Out on the Sound

by R. E. Bradshaw

  Decky had locked the house up tight. Not knowing what Lizzie’s next move would be was always unsettling. She could only hope Lizzie’s reaction would be kept in the family, but she knew her mother would divide the entire community. Lizzie would have to be assured by everyone she came in contact with, that she was acting exactly as she should be. Lizzie would discuss Decky’s personal life with the postman, the pharmacist, the garbage man, etc. Decky had to be prepared, but for what?

  The gunshot crashed into a window downstairs. It was a gunshot. No doubt about it. Charlie didn’t so much hear the shot as experience the aftermath. Decky was on her feet in a split second. She elbowed Charlie in the chest on the way up, nearly sending Charlie crashing to the floor. Decky grabbed the crutches, heading for the elevator.

  Charlie stood up with that baby, wide-eyed look, so familiar to Decky now, “Decky, what is it? What’s happening?”

  Decky did not look back. “Stay here,” was all she said.

  Decky stopped at a small desk, removing a nine-millimeter, and placing it in the waistband of her pants.

  Charlie, who had now come fully awake, grabbed Decky’s arm, “Decky, stop! What is it?”

  Decky turned to her, “I don’t know, Charlie. I think I heard a gunshot, but I’m not sure. Stay here with Dixie. Don’t let her follow me. I don’t need to have to worry about the two of you right now.”

  Charlie dropped Decky’s arm and headed straight for the telephone.

  “Charlie, don’t call the police. If it is Lizzie, I don’t want her leaving here in handcuffs. I would never hear the end of it.”

  “You don’t want your mother in handcuffs, but you might shoot her? What kind of logic is that? Don’t go out there.”

  “I have to. Stay here. I mean it. You are my only witness, I need you alive.” She grinned at Charlie.

  Charlie put the receiver down on the phone cradle. Decky wasn’t grinning on the inside. She had to leave before Charlie saw she was trembling. This was it: Showdown at the Hurricane Lizzie Corral.

  “Of course, if she gets past me you guys are on your own. Take my cell phone down the deck stairs and call the twins. They know what to do.”

  Charlie located Decky’s phone with her eyes and then followed Decky’s gaze to the outside doors to the deck, all the time sizing up the situation. She had evidently decided to follow Decky’s instructions.

  Just before Decky’s head disappeared out of view she called up to Charlie, “Make sure she’s in the house before you leave. You don’t want to run up on her in the dark outside. It’s pretty scary.”

  Decky had only been trying to alleviate some of Charlie’s fears by joking. The truth was she was frightened for Charlie. In the right circumstances, Decky was sure her mother would shoot either Decky or Charlie, even herself. Lizzie could be really demented. Decky tried to tell herself her mother could not escape her mental condition, but from her observations, Decky didn’t think her mother tried to help herself either.

  Decky approached the foyer area carefully. The motion detectors had illuminated the front yard. Through the front door glass, she could see Lizzie aiming a pistol at yet another window. Decky went to the door and opened it.

  “Momma, what are you doing?” Decky said this calmly, not wanting to inflame the situation anymore than it already was.

  “I know that harlot is in there. I went to the cottage, so I know she’s in there.”

  Decky thought that was what Lizzie said anyway. It was hard to tell. The liquor accent made it difficult to understand her.

  “Momma, this is between you and me. Charlie has nothing to do with this.” Decky was attempting to draw her mother’s attention away from Charlie and on to herself.

  “That dyke must have drugged you. There is no way a daughter of mine would do something this…this dissssguuusting!”

  Lizzie was waving the pistol, using it to punctuate her tirade. Decky swayed on the crutches with each flash of the barrel. Lizzie was fit to be tied, literally. Decky could swear that Lizzie’s eyes were glowing. She was stark raving mad this time. Decky had seen this drunken personality distortion only once before. Under normal circumstances, although easy to anger, Lizzie would handle adversity as a woman full of southern grace and charm. She would refuse to have anything to do with you, but talk about you behind your back and generally try to make your life miserable. However, on one occasion, many years ago, Lizzie had been pushed to the limits with her sister-in-law on R.C’s side.

  R.C.’s brother was a major asshole and married to “the slut.” The slut had made a pass at R.C. “The slut,” having been rebuffed by Decky’s father, made the mistake of talking badly about R.C. in front on an already angry Lizzie. Decky had been young, but she clearly remembered the look of rage on Lizzie’s face, when she pulled the grate from the bottom of the refrigerator and proceeded to pummel “the slut” until R.C. arrived and interceded.

  Lizzie, upon sobering up, went into a deep depression, because she had not acted like a lady. She was exceedingly sorry, even though Decky told her over and over; she had done the exact same thing Decky would have done. Now that the same anger was being leveled at her and Charlie, Decky wasn’t so sure she should have encouraged her mother.

  “Get out of my way. I’m going in there and send that bitch packing.” Lizzie was coming up the steps now.

