Neighbors

Part Three of Thorne & Bridges, an expanded version of my Terri and Bess short story.

Synopsis: in Part One, Terri, age 18, falls in love with Cal Thorne, age 47, who dies unexpectedly, leaving her a widow at age 25. Their daughter Bess was six at the time.

In Part Two, Will Bridges marries Melinda and they move in next door to Terri and Bess. Melinda proves unfaithful and they divorce.

Alone Together

Terri Thorne spotted her neighbor Will Bridges out in his backyard early one evening and leaned on the chain-link fence. "Hey, Will!"

"Hi Terri."

"I saw a moving van -- what happened? If I'm not prying?"

"No, that's OK. Melinda moved out. Well, more like I kicked her out."

"Oh, Will! I'm so sorry! I thought you two were such a solid couple!"

"I thought so, too. She wanted an open marriage. I said no."

"Oh, Will, that's awful! How could she? Was it completely out of the blue?"

"Pretty much. At least she had the decency to come clean, not to keep playing me for a fool. But apparently she thought I'd accept infidelity."

"I can't imagine. I'm so sorry, Will."

"Thanks, Terri."

They each returned to their separate houses. Will couldn't help but think he and his gorgeous neighbor were both single now, or rather, she was and he soon would be. Fat lot of good that was going to do him -- he'd never asked a girl for a date, Melinda had asked him, and was the only girlfriend he'd ever had. The thought of asking a babe like Terri out was terrifying. He was sure she'd shoot him down in a heartbeat. Better to settle for enjoying the view.

And what a view! If Melinda had a lovely smile, Terri's could outshine the sun. If Helen of Troy's face could launch a thousand ships, Terri in a bikini could cause a man to overlook earthquakes and volcanos in his immediate vicinity. Her voice was low, rich and musical; her laughter was ambrosia. Not that she laughed all that often -- there was a sadness lurking behind her beautiful green eyes. Her husband Cal had died unexpectedly six years ago.

Terri's daughter, Bess, was now twelve years old, dark-haired and taller than her mother. She had always been cheerful and friendly. One afternoon when Will got home and checked the mailbox at the street she rushed over from her front yard.

"Mr. Bridges?"

"Hi Bess, how are you?"

"I'm fine, but where's Mrs. Bridges? I haven't seen her in forever!"

"Umm, well, Bess, we broke up. She doesn't live here anymore."

"That's stupid! Why would she do that?"

"Life gets complicated, sometimes."

"It's not that complicated -- she shouldn't have broken up with you!"

Will gave her a sad smile. "Thanks for that thought, Bess."

"Life sucks sometimes. I lost my Papa and you lost your wife. It's not fair!"

"No, Bess, life isn't fair. We just have to do the best we can. There's a world of people worse off than us, so we just have to count our blessings and carry on."

"I guess so. But I don't have to like it!"

Will chuckled. "No, neither do I." She gave him a high-five and returned to her house.

Trying Teen

After Bess turned thirteen and began eighth grade Will noticed Terri often wore a pinched, strained look. He stopped her one day to ask "Is everything all right, neighbor?"

"Oh, sure, well, a teenager can be a handful at times. Thanks for asking."

A few weeks later she stopped him at the mailbox. "Will, I'm at my wit's end! Bess is impossible! She curses me, blows up at anything, storms off to her room or out of the house. Her report card was all D's and F's this time and I recently learned she's been skipping classes. Now I've found out two of the group she hangs out with got caught selling weed!"

"Oh my, Terri! You have my sympathy. I haven't a clue how to deal with a teenager."

"Apparently, neither do I." Terri sniffed and wiped a tear from her eye. "She used to be such a sweet girl." He squeezed Terri's hand; she squeezed back, said "Thanks for listening, Will," and returned to her house.

A couple of evenings later Bess knocked on his door. "Mind if I come in, Mr. Bridges?"

"Not at all, Bess. Can I get you a lemonade?"

"Yes, please."

"Come into the kitchen, then." She took a seat while he poured her glass. She took a few sips and just stared at the floor. He had the feeling she wanted to talk but she didn't say anything.

"Would you like to play a video game, Bess?"

"OK, I guess."

"Competitive or cooperative?"

Her head lifted. "What's cooperative?"

"You and me take on the bad guys and try to save the world."

"Sounds cool! Let's do it!"

