Cassie's Love Ch. 11

Margie wasn't quite prepared for Hurricane Von Greiner as Cassie and Hector parked and the whole family stampeded to welcome them back ... the very day after they had left to take Cassie off to school. In just a day or two, max, depending on how you counted it, they went from college freshmen trying to claim a spot in the dorms to orphans to a billionaire and his three wives. The twins were still in some level of shock, as were their kith and kin, to put it mildly.

"Everything was so great ... so great, right before they left for that drive! They were gonna put on a movie marathon and order some pizza ... damn! The Hobbit, no less! Talk about a classic! We were robbed, guys ... robbed of the best parents in the world!" Kirsten sobbed while holding onto Cassie ... and then Bridget and Natalie joined their sisters in a group hug.

"I know ... it just ... sucks! It fucking sucks!" Cassie wiped away some tears for a second before bawling all over again.

"This is some bullshit!" Hector ranted, even as he hugged Karl and Trevor in spite of himself.

"You guys, I want you to know that we'll be here for you the whole time. Ty's Sheriff now, of course, but under the circumstances, I doubt that he'll run for another term. Too much on his plate, after all. This is a family emergency, wouldn't you say? We all have to pull together and put the family first. I never realized how much your parents were the glue that held this family together. Now, we'll have to put it back together ourselves and keep it that way for good," Aunt Sandy asserted, even as she poured herself some coffee ... and others some as well.

Neither Aunt Sandy nor Aunt Julie opened any stiff drinks in front of Ty, of course, since he was a recovering alcoholic. This would be a sort of dry gathering, but they still needed to get along and work with each other to move past this tragedy. To Margie, it was amazing, seeing this whole family stick together and all comfort each other, even the macho ones like Karl and Trevor. This was one hell of a family and a legacy to Dan, Vicki, Haley, and Michelle. The four of them had built a real tribe around them that would continue past the deaths of this one patriarch and the three matriarchs.

"So young, too. I'm much older myself, and in very frail health, and yet here I am, alive, while they've gone on to their reward. Life and death are perverse, you know. Very perverse. I should know, old reprobate that I am," Red Marsh snorted as he lit up a cigar, "see, I even have the worst habits, you know."

"Bro, you're the same generation as me, you know," Ty reminded his brother, who admittedly looked much older than himself.

"I owe it all to clean living, of course," Red sarcastically remarked.

"Yeah, you're a model of diet and physical fitness, Uncle Red," Trevor teased his uncle.

"If I didn't know that you were taking the piss at me, whippersnapper... , " Red mockingly threatened him.

"At this point in life, it's probably too late for you, anyway," Margie teased him now.

"Is that a challenge?" Red's eyes widened as he gave her a very John Goodman stare.

"Maybe... , " she winked at him flirtatiously.

'Anyway, it's a real tragedy ... a horror," Ty brought their thoughts back to his ex-wife, her second husband, and their sister-wives, "divorce aside, they were awesome people, especially your mother, guys. To Vicki."

"Amen," another, very frail, female voice joined his.

There was a very elderly woman entering their presence, her blindness owed to cataracts and diabetes. She had sunglasses over her blue eyes, while her sandy hair was in a bun. She was so thin that her bones were ghoulishly visible in her hands. She wore a very conservative dress, one that reached the knees rather easily. She also limped and used a cane to get around.

"Who are you?" Cassie responded, unsure of what answer to expect.

"I'm ... Jordan ... Jordan Blois ... I'm your grandmother," the old lady informed her now.

"Oh, so you come back now, after years or being presumed dead or left as the fucking elephant in the proverbial room ... why bother? You abandoned Mom and left her entirely in the hands of Grandpa, you know! Why haven't you been here, with us, making amends to your daughter, my mother, and being a good grandmother to us all? You're a fucking deadbeat, you know!" Kirsten now raged for her part.

Jordan flinched, but then she steadied herself and and lifted her shades to face the very grandchildren that she couldn't even see. She let some tears fall upon her cheeks, but then nodded in recognition of the complaint and grievance. She clearly felt some embarrassment and shame, and why not? She had abandoned her daughter, after all.

"What you say ... it's true, but to be fair ... I didn't know where she lived or with whom ... and it wasn't until I saw the obituary that I realized that it was her. Too late ... too late ... too damned late ... my girl, my daughter ... my sweet little Vicki!" Jordan even broke out into Cajun French, no less.

