Doll Face

"You Killed Daddy!"

           

Lock, Shock, and Barrel turn 14 today. The three of them are giddy with excitement as they smoke their last cigarette for breakfast and devour a bowl of chocolate ice cream for lunch. The three of them can hardly wait for the Halloween party tonight at the square as they hastily put their costumes on.
Shock braids her blue hair neatly and places her tall witch's hat on her head. "Zip me," she demands Lock, who is shirtless with his devil's mask on. He simply rolls his eyes and zips up her purple dress while Shock adjusts Barrel's skull mask.
Barrel asks in childlike wonder, "You think there will be more candy than last year?"
"There better be," Lock groans.
"Put your shirt on brother, we haven't got all afternoon," Shock snaps as she puts on her own mask. "I wanna get a head start on trick-or-treating before the other kids do. Last year, Timothy Spooks ate all the king-sized chocolate bars."
Barrel smirks, "It's no wonder he's so fat."
"Rumor has it his mom sewed his eyelids shut so he would never have to see how truly ugly he is," Lock snickers.
Shock shrieks, "Shut up!" She throws a balled up t-shirt at him, "And get dressed!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot," Lock leans over at Barrel and whispers, "She's got a little crush on ole Spooks." The two boys die laughing as they roll over onto the floor, holding in their bellies.
She growls, "Do not!"
Lock and Barrel chant over and over, "Do too! Do too! Do too!" 
"I wish I was an only child," she mumbles under her breath.
At that moment, the three of them are startled by the sound of rope spinning.
Shock asks the two boys, "Did you invite anyone to come up here?" They shake their heads indicating that they hadn't and cautiously await their unwelcomed guest.
They are taken by surprise as Chapel makes her way into their living room. They watch as she unlocks herself from the cage and crawls out through the small door.
Shock immediately snaps amidst the silence, "Intruders aren't welcome here!"
Lock snarls as he steps in front of his sister and menacingly adds, "Neither are traitors!" The three of them glare at Chapel with such intensity she can practically feel their eyes burning holes on her skin.
Completely speechless from their reactions, Chapel stares blankly at them unable to figure out what to say. She stays sitting crisscrossed on the floor as her attention fixates on all three of her babies. One-by-one she admires them long and hard. She feels as if she's looking into a mirror, as they all resemble her in one way or another. Lock has her ocean-blue eyes but his father's short temper. His hair is fire engine red but she imagines his true hair color is as dark as hers, along with the others. Shock is a spitting image of her. Her eyes are a lighter, kinder blue and her nose structure is slim like Chapel's. She has her hair dyed blue with her witch's hat placed crookedly on her head. She reminds Chapel of herself when she was her age. Lastly, her eyes rest on Barrel, the shortest of the three. His eyes are rounder and larger which makes him look young and innocent and his green hair compliments his pale skin. All three of them are as white as ghosts, all thanks to her.
Barrel cackles as a lollipop dangles from his mouth, "You deaf?"
"N-no." She breathes, lost for words, "No I-I'm not deaf."
"Well then, get out!" Shock screams as she stomps her way towards Chapel, her face burning a rash-red color as anger seeps through her crabapple cheeks. "You killed daddy and you're ruining our birthday!" Lock has to hold her back as she swings her fists in the air.
"I never wanted to–– 'daddy'?" Chapel pauses as she stands to her feet, gazing at the three of them in disbelief as she comes to realize the horrible truth; that Oogie Boogie is, in fact, their father who has raised them since they were born, who fed them, took care of them when they were sick, and gave them a place to live while she has been nothing but a street-walking stranger to them.
In their brainwashed, little minds, their mother is dead.
"Yeah, daddy our daddy, you killed him!" Shock shrieks, tears streaming down her face.
"I didn't kill anyone." She says as she starts to feel drained. Defending herself seems useless, as they have no interest in her side of the story.
"You're a traitor!" Lock states once more.
"I'm a traitor to no one––"
"That's exactly what a traitor would say." Lock smirks, turning his back on her to light a cigarette.
"Brother is right, we think you should leave." Now calm, Shock is careful to stay a safe distance away from her, almost as if she can sense the truth and is afraid to approach it.
Chapel loses her patience. Something snaps inside of her and suddenly her frustration takes over her body until she can't contain it. "Fourteen years..." She whispers, eyes closed. She hunches over against the wall as she starts to feel the exhaustion from the night before.
"What was that?" Barrel speaks up.
"Fuh, fourteen...years–– my god, has it been that long?" Her voice grows louder from hysterics.
The triplets gaze at one another with confused looks.
Chapel straightens herself up and moves closer to them. "Fourteen years ago..." She says in a ragged breath. "A man by the name of Dustin Winters was brutally slaughtered by your 'daddy'." She starts. "All that innocent man wanted was to get his reckless baby sister out of a complicated situation and as a result, he was murdered... murdered by the same man who took the identities of innocent young women, who stripped them of their dignity, and... and violated them in ways that would haunt them... for the rest of their lives."
Lock, Shock, and Barrel watch her with fury. They don't want to hear her boring story, yet they can't help but listen.
Chapel then approaches them, closer this time. She softly caresses Shock's face, a smile escaping her lips. Shock quickly dismisses her and backs away. Chapel does the same to Barrel who doesn't want to admit that he likes her touch against his cheek. She plops on the floor with him on her lap and continues. Her voice is gentler this time. "But fourteen years ago, a young, naive girl was brutally raped by your daddy." She struggles to contain herself. She wipes a tear away with her finger before it could drip down her cheek. "All that selfish girl wanted was to break free from his shackles, but instead, she gave birth to three amazing angels." She beams, her heart throbbing at her chest. "She had no idea that something so beautiful could come from something so ugly. Those babies were beyond her imagination."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Barrel asks.
