The Brothers Everhart - Prince Ch. 8 Dancing on the Knife's Edge

Prince Everhart still frequented the night clubs on a regular basis, he was a party animal and found it easy to make friends with almost anyone.

One evening he'd been at the Crypt O'Night Club earlier then headed to Midnight Flows. Curiously, for the weekend the place seemed kind of dead, in his opinion, although eventually a few more people drifted in around 11 o' clock. And that night he met someone who was certainly different from anyone else he'd ever encountered. Prince was at the bar having a discussion with Elsebeth, the bartender, when he got this strange creepy feeling at the back of his neck. He was quite attuned to anyone following him as a rule. Turning around he found a sinister looking fellow dressed up in tails and a luxurious cape lurking over him.

"What's up, my man? You got a problem?" Prince was both belligerent and friendly. Things could go either way he surmised. The man said in a heavy Slavic accent,

"Good evening. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Count Floyd. (With a tip of the hat to SCTV and Joe Flaherty--Author) I am one of the undead and I live only by night."

"No shit? That's pretty heavy. Well, I can relate; I'm pretty much undead myself; love to party through the wee hours most nights. And I have trouble with insomnia now and then, too. But what the hell, I always say the action doesn't start until after dark anyway. Can I buy you a drink? Maybe a beer? Or are you the Margarita type?"

The count seemed taken aback and wrinkle his nose in distaste,

"I don't drink.....beer..." then he looked around eagerly, "But who is this Margarita and how can I meet her?"

Prince laughed,

"Oh, man, you're a crackup, Count. You must be from out of town. I didn't mean a girl, I meant the drink. You know, alcohol? If you'd like to meet some chicks, though, I might happen to know two or three, but I'd have to give them a call first..."

"Chickens you say? I don't care for livestock. But what kind of women do you know?"

"Oh, just your average red-blooded American types with bodacious racks and loose morals. Why? Are you partial to a certain type?"

"Red-blooded is good," the count seemed to approve but then frowned, "Although I wouldn't want any that had been on the rack, no, definitely not. Just very pretty women with a lot of red blood will be fine."

The count smiled and for a moment Prince thought he'd seen a flash of something that looked like fangs. But that was ridiculous of course. Probably the guy just had a slight overbite or wore a dental plate that was slipping.

  
Before long Prince and Count Floyd were yukking it up as though they were old friends even indulging in some rock-paper-scissors.

He seems like a nice guy, even if he's kind of stuffy and formal, guess that comes from being royalty, Prince mused on his way home. But if he wants to charm the women that I know he should be ready to spend the big buck and definitely stock up on denture adhesive. Of course he does have a foreign accent and chicks really love that.

It was about time to get in touch with Katharine Burb again, Prince decided the next day. Possibly he should end his affair with her--he didn't want to get caught up with any woman for long, but she was attractive, classy and interesting and had once loaned him some money when he was struggling long ago. He'd paid her back with interest but he still felt indebted to her. At least he hadn't tired of her yet which was almost a record.

He called her up to plan a dinner date for that night at Midnight Flows. Then he went downstairs to make himself some lunch. He had no idea that at that very moment Katharine's husband, Josh Burb, was passing by his house.

Josh had begun to get suspicious that his wife was having an affair. He wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box, but it was finally sinking in that something had to be going on. She was gone often lately and didn't say where she was going, not coming home until late. Whenever she was on the phone and he came in the room she ended the call.

Finally, determined to get at the truth, he began to pay attention to the rumor mill. To this end he only had to hang around the local restaurants and stores and the community center. The name of one bachelor kept coming up and it was Prince Everhart. So Josh decided to check out his place. It looked to him like the home of a player and Josh went home to think things over and after a bit he began to stew. Then Katharine came downstairs dressed in a low-cut leopard skin dress that looked spray painted on and had the nerve to say she was going out to meet her girlfriends for supper and a movie. She gave him a tepid kiss on the cheek and left. Inwardly Josh began to seethe and then...to boil over.

When Prince arrived at Midnight Flows Katharine was already there and told him that her husband was working in his greenhouse and would be there for hours.

"At night?" he was skeptical.

"Of course, often that's the only time he can do it and there are lights and heat in there. Don't worry," she assured him.

"Honey, I never worry. You are the married one; not me."

