Just Accept It - An Homage

I hesitated for a moment. My daughters held their breaths. My wife quailed and murmured a silent prayer. I looked at my hands, and then raised my eyes to stare at Jennifer.

"I don't know why I am the subject of such interest, Miss Torrance. I am a subject of the sovereign nation of Australia, and, distantly, of the Crown. I have no dealings with the U.S. Government. Does that answer your question?"

Jennifer Torrance held my eyes for a brief moment, then looked away. She smiled, and reached into her large purse. She pulled a manila envelope out and handed it to me.

"This was given to us to give to you by someone in the Justice Department. They said it was from an attorney acting on your behalf. I was instructed to give it to you. I have no idea what is in it." She held my gaze for a little longer than necessary.

"But I was led to believe it is important to you and your real reason for being here. I trust it will help. Now, I understand you have a full itinerary to attend to, and a very tight schedule. So the U.S. Government will not detain you any longer. Have a very pleasant stay. Ladies, gentlemen."

She rose and she and her two associates nodded to everyone present and left. Alex McChord chuckled and looked at me.

"You 'dodged a bullet' as they say, Mike. I'll pass the gist of the conversation along to Jack, and keep you under 'surveillance'. Behave your selves. Folks," he nodded to everyone else, "enjoy your stay here in America. We welcome you, even though I'm an Aussie." With that, he and James Lawson stood, shook my hand, smiled at my ladies, tickled little Mike, and left.

The girls were dumbfounded. They grabbed each other, and fell into their chairs, laughing and crying at the same time. My wife slugged my shoulder and looked at me with malice.

"DON'T YOU Ever DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN!!" she reviled me. Then she started to cry and grabbed my arms and hugged me. I held her and soothed her and finally kissed her cute little nose.

Then in my dumb-ass mode, said, "But I didn't do anything!" She punched me again and started to laugh. The girls came and hugged me and Mikey started to whine.

No attention.

We gathered everything and everybody up and proceeded to rental cars. We left for Malibu.

I had rented a beach house for our stay and we arrived and settled in. We went and took an extended three day trip to UCLA. Janie's interview went well. The soccer coach was impressed with her playing in Thailand. She was offered a partial scholarship, and accepted for the coming February class. Then we went to Stanford and after two days there and a stellar interview, (and hearing that her sister was enrolled in UCLA, with a partial scholarship) and a review of her soccer 'career', she was offered a full ride, provided she could make the team and keep her grades up. A minor pissing contest ensued between the sisters, and we figured the competition would do them good. Then we decamped back to Malibu for some sun and surf and to prepare for the confrontation.

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The Confrontation

The former Mrs. Jeffers had gotten a new job, at the Radisson Hotel outside of Chatsworth, California. She was now an assistant day shift hostess in the Italian restaurant that was part of the hotel. You know, the one who greets you and takes you to your table, then disappears? We made a reservation for three. Then I took the girls and Yvette to a lunch date. I pushed little Mike in a small fold-up stroller around to the outside of the hotel, entered the front entrance and walked to the bar entry from the lobby. We got a small table and could see the girls seated in the main dining room.

Laura had day shift, being the new hire and only an assistant. She was scheduled to end her shift at 2:00 p.m. Bless the internet. Hacking the hotel's computer system was a snap for the 'Hardy Girls' The ladies reservation was for 1:30 p.m. That left her a half hour to finish her shift, and get ready to leave. That was the 'window' we had. It was a Tuesday afternoon reservation. Low traffic, not many people.

Yvette's viewpoint

My girls and I arrived at the restaurant and Lucy, Janie and I met Laura Swan, aka Laura Jeffers. The girl's biological mother.

The years had not been kind to Laura. My husband's former wife had aged badly, gained weight, and not bothered to 'enhance' her appearance with either make-up or exercise-too well. She looked tired, haggard and defeated. But she endeavored to be polite and courteous, no doubt to enhance her impression with her customers. The girls were cordial and did not make any sort of recognition or notice other than a thank you for seating them. For her part, Laura showed no sort of recognition. She returned to her spot at the front door. We ordered drinks-iced tea for the girls, a Mimosa for me, and some appetizers.

