Chapter 10
Dorian:
"Haaaaappy biiiiiirthday to you," A group of waitstaffers sing as they bring out a chocolate cheesecake for David, whose birthday is today.
Risa and I join in and David smiles and blows out his birthday candles.
It's been two weeks since my run-in with Tina and I have made sure to have any more calls from Tina blocked, which was a bit of a feat on my office landline, but with the help of my staff, including one electronic expert lady, we installed a device that can screen off unwanted messages before it lands in my inbox.
After I returned home from Greenbelt, I had given Risa and David huge hugs, thankful for them, then we'd spent a relaxing evening playing pinochle.
I have had a few nightmares these past few weeks that left me shaking, but none too bad. Only once did David wake up and he held me until my shivers faded...I told him I'd be all right.
Now, Risa, David and I are at a Greek restaurant near Dupont Circle on Friday evening.
"Hard to believe I'm in my early fifties now," David tells us as we eat our dessert. Me either.
After we eat, we walk to Dupont Circle and walk around a bit. Even at ten at night, the place is well-lit and bustling with activity.
David tells us that he's been selected for a television series role, one in a historical series set in medieval Scotland.
"David, that's wonderful!" I exclaim.
"That's great!" Risa adds. "Do you know what sort of character you're playing?"
"I'm playing a rather dour-faced, serious, but informative servant to an aristocrat." David pulls a dour face, standing stiff and straight, but we all wind up laughing, so his pose is short-lived.
"I wonder what secrets your character will find out," Risa says.
"That is to be revealed on show in the Faulkner estate," David simulates a British accent.
I'm so happy for David that his career has taken off...I'm a bit sad, however to learn that he will be leaving for LA as early as next week and will probably be gone until April.
I give him a hug, wishing that LA and DC were not all the across a vast country.
•••••••••••••
The following week flies by too fast. I bring David to the airport that following Thursday evening.
Risa has said her goodbyes to him to night before as she is studying at the library for an upcoming exam, so it's just David and me.
"You going to be all right?" David's lightly touching my chin. I nod. "You seemed a bit shaken up after you met Tina back a few weeks ago...and the nightmare you had last week..."
"I'll be all right," I reassure him. "I don't want you going out there and worrying about me."
"I'll try not to..." David says. "I just hope no one from that old-money country club tries to look you up and starts currying favors from you."
"They won't...none of them have my cell number, address or my e-mail...I had my office phone block any unwanted calls."
"Good..."
We stand in each other's arms for a while until David has to go through security. I hold back tears as I watch him vanish through a clump of people.
My arms actually ache a bit as I walk back out of the airport. I decide to just take an uber home instead of having one of my regular drivers.
At home, I make myself a platter of pasta, lettuce, tomatoes and top it off with an Italian wine and take it upstairs to my bedroom where I have a quiet dinner, then read over papers and electronic senate files.
•••••••••••••
The following week, I wake up from another nightmare, a hideous one where I'm in my old bedroom in Llanview and a snake comes slithering under my door, despite it being closed.
The snake is very ugly with a bulging, yellow square head and cold pale blue eyes with slitted pupils.
To my horror, the head splits into several heads and all of them glare at me with cold, dead eyes, causing me to shrink back.
I try to slide out of my bed on the side, but rough, long arms seize me and I give a scared whimper when Viki's head is one of the heads.
Clint's head also zooms toward me, his pale blue eyes glittering with pure hatred and his hands, slimy and long, grab my throat and start choking me...I can't breathe.
I vaguely see the sign for Buchanan Enterprises looming in the background behind the Clint-Viki-snake creature.
I fearfully wonder why I am back at Buchanan Enterprises where Jared Banks, Natalie's then-husband murdered Nash Brennan, who had been Jessica's husband at the time.
I wake up with a short, high-pitched scream, shaking violently, my heart pounding rapidly and taking an enormous gulp of air, my throat free.
It takes me a moment to understand that I am safe in my DC bedroom, not Llanview and that I had returned the failing Buchanan Enterprises to the Buchanans.
"Gran...are you all right?" Risa knocks on my door.
I look up and am relieved not to see that hateful BE sign hanging over me and to not to have Clint's heavy, evil hands squeezing my windpipe. It's even a miracle to feel myself breathing freely.
Risa eases the door open and I wave her in. "It was just a bad dream, honey...I'm all right now," I reassure her.
My granddaughter comes over and gives me a hug. Slowly, my trembling stops as a few tears roll down my face.
"Bad, wasn't it?" Risa asks.
"Yes...but it's over now..." I try to reassure her, but she doesn't look convinced. "I'll be all right."
