"The Doom Statues" - Chapter 10

“I need this!” Kay screams, hands out and fingers raised as if about to claw her mother. “I fucking NEED this, and YOU already agreed to it!”

Emily and Denise are on their way over right now, this morning of their scheduled departure. Everything came together with shocking swiftness, finally gelling in a matter of hours last night. While Emily is generally perceived as the more gifted, popular socialite of the two sisters, and in most respects this is true, there are occasional situations where Denise’s bluntness is more effective. Emily is almost too nice to pull some things off. When those two and Jeremy returned from their visit to the artist’s retreat last weekend, they stopped in here at the house that Sunday night, with some elaborate plan they’d already concocted. Denise went to work convincing Kay’s mother that this was basically the best idea, ever. Meanwhile with an insistence that threatened to and then did actually move Kay to tears – giant, sobbing ones – Jeremy insisted that he had enough money saved to theoretically enroll himself, but had no plans to do so, and therefore would be willing to spot Kay in this venture.

“You can pay me back whenever. I know you’re good for it,” he told her, when she attempted weakly protesting this offer.

The only real sticking point concerned her mother, Pamela, a morbidly obese, chain smoking, foul mouthed blonde whom she both loves like nobody else this side of Noah, yet also fights with more than everyone else on the planet combined. While Kay is not exactly skinny herself, she is not nearly as foul mouthed, either – most would probably describe her, essentially accurately, as sweet – and yet during their more vicious, extended shouting matches, if provoked she can occasionally be found calling her mother a fat bitch. To the woman’s face, sure, but also in weary recaps, shaking her head as she explains it to friends later.

So Pamela sat on the fence all week, hemming and hawing about this proposal, of letting Kay attend the retreat for three months. Kay brought it up at least once every night from Monday through Wednesday, yet these efforts seemed to have little impact and may have damaged the situation. It wasn’t until a series of morose, bleary eyed phone calls last night, Friday, and the eventual appearance of the Garverick sisters back over here, and Denise once again working her magic – because, for whatever reason, Pamela has always sort of bonded uniquely with her sassiness – that the entire concept was not just salvaged, but given the green light.

“We’re only talking three months, and how many people around town do we all know? We know half of Jenson,” Denise rationalized, “so everyone can kinda pitch in watching Noah, even Jeremy has said he doesn’t mind watching Noah. In fact his parents also kinda suddenly have a bunch of free time on their hands, heh heh heh...”

“Yeah, plus, you can always bring him up there to visit me,” Kay added, though judging from Pamela’s facial expression, this wasn’t helping any, “and actually I think they plan on having tours.”

Still, her mother did finally nod and say okay, without a whole lot of additional effort. Only to erupt this morning and claim she has a full slate already, just considering today alone, and really can’t deal with Noah right now. Furthermore insisting this is a stupid idea, rolling her eyes and scoffing, “pottery,” under her breath when Kay mentioned what she’d hope to work on, not just up at the retreat but possibly as a business venture moving ahead. And that therefore Kay should call her friends back to cancel.

But she is having none of it. As Emily and Denise pull into the driveway, honking their horn because they know better than to risk compromising this by coming indoors, Kay gives Noah a hug and kneels down to explain that she’ll miss him very much, but that this is something she needs to do for their future. She grabs her bags, shoots a dirty look back at Pamela, who’s smoking a cigarette and leering from the kitchen doorway, before slamming the door behind her. Yet all this anger is instantly forgotten, as she sees her friends and they squeal in unison, as Kay slides her bags and her body into the back seat.

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