27.

~ It had been Rebecca's idea for Norman to join the small business owners meetings downtown. He'd finally been able to return to the hardware store and buy the paint he'd wanted foe the motel from Madeline. She was looking very lovely in a blue dress and seemed to think nothing of the outrageous bill when it was over.

Norman remembered thinking he wanted so desperately to tell mother all about the new hardware store in town and it pained him to know he couldn't. Rebecca wouldn't care about such things as patina countertops and fresh peonies in clear blue vases. Rebecca didn't think about the same things his lovely mother thought about. Rebecca was a clear headed business woman who didn't have time to concern herself with such nonsense.

Madeline had mentioned that since he was a small business owner, that they had meetings downtown once a month. That they networked and talked for a few hours. That it was a lot of fun.

"I'll be there." she said brightly as if urging him to come.

Norman had nodded. Not making any commitment. He'd seen the very large, shinny diamond ring on her finger. He'd never seen her husband around. She always worked alone here. There were always friends stopping buy to see her, but she never talked about a husband.

Norman had brought home the paint and a stash of books from the library for the two of them. There was precious little to entertain themselves here alone in this house without TV or the internet.

"You have to go to that meeting, Norman." Rebecca had said with her eyes blazing like fire. "See what's changed and what's happening. Let them know you're in charge now and the motel is up and running. Tell them to send people your way. That sort of thing. Make sure to mention that you're fixing the place up again. That your mother, or whoever, had hired a bad manager and now that you're running it, things will be better again."

"Well, were do I tell them I was all this time?" Norman asked nervously.

"What?"

"I was gone for over a year." he said "I didn't even finish high school. I got my GED at PineView."

Rebecca shook her head.

"You'll say you were away at school. An early acceptance college prep and came home. We'll get you started on some online business classes." she said easily.

Norman nodded.

"That reminds me." Rebecca sighed. "We need the internet and a better computer than what's in the office. Also, those cameras outside…"

"They're all unplugged. They weren't here before. I bet Sheriff Romero made mother put them up." Norman said helpfully. Rebecca was a smart lady and Norman trusted her with whatever was best.

"Keep them unplugged. Let people only think they're being watched." she said. She eyed Norman thoughtfully. "Where did you hear about this meeting anyway?"

"The lady at the hardware store told me about it. I think she wants me to go." he said honestly. He didn't want to lie to Rebecca and didn't see the need. He didn't feel like she would make fun of him or criticize him if he told the truth. He also felt she wouldn't try to hold him back either. She'd never told him he wasn't normal or that he couldn't do something or be around other people. Not like mother had.

"The new hardware store? Old lady or young lady?" she asked looking over the books he'd carefully selected for them. A new crime novel, a ghost story, a romance novel and thick book of short stories. He wasn't sure what she liked.

"Young. Her name's Madeline. She's nice." Norman said.

Rebecca looked impressed.

"She asked you to go?"

"I think… she want's me to go." Norman said carefully. "But she doesn't like me like that."
"Well, how do you know?" Rebecca sake him pulling the romance away from the stack and clutching it to her chest. She was wearing a shapeless blue dress with little white flowers on it. The kind meant for an old woman. She hardly ever left the house, so it didn't matter how she dressed.

"She's married." Norman said.

"But she wants you to go to this meeting." Rebecca grinned with a knowing look.

"Yes." Norman nodded.

"Is she pretty?" Rebecca asked.

Norman nodded. Madeline was beautiful like his mother. She looked just like his mother looked when she was that age.

"She flirts with you?"

Norman looked away.

"A little." he said. "Maybe she just wanted me to buy paint from her."

"Maybe." Rebecca shrugged. "But she wants to see more of you. You need to go to the meeting. What does her husband look like?"

"I never see him. Madeline says he travels a lot."

Rebecca's eyes gleamed.

"You have to go to the meeting now, Norman." she laughed.

~ Norman had gone to the meeting the next night and it had been fun. Madeline had invited him to go out with some friends of hers for dinner and Rebecca had insisted he go.

"You're young. It'll look suspicious if you don't go out with friends." she'd said.

Norman had worried about living Rebecca alone in the house, but she was fine. He left the meeting early and happy to have seen Madeline and glad that the other business owners were so nice to him.

When he came back home, he told Rebecca all about it. She had asked a lot of questions about Madeline and the new businesses in town. Wanting to look at all their business cards and telling Norman he should make a point to see them. That any excuse would do.