Bess loved the game. They played for more than an hour, then Will paused it and said "Bess, I'd better let your mom know where you are."

"That's OK, I probably need to get home anyway. Thanks, Mr. Bridges, can we do this again sometime?"

"Sure thing, Bess."

He phoned Terri from work the next day to fill her in; "Is it OK for her to come over like that?"

"Yes, thanks, Will. She came home in a good mood, told me where she'd been and we didn't fight for the first time in weeks that I can remember."

"Glad I could help, then."

After that Bess was over at Will's almost anytime they both were home. He kept Terri posted on what they did, which was mostly video games but sometimes a TV show or movie. Will enjoyed Bess's company -- as well as the excuses her visits provided for him to chat with Terri.

Copy Wrongs

Bess, a good writer, had blown off too many assignments in 8th grade English and was failing the course at the holiday break. Terri had a long talk with her and she resolved to get back on track, maybe salvage a 'C' for the year.

Their teacher moved away over the break so she had a new one, Mr. Ames. Bess thought that might be just as well, a chance to make a good impression with a fresh start. Their first assignment was to read a biography of one of the Founding Fathers and write a book report.

Bess remembered her mom talking about John Adams and she found a book about him at the school library. She thought it would be boring but instead was impressed and fascinated by all his contributions to the early republic. She quickly dashed off five pages -- more than the required two -- put it aside, came back to it the next day to pare it down to three-and-a-half pages, and proudly turned it in on Monday.

On Thursday Mr. Ames returned the papers. Bess's had a large, red 'F' on the cover page; below that were the words 'obvious plagiarism'. She was stunned. What did she do wrong? How could she explain this to her mom?

She took the paper home and handed it to Terri. "Mom, doesn't plagiarism mean you copied what someone else wrote?"

Terri looked at the paper, then answered slowly: "Yes, or used their ideas without giving proper credit, even if you put it in your own words. Did you copy anything for this paper, or use ideas without giving credit?"

"No way! I read the book and wrote it all myself!"

"And I see you properly cited the book and some direct quotes. You've always been a good writer, Bess. I think I have some of your old papers." She went to her study and returned with three papers from sixth grade, all marked 'A'.

"Bess, this is very important. If any part of this report is not your work, aside from the quotations you've properly cited, I need to know that now."

"I swear, Mom, it's all my writing."

"All right. Don't worry about it. I'm going to talk to the principal tomorrow. We'll get this taken care of."

In all Bess's years in school, Terri had never asked to meet with a principal. Her mom avoided confrontation like the plague. Bess, in fact, had taken complete advantage of that fact for the past year or so. She couldn't imagine what her mom hoped to accomplish, but she decided to wait and see.

Terri drove Bess to school, told her to go on to class, and headed for the office. After the first period Bess was told to report there. The secretary ushered her into Ms. Johnson's office, where she, Terri and Mr. Ames were waiting.

Her mom turned to the principal and said "Thank you. Here is a paper my daughter wrote for Mr. Ames and turned in Monday." She handed it to Ms. Johnson.

The principal glanced at the cover and said, "Mr. Ames! We have protocols for accusations of plagiarism! This isn't how we handle such things!"

"I, um, I just thought I'd scare her straight rather than go through all that."

Terri spoke up: "Did it never occur to you Bess might actually have written this herself?"

"She was failing the class! Students like that don't just up and write high-quality papers like that!"

Terri turned to her daughter. "Bess, why were you failing the class?"

Bess hung her head and said quietly. "I didn't do most of the work."

"You and I talked about that over the holidays. What did we decide?"

"I agreed to do all the work for the rest of the year and try to bring my grade up to a 'C'."

"Bess, what's the lowest grade you've ever gotten on a paper you actually turned in?"

"B plus -- and I dashed that one off in a hurry."

Terri turned to Ms. Johnson. "Here are some of her papers from sixth grade."

The principal glanced over them, then handed them back to Terri. "Mr. Ames, you are suspended pending a disciplinary hearing. You may leave the school premises, we'll be in touch. You are dismissed."

The shocked teacher opened his mouth, promptly shut it and left quietly.

"Mrs. Thorne, my sincere apologies. Mr. Ames jumped to a conclusion and violated our strict protocols. I wish he would've spoken with me first."

Turning to the student: "Bess, can you get me a clean copy of this paper?"

"Yes, ma'm, I have it on my laptop."

"Please send it to me. I'll have another teacher grade it. Is there anything else I can do for either of you?"

