Beyond Revenge

Chapter 4

Chapter 4
  Catherine looked back at what had been her home for almost two years. She could almost taste the sourness of the life her and Jason had had there. She closed the trunk of her parents car and went back to the house to double check and ensure she had packed all the important stuff. Like documents. She came out and inhaled deeply, it almost felt like she was saluting her new life. Jason was and her parents were waiting in the vehicle. “ Mom! Hurry up…please. I’m dying in here. It’s so hot” Jason complained. “ Coming” she called back. The drive was gonna be at least four hours and the roads didn’t promise her tires a smooth ride. She got in the drivers side and started the engine. She waved good-bye to the neighbors that were watching them leave from their yard. How great it felt to look forward to something. After an hour driving everyone had stopped talking about the beach and the town they were leaving behind. She glanced in her rearview mirror and noticed her precious boy was sound asleep. As was her Dad. She only had her mom awake and if she didn’t start a conversation soon before her mom fall asleep and she’d have to pull on the side and take a nap herself. She glanced at her mom, who was deep in her thoughts. She could almost read fear in her eyes – fear for what lay ahead. “What’s on your mind Mom?’’ Startled and landing back on present she replied “ was wondering if this idea of yours to move away from town is gonna be a good decision. I’m scared yet I wanna do it. It’s a different life than what we are used to” “ Yeah I was thinking about the same thing Mom. I know Jason will be happier there. Are you concerned about us moving there because of the wild life locals live there? You think Jason could fall into drugs there?” “Yes Catherine. Your boy has been changing. He’s only seven but I have noticed his interest on different things than what we hoped he would like” she said with deep concern in her voice. Catherine ran a hand through her dark hair then added, “ yes I know. We’ll have to work hard at disciplining him –” “ That should be John’s task right?” “Mom please don’t start. Why do you dwell on things that can’t happen or could’ve happened. Dad is the head man now” “ Oh please Cathy, your Dad is so old he almost cant think for himself. I have to tell him what to do” she said with a nervous laugh. “ Ok I’ll do it on my own. One way or the other it’ll have to work. You’re not helping me, don’t be such a pessimist” she replied annoyed by her Mom’s words, then she added “ I wanted to have a conversation so I don’t fall asleep. I guess I should’ve stopped for a nap instead”. “ I’m being realistic. How far are we?” she asked changing the subject. “ Approximately two hours away” she answered in a brusque tone of voice.   Catherine didn’t want to talk anymore. Any reminders of John were a stab to her heart. She would make it out there in that wild world. It didn’t matter what she had to do. She would dance at a strip club if she had to, but her boy was not going to suffer anymore. He was going to have all he wanted. If she had to stop living her life to live for him, she would. That was decided. She continued driving in silence and she was happy her mother respected that and kept silence as well.                                      

Jason woke up to the beautiful breathtaking view of the beach and the sea. He saw a few boys playing soccer, he got so excited he almost asked Cathy to stop so he could play, but he knew better. He knew the answer would be a no because he would first have to unpack and get to know them. He lowered his window and just took in the view as the breeze ruffled his hair.

“ Wow!” he exclaimed with excitement instead, “ I already love it Mom” he continued.  Catherine smiled pleased that her boy was satisfied. “ Didn’t you say you wanted to stop to play soccer with those boys Jason?” his Grandfather teased. “ I didn’t say anything Papa” he replied annoyed that his Grandfather always seemed to read his mind. “ You know better than to ask now. In two months classes will begin for the new year and then you’ll have all the time to play ----during recess of course. Meanwhile you--- I--- have to get to know the people and see who are the good and the bad people” Catherine said. She straightened her back and rung her neck from one side to the next. She was exhausted. She still had to unpack and get to work first thing next morning.   They arrived their little apartment situated in one of the buildings on the lagoon. The building was four stories high and a little on the old side but the landlord had promised that as soon as the next year, he would renovate most of the building. The walked into the elevator with some suitcases and keys in hand. Apartment number five on the third floor was their destination. They were welcomed by the scent of freshly baked bread. That had to be apartment one. They walked the long hallway to their apartment.   The apartment was tidy and small but very homey. The entrance door was made out of wood. It had two big windows on the wall facing the lagoon. Then a pair of French doors that led to a small balcony. Each window and the French doors had sheer white curtains hanging almost to the floor. To their left was the kitchen, dinning room, laundry room and small room, which they assumed was pantry or storage room. To their right was the living room  and the three bedrooms. The master bedroom had its private bathroom and the other two bedrooms had shared bathrooms.   “ It’s a dream Mom” Jason whispered “ Not even our old, old house was as pretty. The only thing is I’ll miss the backyard we had in town” he said in a low sad voice. “ Don’t worry love, you’ll get used to it. Catherine continued walking. She first went to the left hand side. The landlord had promised the apartment to be fully furnished, which for Cathy was a great advantage, given that she didn’t have any furniture of her own. The kitchen was visible from the entrance. It had a breakfast bar on the side facing the entrance. The bottom part were cabinets. The top had shelves stocked with crystal dinnerware. She walked around it and into the kitchen. The cabinets were all painted. Their color was a glossy cherry red with white appliances on the counter. The counters were white granite tops as well. She couldn’t believe how much more elegant it looked in reality than it did on the photographs she had seen. It was very small but very cozy and the kind of kitchen any woman would love to cook in. And it was as it said: fully furnished. She opened drawers and almost went crazy in the kitchen. Then her mother walked in and held her hand to her mouth in awe. The old lady had no words to describe what she thought. She simply ran her fingers all over the cabinets and the sink. Catherine was pleased to see the satisfaction in her Mom’s reactions to the view before her eyes. They walked out together. Between the kitchen and the dinning room were the laundry room and the small storage room. The laundry room had some shelves above the washer and dryer. It had barely enough room to walk in. She continued her way to the dinning room. The entrance had a an arched wall instead of a door, so that you could see part of the dinning room from the kitchen. It had a squared table with eights chairs at the center of the room. A vase with fresh flowers was on the center along with a welcome note from the landlord. on one corner was another big vase with long fake feathers. The wall facing the lagoon had a big window with red curtains. The walls were painted beige. On the wall opposite to the lagoon one, was a table with a big old-fashioned mirror. She loved the decorative ideas so far. She walked out of the dinning room. She opened the French doors and was instantly hugged by a warmish afternoon breeze. She stood there for a few minutes and then walked back into the apartment to take a look at the bedrooms. She had to walk into the living room to get to the bedrooms. And like the rest of the apartment, the living room was beautiful. A small plasma T.V. was attached to the wall that were part of the bedrooms. There was a six inch drop to the living room. A long beige leather couch stood as barrier from the little hallway between the dinning room and the living room. The floor in the living room was red carpet. She went into the room closer to the French doors. It was the master bedroom. The master bedroom had a long window on the wall facing the lagoon. Its curtains almost touched the floor. A queen size bed was fitted into the center of the room with two small night tables on each side. Closet was on one corner. The bathroom was on the opposite side of the window. It had a tub and shower stall, a small sink with a mirror above mounted against the wall. Over the toilet seat was some cabinet space. The other two bedrooms were tinier and the walls were painted gray with some midnight blue trimmings. It had enough room for the bed and a chest drawer. The bathroom had enough space to fit the necessary things in it. Catherine was not so happy about the last two bedrooms, but she was grateful for a better place to live in.   She came out to the living room where her Dad and Jason were already watching T.V.  Her Mom was in the kitchen and had unpacked some food they had brought along and was heating something in the microwave. They ate and talked about the nice apartment. They all seemed genuinely happy and that encouraged Cathy to work hard to be able to pay the rent. Which was quite some money, given her circumstances. “ Mom and Dad will have the master bedroom” she announced to Jason when they had satisfied their hunger. “ Ok” he said carelessly. He sure didn’t care. His mind had been absorbed by the beach and the soccer boys.                             “ Good morning Catherine!” said the man that had been previously introduced as the manager of Extravaganza Restaurant. “ Good morning Mr. Granger” she replied. “ Let me show you around and introduce you to the rest of the staff” he said and turned on his heel towards the restaurant. He only glanced once or twice while he had been talking to her while they walked. Inside the elegant restaurant located on the beach were four waitresses and one waiter. They all wore uniforms like hers. Electric blue, skin tight, button shirts with a small white neck tie and white loose trousers. Since they were at the beach they all wore either strapped sandals with perfectly manicured toes. No one was allowed to work without inspection of feet, hair and even hands. Catherine was happy she had been informed of those rules previously. She had done her own feet and had braided her hair so that no loose strands would interfere with her face. Her hands were clean and her fingernails cut medium size with no nail polish. Adding to her neatness, her fingers were long and elegant. Many complimented her about her hands.   