“I don’t care if they hear me or not,” Jilly said.
“I told you to hush,” Lola snapped. “Use your head, Jilly. You’re a mother now.”
“I don’t want to be a mother. I want to be a star,” Jilly screamed.
Mortified, Lola pulled Carrie into the room and told her to shut the door. Gripping the potted plant she’d brought Jilly in one hand, Lola held on to Carrie’s arm with the other so she wouldn’t bolt.
Carrie was annoyed that she was being forced to be supportive. She leaned against the door and glared at her sister.
“Now, Jilly, I don’t care what you want,” Lola said in a low, furious whisper.
Her mother didn’t usually use that tone with Jilly. Carrie perked up and began to pay attention to the conversation.
“You’re going to be responsible,” Lola said. Her voice turned earnest as she moved toward the bed. “You will be a good mother, and Carrie and I will help you raise the baby. It will all work out. You’ll see. I do think you should call the baby’s father—” Jilly’s laugh stopped her. “What’s so funny?”
“You,” Jilly replied. “You’ve got my life all mapped out, don’t you? Always trying to make me behave and act the way you think I should act. Really, Mother. I’m a grown-up now. I’m eighteen,” she reminded her. “And I’ll do whatever I want to do.”
“But, Jilly, the father has a right to know he has a daughter.”
Fluffing her pillow behind her head, Jilly yawned loudly. “I don’t know who the father is. It could be the college boy from Savannah, but I can’t be sure.”
Lola let go of Carrie. “What do you mean, you can’t be sure? You told me—”
“I lied. You want me to tell you the truth? Fine, I will. The father could have been a dozen other men.”
Lola shook her head. She refused to believe her daughter. “Stop talking like that. Tell me the truth.”
Carrie’s head came up. “Oh, my God, Jilly.”
Jilly loved shocking people and being the center of attention. “I am telling the truth. I really have lost count of the men I’ve been with. I couldn’t possibly know who the father might be.” She saw the disgust on her mother’s face. “Have I upset you?” Jilly asked, inordinately pleased by the possibility. “Men love me,” she boasted. “They’ll do anything I want just to please me. They give me expensive gifts and cash too, which I’ve had to hide from you and Carrie so you wouldn’t get jealous and act like you are now, so holier than everybody else. You would have taken the money and the jewelry away from me, wouldn’t you? Only, I wouldn’t give you the chance. I’m smarter than you think, Mother.”
Lola closed her eyes, battling the waves of nausea. “How many men have there been?”
“How would I know? Weren’t you listening? I just told you I lost count. All I had to do was let them use my body for a little while. They adore me and I let them. I’m much more beautiful than all the actresses in Hollywood put together, and I’m going to be more famous. You just wait and see. Besides, I like sex. It feels good when they do it just right. You just don’t understand the modern woman. You’re old, Mother, and all dried up inside. You probably don’t remember what sex is.”
“Taking money for sex? Do you know what that makes you?”
“Liberated,” Jilly snarled.
Carrie stepped away from the door. “No, it doesn’t. It makes you a dirty little whore, Jilly. That’s all you’ll ever be.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jilly shouted. “Men don’t want you the way they want me. I can drive them crazy, and they don’t give you the time of day. I am liberated and you’re just jealous.”
“Come on, Mother. Let’s leave.” Carrie touched her mother’s shoulder.
Turning her head into the pillow, Jilly muttered, “Yes, leave. I’m sleepy now. Go away and let me rest.”
Carrie had to help Lola to the car. She had never seen her mother so distraught, and it scared her.
As they drove away from the hospital, Lola stared blankly out the window. “You’ve always known what she was like, and you tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen to you. I’ve been living in a fog, haven’t I?”
Carrie nodded. “Something’s wrong with Jilly. The mean streak inside of her goes beyond . . . it isn’t normal.”
“Did I do that to her?” Lola asked, sounding bewildered. “Your father spoiled her, and after he left us, I spoiled her too so she wouldn’t feel abandoned. Did I make her the monster she’s become?”
“I don’t know.”
