The Pandora Effect

by Olivia Darnell

  “You know?” He asked after a few moments. She pulled her hand away from him.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. But your wife told me not to pay any attention to you.” She looked down at the table. “I was... I didn’t understand.”

  “You can’t be serious!” Perry’s expression was one of disbelief.

  Angelica felt a very strange sensation course through her as if her stomach had suddenly fallen to the approximate area of her knees. She looked down wondering how it could be possible to experience such a feeling. Nothing was amiss. She returned her attention to the couple at the table. Perry did not appear to be angry at Maureen’s revelation. He actually wore that same amused look that so often aggravated her beyond measure.

  “I don’t know why,” Maureen continued “but I feel like I’ve known you for a long time. I think you are very interesting and I like to talk to you, but your wife is obviously extremely jealous of you. If she were to...”

  As if on cue, Reggie Greene rounded the end of the aisle where Angelica stood and stopped short, literally, next to her. The man in the blue suit stood not three feet away absorbed in the cover of one of the video boxes. Angelica looked down at the boy and he grinned a snaggle-toothed smile up at her. She quickly turned her attention back to the conversation at the table.

  “...that she’s jealous, do you?” Perry was asking. His face virtually glowed with self-satisfaction. Angelica was infuriated.

  “Do I think? I know. Let me tell you, Perry Aliger.” Maureen leaned forward to emphasize her words. “Your wife is extremely jealous of you. She is also very beautiful. Probably the most beautiful woman this town has ever seen, but you are a match for her. You and your wife are like... well, peas in a pod. She probably thinks every woman in town is ready to make a move on you and she could be right. I can’t say that I blame her.”

  “You would be jealous of me?” He asked.

  Reggie stood on tiptoe trying to reach the movie Transformers which was just out of reach. He put one foot on the bottom rack.

  “Oh, sure, I know I would.” Maureen smiled at him and wondered why she was telling him such things.

  Reggie stepped on the second rack on the shelf and pulled himself up.

  “I’m truly flattered to think that two such lovely ladies would be jealous of me,” Perry mused as he took a bite of his melting ice cream.

  Reggie clung to the shelf precariously and tried to reach the video again. It was still out of reach. He raised his foot to the third level.

  “Maybe you should try talking to her more often,” Maureen suggested. She could not believe she was talking to him about such an intimate subject. She had spent less than two hours total with him. He was just too easy to talk to. “You know, tell her that she hurts your feelings when she doesn’t listen to what you have to say. A wife should do...”

  Perry never got to hear what Maureen thought a wife should do as Reggie put both feet on the third shelf in his quest for the latest action adventure movie. The metal was far too flimsy to hold his weight. The entire shelf went over with a grinding, screeching crash in the space between the video racks and the half-wall of the ice cream parlor. Angelica froze. She and the man in the suit stood exposed in total shock and surprise. They looked at each other and then both reached for Reggie at the same time to extract him from the jumbled pile of shelving and DVD boxes where he was wailing at the top of his lungs.

  “Good God, Gertie!” Willy Lambert shouted as he burst from his office at the back of the store and ran to help them. “Are you all right?!” He asked them and waded into the mess.

  Perry and Maureen had stood immediately and were both frowning in stunned silence at the scene. Angelica looked up at him slowly as Willy took charge of Reggie and tried to comfort him. Perry took one look at her face and a wicked grin spread across his face.

  “Why, Angelica!” He said as if it was perfectly normal for her to be there and he was pleasantly surprised to see her. “Whatever are you doing there?”

  Maureen stared at Samuel Morris in shocked horror. Sam was speechless. He looked back and forth between them blinking rapidly. Maureen bent to retrieve the papers from the table.

  “Well, Mr. Aliger,” she said quickly as Reggie began to cry again for his granny. “Perhaps we should finish going over these addendums in my office.”

  “By all means,” Perry agreed, winked at Angelica and then took Maureen by the arm to escort her out the other end of the ice cream parlor. He nodded briefly to Samuel Morris who held up one hand as if he would say something, but didn’t.

  Angelica started after them and Willy caught her arm.