After being introduced to the waitresses, Carol, Anastasia, Helen, Edna and waiter George, she was given instructions of her chores that day. The chores were more watching how the others did their job and to learn. They expected no mistakes but as a new waitress she was allowed two mistakes and would be dismissed on the third one. The manager had explained that they took pride in their service, hence all the trouble she had to go through. “ We are the most popular restaurant in town” He had said “ and people make reservations ahead of time because we are almost always busy. Slow season we get many of the rich locals. They tip very good and that is because of your service and appearance” he continued “ No customer likes to see a waitress with dirty nails or ugly toes serving their food. Your appearance says a lot about you Cathy and that is why we hired you. You are not only beautiful but very tidy and you have a hypnotizing charm about you, even if you haven’t noticed” he added the last sentence with enthusiasm and admiration. “ Thank you” she replied and felt the heat rising to her cheeks. “ Keep it up” he said and patted her on her arm “ now, welcome officially to your first day of work. Make sure that by the end of the week you know the menu by heart and you know what main ingredients are in each food. Customers tend to ask what dill might be, what kind of fish we serve etc. and sometimes they don’t care what it is, they might just want to see how good of a server you’ll be for the night” he finished and walked away from her.   Edna walked up to her. “ Restaurant opens in 15 minutes” she announced glancing at her wrist watch, then she came closer and with a wicked smile added, “isn’t Marlon gorgeous and sexy?” “Who’s Marlon?” “The manager. His name is Marlon Granger. He’s thirty years old and has a bitchy girlfriend that always comes around, clings on to him and makes sure we know he’s hers” she said with a disgusted look on her face.   Edna was tall and slender with wavy red hair and hazel eyes. She claimed to be twenty-five but was a good three years older. She had a boyfriend whom she lived with and worked as a model part-time in the summer.   “ So what?” Catherine asked “ are you jealous?” She was never this up front with people but somehow she felt like she knew Edna from a long time ago. “No. She’ll be though, once I dump my good-for-nothing boyfriend of whom I heard rumors that he’s cheating on me , then I’ll walk up to Mr. Cutie” “I see. Where are you from?” she asked changing the subject because she would not want to be caught by Mr. Cutie chatting away with Edna about his private life and looks. “I was born and raised here. You?” “I was born in a town. Ontario, actually. Then I decided to move here and if you want to know more then I suggest we get together for a frapuccino after work some day and we talk about it because our fifteen minutes are up and George is already opening the windows” she concluded. “ Yeah. You’re right. Nice meeting you Cathy. I hope we can become good friends” she said with a smile.   Catherine wondered about Edna. She hadn’t had a close friend, besides her mother since high school.           “How was your first day of work?” Ms. Alice asked from the kitchen when Catherine walked in. “It was OK, we had a lot of customers but I hardly served any tables. I was given the task to watch and learn for the first day as if I needed that” she replied as she untied her sandals. “I’m making pasta” Ms. Alice announced “ in this kitchen one could cook anything” “Did you bring groceries from town?” “Yeah I brought some, but the three of us went shopping a while ago. The grocery store is only twenty minutes away walking and they have little golf carts as taxi. So we took one on our way back. Now we are almost out of money but we got enough for another two weeks” “That should be good. I’m getting my first pay check in two weeks. I’m saving some of it for the rent payment then the rest is for groceries and a little shopping for Jason and myself” she said proudly. “Sounds like you’ll get a nice one” Mrs. Alice replied. “Yeah. I’m surprised actually. The pay is very good for the job, but I guess it is cause they expect us to go to the salon and do our nails and hair. Appearance is more important than the food itself it seems” she said sarcastically, then added “ my face hurts from smiling all day already”. Mrs. Alice laughed. A good laugh that needed to be there. Catherine laid on the couch and turned on the T.V. “ Hey Mom. We went to the grocery store today” Jason said as soon as he came out of the bathroom, freshly showered “ Grandma bought me this, look” he said as he bent down to pick up a red dump truck and an excavator toy. “No wonder money was done” she said looking towards the kitchen with an accusing frown towards her mom. “It was grandpa’s idea Jason” she reminded him. “Oops! I wasn’t supposed to say anything”. He brought his hand to his mouth in a failed attempt to keep quite, then he rushed towards his bedroom with his toys in hand. “Mom, I wonder who is giving him all he wants and spoiling him now” Catherine accused. “I do the spoiling and you do the disciplining” she said with a mischievous grin. she seemed to be losing the pride and she showed Jason more love and why not spoil him? He was after all the only granchild she had.