Among the Ducklings (26 page)

When
Stacy won the audition and got the leading role, she needed Andy's help to keep
the part. Something Andy had regretted doing afterwards until his death.

Stephanie
was re-reading the letter when
Vanna
called.
 
The story was going to be published, and she
had promised that she would fax
Vanna
the letter that
Stephanie had told
Vanna
about. The one that
Stephanie said Andy had written to Stacy but was never delivered. The letter
was going to tell the story of the real Stacy, the story that Andy thought he
took to his grave with him.

“Do you
think that Stacy will be able to stop the story from being published?”
Stephanie asked
Vanna
.

“Not a
chance.”
Vanna
replied. “She tried already, but the
magazine refused. I heard that she even paid off the witnesses to deny it.”

“Andy
didn't tell Stacy who I was, but I was there and know what happened.
 
I recommended the place to Andy,” Stephanie
said.

“Yes. But
Andy was your brother. Stacy would say that you're lying because you have a
beef with her. As I told you earlier, the most powerful evidence we have is
Andy talking from his grave, the letter that you have.”
 
A few days after Andy received the bad news
from the Institute, before the dementia started taking over his mind, Andy had
asked Stephanie to type several letters for Andy's signature. Some of the
letters were asking for financial help from old friends for his burial, others
were simply saying goodbye to family members. In addition to the letters that
Andy asked her to type, Stephanie added a letter that she typed and addressed
to Stacy.
 
Andy had signed all of the
letters typed by Stephanie, not noticing that the letter to Stacy was included.
Stephanie had kept that letter ever since, biding her time. Stephanie had hated
misleading Andy. However, someone had to stand up to Stacy. If someone truly
loved Andy, it was his little sister Stephanie, and Stacy was going to pay for
what she did to him.

##

Phil had
just gotten home from the Center, when Stacy showed up.

“I'm glad
to see you, it's been several long days,” Phil said.

“Me too,”
Stacy said absentmindedly. Stacy knew it was a matter of days before the story
was published. Although she had managed to pay off every witness to deny it, she
wondered whether she had covered all her bases.

“Are you
Ok?” Phil asked.

“I'm just
tired.
 
I'm going to the hotel.
 
You're coming?” Stacy asked.

“Why don't
you stay here tonight?” Phil asked.

“I have
something to take care of at the hotel tonight.” Phil could sense something was
bothering Stacy. He tried to pry, but Stacy didn't want to talk about it.

When Stacy
got to the hotel, her publicist and her concierge had both left messages for
her. She then called her publicist.

“The story
is being published tomorrow,” the publicist confirmed.

“Have you
come up with a plan yet on how to deal with this?” Stacy asked.

“Yes, and
we have set up a press conference in two days for you.”

“What's the
plan?”

The
publicist then told her.

“Good,”
Stacy said. “I'll be there.”
 

Stacy then
called her concierge. “You left me a message?”

“Yes. Your
publicist called me and I just wanted to tell you that we have chartered a
plane for you to California.”

“Thanks,”
Stacy said.

She seemed
concerned.
 
Are you OK?” the concierge
asked.

“Of
course,” Stacy said.
When the time comes,
I will be ready
.

##

Phil left
early for work the next day.
 
He was only
at work for about thirty minutes when Jeremy called.

“What is
it?” Phil asked.

“Michelle
just read this story that just came out this morning about Stacy. It's all over
the internet.
 
I think you need to read
it.”

“What is
it?”

“Well, here
is the link. Read it for
yourself
,” Jeremy said and
hung up.

Phil was
shocked.
 
He had to read and re-read the
story again.
 
Then he grabbed his jacket
and headed out to Stacy's hotel.

When
he got into the suite, Stacy, who was sitting in front of the computer, had
already read the story as well.

“Did you
really do that?” an angry Phil asked Stacy.

“Don't you
understand?” Stacy pleaded. “I didn't have any choice.”

“I can't
believe you're defending your actions. On top of that, you came and tried to
make me believe this horrible miscarriage story.”

“What did
you want me to do? I love you and I wanted to have you back,” Stacy pleaded.

“I don't
think I've ever truly known you,” a furious Phil said.

“Give me
another chance. I love you,” Stacy said.

“Love
me?
  
You don't know what love is,
Stacy,” Phil said, as he opened the front door. “You are pure evil.”

“Wait,
Phil,” Stacy screamed.

It was too late. Phil had
already slammed the door behind him, leaving Stacy in front of the laptop, with
the article still on the computer screen

----------BREAKING
NEWS----------

In a letter written by
the late Andy Marshall to his wife Stacy Marshall prior to his death,
 
the actor asked his wife for forgiveness for
helping her carry out what the actor considered to be the biggest mistake of
his life.

In the
letter, which was acquired by our magazine, the actor explained that he had met
his future wife at an audition for a romantic comedy movie called “The Lost
Prairie.”
 
Ms. Marshall, who had won the
part playing the leading role only a few days after flying from Miami to California,
didn't divulge to the producers and the directors of the movie that she was
pregnant with her fiancé’s baby.
 
In
order to keep the part, the late actor, at Ms. Marshall's request, located a
discrete and competent abortion provider where Ms. Marshall terminated her
pregnancy.
 

We have
reached out to the medical
staff of the clinic who have
denied the story.
 