  A new sensation overtook Decky. Up until this moment, she had dealt with her mother with sadness for Lizzie’s disability. Decky fully understood the depths of her mother’s illness. She had talked with doctors and researched bi-polar disease. She had been able to trace the depression in her mother’s family through medical records during her genealogy research. Suicide, alcoholism, post partum depression, psychiatric treatments; they were all there. Lizzie had a chemical imbalance, which she could no more control than the color of her eyes.

  The new sensation was an anger born out of the threat to the woman in the house, whom Decky loved more than life itself. That was it. Lizzie was going to have to kill her before she let her get to Charlie. No question about it. Lizzie had crossed a line.

  “Momma, I’m going to ask you nicely to get back in your car and leave.” Decky said this as she leaned her crutches on the railing and using the rail hopped down one-step closer to her mother.

  Lizzie was stunned by the look on Decky’s face. Decky could see it in her mother’s eyes. Lizzie hesitated then unbelievably got angrier. She continued up the steps.

  “Are you threatening me?” Lizzie demanded. “I’ll make you wish you were never born.”

  The bridge had been crossed and left burning like Atlanta. The relationship between Decky and her mother was about to cross into new territory. A place where Decky no longer put the fact that this was her mother, the woman who birthed her, a woman who was sick and needed help, before what she said next.

  In a calm, deep voice Decky spoke, “You’re going to have to shoot me, if you think for one minute you are going to get past me, but let me make this very clear, when you shoot, you had better kill me. You will not get a second shot.”

  Lizzie stopped dead in her tracks. She took a long look at Decky’s face. Lizzie seemed to be trying to decide what to do next, when R.C.’s truck headlights bounced into view. He was barreling down the lane straight for them.

  Decky’s father was out of the truck before it came to a complete stop. His arrival had distracted Lizzie. Decky heard a noise behind her, but she did not take her eyes off of Lizzie. R.C. stopped short of the steps.

  “Elizabeth Bradshaw! You come down those steps this instant!”

  Decky noted her father was using his most educated authoritarian voice.

  Lizzie turned on R.C. “Are you going to let her get away with this? Tell her she can’t do this!”

  R.C. never looked at Decky. “Decky is a grown woman. Neither of us has any say in how she lives her life. It has nothing to do with us.”

  Lizzie was not to be outdone. “Nothing to do with us? What will people think a
bout us? I did not raise a gay daughter!”

  “It makes absolutely no difference what anyone says about us. We are not responsible for Decky’s decisions. As I said, she is a grown woman.”

  “It’s your fault!” Lizzie screamed at him. “You turned her into a boy with all those sports. You did this.”

  R.C. remained calm. “I doubt seriously that either one of us had anything to do with this.”

  Lizzie turned back to Decky. “You do this and you can kiss your father and I goodbye. I won’t have a lesbian in my family. I won’t have it!”

  Lizzie was waving the pistol again.

  When R.C. spoke this time he was not asking, he ordered her as if he would have a child who was misbehaving, “Elizabeth, get in the truck, now!”

  Lizzie hesitated only a fraction of a second. As she passed R.C. at the bottom of the steps, he took the gun out of her hand. Lizzie did not look back.

  Decky hopped down the steps toward her father. “Thank you. She’s really gone off the deep end on this one.”

  R.C. spoke in a much calmer voice still with the serious quality of his order to Lizzie, “Decky, I don’t agree with your choices, but I’m sure you didn’t expect me too. You are still my daughter and I love you. That is really all that matters. I will try to talk to your mother, but I don’t think this is going to blow over very fast.”

  “No, I don’t imagine it will. Thank you, Daddy. I love you, too. I know this is hard on you. I hate that it has made momma so crazy, and I know this is going to make your life hell. I did not choose this, it chose me. I hope one day you’ll understand.”

  “I’m sorry I let her get away. I fell asleep watching the race.” Decky’s father loved NASCAR, but was famous for falling asleep during the middle of the race. He would wake up at the end every time. He had some kind of weird built-in alarm. “We’ll talk later. I better get your mother home. I’ll get the car tomorrow. I’ll bring some boards over to cover that window. At least she only shot out the one.”

  “Don’t worry about the window, dad. You just lock up all the guns and take that pistol away from her.” Decky smiled and hugged her father.

  Decky went back up the steps. She was thinking about what her father had said and gathering her crutches. She did not look up until she was almost to the door. Charlie was peeking out from behind the door. She looked utterly terrified. Decky went into the house and closed the door before she spoke.

  “Come here.” Decky held out her arms and gathered in the trembling Charlie.

  Charlie said into Decky’s chest, “Oh my God, I thought she was going to shoot you.”

  Decky replied, “Me too!”

  Charlie pushed away from Decky’s chest, but stayed in her arms. It was then that Decky saw her cell phone in Charlie’s hand.

  “Thank God, I called the twins. You were right. All I said was that your mother was here and she had a gun. The one that answered said okay real quick and hung up. I guess they knew to get your dad.”

