.

A car honking and the dog barking brought her back to the front of the house where Dylan and Norman were holding Graceland back. The big police dog barking aggressively at a man in a high end luxury car.

"Mom!" Dylan shouted for help.
"Graceland. Heel." Norma commanded and the dog, attentive to the nice lady who gave her bacon and eggs when her partner was away, sat obediently on her haunches and waited to be ordered to maul the intruder.

Norma bent down and looked into the driver side window of luxury car.

A nervous looking young man smiled back at her.

"Dog doesn't bite does he?" he asked.

"Yes. She does." Dylan said hatefully.
"You're George. Christine's brother?" Norma smiled at the anxious young man who always struck her as slightly too thin.

"Yes!" he smiled. "I just came to check on you and the kids here. With all this awful rain. I know you're on your own."

"Our dad made sure we were okay." Dylan said in cool voice.

Norma rolled her eyes in frustration at Dylan.

"I need you boys to go inside or go clean the garage. Take the dog with you." she said curtly.

Dylan gave his mother a judgmental glare before bringing the dog, along with Norman, inside.

Only after the large dog was inside and it was safe, did George come out of his car.

"Cute kids." he said as if making polite conversation.

"Dylan was being rude. I'm sorry about that." Norma said. She ran a hand over her messy hair and realized she hand't showered in three days. "We've all been a little on edge since the storm hit. You caught us on a bad day."

"You should see Christine." George smiled. "Everything was fine until the wine ran out. Got into a real Lord of the Flies situation there."

Norma grinned and waved at the empty front porch chairs.

"I'm glad you came over. I guess Christine mentioned to you I was looking for a lawyer." Norma said.
"Said something about it." George told her. Norma noticed that unlike the rest of them, George looked clean and his clothes were without a single wrinkle. Wherever he'd ridden out the storm, Norma was sure it was with power and hot water.

"I'm sure you know what happened to my late husband Sam Bates." Norma whispered once they were seated on the porch.

"Yes." George said uncomfortably avoiding eye contact. "Deputy Romero shot and killed him."

Norma nodded.

"Now you're dating him." George pointed out.

Norma was prepared for this and didn't shy away from it. She wasn't about to apologize for her relationship with Alex.

"Sam had broken into my home and was hurting me. Broke my arm so badly the bone stuck out the skin. When my oldest son managed to flag down help I was in shock and couldn't even speak. Deputy Romero saved my life." Norma corrected him coldly. "It's unfortunate my late husband was too intoxicated and violent that night. He was warned to stop and Alex had to defend himself and me. And my young children." Norma finished sadly.

"I'm sorry." George said and looked truly humbled by the fact that she'd survived a horrific incidence of domestic violence.

"It's alright." she said.
"I shouldn't have said that." George stammered awkwardly.

"It's fine." Norma insisted. "It wasn't that long ago. Alex and I, we were the only ones who really understood what it was like that night. How horrible it was. Makes sense we'd become close over it. I get that people gossip now. We knew that going in. Sheriff Wilson warned us to."

"Intense situations can really bond people." George added. "I was in a white water rafting challenge one summer and…"

He glanced and Norma and smiled.
"It's not important. I'm here to talk about you and your needs. Tell me, what do you need a lawyer for, Norma Bates?"

~ "After Sam died the county took custody of his body and I never claimed it. I was on too many medications for the pain." Norma said. "So there was no funeral or anything. It took some time for these insurance adjusters and other people to find out what happened. He was estranged from his family and I have no way of contacting them."

George looked over the documents that had arrived through the mail that had terrified Norma. She had brought out the papers from her hiding place under her closet floorboards and the two of them sat on the front porch well away from the boys hearing.
"Did you respond to any of these creditors?" he asked.

"No." Norma said quickly.

"You're going to call them tomorrow and say you do not accept responsibility for any of his debts and that his estate has been liquidated and settled. I'll draw up a letter of probate today and have Judge Enid sign it." he said.

"Some of these are for back rent." Norma said nervously. "Places we lived at… and skipped out on."

She was embarrassed to admit that to this nicely dressed person who obviously had money. Who never didn't just pay a bill and didn't do something as tacky as skip out on rent.

"If you pay any of Sam Bates debts the other creditors will smell blood in the water and they will come after you." George said seriously. "There is a nice piece of life insurance here for you and your children. Properly invested, you can keep your government assistance and have a very good college fund the boys."

Norma felt dizzy at the idea of a college fund for Dylan and Norman.

"Won't I have to claim it?" she asked.

George shook his head.

"No." he smiled. "We're giving it strait to the boys. We're going to open two accounts with a wealth management team in Portland on Monday and transfer the money to your children. It will never be yours. The government allows a tax free, penalty free gift to your children for this exact purpose, Norma."

"So this is legal?" she breathed. "Even not paying the debts?"

"Your name isn't on Sam Bates' debts." he told her. "As long as you refuse to accept responsibility, they can't touch you or your children. You had filed for divorce and were estranged at the time of his death. You had even claimed abandonment as the cause for the divorce."

"Okay." she said wearily.

"Trust me. We do this all the time. These creditors think they can bully people and a lot of times it works. I want you to not be so nice to them. Call them up and be a little rude. Say, what do you want me to do, pay you people?" George smiled.

Norma felt the nervous tension ease a little.

"That would be crazy." he reminded her. "We're not going to pay that jerks debts. Are we?" George asked with a flash of perfectly white teeth.

"No." Norma smiled. Feeling properly scolded, but in a nice way.

"Good. Let me take this paper work. You hold onto that life insurance check and and Monday, I will pick you up at ten and we will drive to Portland to set up a very nice college fund for your two boys. Then, if they don't get into a good school, you can spend it all on a vacation for yourself." he smiled.

Norma felt her face hurt from smiling so much. She hadn't even noticed Alex's SUV had pulled up into her driveway until the door slammed shut.

She and George turned and saw Alex looking exhausted and unshaved, staring at both of them suspiciously.

BTW this was the EXACT strategy I used with my Dad's credit card debts. I literally dragged my feet and sent them copy after copy of the death certificate and said I didn't accept responsibility for the debts and used my inner Louise Belcher when dealing with these people. I was like "Look, no one wants you to get your money more than I do. What do you want me to do? Pay you?" In Texas creditors can't make a dead persons kids pay their debts. As long as you don't accept responsibility for those debts your good. The second you pay something, ANYTHING, you accept responsibility for debts. Sucks but it's true. My awesome sister and I kicked ass and finished probate in a MONTH and it's less than a year later and his entire estate including his house is complexity liquidated and creditors can not touch us. EVER. CUZ WE GANGSTA!