44.
~ Nothing about Julian, his world, had changed in the months that Norman had been away. He still lived in the rundown apartment over the grimy ware house. The lonely white buildings were like a small suburb of houses; all alike, plain and sad. Their only purpose in this world was for storage of things unwanted. Things forgotten about and to be cleaned out when it was too bothersome to be kept anymore.
It was no wonder Norman kept finding himself here. He belonged here. Here with the broken and forgotten items. Stowed away. Out of sight, out of mind. Soon, Mother and Sheriff Romero would have deemed him un-needed and clean him out. He'd be in the way or cost too much money.
"So what were you in in for?" Julian asked. Norman had been looking at the dirty dishes in the sink. The food dried up and molding already.
"What?" Norman asked.
Julian had flopped his overweight body on the couch and snapped on the TV.
"Pine View." He clarified. "What were you in there for? Rehab?"
"Yes." Norman said. He didn't know how to explain. Nothing was explained to him about why Mother shut him away in that place, so why should he try and explain to someone else?
"I know what that's like. My parents sent me to this camp when I was fourteen." Julian huffed. "They were fans of slacking off as parents and loved the idea of these counselors being mean to me. That I'd come home 'fixed' or some bull shit."
"Where are your parents?" Norman asked stepping into the apartment and the smell of Julian's poor housekeeping finally hitting him.
Jullian shrugged.
"I lost track of them long before the pandemic." He said lazily. "I'm working at the grocery store now. Doing all that night stocking. People are still afraid to do much shopping."
"Oh." Norman said.
He realized slowly and horribly, he didn't have his wallet on him. His identification, his school ID, or anything that said he was Norman Bates. He'd left it all behind at the house by the motel. He couldn't do anything with it.
"I don't have my wallet." Norman said flatly. A harsh declaration that made Julian look at him strangely.
"You need to find it." Julian said with a laugh. "Yeah, you'll need your vaccination card and everything."
"They didn't give that to me. At Pine View." Norman said bitterly.
"Well, I doubt they'll cooperate much now that you've run away." Julian said snakily. "Maybe call your mommy and ask her to get it for you."
Norman glared hard at Julian. What a waste of a life he was. He sat in this filthy place, doing nothing good and judged Norman for being mistreated. He didn't deserve to have his freedom. No one would miss him once he was gone.
Norman was hardly aware he was doing anything. Hardly remembered it after. Shutting and locking the apartment door. Julian not realizing the danger. The ware house district so silent and empty anyway, no one heard the noise.
~ Romero was reluctant to tell Norma about her youngest son eloping out of Pine View. There had been the honest hope that he would find his way back like Edwards said. Just a young man seeking attention and the desire to be rescued. The local police were keeping an eye out as well as the entire department for White Pine Bay.
But with the way things were now, Norman could have been a guest at the motel and no one would have noticed. Things in town, all over the country, had once more turned chaotic. News reports turning from the massive vaccine push, to military mobilization.
Added to the confusion was the pressing need to reopen the motel as soon as possible. Although fall and winter was the off season for tourists, and the bypass cut off traffic, there was still the occasional traveler.
Dylan had taken the initiative in advertising for the motel as well as doing repairs. He was proving to have a better head for business than Norma had ever suspected.
"That billboard by the offramp was so expensive." Norma complained dressing Lulu in a warm looking fleece.
"It's not that cold out." Alex warned looking outside. It seemed summer was just as reluctant to leave as winter had been. The seasons wanting to hang on as long as possible; confusing plants and animals alike.
Norma ignored him that the baby might be too warm and settled Lulu in her car seat. It was the first time she was going to see the motel and the house since moving here. She was finally vaccinated and free to leave this terrible isolation. It hadn't taken long at all to pack up their things from the lake house and move out.
"Has the county decided what they'll do with this place?" She asked handing Lulu in her car seat to Alex.
The baby looked over stuffed with the heavy fleece jacket and matching cap. Like a baby bird in a nest it was outgrowing. Still, she didn't seem bothered by her predicament. She'd quickly grown out of her screaming and painful first few weeks and was calmer now that her body had adjusted to her formula.
"Probably auction it off." Alex sighed. "We could buy it."
"No." Norma laughed and realized it probably hurt Alex's feelings to be so cruel to the house he'd picked out for her.
"We can't baby proof it." She shrugged. "Besides, I like my old house."
Alex nodded.
"I'm going to put her in the car." He said.
"I can't wait to get home and see what Dylan's done to the place." Norma sighed. The news that the motel had to be practically gutted from the inside out was heartbreaking. Dylan had promised he would have at least half the cabins done and ready for visitors by now.
'Norman should be there to help.' She thought. Angry and disappointed the Norman had chosen to leave her behind.
Alex had told her, gently and after Lulu was asleep, that Norman had runaway last month. The security footage from Pine View had him leaving on his own in a white van. Alex had people looking for him, but Norman had broken no laws and there was nothing he could do now to force her son to return to Pine View or even back home.
"Do you think he might be dangerous?" Alex had asked her seriously. "If he's dangerous, we can have papers signed by you and Dylan. Have him forcibly taken to county for evaluation and-"
"No." Norma had huffed in anger. Upset that Alex had even mentioned that. "No, Norman's never been dangerous." She lied.
Norma had taken then to driving all around the county with Lulu snugly in her car seat. Mother and daughter looking for Norman. Who knew? He might be coming out of the grocery store or was staying with friends. But deep down, she knew the truth. Norman didn't want to come back to her. She'd burden him with an abusive father, crippled him with her own selfish needs. She'd betrayed him by sending him away to Pine View and marrying Alex. Then, to add insult to injury, she shut him out of her life and pretended he was some albatross around her neck. She herself had run away from home for far less. She never went back to her parents house and didn't grieve at all when they died. She was too removed from that life to miss them and she'd buried them all a long time ago anyway.
