31.
~ Norman didn't know what to do. All his life he'd had someone to help him. To guide him and give him direction. Now, he could feel just how oddly massive and terribly lonely this house was. How tall it's ceilings loomed up and how sound amplified. He found himself wandering around, room to room, as if looking for something. Something he'd lost and would never find.
He didn't know what had happened to Rebecca and the worst part of it was, he couldn't ask her. Couldn't go to her and talk to her and have her snap at him that he was acting silly and to stop worrying. She'd tell him worrying solved nothing and to go down to the motel in case they had guests or to call Madeline if he was lonely.
He texted Madeline and she'd texted back. He didn't tell her about Rebecca being in the freezer though. He couldn't do that. No one knew Rebecca was in his house at all. It hurt Norman to think of her there. She always hated the basement; and the cold. Now she was in the basement and in a cold, dark place.
~ Chick arrived, unannounced and with flare, later that week.
"Why so glum, chum?" he asked when he counted out three crisp one hundred dollar bills for Norman's owl.
Norman shook his head. He'd hoped for more money, but since it only took him two days to finish the owl and at not much cost to him, he'd made a decent profit.
"You look like you've been dumped. Your girl run out on you?" Chick asked.
"No." Norman said.
"Wanna go get some coffee? Hash it out?"
"No."
"You know, I knew your mother before she and the former Sheriff Romero left town." Chick said conversationally. "Your brother Dylan to."
Norman said nothing.
"She was a very fine lady. Very kind to me. I replaced that stained glass window after some jerk broke into the house and smashed it. She'd been heartbroken, but was happy to have it fixed." Chick went on.
The big man's words were soothing and it was nice to have another human being talk to him again. To remind Norman that he was real.
"She said no one ever made anything just for her before." Chick added.
Norman nodded.
"Who paid for the window?" he asked. He knew his mother didn't have much money. She never did. He loved his mother but she wasn't good with things like that.
"Sheriff Romero." Chick said. "Sent me a check."
Norman nodded. It figured.
"Old house like that." Chick nodded up the hill. "I'm sure there's lots of things you need to have done."
"Yeah." Norman said.
"I'll be bringing more animals." Chick said. "Sure you have space?"
"I have a chest freezer in the basement." Norman said.
"I might bring something bigger come deer season. I also have a client who wants… exotic animals. Strictly off the books. Endangered animals. Bears. Would you be… obliging, Norman?" Chick asked suggestively.
Norman looked at the big man.
"I don't have space for something that large." he said. He didn't care about bears or the legality of it. His thoughts turned to logistics. Birds were fine and manageable but a large animal would be far more difficult.
"I can build you a large freezer in the basement. A larger work area to." Chick said quickly. "Basement was meant to stay cool anyway so it won't be hard."
"How much will that cost?" Norman asked suspiciously.
Chick shrugged.
"I just need your word that you won't turn away any of the animals I bring you. I can't exactly take some of them to a licensed taxidermist." he said.
~ In a week, Norman had a freezer taking up almost half the basement. More than enough room to house anything he wanted. Chick had also but him a large work area with a drain board and built extra lighting. He'd even obtained a stainless steel gurney with wheels.
"It's the kind morticians use." the big man had said. "Got it at an estate sale. Lot of bodies were on this slab."
Norman nodded and told Chick he was excused.
He'd been making plans all week for his first project and he had to be careful.
Rebecca had been waiting patiently in the chest freezer and he'd allowed her to thaw a little to make her more pliable. He couldn't stand the thought of fingers snapping off if he was too rough with her.
Once she'd soften at a cooler temperature, the basement was always cold, he undressed her.
She was too skinny. He'd never noticed it before because she'd always wore baggy clothes. He wondered if she starved herself to be this way on purpose or if it was an after affect of living alone in the woods. She'd told him she'd never felt the same after the ordeal. That she'd never be the same person after it.
She'd never bothered with make up or dressing nice once she'd come to stay with him. She'd hardly left the house at all.
He'd fix all that. Make her beautiful.
He had to remove her organs first. Just like any other mammal, her organs were full of bacteria that would swell and bloat at room temperature. They would secrete gas and waste and ruin the effect he was trying to achieve.
