34.
Norma gazed fondly at the smiling faces of her three sons. Here was the only time they could all be together. In nice, nostalgic photographs she'd had professionally cut and placed in an antique locket Alex had given her just after Julian was born. On the left was Dylan and Norman back at the old house in Oregon. The two brothers smiling up at the camera just before she snapped the picture. Dylan in his motorcycle jacket and holding his bike helmet. His windswept blond hair and naturally handsome features made him look easy going and always friendly. Norman was in a brown sweater and smiling, but looking uncomfortable. Like he was hiding something and didn't know how to act.
Julian was placed cleanly and independently on the right side of her locket. As far as anyone knew he was her only son. Her only child. She and Dylan agreeing it was probably better this way. Easier for people to accept.
Julian looked adorable in his little school blazer for his first day of kindergarten and Alex and Norma had dropped him off together that morning. He looked so grown up, almost like she could glimpse the man he would become and it had made her cry to leave him at school.
But she couldn't deny the fact he looked handsome in his school uniform. She'd always been in love with his first school picture for some reason. His smile was mischievous and reminded her of Alex. Julian had been an easy baby and an easy child for the most part. Very few hiccups that gave her concern.
She quickly snapped her locket shut when Alex came into the room. She didn't want him to see her looking at the pictures inside. He probably knew about them, what didn't he know, he was a former cop. But they never talked about Norman or the fact Dylan was her son. They never talked about their lives in White Pine Bay that much and Norman was apart of that life.
They had no pictures of her lost son on the wall or in frames. He was hidden away in a locked cabinet and Norma felt like a terrible mother for having a 'lost son' at all. For having such a thing as a 'real family' and that she'd given up on Norman. Only terrible mothers give up on their children. Only bad mothers write them out of their lives entirely.
"How were the exterminators?" she asked clearing her throat.
"Same as always." Alex grumbled. "Trying to give me the run around about when they'll show up. I may have to sic you on them. They won't like that."
"Warren want's that unit ready as soon as possible." Norma reminded him and tried to rearrange her locket so it was more hidden in her blouse.
"Julian is doing that thing again." she said casually.
"What thing?" Alex asked sitting down at the kitchen table and looking over previous work orders from the same company they'd used. This was apart of their job. Haggling for the best price and not allowing companies to take advantage of Mr. Warren. Norma was much better at it than he was. She was the one who'd kept a box full of receipts from every company they'd hired to do any job for the past ten years.
"Look at that." Alex nodded. "They charged us $200 less last year, and the bats still came back."
"Alex." Norma said.
"What?"
"Julian's still taking things from around the house and putting them in his room." she told him.
Alex looked up and stared at her curiously as though she were speaking another language.
"I thought he stopped." he said.
"This is different. It's not kitchen utensils or random things." she told him.
He looked at her. Waiting for her to go on.
"He took my necklace. The one you gave me for our first Christmas together." Norma told him. "I found it in his little trinket box on his dresser."
Alex looked annoyed.
"Now, it's not stealing because he didn't hide it and he didn't lie about taking it." Norma told him quickly.
"He's stealing, Norma." Alex said darkly.
"He's not taking money."
"He's taking jewelry. Valuables." he said. "This isn't snatching my tape measure because he wants it, or some family pictures from the album."
"Alex, he's not taking these things to sell or anything like that." Norma told him. "He didn't try to even hide the fact he took it."
"What did he say when you asked him bout it?" Alex asked shutting the shoebox full of wrinkled papers.
Norma said nothing.
"I'll talk to him." he said.
"Well…"
"What?"
"I was thinking we could take him to see Dr. Brown." Norma said carefully. Her tone almost shy. She knew how Alex felt about therapists.
She'd been seeing Dr. Brown, a very pleasant hippie phycologist for about two years now. It had been hard for Norma to raise another son with one son across the country and another who wouldn't speak to her. She still didn't have the courage to tell Dr. Brown about Norman. Everything about Norman and what he'd done.
