A Frying Shame

by Linda Reilly

  In the solitary moment it took for Audrey to focus, Talia had an urge to run back out into the rain. If the weather hadn’t been so horrible, she’d have grabbed Martha and headed outside for a long, bracing walk so mother and daughter could be alone.

  Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.

  Talia scooted back into the kitchen, and Martha joined her at the small table. For the next several minutes, they listened to a round of cries and accusations that were nothing short of agonizing.

  “You’re a cheat. A liar!”

  “I didn’t want to hurt you. I wasn’t trying to deceive you!”

  “You’re lying, Mother. You’ve been tricking me all my life!”

  “How can you say that? Your father adored you. No matter what, you were his child!”

  Martha looked at Talia. “I can’t take it anymore.”

  Talia scraped back her chair and went out to the dining room. She stood between Molly and Audrey, both of whom were close to hysteria. “Please, please stop screaming at each other,” she begged. “You won’t solve anything this way.”

  Audrey covered her eyes with her hands. “There’s nothing to solve,” she said hoarsely. “I can’t magically turn back the clock.”

  Her eyes red and swollen, Molly leaped off her chair. “For once, she’s right. I’ll be going back to school early, Mother. In the meantime, I’ll be staying with one of my friends.” She scooped her iPad off the table and raced out the door.

  “Oh God—she’ll get soaked!” Audrey cried.

  Feeling helpless, Talia shook her head. Molly would get soaked, but that was her choice. Could things get much worse?

  Yes, they could. Crystal could go to prison for a crime she hadn’t committed.

  The overhead lights flickered just then. Audrey gasped and clasped onto her chair.

  “It’s only the lights, Audrey,” Talia said soothingly. She prayed they wouldn’t lose power. She sat down and rubbed her friend’s forearm. “Do you want to talk about it? I’m willing to listen, in case you do.”

  Audrey nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “I have to tell someone. Someone who will understand.”

  “I’m willing to listen, too,” Martha said. She carried out a tray bearing three tall glasses and set down an iced tea for each of them.

  Audrey pulled in a long, shaky breath, as if bracing herself for what was to come. “I’ve known Wesley since high school. I think you suspected that much, right?”

  Martha said nothing, but Talia nodded. Vivian had told her much of it, but she wanted to hear it from Audrey herself.

  “We were in the same class as Sandra Bosley,” she said, a touch of bitterness in her tone. “Sandra was the pretty, bubbly type. Cheerleader, Pep Club, all that stuff. Boys flocked to her, of course, for the obvious reason. Everyone knew she ‘put out’”—she encased the words in imaginary quotes—“as the expression goes, which ensured that she always had a date on Saturday night.”

  Martha shook her head and scowled.

  “At the beginning of our senior year, a new boy moved to town. Smart, athletic, good-looking—but without being too wrapped up in himself. He was polite to a fault. He actually seemed to respect girls, which is why I . . . fell for him.”

  “Wesley?” Talia said.

  “Yes.” Audrey cleared her throat. “I turned eighteen in the late fall of my senior year. Wesley was already nineteen. He’d missed a year of school back in his hometown in Illinois because of a bad bout with a strain of meningitis. Luckily, he pulled through it with flying colors. After he moved to Wrensdale, he even joined the track team. Put up some pretty impressive stats.” Audrey folded her hands over the table and smiled.

  “Sports wasn’t his thing, though,” she continued. “He had visions of traveling, of seeing the world. His folks were pretty indulgent, and luckily for him, they had a little money. They made sure he applied to all the best colleges.”

  “Did you have plans for after graduation?” Martha asked her.

  “Well, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I was a good student, but not a great one. I thought I’d go to community college and see what kinds of subjects might interest me.”

  A sudden burst of thunder made them all jump.

  “Storm’s getting worse,” Martha noted.

  Audrey continued. “Wesley and I didn’t begin seeing each other until after the Christmas holidays. He asked me to the Valentine’s dance at school, and after that, we started going steady.” She blushed profusely. “For a while, things were wonderful. Our folks, and others, figured it was just teenage infatuation. That we’d forget about each other after graduation. But Wesley and I knew it was the real deal.”

