5.
~ Sometimes life was very beautiful and it could still surprise you. These moments were such a rare beauty that they would magically restore Norma's happiness. One of those moments was coming home from the grocery store and finding an unannounced group of landscapers had descended on her property along with trucks loaded down with several simi-mature trees in the back, waiting to be replanted.
She hadn't given much thought to a long ago conversation about trees or improvements for the house. With Norman coming home and going back again, everything had been so chaotic and at times, she could feel the happiness that existed between her and Alex start to crumble along with any plans to improve the house.
Besides, the weather was still turning colder and Christmas was just a few days away. The last thing she was thinking about right now was landscaping or anymore home improvements. The sad, dilapidated old house on a lonely hill was fitting for her mood sometimes. A once grand beauty who was mistreated and unloved. Allowed to fade into decay out of sheer lack of interest. She had felt it was a fitting place for her to be in. That she and the house sort of deserved each other. That they complimented each other. Now, Alex had come and shaken her and her house, ghosts and all, out of its' depressed stupor. They might not be doomed to a slow and tragic death after all.
"Mrs. Romero?" a man in dirty brown overalls waved at her from the parking lot. Norma looked nervously at the large truck with probably a dozen trees that were still young, but would mature rapidly with enough care.
"Y-yes?" she asked awkwardly.
"I'm Tom Ellis. Owner of Ellis Landscaping? Sheriff Romero contacted us last week about the trees for the house and to start drawing up plans for a landscaping project." he explained.
Norma looked at the large burly man and the workers behind him as though he was speaking another language she couldn't understand.
"He did?" she questioned skeptically. Alex hadn't mentioned anything about it. Yet, he'd barley said two words about the security system before having it installed.
"I have a fourteen trees here. Two very healthy apple trees and two chestnut trees. They'll do very well in this environment. The cherry tree will bloom pink in the spring time. Your husband said you might want that by a bedroom window." Mr. Ellis explained.
Norma's mind was still having a hard time accepting what was happening. Cherry trees? A beautiful pink cherry tree blossoming by her front window every spring? Actual color in this never ending wash of greens, blues and grays?
"I thought, I mean, it's winter. Isn't it too late to plant trees?" she asked skeptically.
"The dormant season is the best time to do the planting." Mr. Ellis explained. "Everything is paid for. We just need you to tell us where you want them."
~ Norma wanted her new collection of trees to detract from the ugly cement stairway that went up to the house and instructed the landscapers to plant all along the hill, to make the walk up look nicer. Hopefully the steps wouldn't look quite so cheaply cobbled together as she suspected they had been in the late 70's. Like with all things about the house and grounds, she had meant to replace the outdoor lights that ran down the steps and would always cast very weak light.
Her mind could never shake the image of Shelby stumbling down those same steps in their insufficient light. Blood pouring everywhere and his eye missing.
She wanted her nice new trees to help change the way those same steps looked. She wanted new lights now and maybe some nice potted ferns. Anything that would forever erase what had happened here that night.
Because Shelby's blood still hadn't worn away. Norma could still see the faint stain on the cement where he bled to death and it sent a chill down her back.
She'd taken the landscapers advice and allowed them to plant the largest of the trees, the cherry, in the front yard. It's branches were already trying to reach for her bedroom window as if to say hello.
"It'll bloom nicely when the weather warms up, Mrs. Romero." Mr. Ellis promised.
The two apple and chestnut trees were planted out in the back yard she and Norman never used because it remained so unkept and uninviting. A task that would require a lot of attention in the spring. Just now, with everything cold and dead, it was hard to imagine spring ever coming at all.
~ The landscapers were leaving just as Norma's phone pinged, alerting her to someone in the motel driveway. She gleefully saw the Sheriff's SUV parked next to her car and Alex getting out. Her impressive security cameras showing him climb the steps up to the house and taking the time to admire the new editions.
"This was a nice surprise." she called to him, and successfully catching him off guard. He'd always been used to finding her safely inside and away from the cold that was quickly approaching.
"You said you wanted trees." Alex shrugged and looked around at the neatly arranged shade trees that lined the cement stairs and the cherry tree by the living room window.
That little smile was back on his face. The one that so rarely made an appearance before but now seemed to spring up more and more. It was that smile that made him look years, if not decades younger. That shy smile that made her want to bring him inside, fix him dinner and make love all night.
It was exactly that same bashful expression he'd given her when he'd brought her car back and told her he'd take the other one she'd so foolishly bought. That smile that made her have to practice a deep sense of self control not to invite him to stay for dinner. To call Norman and make up an excuse for him to stay at Dylan's farm.
"I wanted a few trees. Not an entire forest, Sheriff!" she teased.
"Well, you never did tell me what trees to get." he said with a little shrug.
~ "Citizen Kane is your favorite movie?" Norma questioned dubiously and stretched her body out on the sofa as though she was going to take a nap. She wished she had thought to pop some popcorn, but had honestly thought Alex was kidding when he mentioned the austere tyrant as a movie selection.
"Citizen Kane is a masterpiece, Norma." Alex reminded her with a tinge of being insulted. He came to sit on the couch, where little room existed now, and had found the only option left was to curl up next to his wife who didn't share his love of overly produced greatness.
She happily made some room for him on a sofa that was surprisingly large enough for both of them to spend the evening in comfort.
"Orson Wells wrote, starred in and directed this before he was even thirty years old."
"Wasn't it a commercial flop?" she asked heartlessly.
She smiled a little when she saw he looked hurt at the insult. A small stab of revenge after he'd so quickly shot down her suggestion of 'Bringing up Baby' for the evening's movie. Norma had always been a sucker for the silly romantic comedies of Hollywood's golden age. It was so appealing to have two unlikely, opposites, forced together by some ridiculous circumstances. The pair naturally falling for each other in a series of memorable mishaps and romantic misunderstandings. Something that was always humorous because the gentleman involved was admittedly a little too uptight, with the girl in question far too rebellious and outgoing. No, they would never normally find themselves together, yet, they were attractive and destined to be a couple.