Lucy and Janie looked at each other, briefly stunned by the meeting with their 'mother'. Yvette watched her daughters and tried to gauge their mind set. The twins were in twin mode, silently communicating with each other.

"Girls, you need to decide if you are going to proceed or not. You have less then ten minutes before her shift ends and she will leave. Probably now or never," Yvette said.

Lucy used the term they had adopted to go with their affectionate term for their father.

"Ma, you and da have gone to great lengths to bring us to this point. We need to do this."

Janie agreed.

"Ma, call her over." I was very proud of my 'adopted daughters'.

I motioned for the waitress. She came over an I handed her an envelope.

"Give this to Ms. Laura Jeffers. You know her as Laura Swanson. Tell her her daughters Lily and Riley want to see her. NOW."

The waitress stared and almost lost it.

"Move, dear. Now, before she leaves," I said with my no-nonsense mom/doctor's voice.

She beat a hasty retreat, and got to the hostess stand just as Laura was picking up her purse and getting ready to leave. She told Laura what that woman had said, and handed her the note. With trembling hands, Laura opened it and read.

'Ms. Swanson, or more precisely, the former Mrs. Jeffers-

Lily and Riley Jeffers request the 'honor' of your presence at our table to close our 'relationship' with you. Come if you so choose. If you do not come, it will only reinforce our opinion of you.

Your former daughters.'

There was no vitriol, nor obscenities thrown out. In the first ten or so versions, it was quite different. But calmer heads prevailed, and the three ladies settled on the final wording.

The waitress delivered the message, and Laura accepted it as she was getting ready to go home. She read the letter three times, whispering 'No, No, it can't be. It can't be!' She raised her head and looked around to the table the waitress indicated, and saw the two attractive teen-aged young ladies staring at her, waiting for her to come or go. She panicked, as she also noticed the striking-looking black haired vision sitting with them. She almost fainted, but knew she had to find out. She grabbed her purse and stumbled towards the table.

I saw the woman's reaction and waited for her decision. I saw her grab her purse and then she weaved towards our table.

'GOD, please let this go well!', I silently breathed.

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The Girls take over

Laura arrived at the table and looked at the two young ladies. Lucy was seated with her hands on the table, a three ring binder next to her on her right. I sat to her left, calmly sipping the excellent Mimosa. On my left was Janie, staring to seethe. Laura stopped and stared at the girls, absently ignoring me.

"Who are you? WHO ARE YOU??", she shrieked. Janie spoke first. She fixed Laura with contemptuous stare and the icy tone of her vice was daunting, from such a young women. It had been a long time coming, growing over the years from sorrow and grief to revulsion and hatred. It was about to be resolved.

"Sit down, please, Ms. Swanson!!"

Laura sagged into the chair opposite. Janie continued.

"My name is Janie Davies. You once knew me as Riley Jeffers, not that you particularly cared. You killed our father, Henry. Your attitude and total disrespect, not to mention your threats, caused him to leave."

Lucy picked up the narrative.

"I was once known as Lily Jeffers. Remember me,'mother'? My name is now Lucy Davies. Did you ever love our father, or was it just a convenient way to get him to cow-tow to your demands as a slut and porn star? I find it hard to believe you put any store in your supposed 'wedding vows'."

Laura was hyper ventilating and struggling to maintain consciousness. She was also in danger of bringing up her lunch. This was happening so fast, so quickly; she was not prepared for this. She tried to focus on the two girls. Her babies. Her children.

I calmly watched her, with her eyes anyway. My mind was running in circles, praying my 'daughters' would come through this with a minimum of mental damage. My subconscious mind was running every prayer I could think of, and even making a few up, hoping God was paying attention.

Lucy/Lily reached for the binder and calmly opened it.