Lock scoffs, "I call bullshit." He glares at her and shakes his head as he turns away to the window.
"Yeah, daddy said our mom died in the hospital," Shock says, puzzled.
Chapel just shakes her head matter-of-factly. "Perhaps..." She sniffs. "A part of your mother died that day."
Barrel takes her hand and looks at her with wounded wide eyes. "If you're our mom then... then why did he lie––"
"Oogie is a monster who only cares about himself." She gazes up at Lock and Shock. "He lied to you because he wanted you to think I was dead. I was selfish to leave you in his care–– if you can even call it that. I know that now..."
Lock is still facing his back to her at the window as he forces himself not to look at her. Shock watches her with caution in the far corner as she tries to decide whether she should trust her or not. Barrel grins and holds his mother close. She holds him tight and kisses the top of his head; the sweet smell of his lollipop surrounds her with joy.
"Please forgive me."
Very slowly, Shock abandons her dark corner and joins Barrel and Chapel. All at once, she loses it and she begins to sob on her mother's shoulder as she falls to her knees.
"My sweet girl," Chapel removes Shock's hat and kisses her forehead as the three of them embrace one another.
Barrel wonders, "Does this mean you'll live here with us now?"
With a wide grin, she says, "That depends, do you want me to?"
At that moment, Lock swishes around from the window. "Not a chance," He snarls. Fire burns from his angry eyes.
"Brother..." Shock sniffles.
"No Shock, she can't just waltz in here like she didn't abandon us fourteen years ago and act like everything's peachy."
Shock argues, "That doesn't excuse daddy from lying to us all this time."
"But that's not what I––"
"Forget it! You made your mistakes, now you have to live with it. Don't drag us down with you. I'm sorry I'm not the perfect angel you thought me to be, but forgive me if I don't find your little story touching. Maybe these sorry-asses can buy it, but I don't."
His sister snaps, "Lock! Manners!"
Before storming out, he grunts, "Screw all of ya!"
Chapel calls after her son, "Wait Lock!"
"Leave him," Shock insists. "There's no talking that boy into anything."
"He's relentless," Barrel adds.
"Stubborn is more like it," Shocks groans.
Chapel gazes at the door that Lock had slammed shut. "You guys stay here," she says as she stands to her feet, "I'll talk to him." She kisses the top of their heads one last time before stepping out the door.
She finds Lock deep in the graveyard with a cigarette clenched between his teeth. He doesn't notice her approaching him as he's facing away from her, staring at the amber sky. Sadness overcomes him, alone and surrounded by death. He's always been good at hiding his pain ever since he was a little child but today is exceptionally difficult. If something's bothering him he builds an emotional firewall keeping everyone, including himself, out. After a few puffs from his cigarette, he slowly calms back to his normal self again. That is until he's startled by the sound of crunching leaves.
"Whatever you got to say to me I don't wanna hear it." Lock doesn't bother to turn around. He knows who's standing there behind him.
Chapel comes out from behind the granite angel. "I'm just getting some air," she says and moves slowly as she crosses her arms.
Lock doesn't say a word as he continues to look in the distance.
"Can I have one of those?" She asks.
Lock ganders at her in disillusion. "You smoke?"
Chapel shrugs, "Back in the day."
He smirks, "Sure. Okay." Lock hands her his pack of cigarettes and lights one for her. The second it's lit she inhales deeply, which causes her to cough violently. This makes Lock snort uncontrollably. He chuckles, "How far back in the day was it now?"
"Summer of 1981," she grins. "I was your age." She says through coughs.
"Why'd you quit?"
"Well..." this time she inhales it lightly. "For starters, I had you." They're both quiet for a second. "Then there was the whole lung cancer conspiracy," she adds before taking another puff.
"Your tattoos are pretty cool," he compliments, changing the subject as quickly as it came. "How many do you have?"
She laughs, "I lost track after thirty."
Lock gazes at the artwork on her arms and asks, "Did they hurt?"
"Yeah, they hurt," she snickers. "It's so worth it in the end. Once you've fought through the pain and you care for it, protect it from the sun, you're left with something beautiful, something that's now a part of you. It's beautiful really."
Lock traces his finger on the spider webs running down her arm. The webs are intertwined with other objects that, to anyone else, would seem meaningless but to her, they represent her past, present, and future; where she came from, where she is now and where she wants to be. She has tattoos of insects like beetles and bumblebees tangled in the webs. On her right forearm, she has her brother's tombstone with his birth and death dates written on it. The sugar skull she had recently gotten is healing on her shoulder. On her back, below the neck bone, is a Gothic cross, surrounded by blue roses with her mother's name written in script.
"That's a lot," he acknowledges as Chapel went on to describe most of her tattoos.
"There's one more I have to show you." She sticks her half-burnt cigarette in her mouth and pulls down the sleeve of her left arm. There, etched on her wrist, are three black numbers: 10.31.84.
"Our birthday?"
"The most important day of my life." She caresses her wrist with her thumb. "This was my very first tattoo. I got it the day I gave birth to you." She explains.
"Gross, but go on," Lock says, intrigued.
"When I handed you over to your father," She drops her cigarette to the ground and steps on it. "That was the hardest thing I've ever done. I missed you the second you left my arms." She wipes away a fallen tear. "If I could go back in time I–– gah–– he was so manipulative! He made me think I couldn't do it. I was scared. I'm begging you to believe me. I am your mother, Lock, I'm your mom." She holds him tight. "If only I knew then what I know now. Everything would be so different." Lock just stands there as he allows Chapel to hug him. She smells like cinnamon and apples and it makes him feel warm inside. At last, he gives in, his firewall is extinguished as he holds his mother for the first time in his young life.
All has been forgiven.