  “Please, Miss,” he told her. “I need to get a statement from you and Mr. Morris.”

  Angelica looked up at the man as if dazed.

  “Mr. Morris?” Willy blocked the man’s retreat. “I can’t afford a lawsuit!”

  The door bells tinkled as Perry and Maureen made their exit.

  Tyler honked his horn and waved to Perry Aliger and Maureen Fitzgerald as he drove past Chilly Willy’s place on his way to see Aunt Mary. He had decided it would be a good idea to go by and check on her every morning as long as the construction, or rather the de-struction, was underway next door. He worried that she might have a stroke or something. He turned the corner and pulled into the drive. The work crews had arrived early and were busy removing the large pile of debris that had once been the stately Jenson mansion. Several different pieces of equipment had arrived to start leveling the lot in preparation of the paving and curb building. A survey team was marking off the area with string and yellow streamers. Tyler was surprised to see that the three magnificent old trees on the far side of the lot were still standing, but he was even more surprised to see his aunt dressed in baggy denim jeans and a long sleeved man’s shirt which once belonged to his uncle Vernon. She was standing near the construction fence talking with one of the workmen. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her with a garden tool in her hand. She held a large shovel in her right hand.

  Tyler climbed out of his truck and went over to join them, trying to hide his surprise and concern.

  “Howdy!” He called to them above the noise of the front end loader.

  “Tyler!” Aunt Mary nodded to him. “This is Charlie Townsend. He’s with Ayer’s Landscaping. He says he can put in a hedgerow here that will be up to six feet tall by October, guaranteed.”

  “Is that so?” Tyler shook the man’s hand. Charlie could probably do most anything for the right price.

  “Yessir!” Charlie smiled at him. “We can almost work miracles these days.”

  “I’ll bet you can.” Tyler looked about at the devastation. “What kind of landscapin’ do you do on a parkin’ lot?”

  “Not on the parkin’ lot.” Charlie turned to frown back at the sight of the men hustling about the grounds. “We’re doin’ the pocket park. If you all will ’scuse me, I gotta get goin’. Me ’n the boys got a shitload, ’scuse me, ma’am. We gotta a lotta work to do. We gotta measure the spot for the fountain.”

  “Really?” Tyler was even more surprised. “A fountain? Whose idea was that?”

  “Ms. Morris called us in yesterday an’ told us all about how she’s gonna build a memorial park for her... deceased husband. You remember ol’ Sam Morris? She was practickly hysterical, see here? What that that there is about, you know? An’ she told us about the plans. My boss nearly laughed his as... head off.”

  “What exactly is a pocket park, Mr. Townsend?” Aunt Mary asked him, refusing to let him go.

  “Well, I don’t rightly know what that that there is about, ma’am,” Townsend looked confused and scratched his head. “I reckon it’s called that, see here? Because it’s so small it could fit in yer pocket. But anyhow, she wants that new stuff, that that there clear bond with the little pebbles? She wants that, see here, and she wants wrought iron benches and a marble fountain with flyer beds an’ a angel with a halo or some such. Boy howdy, it’s gonna
be a doozy when she gits finished with it.”

  “That sounds real nice,” Tyler told him, but couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Millie Morris? Building something for others to enjoy? He wondered what the admission fee would be. “I wonder what got into her?”

  “I best git goin’,” Townsend told them again. “Nice talkin’ to you.”

  Tyler and Aunt Mary stood watching the man limp away across the barren ground toward his crew which was working around the base of one of the magnolia trees.

  “I think I know what got into her,” Aunt Mary said with a twinkle in her eyes as she looked up at him.

  “Oh, yeah?” Tyler looked down at her.

  “I think that Mr. Aliger talked her into it,” she said smugly and turned her attention back to the lot. “I’ll bet he went over there to talk some sense into her.”

  “What makes you think that?” Tyler frowned. Why would she want to give the credit for Mildred Morris’ sudden change of heart to Perry Aliger?

  “I saw him coming from over there yesterday morning,” she told him.

