A deafening shriek pierced into Karen's drunk stupor, causing the remains of her martini to topple over the arm of the lounger she had collapsed into minutes ago and her eardrums, she could almost swear, to vibrate.
"What the hell," she muttered, meaning to leap to her feet and not quite making it. She groaned as another howl erupted, followed by loud sobbing.
"Damn it, Stanley, don't you throw a tantrum at me!" she hollered toward the doorway. "We've already been over this, I told you I'd meet you in the bedroom next Monday, nine p.m. sharp, no earlier, no later! And if you keep whining at me like that, you'll see me pushing it to next year!"
She crossed her arms defiantly, expecting her Mack truck of a husband to appear and plead with her, but what showed up instead was a small forlorn girl, half of her wild mass of red curls stuck to her tearstained face.
"Oh, it's you," Karen sighed irritably, relaxing in her chair. "This is a house, peewee, not the set of Psycho. I'd appreciate it if you didn't treat it as such."
Olivia's lower lip trembled violently. "But…Mason…he…"
"He what?" Karen griped as she massaged her temples. "Ate off the tops of all the chocolates before you had a chance to get any as usual?"
"No." Olivia paused before a new set of tears worked their way down her delicate face. "He didn't want me roller skating in the driveway while he was skateboarding and when I said it was my driveway too, he pushed me!"
"So haul him up to the sixteenth floor window ledge and push him off that," Karen snapped at her.
"But…but—look!" Olivia stuck out her leg dramatically, and as impassive as Karen attempted to appear, even she had to wince inwardly at the wicked gash embossing Olivia's knee.
"Can you fix it?" Olivia implored her tearfully.
"Get Rosario to do it. God knows I've done a lot worse to her than give her a shove in the driveway and she's still alive, isn't she?"
"But I want you to do it."
"And I want your father to quit coming after me like Star Jones goes after fried chicken when she thinks no one's look but we don't get everything we want!"
Olivia's woeful expression twisted into a brutal glare. "You're going to want your allowance pretty bad after Daddy cuts you off when I tell him how Mason hurt me but you were too busy sitting in here and drinking everything in his liquor cabinet to help me," she threatened ominously.
Karen slowly got to her feet. "Look here, Sue. You're three. You wouldn't dare."
"My name is Olivia. I'm seven. Watch me do it."
"Oh, good Lord." Karen stalked over to her stepdaughter, taking her impatiently by the arm. "Okay, kid. Let's get this over with before you're auctioning off my jewelry and the contents of my liquor storage on Ebay."
"You're supposed to pick me up," Olivia told her haughtily. "I can't walk like this. I'll get blood all over everything."
"Well, since we're talking about my Persian rugs, I'll give you that," Karen grumbled, scooping Olivia huffily off her feet.
"Be careful!" Olivia squealed. "You could have dropped me!"
"You be careful what kind of tone you're taking with me before I drop you in the cellar to bleed out!"
"That's not a nice thing to say."
"I have a lot of not nice things to say, and you're going to hear every one of them if you don't shut your yap." She pushed through the door of the bathroom that connected Olivia and Mason's rooms.
"Oh, what the hell did that fat one eat to drop a bomb like that in here? Damn it, I've got to crack a window before I bloody asphyxiate myself. Good Lord." She set Olivia on the countertop and after fiddling with the window for several moments, figured out how to open it. "Sweet Smirnoff," she murmured as a light breeze invaded the bathroom.
"The Band Aids are in that cupboard right there," Olivia said pointedly, apparently determined to keep Karen from being even momentarily distracted from her task at hand. "Mine have Hello Kitty on them. Mason's have Ninja Turtles."
"Honey, I don't know what you just said, but you'll take what you're given." Karen fished for a Band Aid and began to throw off the packaging.
"You're supposed to wash it off first, otherwise it could get infected," Olivia reminded her loudly, and Karen simply rolled her eyes, rather than commenting on how much she yearned to infect Olivia at that present moment.
"Come on, come on, swing your leg up this way," Karen demanded, snapping her fingers several times. Olivia obediently positioned her leg in such a way so that Karen could clean the wound for her, and as she moved to apply the Band Aid, noticed a bottle of disinfectant sitting one of the shelves.
"And I suppose since you're so concerned about infections, you just have to have a bit of this too," she scoffed as she reached for it, but Olivia shrieked and edged her leg away at the sight of it.
"Don't put that on me!" Olivia ordered frantically.
"Oh, for God's sake, Olivia, in the time it will take for me to do a quick spray, your father could swallow an entire ham--"
"But it stings!"
"Damn it, Olivia, just hold your leg--"
"No!"
"I swear, Curly Sue, you'd better--"
"NO!"
"If you don't hold still for just one damned minute, I'm going to tie you to this counter and cause a major infection in those precious green EYES!"
Knowing that her stepmother could very well be serious, Olivia stopped struggling but wasn't happy about it, which became evident by the high pitched octave of her screech which exploded from her small form once the disinfectant came in contact with her skin.
"HURRY! HURRY! BLOW ON IT!"
"In your dr--"
"BLOW ON IT!"
Rather than arguing with her, Karen obliged so quickly that Olivia would have missed it had she blinked, and slapped the Band Aid over the wound before Olivia had the chance to demand that Karen do a healing dance in its honor or something to that effect.
"And if you expect me to kiss it for you, you've got a whole other thing coming," Karen flared, and silence reigned between them. Olivia's face falling more quickly than an ice cream cake on which the candles had failed to be blown out, that's apparently what she had expected.
"Oh God," Karen moaned. "Well, all right then. Let's have it."
But Olivia surprised her, sliding quietly off the counter. "It's okay, Karen. You don't have to."
"No, no, really, kid. It'd make my day, come here."
"I said you don't have to."
"And I said I want to. Come on."
"No, you don't. Thanks anyway." She waited patiently for Karen to step aside so she could pass, which Karen almost did. But at the last moment, Karen grabbed the startled girl and slung her back on to the counter, gracing the bandaged spot with a kiss before Olivia had a chance to protest.
"Is that better?"
"Yeah, that's good." Olivia beamed at her and reached for an extra Band Aid, pressing it into Karen's hand. "These are my favorite, but you can have one."
"Oh, honey, you don't have to--"
"Well, just in case." Olivia hopped to the floor and gave her stepmother a quick hug around the waist. "I'm going to find Mason and knock him into next week like you always say you're going to."
"Yeah, you do that, honey." Karen brushed Olivia's curls out of her face affectionately before she knew what she was doing. "Try to stay on your feet, short stuff, okay? And be careful with your brother. Once today is enough."
Olivia skipped off happily as Karen gently fingered the Band Aid she had been given before tucking it fondly into her pocket.
You know, just in case.