Chapter 19

Betsy walked down to the beach intending to have a nice relaxing swim. It was the weekend and the house was a little crowded. She was still bothered by Chuck’s abduction, but at least something good came of it. He was now living at her house, where he could be adequately protected. There were other benefits of having him around so much, too.

At the moment, though, she just wanted a little time of her own. She desired a chance to just get her thoughts in order. It seemed to her that things were moving in unexpected directions. There was the warning by the Two-Sided One that many of the people around her were going to be tested. After what happened with Chuck, she wondered just how bad those tests might be.

Sally and Steve were staying over with plans on checking out some fish ponds that were getting built on this island. Their project was going well. They already had more than twenty fish ponds in operation and another thirty under construction. Once the ponds started producing, Sally and Steve would be very rich people. They were even trying to talk her into putting one on her property.

Sally’s life had changed dramatically since she had met Betsy. No longer was she the shy woman who would melt down when speaking in front of a crowd, or stutter and stammer in a conversation with a stranger. Now she met and dealt with strangers on a daily basis. She addressed crowds at large conference meetings in which she talked about the fish pond business.

She had lost almost all body modesty. She regularly went swimming in the ocean at Betsy’s place without a bathing suit. She sun bathed nude even in the presence of the household staff. She spent almost all of her private time with Steve without a stitch of clothing. There had been a time in her life when the thought of doing that was absolutely impossible.

Sally wasn’t even sure of when she had made that transition from shy person to an outgoing person. It just seemed that one day she woke up and found that she was telling someone what they should have been doing. She didn’t know when or how it had happened, just that it had. She did credit Betsy’s friendship with having played a major role in it.

Betsy stepped onto the beach and paused. She heard someone crying and looked around. She didn’t immediately spot anyone. She followed the sounds back into thick foliage that grew up to the beach. In the midst of that lush growth, there was a little area clear of vegetation. Seated in the middle of it was Sally.

She sat so that her feet were flat on the ground with her knees in front of her face. She had wrapped her arms around her shins. Tears were running down her cheeks. She looked positively miserable.

Betsy went over to Sally and sat down beside her. With concern in her voice, Betsy asked, “Why are you crying?”

Embarrassed at having been caught crying, Sally sat up a little straighter. She wiped her eyes and tried to put on a happy face.

“I just felt like crying,” Sally answered unsuccessful in trying to make light of her tears.

“So there’s nothing the matter?” Betsy asked casually.

“No.”

Betsy looked around the little area before looking over at Sally. She said, “Usually when I feel like crying, is when there’s something the matter. Sometimes I’ve cried tears of happiness, but you don’t look particularly happy. I don’t remember ever having a time when I cried when there was nothing the matter.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Sally said evasively.

“So there is something the matter.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Betsy snorted. She shifted around so that she was a little more comfortable. She pulled a small twig out from beneath her butt and tossed it over to the side.

She said, “We’re surrounded by some of the most beautiful real estate in the world. We’re sitting in the midst of lush tropical plants. The scent of flowers fill the air. We can actually see the ocean from here. The sky is clear and the air warm. We’re in paradise, but you’re crying tears of sadness. That’s not right.”

“Leave me alone,” Sally said leaning away from Betsy.

Betsy said, “Not until you tell me what is the matter.”

Sally buried her face behind her knees and started crying again. She was a perfectly miserable sight. Even though she had no clue as to her friend’s problem, Betsy felt like crying.

“What is the matter?” Betsy asked. There was a desperate pleading tone in her voice.

“It’s nothing,” Sally said.

“It isn’t nothing. Something has gotten you really upset,” Betsy said.

It took Betsy nearly thirty minutes to calm Sally down and get her to talk about what was bothering her.

Sniffling, Sally said, “I’m getting married in ten days.”

Wondering if this was just a case of pre-wedding jitters, Betsy said, “I know. I can’t wait to be your bridesmaid.”

Sally said, “My parents aren’t interested in coming to my wedding.”

“What?” Betsy shouted rising from the ground.

She stood over Sally looking down at her with an angry expression on her face. She hoped that she had heard Sally wrong. Parents should be interested in the lives of their children. This kind of apathy towards Sally angered Betsy. Sally didn’t do anything to deserve that kind of treatment.