Mostly they talked about how she felt she'd failed as a mother.
"I don't think it's time to call in the shrink just yet, Norma." Alex balked.
"Julian is a sensitive boy, Alex. Norman was just like him. You know maybe if I'd gotten help for him sooner-"
"Norman is the way he is because of Sam." Alex said harshly. He hardly ever spoke her son's name and even now his face went hard.
"Alright? Sam abused him and you until Norman didn't know how express emotion or handle things. What's happened to Norman isn't genetic, Norma and even if it is, Julian is MY son and he's going to be fine. Dylan is perfectly fine. If it's genetic, it's all Sam Bates' fault." Alex snapped.
Norma looked away from her husband and twisted her wedding ring on her finger. She knew better than to bring up Norman. It was always a sore subject. It would always make him angry.
Her husband took a deep breath and stood up.
"I'll go and talk to him. Ask what's happening." he said.
~ It was raining when Madeline showed up at the motel. She'd blown in like the wind. Her blond hair plastered to her face and her clothing dripping wet.
She'd been crying, carrying a suitcase and driving her old pick up that had belong to her grandfather. An archaic piece of machinery that she refused to part with for sentimental reasons.
"Norman!" she cried fitfully when he appeared at the office door and guided her inside.
"What happened?" he asked. "What are you doing here? You know better than to come here."
They had talked about this. Talked about never coming to the motel. Especially in the night where someone might drive by and see.
"I left him." she blubbered in near hysterics. Her face ugly from her sobbing.
Norman took a deep breath. He hadn't been feeling well all day and he wasn't sure this was really happening or not. He wasn't sure what to do. He wished Rebecca was here. She would know what to do. Rebecca would probably slap Madeline's face. The same as she'd slapped Norman once when he'd had an episode and wouldn't come out of it.
"Norman!" Madeline screamed in helpless furry when he didn't answer her.
"Go sit in the office." he said. "I'm going to park your truck in the back. I don't want Sam to come looking for you and start any trouble."
"He won't come!" Madeline sobbed angrily. "His little girlfriend showed up at our house tonight and they had a fight."
Norman could picture it. The woman in the gray suit with the nice body. Not that he said any of this to Madeline.
"Go sit down. Put the kettle on. Have some tea ready for me." he instructed.
He pushed her gently into his office and shut the door. A part of him upset that she was dripping rain water onto the rug that was taken from Mother's dining room.
He quickly rushed out into the storm and started up her truck. The big engine roaring to life like some kind of beast. He carefully parked it behind the motel where it couldn't be seen and threw a tarp over it. If he was going to hide Madeline, it was best to do the thing properly.
Norman glanced up at the house and saw Mother's light was on in her bedroom. Her figure skulking back and forth. She'd been on the warpath a lot lately. She'd been suspecting that he'd been out with a woman and wouldn't approve of Madeline here.
He rushed back into the office to see Madeline had dutifully done as he instructed and put the electric kettle on to boil and had even dried her hair off with a towel from the linen closet. She already looked better.
That was one of the things he liked best about Madeline. She didn't argue with him. She looked to him to guide her and tell her what to do. She wasn't at all like Mother or Rebecca in this way.
"I'm sorry." she sighed when he joined her and opened a box of tea bags. "To surprise you like this. I know it's not what we agreed on. But I can't pretend anymore. I can't. I won't waste my life with him anymore, Norman."
She looked around his little office. His sanctuary from Mother and the rest of the world.
"It's a hobby of mine." he told her to her unasked question when her eyes fell on his impressive collection of owls and crows.
"Oh." she mewed.
"I don't kill them." he assured her. "I could never kill anything. A local hunter supplies them to me and I stuff them. I sell them back to him and he resales them. It helps to make ends met."
Madeline nodded but looked uneasy about his hobby. After ten years of friendship and sleeping together, she'd never known this about him.
"One of the reasons I kept you away from the house." he admitted shyly. "A lot of people don't like it. You're not the first."
