TWISTED DESTINATION - TRIMVIRATE
CHAPTER 7
OLYMPUS RESIDENCE
THAT SAME TIME
It was Monday and “The Polana Palace”, the majestic mansion of the Freemans, remained as flawless as always. It had 45 servants, the best gardeners a king’s castle could afford and most of them even held a bachelor’s degree. The garden had plants displayed in various forms shaped by highly talented and patient gardeners. The most breath-taking thing were the climbers that in the hands of a highly skilled and patient gardener formed statues of a Ngungunhane’s warrior with his spear, another with his horse and a rifle, as if the African warriors possessed any horses or rifles. They were black and proud for it.
At the entrance, there were two women with pointed breasts and Zulu animal skin underpants making a welcome gesture with their hands. All those statues were magisterial but the most impressive thing was what only those with clearance to enter the house saw, one of the original statues of Michael Angelo.
It was still unbroken, except for, of course, the penis that probably fell centuries ago by the hand of the Catholic Church, perhaps because naughty Michael had carved a penis sized above the normal and the nuns couldn’t help to look at it and remember that they were actually not castrated women.
“Let us not make them have second thoughts,” They must have said, and then ordered “remove the damn thing”, as if they didn’t have one.
Gabe, as usual, woke up at 11 A.M. He took his bath in less than 5 minutes but stayed other 35 trying to find the right watch and shoes. After 20 unsuccessful switches that didn’t match with his leather jacket. He was to pick up his girlfriend. He looked at his mobile phone and there were several missed calls and messages but he panicked when the screen displayed a number saved ‘Dad’s Lawyer’ that called only once and missing him, sent a single message “11:59, Coffee Shop” and thought “Of course. How could I have forgotten? I had to meet up with the lawyer.”
He ended up wearing the first Rolex and the first Jordan’s he had picked and he headed to the dining room. His mother sat, ready to eat in the dining room, all alone in that huge yet expensive antiquely designed family table. She was a woman of exquisite taste because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She was highly sophisticated, educated under the best college professors in private lessons. Her look was of a person who inspected everything around her. She still wore her yoga suit for she also was about to go. She never betrayed her husband and she always kept all her husband’s dark secrets to herself. She had lost her husband 2 years ago when Gabe was 18.
Annabelle brought her the usual croissant she always ate in her afternoon tea before her yoga classes. Annabelle was like a daughter to Gabe’s mom, Linda, but also a bit of her private butler, not to respond to anybody else but her, not even to Gabe. She was autonomous and she was an orphan that used to live in a foster house. She loved reading about love and romance, about Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde. She lived in a fairy-tale world and she waited patiently for her prince.
After Gabe’s younger sister killed herself, his mother was in havoc. Every young girl that had the age of her daughter made her cry from inside. One day, coming from the Shopping Centre, she passed from a Foster House and told her chauffer to stop for a while. She went out of the car and went close, just to observe them play. A young small black girl looked into her eyes and said, “Hi miss”, with a radiant smile on her face.
“Hi, how are you?” Miss Linda answered with a shy smile. The girl answered very politely, “I am fine, thank you. Why are you sad?”
“Why do you think I am sad? I am fine!” She tried to pretend by smiling more.
“I want to give you this,” The girl said while taking one of the 10 bracelets she had on display which she had made herself and giving it to her, “I want you to have this. No one buys them anyway.”
Miss Linda gave a genuine smile this time and bought every single one of them with 5 times their actual price, 5Mt each. She didn’t want to give too much money to a child. That was bad parenting.
“Wow, this is a lot of money. Thank you, Miss”, the girl said.
“What’s your name?” Miss Linda asked.
”Annabelle,” the girl answered. When Miss Linda entered her car, she looked from the dark window of her vehicle and she saw Annabelle calling the other children and distributing the money she had. Miss Linda was touched. She loved that episode so much that she used to come and talk with Annabelle and sometimes she even took her out. She had aided her towards her entire life. She even paid her schooling, music school, etc. She was obsessed with her and like any obsessed person, she needed an excuse, so she tricked her mind into believing that she found in Annabelle what she couldn’t find in Gabe who was a reckless spoiled child when in fact she supplanted her deceased daughter. Miss Linda managed to be Annabelle’s sponsoring mother and they exchanged letters. She could go to the Foster House to see Annabelle as Miss Linda and on the other hand, Annabelle always asked to meet her in her letters but she never responded.
In the letters, she used a different name, Maria Fernanda. Annabelle had two angels protecting her, Miss Linda and the mysterious person behind the letters named Maria Fernanda. When with one of them, she always talked about the other quite uprightly, unaware that it was the same person. When Miss Linda’s husband died, she took Annabelle in.
Gabe saw Annabelle in the room, said ‘hi’ to her, kissed his mother goodbye, entered his Ferrari, and in a very high speed, he left the Palace. Annabelle had dark chocolate skin toned skin, like most African girls, she had big round hips, her upper body was thinner but she was far from reaching the overwhelming elegance of Jessica, Gabe's girlfriend. Somehow, unfairly, her curves devalued her.
His mother was a strong woman and getting married to a powerful man like Mr. Freeman just made her stronger. He had cheated on her more times than she could remember but, wise as he certainly was, on his will, he gave everything to his wife and to his only son, Gabe.
Gabe’s father was killed by a timed drug that kills its host in 80 minutes. When Gabe’s eighteenth birthday arrived, his father became overprotective. After meeting one of his cult members at a restaurant he often frequents, Mr. Freeman was drugged by Hemlock leaves mixed with a herring salad. It was orchestrated by a person he trusted. When they finished eating, his companion’s face showed him that remained his, only a few minutes of heartbeats. He saw the leaves on his plate and recognized their shape, colour, and texture.
“Why,” He asked.
“You know why ” His companion answered.
“Why you?”
“Exactly because of that question.”
He looked at his watch and knew the symptoms would begin in 29 minutes and then he was going to die at approximately 80 minutes after taking the drug, at exactly 8.45 P.M. He stood up, smiled to his companion and said, “I am really sorry for this. I had high hopes for you.”
He headed to his company, changed the company’s clearance protocols to accept no one else but Gabe, he drove home, waiting to die there, with his family. On the way, the drug started to create an interior haemorrhage but he managed to get home. He updated his will minutes before his death and for a good reason, as it said, as quoted.