Chapter Five –"Outcasts and Recasts"
"Mama, I don't think JR is going to fall back in love with me!" Arabella Carey Chandler was confiding to Krystal Carey Chandler at that exact moment. Krystal was busy opening a Swiss on-line bank account, but she always had time to comfort and counsel her only child.
"Don't let JR get you down, Babydoll," Krystal urged her. "Take it from me, there's more than one way to skin a Chandler."
"Skinning him is not exactly what I had in mind," Babe clarified. "Mama, I think I've gone and refallen in love with him! I don't know how or when this started happening, but lately every time I lay eyes on him, I want to jump that boy's bones somethin' fierce!"
This news did not faze Krystal one iota. "Love is in the air, Babydoll. Look at me and Adam! Who would have ever dreamt in a billion years that we were a match? And when I say match, I mean as in fire!"
"Mama, are you telling me that you and Adam are doing it?" Babe asked as delicately as she knew how.
"Boy howdy, are we ever!" Krystal confirmed. "Haven't you noticed how my skin's cleared up?"
"We gotta make us two lists," Opal was telling Tad, Aiden and Stuart. "We gotta list everyone of us who's in danger and everyone of the dang lowdown Newbies we suspect."
"Krystal," Brook said between her teeth.
"She's on List Number Deux, I take it," Tad commented.
Opal was already scribbling furiously on the pad she had found under Aidan's pinball machine.
"Am I on List Number Two too?" a voice asked from the doorway.
"Aidan, we need stronger locks," Tad told his friend, pointedly ignoring Di's question.
"The door wasn't locked, Tad," Di explained, walking into the office.
"And guard dogs," Tad was continuing. "Pit Bulls and Dobermans."
"How flattering," Di said, smiling a smile that didn't make it up to her eyes. "Still mad at me, huh?"
"You got your nerve, Girly!" Opal spat at her. "How dare you show your lying impostering face around here or any place else in this town?"
"You tell her, Mama," a suddenly weary Tad sighed, sinking onto a vacant chair and vacantly staring into space.
"Di, I'd vamoose while the vamoosing is good," Brooke advised her.
Brooke was not as outraged at Dixie's half-sister as her ex-husband was, which was probably due to the fact that she wasn't in love with her. Tad was. Big-time. He hated that she wasn't Dixie and despised her for pretending she was. He couldn't forgive himself for being fooled any more than he could forgive her for fooling him. But none of that compared to the white-hot hatred he felt toward himself for still loving her. For love her he did, no matter how guilty and stupid it made him feel.
"I didn't come here to defend myself," Di told Opal. "I loathe myself more than anyone else does."
"Why are you here, Di?" Aidan asked for them all.
"I'm looking for a job" Di answered. "Nobody will hire me in this town."
"There are other towns," Aidan reminded her.
"And other countries," Tad joined in. "And other universes."
Di ploughed ahead. "I figure you guys need an assistant to help around the office. I can type and take shorthand. I'm good on the phone."
"You've GOT to be kidding!" Tad said to her.
"No, I really have good skills. I took a secretarial course at Statesville. I'll work for minimum wage. Less than minimum wage! What do you say?"
"I say -" Opal began.
"You're hired," Tad decided. "You can start by helping Mama with List Number Two."
"Hey, I'm Number One on List Number Two," Di noticed, looking over Opal's shoulder.
"You got THAT right, you Heartless Hussy from Hell!" Opal muttered with all her heart.
Amanda bit her lip as she rang the front doorbell of the Chandler Mansion.
"Oh, Miss Amanda!" Winifred greeted her. "I don't think anybody here wants to see you!"
Amanda nodded in perfect understanding.
"Winnie, this is an emergency. I've got to see Babe and Krystal! Either one! Both! Don't worry, they'll want to see me when they hear what I've got to say."
Winifred tried her best to be helpful. "Maybe if you tell me first, I'll tell them and we'll see how that goes."
Amanda took a deep breath. "Somebody is out to get rid of all the Newbies!"
Winifred could not help but grin. "Why, that's good news!" she exclaimed.