Carefully, cutting at her abdomen, he removed everything. He left her insides hallow and slowly stuffed her with sawdust till she looked normal again. Her vital organs were wrapped in red plastic hazard bags and thrown away.
Her eyes were open and staring, but the brown they had been were lost forever. They'd become milky and glazed. Norman could do nothing about that. Nothing about her brain either. The ancient embalmers would take the brain out through the nose, but he didn't have that skill and he was afraid it would ruin her face. He couldn't replace her eyes with glass ones. The human body was far more complex than a simple bird.
Her body was becoming looser with the change in temperature, he had to act quickly and get her into the large freezer Chick had built for her.
Norman had found a wicker wheelchair in the attic that was perfect for Rebecca. He dressed her in the simple blue dress she was fond of wearing around the house, wrapped her in a cozy sweater for warmth and made sure to put her shoes on her before he wheeled her inside.
It was nice and cold here. She would be comfortable under the blue neon lights.
She glowed as Norman brushed out her hair and carefully put it in a bun. He arranged her hands to rest demurely in her lap. Rebecca looked peaceful now. Like she knew she was safe and happy here.
She would be safe and happy here. Norman would see to it. He'd make sure she had a nice home here.
Over the next few weeks, over the next few years, he added to her little room. He'd found her romance novels and other little feminine curios to put on the shelves for her amusement. Silver candelabras, and the ever revolving collection of stuffed birds he'd made. He added fresh flowers that froze forever in their beauty. He wrapped her in a beautiful red fox fur that matched her hair and made her look very grand. He'd even found her a magnificent tiara at an antique shop when he'd gone out for coffee with Madeline.
Now Rebecca looked like a beauty queen again. She looked very regal sitting there with her flowers, tiara, birds surrounding her and a fur collar to keep her warm. Norman was very content to think of her in her own room. She must be very happy at last locked away and hidden where no one would ever find her. She was safe and she had her books and flowers to look at. He would visit her often to tell her that business was steady and he had her to thank for it.
~ It was a comfort to have Rebecca down in her little room, but there was still the problem of Mother upstairs. Norman had become less than faithful when it came to his medication. The stress of looking after Rebecca and the motel had proved too much and he'd neglected taking them.
He reminded himself that Mother was just a sick old woman who couldn't leave her room, but in his heart of hearts, he knew that wasn't true. He knew Mother was stronger than he was. Knew she could leave her room and hurt people.
His worst fear was that she would hurt Rebecca. That she would go down into the basement and demolish the nice room Norman had created for his friend. However, Mother didn't like the basement and stayed away from it. She didn't like the things Norman did down there. Didn't even seem to know that Rebecca was there, and certainly didn't know how nicely Norman had provided for their guest.
Norman didn't mention Rebecca to Mother and it was as if she didn't exist to her anymore. Like his friend had left in the night.
Mother had become less and less the fearsome beauty Norman had always known, and more a dangerous menace that seemed to stalk him. Before, Norman was enchanted, even aroused and enraptured by this creature.
Now, he was always afraid of it.
Afraid when he was reading in the living room and could hear it march downstairs and growl at him.
"Norman?" Mother snarled. "Why aren't you down at the motel?"
"It's raining, Mother." Norman said meekly putting his book aside. Mother was clinging to the shadows like a spider. Her eyes glowing brightly as if ready for an attack.
"The sign isn't even on." she snapped bitterly. "We've probably lost business already."
Norman didn't want to go down to the motel in the rain. He wanted to stay in the house where it was warm and dry. He wanted to read his book, have some lunch, work on the exotic animal Chick had brought him last week and present it to Rebecca.
He enjoyed rearranging things in Rebecca's room. Especially her birds. He liked to make them look like they were flying around her. He'd made several white doves that, when posed correctly, looked marvelous. He wanted so badly to hear her talk to him. To hear her tell him what to do with the five thousand dollars Chick had given him for that bear he'd done. She'd know just what to do with it. Instead, he'd stuffed the cash in a jar in the big freezer next to her. She'd keep an eye on it for him. She was good with money.
"Norman!" Mother barked angrily. "Are you listening to me? Don't act like you can't hear me. I know you can hear me, boy."
