Bending the Rules

Chapter 10 : History Lesson

Sorry for not updating! Haha. Here's the update! :) :)

* * *

After making sure Chelsie's story was all there, Tori didn't have time to hang around the office any more. She helped Ana, quickly, and decided she'd make the poster tomorrow. Right now she had to go home and walk Bagel.

When she walked in the door of the apartment, she sensed immediately that something wasn't right. What was it?

The lights were on the living room, that was it. At this time of day, the lights shouldn't have been on. Her aunt didn't usually get home from work until about six, and it was only 4:30. Tori searched her memory: Had she left the living room lamp on this morning? No, she hadn't even turned it on.

"Hiya! Hiya!" That was Waldo, putting his two cents in. Tori didn't think he talked when nobody was home. She decided she'd better go and take a look.

There in the big armchair was Aunt Tessa. She had a glass of red wine in her hand, but she hadn't drunk any of it. She was just staring into space. Bagel lay at her feet. He beat the floor with his tail when he saw Tori, but Tessa did not move.

"Aunt Tessa! Are you okay?" Tori said, alarmed.

Tessa jumped. She'd been so far away, she hadn't even heard Tori. "Oh, I'm all right," she replied. "I guess. I just had a rather awful headache, so I came home from work early."

Tori had already seen Tessa go to work with the flu, so she knew that it took something really bad to make her stay home. She was not the self-indulgent type.

"Can I get you something?" Tori asked her. "Some tea, maybe? Or an aspirin?"

"No, thank you, Tori. I think I just need to . . ." She trailed off without finishing the sentence.

Tori sat down on the sofa. She knew she should probably make herself scarce, but she was too worried about her aunt. Tessa looked exhausted and haggard.

"Aunt Tessa," she said, "can I ask if this has something to do with that man who came last night? That Henry Abrams?"

Her aunt sighed. "I suppose it does, dear," she replied. "I suppose it does."

"Who is he, anyhow?"

"He's a man I knew long time ago."

"I kind of figured that. But who is he?"

"He used to be an artist, years ago. Not a terribly good one. Now he owns a big art gallery on Madison Avenue."

"And," said Tori, jumping into the deep water now, "he wants your work."

"Yes. He does."

"Aunt Tessa, I didn't even know you were an artist! Nobody in the family talks about it back home. Why don't they?"

"I don't think they were very happy with my lifestyle. They didn't understand it very well. They couldn't imagine why I didn't just stay home and get a job in a shop. I think they looked at me as a sort of traitor for striking out on my own."

"I know that one," said Tori with a rueful smile.

Aunt Tessa smiled, too. "I think perhaps that's why they sent you to me," she said. "They don't want to punish you; they just don't know what to do with you. Your parents want you to be happy, you know."

Tori, to her great irritation, felt her throat choking up a little. "Do they?" she said. "I have no idea what they want. And they don't know what I want, either."