They ordered and Prince selected a wine. His taste, he knew, was not as impeccable as his brother, Perry's, but he managed well enough.

Conversation flowed, although neither one of them talked beyond surface matters and that was as usual. No discussion of their dreams or plans and neither of them ever brought up family. Their usual pattern was after an evening out (or many times while slow dancing) any discussion consisted of their mutual assurances that they soon would be demonstrating their lust for each other. Then they always headed to Prince's house to have their fun and games.

 

On this occasion, however; things did not go as planned. Their food had just been served when they looked up to see Josh standing near the table. His face was contorted in fury and he was breathing so heavily that he was almost panting. Still dressed in his sweatshirt and work pants he appeared out of place but it was obvious he didn't care. Suddenly he burst into tears, looking pitiful and Katharine got up from the table telling him she could explain--that it was all a big misunderstanding. Prince was in shock. How could she possibly explain this? Surprisingly such a thing had never happened to him before. This was the first husband he'd ever met. Of course it was not exactly a "proper introduction". 

As Katharine launched into a long story full of lies and excuses, Josh moved closer, interrupting her to castigate her for her infidelity and cruelty. He brought up the subject of their daughters, especially the youngest two who were in high school. How could she do this to them? When Katharine refused to even look apologetic and would not admit any wrongdoing even as she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar, something snapped and John bitch-slapped her silly. Prince still sat there with his mouth hanging open as though he were only a spectator in this little drama.

Katharine began crying and Josh rushed out of the place. She gave her husband a dirty look as he left and Prince finally came to his senses. He went to her and hugged her,

"Might as well face it, honey, we are so busted."

"It'll work out I'm sure, Prince darling," she replied, wiping her eyes, "I've always been able to bring Josh around."

All Prince could see was D-I-V-O-R-C-E and a painful vision of himself falling off a cliff.

"And if it doesn't," she went on, "At least I'll be free and we can be together all the time."

"Yeah...together...all the time," he said morosely. Okay, this is where I get off.

Katharine didn't know it yet but her grand affair was a thing of the past. Prince had zero interest in romancing a single woman, nor in being half of a "couple". He'd been up front about that with Katharine from day one. But evidently she hadn't believed him or figured she could change his mind when the time came. It wasn't to be so.

Prince had no way to know that Katharine's husband finding out about them was saving his neck from prosecution...for the moment. Meanwhile, his relationship with Katharine was history. Even though his parents had brought him up to be a gentleman he'd fought it all the way. Self-preservation was his motto now. Don't hurt anyone if you can avoid it, but if you can't...

Next update The Brothers Everhart - Prince Ch. 9 Getting Organized

Lomax Family Ch 4 Pt 1 Mike and Lucy Back in Pleasantview

A brief history of Lucy Burb and her Family...

The Burbs moved to Pleasantview when their daughter was a child. Josh Burb started working as a draftsman, and Katharine was a stay-at-home mom.

Lucy was always a very responsible child, who loved to read and be read to as well. Being an only child she was especially close to her parents. When Katharine became pregnant while Lucy was still in elementary school, Josh decided to quit his job and become a “house husband” to help her since they were expecting twins.

The twins, Karen and Kirstie, were good babies, quiet and undemanding, but playful, too. Josh loved caring for them as much as Katharine; maybe more. Lucy, as could be expected, was a big help with the girls. Still it was hard to go from being an indulged only child to an older sister expected to help with even more chores and to babysit. 

 Katharine with Kirstie

 Josh with Karen

Lucy had her birthday the same night the twins did. She became a lovely teenager and the girls were now cute little toddlers.

As a teenager, Lucy still had to help with the twins, but she really adored them so she didn’t mind. Her parents gave her a little more time to be with friends and do activities, too. She would be leaving for college soon.

Once the twins were a year old Josh surprised his family by deciding to go back to work as the D.J. at a newly reopened club in Bluewater called Club Dante. Since toddlers were definitely more time consuming than infants, Katharine could have cheerfully hit him over the head. She had to undertake all the potty-training, and teach the twins to walk and talk all by herself. Josh worked nights and during the day he worked in his greenhouse. Sometimes the quiet man seemed a little clueless. Katharine had a dream to be a business woman but the dream seemed to be farther and farther away.