"No, it's fine." she said and picked up the electric kettle when is started to boil. She dutifully poured them each a cup and added sugar.
"Let's not talk about Sam anymore." Norman said after several moments of silence.
"I wont go back." she said stubbornly. "All the neighbors saw. They saw us fighting. Saw him grab my arm and yell at me. I'm staying with you. I don't care who finds out. We've been discreet and he hasn't. You should have seen this woman, Norman. She had no idea he was married. He must have told her they were going to live happily ever after and that he was going to marry her and that he mad money. God knows what else."
She looked angry.
"I'm calling my lawyer in the morning. I can protect my assets. I've got proof of infidelity… I…" she looked ready to start crying again.
"I'll put you in one of the cabins." Norman whispered.
Madeline looked up at him in surprise.
"Why can't I stay with you?" she asked.
She nodded up at the house and Norman was equally shocked she'd even ask that. She knew better. No one ever went into the house. No one.
Mother wouldn't allow it.
"Are you embarrassed?" she asked. "Is it like a hoarders situation?" she asked sympathetically.
"No." Norman laughed although that would be understood. He had to be honest. He loved Madeline. He loved her and wanted to rescue her from Sam Loomis. He wanted to marry her and have her live in the house with him. How he would make it work with Mother and Rebecca, he had no idea.
"I haven't been very honest with you." he said slowly. His eyes avoiding hers.
"What?" she asked.
"Remember when we first met, and I told you I was taking over the business here. That it was my mother's business and she'd run off with… this guy." he said bitterly.
"You told me she left him." Madeline nodded.
"For a long time I didn't know where she was. Then she came back one night." Norman said without explanation. As though magic had brought her back. "She came home and she needed me to take care of her. She's very sick now. A sick old woman up at that house who's not exactly right in the head."
Malden looked at him as he were making all this up.
"I didn't tell you before because she was afraid." Norman said quickly. "She didn't want anyone to know she'd come back. She was worried about that man coming back. He must have been so cruel to her."
Norman shuttered at the thought of them together. What he must have made his once beautiful mother do and how he'd turned her into this twisted thing.
"You couldn't have told me?" Madeline asked looking hurt. "I thought we didn't have secrets."
"I can't have you come into the house. Not till I explain things to Mother." Norman said patiently. "You're still a married woman. She's old fashioned. She won't understand."
Madeline looked ready to cry again.
"I love you." Norman said sincerely. "We're going to be together. I just have to tell Mother is all. It's just for tonight. Just for tonight."
Norman could feel himself losing ground. He'd always been in control with Madeline and he liked it that way. But now, here in this world Mother controlled from her grand and fading castle, he was losing all power.
"Will you stay with me? Here at the motel?" Madeline asked. "I don't want to sleep alone."
Norman nodded. He didn't like the idea of being intimate with Madeline here in the motel. It would be cheap and grotesque. Not something nice girls did. He wanted Madeline to be a nice girl and he didn't like that she even asked him. But he felt a delightful sensation run through his belly at the idea of her legs spreading for him and her breast bouncing out of her bra. Of her eyes widening when he entered her.
"Of course." he breathed excitedly.
~ "No!" Mother snarled from her corner. She'd taken to hiding in her bedroom these days and her eyes glittered like bright jewels in the darkness. Her skin looked like it was made of clay and her once blond hair was dirty and clung to her scalp. She was indeed a feeble old woman who could die any day. Any moment. She was a far cry from the strong and healthy woman he'd always known his real mother to be.
His real mother was beautiful and vibrant. She was like sunlight. This creature was like something from the swamp. Something damp and putrid that stank with ugly foulness.
"No!" Mother snarled again. "You tell her to go away! Filthy whore."
"She's not a whore, Mother!" Norman shouted. He didn't want his sweet Madeline, so much like sunlight herself, to be called that word.
"She's not coming into my house! You hear me, boy?" Mother cackled wickedly.
"You can't tell me what to do, Mother!" Norman shouted.