But Ms. Stephanie
Marshall, the late actor's sister, has confirmed to us that she was one of the
nurses on staff the night when the pregnancy was terminated.

Our
efforts to interview Ms. Marshall on the story have been unsuccessful.
 
Ms. Marshall however, through her publicist,
denied that these events ever took place, and has scheduled a press conference
this week to address what Ms. Marshall claims to be the false allegations contained
in our story.

##

Phil didn't
return to his office. Instead, he went straight home.
 
He still couldn't believe that Stacy had told
him that she had miscarried when she had purposefully aborted their baby to get
a part in a movie. How could he have missed the signs?
 
Even Jeremy tried to warn him. Instead, he
was rude to Isabel, the woman he really loved, and rejected her love to be with
Stacy because he felt guilty for her miscarriage, which was a lie.
 
Phil felt that he was in a bad dream. He then
went to the gym and lifted some weights hoping to ease the pain that he felt.

When
he returned home, the pain didn't lessen. He took a quick shower and went to
bed.
 
It was still early afternoon and he
didn't care.
 
He just wanted to sleep and
forget. He could hear the phone ring, but didn't look or pickup. His therapy
was almost over and he knew that he would most likely never see Isabel again.
Even if he saw her, he was sure that Isabel would never talk to him again,
especially after the awful way that he treated her.
 
He was at a loss.
 
He felt like he was on a boat in the middle
of nowhere without a compass or any equipment to guide him.
 
He felt that he was lost.

He
didn't go to work the next day, and instead, he spent the whole morning in bed,
in despair.
 
When he left home to go to
the therapy session, he was still feeling depressed about the whole situation.
Everything, including the Center, the flowers, the bench, the lake, the
ducklings, was going to remind him of the love he lost, of Isabel.
 
He didn’t exercise long that day at the
Center. He wasn't in the mood.
 
Instead,
he went and sat on the bench where everything started.
 
The ducklings were there and somehow, they
seemed bigger and better swimmers.
 
They
seemed to have blossomed in just a couple of weeks. He felt as if they were
looking at him and asking, how he had managed to screw things up during the
same period.

Phil
sat there for about an hour.
 
As he was
deciding whether to leave, Rebecca came and sat down next to him on the bench.

“Aren't you
supposed to be working?” Phil asked.

“I'm on
break. By the way, I heard about Stacy and the baby,” Rebecca said.

“You saw
the news too?” Phil asked.

“Yes, I'm
sorry.”

“That
weekend in the Keys, she made me believe she had miscarried,” Phil said. He
sounded as if he wasn't there, as if he was in a fog.

Rebecca sat
there for one moment and didn't respond.
 
Then she said, “I heard you have only a few therapy sessions left.”

“Yes it's
true,” Phil confirmed.

“Will you
be coming back here?” Rebecca asked.

“I doubt
it,” Phil forced a
smile,
“Hospitals and clinics are
not my thing.”

“So what
are you going to do about my sister?” Rebecca asked.

“What can I
do? I already screwed up. I'm not sure she would even want to talk to me.”

“How do you
know if you don't try?
 
Besides, it would
be nice for all of us to finish the Cuban dinner we had started. Don't you
think?” Rebecca said.
 
She then got up
and walked away, not waiting for Phil's response.

##

The bar was
almost deserted.
 
Few customers were
present when the deep voice announced the beginning of the evening news.
 
Rays of blue and yellow, caused by the
failing cathode-ray tube of the old television set on the bar counter, colored
the anchor's face as if it was a science fiction movie.

“...And now
to the story that has riveted the movie industry..... The abortion provider
that helped Ms. Marshall
terminate
her
pregnancy..........”

As the
anchor was reading the teleprompter, further back, deep in one corner of the
dark bar, a young blond woman sat and watched the anchor repeating the story
about Stacy's abortion.
  
She didn't look
like she belonged there.
 
On the table in
front of her was a dirty glass of dark draft beer that had not been touched.
The woman then got up and left a tip on the table and walked out.

Beyond
the bar's parking lot and the street fronting the bar, the waves were crashing
on the seashore.
 
The young woman then
went into her car in the parking lot, picked up a flowery vase, and then walked
across the street toward the beach.
 
There she opened and gently tilted the vase. A grayish powder came out
and was immediately swept up by the light eastward wind, carrying the ash far
across the water.

“Good bye,
big brother,” Stephanie said. “I know you didn't want me to do it. Forgive me.
I loved you and I couldn't let her get away with it.”

As soon as
the ashes disappeared into the Key West horizon, the wind picked up, carrying
what appeared to Stephanie to be a soft male voice.
 
She could have been wrong. But Stephanie thought
she heard Andy say, “I love you too, little sis.”

##

The next
morning, Isabel was sitting on the bench after her morning therapy
session.
 
She had spent over three hours
exercising, and after taking a long, hot shower, she was back in front of the lake.
 

The night
before, Rebecca had told her the news about Phil and Stacy, and she had prayed
that Phil would be OK. She wanted to call Phil but she didn't know if it was a
good idea.
 
She realized that it was a
mistake to ever consider marrying Richard when she was deeply in love with
Phil. But this realization had come too late. She had lost Phil. She wondered
if Phil could ever forgive her.