The Errol Flynn Family Ch. 6 Pt. 2 Middle Daughter

Lalique Flynn
Errol and Olivia Flynn's second daughter


Lalique Flynn was weary. Weary of what she considered her boring life, her same old way of doing things, of dating man after man; then still being alone. She knew she should be happy that she had a good job, a beautiful—if small—home in a nice town, and a wonderful family, but contentment still eluded her.

She read, practiced her piano and had lots of friends, but still she felt things were stagnant. And she was lonely.  No one really knew how lonely she was. 

  

She dated many men, nothing had panned out for long, except for her relationship with Bob Blackford which had limped along for almost two years. Finally she decided he was too old for her and she just couldn’t make herself fall in love with him although she had tried. 

Devon Brecht, her old high school sweetheart had written a best seller a few years ago and then dumped her without even a goodbye when he took off on a book tour. Later he tried to romance her again but by then she looked at him with new eyes. He was still living with his parents while she had traveled, come back to Pleasantview, climbed to the top of her career in teaching, and bought her own home. 

Devon was good-looking and intelligent and he still made her heart flutter but she decided he was a wimp for all that. She’d couldn’t make up her mind if she should just accept that he was a weak man and make a life with him anyway or tell him to stop calling her. She’d been crazy over him since she was 15 and his former girlfriend, Grace Lassiter, had thrown him away. The question was moot now, though, because he was married. Lalique had nearly fallen over when she’d heard he’d wed Grace last year. After all these years, Lalique thought, he goes back to the girl who broke up with him (to go with Alex Goth). Grace was co-Chief of staff at the hospital along with Jody Broke, Grace’s former sometime lover. She was a strong-minded woman and maybe Devon needed that, Lalique supposed glumly. She could just picture them together in Grace’s little bungalow (he still had never bought his own house).

Grace and Devon: 

“Hmmph, she probably makes him wear a studded dog collar when they get romantic,” Lalique groused to her sister Yvette, who laughed at this. Yvette was a couple years older than Grace but knew her and liked her.  Yvette also  knew that Lalique used to like Grace, too, but she was just broken-hearted about Devon and had been so for a few years now.

Weeks and weeks Lalique spent doing nothing but wonder where she had gone wrong in life. It was like she had missed some class in high school or college that all her female friends attended. Like “How to Catch a Husband 101”. She knew this was not a fashionable thing to want--to land a man, but sometimes you had to just tell the truth. She'd done the career thing and while she was proud of her work and happy to be independent, she was still not content nor at peace with herself.

One night, in despair, Lalique ended up at the Galaxy Arcade, the business Bob Blackford owned and managed. She was totally startled; she almost did not recognize Bob. She hadn’t seen him since the block party, it was true, and that was probably 18 months ago, but he seemed to have aged overnight. In fact, at the block party he drank too much and was watching her with Jacob Black every minute, she remembered that now. She hadn’t even seen Jake since then, but evidently Bob thought at the time that she and Jacob were a big romance and was jealous.  A long time widower who had three grown sons--the oldest was the same age as Yvette--he’d always looked quite young for his age. The years had suddenly caught up with him. It made her sad even though it was the natural course of events in life. He appeared glad to see her, and they talked for several minutes, but the whole thing was depressing to Lalique and she was sorry she’d gone there at all. She knew that her desperation would drive any alert man out into a snowstorm to get away, but she just couldn't seem to get rid of it, it came out through her pores.

Afterward she chided herself for even going there,

“So I thought there might be someone new and exciting at an arcade? Get real, Flynn. So much for that idea.”

The next morning she was up early and had a can of bland instant breakfast then was on her way to work. Bland was the word, she thought, just like my life.

