Devil Entendre Page 4

  An officer of the court stands back with hands clasped, satisfied by the knowledge that today he has helped, has altered the future of this child for the better. The state’s foster care system has spawned ghastly tales of abuse in its own right. Better the child be with a trusted child therapist.

  Lizbeth crouches, bringing herself to the girl’s eye level. “I am a very lucky woman, Sondra. Know why? I get to spend a lot of time with you.”

  Sondra smiles at her, full of hope.

  The Invisible Girl

  Aubrey’s sister was staring at her and she didn’t like it. There wasn’t anything she could do about it, though. Mommy and Daddy were too happy about the whole thing for her to go and make a big stink. She’d hinted that maybe it wasn’t so great, but her voice got lost in all the excitement.

  Before that she had been absorbed in her studies, as usual, alone in the house except for servants performing their duties. Mommy and Daddy hadn’t been around much since the “incident.” One day Mommy had been pregnant and the family was planning for Aubrey’s baby sister. Then, all of a sudden, Mommy wasn’t pregnant any more. It wasn’t something the family really discussed, and the servants never made any mention of what had happened to their Mistress. It was a bit creepy. The books from school offered her an escape from it all with wild tales of pirates, mind-numbing arithmetic problems, cool facts about animals.

  But not this day. When Mommy and Daddy arrived home before sunset Aubrey knew something unusual was going on. They called her down to the foyer where huge windows let in too much light.

  “Look what we have here,” Daddy said, all smiles.

  Mommy couldn’t wait. “Surprise!” she said, pulling the cover off a large glass box.

  Inside was the biggest doll Aubrey had ever seen. It was almost as big as her, with long, thick hair and a blue baby doll dress. Its eyes stared at her.

  Aubrey was was delighted. “A doll!”

  Daddy patted her head. “Think of her as a little sister.”

  The servants were all lined up against the back wall. They tried very hard to avoid each other’s eyes.

  It was quite a surprise; Mommy and Daddy hadn’t given her anything in months, not even for her birthday! They were too busy talking in other rooms where they didn’t think she could hear. They said words like miscarriage and infertility.

  “Can I play with her?” Aubrey asked.

  Her parents opened the case and Daddy pulled her “sister” out. “She’s heavier than a normal doll,” he explained, “because she’s like a regular girl. Except she’s made out of silicon. But it’s her metal skeleton that makes her heavy.”

  She didn’t care about any of that. She wanted to style hair, to have a tea party! It would be so much fun. Only…well, the eyes were kind of freaky, but she’d get used to it. She always did. Anyway, why should such beautiful eyes be weird? She tried to think about something else.

  “What should I name her?” she asked herself, more than anyone.

  Mommy knelt down next to her. “How about Lara?”

  “That’s a good name.”

  This seemed to make her parents happy.

  In the weeks that followed Aubrey and Lara spent all their time together. Studies weren’t so important anymore, even Mommy and Daddy said so. In fact they were a little too supportive of her play time. They suggested that Lara could sit at the table during dinner, so Aubrey wouldn’t have to go through all the trouble of putting her away. That was fine. Then they said it would be okay for Lara to accompany the family on Sunday drives. What a great idea! Aubrey loved the drives as they were often her only chance to leave the house with her parents. Plus, she’d have the doll in the back seat with her to play with.

  When it came to baths, Mommy had an idea. “Why not have Lara join you, like the rubber froggy and the little plastic boat?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  It was fun to play with the hair and style it, but it was also fun shampooing it the way Mommy shampooed her-Mommy was always quick to point out the doll had real human hair. After it was in the hot water a while Mommy touched it and smiled.

  “Feel that, honey?” she asked.

  Aubrey touched the doll. The hot water made its silicon flesh warm and lifelike to the touch. On one hand she thought that was neat, but at the same time it didn’t feel right.

  Pretty soon Lara was sitting in the front seat during their Sunday drives, with Mommy keeping Aubrey company in the back. It didn’t make sense to bring the doll along anymore, not if she couldn’t play with it, but her parents hushed her whenever she tried to bring it up.

  It was the middle of the night. What were Mommy and Daddy doing? Aubrey made her way downstairs as softly as possible. Even in a house as big as their sounds carried in the dead of night. It didn’t help that they were trying to be quiet; she could still make out Mommy and Daddy having another one of their quiet conversations.

  She found them in the den. Making sure to stay hidden behind the suit of armor outside the doorway, she listened in. Every once in a while she would peek around the side for a second or two. Daddy was standing, hands on hips, and the doll stood before him. Mommy was on her knees behind the doll, barely visible. The scene was illuminated by logs burning in the fireplace.

  “So, how was school today, darling?”

  “Oh, it was so interesting Poppa!” answered Mommy, moving the doll’s mouth and arms slightly.

