37.
~ Three Months Later ~
~ As the warmer weather finally arrived, so did the vaccine. The National Guard set up its vaccination center in the parking lot of the high school and Romero and his deputies found themselves reduced to directing traffic just to handle the rush of people coming in for their vaccination.
It was a relief, like holding in a breath for too long, to see stores reopen. For the local cafe to host patrons with no more social distancing. Some restaurants had been harder hit than others because of the pandemic. There was no more exclusive fine dinning in White Pine Bay. The only eating establishments to survive the unrest were ones where the owners and staff could adapt quickly to the changes. Places that offered curbs service, to go menus and home deliveries.
Romero had been amazed at how many niche shops and boutiques had stayed shuttered. Long term residents like himself never having a taste for higher end fashion and more luxury services.
Still, the bones of the town remained intact and Romero knew that all the bougie shops would return in a year or so to cater to visitors and tourists. Maybe they would have a different name, different owners, White Pine Bay seemed to be a siren call for the obstinate and excessively wealthy.
New businesses would open soon enough if the rents on storefronts would be low enough to entice them back.
~ Over half the county was already vaccinated in less than a month and the schools would be reopening for a special 'summer school' to help its' students make up for the past year of lockdown and video conference classroom work. It was a good day, things were getting better, but it was hard for everyone to feel happy.
"Bob Paris is going to run for mayor." Alex told Woodward.
Even with all the good news, both men felt defeated by the lockdown and eventual quarantine. Many in town felt the shutdown had lasted too long or wasn't necessary at all and this opinion was growing.
"I know." Mayor Woodward sighed and didn't seem bothered by it. "He'll win the election. All the money he's been so publicly pumping into the economy. Buying those apartments, helping people; great publicity."
"You're not worried?" Alex asked. Woodward, in a rare moment of comradeship, had gotten out his best bottle of sipping whiskey and was sharing it with the Sheriff.
The Mayor shook his head.
"We were in charge during the greatest challenge ever to face this county in over a century, Alex. People will pick apart every decision we made. Bob Paris will say the quarantine wasn't needed. Over five months of total isolation was too much and it hurt the community." Woodward said sadly.
"Hindsight is always 20/20." Alex reminded him. "Bob Paris certainly wasn't there to make the hard decisions this past year. He-" Alex closed his mouth. He wanted to point out how Bob Paris didn't help to bury the dead or even lead by example. No, Bob Paris just wanted to stir up controversy and conspiracies now that they were on the other side of this mess.
"He's going to make sure you lose the election next, Alex." Woodward said. "You know that, right?"
Alex smiled, but it lacked any humor.
"He's going to find someone who's willing to tow the line. Tell the voting public that you were too aggressive with the quarantine. Whatever it takes." Woodward sighed.
"Or, he'll rig the election altogether." Alex snapped smartly. "Wouldn't be the first time."
Woodward glanced at Romero; an understanding snapping between both of them.
"Nothing about this year has been easy, Alex." the Mayor said. "We did the right thing in quarantining the town. We saved lives. We can go to our graves knowing that we saved lives."
Alex smiled.
"The economy?" he half joked. It was all anyone talked about now. All the jobs lost. Businesses closed down forever and people displaced.
The mayor smiled, but it was also without humor.
"It's going to come back. It always does." he said. "Still, maybe it's best if you prepare to retire from law enforcement gracefully. A lot of people are willing to believe we overreached with the quarantine."
Alex nodded.
"I forgot to ask, how's Norma?" Woodward asked.
~ Alex came home to the lake house that afternoon to find Norma's wedding band sitting on the kitchen countertop. The house, although they had been living in it for months, still felt oddly empty and barren. Norma hadn't wanted to decorate and treated the home more like it was, a vacation place to not grow too attached to.
Alex left her wedding ring exactly where it was and quickly stashed a shopping bag in the spare room next to the master bedroom. Her ring was the only thing on the pristine countertop, and that could only mean one thing.
~ Norma looked over the lake and soaked in the warm rays on sunlight that had finally arrived. The generous dock by the house gave her an impressive view of the lake, and a chance to people watch.
The chaos of life was in full bloom this weekend. Everything from humans to greenery seeming to come alive with the arrival of mass vaccination. People emerged from their homes just as the trees burst into lush greenery that surrounded every part of White Pine Bay. The boats were drawn out of their winter storage and Norma could even smell the faint hint of someone's cookout.
