"Thank you."
Brandy knew the kids but
she didn't know them in person. Hailey Marie had told her horrible things about them. "So, where's your brother, Corey?"
"He went out unexpectedly with dad and some other guy," said John as he ate a spoonful of his chocolate mousse. "By the way, don't think that time regressed my dad to his childhood when you see him because he's identical to my dad."
The kids laughed, "And Jennifer is identical to my mom," said Simone. "That's why Mom named her Jennifer."
Jennifer looked up at them and smiled.
"Well," said Brandy, smiling, "if Jennifer is identical to your mother, then your mother was extremely beautiful; one of the most beautiful women in the world."
Shedding tears, Jennifer said, "Thank you!" and Simone leaned to the side and gave her a big hug.
Brandy got distracted when Hailey Marie arrived, and that's why she didn't take the phone call that came in when she received her sister at the Spears home.
Therefore, the phone rang again. "May I go to a solitary room to take this call?" said Brandy as she took her phone in her hand.
"Sure," said Jennifer, "you can go take it in the back rooms."
Rather than having someone take her to the back rooms that weren't there when her mother and her sisters left the house, Brandy explored the house for nearly a half an hour until she found the back area, opened the sliding door walked out of the house, closed the sliding door, and went to one of the back rooms that was an office. Meanwhile, Mr.
Riley continued to wait patiently on the line. Brandy didn't care how many minutes had been wasted because she had 1,500 minutes to use and it was the first time that she'd ever wasted her minutes like this. "Dad," she said as she closed the office door, "I expected you to hang up and call me back, but you've just shown me how patient you can be!" she said smiling.
"I've been patient all of my life," replied Nick, "and I hope that you've inherited that quality from me." "I clearly haven't," said Brandy. "I lost my virginity days after meeting Noah Spears; I lost it to him."
"You say it as if you regret it. There's nothing wrong with that, honey," he said, smiling. "On the contrary, compared to other young girls that I know, you've waited a long time."
"Don't get me wrong, Dad, it's not having sex that I regret, it's having sex with a man that I can't have. You see the reason why I waited so long is because I was waiting for the man that I would've been with for the rest of my life. I know that it sounds ridiculous, but I wanted my first man to be my last man also."
"That's what every conservative woman wants, for her first to be the last, but unfortunately, in this world that we live in, where sex reigns, even if things work out the way that the woman wants and the woman gets to marry her first man, the danger of infidelity is always surrounding her and the next thing that she knows, her first was not her last. Just because you married your first man, that doesn't mean that he's going to be the last."
"Yeah," said Brandy, "you're right."
"Besides," said Nick, "how can you be so conservative and old fashioned with a mother like Hailey? I'm not saying it to open your wounds, but now that we're talking about the way that we feel about sex, I have to say it, Brandy, your mother is so liberal that she cheated on her three husbands. She's cheating on her actual husband; it's just that he hasn't found out yet, but when he does, oh, my, I don't want to be there."
Brandy sighed and said, "I don't either. You're not opening my wounds, Nicholas. You'd only do that if you reminded me of her constant physical and verbal abuse, but her promiscuous and nasty sex life doesn't affect me in any way. I could care less. I didn't want the saying, 'Like mother, like daughter', to apply to us. I'm old fashioned, down to earth and conservative because I wanted to be different from my mother. I wanted to prove to everyone in town that just because I'm her daughter, it doesn't mean that I have to be the same."
"Children choose to follow or not to follow the example of their parents, and you girls knew that following Hailey's example was wrong and luckily, you chose not to do it, making me proud.
Anyway, I called to ask you if you want to have dinner with me this afternoon."
Smiling, Brandy asked, "Dinner? That is so sweet!" Corey was standing in the corner right by the sliding door, with the sliding door slightly opened, listening to the entire conversation and finding out just how different Hailey's daughters were from her. That's why, even when he's just found out about the truth, it didn't bother him at all. As a matter of fact, he knew that he and Noah could use the girls to destroy her, and the girls were so hurt that their biggest joy would be to tear their mother to pieces. "Where do you want to go for dinner?"
"I say we go to "Natalia's", your favorite restaurant."
Smiling, Brandy said, "I'd like that. Hey, may I invite Noah?"
"Sure," said Nick and opened up a smile all of a sudden, "I want to meet the man that drove you crazy enough to take what you'd been withholding for so long."
