Are You My Husband? Pt. 01

Sometimes the sky is pink - nightmares into daydreams

Chapter 1 - Surrealism

Chapter 2 - Rescued

Chapter 3 - Fusion

Chapter 4 - Tribulations and Trials

Chapter 5 - Discovery

Chapter 6 - Answering the Question

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This is a completed 3-part story. All three parts are being submitted at the same time and should all post within a day or so of each other. (I'll never post a multipart story that isn't completely finished.)

Author's note: Skip past the next set of asterisks if you don't want to know any more about this story.

This story is going to dance around mental illness a bit. If that subject bothers you or you simply aren't in the mood for that, then you probably don't want to read this.

Also, most people refer to male and female peafowl as 'peacocks.' That isn't correct. Peacocks are the males. Peahens are the females, and collectively they are referred to as 'peafowl.' Clearly there will be some type of peafowl in this story.

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Chapter 1 - SURREALISM

"Are you my husband?"

"No, ma'am. I'm Janie's husband." Scott Parker stood to get the photo from her dresser inside her small apartment. He had been visiting with Amanda Winter for nearly an hour. "See? This is me and Janie at our wedding. That's you and your late husband, Franklin."

"Oh! I remember Janie. She's my daughter."

"She's your step-daughter."

Mrs. Winter asked, "You said, my late husband?"

"Yes, ma'am. He was a fine man and a good husband. You picked a good one when you chose him."

She smiled at Scott. "I'm glad Janie has you. Did you know I have another daughter?"

"I do. Her name is Kathleen. She's almost as pretty as you."

"I miss her."

Scott said, "Janie and I are going to bring her to see you real soon."

"I hope so. Do you like my painting?"

In the corner of her room was her most recent painting. Even though her early-onset Alzheimer's hid most of her memory most of the time, she had always hallucinated since before Scott first met her nearly eight years ago. Her doctors had never been able to categorize it well enough to treat it correctly with prescriptions. They had tried many different combinations. Many left her too agitated and nervous to be able to deal well with anyone, while others left her in such a fog that she couldn't function.

Her hallucinations, as she had told him, would come for several to a dozen minutes at a time, sometimes only once a week or sometimes up to three times a day, and varied between wonderful and horrific. She had told him that many of her paintings had been based on her 'visions.' An artist and art teacher by trade, she had amazing talent, and had incorporated her visions into her paintings, which at times seemed to be a mix of Salvador Dali and something from a Monet painting, but always with a lot of flowers, which she liked. She did a few portraits over the years and, recently, some from memory, which was amazing given her condition.

Her current painting, oil on canvas, was a simple landscape, with gently rolling hills in the background. The grasses were purple with daffodils mixed in, and the sky was hot pink. Maybe it was pink from an unseen rising or setting sun, but given the purple grass, orange tree trunks, and aqua-colored leaves, he doubted that. In the foreground were two women wearing peafowl dresses with a full plume of feathers erect and spread behind them as they walked. The faces of and figures on the two women clearly belonged to Janie and Kathleen.

He knew that as soon as Janie saw her and Kathleen in the picture, she would have it framed and find someplace to hang it in their house along with at least ten other paintings Amanda had painted. Scott thought it so terribly sad that she could paint their faces perfectly from memory but could rarely remember Janie's name.

Scott said, "I think that may be your best one yet." While a beautiful piece, no way was it her best, but he tried to make her happy when he visited her. She had lost some of the finer touches and shadings that she once included, but after a lifetime of painting, she was still extremely skillful.

Having painted all her adult life, there was no telling how many paintings she had given away over the years. He imagined them scattered all over Georgia and the southeast. Scott and Janie had several dozen from the years she had lived with them after Mr. Winter passed away. He thought many of them were quite good to exceptional, but he was no art critic.

She said, "Did you know the Queen of Spain has one of my paintings?"

He smiled at her. After a lifetime of 'visions' and given her current mental state, he no longer knew what parts of her past were real or delusions. This wasn't the first time she had told him this. At one time she said the governor had one, too. At least that sounded more reasonable. The comments regarding who had some of her paintings started popping up around the same time she agreed to enter the nursing home. He had shared this statement with Janie, and she responded with a sad smile, hoping that any visions Amanda had in her remaining life would be as pleasant as that one.

