The Brooch

Hello Mother pt 1

The rooster finally crowed upon that new day...

It was Saturday and it had now been nearly over two hours since Tator left that house. And it looked like he had no plans of ever returning...

When the sun arose fully that very morning, a very damper looking, Mrs. Crowder was dressed in her Sunday's best, but she looked like the walking dead when she trudged out of the door of her estate...

Clever was strolling up the drive as he had just closed the gate to her estate.

"Why mornin, Mrs. Crowder." He said tipping his hat to her. "You sho are up and out early..."

"Cleava, I ain't gone need you today." She uttered walking toward her vehicle. "You kin gone on home to the Mrs. I'll still pay you foe today.

"Well where you headin, Mrs. Crowder? I kin take you wherever you need to go. Sides you look just too fit to be tied and downright feeble."

"You don't worry bout me." She sounded shoving past him.

"Please Mrs. Crowder, you don't look too well. I kin take you wherever you needs ta go."

"I don't need you, Cleava! I kin drive myself!" She griped!

"Oh come naw, Yo feet kin barely reach them petals!" He jested.

"I ain't got time banter witchu Cleava! Naw git out of my way!" She exclaimed!

Mrs. Crowder yanked her back car door open like she was about to take Cleaver up on his offer. Instead she took a box from out the back seat and placed it in the drivers and plopped down on top of it...

"Mrs. Crowder, please." Cleaver pleaded. "In all seriousness, you know you are not the best driver in the world... them roads are still kinda icy... and I would feel better if you would jest__"

"Gone on home Cleava..." Mrs. Crowder ordered! She started up the engine.

She closed her ears to Cleaver as she backed out of that drive... but not before running into and nearly mowing down her own bushes...

Cleaver stood there shaking his head with a look of worry as he thought...

CLEAVER: "Lawd, Lawd... that old woman is up to some em again. And I kin tell, she ain't up to no good! Lawd help the soul that gets in her way..."

Cleaver was correct. Mrs. Crowder was definitely up to something...

Now you know that look of a predator animal ready to just pounce on its prey and eat them alive, heart and all? Well that's the exact expression Mrs. Crowder had on her face as she drove that car out of Ponchas and into Orange Haven...

Slipping and sliding on that road she went. It was nearly a two and a half hour drive on that cold morning... But you wouldn't know it, the way she was sitting in that car steaming the whole drive just meditating on Maple, Tator, Scarlet... and her mother... She just seemed plain cold in spirit as you could see her hot breath puffing in the air...

Mrs. Crowder finally reached her destination she pulled into the drive of the Lexington estate. She hustled out of that car and up to those massive front doors and began to pound away....

"Why Mrs. Crowder!" A servant said opening the doors stunned by her presence.

"Git out of my way, Blanche!" She said shoving her to the side.  "Maaaaama!" She hollered in the foyer. "Mother!" She yelled out again anxiously looking around.

"Magnus?" Mrs. Lexington uttered stunned from rolling around the corner."

"Hello Mother." She said causally plopping her purse down on the foyer table.

"Magnus whut on earth are you doin here?" Mrs. Lexington said bewildered.

"Well can't I come see my own Mother?" Mrs. Crowder replied, gliding up to her mother's wheelchair.

Mrs. Crowder leaned over and kissed her curious mother on the cheek.

"Sides, I thought I'd come take you foe a nice walk by the lake.."

"In this weather?" Mrs. Lexington exclaimed! "It is freezin out there! And the lake is of sheer ice!"

"I know..." Mrs. Crowder replied with a deranged look of peculiarity in her eye...

Mrs. Lexington gawked at her suspicious looking daughter with a side eye...

"So whut do you say mother? Would you look to go for that walk? I kin take you myself and let Chester here have a little break from pushing you everywhere..."

"It is far too cold to go for a walk Magnus! No." Mrs. Lexington fussed! "Knowin the way you'd push me with yo balance, we'd fall into the ice. And then where would we be?"

"Hmm... oh I would be jest fine mother. Jest fine." Mrs. Crowder coyly uttered. "Well how bout I make you a nice cup of tea? Jest the way you like it. You know how like I used to? You said no one makes tea like me. And maybe by then you'll warm up and change yo mind." She simpered while taking of her coat and just plopping it down in Blanche's arms. "I kin go and make it right now..."

"Magnus..." Mrs. Lexington questionably remarked glaring at her peculiar behaving. "I am not in the mood to go outside." She replied making Chester, her man servant, push her into the parlor as screwy daughter followed.

Mrs. Lexington just realized something...

"Mother why are you gawkin at me like that?" Mrs. Crowder questioned.

"Oh nuthin. It's just sometimes I swear I kin see yo daddy in yo eyes..."

"Well is that such a bad thang?"

"Hmm.." Mrs. Lexington uttered. "Depends on the eyes." She lowly replied. "Magnus dear, where is Cleaver? I promised him the next time he came, I'd have Wilhelmina's secret recipe to that chicken and dumplins he loves so much. Did you leave him out there in that cold?" She started to fuss..

"He's not here, I drove myself." Mrs. Crowder proudly replied.

"You mean yo feet actually hit the petals?"

"I am not that short... mother." Mrs. Crowder replied unamused.

"Hmm.." Mrs. Lexington smirked. "Well I jest will have Wilhelmina brang that recipe around corner on your way out."

"I'm in no hurry mother." Mrs. Crowder covertly replied with such a dark expression of a intensifying bizarreness on her face.

"Hmm..." An uneasy Mrs. Lexington uttered. "Chester? Would you be a dear, and leave me with my daughter for a while?"

"Ma'am?" Chester uttered, feeling slightly uncomfortable doing so.

"I'll be quite fine." She said patting him on the hand and excusing him, but not before whispering something into his ear.

He obligately excused himself from the spacious room. But not without giving a glance over to Mrs. Crowder's way before closing doors to the parlor, for their own privacy...

"At last we are alone!" Mrs. Crowder said walking to sit down near her frail looking mother...

"Yes...alone." Mrs. Lexington responded looking deeply into her daughter's now iniquitous looking eyes. "You know... it's a shame that Cleaver ain't here. I was so lookin forward to the next time he came. It has been awhile since you have been here. A long while." She said observing her daughter....

"Well it is a visit long over due." Mrs. Crowder said looking around curiously gazing to see if another soul was around....

But sure enough, for the time being, they we utterly alone..

"Why are you here. Magnus?"