Tribulation Bay Chapter SEVEN

Lara pulled her little junker of a car which had celebrated its 25th birthday a while back, the car had all of its original parts, which you can tell was the case when she put her foot to the pedal and everything began to rattle around like a poorly conducted orchestra. Even though she was only 36, she looked like a woman that was a bit older than that.

She slowly made her way up the front steps and rang the doorbell.

“Come in,” Clark called out from inside the house, as Lara did just that, “so this is how this is going to work--.”

“What? No hello?” Lara barked. “No “it's been a while”?”

“Yes; it has been a while,” Clark agreed, “almost 10 years since you came by. And it's not like you moved to a different state, or a different city, heck, not even a different neighborhood, heck only 6 blocks away.”

“I have my reasons for not coming around,”

“I know your reasons, and they're all legitimate enough, Mom never was the nicest person to be around giving people both verbal and mental abuse, and she only got progressively worse and worse as she got older.”

“And,” Rachael continued on Clark's behalf, as she appeared out of nowhere, at least from Lara's perspective, “when you left, you left your 11 year old brother with a woman who had nothing but hatred for her own son.”

“And who exactly are you?” Lara asked as she stare at Rachael.

“Rachael Collins,”

“Oh, the spoiled brat who lives next door.” Lara said just to see what reaction she would get.

“Like mother, like daughter,” Rachael spat out.

“She's not worth it,” Clark whispered into Rachael's ear, then turned to Lara. “NOW. This how things are going to work. The items that are in those boxes in that corner of the room is my own personal stuff, don't go near them, everything else anywhere else in the house if you want it, take it.”

“Maybe we should wait and see what mom has written in her will,” Lara sighed.

“She had no will, no exuberant amounts of cash lying around. The house was technically legally put in my name, despite certain utility bills being left in her name, even though I handled them. So what's left are a few trinkets that she collected over the years.”

“What about her jewelry?”

“Most of that is still in her jewelry drawer,”

“What about her wedding ring, I think that's the only thing of real value out of that,” Lara asked.

“Uh...” Rachael said with a wince, “...oh.”

“Uh-ho?” Lara asked. “Uh-ho is never good.”

“Yeah, about that--.” Again Rachael felt Clark's hand on her shoulder.

“It got lost a while back. If you find it somewhere in the house,” Clark waved his arm randomly about, “it's yours.”

“Well be out in the kitchen.” Rachael lead Clark out to the kitchen. “She's talking about the ring we got out of her personal effects, where is it?”

“She won't find it,” Clark responded, “not here, not in the house.”

“Where is it?” Rachael demanded.

“It's in a jewelry shop on Sansom Street, where they're polishing it up and brushing out the old engraving.”

“OK. Because I really want that ring to become the ring you present to me when we're standing in front of a church altar.”

“If that's the case; this is not one of those situations where you need to be honest about it,” Clark held Rachael in his hands, knowing how brutally honest Rachael can be, “just go with the story that it was lost. We only have to do that for the next hour anyway. She's not on my call list, and she certainly won't be following us to Tribulation Bay.”

---

Cordelia stepped onto the porch of the Collins house to see the baby raccoon looking up at them sleepy eyed after waking up from its nap. The multiple footsteps on the porch had disturbed its sleep. But Cordelia looked down at it. “Aw-w, is he friendly.”

“Of course it's not friendly,” Carolyn barked, “it's a raccoon!”

“Actually,” Dawn said, “I'm not too certain of how friendly it really is, my dad only found it yesterday, and I haven't ventured so far as to try and pet it yet.”

“Well,” Andrew came out and joined the three, “he didn't fight me too much when I picked him up at the gas station, and slept like a baby when Olga drove me home.”

“Still,” Carolyn looked at the raccoon mistrustfully, “I'd wait for a few more days for it to get used to you before trying to touch the thing!”

“OK,” Andrew held the door open, “better come in while the chili's hot and the ice tea's cold.”

“Can I change into something more appropriate before sitting at the table,” Cordelia motioned to the wet-suit she had on.

