Track 13 Peace Train
Track 13
Peace Train
Beatrix
Shep’s neighbor Ben, his wife Addison, and their old dog Sally stormed into Shep’s house to find Beatrix, Veronica, Matt, and Renee holding a vigil in the living room while the town doctor examined Shep in his bedroom. Bea’s face reddened at their arrival, wondering if they had witnessed her and her sister hissing at each other like two feral cats. Bea had known Ben for years but had met his new wife only a couple of times. The whole incident was so unlike her and, Bea imagined, Addison must think she had completely lost it. She had lost it, but certainly not completely. What made it worse was that she had been so excited to spend this time on the island with Paul when he returned from visiting his relatives, and to be such a big part of Renee’s happy ending. When she saw her sister and she pictured how they now would all be relegated to bit parts on The Veronica Show , she’d snapped. Obviously, she now wished she could do it all over again, given the outcome. Veronica’s face, on the other hand, seemed to show no remorse, though Bea guessed her lack of expression was most likely cosmetic, not apathetic.
“What happened?” Ben asked in an offensive accusatory tone.
“Beatrix gave him a heart attack,” Veronica said drily.
“Fuck you, Veronica.”
“Good comeback, Bea. What is it you teach? English literature? Is that how Shakespeare would have put it?”
“Would you prefer I quote Macbeth ? ‘Go away, rump-fed runion slut!’?”
Ben stared them both down.
“He can probably hear you fighting from his bedroom,” he said. “Haven’t you both done enough?”
Neither answered him. Bea was fond of Ben, but it sometimes annoyed her that he and Matt acted like they knew what was best for her dad better than she did, and V probably felt similarly. There was, however, no denying that Shep’s neighbors, Matt and Ben, spent more time with him than his daughters did, both in the city and at the beach.
Ben continued to lecture them.
“There were so many times, as far back as when your mother was alive, that I thought to call you two myself and give you a piece of my mind, and I never did. I don’t care who did what to whom—your dad suffers from it terribly, and you know what, your mom passed suffering from it too. Why can’t you just suck it up, play nice the few times you see each other, and then talk behind each other’s backs, like a normal family?”
The sisters shot each other a look from their long-shuttered treasure chest of expressions. It was their “We’ve gone too far” look, one they had perfected decades before when they recognized they were pushing one or the other parent to the brink and should immediately cease and desist. It was funny to Bea that they could still communicate silently like that after so many years of not doing so.
The bottom line was, their dad was old, very old, and no one lives forever. Whether it was today—which from the comforting fact that neither an ambulance nor, God forbid, a helicopter had been summoned yet, made her think her dad was fine—or one day in the future, Shep would not be around forever. V would then be her only family. Except for her husband, Paul.
“Paul. I should text Paul, tell him to come back sooner,” she said out loud, changing the subject.
As she did, Matt pulled Ben aside and whispered in his ear. Ben’s shoulders relaxed, and a small smile crossed his lips before he pressed them together to extinguish it. Bea caught it all. Her gut was already telling her that her dad was faking his condition to manipulate his daughters, and that little exchange between them all but confirmed it.
Ben went to Shep’s bedroom door and knocked, inching it open to peek inside before entering. Neither Bea nor V had been allowed to come in. This gave Bea more pause.
Ben’s wife, Addison, tried to soften his words.
“He’s just upset. He loves Shep like a father.”
“So do we,” Veronica responded acerbically, amusing Bea. Veronica, saying and doing whatever she wanted, had always tickled her sister. She was funny—until Bea was on the receiving end of her narcissistic behavior.
Ben’s dog, Sally, lay waiting outside Shep’s bedroom door, triggering images of their childhood dog, Fluffy.
“Remember how much Fluffy loved Dad?” Bea said, tossing the memory to Veronica like a peace offering. She bit. (Veronica, not Fluffy.)
“Remember how he would take her on those long walks after dinner in the city—until we found him out?”
They both laughed. Veronica turned to Addison to explain.
“Shep would only walk the little white dog after dark. He said it was embarrassing to be seen with her. Then one night he had the flu and our mother sent us to walk Fluffy after dinner.”
Bea jumped in for the punchline.
“We got as far as MacDougal Street and Fluffy refused to budge, planting herself in front of the door of the Old Rabbit Club Bar. Veronica pushed the door open, and a bunch of drunks yelled ‘Fluffy!’?”
The three women laughed, nervously, until Ben came out wearing the same sour expression he’d walked in with.
“He’s going to be fine. Dr.Jim will tell you more, but he said no more stress.”
Relief flooded the sisters’ faces, and they both promised to toe the line.
The doctor followed.
“My guess is that Shep had a panic attack, though he may be dehydrated. He’s refusing to go the hospital, but his vitals are normal, so I’m not overly concerned. Someone should go to the store and get Pedialyte. He will probably refuse to drink it, so pour it in a glass with some ice and tell him it’s a sports drink. He needs electrolytes.”
“I’ll go,” Matt volunteered, desperate to get out of there.
“Did anything stressful precede the incident?” the doctor asked.
“Possibly,” V said.
“Yes,” Bea admitted.
“Well, you are two grown women. I don’t need to lecture you.”
Both Bea and V flashed an eerily similar case-in-point look at Ben, before both swearing on all that was righteous and good to behave.
And for that night, they both did.