Terri said "No, thank you. Bess?"

"I'm fine -- or, maybe a little shell-shocked."

"Let me know if you think of anything. You may return to your classes, dear. Thank you, Mrs. Thorne, for bringing this to my attention."

Terri and Bess left the office; Terri asked "Where's the ladies room?" Bess walked her to the nearest one; Terri bolted inside a stall and Bess heard her retch. A few minutes later the sound repeated; then the toilet flushed and she emerged looking pale and green. She started to wash up but then returned quickly to the stall.

Bess didn't know what to do -- her mom was obviously too ill to drive herself home. She remembered where Mr. Bridges worked; she ran to her locker to get her phone, found the phone number at the company website, called and asked to speak to Will Bridges.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Bridges?"

"Bess! What's up?"

"It's my mom. She's here at school with me but she's too sick to drive herself home."

"You're at St. Luke's middle school, right?"

"Yes."

"I'll be there in ten minutes, maybe fifteen."

"Thanks, Mr. Bridges."

"You bet! Glad you called."

Eleven minutes later Will texted Bess he had arrived. She brought Terri out, helped her into the passenger seat and climbed in the back. "The school let me out to look after her."

As Will eased out of the parking lot onto the street Terri said, weakly, "Thanks for helping, Will. I'll be alright after a while." She gave a heave and covered her mouth but she had nothing left to bring up.

Back home they got her settled in bed, closing all the curtains in the room. Terri pointed to her night-stand: "My eye-mask, please." Bess retrieved it and helped her put it on, then she and Will retreated to the living room.

"What happened, Bess?" They spoke quietly.

"A teacher gave me an 'F', said I'd plagiarized. Mom talked to the principal and the teacher, she was unbelievable! She destroyed him! The principal suspended him on the spot and totally apologized! I've never seen Mom do anything like that before! Then, when we left the office, she became violently ill!"

"Your mom hates conflict. She avoids it almost at all costs."

"I know! But she went to war for me!"

"Yes, Bess, she did. She knew it would cost her, maybe it was worse than she expected, but I'm not even sure about that. I'm sure she'd do it again in a heartbeat. You mean everything to her."

Tears streamed down Bess's face. She buried her face in Will's side and he held her. After some time she looked up: "I'm going to be a better daughter, Will. I swear it."

"I'm sure of it, Bess. I'm sure of it. Now, will you be alright if I return to work? I can call in if you need me."

"I think Mom will be OK, but I'll call you back if she gets worse."

"OK, you've got my cell number now. Take care, Bess. I'll check back with you when I get home tonight.

As he drove back to work he pondered her calling him Will. Well, perhaps she'd grown up a lot in one day. She'd taken charge of her mother, reached out for help, and resolved to straighten up and fly right. She was still a child, but today she'd done a fine job of imitating an adult.

When he got home that evening Bess told him her mom had woken up and taken some broth she'd warmed up in the microwave. Saturday morning Terri herself came over to the fence, wearing her brilliant smile.

"All better today, neighbor?"

"Yes, thanks so much, would you mind running me over to the school to get my car?"

"Happy to! Glad you're up and about!"

After retrieving the car Bess came over. Will fired up their favorite game, a fantasy role-player where the first order of business was for each to choose their player class.

"You know, Will, we generally do better when we choose different player classes."

"Why is that, Bess?" He took it she was grappling with some concept.

"Well, if I play a warrior and you play a healer, you can help me recover quicker."

"Right. Other examples?"

"A wizard can use magic to strengthen the rest of the group, or deal with the enemy most dangerous to the warrior."

"Very good."

"So I've been thinking -- in real life, families are kinda like an adventuring group."

"How so?"

"Different members have different skills, one can make up for another's weakness, while appreciating what the others do well."

"Very profound, Bess."

"Mom doesn't like to cook."

"Well, she can't be absolutely perfect..."

Bess stuck her tongue out at him and they both laughed.

"I'm going to learn how to cook, Will."

"I think that's a splendid idea, Bess." He wondered how long she'd stick with this project -- but he wasn't going to bet against her.

New Daughter

A few weeks later Will took a day off work, ran some errands and returned home around noon.

Terri dashed over as he got out of his car; "Will! I can't thank you enough! She's like a different person! She's doing her schoolwork, she's quit being rude and disobedient at home, she's even started to cook! I never did much in the kitchen besides use the microwave but she's been fixing breakfast for more than a week now!"