 

To Lucy it was rather embarrassing that her father worked at a disco and wore shiny pants. When any of her friends mentioned it, she would blush and try to change the subject. Some of them thought it was cool, but most thought it was just strange. In Pleasantview everyone knew each others business.

Katharine managed, with a little help from Lucy, of course. But Lucy would soon be leaving for the University.

Karen

Kirstie

The night she left for college Lucy spent some extra time with Karen and Kirstie because she knew that they would grow and change a lot while she was gone. In fact she was pretty upset at having to leave them. She knew, also, her mother would be alone trying to care for them, but Katharine assured her she would be fine and how proud they were that she was going on to University with all the scholarships.

At college, Lucy reconnected with her old crush, Mike Lomax. He didn’t know she had crushed on him in high school. They became very close over the years at college and eventually became engaged.

While Lucy was gone the girls were growing up, Karen wore her hair up and Kirstie liked her wavy hair down loose. Kirstie favored games while Karen loved arts and crafts. They were opposites in many ways, but very close to each other as twins. 

When Lucy came home from school, expecting to marry Mike soon, she had to get reacquainted with her family, especially the girls. She only had a couple months before her wedding when she would move to his father’s house. They would be there until they could buy a house of their own. The twins did not really remember Lucy from when she had lived with them before college. They were getting to know her quite well now, but it would be some time before they would feel that she was truly their sister. This saddened Lucy, but there was not much she could do about it right now. She vowed that once she was married she would try to have them visit her often. Kirstie and Karen were very excited about attending the wedding and their mother had bought each of them new dresses for the event. Very soon the day would arrive.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mike and Lucy

Mike returned home from the University to live with his father and little brother, Andy. Andy had just graduated from high school. The three men got along well, in fact, Mike got a chance to really know Andy, who was no longer a child. Larry Max was close to all of his children, but he and Andy had become great pals when Jenny left and even more so in the last year since Chelsea and Corky went to college. However; Andy was eager to go off to university and it seemed to Mike and Larry Max that the summer had been too short when Andy left one night to join the others at Pinenut Plaza.

Now it was just the two men batching it together, Larry Max and Mike. They frequently didn’t stand on ceremony and walked around in the skivvies whenever they felt like it. No one cared how often or loudly they belched either. For a while it felt kind of good to let it all hang out, Mike thought.

“Maybe we’d better clean up our act,” Larry Max cracked one morning at breakfast, “We don’t want to regress so bad that we become brutes. I doubt Lucy would appreciate it if I let you backslide so far.”

Mike had just started his job as an executive at a big company. Of course, he wanted to marry Lucy right away, but had no home for her. That’s when his father  said since he had this great big house with only himself to live in it, they should move in with him until they could afford a house of their own.

“Don’t worry, you'll get some privacy. I’ll vacate the big bedroom upstairs, we can redecorate it if you want, and I’ll convert your mom’s old studio into a bedroom for myself,” Larry Max said.

So that was their plan and Larry Max had moved his things downstairs while Lucy and Mike redid his old bedroom. Their wedding was only three weeks away now.

Larry Max's new room on the first floor:

The following Saturday morning Mike looked out across the front lawn and saw trash strewn all over the front curb. He went out to see what had happened and picked up the all the mess which filled up four garbage bags. Unfortunately there were already bugs swarming all over. Mike just couldn’t figure out why there was so much of it; he’d emptied the trash compacter last night and the can had been full but not stuffed.

“The heck with this, I’m calling the exterminator,” Mike decided. It was really early and his dad was out in his greenhouse, no sense bothering him about it.

The exterminator arrived promptly but when she drove off a short time later, Mike was shaking his fist at her. To calm himself down he went fishing for a couple hours. After that he showered and called Lucy to see what the plans were for the weekend. It wasn’t until Larry Max came in to clean up that Mike got to mention what had happened that morning.

 

“Whoever tipped over our garbage can evidently brought their own trash with them to add to it. There was more trash there than just our stuff. Then this exterminator was an idiot,” Mike went on, “She came right away but she didn’t look happy, she sprayed all around there and that killed the roaches, but then she stood there cringing and holding her nose. She wouldn’t sweep them up—had the nerve to say her job was all done and raced off. I had to sweep them up myself.”

“Yes,” Larry Max acknowledged as though he knew her well, “She doesn’t like bugs, especially roaches.”