A nurse walked into the room. "Come on, Mrs. Winter. It's time for your physical therapy, and then you get to eat lunch."

"Can we skip it and go straight to lunch?"

The nurse replied, "No ma'am. We want you to stay healthy and beautiful."

"Oh, shush. I'm just an old lady."

"Well, I hope I look as good as you when I'm your age."

This was true. Not exactly an old lady, Amanda still looked nice at sixty-three. Of course, having daily physical therapy and a nurse bathing her and keeping her hair looking nice, helped a lot. Like her daughter Kathleen, she had been a stunner when she was younger, but she was an even greater beauty on the inside.

She was one of the sweetest and most loving people Scott had ever met, including his own mom, and he loved her as if she were his own.

"Mom, I'm going to be going now, but I'll be back this weekend or next Monday. Okay?"

"Okay. Thank you for coming by." She turned to the nurse and said, "Don't I have the sweetest husband. He brought me those flowers."

It was true that Scott had brought her the flowers currently sitting on her large dresser which also held several pictures of Mrs. Winter's family. The catch was that he brought the ornate silk flowers over a year ago.

Sigh. Her deterioration was inevitable, but it still killed him to watch it. He wondered what she thought about it or if she thought about it.

The nursing home, if you could call it that, in which she resided was especially built for caring for those with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. It was very likely the nicest nursing home in the state of Georgia. Franklin, knowing Amanda would likely need care, had purchased long-term care (LTC) insurance for many years in preparation for this. Between the LTC insurance, his life insurance, which paid out when he died of cancer several years ago, his investments, and her investments from a few paintings she had sold, she would need for nothing...except better health.

The beautiful property was on Lake Lanier, just northeast of Atlanta, and about twenty minutes from Scott's business, Winter and Son's Landscaping, which he and his wife inherited majority ownership from Janie's father. The 'Son' was added after Scott took over. Scott's degree in landscape architecture was what introduced him to Franklin Winter and then Janie.

He and Janie inherited sixty percent of the business. Kathleen inherited thirty percent, and in a stunning move, Ramon Diaz, who was close to Scott and Janie in age and already one of the managers there, inherited ten percent.

The business was doing well, but not great. Scott had needed to buy new earthmoving equipment for the larger installations, and they were still paying off that business debt. In several more years, once the debt was paid off, they would be comfortable, but definitely not rich.

Scott always went to see Amanda on Mondays. When they decided she needed the specialized care facility three years ago, he had begun visiting her on Fridays. However, as she began to deteriorate further, how well she was doing affected his whole weekend. If she was doing well, he went home happy. If she was having a bad day, it rubbed off on Scott and impacted how he was around his family on the weekend. So, for the last year, he visited on Monday. Janie handled Fridays much better.

At lunchtime, he called Janie, "Hey, Mrs. Parker."

"Back at ya, Babe. How was Mom?" Amanda Winter was the only mother Janie knew since her biological mother had died during childbirth from pre-eclampsia.

"She was having a good day. She remembered me part of the time but had forgotten me by the time I had left. She mentioned missing Kathleen. I think we need to hire someone to find her. I spoke with her physician before I left, and she said that she was having trouble swallowing. You know that's one of the first signs of it getting worse, and that if it continues can cause aspiration pneumonia."

"Yeah, I know. I've found an investigative agency in Nashville that should be able to locate her if she is still there."

Scott asked, "Any luck from Robert?"

Robert was Kathleen's ex, or soon-to-be, ex-husband. Neither of them was sure if the divorce was finalized or not. Why Kathleen ever married him was a mystery. He was a wild guy at the time of their wedding, which was a year after they put Amanda in the nursing home. It didn't appear that he had any intention of letting marriage slow him down. Even though Kathleen had been quite wild during high school and college, it surprised everyone when she announced she was getting married, and to Robert.