“Of course,” Carolyn pointed to the guest bathroom that was on one side of the kitchen.

“Thank you,” Cordelia picked up her back pack and moved in the direction of the bathroom, she noticed Natty sitting at the table sipping at a cup of coffee while waiting, “OH shit! Sheriff Chen!”

---

Lara continued to rifle her way through Doris' jewelry drawer expecting to find the ring.

“Why are you so interested in finding the ring?” Clark asked. “Are you getting married?”

“No!” Lara responded. “You got the house.”

“I bought the house from mom for a dollar, plus the lawyer fees, thus all money from my selling the house goes to me. But, I paid all of the cremation expenses, paid off any remaining bills and so forth. The guy who bought the house from me gave me a low amount, so in the end, I'm not walking away with a whole lot.”

“It's just that I can use the money I was going to get for selling it,”

“So, you're not even interested in the actual ring?” Rachael mumbled out.

“I'm not sure how legal what I'm about to do is,” Clark went into Doris' purse and pulled out the debit card, and wrote down the access code on a piece of scrap paper, “but there is around $1,000 on here, and around the first of the month, her SSI will be paying out her final payment, however much that'll be, I don't know, but it's all yours.”

“By the time you add it all up,” Rachael continued for Clark, “you'll be getting more this way than you would have gotten taking the ring to some pawn shop.”

“A pawn shop would give you MAYBE $200 for it; this way you'll be getting around $2,000.” Clark looked out the window at the car that sat out front. “Also, don't forget you already got her car a few years ago too.”

“I know,” Lara sighed.

“I mean I'm sorry that most of the stuff around here is just mom's old bric-a-brac stuff that'll be going straight to the thrift store, whatever you don't take, that is.”

“I just wish that maybe we could have found some secret room, or at least some secret stash of something of great value,” Lara whined.

“The only secret stash in this place is where dad hid all of his old booze away from mom in the basement.”

Lara's nose turned up. “You can have all that swill.”

---

When Cordelia seemed overly surprised to see Natty, Dawn gave her a side-wards look, and Natty let out a laugh.

“Don't worry,” Natty said to Cordelia, “I'm not here to arrest you.”

“The last three times we met you arrested me,” Cordelia frowned.

“Yes I did,” Natty admitted, “for being on that little beach out back.”

“Well from now on,” Dawn said, “she's welcome to hang out on that beach any time she wants.”

“It's not her place to say that,” Andrew said, “it's a part of Church property,”

“Not really,” Natty said, “it was put into use as a private beach for the prior pastor and his family, not the church.”

“So,” Carolyn concluded, “since Dawn's one of the main ones that'll be using the beach now, it IS her place to say that.”

“Like I said,” Dawn looked at Cordelia, “any time you want.”

“But,” Natty said, “just so you know, it wasn't the previous pastor who had Cordelia arrested for trespassing.”

“Let me guess,” Dawn sighed, “it's Miss rude a bugger.”

“That woman again,” Andrew frowned.

“Well, the hot chili's getting cold, and the iced tea is getting warm, while we're standing around talking,” Carolyn said.

“Just give me two minutes to change,” Cordelia pleaded.

---

Lara stood in the living room, organizing the box of stuff she had claimed, she was talking with Clark as she did so, then out of left field she changed the subject. “...Oh by the way, I have good news concerning plans for Mom's funeral!”

“What are you talking about?” Clark asked.

“I was talking with my pastor after the service, and he said we can have a complete funeral free of charge through my church because she came to my church.”

“Mom never went to church,” Clark said, “not even for the holiday services.”

“She came to my church,” Lara insisted

“When was this?” Clark looked confused.

“Ten years ago for the Christmas Cantata. You came too, remember?” Lara let out a sigh.

“So--,” Clark was completely confused, “how does her coming to one special service 10 years ago, which she bitched and complained about throughout the entire program, equate to them having them having a funeral for her free of charge?”

“Well, I'm just going by what my pastor said.”

“I don't think he said anything of the sort, besides I already paid for the cremation in full, and her body is probably going through the cremation process as we speak.”

