Mollie from Montana Ch. 02

Elaine almost whimpered, "Are you saying what I think you are saying?"

Choosing her words carefully, Molly said, "I believe I can unleash him Elaine but I'll not reprogram him."

"What, even if that means him forsaking his family and his career?"

"No."

"Oh God."

"Indeed, just think about what you've just said and what I have just expressed to you Elaine. Think deeply and in all probability you will experience enlightenment. Try not to switch off your thoughts. Just let them come."

Elaine had turned white and was rocking on her feet.

"The plates please Elaine -- I need to carve and you need to serve. Hereon the moment is about delivering the meal."

That flicked Elaine's switch and her color slowly returned, as did her energy. They worked without talking.

"Hello, am I entering a morgue?" Maureen said, now out of her severe black and into blue almost the same shade as Mollie's dress but twelve inches farther down the leg and the top high up to her neck. "God, I haven't seen beef cut and served like that since Grandfather King's day."

"Your husband?"

"No Mollie, his father. Has Mollie made a hit on you Elaine? It's a long time since I've seen you colored up like that and wearing such a big fat smile."

Elaine blushed hugely. "Mom -- you are almost as confrontational as Mollie. We've been talking -- she made me so unhappy but it ended well, leaving me seeing hope."

"Ah, I knew that would happen. That's why I dawdled before coming down. I wanted Mollie to talk to you. Now move your asses. We need to complete the integration of Mollie."

"What do you mean?"

"Your conservative husband. He's not yet convinced but let me handle it."

The men looked approvingly at the smoothly sliced meat and looked admiringly at Mollie when told she could 'sharpen a knife like granddad King use to'.

During a rest before Elaine served dessert Maureen said, "Tell us about growing up and your later life in Montana Mollie."

The others listened politely while Mollie obliged and Elaine appeared rather disappointed as if she'd been expecting something far more gripping. When Mollie had finished Maureen said calmly, "That was the sanitized version Mollie. Please tell it how it really was, just as you told me earlier today."

"Maureen -- please."

"It will allow them to understand you better and why you are so empowered."

"No Maureen."

"Please Mollie, do it for me."

Mollie looked at Elaine plaintively and Stephen asked her to, "Spit it out."

Gary interjected, "Don't let them sway you Mollie. They are ganging up and if you allow it they'll screw you up."

Everyone looked at Gary quite startled but didn't comment until Mollie said, "Will it be okay if I do relate how it was Gary?"

He sipped some wine and said, keeping his gaze on the table, "Only if you decide it's okay."

"Okay, then I'll do it because I'd like you and your mother to know Gary."

He didn't respond.

For the next twenty minutes Mollie delivered an uncensored summary of her life in Montana incorporating the joys, the downs, the bullying and the tragedies and her suffering and her reactions and determination to rise about it all. Her voice rose and fell appropriately to inject greater emotion and the family listened soundlessly, Maureen dabbing at her eyes occasionally with her napkin.

As Mollie was winding down at the end Elaine had the same reaction her mother-in-law expressed earlier that day, "Oh, you poor darling Mollie" and received the same reply Maureen had received.

"Ah, many people are far worse off than me Elaine. I had my three escapes -- going off to college, and then on return escaping into law, and then my final escape from my family after my poor mother's death."

Elaine burst into tears and raced to the kitchen.

Stephen said, "Please go to her mom,"

Mollie chipped in. "No, you go to your mother Gary."

He remained unmoved.

"Gary, please. Go to your mother -- it will mean so much to her."

"Okay Mollie." Gary left the table displaying no reaction and certainly didn't look sullen.

"See what I mean?" Maureen said triumphantly to Stephen, who was still staring at Mollie.

"By God Mollie," Stephen said, before shaking his head and asking, "More wine anyone?"

"Yes please," said both women. Stephen then once again had his credulity stretched -- the sight of his iron-hearted mother dragging the visitor on to her shoulder and gently stroking Mollie's cheek.

Gary returned his mother to the table. Everyone accepted Elaine's apology with smiles and Gary handed his mother her glass of water.

"Please serve desert Gary."

"I've never done it before Mollie. I know nothing about kitchen work."

"It's apple crumble -- I saw it in the warming drawer. Just cut it with a knife and use a big spoon or a serving slice to heap it on plates. We won't mind if it looks messy."

"I don't think..."

"I do it," Stephen said but as he stood he was ignored.

"A buffoon could serve apple crumble Gary," Mollie continued relentlessly. "But if you wish I will stand beside you and give you instructions."

"N-no. I'll manage."

"Thank you Gary."

"Tell him about the whipped cream," Elaine whispered.

"No, I'll fetch it if his brain fails to deliver," Mollie said firmly.