  “It was Sandra who spoiled it, wasn’t it?” Martha said bluntly.

  Audrey’s gaze hardened. “Sandra had designs on Wesley from the moment we entered senior year. All the boys knew she was easy, but Wesley didn’t even like her. She was too brash for his tastes, in spite of her looks.”

  So far, Audrey had made Wesley sound like a choirboy. Talia suspected that his motives weren’t all that magnanimous.

  “Sandra didn’t like that Wesley ignored her. She tried getting him alone a few times, but she wasn’t too successful. Then Wes learned he’d gotten accepted to Northwestern on a scholarship. Excited as he was, he didn’t want to leave me. But he knew he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. We planned to see each other on school breaks and during the summers. After his college graduation, we could finally get married. I mean, we really were trying to be sensible about it.”

  “It sounds like you had your futures all planned out,” Talia said softly.

  “We did.” Audrey gave out a tiny sob. “Until I found out I was pregnant.” She took a long sip of her iced tea, then pushed the glass away. “It was about three weeks before graduation. We thought we’d been so careful, but . . . well, things happen, as they say. I knew I had to tell Wes, but I was terrified.”

  “How did you tell him?” Martha asked.

  “I passed him a note in algebra class, asked him to meet me behind the bleachers after school at four. I told him it was important.” She snagged a napkin from the silver dispenser on the table and used it to blot her eyes. “He didn’t read the note until lunch that day, in the cafeteria. He must have dropped it when he was in the food line, because it ended up in Norma Taylor’s—that’s what her name was then—hands. She immediately gave the note to Sandra, but of course I didn’t know it at the time. Norma was a horrible woman, conniving and nasty and petty. She loved causing trouble.”

  “I don’t get people like that,” Martha said sourly.

  “Anyway, that afternoon I was running a little late. My stomach was gurgling. I’d already thrown up twice. When I got close to the bleachers, Wes was already waiting. Except he wasn’t alone. He was with Sandra.” She blotted her eyes with a new napkin. “She had her arms wrapped around his waist and her head pressed against his chest. I could tell neither of them had seen me.”

  “Oh, Audrey,” Talia said, imagining how upsetting that must have been, “what did you do?”

  “Well, first I dropped to the ground so I wouldn’t pass out. It was warm that day, horribly warm. I cried and cried. I finally got myself together and ran inside the school. I managed to keep my stomach intact till I could get to the girls’ room. After that, I threw up until my insides ached.”

  “Didn’t Wes look for you?” Talia asked. “He must have wondered why you didn’t show up.”

  “I don’t know if he looked for me or not. I broke up with him the next day and told him not to speak to me ever again.”

  “But you were . . .”

  “Yes, pregnant. With his child.”

  Talia couldn’t imagine what she’d have done in Audrey’s shoes. Her folks, she knew, would’ve been supportive—although they certainly would not have been pleased. It was a difficult spot to be in—that’s for sure.

  “What about your parents?” Talia asked her.

  Audrey f
rowned. “Mom and Dad were very disappointed in me, but they didn’t kick me out or anything.”

  “You must have told Wesley eventually,” Martha put in, shoving a napkin under her sweating glass.

  Audrey went silent.

  “Oh my God,” Talia whispered.

  Audrey’s eyes glistened. “It got around school real quick that I’d dumped Wesley Thurman. It was the talk of the school for the next three days. No one knew I was pregnant, of course, although some of my friends suspected. There was this other boy—Brad Feldon—who’d always had a crush on me, but I’d thought of him only as a friend.”

  “Kind of like Molly and Lucas,” Talia said.

  “Kind of, except Lucas was . . . is too young for Molly.”

  Talia saw Martha flinch. “Did Brad ask you out?”

  “He did, and he was so sweet that I felt guilty taking advantage of him. At that point, graduation was only about two weeks off. It was clear that Brad was falling hard for me. I couldn’t lead him on any longer, so I told him the truth.”

  “You told Brad about being preggers with Wesley’s kid, but you didn’t tell Wesley?” Martha looked aghast.

