Cursed Pool

Chapter 23. The Wedding

MY GOD I hate Leo Blue. OH MY GOD he deserves something worse then being imprisoned... that man deserves to be tossed off a Clift into the deep ocean. I can't wrap my head around the fact that I met his son without know that was his son, and now I'm meeting Leo's sister, Scott's aunt, who has been on the search for Scott for a whole year.
  I made her tell me details quickly because I have a wedding to go to soon.
  I learn that when Scott Blue was born, the Mother didn't do well with the pregnancy and died right after Scott came into the life. Apparently this made the Father go nuts, and he decided he didn't have the responsibility to take care of an infant himself, so he went from Utah to Tennessee and dropped off the new born on the front porch of his sister's house. I learned that his sister Lesley Blue always wanted one kid, but was too afraid of marriage and pregnancy, so she gladly kept Scott and raised him as if he was her own child. It's terribly sad how Scott never met his Father and has only seen him in photographs. It's even more horribly sad how Scott ran away from his home in Tennessee after his Father got arrested.
  I felt desperate curiosity and questions were all over my brain...  questions that I didn't know if Lesley can answer. "Scott ran away from you? That's TERRIBLE! Didn't Scott love you though?" I question. Lesley tightens her lips and her eyes looked angry, but in a calm voice she said "Scott.... yeah I'd assume he did. Usually I tell him to NEVER tell his fellow students at school about his real parents. I normally pretended to be his Mother you know. I had the same last name, so it was easy to hide the truth. I used to lie about my husband. I said he was Introverted, had good intuition, he was a good thinker, and a little bit judgey. Of course, I never got married, but to make sense of everything, I often told people I was married because I had to if I had a son." Then she glanced out the window and turned back to me. It seemed like she waited patiently for me to speak, but I was speechless for once in my life. Then she carried on the conversation herself. "Before Scott was born in 1978, Leo had a wonderful wife. She was probably the smartest of the girls he put into consideration. I loved that woman, so when she died and Leo took his busdriving career to the next level, and I took Scott and told his school that I was his Mother, the school asked about my husband's whereabouts, so I described my false husband as if I was describing Leo's deceased wife. Introverted, intuition, thinking, judging..."
"Y'know Lesley, you could've said that your husband was dead."
"Yes that's reasonable, but I didn't want to get into detail about how someone died."
"So Lesley, you really made your nephew lie like that.... no wonder he always refused to tell me about his personal life." I caught myself saying. Oh no. I just accidentally mentioned that I know about where Scott has been. Lesley's eyes light up. She blinked a couple times. Lucky for me, it was my stop. I moved as fast as I could to get away from the bus.
  The world is messed up these days. So if Scott is ten years old, he ran away from home at nine. That's quite young. That age at that time, why would he do it though? Well, I can't get Scott to speak the truth. I don't even know where he is.