"You never know, Norman." she'd said encouragingly. "They could have relatives come see them and they will need a place to stay. Remind them of what you're always saying. How we're a family place."

~ Norman finally met Sheriff Green after almost two weeks of being back home. He was finishing painting the last of the cabins when he felt fear lurch in his heart.

The Sheriff's SUV, the same one Alex Romero had, drove into the parking lot of the motel. He was certain Alex Romero would climb out, scowl at him and accuse him of terrible things. That Mother would come. He could see her, even now, lurking in the shadows. She hadn't been there as much with Rebecca around. But Mother was always near Norman.

Then, a woman appeared. A nice looking woman with a kind face who looked better suited for a classroom than for law enforcement.

"Can I help you?" Norman asked.

He suddenly remembered what Rebecca was fond of telling him. Those times when Norman was feeling distressed and he couldn't control the darkness or anxiety that wanted to wash over him.

'You don't have to be normal. You just have to act normal. It's all about appearances with these people.' she'd said when he'd been crying on his bedroom floor and holding his mother's blue and white dress.

She'd heard him crying, but given him no sympathy. Instead she'd told him he could be himself all he wanted inside the house. He could cry or scream or be as odd as he wanted. She'd warned him that outside, where people could see, he always had to pretend to be normal. To always be polite and well adjusted.

It had seemed like very sound advice. Like the outside world was a stage and once he'd played his part, said his lines, he could run back into the house and be himself again.

"Are you Norman Bates?" the nice smiling woman asked.

Norman started cleaning his hands on a rag, but they were still covered in yellow paint. It was good paint and worth the money. He decided and he would tell Madeline so when he saw her.

"Yes." Norman said. "Sorry if I don't shake your hand, I've been doing a little work as you can see. I don't want to get your hands messed up… officer?"

"Sheriff." the woman said. "Sheriff Jane Greene."

Norman must have looked surprised because she nodded.

"Yes, I replaced your step father." she said.

Norman could feel himself getting sick at the idea of Alex Romero as his step father. The things that awful man must have made his mother do.

"Well, I hardly knew the man." Norman explained glancing up at the house. Rebecca was looking at them from the parlor window. The curtains twitching.

To his amazement, he thought he saw another figure in Mother's room. That wasn't possible. No one went into Mother's room and Mother had been gone since Rebecca had arrived. There wasn't room enough in the house for the two women.

"Well, I wanted to introduce myself. Word around town is that you're running the motel now?" Sheriff Greene asked.

Norman nodded and remembered Rebecca's instructions. Keep his story simple and never embellish.

"Oh, yes." he smiled and gave her no more information.

"Where is Earnest?" she asked.

"He was let go." Norman said briskly.

"Why?"

"I would think that would be obvious, Sheriff." Norman smiled. Rebecca had told him to smile a lot. She'd told him he had a nice smile and people would always trust him if he smiled.

The Sheriff nodded and smiled back.

"You mother, where is she?" the Sheriff asked.
"I would honestly love to know." Norman sighed. "She married Sheriff Romero, sent me away. I haven't heard from either of them since."

The Sheriff looked a little sad to hear this.
"Yeah, maybe that's why it's so important to fix this place up." Norman nodded to the motel. "So when she comes home…"

He let the sentence fall away. They both seemed to know his mother wouldn't come back home.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that." Sheriff Greene said. "She sent you away…"

"School. A boys school." Norman said.

"I see." Green nodded.

"Yes, but now I'm back and this place is going to be run the way Mother always wanted it to be run." Norman told her with confidence.

"So you plan to stay? Run the motel full time?" Greene asked hopefully.

"I'm living in our old home and everything. It's not much of a living but I'm going to the village's small business club meeting and networking. That's important." Norman told her.

Sheriff Greene nodded.

"Well, the place looks great, Mr. Bates." she said.

"Call me Norman, please. We're not formal." he said and smiled.

"Norman." she smiled back.

"Can I ask you something?" he said feeling slightly funny about the subject.

"Sure." Greene said and stepped closer.

"Well, it's a delicate matter. I'm really not used to dealing with. The manager was apt to letting disreputable guests stay here." Norman said. He looked at Greene who didn't seem to follow. "What I mean is, the kind of guest who stayed… by the hour. I don't rent rooms by the hour, Sheriff. Bates Motel is a family place. A nice place. I want you to know that."

Sheriff Greene nodded as if embarrassed for him.

"It makes me sick just thinking of it." Norman said. "Mother would have been so upset to see her motel run like this."