  The bizarre conversation continued for longer than Aubrey cared to watch. She crept back to bed with a horrible feeling coiling up in her belly. Daddy never asked her how school was. She didn’t know if she ought to laugh at her parents or cry for them. They’d always been perfect, but now…

  The following day Mommy and Daddy had a surprise for her: it was another gift, this time a new outfit to wear. Only it wasn’t for her. The idea was to make Lara more fun to play with, so they kept buying more and more accessories to go with the doll. Had they figured out Aubrey saw them that night? Were they trying to buy her off? No. It was just more of their overly enthusiastic parenting.

  At first the clothes were matching sets for outfits Aubrey already had, so they could be “twins,” even down to the socks and shoes. “You should dress alike since you and Lara are such good friends,” Mommy told her. It wasn’t too long before the doll had its own brush, mirror, jewelry box, even a full wardrobe. The doll looked more like a real girl every day.

  The servants were giving each other “looks” when they didn’t think anybody else could see them.

  Aubrey could tell things weren’t right. None of her friends had such a special doll, and none of their servants thought they were freaks either. Besides, she was the daughter, but lately Mommy and Daddy were paying more attention to the doll! Somewhere in the back of her mind the memories returned: long, somber nights of Mommy crying off in another room, of Daddy in his study with a “do not disturb” sign on the door. Back when Mommy was suddenly not pregnant anymore. But what did that have to do with anything? It didn’t give them an excuse for ignoring their only child.

  The final straw was when she came home from school to find that they’d gotten the doll’s ears pierced. “Isn’t it just adorable on Lara?” Mommy asked. Beautiful earrings sparkled in the sunlight.

  No. It wasn’t adorable. Aubrey had begged her parents time and again to get her ears pierced, but they always told her she was too young. Caitlin and Amber and Julie all had pierced ears. Why not her? It was too much to bear. She waited until later that night, then took the earrings for herself. The doll stared blankly, as if in accusation. Aubrey undid its hair, took off its shoes, followed by the rest of its clothes, then turned it to face the corner.

  When Mommy and Daddy figured out what she’d done they took away her music player. It was the first time she had ever been punished.

  One time
she brought friends over for a visit. It had been forever since Julie and Amber had spent time at the house. They went to the entertainment room where her parents were waiting, Aubrey all bubbly and anxious to tell them the good news. Their huge television blared while Mommy was busy sewing and Daddy was using the jogging machine. On the sofa sat the doll, with the remote control across its lap.

  Amber giggled, thinking it was all very cute. The whole thing wasn’t very cute so far as Aubrey was concerned. She knew what was really going on. While she was busy telling her parents that her friends would be staying a while, Julie skipped over to the sofa and scooped up the remote control.

  “Let’s see whats on channel 36,” she said, pressing the buttons.

  “Turn it back,” Mommy insisted.

  “Huh?”

  “Turn it back, that’s her favorite show.”

  “Whose favorite show?” Julie replied, confused. She knew that Aubrey wasn’t into those goofy programs the younger kids watched.

  “Why, Lara of course.”

  “Mom-” Aubrey began. She didn’t want their weirdness to spill over and ruin the afternoon.

  But it was too late. Daddy got involved, saying he was surprised Julie’s parents hadn’t taught her better manners. The girls decided to go hang out in Aubrey’s bedroom instead. After that none of her friends visited. In fact, rumors began to spread around school about her weird parents. It was a struggle to keep a pleasant face on things.

  One night she heard more sounds. She tried her best to ignore them, like she’d been doing ever since that disturbing night she had observed Mommy and Daddy in the den. This time was different however, and the sounds were too persistent. She rose from bed and noticed that the doll was gone. A sinking feeling took hold, but she forced herself on despite this foreboding.

  Mommy was sitting alone in the dark, crying. Well, she wasn’t entirely alone, not if you counted the doll positioned on her lap. Normally Aubrey considered Mommy an elegant woman, but in the stale moonlight her face was twisted in anguish, tears and snot flowing freely. Her blouse was unbuttoned and the doll’s face was pressed to her chest. Watching Mommy rock back and forth with the doll as she sobbed, it took a moment to realize she was feeding it like a baby. Or, trying to.

  Aubrey ran back to her room, horrified. She never mentioned the incident to anyone.

  The clothes didn’t fit. Neither did the shoes. Had the servants messed up washing the laundry, and shrunk all the doll’s clothes? Aubrey brought the matter to Mommy’s attention, even though she didn’t like to have conversations with her parents about the thing. Mommy rushed to the room and was delighted by what she found.

  “Honey!” she called. “Honey, Lara’s grown!”

  Daddy promptly appeared in the doorway, pipe in hand, a grin from ear to ear. “You sure?”

  It was true-the measurements confirmed it. Aubrey had assumed that it was simply her imagination each time the clothes got more difficult to slip onto the doll. Now, though, there could be no denying it. The thing was a freak. Or was it? After all, it was her parents who’d gone wacko about things. The doll just sat there and provided hours of playtime enjoyment. Either way it felt wrong when her parents got a whole new wardrobe for it, with new shoes and jewelry and everything. They weren’t even trying to pass these things off as gifts for Aubrey anymore. Why bother?