Later in the week, lonesome and hungry for conversation that actually took place in her home rather than on the phone she called Jody Broke to come over. He was someone she liked as a friend but had also dated from time to time. He loved games and they played SSX3 but soon were making out on the love seat. Jody was a player like his brother, Beau; like Nicky Ferguson, like David Lassiter; like Lonnie Hammond. Hmm, the town seemed to be full of these handsome reprobates now that she thought of it; all allergic to commitment. Nicky and Lonnie may have reformed but not the others. For that matter, who knew if the reformation of Nicky and Lonnie would take? Lalique felt she was too smart to fall for a player. Too smart too late was more like it, she thought with a grimace. In her opinion there was nothing wrong with a little kissy-face with Jody, though. She had her eyes wide open.  Deep in her heart she knew she had called Jody to send a little prick of pain to Grace. Probably, though, Grace wouldn’t ever know and probably wouldn’t care anyway.

Lalique had always been self-deprecating and had a dry sense of humor. It was a defense mechanism probably. At some point in the evening, though, Jody said quietly,

“You know, Lalique, I've always thought you to be a witty, intelligent woman. And I wanted to be more than a friend to you. But somehow you’ve become very bitter; I'm not sure about what. You’re very beautiful, but this chip on your shoulder makes you unattractive in the long run. My life has been a struggle at times and I just don’t want to be around negativity anymore. So I’m afraid to get closer.”

“Gosh, don’t hold back, Jody, tell me what you really think."

Truly she was stunned and her first thought was to belt him and kick him out the door, but her basic honesty kept her from it. He was right. If she didn’t watch it she’d turn into an alienated and resentful old woman, lonely yet pushing people away. Yikes, she probably already was that now. She appreciated his abrupt candor in one way. 

"Still," she thought defensively, "Who asked him?"

In deference to the years they'd been friends Lalique didn’t belt him but…she did kick him out the door. For the night, anyway.

Next update: The Errol Flynn Family Ch. 7 Pt. 3 Middle Daughter

The Errol Flynn Family Ch. 6 Pt. 1 Oldest Daughter

Yvette Flynn Wilson
Errol and Olivia Flynn's Oldest Daughter

It was time for Errol and Olivia's only grandchild Simone to celebrate her birthday. At least, the only grandchild so far. Her nursery was converted to a child’s bedroom and basically, she was ready to go. Her daddy did the honors helping her blow out the candles. (In Loriland the move from toddler to child is almost instantaneous). Simone favored music and, like her mother, games. She also liked to exercise to salsa CD's. Meanwhile, Yvette was starting to think of having another child. Her kid sister, Melanie, was pregnant and it made Yvette long to have a baby before it was too late. Simone was all in favor of this, but Mark had reservations; mostly related to whether or not they had room.

But Yvette had a solution for this.

“We could convert the studio into another bedroom.”

“Where will I paint, where will we be able to put the exercise machine?" Mark asked.

Yvette smiled triumphantly,

“That's easy: we'll use your building. You never use the tables except for the desk when you make out your invoices, Mark, and we can keep the washroom as it is.”

Mark always got so dirty while working on the cars he restored he didn’t even like to come in the house to wash up. So they had built a small bathroom in one corner with a toilet, sink and small shower.

Yvette went on,

“We could keep the bathroom and your desk in the corner. I think your industrial sewing machine would be okay in there, too. Probably even your bookshelf and armchair can stay. All we’d have to do then is put some extra windows in on the other side of the room.”

Mark looked dubious, he had a real fondness for his man-cave, or rather, man-house. However, he knew he should at least consider her plan. His auto restoration business was doing very well, he had customers lined up to bring in their derelict but inherently valuable cars. The extra driveway was lined up with cars waiting to be picked up when their owners made the last payment and picked up them up. Through the years only two had tried to skip out on their last payment and never even showed up to get the car. When that had happened Mark was eventually able to sell the car himself for quite a profit. He said to Yvette now,

“Let me go over to the building tomorrow morning and take a look (my last look, I have a feeling). I’ll see what we can do. Maybe.”

Several days later Yvette had a cooking mishap in the kitchen that almost became a tragedy. Cooking was Yvette’s specialty since she was a teenager and she still enjoyed it. While making several meals to put up for later, inexplicably, the food burned and suddenly burst into flames. Yvette was so near to the stove she was caught in the fire. Fortunately the alarm had gone off immediately and in seconds a fireman was putting out the fire. Miraculously Yvette was unharmed and recovered her nerves enough to serve lunch to her family an hour later. She used leftovers though; she was still too upset and fearful to go near the oven yet.