"This is your life story, Laura, or at least the 'highlights' of the last 12 years. Oh, yes, we have been following you for the last almost 7 years, ever since we made our father explain to us what had happened. We've heard the recordings of your ultimatum to him, of your 'reasons' that were instilled in you by your mother. How'd that work out for you, Laura? Not well, it would appear. What are you now, 45-50 years old?"

Absently, Laura murmured, "39".

Janie/Riley jumped on her.

"WOW, 'mom', you sure have aged NOT well. I almost thought you were our useless grandmother. By the way, we have real grandparents in France, and two of the best, most adoring people ever who have loved us and cared for us for the last almost 14 years. They are closer to grandparents then our blood relations could ever hope to be.

"This is our real mother." She motioned to me. "Laura, meet Dr. Yvette Davies. Ma, this is our incubator, the womb that carried us for 9 months, birthed us, and then used us as 'bargaining chips' to get our father to submit to serving her wanton life style. This is the 'female' who killed our father and destroyed our family." Her voice was rising as she spoke, and starting to carry.

"This is the creature that cared more for her own sexual lifestyle then our well-being. THIS IS......"

"All right, Cherie, that is enough. Calm down. I'm sure she gets your point."

I looked at my nemesis, the woman who had broken Micheal, although briefly, and then cast him aside. Fortunately for my girls, and myself, it was a brief shattering, one he fought through. I thanked God again that I was there to collect him, and help to make him whole again. But the majority of his salvation was due to the two young ladies sitting next to me.

"Ms. Swanson, my daughters have looked forward to this for a long time. I am not a psychiatrist, and I was concerned that they would be permanently scarred by this meeting. So I am not going to let them go too far. But I also feel they need this. YOU, on the other hand, deserve this for what you have done.

"Ladies, continue."

Lucy/ Lily continued.

"I am the more reserved daughter. Janie /Riley is the more emotional one. How ever, understand that I dislike you as much as she does.

"Now, this binder chronicles your many 'encounters' that are a matter of public record." She opened the binder, and started turning the pages and appeared to be perusing the contents. Actually, she and her sister had almost everything committed to memory. This was for Laura's benefit.

"Let's see, now, I count twelve instances of sexually acquired disease, as required to be reported to the state of California. That's all that we can document. God knows how much else there was. Then there are the 5 abortions documented by medical and insurance claims. Hippa doesn't care about payments, only who finds about what you did. Not exactly a sterling recommendation for 'mother of the year', is it? But then again, you weren't concerned with anything like that, were you??"

Janie/Riley piped up, "A real shining example. I'm so glad we weren't around for those."

Lucy/Lily continued with a grin. She turned a page and said, "Oh now we come to your criminal records. Let's see, credit card fraud, shoplifting, theft of services, .... "

Laura shook herself and seemed to find some presence of mind as she spoke, "I was destitute. Your father had taken you and all my money and bankrupted my parents, leaving me with the bills, the mortgage, no cash, and no children. I was desperate. I....."

Lucy/Lily spoke, "Oh yes, our 'beloved grandparents'. The ones that more or less told our father to 'suck it up' and 'get with the game' because that was the way it should be in the 'new world'. Are those the ones we're speaking of? Because I really have nothing good to say about them."

Janie/Riley added, "When we heard the story the first time, at age 12, we were astounded. We at first didn't believe it. How could they do this? We asked our father why he didn't call your parents and tell them what you did. He said he did. That's when we heard the full story, and we had our first hard 'twin moment'. I looked at my sister, she looked at me and we knew, just knew, that our grandparents hated our father. We turned to him and said 'They hated you, didn't they, da?' He was stunned. He couldn't understand how two four year old's knew this. But we did, mother. WE KNEW."

By now, the cheap make-up she was wearing had degenerated to a clown's mask of covering on her sagging face. But she was determined to salvage something from this interaction.

"You have NO idea what a woman has to put up with in this world. You are just children. I was looking out for our interests and trying to get your father to behave like a man should, in servitude to a woman's will, and needs. All he had to do was behave himself, learn his place and serve me as was my rightful expectation."

The woman was in full feminist rant now and the girls were almost shocked. Actually, they were seething, and exploded at Laura.