  “I doubt that he went over there to talk to her about her parking lot,” Tyler shook his head. “But come on now. Let’s get out of the heat. I don’t want you gettin’ a heatstroke or something.”

  “I feel fine, Tyler,” she insisted and Tyler had to admit that she looked fine. “But we can go in and have a cup of tea, if you have time. I don’t want to keep you from your work. Mr. Aliger sent me some more of the orange and spice flavor. Mrs. Aliger brought it over herself. She’s a lovely lady. They make a real nice couple.”

  “I’ll bet they do,” Tyler said under his breath. He still felt uneasy whenever the Aligers were mentioned.

  “How’s Paula Anne?” Aunt Mary asked as they walked back to her house.

  It surprised him again to have her ask about Paula Anne. It had always seemed that Aunt Mary thought that if she ignored his wife altogether, she would just disappear.

  “She’s fine,” Tyler said as he opened the back door for her. “Why do you ask?”

  “I had a dream about her,” Aunt Mary frowned at him. “I dreamed she had a baby.”

  “Now, I wonder why you would dream such a thing?” Tyler was dumbfounded.

  Aunt Mary stopped to prop the shovel against the wall before going inside.

  “Probably something Mrs. Aliger said,” Aunt Mary said cryptically.

  Tyler somehow did not want to know what it was.

  “She asked me if you had any children.”

  Tyler followed her inside shaking his head. He sat heavily at the table while she set about readying the kettle on the stove. Somehow the mention of the baby and Angelica Aliger in the same conversation had unnerved him. “Why would she ask such a question?” He asked his aunt after a moment.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Aunt Mary answered as she took down two cups. “Just conversation, I suppose. We were just talking and your name came up.”

  “Oh.” Tyler felt a sense of gloom overcome him.

  Louis parks sat in the Officer’s Lounge writing a report on a domestic violence call he had responded to earlier. He looked up irritably when the dispatcher banged the door open, noisily interrupting his concentration.

  “Hey, Louis!” He said grinning stupidly as was his way. “Your little buddy, Bobby Greene’s boy, Reggie, got himself into another scrape, over at Chilly Willy’s. He’s over there bein’ hysterical and they can’t find Bobby nowhere. Or his granny neither. Bobby’s supposed to be workin’ over in Carrollton. Willy wants you to come over and see if you can calm him down.”

  “Shit!” Louis clicked his pen and stuffed into his pocket. “Is he hurt, Jimbo?”

  “Naw, just scared!” Jimbo pushed himself off the counter. “Willy said he just knocked over some racks or somethin’.”

  Louis crammed his report back into his mailbox and headed out the door. He hated going to Chilly Willy’s. He could never resist the chocolate swirl ice cream and Willy always insisted on giving him two big scoops for nothing. He didn’t need any more temptations to resist right now. He was totally disgruntled by the time he drove down the street to the parking lot. He was doubly disturbed to see the gray Mercedes parked in front of Payne and Litzman’s. What was Aliger doing there? Louis got out, hitched up his pants and went inside.

  Reggie was sitting at Willy’s counter with a huge mountain of assorted ice cream heaped in a bowl. He alternately ate and cried for his granny. Louis nodded to Willy and sat on the stool next to Reggie. Willy was relieved to see him and immediately began scooping up the chocolate swirl for him without even asking. Louis patted Reggie and told him that everything would be all right as soon as they found his granny. He turned absently on the stool and leaned back on both elbows against the counter before realizing that he and Willy were not the only ones present besides the distraught Reggie. Angelica Aliger and Sam Morris, Jr. sat at one of the bistro tables with sheets of notebook paper in front of them.

  Louis quickly turned around and leaned on the counter as Willy brought his ice cream to set it in front of him. He frowned at the stuff covered in whipped cream with extra cherries.

  “What’s up?” He asked the man in a low voice and jerked his head back toward the unlikely pair at the table.

  “He climbed up on the racks,” Willy told him. “I hate it when people let their kids run wild all over town. We've tried to call him on his cell... his daddy... but he ain't answering. Goes straight to voicemail. I guess he ain't allowed to talk on the phone while he's at work.”