That was another thing. Mother had taken to demeaning him. To calling him 'boy' now as if he were nothing at all. Mother had morphed into a heartless monster he'd lost all control of. A bully who harassed him out of his own home at ever chance.
Norman clutched his book to his chest and avoided looking at Mother.
Her looming form still hugging the shadows next to the piano. Her gray face staring at him and grinning.
He grabbed an umbrella and ran down to the motel.
~ The safety of his office sitting room was pleasant enough. Rebecca had teased him mercilessly calling it the 'old lady room' and they had always's laughed about it. Norman had insisted it was Sherlock Holmes' study, but Rebecca had called it the old lady room and the name had stuck.
Mother never came here. It was like the basement; the motel. She seemed powerless here; weaker. Here in his sitting room, Norman could be alone. He had his hot plate and an electric kettle for tea or coffee. He could make himself a sandwich and read all day in peace.
He was about to settle in when the glare of headlights flooded his sitting room and alerted him that someone was in the motel driveway.
Norman stood up and his blood ran cold.
He recognized that car.
He knew Sam Loomis but Sam Loomis didn't know him. Didn't know that the quaint little motel he took his secret mistress to, was owned by the man who was good friends with his wife.
Norman bent the rules for Sam Loomis. The rule about renting rooms by the hour.
Sam Loomis had been seeing several different women over the past few years now. Lately though, he was stuck on one girl. A very attractive young lady with a curvy body and nice looking face. She didn't dress as provocatively as the other women he brought to this motel. She dressed like a lady. A lady from the old movies Norman liked to watch. She looked very nice in gray, but Norman thought she would look better in red or a soft mauve.
She fucked better than most of the women Sam Loomis brought here. Norman knew this for a fact to. He knew this because of the peep hole he'd created in the wall connecting the two rooms. She fucked like a woman who got paid to do such a thing professionally.
Perhaps she was a high priced hooker, Norman thought. Maybe that's where all of Sam and Madeline's money had gone to. Madeline was always worried about money even though her husband had a good job and her business was doing well.
Maybe Sam Loomis was spending all their money on high priced hookers.
Norman felt no guilt on over charging Sam Loomis for a room. Or for watching him fuck his mistress. He knew he didn't do the same things with Madeline he did with her. Madeline was a lady and certainly didn't twist and bounce like that. Didn't put on such a show.
No, Madeline would be affectionate and make love slowly. She'd keep the light low and the covers over them. She'd smile and kiss and wouldn't act like an animal in heat.
Norman enjoyed watching them though. Enjoyed the spectacle.
Afterwards, after he watched them and enjoyed it, he cleaned the room and went to the house. He went to the basement and pulled on a good coat and visited Rebecca.
"Sam Loomis came by today." he said gleefully curled at her feet. She looked very content with her flowers and crown in her room. Her private sanctuary only he knew about.
"He brought that girl I like the best." Norman told her. "I don't know. Should I tell Madeline?"
He felt like he had a delightful secret. A wonderful secret that would bring Madeline to him.
"She'd be so upset." Norman reasoned. He looked up at Rebecca and could almost hear her telling him to mind his own business.
"You're right." he sighed. "But I'll keep taking Madeline out to dinner with the extra money Sam pays for the motel room."
'That's fine.' he could hear Rebecca say.
"But if Sam trips up and Madeline finds out I knew all this time…" Norman said. "She'll be so mad. She'll never want to be with me then."
'We both know Madeline can't come here. Can't be apart of this.' Rebecca told him. 'That thing upstairs won't allow it.'
"You mean Mother?" Norman asked.
'That thing is not your mother, Norman.' Rebecca said. 'Don't let Madeline in the house.'
"You're right." Norman sighed. "You're always right."
So I've made 'Mother' MUCH more like she was in the book. I wanted there to be a very real difference between Vera's Norma and the one Norman distorts in his mind. The 'Mother' we now see is much more like the 'Mother' in the book and movie. I also really like the idea that Norman feels like he's taking care of, protecting and providing for Rebecca. That being in this state is the last thing she would have wanted, but Norman feels he's doing a very kind and loving thing by her.