With the arrival of the warm weather, she'd taken to swimming in the lake during the heat of the day. The buoyancy of the water making her feel lighter with her ever increasing body mass.
"There you are." came a familiar voice and she glanced to her left to see Alex walking down the deck towards her. She'd felt his arrival on the wooden platform long before he called out. He still stomped everywhere and he could never sneak up on anyone.
"Here we are." she smiled squinting in the harsh sunlight.
"You've been swimming everyday. Don't you get tired of it?" Alex asked offering a hand to help her stand up.
Norma ran a hand over her large belly.
"We're just getting our vitamin D, Sheriff." she told him innocently.
Alex smiled.
"I want you to see the room now." he told her.
Norma raised her brows in surprise. He'd been keeping 'the room' locked and secret for two months now.
~ "We can go for a walk after lunch." Norma offered leaning back and feeling her back pop with satisfaction. She didn't remember Dylan or Norman being this heavy at this trimester. That feeling of being weighted down by the seventh month was harder now than it had been when she was so much younger. Still, all the exercise, the swimming and walking had helped her. The deep depression she'd felt when they first moved to the lake had melted away and she started to feel better.
"If you're feeling up to it." Alex agreed nodding to her belly. Her shape now becoming unwieldy at times and difficult to navigate. Alex having to completely clear out of her way when she walked through any door.
"We are." she said speaking for herself and the baby. "I always sleep better after walking."
She nodded to the guest room door, waiting for him to unlock it so she could step inside.
"It's not exactly the way I want it." he offered lamely opening the door to the small room with its' stark white walls and floor to ceiling window that viewed the woods beyond.
"Alex." she sighed at the regal looking nursery set that he'd carefully arranged and kept secret from her.
"I had a local woodworker make the crib." He explained worriedly. "He even repurposed a solid wood dresser for the changing table. All the colors are gender neutral."
Norma looked back at him.
"We didn't want to know." he reminded her.
Norma knew he was pinning all his hopes on a boy to arrive in just a few short months, but she secretly wanted, and felt, that the baby would be a girl. Although they never expressed these thoughts out loud. They were both too superstitious to demand too much. The standard conversation was always healthy first. Still, she knew it was killing him not to know the gender.
"It's… beautiful." she admitted truthfully.
"Chic used salvaged lumber." Alex explained quickly showing her how nice the imperfect wood was with it's scars and gentle discolorations. "It can convert to a toddler bed and then a full sized bed."
Norma nodded. She didn't want to explain to him how impossible it would be to baby proof the lake house. It wasn't meant for a small bundle of raw energy to roam free. The nursery having a floor to ceiling window was proof that they couldn't live here forever.
"It's goin to be perfect in Norman's old room." she admitted running a hand over the wood.
Alex didn't respond. It had been an issue; returning to the house by the motel. A place that was about to boom with guests again now that summer was in full swing and the quarantined parties had fled as quickly as they had arrived. Norma wanted desperately to go back to her house and resume her life as normal. She wanted to see the downstairs bathroom Alex had expertly installed next to her laundry room. A much needed addition she had wondered how she had done without for so long. Had she really shared a bathroom with two nearly grown sons? Barbaric.
"We have to wait till-" he explained again.
"I'm vaccinated." she said rolling a hand over the rise in her stomach. The CDC was hesitant to green light pregnant women and small children for the vaccine yet. It meant that until the baby was born, if she planned to nurse, Norma was still quarantined and isolated from people.
It was a fate shared by Emma who couldn't have the vaccine at all because of her condition. She and Dylan had a small, but beautiful ceremony last month with just the family. Dylan and Emma had, as soon as the quarantine had ended, decided to move back to the old house to safeguard the property and motel.
The police presence now gone, and 'Bates Motel' was gearing up for normal summer guests and the occasional hourly ones.
~ There was a hiking trail behind the lake house where Norma never saw anyone else. Not even dog walkers. It was where she and Alex would walk for an hour or so each evening, before turning in early. It was where they had their best talks. About his dad, his mother's death. What he did in the Marines and why he chose never to leave White Pine Bay. Something Norma would never understand. Her childhood had been chaotic and transient. She couldn't imagine what it was like to always live in the same town. She told him about growing up in Florida and how it was always warm and muggy. How the rain wasn't like the rain here. The rain was always warm where she grew up. It was always warm and the downpours were sudden and almost vicious.