  Louis reached over to rub Reggie’s head and the boy hiccupped. He seemed to be feeling better with Louis there beside him. “Any damages?” Louis asked and tried to let Willy know that he wanted to know why Mrs. Aliger and Sam Morris were sitting at the table writing on the paper.

  “Nothing I can’t fix,” Willy sighed and ignored Louis’s unasked question.

  “Good,” Louis turned to Reggie. “Come on, boy. Let’s go home. You can ride in my patrol car.”

  “No!” Reggie frowned up at him. “I don’t wanna go home.”

  “Now, Reggie!” Louis said sternly. “Your granny’s probably worried sick about you.”

  “Nope, she ain’t.” The boy went back to his ice cream. “She’s over to Carrollton with Uncle Ray and I ain’t goin’ home. Aunt Rita is there makin’ soup an’ I don’t like her. I’m skeered to go there.”

  “I can’t take you with me, Reggie,” Louis sighed. “I’m at work for Chrissake.”

  “Louis?” A soft voice from behind him caused him to jump.

  He turned to look directly into Angelica Aliger’s eyes.

  “I can take him home with me,” she said and placed one hand on Reggie’s arm. Reggie turned to look at her and smiled. She picked up a napkin from the counter and wiped his chin.

  “How would you like to come home with me until your father comes home?” She asked and the boy’s face lit up immediately.

  “Can I take my ice cream?” He asked.

  “Of course, you can.” Angelica helped him down from the stool and picked up the messy cup.

  “That’s real nice of you, Mrs. Aliger,” Louis found his voice. “But Bobby’s pretty funny about Reggie. I don’t know...”

  “Nonsense.” Angelica looked at him and he melted faster than Reggie‘s ice cream. “Bobby Greene won’t mind if his son is with me. Perry knows him.”

  Louis blinked. It figured. Louis got up to follow her outside, secretly admiring the figure she cut in the jogging shorts and tank top. He held the door for her and she started down the sloped parking lot with Reggie in tow. She passed by the Mercedes and continued on toward the street.

  “Mrs. Aliger?” Louis called to her and she stopped.

  “Yes?” She shaded her eyes with one hand.

  “You’re forgettin’ your car,” he said.

  “I’m on foot,” she told him and smiled, then turned to continue on her way.

  “Hey! Wait up!” He hurried after her and she
stopped again at the edge of the street to look at him expectantly. “I can give you a ride.”

  Louis walked back to his patrol car and opened the passenger door. Angelica eyed the car suspiciously and then relented as Reggie pulled away from her and ran to get inside. Louis held the door for her. When she passed him, he could smell her perfume. “I thought that was your car.” He nodded toward the Mercedes.

  “It is,” she said and slid into the seat.

  He was confused and perplexed. It seemed silly to be giving her a ride just half a block away. They made the short drive and he pulled up next to the curb in front of the store. She opened the door and helped Reggie out before leaning back into the car. He wondered if she realized what a wonderful view she was presenting to him and then looked away.

  “Louis? Do you have a few minutes?”

  “Well, I was...” He glanced back her. “Yes,” he said quickly.

  “Then come upstairs with me,” she told him and closed the door.

  He got out and looked up and down the street uncomfortably. He could still see the Mercedes at Chilly Willy’s.

  “I’ll make you some coffee and we can call Reggie’s dad in Carrollton,” she told him when he caught up with her. "You know where he works, right? We can call his supervisors."

  “All right,” he told her and then told himself that it was his duty to see that Reggie Greene got home safely. What was he doing? Why, looking out for his friend’s kid, of course.

  “I believe you’ve made a wise decision, Perry,” Maureen said as she gathered up all the papers and clipped them together with a pink paperclip before laying them in her in-basket.

  “Yes, I think so too,” he said and smiled at her. She wondered if he was referring to the policy or something else. “You never finished telling me what a wife should do or be or whatever you were about to say when we were interrupted.”

  “Oh, that...” She smiled and bit her bottom lip. “I was just going to say that I think a wife should pay more attention to her husband. That’s all.” It was a lie, but she couldn’t really remember what she had been about to say.