  It was only natural, then, when the doll was given its own room. Aubrey had long since given up trying to reason with her parents about it, but even so this was a bit much. When she asked if it was going to be like a big dollhouse for her to play in they scowled at her, and told her to get back to her studies. It turned out she wasn’t even allowed to play with the doll any longer.

  “You might hurt Lara,” they told her.

  She thought about this. “Are you worried I’ll break it because it’s collectible or something?”

  “No, Lara isn’t ’collectible,’” they said with disdain. “Don’t you have something else you could be doing?”

  The truth was, she did. Her friends’ homes were far more inviting by that point and she spent most of her time in them. They all had warm families that embraced her without a thought. Maybe it was a mistake though. The more she slept over the less her parents seemed to notice she was gone. Fine, she told herself. She would stay away just to spite them. Only, inside she pined for their attentions.

  “Oh, Miss Aubrey, you’re a sight for sore eyes!” Callie gushed. She was one of the older servants and was always kind. “We’ve missed you around here. It’s good to have you home.” It seemed as though Callie wanted to say more, but cautious glances from the other servants stopped her.

  Aubrey had spent the entire first month of summer vacation traveling with Caitlin’s family. They’d actually asked her to come along, not the other way around. It was almost embarrassing to have a group of people desire her company-her friends and their families, or her own servants. She thanked them profusely, then asked if Mommy and Daddy were around.

  “No, the Master and Mistress have gone out. They should be back momentarily.”

  While Callie went about preparing Aubrey’s favorite lunch, she ventured into the rest of the house to gauge the state of things. Her room was virtually untouched. It had been vacuumed and dusted, but there was no present awaiting her, no note from her parents saying how much they’d missed her. The doll’s room, however, was bright and cheerful with a beautiful four-posted bed. The doll was propped up by pillows against the headboard, a book open on its lap. On the night stand a plate of untouched cookies waited. There was even a glass of milk.

  Well, this certainly wouldn’t do. The stupid doll wasn’t alive! What was wrong with them? She felt nothing but contempt for Daddy and Mommy and the doll at that moment. Especially the doll. She made ugly faces at it accompanied by goofy noises. It didn’t respond. The insults and ridicule she hurled at it didn’t accomplish anything either. The only thing left to do was gobble up all the cookies and milk.

  That done, she felt a little better and decided to play with the doll again. Not just for old time’s sake, but mostly because it was forbidden now. Somehow, though, the standard games weren’t doing it for her. It came to mind that maybe she ought to roughhouse with it, as a boy would do with his toys. She wanted to stand it on its head but that was out of the question because it had gotten so heavy. Instead they would do “feats of strength.” The first round was the pillow lift. Aubrey was able to raise the most pillows over her head.

  The second round was arm wrestling. Aubrey pretended to let the doll put up a good fight, but in the end she won. Not satisfied with this, they had a rematch in which she crushed the doll. Deciding that was a good bit of fun she beat it again and again, knocking it from the bed. Arm wrestling was just the start. Seeing the doll helpless at her feet like that an evil urge rose up in Aubrey. She jumped on it and began applying the wrestling holds she’d seen the boys use on each other in the school yard.

  “She doesn’t like that!” Mommy shouted, running in and dragging her off the doll.

  “What are you doing here?!” Daddy demanded. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

  That was the beginning of the end.

  The attic became Aubrey new home. She was banished there after her “trespassing” incident. Her parents had never been so angry, never been so animated around her. The whole thing perplexed her beyond reason. As for the punishment, she’d read of similar disciplining in older books. The offending child was locked in the basement or the attic for a short while, or until they promised to behave.

  Only, her parents never came to let her out of the attic.

  It was a musty place, running the length of half their enormous home. Collected in one corner were all her old toys and games. That was fitting; she had been little more than a toy for her parents, and they’d found a newer, better playthi
ng. Periodically the servants would check in on her and bring food. Between these visits she whiled her time away weeping. How could such a fate befall her? Didn’t anybody else know her parents were nuts? Why didn’t Callie or one of the others do something?

  But no. Her parents had to see the error of their ways for themselves. If the servants made a move to help her it would just make Mommy and Daddy all the more resentful. Then she’d never win her way back into their hearts.

  There were only two windows up in that dark space. One was hidden behind a heavy stack of junk. The other had wooden slats nailed in place and was very difficult to see through. It hadn’t been cleaned in ages. This made it hard to tell what time of day it was, or how much time passed. As for the door, it remained locked at all times.

  After a few days Aubrey no longer mourned her freedom. The alien environment provided many interesting ways to pass time. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light, allowing her to read through some of the stacks of old magazines. Further in there were plenty of old boxes to dig through. She didn’t want to go too far back, because in the farthest corner was the smelly bucket she used to potty in. It was totally gross, but that was her life now.

  In one of the boxes she uncovered several old photo albums she’d never seen before. Inside there were pictures of Mommy and Daddy long ago, before she was born. They were young and energetic, quite attractive even. Completely different from how she had always known them. With so many friends gathered around them, doing activities like hiking or fishing out on the sea, and always touching each other…they were entirely unrecognizable. The truth of the mater was they were happy back then. Anybody could see it.