34.
~ Alex had expected more of a fight from Norma. More than anyone in the world, she hated to be told what to do. He'd felt guilty enough about her old car being wrecked beyond repair; that a newer SUV needed. He was sure she'd hate him at the very idea of moving out of the home she'd made with Norman.
So when she'd agreed without much argument, he felt suspicious. It was possible she was just tired and ready to agree with anything. That made sense. The motel was always noisy and the past few nights had been stressful.
He worried that the stress of not hearing from Norman was becoming too much as well. It didn't help that Pine View was now going strait to voicemail when he called.
"This is Sheriff Alex Romero." he said bitterly into the phone at the sound of the tone. "I need someone to call me as soon as possible about Norman Bates. B-A-T-E-S."
He quickly hung up before entering city hall. There was a meeting with the mayor he had scheduled, and he hated talking to the mayor about anything. Not because he feared a lecture for doing a bad job, but because Woodriff was always out of touch with people. It had surprised Romero that Woodriff had stayed in town during the pandemic at all let alone the quarantine. But he had never seen the mass grave and the bodies up close the way Alex had. Never had the virus himself and thought masks were just a bit of 'safety theater' as one politician called it.
Mayor Woodriff wasn't alone in his office. An office that was clean and generous in proportions, but like the rest of White Pine Bay government buildings, in need of updating if not a total overhaul.
"Rob." Alex nodded and saw the Mayor's guest was Bob Paris.
"Sit down, Alex." Rob Woodriff nodded. "You know Bob Paris right?"
Alex nodded and didn't shake Bob's outstretched hand.
"Seems there was a bit of trouble at the Bates Motel last night. That it's been happening a few nights now." Woodriff said.
"We think someone has been communicating to outside groups. Telling them about us and how to get here; how to move past the barriers." Alex explained taking a seat next to Paris.
"And you turn them away?" Woodriff asked critically.
Alex looked at the mayor curiously.
"The motels are full. Both of them." he explained. "The people trying to come in now who don't live here. Don't even summer here. They come in large campers like a rock band on tour."
"Has Sheriff Romero been updated on my idea?" Paris interrupted.
Woodriff looked uncomfortable and shifted papers around.
"Idea?" Alex asked not looking at his former friend.
"Mr. Paris here, has bought the Shoreline Apartment complex." Woodriff explained. "Forgiven past rent due to the emergency we are in. He has several empty units thanks to… recent events."
"That would be all the deaths. Oh and you evicting people from their homes, Sheriff." Bob interrupted with a sly smile.
Alex knew better than to say anything. Bob Paris refused to wear masks among people and laughed off all attempts at social distancing. He had claimed he'd gotten the virus and it wasn't that bad. He told anyone who would listen that people shouldn't fear it enough to shut off the town.
"What plan?" Alex asked again; his blood becoming cold.
"Mr. Paris wants to transfer some of the people at the motel to his new property. He's working on buying another property to house people as well."
"Very generous." Alex said. "What's the catch?"
"No catch." Paris said happily.
"You're going to let people live on your property rent free?" Romero asked suspiciously.
"It's all apart of helping our fellow man, Sheriff. Not hurting them." Paris said.
~ Mayor Woodriff gave Alex his usual lecture about the lack of police force and Romero had to explain his lack of warm bodies to do any policing. It was the same conversation they had ben having since winter. A cold and unpredictable winter of deaths, blackouts and stores running out of the most basic supplies. There was hope now, with more vaccines coming out, with cases in town dropping to nothing thanks to the quarantine, that it all might be over soon.
"Why are you doing this, Bob?" Alex asked Paris once they were alone in the hallway.
"Doing what?" Paris asked innocently.
Alex rolled his eyes.
"You know what I mean." Romero growled. "You've had plenty of time to help people. Why are you doing this now?"
It was Bob Paris who rolled his eyes now.
"You bailed Rebecca Hamilton out of jail." Alex nodded to him like a challenge.
