Asylum (22 page)

            Sam
wandered over to where Chloe was still standing by the window and glanced out.

            “Wish
we didn’t have to go to the library tonight,” she hinted, watching the snow
fall.

            “But
we do,” Chloe assured her, “Can’t blow it off tonight, Dr. Willard’s going to
be there, we’ll have to keep it short too if we want to get to the game in time
for face-off”

            “I
know, I know,” Sam waved away her lecturing tone.

            A
knock at the door brought a smile to Chloe’s face.

            “There
he is! Right on time!”

            Sam
crossed the room and dropped down onto her bed.

            “It’s
open!” she yelled.

            The
door creaked forward, and stopped, as though the person opening it wasn’t quite
sure whether they really should come in or not. The person decided quickly, and
the door swung the rest of the arc.  Still clutching the knob, a middle-aged
woman with severely styled ash blonde hair and a long black dress coat, stepped
tentatively in. Chloe immediately recognized the clack-clack sound of those
sensibly short-heeled shoes, almost before she noted the face.            

            Some
women of that age wore lines around the corners of their eyes as a testament to
the fact that they smiled so often.  Chloe’s mother had none of those.

            “Chloe?”
she asked, although she was standing in the same room, staring directly at her
daughter.

            “Mom.”
Chloe acknowledged.  Sam jerked upright on her bed.

            Diana
Adams took another few steps into the room, leaving the door open behind her,
and unwound her knit scarf.

            “You
haven’t called,” she said, folding the scarf neatly and laying it on Chloe’s
desk.

            “I’ve
been busy…school stuff,” Chloe said, watching the woman warily.

            “I
called your phone, it goes straight to voicemail,” her mother said.

            “I
lost my charger,” Chloe lied.

            “Your
number here is unlisted,” Diana continued.  Chloe shrugged.

            Diana
Adams frowned and looked around, taking in the room.  Her eyes fell on Sam.

            “I’m
Chloe’s mother,” she said, shooting her hand out towards Sam, “and you are…?”

            “I’m
Chloe’s roommate,” Sam said mimicking the cold disapproval in Diana’s voice. 

            She
didn’t bother to shake the woman’s hand, but glanced over her head to where
Chloe was standing.  Behind Diana’s back, Chloe made eye contact with Sam, and
jerked her head once towards the door.

            “Nice
to meet you Chloe’s mother,” Sam went on in the same tones, “but I have
somewhere to be just now.”  Following Chloe’s suggestion, she bounced to her
feet and went out, closing the door softly behind her.

            “Aren’t
you going to say ‘she seems nice’?” Chloe asked, smirking.

            “Why
would I?  She doesn’t seem nice at all.  She seems disrespectful and rude, not
unlike some other-”

            “What
do you want?” Chloe cut in, “Why are you here?”

            “I’m
still your mother.  I have a right to be concerned about you and to check on
you, especially in light of your…history.  I was worried.  No one’s been able
to get a hold of you. You left Woodhaven without saying a word to anyone.  I‘ve
been sick. I‘ve been just sick,” Diana shook her head slowly.

            “I
like how you say, ‘I left Woodhaven‘, it‘s so diplomatic of you.  I ran away. 
I ran away, I escaped.  But you…you act like I went for a stroll, and got lost.
Why?  I ran away, Mom.  I ran away from them and I ran away from you.”

            “You
didn’t escape, you were never a prisoner,” Diana said.

            “There
was an alarm on my window.  It would go off if you opened it after 8 o’clock at
night.  I waited until after bedcheck, cut the wire and went through the
window.  That was an escape.”

            “You
waited until the day before you turned 18.  You could have walked out the next
day.  You would have been free to pack your bags and go right through the door
the next day.  That wasn‘t an escape.  That was you being overly dramatic.”
Diana said.

            “I
couldn’t wait! I couldn’t!  You think I don’t know you?  You think I don’t know
that you’d have shown up with a crappy bakery cake, a re-gift, and a court
order to keep me in?  I know you!  I knew I couldn’t trust you--”

            “And
you don’t say anything, not a word to me, you just leave, and I spend over a
thousand dollars trying to find you and you--”

            “Who
asked you to find me?  Who asked you to come all--”

            “Who
do you think you are? How can you act like this when all I‘ve ever--”

            “When
all you’ve ever done is treat me like shi--”

            “You’re
a danger to everyone!  You’re a danger to yourself, a danger to any person who
cares about you!  You’re so poisoned that--”

            “SHUT-UP!”
Chloe screamed, grabbing her head, “JUST SHUT-UP!”

            Diana
Adams sniffed dryly, and watched Chloe from behind a mask.  It was that small,
seemingly insignificant thing that Chloe hated worst about her.  The way the
woman looked at her.  The way Diana watched her, without expression.  She would
have welcomed a glare, a vicious sneer, a look that plainly said “
I despise
you
”… she already knew she would never inspire that face to show love or
pride, but anything…ANYTHING rather than nothing.  Diana Adams looked at her as
though she were nothing more interesting or worthy of attention than a block of
wood or a cup of coffee.

           
“What do you
want?” Chloe asked again, in a voice too tired to even sound bitter.

            “Just
to know that you’re alright.  You haven’t had any…problems?” her mother asked
vaguely.

            “No.”

            “You’re
all set with tuition and books, no problems with your account?” she verified.

            “None.”

            “I
am assuming that this is all being paid for with your Dad’s fund?”

            “Mmhmm.”

            “You’re
keeping up with your classes?”

            “Sure.”

            Chloe’s
mother continued to watch her and then glanced around the room again. Her gaze
fell on the Bears Hockey Schedule and, perhaps, the massive amount of papers
underneath.  She took a step towards the bulletin board.