Neither one of them said another word until they reached home. Carrie pulled the car into the driveway, parked it in front of the garage, and turned the motor off. She was opening the door when Lola grabbed her arm.
“I’m so sorry for the way I’ve treated you.” She began to weep then. “You’re such a good girl, and I’ve taken you for granted all these years. Our lives have revolved around Jilly, haven’t they? It seems I’ve spent the better part of her eighteen years keeping her calm . . . happy. I just want you to know that I’m proud of you. I’ve never told you so, have I? I guess it took this nightmare to make me realize what a treasure you are. I love you, Carrie.”
Carrie didn’t know how to respond. She couldn’t remember if or when her mother had ever told her she loved her before. She felt as though she’d just won some kind of a contest, but by default. The golden child was tarnished, and because she was the only one left, she got the prize.
It wasn’t enough. “What are you going to do about Jilly?” she asked.
“I’m going to make her do the right thing, of course.”
Carrie pulled away. “You still don’t get it. She won’t do the right thing. Maybe she can’t. I don’t know. She’s sick, Mother.”
Lola shook her head. “She’s spoiled, but I can work on—”
Carrie stopped her. “You’re still living in dreamland,” she muttered. She slammed the door when she got out of the car and went into the house.
Lola followed her into the kitchen, took an apron from the wooden peg on the wall, and tied it around her waist.
“Do you remember what happened on my eighth birthday?” Carrie asked as she pulled a chair from the kitchen table and dropped into it.
Hoping to avoid the unpleasant remembrance, Lola didn’t turn around. “Not now, dear. Why don’t you set the table and I’ll start dinner.”
“You gave me that Barbie doll I wanted.”
“Carrie, I don’t want to talk about this now.”
“Sit down. We need to discuss this.”
“It happened a long time ago. Why do you need to go over it again?”
Carrie wasn’t going to back down this time. “I came into your bedroom that night.”
“Carrie, I don’t—”
“Sit down, damn it. You can’t keep living this way. You have to face the facts. Sit, Mother.” She wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her.
Lola gave in. She took the chair across from her daughter, and primly folded her hands in her lap. “I remember your father was very upset by your accusations,” she said. “And Jilly was crying. You woke the whole household that night carrying on.”
“She wanted my doll,” Carrie said. “When I wouldn’t give it to her, she told me she was going to cut my eyes out with scissors. I woke up around midnight and she was standing over me with your shears in her hand. She had this sick smile on her face. She was opening and closing the scissors making this horrible clicking sound. Then she held up my new Barbie doll and I saw what she’d done to it. She’d stabbed the eyes out, Mother, and that smile on her face . . . it was so awful. As I was about to scream, she leaned down and whispered, ‘Now it’s your turn.’ ”
“You were too young to remember exactly what happened. You’ve blown this little incident way out of proportion.”
“Oh, no, I haven’t,” she said. “That’s exactly how it happened. You didn’t see the look in her eyes, but I’m telling you she wanted to kill me. If I had been alone in the house with her, she would have done exactly what she wanted to do.”
“No, no, she was just trying to scare you,” Lola insisted. “She never would have hurt you. Jilly loves you.”
“If you and Dad hadn’t been there, she would have hurt me. She’s crazy, Mother. I don’t care what happens to her, but there’s an innocent baby now.” She took a deep breath, and then blurted out, “I think we should encourage Jilly to give the baby up for adoption.”
Lola was outraged by the suggestion. “Absolutely not,” she said, and slammed her hand down on the table. “That baby is your niece and my granddaughter, and I’m not going to let strangers raise her.”
“It’s her only hope for a decent future,” Carrie argued. “She’s already got one huge strike against her with Jilly as her mother. I only hope whatever is broken inside of Jilly isn’t genetic.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. The only thing wrong with Jilly is that she’s used to getting her way. Lots of young women are fooling around with men these days. It’s wrong,” she hastily added, “but I understand why Jilly wanted men to love her. Her father left her, and she’s been trying to—”
“Will you listen to yourself?” Carrie shouted. “For a little while, I thought you were finally seeing what Jilly was, but I guess I was wrong. You’re never going to open your eyes. You asked me if you had made her the monster she’s become, remember?”