Smiling, Brandy replied, "Well, you're going to meet him and you're going to like him. The fact that he took my virginity, it doesn't mean that he's a pig, and when you start talking to him, you'll know why I'm telling you this."
"Ok," said Nick, "I'll see you tonight, sweetheart. Just tell me where to pick you up and I'll pick you up at six," and hung up.
Brandy ended the call, walked to the door, opened it, walked out of the office, walked up the steps as Corey ran back to the dining room and sat down once again, and opened the sliding door and walked back to the dining room that she was sitting in for the next half an hour. She couldn't believe how gigantic this mansion had gotten all of a sudden. The sat down and started talking to the kids as if she had never talked to her father about her mother. "So," she said to the four of them, "Do you miss your mother?"
"Yes," said Corey, "but Jennifer misses her the most. They were so close. We were closer to Dad, and Simone, well, she didn't really have a relationship with any of them, she was just three and a half when Mom died, so she just went with the flow, you know?"
"Jennifer," said Brandy, "does it hurt you for us to talk about you and your mother?"
"No," said Jennifer, "actually, I enjoy it. It only hurts me when people talk nonsense about my mother."
"Who has talked nonsense about your mother?"
"My former neighbors, they've talked horrible things about my mother, taking advantage of her death and how she couldn't defend herself."
The more that Simone spoke, the more that she awakened Brandy's curiosity about Jennifer. "What kinds of things would your former neighbors say about Jennifer?"
Noah walked to the dining room and said, "All kinds of things," he said and sat beside Simone. "They said that she was a liar and a whore."
Horrified, and with a face of disgust, Brandy said, "A whore? Why would they call her a whore?"
"Did they ever see your mom cheating on your dad?" said Hailey Marie.
"No," said Corey, "they said that she was a whore because they found out that she was my dad's first woman, and when you're the first, people assume that you've done the same thing to countless people. They think that you're a whore and they try to punish you for it, especially if you're a woman."
"Well, I disagree," said Hailey Marie. "When men take women's virginity, they get glorified for it, but when a woman takes a man's virginity, she's judged as a whore."
"I think that feminist women are judging us as whores when we do those things because they feel hurt and they want to throw it right back at us."
"They can't," said Hailey Marie. "No matter how hard they try, they can't do that, and they'll never be able to, trust me. When it comes to men and women's sexuality, as long as Christians are around, feminist women will never be able to turn the tables on men. I'm not feminist."
"Good," said Corey, and everybody laughed. "May Brandy and I be excused?"
"Sure," said Noah.
Corey took Brandy's hand and took her to the stairs. As they walked up the steps, they remained silent until they got to a place where no one could hear them. A few minutes later, they arrived at Corey's room. Still holding her hand, Corey opened the door, and they walked in together. They closed the door behind them.
Brandy sat on his bed. "Ok, Corey," she said, smiling, "what do you want to talk about, feminist women?"
Corey just laughed. He avoided sitting beside her to give her the wrong idea. "Uh, no," he said, "I want to talk about you and Dad. I listened to the whole conversation between you and your dad, I'm sorry."
"Oh," said Brandy, surprised, and scratched her head, wondering how he could've done that. She heard that he was out with Noah and when they sat at the dining room table minutes before, she thought that they had just arrived at the house, "that's ok."
"I want to talk about you and Dad."
"Yes, I know."
"I want you to know that he and Nicole are getting married, soon, and I don't want my dad to break your heart."
"He won't," assured Brandy, "no man can break my heart now. I know better. I'm not that innocent."
"I hope so," said Corey as he walked closer to her, "because I'd hate to see," he caressed her face, "such a beautiful and sweet woman get hurt."
These words moved Brandy deeply. Shedding tears, she said, "Thank you, Corey."
"Let's get out," he said, went to the door and opened it. "I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about us and put you in jail."
"Yes," said Brandy, and got up, "I'm going to dance my way out of here."
Smiling, Corey said, as they walked out of the room, "You're romantic. I like romantic people."
"Hmm," said Brandy in an effort to throw it back at him, and that he would understand, "I wonder why."
Just when they were about to go back down the stairs, they bumped into Simone and Jessica. "Hi, guys," said Simone. "Hi," said Corey.