"Terrible thing you've accused her of." Paris said. "Trumped up charges. Something that will be dismissed."
"She could have killed my wife." Romero said. "She ran my wife off the road, there were injuries."
He would have loved to punch Bob Paris in his smug face. His smug, anti-masker face. He dreamed about killing Bob Paris, leaving his body in a hot car to rot and no one would even miss him.
Paris huffed.
"You think she's that jealous, Alex? You must have an awfully high opinion of yourself. Too bad it's not an opinion shared by everyone else in this town." he said.
"You think I'm going somewhere?" Alex asked feeling a smile come to his face at last. "I've run unopposed the last two elections."
"Why do you think that is, Sheriff?" Bob asked with a snake like emphasis on the title. His manners now becoming stony and cold. "Lots of eligible candidates for your job would love a peaceful little town like this. They could do a better job of protecting citizens from all this virus hype."
Alex stepped away from Paris. He knew, better than anyone, that Bob Paris and his connections kept him unopposed in the election as Sheriff. His connections had probably gotten him elected as well. It might be within Bob Paris' power to remove him from office all together.
"By the way, rumor has it you and the missus are expecting. Congratulations." Paris said.
"Tell Rebecca to stay away from my wife." Alex said darkly as Bob walked away from him. That know-it-all smile still on his face.
"Tell her yourself, she's at the bank. It's the only one in town." Bob laughed.
~ It was like waking up inside of an egg. That's what Norma decided after her first night in the lake house. The master bedroom was so sparsely furnished with its' pale, Scandinavian furniture, and the walls so bracingly white, that when the morning sun invaded the large bedroom windows, she felt very warm and protected from the outside world.
She'd been used to the gloomy, always cold, corners of her house by the motel. All its' creaks and grumbles when the wind hit it. The narrow hallways and feeling that ghosts were hiding just out of sight. Her house had been full of bad memories and those memories had leeched into the very foundation.
Here though, there were no bad memories at all. The house was too new for that. It was like a clean slate with its' barren furnishings, and the sun shining in to kept everything warm. It was built by people who only came here for vacations. People who could buy away unhappiness and fear.
Money could do such a thing; Norma knew. It was a lie to say money couldn't buy happiness; when money bought everything. It bought you good health and safety. Money protected you better than anything else in this world. Norma had lived the first half of her life always broke and owing people; a sinking feeling that she had no future. When Sam died and she became flushed with the windfall of his life insurance, she discovered how money could literally buy her a new life.
Even now, with Sam's insurance money long gone, the motel was creating her income while she slept. Income Dylan had helped her put monthly into investments that were earning her even more money. He'd mentioned to her that to be truly wealthy, you had to make money while you slept. To not owe anything, and if you weren't solvent, you were a pauper.
Norma was certain he'd learned all this from one of his weed growing buddies about business, but it sounded like excellent advice and she had no plans to be poor again. Then Alex came along and things seemed more stable. More secure. She hated the idea of needing a husband, but it was nice to share the worry over Norman. To share optimism for the future with someone.
She rolled on her back and stared at the stark white ceiling. She hadn't argued with Alex about moving here; however temporary. Because she'd agreed with him about the motel and how things were becoming. She'd never felt safe in her own home until Alex was staying at the motel. She'd stopped jumping at shadows when the Sheriff was just a few yards away. Tucked into his motel room and able to come to her aide at moments notice.
She hadn't objected at all when he came to live with them. It felt natural and a given to have him live with her.
Now, it felt normal to stay here. If Alex said it was safe, then it was safe. She knew he wasn't just thinking about her, but about the baby as well.
Remembering the baby, a sudden moment of guilty forgetfulness, Norma ran a hand over her abdomen. The firmness was still there. She wasn't exactly showing yet, but soon enough, she knew the signs would be unmistakable. Already she was sleeping too much and hungry all the time.