"Why are we in an Italian restaurant?" I asked first thing when I entered the Italian restaurant hoping that I was at the correct wedding. I walked in very slowly. Very slowly. There was classic Italy music playing in the distance. I look around me, curious to see where it might come from, but it seemed more like a ghost was making the music, or maybe just a radio.
  The Italian restaurant was large and gorgeous. The walls were a deep shade of red, and the chandeliers sparkled like expensive diamonds.
  I knew I was in the right place because I saw Mr Peachfuz sitting on a chair reading a news paper. He had his left leg crossed over his right. His feet are giant I thought. Again he wore his fluffy bunny slippers. Those slippers had these piercing red eyes that I hated. Then his eyes lift from the magazine. He noticed that I was looking at him, then his eyes look down at my shoes. My shoes were slightly dirty blue sneakers, at least they are better and more formal than his weird shoes. "Did you ask why this place is Italian?" Mr Peachfuz said pronouncing his letters clearly. I nodded with my eyes open wide. "I don't know honestly." He replied in a light and pleasant voice. His posture seemed okay, but his shoes weren't.
"Okay well I figured you might have the inner scoop on things." I say a bit harshly.
"Sometimes I do, but usually I don't." He said slowly. I can tell a thought just came into his head. "Evangeline."
"Yes?"
"I thought you wouldn't come to the wedding."
"I didn't want to, but Nicholas drove away with my car because he's a crazy man and I had to take a whole lot of precious time to call an uber and I didn't even want that." The minute I said that long quote I remembered how I learned all that information. Mr Peachfuz nodded. I hope he really understood, but then again I hate this guy. "I know right? Nicholas is crazy." He responded. "Not as crazy as you." I retorted.
  I ran for the stairs, I almost slipped but the railing save me. I love that savior gold railing. "DON'T LEAVE TAKE ME WITH YOU!!!" He called after me.
  Upstairs I can see the Espcus and the Brownskis sitting in red chairs. I noticed that Nicholas and Autumn weren't there, so I figured that they are at church or something. I don't even remember how weddings worked. I remember my wedding with Richard was boring and it was raining. I have been to two of my three older sister's weddings. My oldest sister was married in Mississippi I think. I didn't feel like leaving Chicago and going three states to the south for that. It was many years ago, of course before my constant travel days.
  "Where's your brother Mr Peachfuz? Where on earth is Mr Espcu?" I asked as I sat in a crowded room. "He likes to stay away from me and I assume he's keeping tabs on his son Nicholas and his three random grandkids." He replied. I like how he used the word Random to describe Mr Espcu's grandkids. I change my voice to a whisper just incase the people here will disagree with my opinion. "Ah, Nicholas and Autumn are great for eachother, don't get me wrong, but.... ah they are so old."
"They aren't as old as us." Mr Peachfuz replied in a relaxed voice that was also far from a whisper.
"They are thirty two. My God they are old. That makes me feel old! Ancient even! If Perri never died... she would be that same old age." I whisper close to his decently sized ear.
"Mr Peachfuz can I ask you a question that I ask everyone?"
"Well, sure."
"So, Richard and I were married at thirty eight... do you know anyone who got married at an age older?"
Mr Peachfuz's eyes seem to be floating back to the past. At seventy years old he probably have seen many weddings. He than snapped his fingers when he came to a conclusion.
"I used to work for an old man who married at... hmmm... maybe seventy five... no that can't be right...."
"Yeah your no help." I said blankly.
  Finally Mr Espcu came and he was dressed proper today, so much nicer than his super spy clothes. Then I grimaced the moment I spotted the Grandkids. Yes. The Espcu devils I should say.
  They had to sit at my table. "This wedding is a little pathetic. Nicholas and Autumn aren't here and I want my car back and I want it now." I ranted. I got enough of Nicholas's children, so I didn't really talk to them all that much. We are all eating soup and it had tiny onion bits and a long sea weed type thing. Olivia ate some of the soup and cringed in disgust. She gulped down icy ice water. "God I hate that soup!" She Yapped. Christopher looked at her blankly. "O, you hate a lot of things!" Olivia then gave her brother a very unloving stare. "I hate it even more than McDonald's!" Even I was shocked by that child's words. I hated McDonald's too because I'm scared of the fakeness and the poisonous fries, but the Italian wedding soup isn't even bad, but we're all opinionated aren't we?
  When the Whiteson's came in, the beautiful building just got prettier and I don't say that about most people. Madilyn and Jenifer sat far away from the Espcus. Despite how far the two families sat, Mr Peachfuz who was on his fifth soup bowl said "Oh My God! Jenifer are those real earings?" "I... yes." Jenifer said in a comfused tone. Olivia got angry and stood up. "Why did you have to get your ears pierced before me?!" She rages. "Because I love them." Jenifer said confidentiality. This is when I realize Olivia Espcu can't stand it if anyone is better than her in any way. "Listen children, it doesn't matter." I soothed. "Yes it does." Mr Peachfuz said swiftly. I give him my darkest glare yet. "Oh, oh really? Do you really want children to ack like competitive adults?" I ask. "Oh no, it's not that. I just really think-" He was cut off because Mrs Whiteson arrived and as much as I didn't want to deal with her, I had to greet her. "Hello." I say with hatred. "What's this liquid trash?" She asked eying the soup. "Wedding soup. It's here cause I brought it. My Mother's scolding hot recipe." Mr Peachfuz said happily.