Amanda wasn't really in a good mental place to try to stop what was clearly a couple not ready to take marriage seriously. Janie had tried to feel her out and talk her into delaying the nuptials. Kathleen wouldn't hear it. As soon as she finished her degree in art at Emory, she married Robert and got a job as a graphic artist with a company in downtown Atlanta.

She had met Robert in her last year of college and they decided to get married, though Scott wondered if Kathleen was the one who proposed to Robert. He was a huge, hunk of a fireman in Atlanta and had been for several years. Since graduating high school, she had always dated big beefy guys.

The marriage only lasted a year. She filed for a divorce a year ago, then she moved to Nashville and promptly disappeared off their radar for the last three months. She didn't provide them with her new address, new job info, nor her apparently new phone number since her service had been recently dropped. It was like she didn't want to be found. While not close to Kathleen the last few years, the sisters had been exceptionally close growing up, even with their five years age difference. So, the strained relationship of the last few years, and especially the last few months, had been a mystery to both Janie and Scott.

Janie replied, "No. He said he would continue to have his friends call their friends in Nashville."

"I think it's time to use the private investigator. I don't know that Robert is calling anyone to find her, and even if he is, they might tell her we are looking for her, and she may hide."

Janie said, "At least he gave us the city she's in. The PI should be able to do the rest. I'll call him after we hang up."

Scott asked, "Are we still on for the block party this weekend?"

"Sure. I'm looking forward to it."

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The block party that weekend was the first of two or three that were traditionally held during the summer. They lived on a cul-de-sac street near Suwanee, Georgia with each house sitting on very large lots of at least an acre, each. While there were eleven homes on the street, the party usually, but not always, rotated between the four homes with pools. It was a good community to live in, and all the neighbors were either close friends or at least friendly.

While not a very diverse town, their street was a mix of Caucasian and African Americans. Almost everyone on the street had a college degree, children of various ages, and most attended church, though not necessarily the same one. Professions ranged from business owners to bankers to teachers and even one deputy, Blake, and his wife Annabelle, who was hosting the current party.

The parties were always family-friendly, started after lunch, and went on into the evening until the children needed to be taken to their respective homes. There were plenty of games for the kids, with playpens for the little ones. There was a lot of time spent in the pool by the kids and adults. Scott always enjoyed spending time in the pool with his wife and their little ones, who would laugh and squeal with their parents. Later in the evening, there would be music and a little dancing, but nothing serious, just fun. None of the guys could dance very well, but their wives would have them up, saying that it was the perfect place to learn or practice.

Grilling a lot of meat was obligatory, and the plentiful potluck dishes ensured that no one left hungry. Sometimes neighbors' relatives would attend, and the deputy would usually invite a few of his colleagues by to at least get a free meal while they were on duty. Three families along the lane, including Janie and Scott and the deputy's family, attended the same church, so Pastor Leo and his wife were invited and would come from time to time. They were always a very relaxed and enjoyable affair.

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On the morning of the tenth day, since they hired the investigator, Kathleen was found. The investigator called Janie and informed her that Kathleen wasn't in a good situation and that they should hurry to come and help him get her to avoid any police involvement.

Janie was out the door as soon as she hung up the phone. She wasn't going to take 'No' for an answer. She called Scott on the way, and his only comment was for her to be careful driving to Nashville. He told her that he and Dina, their housekeeper, would take care of the kids and prepare Kathleen's room for her arrival.

Acindina Lopez, or Dina, was a godsend. Not happy with their available choices of daycares in the area when Janie went back to work after Noah was born, Scott had put out the word at his business that they were looking for someone to look after their kids during the day. Ramon, the 10% owner, who had worked for the landscape company since before Scott met Franklin or Janie and was very close to Janie's parents, had an aunt, by marriage, that might be interested.

Dina was married to Ramon's uncle, his stepmom's brother, so she had no blood relation to him, but they had been a tight-knit little family until Dina's husband decided to move back to the Miami area where they were originally from with most of their money, and...with his young girlfriend that Dina didn't know about until he was gone. She was devastated. Who took in her and her two kids? Ramon's stepmom, who was furious with her brother for being such a dickhead. It was tight in her house for a couple of years until Dina's oldest, went off to college at the University of Georgia, but they survived and are now doing okay.