Gary brought in crumbled apple crumble topped with whipped cream on two plates that he laid before his grandmother and his mother and returned with two more servings. He handed one to his father and sat down with the other.

"You're forgotten Mollie," his mother chided.

"No I didn't -- Mollie's is on the kitchen table. The bully can get it herself."

Elaine jumped up but Mollie was already on her way to the kitchen. Grinning she turned and said to Gary, "And here was I thinking you were a brat without a brain!"

The lovely evening ended with Maureen handing Gary the keys to her new car and asking him to drive Mollie to her hotel and not to dent the vehicle.

Gary was surprised when Mollie directed him to a poorer part of the city and was shocked when he found she resided at a cheap boarding house opposite the railway station. "You can't live here. Let's collect your things -- I'm taking you back home."

"No thank you Gary. My room is clean, dry and without fleas. It's quite a palace compared with the original homestead my mother and I were banished to after my father's death."

"You're had such a hard life Mollie. It's amazing you survived and, as you have said, emerged being a stronger person despite what you went through."

"I say because of it, rather than despite it. You know Gary, I suspect you may have had an upbringing in which you were similarly uncomfortable with and whereas I had physical as well as verbal abuse you may have suffered just as unkindly under the weight of verbal pressure."

"But I was rarely hit."

"That's fortunate but think of the mental pressure -- probably the difference between us is I chose to ignore it as much as possible and never to yield whereas you may have found the easiest way out was to submit after initial resistance."

"I don't really know what to say."

"And you never will Gary, until you learn to trust me and to share your thoughts with me freely."

"You think you can turn me around, don't you?"

"Yes."

"How can we achieve that?"

Mollie smiled and said she could think of a number of ways. She used her right hand to sweep her hair back, knowing that even in the dim illumination in the vehicle Gary would see her breasts push forward.

He reacted predictably. "You mean through sex?"

"That's a thought Gary but we need to progress from the beginning and move along slowly. It takes time to build trust and to feel your respect for a person is building. So let's not rush it, huh? I take it you like sex?"

Gary nodded.

Mollie said she preferred a spoken response.

"Yes, I do."

"That's good. Well, I must go to my bed. We don't want your grandmother thinking you've wrecked her car."

"Don't you want me to elaborate more?"

"Not tonight Gary. First things first." She reached for the door handle.

"Please allow me," Gary said, scramble out of his door. Mollie waited for him to lope around the front of the vehicle and open her door.

When he closed the door and stood awkwardly she pressed up against him, kissed his lips briefly and pulled away just as he was in the process of clasping her.

"What now?"

"You're going home Gary. I want you to think about my tits and then to allow your mind to drift and for you to think about some of the things you've heard discussed tonight and me making you serve desert which rather upset your mother and how you finally thought that was okay but you'd make the bitch get her own desert to get your own back. I would suspect that was a rare move for you Gary -- the reactions displayed by your family indicated that. Good man."

Gary grinned.

"And then if you can Gary think about the desolate way I arrived in this city a few nights ago and yet look at me now, in the process of being engaged in one of the leading legal practice in this city and the influence I've already had on you and your family. You know I have no special external powers Gary, so if I can do it why not you? And think of this Gary -- for better or for worse you'll have me alongside you, one who knows your predicament better than even your own mother does. Better still, you know I know how to turn your lights on although I cannot do that overnight. That being the case, I want you to think this leaves you perched in the driver's seat but nobody but you can make you drive, so what is it to be Gary?"

"What can I say?"

"The day you can answer that truthfully Gary you will know your spirit is firing. Don't rush it, resist if you must, but please accept that I'll be slowly but relentlessly pushing you all the way."

"You're in danger of becoming over-confident Mollie."

"Danger excites me Gary and I see no end to my potential and have no desire to sight any end to it. And why should I? If you wish to challenge yourself, keep on asking yourself questions of increasing complexity. You have absolutely no chance of outwitting or out-extending your mind. Believe that this is what this is all about. My goal is not to make you achieve your family's expectation that you'll become the future supremo of King law. My goal is to assist you to turn on your lights."

"You are simply amazing, so inspirational Mollie."

"Goodnight Gary."

"Goodnight Mollie. May I have another kiss?"

"No," said Mollie, brushing back her hair before turning to walk away.

Twenty minutes later Mollie received a call. "Hi, it's Elaine. I've just called to say Gary has just been in to kiss me goodnight."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"I certainly think so, particularly since it's the first time he's done that voluntarily in years."

"Oh."

"Indeed. He thinks you are so inspirational."

"He's just told me that but it means more hearing he's told you that. Did he tell where I'm living?"

"No. Is that important?"

"No. Look, do you mind if I call you tomorrow. I have no one else to call."

"No darling, call me twice a day if you wish. I'll sleep well tonight."

"Thank you. Good night Elaine."