  “I’ll have to give them a bonus this week.” Decky was trying to lighten the mood, but it didn’t work.

  Charlie looked deeply into Decky’s eyes, “I thought I was going to lose you. I actually stood behind that door and thought, I have just found the best thing that ever happened to me. I can’t lose her now. I prayed to God please to let me have you. I don’t want to live without you Decky, not another minute.”

  Decky hugged Charlie to her. “You don’t have to. Not another minute.”

  The mood suddenly changed. Charlie pushed Decky away and hit her with the hand holding the cell phone.

  “Have you lost your mind? Why did you open the door? Why didn’t you just call your father? You scared me to death.” Charlie was off to the kitchen on a tirade.

  Decky could hear Dixie barking upstairs. Charlie had evidently locked her in the bathroom.

  Decky defended herself only slightly. Now that the adrenaline was subsiding, she realized how dangerous the whole situation had been. Her mother could have shot her. It was a thought Decky did not want to dwell on.

  “I’m sorry, Charlie,” Decky said, following her to the kitchen. “I just opened the door and went out there. I didn’t think she would really shoot me.” She lied.

  “That woman is insane! You don’t know what she’ll do!” Charlie was wrapped up in the anger felt after a big scare.

  Decky tried again to calm the situation. “It’s over now. Nobody got hurt. I think that was the worst of it. At least Lizzie’s already maxed out. The rest of this should be easier.”

  Charlie was not calming down, not yet. She jerked open the refrigerator, grabbing a bottle of water. She unscrewed the top, violently slamming the door, and took a big drink.

  “If you knew this was the kind of reaction you were going to get from your mother, then why in the hell did you do this? Didn’t you think about this at all?”

  Decky told the truth. “No, I didn’t think about this. I saw you. I touched you. That was all that mattered. It’s all that matters now. I choose you, Charlie. I choose to love you no matter what anybody thinks. I choose to live with you forever if you’ll have me. Nothing will ever come between us. We will survive this. I’ve known from day one that if you were with me, nothing anybody said or did would ever change the way I feel about you.”

  Charlie answered quietly, “But that’s your mother.”

  “I know that. I still don’t care. I’m sorry she’s hurting, but I can’t live my life according to what Lizzie wants. I have done that enough. She will either get over this or not. All that matters is you. I only need you, and of course Zack and Dixie. I can live without Lizzie, if that’s what it takes to love you.”

  “I don’t want you to wake up one day mad at me for ruining your relationship with your mother.” Charlie’s eyes were studying Decky, as if trying to see the future.

  “Please, Charlie, understand this for once and for all. Lizzie ruins her own relationships. I could never blame you for any of this. I did this… me, just me. I made this decision. I went after you. You didn’t even notice me.”

  “How do you know I didn’t notice you?” Charlie was relaxing.

  Decky began to relax too. She grinned at Charlie, “You never said you noticed me.”

  “Oh, I noticed you all right. I noticed your ass. You wiggled it so cute before each pitch.”

  Decky grabbed a water bottle out of the refrigerator, as she played along. “How could you see my ass, your dug out was on the other side of the field.

  “When I came to the game late, I stood outside the fence and watched for a batter or two. I was impressed with your ass the minute I saw it.”

  “But that was the second day. I saw you first.” Decky left the bottle on the counter and went into the area leading to the stairs down to the mudroom. She entered a small closet and removed an orthopedic boot. She listened as Charlie answered her.

  “I saw you the day before, when we were warming up. It seemed like every time I looked at you, you were looking at me. So I decided to check out this chick that was definitely checking me out.”

  Holding the boot Decky came back to the kitchen. “Was I that obvious?”

  Charlie was enjoying this now, “Oh honey, you were practically drooling and of course there was the fact that you seemed dumbstruck in my presence. I thought it was cute.”

  Decky sat down on one of the stools. She started putting the boot on, pulling all the Velcro straps tight. “I was not drooling. I wasn’t even gay at the time.”

  Charlie laughed. “Don’t kid yourself. Straight women don’t look at other women like that.”

  Decky had finally adjusted all the straps on the boot. She stood up gently and tested her ankle. Then she looked at Charlie, “How was I looking at you?”

  “Like you wanted to ravish my body.”

  “Oh, you mean like this.” Decky moved toward Charlie. She left the crutches behind.

  Charlie smiled up at her. “Yes, exactly like that.”

  The k
iss released all the emotion of the recent events. They kissed away all the fear and anger. They kissed passionately until Dixie’s barking became so persistent Charlie went to let her out.

  Decky busied herself cleaning up the shards of glass from Lizzie’s assault on the window. The glass had held, but shattered, sending slivers to the floor. Decky was enjoying the freedom afforded to her by the boot. The ankle still hurt, but she was glad to be hindered no more by the crutches. Charlie and Dixie bounded down the stairs just as Decky was pouring the swept up particles into the trash.