Then the thing happened. The blackness seemed to reach out and attack him. It was like the floor of her bedroom turned to black tar and engulfed him and he couldn't breathe. He felt faint and he knew Mother was taking over.
~ Madeline was eager to see Norman again tonight. Their game would be usual. Although since it was so late they might do nothing at all except sleep. They'd never had sex away from her bedroom before in all the years they'd been together. They'd been so careful guarded with each other.
She'd unpacked her suitcase and pulled apart the blankets. She'd chosen cabin 1 because it was close to the office and Norman. He could lock up and join her. She locked her room door, but he was the owner of the motel. He had a key. She knew he would be joining her soon.
It had shocked her to learn his mother was living at the house with him and she wasn't sure if she believed it or not. Such a thing didn't go unnoticed in a community like this. Why hadn't he said something before?
Was he embarrassed by his mother? Was she a raving lunatic? Did she had dementia or something like that? Would she have to be put into a home? Norman wouldn't like it, but that might be the best option. They would have to put his mother in a home if they were going to start their life together as man and wife.
Madeline was undressing and paused when she head a noise from the office next door. Norman was cleaning up or fiddling with some paperwork in there and he'd come in soon.
She smiled to herself.
Norman Bates was safe and predictable. He was nice looking, well mannered and would take care of her. He wouldn't cheat on her like Sam had done. As soon as they pushed the old woman into a nursing home, everything would be fine.
Madeline stripped down naked and examined herself in the bathroom mirror. She'd have to force Norman to explore more with her sexually. Their game was fun and all but he was so repressed it was truly sad. Maybe if she came to bed naked every night after they were married. He couldn't turn her away forever.
She smiled at the idea and started her shower.
~ From the office, Norman watched his sweet Madeline parade herself naked like some kind of whore. Her body, supple and forbidden was there for him to see. She had nothing at all to cover herself, not even a robe. And she looked at herself in the mirror. Her hand even going to her tits and touching herself.
He felt his arousal prickle hot and furious at that. At the way her face pouted like a sultry sex icon instead of the sweet, innocent girl who he took to bed and didn't know any better from one week to the next.
'Whore!' he thought feeling sick. He could feel that blackness taking over. Feel Mother crawling over him. His skin tingling with want for Madeline but repulsion she would act like that.
He remembered nothing else. He knew it was Mother who went into Madeline's room and found her in the shower. Who surprised her there. Madeline smiling at him, only seeing Norman and not Mother.
Her breast covered in soap as if that would clean her, filthy whore.
When Norman found what Mother had done, it was too late. Madeline was dead. Her body was crumpled over the tub in an awkward and undignified position.
Norman could hardly stand to look at her. Could hardly muster the courage to clean up after such an unspeakable act of violence.
He wrapped Madeline in the clear plastic shower curtains that she pulled off the bathtub. These curtains were over ten years old and in need of replacing anyway. The rain was letting up, but it was well past midnight. No one would come. Not even Sam looking for his wife.
Norman was quick and efficient with his work. Hadn't he done this before? Hadn't he cleaned up mother's messes before?
He drove Madeline's truck out to the lake. The same dock Bradly Martian's car was dumped. Her car eventually turned up thirty miles down river a few years ago, but the girls' body had long been washed out of it and nothing on or about the car traced back to her.
Madeline would be different. The truck belonged to her. It was old and unique. She'd been stabbed and she'd be missed by the community.
She was like sunlight after all.
Still, she and Norman had always been discreet and all the neighbors had seen Sam and Madeline fighting. It wasn't unreasonable for the police to think he'd done this to her not Mother. No one would trace this crime to a helpless old woman living with her son. Would they? There was no record Madeline was even at the motel.
Norman put the truck into drive and it coasted lazily into the bay. The tide was high and soon engulfed the cab and sucked it under.
It was strange how he didn't feel remorse. How he didn't feel sadness over losing Madeline. She'd been his friend for so long; almost ten years now. He'd loved her very much. Yet, seeing her behave that way had soured that love. If she acted like that… maybe Mother was right to kill her.