“My parents aren’t interested in coming,” Sally said and then resumed sobbing.

“No!”

“Yes.”

The ‘yes’ came out sounding more like a whimper than a word. There was a tone of resignation to it that nearly broke Betsy’s heart. Betsy’s sorrow quickly turned to anger at Sally’s parents.

“Did you tell them that I’d fly them out here?”

“Yes,” Sally answered.

Cal and Heidi Tilton lived in a modest suburban house in a very middle class neighborhood. The house was far below the kind of place that their income would have once rated. The couple, more self involved than interested in impressing people, had kept the modest house, choosing instead to travel the world between deals. As brokers of mergers for huge international firms, their commissions were often counted in tens of millions of dollars.

They lived the good life. They reveled in vacations to exotic locations over summers and holidays. All travel and lodging was first class. They would settle for nothing less than that for the two of them. When money was good, they flew in a private jet, hired a personal limousine, and rented villas. When money wasn’t so good, they flew first class in a regular plane, rented a car, and stayed in resorts.

When they were at home, they had eaten in fine restaurants, attended the opera, and attended gala events. They were there to see and be seen. Political fundraisers, charity events, and openings for the arts. A typical evening out might cost them as much as ten thousand dollars.

As far as they were concerned, their house was little more than a place to change clothes. It was not a home and they had never intended for it to be one.

Where once the whole world had once been their playground, they had fallen on bad times. Traveling around the world was no longer an option. Their previous work, that had earned a huge salary, no longer existed, although it might be more accurate to say that their services were no longer required. Their savings were gone. Their investments were gone. All they had left was the house and what it contained.

Fortunately for them, the house had contained a lot. In their travels to distant lands, they had bought gold coins and jewelry made of gold and silver. They had collected items made of precious and semi-precious jewels. It was a wealth that they were now having to live off of. They would trade a gold coin for food. After the most recent exchange, they now had a huge cache of staples stored in the basement of their house.

At the moment, the couple was seated in their living room looking over the collection of jewelry trying to figure out how long they could live off of them once they ran out of gold coins. It was a rough calculation, as such things typically are. This broach would fetch two months of food. This diamond ring might fetch three months of food. This heavy gold necklace could be chopped up and traded, one short length at a time, for several more months of food. This thin necklace could get another month of food. With the addition of another ring or two, they had enough for a year. Then it was time to calculate how much more food the other pieces of jewelry would buy them.

Their discussion was interrupted by a loud knock on the front door. Grabbing his pistol, Cal went to the front door. He opened it and then stared at the woman convinced that she was there to rob him. After all, she was black despite the fact that she had oriental features. Everyone knew that blacks were in gangs and loved to rob whites. They’d be lucky if she didn’t rape his wife.

Cal raised his pistol intending to shoot her. The woman grabbed the pistol from his hand before he even had a chance to blink. With a casual move, Betsy removed the clip from the pistol and ejected the round that was in the chamber. It took her two seconds to disassemble the pistol. She tossed the pieces around the front yard as if she was tossing bread to a bunch of ducks by a pond.

“You won’t need that,” Betsy said.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Betsy.”

“Get out of here or I’ll call the police,” Cal shouted.

After hiding the box with jewelry, Heidi joined her husband at the front door. She stood behind her husband wondering what was happening. She yelped when she spotted Betsy.

Betsy laughed at the absurdity of that threat. “Are you kidding? There aren’t any police left.”

“Why are you here?” Heidi asked moving closer to her husband.

“I’m here about Sally.”

“Sally who?” Cal asked blankly.

“Sally Tilton.”

Snorting, Heidi said, “Her? You can leave now. She doesn’t live here.”

Wondering if she had gone to the correct household, Betsy asked, “You are her parents, right?”

“So what? If she’s done something wrong, it’s got nothing to do with us,” Cal said holding his hands up in protest that he might be held accountable for something she might have done.

“That’s right,” Heidi chimed in. “So if you’re here for her, you should just leave now.”

Incredulous at their behavior, Betsy said, “She’s getting married.”

“So?”

“Don’t you want to attend the wedding?”

Cal looked puzzled at the assertion that he should want to attend the wedding. Heidi glanced over at him and shrugged her shoulders.

“Not really,” Heidi said.

“What do you mean, not really?” Betsy asked unable to believe how they were acting.

