ODDS OF LOVE

Episode Five

                  Spencer: The Past

Sixteen year old Spencer Norland stood against the spotless white wall of the elegantly decorated ballroom in the Ridgemont Country Club.

He saw men in expensive elegant tuxedos dancing with women in silk dresses.

He saw black suited waiters gliding gracefully alongside the lace table clothed circular tables , silently refilling glasses with fine wine and champagne.

His eighteen year old brother Richard and his fifteen year old sister Lorraine respectfully, politely, demurely posed for a photo with their grandfather. Their grandfather was very upset that Spencer would not be in the picture. Spencer hated taking pictures. He thought it captured souls although he often wondered if he even had one to lose. He was not even sure there was a God to have created these supposed souls.

Their mother Doris laughed in her long creamy white satin wedding dress that had a train longer than any princess. She was dancing with her new husband. Her fourth to be exact. Another stepfather that would hate him.

He lifted the glass of tepid room temperature tap water to his lips. They had had no bottled water. He tried to drink eight glasses of water a day. This was his sixth. He took a sip.

Everyone hated him. He even hated himself.

                      ----------

                    Nessa Johnson: The Past

Nessa Johnson pursed her lips as she adjusted her new big brimmed Spring hat. Yet another gift from Sam. She did frown on the unnecessary gifts but it gave him pleasure. He loved spoiling her and the children. He was always coming home with snacks and little trinkets for the girls. Sam had learned early on not to even offer a glass of red Kool Aid to her son.

She sighed as she reverently removed the hat and placed it gently into it's cushioned hatbox.

The girls had adjusted to having a stepfather. It wasn't like Sam had tried to fill Marvin's shoes. As if he could. If she closed her eyes she could still see her Marvin looming over her so easily smiling that crooked grin of his. DuBuis was looking so much like his father now it actually hurt to see him.

DuBuis. She sighed again. She thought of the magazines Sam Junior had found in DuBuis's bedroom when he was looking for something or other DuBuis had borrowed.

She knew Sam disapproved of such ungodly thoughts and behaviors. So did the church. So did she really. She was born a Baptist and she would die a Baptist. The Bible said it was wrong and impure him looking at such pictures. At those men.......

But she knew her son. DuBuis was a good boy. He was her boy. She loved him. She always would.

Nessa sighed.