Mark cuddled with Yvette that night an extra long time realizing he had nearly lost her.  

Summer was turning to fall. Soon the leaves would turn, but on this day of Indian summer, the sun was out and the cicadas still sang at top volume.

    

Simone had her new friend Loni Faye Hammond over to play one day after school. She stayed through supper and into early evening when Yvette drove her home.

Simone sometimes asked Yvette to help with her homework when necessary, although the child’s grades were excellent. She liked to do her homework early in the morning rather than after school when she was tired and cranky. It was time alone with her mother and she never could have enough of that.

Sometimes Simone played on her father’s executive putting green. She enjoyed it so much she thought of becoming a professional golfer someday.

Simone loved living in the red farmhouse; they had a big yard, a pond and a pool and it was near enough to the ocean to hear the waves. It was a farmhouse with no real farm, admittedly, unless you counted Mark’s small greenhouse. Weekends were the most fun of all. One Saturday in the early morning it began to rain, crushing her hope of swimming, but by noon it was sunny again. Yvette went fishing, but Mark and Simone jumped in the pool and played Marco Polo.

Yvette could hear them laughing and splashing and finally could stand it no more. She had to join them. Anyway, by now she had good fresh fish for supper now and plenty more to go in the freezer.

That night at dinner, while they ate some of the fish Yvette had caught, Mark brought up the idea of having Yvette’s sisters over the next day, which was Sunday.

Lalique, Melanie and Gareth came over for lunch. Afterward they played the Llama game and Simone won a round.

“Okay,” Mark said, “Time for me to take a picture of all three of you sisters. How often are all of you in the same room at the same time?”

They had to admit Mark was right, they didn't get together as often as they should. Considering Pleasantview was such a small town you'd think they would spend more time with each other. They did frequently run into each other while shopping for clothes or groceries, but those meetings were mostly of short duration. And they should be visiting their parents more often, too. Of course, Melanie was living at home, but Lalique and Yvette needed to get over there more frequently.

“Dad and Mother aren’t getting any younger,” Yvette cautioned them.

Simone loved both her aunts, but was much closer to Melanie. Lalique was the beautiful aunt that she had on a lofty pedestal, but Melanie was the cute, young and energetic aunt who often teased and hugged Simone. She was just getting to know her new uncle, who was handsome and loved games even more than Simone and Yvette. Already she liked him though. Melanie, Gareth and Lalique stayed for supper as well and then left for home.

The next day was a school day of course. Almost the only time Simone watched TV was while waiting for the bus each morning. Maddie Candeloro came home with Simone that night, they both loved to draw and that night they showed off their finished projects to Yvette. Supper was spaghetti and meatballs, then the girls played Red Hands until it was time for Maddie to go home.

The next day Simone was off to school bright and early. Yvette spent her day at the sewing machine most of the time. She made many of Simone’s clothes. After school Simone was playing outside when she spied Kirstie Burb walking down the sidewalk. In fact she was on her way to make a surprise visit to Simone. They played video games and told secrets. Simone's secret was that her Aunt Melanie was probably going to have a baby soon. She'd heard her mother talking about it on the phone to Grandmere (that was the name used by Olivia, it was French for Grandmother). Her other grandmother (who lived out of state) she called Grandma. Then it was time for Kirstie to go and Yvette walked her home.

With fall came changes; Yvette still hope to get pregnant and so they converted the rooms. The studio was now in the little building and to his surprise Mark actually liked it better. Simone still slept in her old room as they redecorated the old studio to be her new bedroom.

Yvette began sewing winter clothes for Simone now that the fall was here and there was a nip in the air. Simone practiced her piano and dream of becoming a concert pianist some day (unless she became a professional golfer first…).

Aunt Melanie was pregnant and the family awaited the new grandchild.

There was an element of expectancy in the air; as though something yet unknown was going to happen but had not occurred yet. Something unknown but good.

Next update: The Errol Flynn Family Ch. 6 Pt. 2 Middle Daughter