"That's great, Terri, not sure I deserve the credit but I'm glad to hear it."

Bess opened up to Will one day about how she knew her former friends were bad news but she felt lonely without them. He asked about her interests; she was really quite bright and mathematically inclined. He suggested looking for some 'geeky' friends. The next Saturday afternoon she brought a short guy with thick glasses over to join their video game. After that she often had one or two friends over on the weekends. She had friends over to her own house as well, but the guys had trouble concentrating if her mom was around!

Bess's grades went from D's and F's to A's and B's. One afternoon she rang Will's doorbell; he invited her in but she said "I need to get back, I'm cooking supper. Would you like to join us? Chicken and rice, fruit salad."

"I'd be delighted! Sounds great."

"I hope so! 6:30?"

"I'll be there!"

It was a simple but tasty meal. Conversation was limited until, remembering that Terri loved to read, Will asked "Anything interesting from the library?"

"Oh, yes, I'm reading a book about the great extinction..."

Bess perked up: "The dinosaurs?"

"No, the end-Permian extinction, before the dinosaurs. More than 80% of species in the seas and 70% on land were wiped out. That actually paved the way for the dinosaurs. Before that, it was relatives of our ancestors that ruled the land -- the Therapsids."

"Wow! I'd never heard of that!"

Will wondered: "So did an asteroid cause that one, too?"

"I haven't gotten that far in the book, yet."

From there they talked about the dinosaurs and whether Earth was in the middle of another great extinction. Terri and Will batted ideas back and forth while Bess, typical of her generation, fact-checked with her iPhone.

After desert -- cheesecake! -- Bess asked "Want to join us for a game, Mom?"

Terri, a good sport, said "OK" and they fired up a game and tried to explain it to her. After a few minutes she put down her controller. "I'll leave this to you two. Thanks again for the dinner, Bess, I'll take care of the dishes." Will watched her leave the room and then, to his embarrassment, realized Bess was watching him ogle her mom!

Bess smirked and said "Let's get back to the game." Will smiled sheepishly at the girl he was beginning to think of as the daughter he wish he'd had. A daughter with one heck of a sexy mom!

After that, Bess invited him over at least twice a week, her cooking consistently excellent as was the conversation and, oh yeah, the scenery! Will took to ordering pizza or taking the two of them out on Friday or Saturday nights.

Spending time around Terri, however, Will found himself enjoying more than just her beautiful face, mesmerizing eyes, gorgeous hair and spectacular figure. She read voraciously and conversation flowed easily between the three of them. She showed off her garden and, shyly, allowed him to see one of her completed paintings, which, to his untrained eye, looked very good. He was falling fast but was terrified of asking her out without Bess along -- Terri was way out of his league and if she shot him down it could wreck their sort-of 'family'. He couldn't risk doing that to Bess.

Asking Mom's Help

One afternoon Will took a day off work. Another neighbor, Wanda Simmons, dropped by with half a cherry pie. He invited her in and they sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee, eating the desert and chatting; she mentioned her divorce would soon be final. She was pleasantly plump with a sweet face; he wondered if he should ask her for a date. The thought brought him up short; he couldn't really imagine dating anyone but Terri, however impossible that pipe-dream was.

Bess let herself in (Terri and Will having exchanged keys awhile back), said "Hello Mr. Bridges, hello Mrs. Simmons, sorry, didn't know you had company, I'll come back later," turned around and left.

Wanda was taken aback; "Does she often just pop in like that?"

"Well, yes, I'm sure she misses her father so Terri lets her spend time with me."

"Ah, well, look at the time, I'd better be going."

"Thanks again for the desert, Wanda."

When Bess saw the woman in Will's kitchen, she nearly panicked. She ran home and found her mom in the backyard painting, a nice rendition of the creek and woods bordering their property. Usually she wouldn't interrupt her but this was important!

"Mom, you need to go on a date or something with Will! That Mrs Simmons was at his house, you can't let her get her hooks into him! No way she'd let me stay friends with him!" She sounded angry and scared.

"Whoa, slow down sweetie. Mr. Bridges is allowed to have whomever he'd like at his house."

"What he'd like is you! I know he would. You can't just let some other woman step in and take him! I know you miss Papa, so do I, but at least now I've got Will. I can't give him up to someone like her! You've got to do something!"