"Gran..." Risa hesitates a minute. "I hope you won't take this the wrong way...have you thought of seeking counseling in light of what you suffered back in Llanview? You went through some very traumatic experiences."
"Yes..." I say quietly. "Even back in Llanview, I was taking anti-anxiety medicine."
"Did they help?" Risa asks. "Did your anxiety improve?"
"Sort of," I say hastily, but then my hands start trembling again.
I have a sudden vision of Viki-as-Tommy lunging at me and I clutch my granddaughter's hand so suddenly that I think she's taken aback.
However she puts an arm around me and it calms me, lets me know that I am here safe in my bedroom and that it's only my granddaughter here, not Viki and not Viki-as-Tommy.
As the shaking in my hands slows, I feel my body relax and go limp.
"N-no, I take it back," I amend. "Those pills really didn't help too much...I still had a lot of nightmares and trouble staying asleep...I would often wake up and feel terror for no apparent reason...I thought that once I escaped Llanview, I would be free of the anxiety and nightmares...they improved once I moved here, but I don't know why they seem to be coming back now."
"Gran..." Risa asks. "I hope you're okay with me asking...you don't have to answer if you don't want to...but have you thought of seeking further counseling? I mean therapy talk sessions instead of just pills."
I shrug, then shake my head a bit. "I'm afraid of people thinking I'm an unstable mess."
"Here in DC, it's different," Risa tells me. "There isn't the small town gossip here and you'd have privacy here...please consider it, Gran...I want you to be free of these demons from the past and be happy..."
It is worth considering...I want to make sure I connect with a counselor who understands what it's like to survive death row, to come from the nightmarish childhood I had, to have been vilified and hated.
"I'll consider it if things get worse," I tell Risa. "I've felt stronger again since leaving Llanview, but yes, I will think about counseling..."
Risa hugs me again. "Gran, you are the strongest person I knew...you know, Mom always admired you."
"Thanks," I hug back. "You've been a great support."
The night is waning, the darkness fading into an early morning periwinkle blue, so I decide to get up early and get ready for work and Risa heads off to get ready for her first class of the day.
•••••••••••••
I don't have any more nightmares that week, but several more times, I wake up either in the middle of the night or early morning just before dawn with dreadful feelings of anxiety.
Flashbacks and visions of either Clint or Viki barging into my bedroom to either attack me or hurl accusations at me haunt me.
Several mornings, I erroneously think that I'm back in my bedroom at La Boulaie. I have to sit up and look around and once I had to get up and look out the window and see the city street to remind myself that I'm no longer in Llanview.
Usually, I don't track social media too closely, but I do catch glimpses from the Llanview facebook and twitter pages page that Viki, Natalie and several other high-society socialites are planning an event commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the current Llanview Town Square.
Viki brags once again that her great-great grandfather helped that town square...there's even a video of her talking to reporters.
I can't help but watch some of the video...and a chill runs down my back when I realize that it's not really her, but an alter I have never seen before.
She introduces herself as Viki, but her eyes give her away...a strange sort of glancing, then rolling her eyes away. Her body is loose, but not as loose as "Nikki Smith's" was.
None of the reporters appear to notice this...I wonder why.
Shivering, I close the video and lay back in my bed shivering slightly and wondering what name this new alter is using and what havoc she will wreak in Llanview.
Then I scroll down the written article and see that there's to be a ceremony that last Saturday in October, then a huge ball with everyone in Llanview invited.
I wonder if Tina and Jessica will be there. I notice that their names are omitted from the planning committee.
•••••••••••••
I am in the kitchen finishing a late breakfast and reading while Risa is sleeping the last Sunday in October when I get texts from Blair and Cassie late that morning...we text regularly, but these texts stand out in startling me.
Aunt Dorian! I know you don't check the Llanview society book much, but you've got to see this one...I think Viki cracked and splintered for good at last night's party, Blair texts. Starr was in Llanview two weekends ago and when she came back, she told Hope and me that Viki seemed to be under at least three NEW personalities, one named Peggy Buchanan.
Mom, did you see the Llanview news page??? Cassie's text exclaims. Viki, Tina, Natalie, Jessica and a bunch of others had a huge fight and Viki went crazy and was arrested!
So, out of curiosity and slight worry, after eating, I open a news page. There on the Llanview local news, my body freezes as I read the news that Viki, Tina, Cord, John, Ford, Natalie and Roxy disrupted the ball with an enormous loud argument and that Viki is in police custody after resisting arrest and after assaulting two security guards.
Even to make this news more frightening, some of Viki's noisy very public blaming includes accusing Tina, Jessica, Ford and Lindsay of being secretly in cahoots with me and of Tina and me "secretly plotting" to "destroy" her.
I have to swallow in fear as I close the news page, my hands shaking.