Mike almost laughed,

“What? She's an exterminator and she doesn’t like bugs? So what does she prefer to exterminate? Bunny rabbits?I never heard of anything so stupid."

“I expect it’s probably that we have to call her so often.“

“ So often? Are you saying this has happened before, Dad?”

Larry Max shrugged,

“Yes, but it’s been a while. I thought it was over finally.”

“You mean it’s a regular thing? Why don’t you call the cops? They’d probably agree to cruise by for a couple nights and maybe even catch the jerk.”

“Well, they might do that, but I can’t call them, son.”

“Why not?” Mike was mystified.

Finally Larry Max looked Mike right in the eye,

“I can’t call the police because it’s your mother who is doing it.”

Mike was speechless.

“She’s still upset, I guess.”

Now Mike was furious,

“SHE’S upset? What right has she got to be upset? You are the wronged party! Are you sure it’s her?”

Larry Max nodded,

“I have two photos that were taken by Royal Brecht, across the street. Both were taken on the same day; one in the morning and one late at night. But you can clearly see they’re of your mother.”

He went to the tall bureau in the dining room and opened one of the drawers. He handed the photos to Mike.

“One sunny day she stood in the front yard for quite a while. Right where anyone could see her and she just stared up at the house—that’s the first photo Royal took. I finally went out to talk to her but she literally ran away. And then he took this one later that night. He tried to approach her right after he took the photo to ask her what the problem was.  He said she freaked out and ran away again. Look at her face here, I’m actually a little worried about her mental state.”

“I just don’t get it,” Mike shook his head, trying to get these images of his mother to correspond to the woman he’d known all his life and who had helped him to get and decorate  the little house they’d rented at school.

“But why should she be angry at you, Dad? She’s the one who—“

“I supposed because I threw her out of the house that night. Maybe her life is not going the way she thought it would. All I know is when I watched her as she stood on the lawn that morning, she looked wistful and sad.”

Mike wanted to ask his father something, yet he wanted to respect his privacy. He wondered if Larry Max would take Jenny back after everything. If what she wanted was to come back.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Larry Max had a wry smile on his lips, “Would I take her back? I honestly don’t know, but I’m inclined to think she would not be happy anyway, even if I did. Some things that you toss aside can never be retrieved.”

“What about YOUR happiness?” Mike said.

“Ahhh, that. Yes, well, I’m happy enough for now. I have my work and the gardening to keep me busy.”

“What about women?”

“Ouch,” Larry Max remarked, “I didn’t do so well with the only woman in my life. But maybe later--who knows?”

“You should get out—you’re always at work or home. You need to meet more people.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll get right to work on that,” Larry Max smiled, “Meanwhile, are we still supposed to be at your fiancee’s house tomorrow?”

Lucy had told Mike that she wanted a little get-together at her house on Sunday for the in-laws.  Chelsea, Corky and Andy would not be able to come, unfortunately, being at school of course.

The first thing next morning, still in his room, Mike called Jenny. As soon as she answered the phone, he spoke to her curtly.

“I’d appreciate it if you’d stop the nonsense with the garbage, Mom. I think it’s getting pretty old.”

“What are you talking about, Michael?”

“You know what I’m talking about—so stop acting innocent. I can’t believe you’d do it once, let alone turn it into a crusade.”

“I have absolutely no idea what you mean, Michael.”

Mike could not believe she had the nerve to act as though she didn’t remember anything.

“Kicking over the garbage can, stalking the house, that’s what I mean. I’ve seen photos, Mom, so I know it’s you. You’re the one who cheated on Dad, so why don’t you go kick the garbage can of whoever you’re with now, okay? And leave us alone.”

“Mike, maybe you should put your dad on.”

“Just cut it out, Mom. I’m not going to bother him. Don’t worry, he didn’t say anything bad about you, but he wouldn’t lie to cover up for you either. All this time I’ve told myself you’re my Mom and what’s between you and Dad is none of my business. But this is just too much; especially when you lie about it.”

“Honestly, Michael, I…”

“I don’t want to talk to you anymore; I don’t want to see you anymore.”

He hung up and jumped in the shower; hoping to drive the whole thing out of his mind somehow. At least for today. He had more important things to think about. Jenny kept trying to call him so he turned off his cell phone. 

For next installment of the Lomax Family go HERE

For Jenny's separate story go HERE