Dina also waitressed some in the evenings and on weekends to help pay the bills. She was a feisty lady, and great with Eva and Noah, who loved her dearly.

Dina and Ramon's family were all 1st or 2nd generation Americans from Puerto Rico, and usually spoke Spanish in their own households. Scott enjoyed teasing Dina by saying, "one day I'm going to come home, and my kids are only going to speak Spanish."

She gave it right back to him by saying, "you should remember that the next time I need a raise."

Truthfully, they loved their kids picking up Spanish, and she would read to them in Spanish, while Scott and Janie would read to them in English. They viewed bilingualism as a bonus, but he still liked to tease the spicy Dina.

Ramon told Scott she had just turned forty, which had surprised him. He would have guessed mid-thirties, at most, if only by looking at her pretty, sultry face, which reminded him of Rosario Dawson. Her figure was much curvier, though. She had wide hips, and a bodacious butt, which looked amazing when she wore jeans. She was not thin in her mid-section, though, but still had a 'cello' figure, definitely not an hourglass. Thigh gap? Forget about it.

She caused quite the stir at the end-of-summer block party, last year when she showed up with Noah, who had just woken up from his nap. Janie was already in the pool with Eva. Dina shucked off her coverup, and every male near the pool stopped to watch her. It was a relatively conservative one-piece, but it was covering, or trying to cover, a lot of flesh.

Scott was talking to his neighbor manning the grill when he heard a whispered, "Holy Mary, mother of God." If a C-cup is a grapefruit and a D-cup is a cantaloupe, then her honeydews had to be much more than a DD, easy.

One of the women, near them, saw the commotion and said, "Poor thing. I'll be they give her all sorts of problems."

Someone said, "Like drawing the attention of every male within a one-mile radius."

Dina was used to the attention, wanted or not, and simply enjoyed her time with the kids in the pool. She loved those kids.

She looked after the kids during the day, and on some evenings, she would make dinner for them to have when Janie and Scott arrived home from work. Scott and Janie were very grateful for Dina in their lives and often discussed if they could do more for her. Mostly, that meant giving her little bonuses of cash or gift cards from time to time.

______________

Janie made the normally four-hour drive to Nashville in just a bit over three. The investigator, formerly a Nashville detective, met her at a McDonald's near some middling to lower-end apartments on the southeast side of town between the zoo and the airport. He had informed her that they should plan to remove Kathleen from her current situation and take her to a nearby hospital. Janie could only wonder what had befallen her sister.

The PI told her that he saw Kathleen enter the apartment in the wee hours of the morning with a man and another woman. Unless she had left while they briefly met at McDonald's, she was still there. Janie approached the door with the PI but stayed out of view of anyone that might be in the second-floor apartment.

He banged on the door until someone finally answered. It was a huge redneck-looking dude with a scruffy beard and long hair, and given that he was only wearing a pair of boxers, his copious tattoos could be easily seen. He was big enough to be an NFL lineman. The PI flashed a badge and pulled his pistol telling the redneck to get down on the ground. The guy offered no resistance and looked like he had been woken from sleep, even though it was almost noon.

Once the PI had assessed the situation, he called Janie to come in. She nearly gagged at the overwhelming stench of marijuana. While the PI kept his pistol aimed at the big guy, Janie found Kathleen in a bed with another girl. It looked like the redneck had been in the bed with them. The women were both asleep.

Janie tried but struggled to get Kathleen awake. The other girl complained and moaned about the light and the noise. Once the sheet was pulled back, Janie gasped. Her poor beautiful sister. There were hickeys, bruises, and bites all over her body. Her nipples were pierced, and she could see a couple of needle marks on her left arm.

Finally, she had awoken Kathleen enough that she focused on Janie. When she saw Janie, Kathleen's face showed shock, then shame. Her bottom lip began to quiver, and tears began to flow.

She covered her face and sobbed, "No. Don't look at me. Go away."

Janie wasn't about to do that. She snatched the sheet off the bed, wrapped it around her sister, and pulled her up and towards the door. She was afraid that Kathleen wouldn't be able to navigate the steps and told the PI she needed help.