What They Left Behind

Gennie was staying at Malcolm and Colleen’s. They had some minor damage to their house and she helped fix it up in between visiting Lauren in the hospital. She wanted to go home because it seemed like she had been in San Francisco forever, but she didn’t want to leave until everything was straightened out. Also, she had to decide if she was going to attend Charlene’s funeral or not. Page, who was staying in a hotel until the damage to her condo complex was fixed, automatically assumed that Gennie was going to be attending and that put Gennie in a bad place. Ben wanted her to stay away from her mother, but still…she was family. Gennie felt it was only proper for her to attend.

  Gennie spent a few late nights in the rec room of the hotel, playing ping-pong, Scrabble or foosball. It helped her take her mind off everything and made her feel like a teenager again. She hadn’t seen Foster at all and was wondering if he and Page might have broken up.

  Gennie asked her about it while they had tea and cheesecake in the hotel’s restaurant.

  “Oh, don’t worry about it, Gen,” Page said, flashing the three-carat diamond ring Foster gave her a few weeks ago. “Your dream of being matron of honor isn’t shattered. Foster just wants to be alone right now.”

  “How is he dealing with Charlene’s death?”

  “Not very well, I don’t think. He thinks it’s all his fault because she was in that crappy apartment and that he should have put her up in a nicer place. I tried to tell him that the ‘nicer’ places were the hardest hit, but it’s not getting through.”

  “When you see him, tell him how sorry I am about his sister.”

  “Oh, I will,” Page said, then took a bite of cheesecake. “Wow, this stuff is awesome! Like an orgasm on a plate!”

  “It must be pretty good, then,” Gennie said wryly.

  “This blows Michele’s cheesecake out of the water.”

  “Don’t tell Ben that,” Gennie warned.

  “Our secret…womano to womano. Anyway, how is Ben doing?”

  “Good, considering the circumstances. No problems since the surgery. He’s working a few hours a day at Michele’s. They’re giving out free food for the next month. The thing with Lauren is killing him though.”

  “Foster told me about that,” Page said. “You don’t know how relieved he is about it being out in the open. Now, at least she has Ben.”

  “About the funeral,” Gennie said, feeling awkward. “I don’t know if I want to go.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well…there’s someone there I’m not allowed to see.”

  “Okay, like who?”

  “I think it would be uncomfortable for her, as well as me. I don’t want to cause her any more pain, you know.”

  “Who’s her? And why would you cause her pain?”

  Gennie sighed. “You’re my best friend…I should tell you. Until I went up to Alaska, I thought both my parents were dead and buried. Well, I found my father, but my mother was not there, even though there was a grave marker with her name on it. I confronted Bryan, my older brother, about it; because I thought he played some nasty trick on me, which he sort of did. He gave me this letter my mother had written years after she supposedly died.”

  “She’s alive…even today?”

  Gennie nodded.

  “Then why the hell would she be at Charlene’s funeral?”

  “Because I’m pretty sure Charlene’s mother is my real mother.”

  A piece of cheesecake fell out of Page’s mouth and onto her plate. “What? That’s--no way! That stuck-up bitch is your mother?”

  “Yes.”

  “That means…Ben had a kid with his stepsister and you dated your own stepbrother! No wonder she didn’t like you two! She probably thought you were going to screw up her perfect fake family. Do you think she knew when she met you and Ben--that you were both hers?”

  “I don’t know for sure,” Gennie said, “but, yeah, I think she did.”

  “Wow, she must have been ripped! Travel thousands of miles to get away from your real kids and start a new posh life and they show up on your doorstep anyway.”

  Gennie grimaced. “So, knowing that, do you think I should attend Charlene’s funeral?”

  “Look…” Page said, “She knows you’re my friend and Foster’s friend. You knew Charlene. You’re Lauren’s aunt. I say go and enjoy yourself.”

  Gennie tried not to chuckle at such a crass statement.

  “Okay,” she said quietly, “I’ll go.”

  “Is Ben going?” Page asked.

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Did you ask him?”

  “No.”

  “He was Charlene’s old flame. He should go.”

  “He doesn’t want anything to do with our mother, though.”

  “He doesn’t have to have anything to do with her. He can just go in and say goodbye.”

  “What about Johnny? I don’t want there to be a big scene if he shows up.”

  Page harrumphed. “He won’t be going. He’s got a whole new life in Florida. I think the Ice Capades will be performing in hell before he shows up.”

  Gennie took a sip of her tea. “Okay, I’ll ask him about it tomorrow, then. He’ll definitely say no, though.”

  “No, he’ll go,” Page said. “He’s probably still going gaga over Charlene, even today.”

  Chapter 92: November 4