“Uh--,” Lara began to cry, “oh. What are you going to do with the ashes?”

“I...” Clark was planning on an unceremonious dumping of her ashes over the Delaware River as he passed over the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, but in knowing how Lara was being, he knew it would be the exact wrong thing to say, “I haven't thought that far ahead.”

“Can I have them?”

“They'll just be inside a low grade cardboard box.”

“Easy solution,” Lara pulled out a tall smooth gray vase from the collection of stuff that was set to be taken to the thrift store. “I just wish there was a way to identify what was in it.”

“Easy solution,” Clark went to his computer put down his mother's name, her date of birth and her date of death, and attached a picture of her that he took of her on one of her “better days”. He then resized the entire image so it would be small enough to fit comfortably on the vase and printed it out on a printable sticker and fixed the sticker to the side of the vase. “Now, I will be at the hospital morgue at 12:00 tomorrow, and what we need to do there will take only a few minutes.”

“Then we can do a couple of things together,”

“Lara, I plan on being on the other side of the Tacony-Palmyra bridge no later than 2:00, and there are a few places I need to get to first.”

“Like?”

“A...” Clark paused, he looked for Rachael for help, but she had started to wrap up some of the unwanted things, and was in her own little world doing it, “...uh, place that doesn't really concern you.”

“I just want to be there for you now--.”

“Now that Mom's no longer a deciding factor,” Clark finished for Lara, “I get it, really I do. But it was during the past 10 years that I needed you there for me; not now that I'm able to move on with my life.”

“But Clark, you're my brother!” Lara cried out.

“And that is something you should've thought about 10 frigging years ago; not something that just now dawned on you.”

---

Cordelia finally came to the table after removing the wet-suit wearing gray pants, sneakers and a white shirt, she found an empty seat next to Dawn and leaned over. “Excuse me miss, is this seat taken?”

“I'm holding it for someone,” came Dawn's reply.

“Cute,” Cordelia smirked as she sat down.

“Well, I'm glad to see that you made a friend so quickly,” Andrew replied as he looked at Cordelia, “what do you do around town.”

“I run the Surf & Scuba shop near the marina. Don't get a lot of business now, with it being winter, though. But during the summer I could use the help, just someone to help with stock, run the store mainly when I'm out training others to surf and scuba dive.”

“Is it hard work?” Dawn asked.

“Only when we get a shipment of stuff in,” Cordelia said, “otherwise it's just mainly watching the store.”

“I bet a lot of people apply for the job,”

“I do get a lot of applications, but most of them are from out of town, and I'd rather hire someone local,” Cordelia looked at Dawn suggestively.

“I could apply,” Dawn looked at Carolyn, “right?”

“I don't know,” Carolyn said, “what about your schoolwork?”

“Mom,” Dawn said, “you home-school me, most of it on the computer.”

“Besides,” Cordelia said, “most of the work won't come up until after June.”

“And I'll be 17 by then if you're worried about that,” Dawn smiled.

“I'm not the one who's worried about it,” Andrew looked at Carolyn.

“Fine, fill out the application,” Carolyn said, “not that they'll likely hire you anyway.”

“Mrs. Collins, do you know who makes the hiring decisions for Surf & Scuba?” Cordelia looked at Carolyn.

“I don't know,” Carolyn looked at Cordelia, it was then that it dawned on her, “oh!”

“And at this point, the application is just a formality.”

---

Clark and Rachael stood there and watched as Lara pulled away in her old junker.

“I do hope she's OK with what you gave her in lieu of the ring.” Rachael said.

“She wanted the ring only so she can pawn it,” Clark replied, “you know that, and I know that,”

“It's a good thing you came up with that debit card to give her,”

“I was going to give it to her anyway, but as long as she keeps on thinking it's as a replacement for “the lost ring”, she'll be happy with it.” Clark turned to see a lot of his mother's old knickknacks still sitting there.

“Looks like we have our work cut out for us,” Clark said.

“Eh,” Rachael responded, “they're not too hard to wrap, once we get started, it won't take long.”