Lets Play Cupid-Episode 18

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As soon as it was day, Marybeth gets ready and leaves the cottage to the main house, she didn’t want to run into Adam, she was embarrassed enough at it was last night, she didn’t want to see him this morning …or a thousand mornings to come

“Good morning Meredith, Richard. ” she greeted as she came to take food for Thelma. They replied their greeting and continued on their task

“You know, I am right here I am not invisible, you guys don’t have to treat me the way you are suddenly doing. I know your boss doesn’t want you fraternizing with me but hey, he isn’t around, so why can’t we all be friends. Isn’t it boring to have to work all day and not have friends to laugh and talk with. I mean Come on!. Or unless you both are so scared of him you obey him when he isn’t around”

Meredith turns to her ” Marybeth, we just love our jobs and we don’t want him to transfer his anger on us”

“Hey I get, look I promise you, as soon as he comes back I would act like you guys are the plague too. But I am bored out of my wits, I get to only talk to Thelma when she isn’t calling “Damien” and saying things I don’t get, I read to her and watch boring series with her and laugh with her when a funny scene comes on. She is a sweet woman you know, but I also need to talk with other people and this job doesn’t allow me the luxury to go out for long hours and hang out so since I am stuck here for now…you and Richard have to un-bore me when am not working” she smiled

“Isn’t Adam good company?” Richard asks

Marybeth rolls her eyes scoffing

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!! You know he came back last night and then he found me in……” she trailed off when they looked at her, curious

“Found you what?” they asked

Partially naked on his bed and he kissed me to shut me up. Really Marybeth.

“Nothing. Nothing at all. Oh…crap!! Thelma must be really hungry..phew…!!!” she grabs the tray of food and runs upstairs, Meredith and Richard exchanges looks, Richard shrugs

Adam comes in “Good morning Meredith, Richard” he greeted sitting

“Good morning Sir Adam,
“Mr Adam!”‘ they greeted “Coffee?’

Richard grabs a mug and hands him a cup of coffee

“Thank You”

Meredith sets a plate of food before him, he began to eat not wasting time
Then she smiled “You leave without telling a soul and you come back in the dead of the night, what did you find when you got home?”

He suddenly chokes on his food, she quickly hands him a glass of water to drink, Richard hides a laugh.

“What…what did she tell you?” Adam stutters

“She who?” Meredith folds her hands
“Marybeth?”

“Who said anything about Nurse Marybeth, wait what did you find about Marybeth” Richard takes a sit.

Despite Adam being the son of Gerald Pope, Adam was loved by them. He was humble and kind and approachable when he wasn’t mean and arrogant towards his father.

“Yes who said anything about her? I was just asking a general questions and you know…general things”

Adam drops the glass on the table, clears his throat “I think I would finish my food back at the dinning, excuse me.” He says getting up and leaving.

Meredith and Richard shares a laugh

“Are you thinking what I am thinking Richard?” she taps her jaw

“Yes Meredith, there is something definitely up with those two.” he laughs, shaking his head as he walks away

“Yes indeed” Meredith smiles to herself

******
Marybeth notices the wheel chair untouched, still wrapped and the seal unbroken.

“Thelma, I wonder when last the air coursed through your skin and you had the sun on your face. So we are going to take a stroll in the garden and watch the sunset go down. You need to leave this room, doesn’t look as though you have left for years okay?”

She called one of the helps to help her with Thelma and sit her in the wheelchair as soon as he carried her down.

“Marybeth, what are you doing? She doesn’t leave the room!!!” Richard says coming towards her as they made for the door

“Well she should. ”

“But Mr Gerald would..”

“Mr Gerald isn’t around and besides I am her nurse so I know what’s good for her and right now, she needs to enjoy the ambiance of nature. It’s a healing process for her mind too. Keeping her inside that room for weeks unending , its like a confinement and she only gets to see and talk to her nurse and her so called husband doesn’t even come and her son, Adam only comes to see her at night. She needs to know that people love and care for her, she needs to see people, talk to them and be around them. She is suffering from paralysis and it’s from her lower path of the body that’s affected the most. But her mind and brain can only tend to repair itself with due process. But I won’t let another day pass without allowing her enjoy even the free things of life. So I am talking her outside to the garden, I am not running away with her. if you would excuse me” she says nudging the chair forward

He looks down at Thelma, she has a smile on her face, like an excited child going out for the first day, he steps away and lets them pass.

At least Mr Gerald wasn’t home.

They were safe

***

Thelma closes her eyes, as she was wheeled around the garden, a smile is on her face..

Marybeth hums a song her mother used to sing to her, when she was little, it helped to calm her down when she was scared

“Angels watch over my little girl, grant her joy and peace today, make the heaven smile down on her, give my little girls wings to fly, guide her as she courses through the earth, let her joy be profound and let her be happy as little angels could be” she sang
She walked around with her for an hour, then she wheeled her to the love seat in the garden and sat down., she gave her water to drink..

She hadn’t spoken a word all day, while they stared at nothing in particular, Thelma begins to talk

“it reminds me of the first day we met, I was working at the flower shop for my aunt, he had walked in to buy one for his mother”

“who is that Thelma, what are you talking about?” Marybeth says frowning looking at her, but Thelma wasn’t looking at her, she was looking far away, into the past

“He was so sweet and handsome, blew me away with that smile. And he told me his name was Gerald Adam Pope, his mother was sick and she loved lilies, white lilies and he came to get one for her. We spoke at length while I gathered it and he left. But he came back, and he kept coming back. His mother was well and he just wanted to come tell me. I thought he was really sweet. Then he asked me out on a date. It was the most amazing first date I ever had. We kissed and I feel madly in love with him. He took me home, and his mother loved me. Two summers later we got married at my church, family and friends came and it was lovely. We danced and danced.
Gerald wasn’t rich nor famous no, he loved everything science but nothing had come out of it. We were just married you see, he was working in a library, then he got a job as a clerk and then his friend offered to get him one working in a mine, it was higher than the pay he was getting you see, so he took it. I was a stay at home wife, baking bread and sending it to wherever they needed it. We were happy, he was happy, ” Thelma said pinching her hands staring into space

”Go on Thelma, what happened ” Marybeth rubs her hands, maybe Thelma might tell her what happened to that perfect life she had, maybe she could understand where the hatred came from and how it all began. but she had to be careful not to push her, else she might break from this thought process and come back to reality.

“He came home one day, and found me… he found me and he ran mad, he.. he” she began to pinch her palms hard, scratching her head,

“He blamed me, he said it was my fault, and he said he was going to kill me and him and he and he ” she began to cry

”What happened Thelma tell me, ssshhhhhhh its okay tell me”

Marybeth calms her

Thelma looks at her ” He found me..”

”WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE, HOW DARE YOU BRING MY WIFE OUT HERE?”

Gerald thunders grabbing Marybeth and pulling her up startling Thelma, who had began to cry, holding her ears

“Stop stop please stop shouting ” she cried

“ANSWER ME!!!” Gerald’s arms tightens over Marybeth’s

”LET ME GO!! LOOK AT YOUR WIFE..LOOK AT HER!!’”

 

*******

TO BE CONTINUED.