  Talia touched Martha’s arm. Martha had a habit of jumping onto her high horse when something riled her. Talia wanted to rein her in before she said something she’d regret.

  Audrey nodded. “I thought he’d dump me like a hot brick, but instead he did the unthinkable—he asked me to marry him.” Her voice grew very soft. “He said no one had to know that the child wasn’t his.”

  “Oh, Audrey.” Talia shook her head. One thing still didn’t add up. “But the timing was off, wasn’t it? Hadn’t you been pregnant for at least a few months?”

  “Five weeks, actually,” Audrey replied. “And Molly was small when she was born. My doctor, and my folks, were the only ones who knew that she wasn’t born prematurely.”

  Talia doubted that. Others must have suspected. People talk, and the news of Wes and Audrey’s high school breakup had spread quickly.

  “So you accepted Brad’s proposal,” Martha said, a little roughly.

  Audrey lifted her chin. “Yes, I did, and we eloped the following weekend, right after graduation. I have never regretted it,” she said defensively. “He turned out to be a wonderful husband and the best father Molly could’ve had.”

  But you didn’t love him, Talia wanted to say.

  “Once Molly started grade school, Brad encouraged me to get my degree. I chose teaching, of all things, and ended up teaching a bunch of seventh-grade monsters.” She rolled her eyes. “What was I thinking? I was an awful teacher.”

  “What about Wesley?” Talia asked, wanting her to backtrack. “How did you leave things with him?”

  Audrey’s face paled. “Wes and I never spoke again, not even once. When he found out I’d eloped with Brad, he wouldn’t even look at me. He went off to Northwestern, and that was the last I ever saw of him.”

  “Until this week,” Martha reminded her.

  Audrey’s body sagged. She looked as if she might topple over. “When we got that brochure in the mail for the Steeltop Foods contest, my stomach almost dropped out of my body. All these years, I’ve lived in fear of him coming back. I was terrified that somehow, some way, he’d find out Molly was his biological child. And then suddenly, there he was. My worst nightmare was coming true.”

  A host of thoughts tumbled through Talia’s head. How would she feel if she were Molly? Would she want to know who her real father was? Or would she be better off thinking that a kind and loving man like Brad Feldon had been her real dad?

  Talia didn’t have to think long. No matter who her real dad was, she’d want to know the truth.

  “I didn’t want Wesley coming back here,” Audrey continued. “I didn’t want him to ever meet Molly.”

  Talia sighed. “So you tried to talk Crystal out of entering the competition, but she was determined to be a contestant.”

  “I know it wasn’t fair of me—Crystal’s an excellent cook. I knew that if she won that prize money, it would help her a lot. But I also knew Wes would try to see me, and that was the last thing I needed.”

  Talia remembered Molly saying that he’d tried to friend her on Facebook but she’d thought he was just some lech and deleted the requests. “Wesley must have realized Molly was his daughter,” Talia said, “when he saw the uncanny resemblance to his sister.”

  “Resemblance?” Audrey barked out. “My God, they’re mirror images of each other.”

  “At least we know why he wanted that idiotic contest to be held here,” Martha said. “The whole idea was goofy and not very well planned. If a woman had been in charge, it would have been far more organized. Thurman only did it because he needed an excuse to see you again.”

  Talia bit off a smile. Martha thought women should be in charge of everything. But that reminded her of something. “Sandra Summers wanted to help Wes run the competition. Her husband told me about it.”

  Audrey’s small fists clenched. “I’m not surprised,” she said tightly. “The woman is like a category five hurricane. She destroys everything in her path. She’s been trying to sink her claws into Wesley since the day she met him.” She swallowed. “I found out right before graduation that Norma had told her about my note to Wes. I’m not sure how Norma knew, but like I said, Wes probably dropped the note when he was in the cafeteria line. He was forever losing things. Anyway, Sandra told me Norma gave her the note. I knew she had to be telling the truth because she repeated what I’d written, almost word for word, in that witchy, gloaty voice of hers.”