            “Look,
everything’s fine,” Chloe insisted, her voice raising slightly. “I’m fine.  My
life is fine.  Nothing‘s wrong-”

            “I
didn’t come to fight with you.  I didn’t.  I didn’t mean to get upset, it’s
just that you won’t listen and…is there somewhere we could go eat?” asked
Diana, “Get an early dinner together?”

            With
an always impeccable sense of timing, Seth chose that exact moment to rap a few
times on the door before letting himself in.  He had only taken a step, when he
saw Diana and stopped.

            “Hey,
sorry!  You need me to come back in a few?” he asked.

            “No,
she was just leaving,” Chloe said quickly.

            “I’m
Chloe’s mother…Diana Adams,” her mother said, holding out her hand.         Seth’s
eyebrows jumped in surprise, but he smiled warmly and shook the proffered
hand.  Chloe suddenly wished she had told him more about her family, warned him
at least, but it was too late now.  She couldn’t have anticipated that the
woman would have driven all the way to Birch Harbor just to ruin everything. 
She should have though.

            “Hi,
I’m Seth.  If I’d known you were coming, I would have tried to get an extra
ticket.  It’s great to meet you though.” he apologized.

            “She’s
leaving,” Chloe repeated, staring down her mother, “thanks for coming mom, bye now.”

            Diana
frowned and glanced between Seth and Chloe suspiciously.  She laid one hand on
her neatly folded scarf and left it there.

            “I
did need to talk to you about Christmas,” she said, as though the thought had
just occurred to her.  “We’re going to California…on a skiing trip, your
sisters and I.  We’re renting a condo for the week and we wanted to know if you
planned on coming.”

            “I
don’t ski, I never have,” Chloe’s voice was icy. Her mother remembered the fact
well enough.

            “Then
you plan on staying at the house by yourself?” her mother asked.

            “No,”
Chloe paused, grasping for a story, “I…I’m going to Sam’s over Christmas, my
roommate…the one you just met.  She invited me to stay.”

            “How
nice of her, and of course you didn’t even consider that we‘ve missed you and
would all like to see you, to spend time with you,” her mother smiled tightly.

            “Have
a great time skiing,” Chloe’s smirk was a replica of her mother’s. Out of the
corner of her eye, she thought she saw Seth flinch.  Her mother was back to staring
at her impassively.

            “I’m
sorry,” Diana paused, “I’m really very curious…Seth, was it?”

            Behind
her, Seth nodded and cleared his throat.

            “How
is it you know my daughter?”

            “That’s
none of your business!” Chloe snapped.

            “Oh,
but I think it is.  It’s funny, isn’t it?  You were so sick, so unable to cope
with anything back home.  You couldn’t even go to a normal school, but all of a
sudden…all of a sudden, here you are, doing just fine.  Going to class, being
on your own.  You even have a boyfriend.  How nice.  How interesting it is that
when you don’t have any incentive, no one to embarrass, you seem to be able to
function just fine,” Diana said, her smile deceptively pleasant.

            “Get
out,” Chloe growled.

            Diana
didn’t leave, she turned her back to Chloe and studied Seth.  He stared back,
his face completely blank.

            “Did
she tell you any of this?  I’ll bet she gave you the whole sad story about how
awful she was treated by her horrible mother.  I’m the monster!  I spent a
fortune on doctors, on therapy-”

            “SHUT-UP!”
Chloe screamed, stamping her foot. “Shut-up!  Get out, you piece of shit excuse
for a mother! 
You
spent? 
You
?  It was the insurance money from
when Dad died, and you’ve spent more of that on your stupid vacations and your
designer suits and your plastic surgery and your car and…and…”

            Chloe
pressed her hands to her temples.  It felt like her head was going to explode. 
She didn’t want to look at Seth, didn’t want to see her mother anymore.  She
was humiliated and everything was wrecked.  She had been so careful, so precise
with the life she was trying to build.  She thought she had escaped.  She
hadn’t gone far enough.

            “Mrs.
Adams, I think you‘ve done whatever you came to do here.  Don‘t you think it‘d
be better if you left now?”

            Chloe
heard Seth speak, but couldn’t look at him.  She crossed her arms and stared
intently at the floor.  Nothing, no words from her mother.  And then, the
clack-clack of those awful heels and the door slammed.  It was quiet.

            “She’s
gone, Clo” he said.

            “I
know,” Chloe mumbled.

            “You
can look now.”  

            She
didn’t have to look to know he was standing in front of her.  She could feel
him there.

            “I
don’t think I want to,” she said.

            She
felt his arms around her, pulling her close so that she could hide her face against
his chest.  His lips brush lightly across the top of her head.

            “I
don’t care, alright?” he said quietly, “I don’t care.  But if you want to tell
me about it, you can.”

            Chloe
shook her head no.  He squeezed her tighter, and abruptly, dropped his arms and
took a few steps closer to the window, probably watching as Diana left the
building.  Chloe had no desire to look.

            “She’s
a real piece of work,” he observed.

            “I’m
so sorry about all of that, really.  I’m so sorry, you shouldn’t have to-”

            “Stop
it.  You‘re always sorry when you don‘t have to be.  I wondered why you never
talked about your family, why you never told me anything about them.  I get it
now.  If you ever do feel like talking about it…I’d like to think you’d talk to
me.  I’d like to think you might trust me that much.”

            “I
will…I do,” Chloe said, “but not right now.  Not…there’s just not enough time. 
Sam and I have to meet Willard…there’s the game.  You’ve probably got to get
there early, and I-I just don’t…I just can’t right now.”