Mad Rooster Marketing

Chapter 5 (Emily) - The Suitcase Full of Money

Henrietta started to get annoyed when mother wasn’t answering her phone.

‘Does Claire always work this late?’

I said that mother worked for a crazy woman who sometimes called us when we were still sleeping and screamed at her over the phone.

Henrietta laughed. ‘Her boss really takes telemarketing seriously. Or you two just sleep too much.’

It didn’t even occur to me to get worried. I was so used to mother coming home late, although at that point, it mostly wasn’t Mad Rooster Marketing that kept her away. On most evenings, she helped Robert at the charity.

Just before ten o’clock, mother called and asked Henrietta to get me ready to leave. I was disappointed because I had already started to look forward to spending the night with Laura. She had promised to lend me her diamond earrings. Supposedly, they were made of genuine diamonds. I didn’t believe her, but it didn’t matter since they looked authentic enough, or at least I thought so. I have always liked classy things, and they had more class than anything I owned, except the diamond bracelet Charlie had given me. Laura said that they also were real diamonds, which meant that she clearly couldn’t tell the difference. Where could Charlie possible have gotten a genuine diamond bracelet?

Robert had promised that he would take me to a jeweller for my twelfth birthday and I could choose whatever I wanted. Mother had just laughed. Maybe I had spoken too often about not having nice things. But sometimes, I wonder if he was being at least half-serious. He always tried to be good to me in his own twisted way. Until he tried to kill me, that is.

I was already at the door, ready to leave, when the guards at the gate called Henrietta. Mother had trouble convincing them that they should let her in the compound. Henrietta told them that she was her sister, but they still insisted on her to get to the gate. They said that she should leave me waiting and come alone.

Henrietta asked Laura to find me something to eat so that I wouldn’t collapse from hunger on the way home. I had already eaten half the birthday cake. Still, as soon as I thought about all the delicatessens, I instantly felt hungry again. For the past couple of months, our diet had been a bit monotonous.

Larry, Laura’s little brother, was piling food on his plate in the kitchen. Henrietta had forced him to participate in his sister’s birthday party, but as soon as it finished, he went back to his room to play computer games. His favourite had multiple gangs of criminals killing each other. If only he had known what was happening in real life.

It did not take long before I heard the front door opening and ran to greet mother. That was the first time I was so shocked about her appearance that I simply stopped to gape at her.

‘How was the party, Emily?’

The red dress had become a dirty rag, her hair was like a bale of hay, and her arms and wrists were full of cuts and bruises. And she was smiling like a shell-shocked rookie.

‘Your mother had a hard day at work. Could you ask Laura to make a bed for you both? You can sleep in Laura’s room.’

Children are not idiots, but we dutifully went to look for beddings. Laura looked like she wanted to ask me something but couldn’t find the right words. So, we talked about boys instead. Laura is two years older than me and had just had her first real boyfriend. It had only lasted three weeks, but the details she told made me gasp multiple times. Although, when I thought of Charlie, it seemed that she had visited another planet entirely. Then again, Charlie wasn’t my real boyfriend, and Laura’s boyfriend had been three years older than she. Practically a man. I decided that I didn’t want that.

We stayed up late like you are supposed to do during sleepovers, and it was almost midday before we woke up. Uncle Sam, Laura’s stepdad, had made breakfast. Mother and aunt Henrietta slept even longer than we did. When they finally arrived to eat with us, Mother looked normal again.

She smiled at us happily. ‘What were you girls up to the whole night? Your giggling was so loud that it must have kept even the people guarding the gate awake.’

I wanted to ask her what happened yesterday but wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know. Mother did tell me later that day when we were back home.

‘Do you notice anything, mommy?’

‘Are those Laura’s? You look like a proper lady now. They have the same style as your bracelet.’

The breakfast made us feel like royalty. We had toast, cheese, butter, ham and jam. There were muffins with chocolate chips, pancakes and maple syrup. Uncle Sam got me a big bowl of cereal, fried two eggs and two thick slices of back bacon. It was delicious, although he insisted that the bacon didn’t even look like the real thing. After stuffing ourselves silly, we relaxed with warm cups of coffee, tea and hot chocolate. I was happy.

‘Claire, you know that my door is always open.’

Mother didn’t answer to her sister but instead looked thoughtfully at the tea leaves on the bottom of her cup.

A few hours later, when Henrietta’s Mercedes rolled through the thick rusty gates that were permanently wedged open, I realised that I was coming home. Legion’s Court had welcomed us in during those hot summer months. Slowly, life started again. Fate sowed the seeds of our future when mother met Harry. I believe they were instantly attracted to each other. Charlie started spending more time at our house but didn’t become my real boyfriend yet, not in the sense Laura meant it, but we were only thirteen, and I’m not sure she even knew what it was supposed to mean. For me, it was enough that I enjoyed spending time with him. We shared everything, looked after each other and cried together. For three years, I didn’t even tell anyone that we weren’t really dating, always wore the diamond bracelet he had given me, and happily walked hand in hand everywhere. It was only when Alex got into the picture that I found out the truth about my relationship with Charlie.

They never caught the muggers who took mother’s purse when she left Mad Roster Marketing, but that was not a great surprise to anyone. Mother got over the experience and adjusted to life as a saleswoman under Rebecca DaSilva. Her boss still called us at strange hours but never asked again if mother was a quitter. I guess she knew the answer. Mother always did whatever was needed to survive. That probably was the reason they had hired her in the first place because, as I quickly found out, telemarketing had little to do with what Mad Rooster Marketing was about. The name itself should have been a dead giveaway.

On most nights, mother stayed away late into the night, because when not dealing with one of Rebecca’s emergencies, she was either helping Robert at the charity or dating Harry, the owner of Mad Rooster Marketing. She never regained her rights to practise law, but the things she was involved in seemed to pay really well, possibly better than any work as a lawyer ever could, or how many lawyers you know with a suitcase full of cash underneath their bed?

It must have initially been through Charlie that people became aware that we could acquire certain items. Mother never demanded payment from anyone, but people still gave what they could. It mostly just about covered her expenses, but she would help even when someone had nothing to offer. Father’s arrest had been widely documented on the news, so ‘Simon’s wife at Legions Court can help’ was a catchy rumour that brought an endless queue of troubled souls to our doorstep.

Nothing that I saw made me concerned; quite the opposite. I honestly believed that we were doing great things. I was happy with our life, even if mother’s petitions repeatedly failed to get father out of prison. Like I said at the beginning, the three years alone with her inside the skeleton of Legions Court were the happiest years of my life.

Then, our time together suddenly ended. Mother’s success must be the reason for that. She must have accomplished whatever it was that the people from Mad Rooster Marketing wanted from her, and most probably, even her death advanced the cause of the Overlord Community. Or maybe she just got lonely, and that led to some more bad decisions from her part. Whatever it was, I was visiting Laura when it all started. When I came back home in the morning, the rusty gates of Legions Court were locked with a heavy chain. Overnight, everything had changed.