“I meant to say that her behavior was monstrous, but Jilly’s a mother now. When I go back to the hospital to bring her and the baby home, you’ll see. She’ll be all right.”
It was like talking to a brick wall. “You think the maternal instincts are going to kick in?”
“Yes, I do,” Lola said. “You’ll see,” she repeated. “Jilly will want to do the right thing.”
Carrie gave up. Sickened, she went to her room and stayed there the rest of the night. When she came down the following morning, there was a note on the kitchen table. Her mother had gone to Sears to purchase a crib, baby clothes, and an infant car seat.
“Dreamland,” Carrie muttered.
On Monday morning, Lola went to the hospital to bring Jilly and the still unnamed baby home. Carrie refused to go with her mother. She told her she had to work an early shift at Sammy’s and left the house before Lola could question her.
Jilly was waiting for her mother. She was dressed and standing in front of the bathroom mirror brushing her hair. She waved her hand toward the screaming infant she’d dropped in the middle of the unmade bed seconds after the nurse had left the room and told Lola she could either keep her, sell her, or give her away—she didn’t much care what she did with her. She then picked up her overnight bag and walked out of the hospital with the money she’d stolen from her sister’s college fund tucked into her bra.
The withdrawal didn’t appear on the bank statement until two weeks later. Carrie was outraged. She’d worked hard to save the money, and she was determined to get it back. She tried to report the theft to the police, but Lola wouldn’t let her.
“Family business stays in the family,” she decreed.
Carrie graduated from high school the following spring and worked two jobs that summer. Lola used some of her savings to help with Carrie’s college tuition, and Carrie found part-time work on campus to help with expenses. When she came home for Christmas break, she could barely look at Jilly’s baby.
However, Avery wasn’t the kind of child who put up with being ignored. It only took a couple of drooling smiles, and Carrie was smiling back. Each time she returned home, the bond grew stronger. The child adored her, and the feeling, though never openly stated, was reciprocated.
Avery was the sweetest, most intelligent little girl, and Carrie in every way possible had become her substitute mother. She certainly had all the protective instincts of a mother. She would do anything to keep Avery safe.
Yet here they were, five years later, and Jilly was still able to cause the family pain.
“Did she, Carrie? Did she hate me?”
Carrie forced herself to concentrate on the child’s question. Planting her hands on her hips, she took a deep breath and then asked, “What do you care what Jilly thought about you?”
Avery lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“Now, you listen to me. Your no-good mama probably did hate you, but not because of who you are or what you looked like when you were born. You were a perfect baby. Jilly just didn’t want responsibility.” She pointed to the chair adjacent to the bed. “I’m going to tell you something important, and I want you to pay attention, so sit down.”
Avery hurried to do as she was told.
“You’re probably too young to hear this, but I’m going to tell you anyway. Your mother’s a frickin’ maniac.”
Avery was disappointed. She thought she was going to hear something new. “You already told me that, Carrie. Lots of times.”
“That was just another reminder,” she said. “Jilly has never been normal. Fact is, she should have been locked up in a loony bin a long time ago.”
Avery was intrigued by the thought of her mother being locked away. “What’s a loony bin?”
“It’s a place where sick people go.”
“Is Jilly sick?”
“Yes,” she answered. “But not the kind of sick where we feel sorry for her. She’s mean and hateful and just plain crazy. She’d have to be crazy to walk away from someone as wonderful as you,” Carrie added. Leaning forward, she brushed the hair out of Avery’s eyes. “Your mother grew up with something important missing from inside her head. She might not be a pure sociopath, but she’s damn close.”
Avery’s eyes widened. In a hushed voice she said, “Carrie, you just said ‘damn.’”
“I know what I said, and I know what I’m talking about.”
Avery got out of her chair and went to sit beside Carrie on the bed. She latched on to her hand and said, “But I don’t know what you’re talking about.”