"Do you want to go play a video game?"
"Sure," said Brandy, smiling, and they all went back down the stairs. John was waiting for them down there.
"So, Corey and Brandy," he said, "when are the two of you getting married?" smiling evilly.
They just blushed and smiled. "I'm only seven," said Corey as he went down the last steps, "and by the time that it's time for me to get married, Brandy will have had kids," as the gang walked to the game room together, "and they will be my age or even older."
Brandy thought, I wouldn't be so sure about that. In order for that to happen, I have to find the one man that will help me get over your father.
As Corey played, he thought about Brandy being the heroine of the game, and that's why, despite being male, he chose a woman to play with. His eyes were focused on the woman as she did what he told her to do with the controller. Sadly, despite how hard he tried, he seemed not to be able to get past the gate that symbolized the completion of this level. The woman defeated the big monster, but he wasn't doing what he was supposed to do to get her to score for killing him. "What's going on?" he said.
"Keep playing, Corey," said Simone, "You're doing very well."
"No, I'm not," he said as he moved the buttons and joystick of the controller, "I'm defeating the monster, but I'm not getting any points."
Brandy became worried about his reaction to the game. She knew people like Noah and Corey was literally a younger version of him. She commented, "Probably you have to kill him a certain way, Corey."
"That's what I can't figure out," said Corey, "the way to kill him that will earn me points. I have never played a game in which," the monster kicked the girl and he made her punch him, "you have to defeat your enemy a certain way to score."
"T" games are more complicated," said Simone. "I don't think that you should play them.
Only a twenty-year-old can figure out the way to do this correctly."
"I am not a twenty-year- old," said Corey.
"I don't think that we have to be twenty-year-olds in order to play this," said John.
"I do," said Corey. "Games are rated for a reason," and looked at her. "They're like TV shows."
Meanwhile, Noah's phone rang in Scott's room. He was on the computer, looking up information about cerebral palsy to see in what other ways he could help his brother get even better. The computer speakers started making a strange noise. It was the cell phone, and not the home phone ringing.
He got up, stood away from the computer and said, "Hello."
"Hi, Noah," said Hailey. "How are you doing?"
"What do you want?" "I think that you know that very well. I want you."
"You can have any man in this world but me or my father."
"You're wrong."
"What are you going to do to get me?"
"Play a porn movie in your DVD player and you'll see."
"No, thank you. I'd rather make love to the worst lover in the world than making love to you," he said, hung up and dialed the number to call the mobile phone company.
The operator answered him almost immediately. "Hello, Mobile Phone Company."
"Yes," he said, "I'd like my mobile number changed and blocked from every directory and every search engine except for those of the police."
"Are you being harassed?" "Yes."
"Who is calling you?" "Mrs. Hailey Johnson is."
Hailey's number was blocked from Noah's incoming call record, but if he was this upset it was because she'd harassed him. "So, you want me to block all of the anonymous calls in your phone also," said the operator as she typed this information on his record.
"Yes," he said, smiling, "that would be nice."
"Ok," said the operator. "Your mobile number will be changed in twenty minutes. I advise that you turn off your phone until then. The anonymous caller blocking service will be activated within twenty-four hours."
"Thank you," said Noah, hung up and pressed the button tightly to turn off the phone. When it beeped, he let go.
Chapter 29
Brandy and the kids kept on playing the game. Since Corey hadn't played this game before, he was losing, and although he knew that it was a game, he still got frustrated because people said that kids that didn't know how to play video games had poor math skills. Corey always had been very good in math and science, just like Noah, but because of this game, he felt that he would have difficulty in the sixth grade---that's right, the sixth grade. Corey was so intelligent that all of his life he had to skip grades, and he was always taking advanced level classes. He was a genius, just like his father. Still, he felt that his intelligence was somehow fading away. Other kids were jealous of his extraordinary talent in everything that he did, and they wanted to see his head where they saw his feet.
"I can't play this anymore," he said, deeply saddened, and put the controller down and got up. "It's too difficult."
"Corey," said John, deeply disappointed, "it's just a game."
"I know," said Corey, "but this inability to play the game is starting to reflect my math skills, and how I might be losing them."
"Take it easily with Corey, guys," said Brandy. "He always takes things from the scientific point of view. Corey, it seems to me that you've never played this before and that's why you're having such a hard time."