She'd told him how her dad had been violent and lost job after job. How they had lived in a van for an entire summer and how she had been too young to understand that normal people didn't live that way. She and her brother Caleb had run around whatever city they happened to live in like wild heathens. How they had lived in motels when their mother left their father and how, inexplicably, their parents had suddenly settled down, living in a house and pretending that they had always been normal.
She didn't tell him too much about Caleb though. About the things that he would do to her and the secrets that she covered up. It was painful, all these years later, to feel such a need to protect someone who had hurt her so badly. But it wasn't just for Caleb, or even Dylan. Norma knew that Alex would be disgusted if he knew the whole truth. He could never look at her or Dylan the same way again if he knew; and she didn't want that to happen. She saw how her husband and her oldest son communicated. Alex so easily stepping into the role of mentor and father figure for Dylan. Why couldn't she have this before? Why couldn't it be this way with Norman?
"Something wrong?" Alex asked when Norma hadn't said anything during their walk that was always full of talk and retelling old family legends.
"No." she lied. "I … I talked to Norman today." she mentioned.
"Video call?" he asked hopefully.
"Yes." she said. "He needs a haircut." she shrugged.
"Did you…" he nodded to her belly that she'd finally bought maternity clothes to cover. "tell him?"
Norma shook her head.
"He seemed so angry still." she admitted. "It's too hard right now."
"He had to know sometime." Alex said. "Doctor Edwards is right."
"He feels like we just dumped him in that place so I could start my life over without him. Like we're out here having a good time now that he's gone. I can't make him understand…"
She looked out at the lake that was peeping through the trees.
"Alex, Norman can't know." she admitted and avoided his gaze. "About the baby."
"What? Why not?" he asked.
Norma took a deep breath and resisted the urge to cry.
"He's… done things. Done things that… it's just not safe for him to know." she said cryptically.
"What kind of things." the Sheriff demanded.
Norma felt uncomfortable telling him. A part of her still wanting to protect her son at all costs. But the baby, a child far more innocent and vulnerable than Norman, kicked her roughly.
'You are your fathers' child alright.' she thought in annoyance.
"What things, Norma?" the Sheriff demanded again.
"He was angry." she explained quickly. "I wouldn't leave him alone, and…" she shrugged. "It was my fault."
"What was?" he demanded.
"It was an accident. He pushed me, and I wasn't watching where I was going… and I feel down the stairs." she said hoping that Norman didn't sound too horrible.
"When was this?" he asked gently.
"Just before the pandemic. We'd had a fight." she told him. "Then, there were other times."
Alex was quiet.
"It's just, I'm scared he might be jealous of the baby. He might be violent. It would be best if he didn't know." she explained quickly.
"You realize you sound like every domestic call I've ever responded to, right?" he asked. Anger flashing on his face so hot that Norma was glad she hadn't told him about the times Norman had attacked Dylan or her with a knife; or how Norman had hit Sam over the head with a blender and killed him.
"How do you propose we keep Norman away?" Alex asked. "He's going to find out when he comes home. You've been promising him that he's not going to stay there forever."
Norma didn't respond. She had an irrational thought that maybe Dylan and Emma could pretend that it was their baby when Norman came home for visits, but knew Alex would never go for it.
She wished for a moment she could go back in time and everything could magically reset to how it was when they first moved here. Nothing bad had happened and Norman could feel safe and comfortable at home with her. Forever.
"I don't know." she said sadly realizing at last the Norman could never come home. Not truly. He could never meet or even know about his younger sibling. He would go insane with rage and she had no idea what he would do.
"His therapy isn't going anywhere." Alex told her. "Doctor Edwards says he refuses to participate at all. Insurance for Pine View will run out next year."
Norma nodded.
"County psych isn't a good place, Norma." he said. "Maybe if I visited him? Or Dylan? Remind him he can come home if he puts in the work."
"He's my son, Alex. He always has a home with me." she told him.
"And we have a child who needs to come first right now, Norma." he told her quickly.
Norma refused to look at him. They had already reached the turn around point in their walk. They didn't talk for the rest of the trail. Alex scooping up her hand and kissing her fingers just below her wedding ring.
I wanted to write about depression which I feel is very real and amplified in stressful times. Yes, Norma loves Alex, but I never have any of my stories be just fluffy feel good. I also needed the highlight the stress and fear Norma would naturally feel if she had a child with Romero. Norman, who was violent to her in the past, would naturally be violent again if he felt so betrayed. All this is why she's scared.