Desperate Housewives: Stray Tears
A house had once again become vacant on Wisteria Lane. New residents beckoned to fill its place, little knowing what would behold them when they moved on to this mysterious street.
All that waited upon their arrival was some smiles; fake they may be, but in the suburbs: on Wisteria Lane, a smile covers up a secret. Though little do those faces know, the gesture is being returned in a similar way.
A van approached around noon on that summer's day, though there weren't many people around to say hello: everyone else was caught up in their own lives.
Gabrielle Solis sat by her bedroom window, looking through her jewellery box. This was something Gabrielle seldom did, but today was different. As she looked over the pieces of expensive jewellery her husband had bought her over the course of their marriage, she pondered about her next step in life. A tear quietly fell on to her cheek, but she wiped it away without thinking of its purpose. Xiao-Mei walked into the room nervously, handing her a cup of tea. She turned to walk away.
"Xiao-Mei, what ever possessed you to have an affair with Carlos?" Gabrielle asked, looking at her diamond necklace.
"Mr Solis said he'd look after me, that I could live here without being your housekeeper. He said he saw me as more than that." Xiao-Mei shrugged anxiously, aware of the temper of the woman standing next to her.
"You believed that?" Gabrielle sighed.
"I'm sorry." Xiao-Mei looked downwards in shame.
"I know you are Xiao-Mei, but that isn't the point." Gabrielle thrust her jewellery back into the box, and stood up," you can't change the past, but I know if you could you'd still fall for Carlos. All you ever had was lust though, so why would he throw away love?"
"I should leave you," Xiao-Mei turned around again and hastened to the door.
"Dump the rest of Carlos' clothes in the dustbin Xiao-Mei. It's clogging up wardrobe space," Gabrielle ordered.
Xiao-Mei turned obediently, whilst Gabrielle decided to make a call to a person she hadn't seen in a while.
"John, it's me. I was wondering if you could come by later. We have a lot of catching up to do and I think now is the time to do it." Gabrielle didn't wait for a response, but hung up, hoping her ex-lover would be only too pleased for a reunion.
Elsewhere on Wisteria Lane Susan Mayer returned to her new home, disappointed in Mike for not turning up, and disappointed in herself for thinking her happily ever after had come true.
Glancing at the surroundings of her new house, Susan wondered what would have happened if she were still in her old home. If she hadn't had an affair with Karl, leading to unwanted feelings shared between them. Then Edie wouldn't have got infuriated, and been driven to her arson attack. Susan pondered this question, all the time wondering the location of her true love.
Julie walked down from the staircase, "Mum?"
Susan woke up from her trail of thought, "Julie, thank god you're home." Susan walked over to the end of the staircase and gestured Julie for a hug.
"Well mum, where else would I be?" Julie hugged her mum, "how did it go?"
A lost tear fell from Susan's eye; "he didn't come. I waited for hours, then I knew he wasn't going to show. I just feel such an idiot, if he bought me a ring why didn't he show up. Maybe he just doesn't love me at all."
"Mike does love you. You know he does. Maybe he had a crisis, maybe something happened to him, there are plenty of reasons." Julie hugged her mum compassionately.
"Yes, each one as unlikely as the next. No, Mike has made up his mind about his future, and that doesn't include me." Susan leaned on Julie's shoulder, knowing how strong her daughter was in these situations, whilst she was in fits of tears.
Lynette Scavo returned from the dry cleaners just after noon on that Sunday afternoon. If her eyes had been wide open she'd have seen new neighbours in her presence, but her mind came to rest on a yellow taxi parked outside her drive.
She entered with dread, not so much for the arrival of her husband's daughter, but the arrival of the tempest women who was the mother, Nora.
Tom looked up from the sofa, "Lynette, I thought you had to go to the store?"
"No, I just needed to pick up the dry cleaning." Lynette put the dry cleaning down on the counter, "Nora, nice to…see you."
"You too Lynette. I'll be here a few hours, I'm waiting for Kayla's Nan to drop her off at the airport, then we can start looking for furnishings for our new home."
"Um, Nora can you give me and Tom a moment please?" Lynette asked as pleasantly as she could muster.
"I'm not bothering you. Go ahead, we're a family now." Nora smiled sweetly at Lynette, and then stroked Tom's hand.
"That being said, can we just have some privacy?" Lynette's voice changed to a little more forceful than before.
"Please Nora, we have some stuff to sort out," Tom stood up and opened the door.
Nora walked out, looking vaguely embarrassed.
"What is she doing here?" Lynette asked, the moment Tom had slammed the door.
"Calm down Lynette, the woman only just got here. As she said, she's part of the family now." Tom moved away from his wife, feeling conscious of the consequences of those words.
"One of us?" Lynette practically choked on those words; " she's the women you had a one-night-stand with 11 years ago, that doesn't give her reason to be part of our family."
"Look Lynette, I know you're not okay with this, but there's nothing either of us can do about it."
"The woman is crazy. I am not okay with her being around here all of the time, and acting as if she's been here her whole life." A stray tear fell from her eye.
Tom walked over and hugged Lynette, "We're going to be fine, we're strong, nothing is ever going to break us apart."
Lynette wished this would be true, but she still couldn't help feeling that there was a trace of a lie in his voice. She could never believe that this was certain.
Bree Van De Kamp went about her daily business as usual, regardless of the happenings of the previous night. In the morning she baked cookies, she planted a rose bush in her front lawn and she tidied her immaculate kitchen. Her appearance showed no signs of flaw, until she went past from daughter's bedroom and heard a tear falling from her daughter's eye.
"Danielle?" Danielle looked up from her pillow, " Are you feeling better?"
Danielle didn't reply to this question: she didn't need to. Her mother was already aware of the love her daughter had just lost, even though she couldn't see where that love had grown from. "I've just made cookies, they'll make you feel better," Bree stroked Danielle's forehead lovingly.
"I'm not comfort eating, I'm watching my figure," Danielle murmured out between sobs.
"You need to find a way to channel your grief." Bree said, though she was hardly an expert.
"Mum, you fell apart after dad died, why do you expect me to carry on as normal?" Danielle asked, then turned over to face the wall.
"I don't, I just expect you to be aware that this man would have killed me, so I don't really understand how you could love a killer." Bree sat down on the bed, and placed her washing basket on the floor.
"You did!" Danielle responded fiercely.
"That's different Danielle, I mean…" Bree couldn't think of any reasons to justify her case.
Danielle continued to cry, but Bree left her alone, she knew that now there was nothing more she could say to her.
"I'll go and pick up your dry cleaning," she whispered on her way out.
Bree picked up her bag and walked out the door, looking as if she hadn't just had this realisation from her daughter, but she didn't get very far. "Orson, what are you doing here?"
"I came to see how you are, and I brought you these," He brought out a bunch of flowers from behind his back.
"I was on my way out but would you like to come in for a coffee?" Bree asked, not knowing what dangerous ground she was stepping on to.