Junk Mail

Chapter Fourteen - Helena, Home and Hope

Helena Bhattacharya was an already tall woman who wore high heels that made her look even taller. Ben looked quite short in comparison to her, and felt slightly intimidated though this was more due to the fact that she was the one deciding whether or not Ben should try out for the job. Larry Hughes was happy to see her because she had been his business partner and friend for over ten years, and he glared at Ben when Ben stared at her like she was secretly a serial killer.

Ben wondered if Helena Bhattacharya was his new stepmother. He had two stepfathers already - Mr Andrew Davis sir and Mike the producer. Was Helena his first stepmother? Ben knew that his father had dated Helena because they had been talking for over ten years, which meant that they were dating. Ben knew this because he had not been there to observe their relationship for even ten months, and felt that he was an expert on both relationships and his father's life.

"It's lovely to see you again Ben," Helena said, giving a warm smile which Ben automatically saw as being mean. "Your dad tells me that you're looking to get in the job in the company."

Ben was scared of Helena because he had read fairytales and watched movies about fairytales and knew that stepmothers were always evil. There wasn't even a single possibility of a stepmother being nice, which Ben thought counted as mathematical and environmental evidence. He had learnt the environmental part from Pepe el who had deeply rooted environmental beliefs that he would continue to share with Ben in the days following Ben's detachment from his mother, sister and brother.

"It's nice to see you too," Ben said, because he had to be nice to his evil stepmother. "Dad tells me I'm looking to get a job in the company as well."

Helena laughed but Ben did not know what she was laughing at. He supposed that she was covering up an evil cackle with her warm laugh in front of his father. His father! Ben wondered what would happen to Larry, who he had only just started to trust again. In all the stories, the stepmother took power after the good old father died, and Ben was worried that Helena would kill his father at some point along the line so that she could take over the company. The company! Ben would probably inherit part of the company one day. Would Helena try to assassinate him too?

"What on earth's wrong with you Ben?" Larry asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Call the police," Ben said to himself. "Call the police and tell them what's going on. Forget about any evidence. The police get people arrested, charged and sentenced without any proof a lot of the time anyway. It doesn't matter."

"The police?" Helena asked, raising an eyebrow and rising up from her seat. "Are you okay Ben? Is there something wrong?"

Helena looked at Larry who sighed and told her he would take Ben into the dining room to calm him down. When they got to the dining room, Ben felt himself calm down a little bit but he was still nervous, so he made an action plan in his head.

Ben grasped Larry's shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. "We need to call the police because Helena's going to try to kill you."

Larry looked at his son and almost gave up on life. "Ben, we've been over this before. Remember that teacher I spoke to at your school? She was a woman and we spoke and she didn't become your stepmother, did she? Helena's not going to be your stepmother either and neither you nor I are going to die. Is that okay? Because you kind of need to prove to Helena that you're capable of handling at least a little part of the business, and we're sort of failing at that right now."

Ben felt that Larry was being incredibly naive but did think back to the teacher that his father had never married, and came to the sudden realisation that perhaps it was possible that people weren't dating or in a relationship if they simply spoke to each other. Then Ben began to question everything he had ever known. Had he and Susanna ever really dated, or had he simply been drawn to her because of the hard life she led in her shopping trolley? No, he thought. They must have dated and he just couldn't remember it. She wouldn't talk to him the way that she had if they hadn't once had something.