"Why did you leave, Grandmother? And why did you return?" Karl confronted her at last.

"Because Clay ... Claude, your father, my husband, confessed to me one night that he was ... gay! I felt duped, deceived, betrayed, and so furious! Trapped into a horrible family and household by an imposter! A fraud! It doesn't justify it, of course, but the other part is what I now know about myself. I have ... BPD. Borderline Personality Disorder. It is closely connected to real issues of abandonment and fear thereof.

"I decided to walk out on him before he could do that to me. And since he wronged me to make your mother, I figured that it was his job to atone by raising her all by himself. Now, of course, it is I who must atone and do penance and I have come to do just that. I have come to offer myself ... in the role of a maid. A servant to the household, if you will. Just pay me room and board ... and I'll serve you faithfully for the last few years of my life," Jordan shocked the Von Greiners with that radical proposal.

"What is this, the prodigal granny?" Margie laughed, "I recommend going with it, anyway. She is clearly torn up and wants to atone ... to do penance. This is her way of doing so. Besides, this was all connected to her mental illness. Don't worry ... I'll take responsibility for her ... and her actions. And I used to be a nun ... until I was raped by a priest. Long story on that, though."

"You were a nun? What's your name, Sister?" Jordan asked her now directly.

"Margie. Don't worry about my surname ... but yes, I was 'Sister Margie' back then. And if anyone knows about penance, absolution, atonement, etc., it's me. Of course, the Church still hasn't made amends for protecting that asshole rapist of a priest, but even so. More recently, I was a waitress ... but I'd like to be a kind of ... surrogate auntie for all of you ... as I already am for Hector and Cassie as of today. If that's okay with you, that is," Margie volunteered.

"All well and good, but you're to supervise her. Agreed? No false moves, alright?" Bridget proposed.

"I can get behind that idea," Natalie threw her support to the notion as well.

"There is someone else that you should meet ... your aunts ... Jacqueline and Jeanette. Twin sisters, in fact. They've been my loyal companions for years. Perhaps you can welcome them into your home as well, as family, if nothing else. How about it?" Jordan introduced her other daughters, proof positive that twins really did in the family tree.

"Did ... Mom ... ever have a twin who didn't survive?" Trevor wondered now.

"Yes, but he did when he was just two months old. He was never as healthy as your mother, you see. Andre, that was his name. Andre Victor Blois. That was another reason that I left. His memory was very painful, after all. Not to mention depressing, you see," Jordan admitted to her grandson as his aunts appeared to them at last.

"Wait ... aren't they a bit ... young to be Mom's sisters?" Cassie probed further now.

"No, because they were born twelve years after your mother, dear one. After that, I had my tubes tied and never got pregnant again. I was thirty-three at the time. And they were with my second husband, George, who was a police officer killed in the line of duty. They were born posthumously, meaning after his death, so they never knew him. That's a pity, because he was a great guy, just very unlucky, of course," Jordan finally spoke of her remarriage and her life as a working single mom.

"Did he ever ... know about Mom?" Hector questioned his grandma now.

"Not on your life. I carried that secret to his grave, if not mine. I was too ashamed and I didn't want to miss a second chance to do it right, you see. Anyway, I mean it about being sorry that I never got to know your parents in life, especially the great woman that your mother evidently became. A better wife and mother than me, judging from what I've heard. I just want to ... work on doing right by you all," Jordan pleaded, even as she hugged Jacqueline and Jeanette very tight.

Like her ... and Vicki, they had a very slender figure. Unlike those two, however, they were black, just like George, their old man. Time would tell what to make of them, but for now.

"Stay with us ... and Grandma can have the room next to yours, connected by a shared vanity and bathroom. Just bear in mind that she's got to work very hard at penance, at least for now. She already has your trust, because you knew the new version of her. She has to earn ours, you see. Now, first order of business ... what's for supper, because I'm ravenous! I haven't eaten for hours, due to their deaths upsetting my stomach. They were like the parents I never had," Diane broke her silence at last.

"I'll second that," Jamie agreed for her part, showing that the in-laws were on the same page as well.

Something told the Von Greiners, especially Cassie and Hector, that as painful as it was, they really should give their grandmother another chance. After all, it was what their mother would do. Even with her own deadbeat of a mom.