(Editor's note: For ease of typing and to move things along, I will from now on dispense with the two name designations of the daughters. I'm sure some out there will balk; Tough. Deal with it. Now then, where was I.....?)

Lucy looked at her birth mother with sad eyes. She almost shed tears.

"Laura, you are so god-dammed delusional it's pathetic. You were married to a wonderful man who busted his ass and worked himself to the bone for YOU, BITCH!! And then you slutted around on him and threatened him with the loss of his wife, his married life, and his children so that you could be a porn star. You sicken me."

Janie was not so nice.

"YOU, LAURA were the reason we were taken in the middle of the night. You broke our father and forced him to take action. It was not the best action, but the only action. He blamed himself for years and never thought he did the right thing. He did, bitch; he saved us. And in doing so, he resigned himself to over 7 years of self blame, recriminations, an absolute hell. I so hate you."

Yvette interfered again. Laura was a sniveling mess, curling in on herself. The waitress made several passes towards the table, but she waved her off.

"Alright, girls, I think you've made your point. I believe Ms. Swanson in well aware of your opinion of her and her actions. Have you done enough??"

"Just a little more, ma. I think Laura needs to know what we know about her financial shenanigans."

Laura blanched white, and shuddered again.

'What could they know?'

Lucy resumed. "Who do you think burned you to the IRS about your small bank account? And what about the drug money we found?? Are you really that dumb?"

Laura knew her life was over. It seems the girls had stumbled on a nefarious connection with some bad actors from the strip club who had Laura moving small quantities of heroin and meth.

They had turned that over to their father who had in turn contacted the Australia Consulate, and they had passed it to the FBI.

The America Justice Department and the State of California were very appreciative. This resulted in the manila envelopes passed to Micheal at LAX. It dealt with the removal of the charges against him for kidnapping. Micheal was a free man.

Laura would be arrested this evening at home when her mother dropped off the latest bank deposit for the druggies. The strip club was being raided as they sat there. Numerous arrests were being made as were several 'bolo' warrants for individuals who could not be located. Lots of happy LEO'S in California.

Laura was a sniveling, destroyed human being, sitting there at the table. That's when her world took a last jolting spin.

Michael Davies strolled over.

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Yvette had signaled me and I rose and collected our son in his stroller and we made our way to join the ladies. I walked up and leaned in and kissed my wife on her cheek. Yvette smiled. Lucy and Janie looked up and smiled.

"Hello, Da. It's good to see you," said Lily.

"There's my little brother. Hi, Mikey!!," said Janie, tickling her brother and causing him to giggle uncontrollably. Then his eyes locked on Laura and his expression morphed to one of fear and panic. His arms reached for Yvette and he started to cry, 'Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma!!" Yvette leaned over and stooped to cradle her son.

"Even our brother hates you, and he has no clue who you are, Witch," said Janie, with hatred in her eyes.

Lucy ended it.

"Ms. Swanson, this has been very therapeutic. But I believe we are finished here." She turned and looked at her sister. Janie gave a small nod and snorted at the broken woman in front of them. Laura wailed one last time and struggled to her feet. She was a broken, destroyed human being. I felt a small amount of pity for her. But not a lot. I know. Cold; cruel; a lot like being told that you are going to fuck whoever you want and that your spouse should just deal with it, and maybe, JUST maybe, you will give them 'leftovers' and allow them to see their children.

I addressed my ex-wife.

"Good bye, Laura. I hope to never see you again, in this life. And if I run into you in hell, just ignore me. Please.

"Come on, ladies. Let's go back to the house and have a swim. Then dinner tonight, and tomorrow, Disneyland. How's that?"

The glee was overwhelming and they jumped up like the small children I would always see them as, chattering and laughing and messing with their little brother.

Yvette rose and cast a pitying look at Laura.

"Goodbye, Madame. Good luck in future life. I think you will need it." We left to enjoy the rest of our life.

The End

This was a long time coming. I hope you enjoyed it. For those of you looking for a little humor in the form of a joke,- sorry, I got nothin.

The BEAR