"I just mean, it was a vanity project. Orson Wells was obviously in love with himself." she corrected shyly.
"We haven't even seen the movie yet." he said and allowed her the rare privilege playing with the remote to select a movie to stream on the gigantic TV he'd bought them last week. Norma had no idea you could watch movies on it without a DVD player and marveled at the selection now at her fingertips.
"What about 'Arsenic and Old Lace'?" she said with sudden glee at seeing it available. "It's about two sisters who murder men and hide the bodies in the basement! It's really funny."
"Sounds hilarious." Alex said dubiously and made a face.
Alex nodded to the newest edition to the living room decor. It looked shocking and bright and out of place compared to everything else in the house. The large photograph was new and it's colors hadn't had a chance to fade. The sharpness of it, with everything else in the house seeming so soft and muted, was almost blinding.
"When did you have time to get that?" he asked with slight discomfort at seeing his own image in a photograph, blown up to a large size and placed over the mantle.
It was the two of them at the Lights of Winter and the only one who looked radiantly attractive in the picture was Norma. She smiled as bright at happy as always. Seeming untouched by trouble or worry which was always a remarkable thing to him. He could never force a beautiful smile like she could. He could hardly ever pretend to smile like a normal person. Indeed, the picture showed a half falter of a smile. A man trying so hard to be happy. A man so terrified to be happy because it would all vanish like smoke as soon as he let it in.
"I called up to the paper last week." Norma explained. "Asked for a copy. The picture was really nice and the photographer dropped that off this afternoon before I left for the store. He didn't charge me anything for it. Said it was a wedding present."
Alex felt uncomfortable at having the large picture of himself so present in the room. Norma loved having family pictures inhabiting every inch of her home but he wasn't used to it. It was odd to see his picture so alarmingly clear and in her house.
His parents had never been fans of framing his school pictures and only one photograph ever existed in his own home. It was one of himself and his mother when he was about five years old. Fortunately, he'd kept so much of his mother's things in storage, the photo albums hadn't burned down with his rental house.
When the time came for him to move out of Norma's motel and into another house, he simply had the same picture printed out again and put into a cheap frame. It was really his only happy memory of her. The only photo of himself where he'd been genuinely happy.
"You don't like it?" Norma questioned and flipped through the selections of older movies.
"The picture?" Alex asked. "I think you look great."
"Well, I think we look pretty good in it. Besides, if that Marsh guy come around the house, it wouldn't look good if we don't have pictures of us together." she reminded them.
"Make it look real." he said dully.
"Make it look real to other people." she said.
He said nothing and wasn't sure how well he liked the idea of such a large picture of himself on the wall.
"Alex?" she asked selecting 'The Wizard of Oz' and the grand music of the always crowd pleasing musical started playing.
He felt himself relax at the memory of the movie. It was like being comforted by an old friend and he felt better at the recognition. Only happy memories existed with this movie. Nothing bad was ever allowed.
"Alex?" she asked again when he didn't answer.
"Hmm?" Alex said softly at the beautiful black and white world of Dorothy's Kansas.
"Why is 'Citizen Kane' your favorite movie?" she asked gently. Her voice lazy under the idyllic sway of a childhood favorite.
"I don't know." he said honestly. "I think everyone wonders about their legacy. What kind of life they've lead. What they're leaving behind. How they've changed the world."
"I don't." she said easily.
"Sure you do. Everyone thinks about their legacy. Everyone wonders how they'll be remembered. Or if they'll be remembered." he argued.
His feet tried to wrap around hers and she gave him a rebellious kick for his troubles before giggling.
"I already have my legacy." she told him with a certain amount of contentedness that was enviable. "I already know I'll be remembered."
"Oh?" he challenged.
"I have children, Alex." she said simply. "I'm a mother. I'll hopefully be a grandmother one day. I have two sons. Sure they've had their ups and downs but Norman's getting better and Dylan is going to be just fine. I'll always be their mother. I'll always be their family. I don't have to worry about leaving some kind of legacy behind, I already have it."
She was so confident about this statement that it left Alex relatively dumbstruck. He'd never thought of family in the terms Norma did. Family had always been a burden. Something to be endured, lost and grieved.
She looked at him curiously now and he felt his guard go up.
"Did you ever want to have children?" she asked. "I mean, when you were younger?"
Alex left the question hang between them without an answer for a moment. He wasn't sure how to answer something so personal. Alarm bells were ringing in his head at the idea she would invade his private life in such a way by even asking.
"I suppose, if I had met the right person…" he said carefully.
"There would have been little Romeros… running around?" Norma asked sweetly. Her eyes suddenly sparkling and her skin seeming to glow with a new vitality he hadn't noticed before.
"Maybe." he said cryptically. His guard collapsing down at seeing the rosy hue of her cheeks and the feel of her hip pressed next to his.
He felt a strange current pass between them he'd never felt before. Not with anyone. Ever. Unspoken things were moving more quickly and with more force than they could ever express with words. It was like that sharp and painful snap of electricity that was so exhilarating and so terrifying.
"I mean…" he said carefully. Without any commitment. "If things were different."
"Yeah." she added helpfully. "If things were different."
Her angelic face had fallen slightly as if she was told she wouldn't be going to a party she'd hoped to get invited to. She looked away from him and Alex felt his own heart ache for her.
The movie played on although the audience of two had lost interest. Dorothy had her own troubles of being swept up in a tornado and couldn't be bothered with Norma and Alex just now.
If things were different.