At least her morning sickness had ended and she felt more normal.
Her cell phone pinged an alert and Norma reached out to grab it from the night stand. A video feed from the driveway showed Alex's SUV pulling slowly into the shady drive. Another, unexpected surprise was the security cameras that were hardwired into the house and grounds. Alex sending the alerts and feeds right to their cell phones. Norma had delighted in this technology and wished she had thought to get it for the motel and house. It was good to have a warning when someone was coming up the drive.
She would have liked to stay in bed for the rest of the day, take another nap and eat something, but she didn't want Alex to accuse her of sleeping too much. She knew he worried constantly about her and the baby these days.
~ Alex was in the kitchen, unpacking another load of groceries.
"Well, hello, young lady." he said when Norma appeared in her bathrobe. He seemed to be in a good mood and happy to see her.
Norma felt uneasy about being called 'young lady'. Her reflection bothering her sometimes when she caught a mirror. It was like her younger self was always teasing her.
"I'm not that young, Sheriff." she said curtly. She nodded to the groceries Alex had brought.
"More food?" she asked.
Alex nodded.
"They city expanded the limits on what we could get. Dylan and Emma will be moving in by the end of the month. So will her dad. We need to stock up." he explained.
Norma took a deep breath and let it out again. She was looking forward to more company here. The lake house was lovely and peaceful, but it was becoming lonely.
"What did Pine View say?" she asked hopefully.
"I keep getting voicemail." he explained not looking at her. Norma started to argue but he was quick to interrupt. "But don't worry, I'm going to keep trying."
"Why won't they answer? What if something happened? We have to go there." she reasoned.
"We have to maintain the quarantine." Alex told her. "I already broke the rules by leaving just to get Norman into Pine View. I could have easily lost my job and been arrested."
Norma took a step back.
"As soon as they call us back, I will talk to Norman. I promise." he said.
Norma wanted to argue but said nothing. It had been almost a month since Norman left her. Long enough for them to quarantine him and then start treatment. She'd never been apart from him this long.
"I was thinking." Alex said ready to change the subject.
"What?" Norma said sourly.
"Well, I think it's time we got you some maternity clothes. Maybe pick up a few baby things." he said and nodded to her.
Norma started to say she never had maternity clothes; not real ones anyway. When she'd been pregnant with Dylan and with Norman, she used men's dress shirts over stretchy leggings to make her own maternity wear. It was comfortable and already available to her. It had never been in her budget to buy maternity clothes before.
As for 'baby things' she wasn't sure how to answer for that.
"This is the first time someone was excited about having a baby with me." she said somberly.
Alex looked concerned but she went on.
"Sam… wasn't happy when I got pregnant with Norman. He didn't even come to the hospital when he was born. He never wanted to talk about… any of this." she told him.
"It's why you're so attached to his last name?" Alex asked putting a carton of almond milk in the fridge. It was hard to get regular milk and almond milk had a longer shelf life. Besides, it might be healthier for the baby anyway.
Norma felt her face go hot. It had been a difficult discussion. Norma keeping the name of 'Bates' and not changing it to Romero. Alex insisting the baby would have his last name, so why did she insist on hanging on to the name 'Bates'.
"Because it's Norman's name." she told him. "I want my son and I to have the same name. We're family. We're all we have."
"You and I are a family." he said, then nodded to her stomach. "So is this one. I just don't understand."
Norma didn't answer. Didn't want to start this old argument again.
So, Sorry for the long gap in updates. Drama at work, working too much, the Texas snow storm disaster. Then for those of you who do not follow me on Instagram, our beloved cats, Sybil and Salem, died suddenly on Tuesday. We don't know what happened. We choose to think they got into something toxic and not that someone poisoned them. We had them for years and they were very happy and made us very happy. I knew the risks of letting them roam outside and I would do it again because they loved it. If you read my other stories "The same color blue (remake)" I named the social worker after my cat Sybil.