Norman would be the same now. She'd been lucky that Dylan had needed her again. Wanted her to be in his life. She'd been lucky that Alex had wanted Lulu so much and that they were doing so well together. But, Norman was lost to her. Lost to her and might never come home.
Still, maybe it was better this way. It was… cleaner. Not to have Norman around. Not to have to worry about what he might say or do. What secrets he might unwittingly reveal. There was no more living on the edge of a knife, no more waking up scared at night.
~ The motel looked the same as always. The yellow paint on the cabin walls was bright and homey. Dylan had taken the liberty of installing vending machines in the rear along with a new ice machine.
"Chick found most of this furniture at yard sales in Portland." Dylan explained as Norma wandered through each newly redone cabin.
She glanced briefly in the office to see Emma delightfully holding Lulu. The family back together again now that everyone had finally been vaccinated.
The baby seemed happy to be freed of her car seat and was waving her arms and kicking her legs.
'She's going to need a nap soon.' Norma thought. 'Before she gets cranky.'
Lulu was a full-time job and redirecting her attention to the motel seemed so trivial now.
"It would have been really expensive to have each room match." Dylan explained. "So, we didn't."
Norma glanced back at Dylan and then at room one. The king sized headboard, night stands and matching dresser was nice. A little too nice for a family owned motel. It even had a small, but well made dinning table and two chairs.
Dylan had done the walls with a very nondescript wallpaper that matched the soft grays of the bedspread and bathroom towels. The room looked more like a spa that a place that charged less than a hundred a night.
"You found this furniture at a garage sale?" Norma asked in disbelief.
"Chick did." Dylan corrected. "In the nicer neighborhoods in Portland. He made the table and chairs though. Repurposed wood. He does this for a living I guess."
Norma was speechless.
"Room one is the nicest." Dylan explained quickly. "I've made room two and three have twin beds. Those rooms are all connected and we can host families. Room four, we had to redo the bathroom and so I decided it should be our handicap room. Made the doors wider and the sink lower. Something we can put on the web-sight. You know, we can accommodate the handicap."
Norma said nothing but wandered from room to room. Noting how each room was slightly different. Cozy with it's furnishings and how they looked peaceful and more like a place to relax than just a necessary overnight stay.
"There's no TV." Norma said at last.
"Well, we thought about that." Dylan said. "That's going to be a lot of money and we figured people might not want a TV in their rooms. Not with free WiFi. They're here for the views and being outdoors, right?"
"People want a TV." Norma said dully.
"You don't." Dylan shot back. She wanted to argue, but he was right. Norma wasn't a fan of television and hated to have the loud, buzzing box on or even around her personal space. It was only useful for the news and watching an old movie.
"Maybe after winter." Dylan conceded. "Right now, it's been enough of a job to get these rooms open, Nor- Mom." He quickly corrected.
Norma glared back at him.
It was quite a change. Seeing the motel under such repairs and the house looking so improved. Dylan, Alex and Chick had put in a downstairs bathroom next to her laundry room. Something she'd always wanted, and would need with the baby now, but she felt robbed of overseeing these changes herself.
The inside of the old house had been redone. Like the motel, everything had been torn up, decided upon, kept or tossed out. Alex had bought them a new couch for the living room, which facilitated the need to update other furniture and decor to match. Now the house looked cleaner somehow. As if a young and modern family had decided to live in an old house that was so keen to be preserved in the last century.
Even the air and the light seemed better. New curtains had been installed to replace the heavy drapes that collected dust. New paint or wallpaper in every room seemed to breathe refreshing life into the house that Norma thought she had known so well. Nothing seemed dark and gloomy anymore and there was nothing at all to be afraid of.
Norman's old bedroom was unrecognizable now that Dylan and Alex had painted it a soft lavender and put Lulu's bedroom suit in it. The other side of the house quickly becoming a repository for odd furniture and what would hopefully be the guest room if Norman ever decided to come for a visit.
'A Visit'. That was all Alex and Dylan were willing commit to as far as Norman was concerned. There was a clear feeling that this house would never be his home again. That by leaving Pine View, he'd broken something in the family. Ripped himself away from them and he couldn't come back. Even if he did, if he wanted to live here, he couldn't. It wouldn't be the same. The guest room, as Alex now called it, was small and cramped. Not suitable for anyone to stay long term.
"Norma?" Came a curious voice that echoed in the downstairs hallway.
Norma leaned over the banister and caught a glimpse of Emma holding Lulu.
"Everything okay?" She called down to her.
"Oh!" Emma seemed embarrassed seeing Norma was upstairs. "I think she needs a change and is ready for a nap."
Norma sighed and nodded. Of course she was.
"She gets to finally sleep in her new bedroom." Emma commented climbing up the stairs and handing off the baby to Norma. Everyone wanted to hold a baby till it became wet and fussy; then they couldn't wait to give it back to its' mother to deal with.
"Yes." Norma sighed. "They did a beautiful job."
"Dylan wasn't sure you'd like all the new furniture." Emma said apologetically.
"It's fine." Norma lied and carried Lulu into her new bedroom. "It's nicer this way."
"It's a new start." Emma agreed. "After such a bad year."
Norma was quiet for a while.
"Dylan is worried. About what the news keeps saying." Emma said softly.
"We can't worry about that." Norma sighed.
"The newspaper said Bob Paris is running for mayor. That Romero was a bad sheriff during the pandemic." Emma said worriedly.
"I can't worry about that either." Norma told her.
"What if Romero loses the election?" Emma asked.
"Then he can help me run the motel." Norma said pretending to be cheerful as she changed Lulu and sat her down for a nap.