"Well, I'm sure she'd be very proud of you and how well you've taken care of it." Green said.

"I wanted to ask if I could call your office to report these bad people. Some of them are just awful, Sheriff. They curse me. They threaten me. Most of them go away, but I'm worried they'll come back." he said.

"Norman, you can call my office day or night. You know that. That's why we're here." she explained in a calm and soothing voice.

"I don't like to be any trouble. It will only be if it's an emergency." he said quickly.

~ "What did the Sheriff want?" Rebecca had snapped when Norman came in. She'd been practically glued to the window like a spider. Her eyes wide and she looked slightly manic.

"Wanted to say hello. She doesn't suspect anything. Didn't ask about you." Norman said. "Don't worry."

Since getting the internet and computer back into the house, Rebecca had searched the web researching herself and the town in general. She'd been a little afraid that her online searches would lead police right to her but so far, nothing.

"Just to say hello?" Rebecca asked doubtfully. "Who does that?"

"Sheriff Romero had done the same thing." Norman said. "When we first moved here. Mother and I were tearing up carpet down at the motel and he and Shelby stopped in to see who'd bought the place."

Norman shook his head. He didn't like to think about that night. It'd been a horrible night. First Keith Summers breaking into the house, hurting his mother, then Shelby and that Sheriff Romero driving up. Norman had been so scared they would be caught at any second with Keith Summer's body in the bath tub. Shelby flirting with his mother and Romero trying to spend time with her, even then. The poor woman had been through enough and the men in this town could't seem to leave her alone.

"Shelby." Rebecca huffed interrupting his thoughts. "I could tell you lots of things about him."

"Please don't." Norman said. He wanted to forget about Zac Shelby and Sheriff Romero. Pretend they didn't exist.

"Well, Alex and Shelby didn't introduce themselves to your mom because they wanted to be nice, Norman." Rebecca said instead. It was like she could read his mind. "Men like that always want something. Heard a single woman had moved into town and just had to investigate. That's what they do. Alex slept with a lot of women around here you know. Then there's Shelby and those girls in his basement."

She was starting a lecture again and Norman didn't want to hear it. Rebecca was nice to him most of the time. She was even a good friend to him. Better to him than Emma was at times because when he was low, she said that was okay. But Rebecca had a temper. A fire that engulfed her. An anger she couldn't seem to let go of. A bitterness towards everyone around her and only Norman was immune because he hadn't personally wronged her. Yet he wasn't spared her wrath at times like these.

Norman went down into the basement when he sensed she was starting to go into a full wave and anger. Rebecca hated the basement and it was the one place in the whole house she would never go. Mainly because Norman kept his animals down there.

A local man, a hunter, named Chick Hogan who claimed he knew his mother and Dylan, had paid for a few nights at the motel with a beautiful well killed owl. He'd heard Norman was an accomplished taxidermist and had a supplied Will Decody with animals for years. He even said he could sell the animals once they were done.

Norman had agreed. Chick promised to bring him very nice birds. Norman only wanted birds because only birds looked better stuffed. The majesty of flight was easy to recreate in dead things. Chick's owl would be ready in a few weeks and he hoped to make a tidy little sum of money from it. Rebecca had encouraged him to start a savings account. To keep the money from the motel and the money from his taxidermy separate.

"Just claim it on your tax return." she had said. "That's how they got Capone."

Norman had agreed. Hadn't argued at all. Rebecca was a smart lady with money. It had been her idea to advertise in the paper and at the gas station a mile down the road. They'd gotten far more business this way.

He went to his work bench and drug out the box he'd found in the attic. It had his name on it in his mother's handwriting. Inside were all the framed pictures of his parents. Their wedding day, pictures of them as a young family. His mother still so beautiful even though she looked scared and worried all the time.

Norman was't sure why he kept these pictures from Rebecca. Why he didn't show her. They never really talked about his mother much. They talked about their own future and their plans together. How careful they had to be. The outside world was their enemy and no one understood them.

Norman knew that much was true. As much as he loved his mother, he knew she didn't understand him. Rebecca, with her anger and darkness, at least spoke his language. She understood there was nothing wrong with being a little strange, so long as other, more judgmental people didn't know. She assured him they were only safe here, in this house, with each other. He knew it was true and he could feel himself relax.

He no longer had to wonder why he was different or what was wrong with him. It hardly mattered now. He was safe, he was protected here. This was his world. It was an isolated, lonely world, but one he could manage.