"That's true, but I don't think that's the reason why I can't play it because I've played and mastered other games at the very first try."
Jennifer got up, held her brother and said, "Corey, this is a really difficult game. I am great at playing video games, and I'm having a hard time, too."
"Yes, Corey," said Simone. "This game is not rated 'M', but it's not rated 'E', either. The ratings don't mean that because of the content, they mean it because of how advanced the mind is and the ability of someone to play it depending on his or her age. This game is not for children, it's for twenty-year-olds. That's why Brandy can play it and we can't."
Brandy blushed, feeling badly, but then she smiled and said, "What do you think if we find a game that's rated, 'E'."
"That's a great idea because my dear brother is about to break down and cry because he can't play the game," said Jennifer, caressing Corey's head.
"Well now, we don't want him to cry, do we?" said Brandy and went deeper into the lower compartment of the gigantic entertainment center to find a game that was rated 'E'. She found a game that a popular video game character starred in. "We're lucky that Noah likes," and showed the game to the kids, holding it in her hand, "his games. Do you think that you can play this, Corey?"
"Yes," he said and kindly and delicately took it from her, "I certainly can. I like this cartoon's games, too," and got on his knees and put the game in.
"Boy," said Brandy, "you and your father have way too much in common and that gives me the creeps."
"I feel the same," said Jennifer. "Sometimes I'm afraid of Dad, despite how sweet he is to us."
The game was booting. "Cool!" said Simone as the logo came on.
Meanwhile, Hailey Marie and Noah were talking in his bedroom. They had a conversation pending, but that was days before he and Brandy got a little too close to one another, and now, Hailey Marie had a lot more to say to him. She spoke her mind minutes in between each thought, hoping not to hurt his feelings. "I know what you and my sister did."
"Hailey, I..." he said, but she didn't let him finish.
"I also know that she seduced you. I mean, she didn't start the situation, but knowing that you were drunk the first of three times that you did it, she didn't stop."
"No," he said, "it wasn't that she didn't stop, she couldn't stop."
"How do you know it when someone can't and when he or she won't do something?"
"I was going to study to become a psychologist and an entrepreneur at the same time, remember? I know and understand human behavior."
"Do you understand your own behavior?" said Hailey, smiling, sitting on his bed.
"To be honest," he said, "no, sometimes I don't, but I think that as long as I understand everybody else's behavior, I'm fine; because it's the people that I'm approaching that have to understand my behavior, not me."
"I disagree," said Hailey Marie. "It's perfectly comprehensible and logical to understand our behavior," and got up and started walking around the room, "even though you don't understand your own behavior." She started turning the carousel of his CD tower to explore his music. "However, I think that understanding your own behavior might help you, Noah. I mean what if you lose your mind because you were never able to understand your own behavior?"
He got up, walked up to her, behind her and said, "I might go crazy. I've seen people that are as intelligent as people say that I am, that have lost their minds, so that's always a possibility.
However, I don't think about it. I always live the moment."
She turned around, looked him deeply in the eyes, leaned on to the little table that the CD tower was on, and said, "Sometimes, when people live the moment, they get stuck in the moment, so it's not mentally healthy for you to do that, either, dear stepbrother."
He scratched his head and said, "You know what? You're right."
"No matter how much you don't want to, you always have to live one day after the other and think about tomorrow. It's not safe to hang on to the past, either because being stuck to the past is a lot worse than getting stuck in the present time. I strongly advise you to undergo a thorough psychological and psychiatric evaluation before you tie the not with Nicole Perry."
"We're not even engaged yet," he replied, "but you're right. I hate saying that to someone else," he said and looked the other way.
Hailey Marie laughed hysterically and said, "That's what I've always loved about you. Do you know that? I love how humble you are and how proud you sometimes are."
"I change from time to time. Sometimes I'm so humble that I make other people stand high above me, and sometimes I'm so egotistical that no one can stand me."
"Those changes in behavior and in the way that you are," said Hailey Marie, "that doesn't mean that you're showing people something that you're not, you know, being a hypocrite. That means that your mind is already starting to fall apart, slowly getting torn apart."
He showed a face of utter horror, looked her in the eyes and asked, "Oh, my God, are you serious?"