“It’s not worth traveling now that all of the resorts are closed,” Cal said.

“We’ve been to Hawaii a dozen times and, quite frankly, we’re bored with it,” Heidi said haughtily.

“Besides, it is probably like a third world country now.”

Heidi said, “We’d have to leave the house unprotected.”

“You don’t want to see your daughter get married?” Betsy asked incredulous at their callous attitude.

“No.”

“No.”

“Aren’t you at least interested to find out what kind of guy she’s marrying?”

“Why? She’s the one marrying him, not me,” Heidi said.

“Now she’s his responsibility,” Cal said.

Betsy said, “I don’t believe this. How can you talk like that? Don’t you worry about her? Don’t you care?”

“She’s her own person and is free to do as she wants,” Cal said.

Looking at Heidi, Betsy said, “You gave birth to her. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

Heidi said, “She was a mistake.”

Not sure that she had heard the woman correctly, Betsy asked, “A mistake?”

“We didn’t plan on having any kids. She set back our plans by twelve years. We couldn’t travel until she was old enough to take care of herself,” Heidi declared.

“She’s your daughter!”

“Hey. At least I didn’t abort her,” Heidi said protesting her innocence.

“What?” Betsy asked.

Her voice was cold enough to freeze water. Her fists were clenched with the knuckles turning white. She was really beginning to get angry and that didn’t bode well for the Tiltons.

“Don’t act all high and mighty,” Cal said defensively.

Heidi said, “We took care of her.”

“We kept this house because she could walk to and from school all by herself,” Cal said.

“I even stayed at home until she started school,” Heidi said.

“We made sure that there was always food in the house.”

“She had good clothes.”

Cal said, “We were good parents.”

Betsy stared at the couple as if they were creatures from outer space. They backed away and slammed the front door closed.

Betsy got angry. The door didn’t stay closed for long.

Feeling depressed, Betsy sat on the plane staring out the window at the checkerboard of farms below. She wasn’t really seeing the scenery. She was seeing a middle class home six hundred miles behind her.

She could not imagine such indifference on the part of a parent towards his or her child. In a way, she was pleased with the restraint she had shown. The more they had talked, the angrier she had become. Her desire to beat the hell out of Sally’s parents had been almost irresistible.

She had figured that she would show up there, talk to Sally’s parents, and convince them to attend the wedding. She was convinced that there was some reason, probably economic, why they wouldn’t be able to attend. With her resources, she could fix problems that were beyond most people.

Well, her good intentions didn’t bear fruit, and not for a lack of trying. She had tried guilt, coercion, and threats. They just didn’t want to go. They saw no reason for going.

They weren’t even willing to give Sally a wedding present. It was as if the young woman didn’t really exist as far as they were concerned. They didn’t love her and they didn’t hate her. They hadn’t disowned her. In a way, they had never claimed her. Sally was just nothing to them. Betsy had once heard the term, ‘depraved indifference,’ and she’d had no idea what it meant. Now she did.

After meeting her parents, Betsy was surprised that Sally hadn’t acquired more psychological problems beyond terminal shyness. She could only imagine the kind of childhood that she must have had. She doubted they had ever hugged or kissed her. Praise was probably non-existent. Clearly they had never treated her with love, since that seemed to be an emotion of which they were incapable of feeling. She also doubted they had ever hit her since that kind of action required some degree of emotion.

Ben, leaving the flying to the co-pilot for a moment, sat down in a chair next to Betsy. He could see that the young woman was upset about the result of this trip.

“What’s the matter?”

“Sally’s parents are not human.”

“Not human?” Ben asked unsure of what Betsy meant.

“You know that I’ve encountered a lot of evil people. I’ve dealt with people who are immoral, violent, and criminal to the core. I’ve faced rapists, pedophiles, robbers, and murderers. I waged war against organized crime.”

Well aware of some of the events in Betsy’s past, Ben said, “You’ve met quite a few of the bottom dwelling scum of our society.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as horrible as Sally’s parents,” Betsy said.

Ben said, “Parenting is not easy. People make mistakes. I’m sure they did their best for Sally.”

“This isn’t a matter of them making a mistake. This is far different from lacking parental skills,” Betsy said.

“In what way?”

“I don’t know how to put it into words,” Betsy said.