"Not for me it isn't!" Amanda begged to differ. "And not for Babe or Krystal! We're all Newbies!"
"Well, some of us are Newer Newbies than others of us," Krystal drawled, coming to the door. "Winnie, I thought you threw out the garbage already!"
Winifred got flustered. "Oh, Mrs. Chandler, I didn't mean to talk to- that is, Miss Amanda was only-"
"And some of us are real OLD Newbies," Amanda said cheerfully. "Present company included of course!"
Krystal smiled. "Oh course. Now, Winnie, if you'll just show Miss Amanda to the nearest sewer-"
"You've got to listen to me!" Amanda protested. "Where's Babe? Babe! Babe!"
Amanda pulled free of Winifred's grasp and dodging her way into the parlor, confronted her arch-enemy, Arabella Carey Chandler.
"Babe, they're trying to run us all out of Pine Valley!" she managed before Krystal and Winifred tackled her.
"So what else is new?" Babe asked, staring down at her worst enemy, who was securely pinned to the floor. "They've been trying to get rid of me since I first came here with JR. They write to the Sponsors, e-mail the Network, plot with each other on Message Boards. None of it helps. I am here to stay." She looked down lovingly at Krystal, who was stubbornly sitting on top of a bucking Amanda in order to keep her down. "I am here to stay. And so is my Mama!"
"LISTEN TO ME!" Amanda demanded, trying to breathe despite Krystal's weight on her rear. "The Veterans are banding together. Their first strategy meeting was supposed to be today at Opal's, only that didn't happen because Palmer disappeared."
"Palmer disappeared?" Babe, Krystal and Winifred chorused.
"Lots of Veterans have been disappearing," Amanda wheezed. "Get the hell off of me, and I'll tell you about it!"
They got off of her.
"Something is going on. Palmer is missing."
"You said that already," Krystal said.
"And so is Marian."
"Marian?" Babe, Krystal and Winifred chorused.
"And so is Liza and Colby."
"Liza and Colby?" Adam cried out, coming down the staircase.
"And so is Greenlee!"
"Miss, you aren't Greenlee," Zach was fairly certain. "So who in hades are you?"
Gina opened her purse.
"Here, look if you don't believe me!" she challenged them, handing Kendall her wallet.
All of her credit cards, and there were quite a few, said "Greenlee Lavery". Her social security card said "Greenlee Lavery". Her driver's license said "Greenlee Lavery". Her Voter Registration Card said "Greenlee Lavery".
"Anybody can buy forged papers," Ryan said from experience. "What the hell are these supposed to prove?"
"That I'm your wife!" she laughed, throwing herself into his arms. "Ry, I've thought it all over and had a change of heart! I am willing to give us a second chance!"
Kendall and Zach exchanged glances.
"Recast," Kendall mouthed to him.
"Maybe," Zach said doubtfully. "Ryan, ask her something only Greenlee would know."
Ryan shook his head, as if to clear it. "What are you talking about? This isn't Greenlee!"
Kendall took her friend aside and told him her theory as gently as she knew how. "Ryan, she could be a Recast."
He shook his head again. "No way! They wouldn't do that? How could they do that?"
"They thought I could bring something new to the role," Gina explained coolly.
"Who?" Zach demanded. "Who thought? Who is 'they'?"
"The Powers That Be," Ryan said dully, still not believing the truth of what was right before his eyes.
"The Idiots in Charge," Kendall rephrased, awash with horror and foreboding.
"Rylee lives!" Gina exclaimed.
Kendall's cell phone went off.
"Zendall here," she answered it. It was the metallic voice. She waved Zach over so he could listen in.
"Stop wasting time! Start solving this Mystery! There has been another disappearance!"
"Who?" Kendall asked, afraid to know.
"Myrtle Fargate!" the metallic voice revealed.
Kendall locked on the horror in Zach's eyes.
"We've got to solve this!" he said huskily. "This time it's personal!"
With both Zendall and Taidan on the case, can a solution be far away? You bet it can! Please come back for more surprises just as soon as I dream them up!