She showed a sad face of preoccupation, caressed his face and said, "Yes. Usually, when the mind of an extraordinarily intelligent person goes bad, the person doesn't know it because by the time that it happens, the person's already in a loony bin." She started crying, "and I don't want you to end up in a loony bin."
"I'm not going to," said Noah. "You know what? The day's still young. It's only one o'clock.
You and I are going to go see a psychiatrist. I want you to accompany me." They went to the door, and Noah opened it, and they walked out. "Let's go." Hailey Marie closed the door behind her.
As they walked down the stairs together, Noah yelled, "Kids, we're going somewhere. We'll be right back."
Corey and Simone turned around and looked at him gasping. "Where are you going, Dad?" said Simone.
Before going out the main living room, Noah said, "Somewhere, sweetheart. I can't tell you this just yet. I'm going to when I get back."
Jessica, Brandy, Corey, John, Jennifer and Simone looked at each other, astounded. "Why won't he tell us where he and your sister are going?" said Jessica.
Shaking her head, but deeply worried about her sister, Brandy answered, "I have no idea."
In less than five minutes, Noah and Hailey Marie were already gone. It was funny for Mario to see them going out together. In the corner of his dirty mind, he wondered if there was an adulterous relationship between the two of them, but contrary to Brandy, Hailey Marie saw Noah as her stepbrother and nothing more, even if she wasn't happily married. Astounded at Noah for not waiting for him, Everett took his car and sped out of the mansion and sped away as he took the road, going after him. Knowing the danger that he was in, he wouldn't let him go out alone, not even for five minutes, and it wasn't known how long this psychiatric evaluation would take. He didn't have the slightest idea as to where he and his stepsister were going, and every minute that Noah spend without him by his side, he was giving in to death, and Everett literally saw death following Noah, right in between their two cars. He imagined Noah dying in a million different ways; in a car collision that one of Hailey's accomplices would've caused all of a sudden when he saw him on the road, shot in the head as he drove, being killed in the hands of crazy robbers, and he even imagined someone throwing a starving alligator in his car, and he imagined the alligator eating him and Hailey Marie alive.
Noah suddenly saw Everett through his mirror. "Oh, my God, I left Everett behind! He's following me! How was it possible for me to be in such a hurry to forget about him?" and hit his head with his fist.
Surprised, Hailey Marie asked, "Who is Everett?"
"He's my bodyguard."
Hailey was horrified when she thought that Noah was so afraid of her mother that he'd hired a bodyguard to protect him, and that bodyguard wouldn't leave him alone, even for an instant. "Is that how afraid you are of my mother, Noah?" she said to him.
Everett honked the horn desperately, trying to get Noah to become annoyed and pull over. He didn't know if Noah had seen him or not. All that he wanted now was his attention. "I wouldn't be afraid of your mother if I got her alone and she tried to kill me, but I am afraid of her accomplices."
"I understand. I'd feel the same way if I was you," said Hailey Marie. "I never fear my enemy, I fear his or her gorillas. Noah, I think that your bodyguard is trying to get you to pull over."
"You're right, he is trying to get me to pull over," and took his car to the sidewalk. "I'm thinking about your mother as if I was in love with her."
Laughing crazily, Hailey said, "What do you mean?"
"I mean that it seems that I'm in love with her because I can't get her off my mind," he explained, "not because I am literally in love with her, but because of the million things that she could do to me and my family."
They were pulled over.
Everett pulled over behind him and got out of the car in a matter of minutes, stretching out his hands to his sides like asking what was going on as he walked to the driver seat. Noah put the window down and told him, before he could yell at him, "I'm sorry that I forgot about you."
Everett laughed like crazy and said, "Noah, we just went out together. How could you forget about me?"
"He says that he can't get my mother off his mind," said Hailey Marie.
"Oh, my God, don't tell me that you've fallen in love with your very worst enemy!" yelled Everett at the top of his lungs.
"Do you see what I'm telling you?" he said to Hailey Marie. "No, I'm not in love with her, and I wouldn't be in love with her even if I died and reincarnated, or even if I were born again. I can't stop thinking about the things that she could do to us."
"Well," replied Everett, smiling evilly, "she won't do anything to, he said and pointed at him, "you if you don't leave me behind ever again. I'm going to call my wife to have the insurance company pick up my car and take it home because at the end of the day, you're taking me home."
"When is the end of the
day?"