  Talia thought about the way Sandra treated her husband. “I don’t know Harry Summers all that well, but he seems like a decent guy. I can’t imagine why he puts up with her antics. I witnessed the way she spoke to him. It was embarrassing.”

  Audrey’s eyes filled again. “I don’t care about Sandra. What am I going to do about Molly? She hates me now. She’ll probably never speak to me again.”

  A loud clap of thunder made all of them jump. The lights flickered again, and this time Talia feared they’d go out altogether. She heaved a sigh of relief when the power managed to stay on.

  “Audrey, I don’t believe for a minute that Molly hates you. But right now she’s really, really mad. Her world got turned upside down. I think she’s just very confused. Once she has a chance to think it through, she’ll want to talk about it.”

  Audrey sniffled. “Do you really think so?”

  “I do.”

  “Listen, Audrey,” Martha said, leaning forward over the table. “I’m going to be real frank here. I’ve worked with foster kids, and I’m not saying it’s anything like your situation. But one thing I learned is that kids want the truth. The worst thing you can do is lie to them, and that’s probably how Molly is looking at this. Right about now she’s thinking that her life has been one big lie.”

  Not helpful, Martha, Talia thought.

  To Talia’s surprise, Audrey sat up straighter. “You’re right, Martha. And I appreciate your honesty. I have to make her see that nothing about her life has been a lie. Whatever bad things I’ve done, they don’t reflect on her.”

  A sudden chill made Talia rub her arms. She stood abruptly and went to the door. She opened it and saw that the plaza was nearly flooded. Rain was coming down in torrential sheets, sweeping over the cobblestone in windblown gusts. The temperature seemed to have dropped twenty degrees since early morning.

  Across the way, a solitary figure was peering through one of the windows at the Fork and Dish. Talia could barely make out the person through the downpour, but she was sure it was a man.

  “Audrey, did you leave the lights on at your shop?”

  “I think so. Why? Is Molly there?” She left her chair and was at Talia’s side in a second.

  “I don’t think it’s Molly,” Talia said, “but it looks like someone is trying to get in. Do you want me to call the police?”

  Just then the solitary figure turned and saw them
. He began sprinting toward Fry Me.

  “It’s him,” Audrey said furiously. “Close the door!”

  Talia started to close it, but Audrey stood there, frozen, blocking the door’s path. “Audrey, let me—” she cried, but in the next instant Wesley Thurman was only a yard away, his expression a mixture of agony and relief.

  “We need to talk,” he said to Audrey.

  We need to talk. Just like the note! He’d been the author of the cryptic note. Talia was sure of it now.

  Rain dripped down his face, into his eyes. He sucked in deep breaths, as if the race across the cobblestones had left him winded. Suddenly, Thurman pushed his way inside, spraying rainwater everywhere. He slammed the door shut.

  “Mr. Thurman, you are not welcome here,” Talia said, trying to keep the fright from her voice. “If you don’t leave immediately, I’ll get the police to toss you out for me.” It was a weak threat, but it was all she could think of.

  To her surprise, tears began rolling down his cheeks. “I’m sorry, Talia, but I have to talk to Audrey. Call the cops if you want, but I’m not leaving until I’ve had my say.”

  Audrey turned away, her shoulders heaving. “Why are you doing this?” she said raggedly. “Why are you torturing me like this?”

  “Because I want some answers,” he said quietly to her back. “You owe me, Audrey.”

  For the longest time, it seemed, Audrey stood there in silence. Then finally she turned, her hands clasped under her chin. “I’ll tell you what you want to know, but then you have to leave. And I don’t want you ever talking to Molly. Is that understood?”

  Thurman swept his short dark blond hair away from his face, then shook water from his hand. “No,” he said. “It is not understood. I have a right to talk to Molly.”

  “You have no rights!” Audrey dropped onto the chair she’d vacated and plunked her head into her arms. He went over and pulled out the chair beside her and lowered himself onto it. As if by telepathic consent, Talia and Martha moved away from them, toward the kitchen.

  “Wait,” Thurman said. “I’m going to say my piece first and then I’ll leave, but I want you all to hear this. Please. Sit down.” He motioned them back to the table.