People milled around the center, chatting with each other and vying for the best seats. She and Tim found two good ones up near the front. Helena’s nerves trembled, not only from their conversation, but because the difficult portion of the evening had arrived. She’d have to speak tonight. She was glad Tim was there to hold her hand.
Even when she used to strut down the catwalk during her modeling days, she wouldn’t get this nervous. Her face flushed, and she broke out in a cold sweat.
After the third speaker, she’d gathered enough courage to stand and tell her story. Helena shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She owed this program so much, but standing alone before the group never seemed to get any easier. Even though she knew many of these folks and a lot of them were Shea House supporters, all she could envision were strange faces in front of her—judging her.
For her, retelling her story was like waves hitting the shoreline at full speed—not the normal rolling motion a calm sea makes, but a wild, stormy one, always crashing against sharp and painful rocks. There was no easy way out of these icy waters, so she simply took the plunge and began.
“My name is Helena Shea, and I am an alcoholic. I started drinking heavily right before my dad died. But when alcohol wasn’t enough to ease the pain, I added Valium. Once Dad died, I really got out of hand. I was just so lost and lonely, and partying took my cares away, for a little while at least. Luckily for me, or so I thought at the time, the fashion world fit my lifestyle, making it easy to score whatever I needed: pick-me-up, bring-me-down, anything. So . . .” She took a deep breath and exhaled before beginning again. “Before I knew it, I was doing drugs and drinking more with each passing day. I’d wake up with a Screwdriver or Bloody Mary, and a line of coke. It escalated from there.” She vaguely remembered those mornings when she prayed that her choice of venom would ease some of the pain of losing her father. She’d adored him. He had loved her through so much, especially through the difficult decision to give up Frankie.
Helena fidgeted with her tennis bracelet, twisting the diamonds around her wrist. “Regrets and past mistakes were catching up with me, and I started to experience growing consequences of my alcohol and drug use. I started my own agency, but because of my addictions, it wasn’t doing very well. You may have heard or read about it in the media. Take my word for it,
The Scene
and
Entertainment Tonight
don’t know nearly as much as they think they do about my life.”
Low, sympathetic laughter erupted from the crowd packed inside the auditorium. They all knew that her life had been dissected and travestied as the paparazzi invaded any privacy she and her family had tried to maintain.
“Then,” she laughed, “I got offered a major motion picture which was to star a big-time screen actor, who shall remain nameless. I thought my life would change! I’d no longer be considered a dumb model, but a high maintenance actress instead.” Laughter once again lightened the mood of the room. “Not to be, I’m afraid. We started shooting, but I kept messing up my lines. So, on a break, I figured I’d do a couple of lines to speed things up.” She rolled her eyes. Talking about it made it seem so distant, as if it had happened to a good friend, not to her. She couldn’t believe she’d done those things. Her life was so very different now.
“Well, the director kept making not so subtle remarks about my aging body. You could say he pissed me off when he suggested a body double for the nude scene. So I cracked him in the nose. Before long, the police showed up and escorted me off the set.
Permanently
.
“So of course, I did what every good alcoholic does in a crisis: I bought some more coke and other ‘necessities’ to party it up at home alone.
“I bottomed out. Partying alone just doesn’t have the same appeal as hanging with a friend, or
ten
. But I had reached the point where nobody wanted to be around me.” Tears welled as she remembered that feeling of isolation and utter despair; imprisoned by booze, powders, and small, round pills. “My friend and assistant at the time, Brianne, found me rolled into the fetal position, pretty much out of my mind the next day. I’m surprised I wasn’t dead. I should have been. I was pretty delirious though. I don’t even remember her putting me in the car and driving me to Palm Springs. I lost a big chunk of time there somewhere. I just blacked out.”
Heads in the crowd bobbed, understanding that loss of time and memory, like being in the Twilight Zone. The room was silent, except for the occasional sniffle from someone connecting with her story—and people
were
connecting with her story.
“But I do remember arriving at Betty Ford and trying to convince everyone there that I was totally fine. Of course, that wasn’t the case. They got me sober and introduced me to the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. I thank God today for the program and those folks out in Palm Springs who didn’t give up on me when I’d given up on myself. Because of them, loving friends, and this fellowship, I’m pleased to announce that today is my one year anniversary of uninterrupted sobriety.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “My life, though still pretty hectic and by no means perfect, is a hundred times better—no, more like a thousand times better. I’ve gotten to know my daughter, begun putting my agency back on track, and am learning to deal with the media—all without drugs or alcohol. It’s good to be sober, taking life one day at a time.” The crowd applauded as a long sigh escaped her lips.
Sitting down, looking at all the people in the auditorium—from men in business suits, to kids far from twenty-one, to the homeless—she realized that alcohol and drug dependency happened in all walks of life, all ages. No one was immune. As a drunk, she wasn’t any more special than the next person. She was simply Helena Shea, alcoholic and drug addict. Somehow, that was a comforting feeling to have.
She leaned into Tim, who smelled like his signature clove cigarettes. “Well, how’d I do?”
“Wonderful, wonderful! Very courageous.” He made a fist for emphasis. She laughed. The release of tension felt like a gift.
Helena smiled at Tim. He’d helped her through so many rough times over the last year. He truly was a loving friend.
Turning her attention to the next speaker, she heard him say, “Take it one step at a time.” The words affected her now more than ever as she thought about Rachel, Shea House, Frankie, and even Patrick.
Helena returned home later than expected, hoping Frankie wouldn’t be upset. The meeting had gone on for quite awhile. As she walked through the door, Ella whined, alerting her that she needed to go out. Helena could hear the television on in the other room and figured Frankie fell asleep watching it.
She peeked into the family room and saw Frankie curled up with a blanket and pillow on the sofa. She knelt by the sofa to study the innocent face, wishing she’d seen her like this as a young child.
Frankie stirred, as Helena kissed her cheek and stroked her hair. “I love you, sweet girl. So much.” The puppy nudged her elbow. “Okay,” she whispered.
Helena took Ella for a quick run. It was nearly eleven-thirty. There was something in the air that bothered her. The ocean was writhing as if awaiting a storm, and there was something dead close by. The stench nearly made her gag, and she tried to hurry Ella.
Her cell phone rang from inside her sweater pocket and startled her. Frankie must’ve awakened and was now looking for her. “Hi, baby,” she said as she flipped open the phone.
“A bit too assuming, aren’t you?” That voice again, from the other night.
“Look, jerk-off, I know Leeza Kiley put you up to this. I sure in hell hope she’s paying you well, ‘cause frankly, when I find out who you are, you’ll need the money for a good attorney.”
“You through ranting, bitch?”
Helena was about to hang up, when he said, “Your daughter is so beautiful when she sleeps and quite tasty, I’m certain. I love that she’s wearing nothing but a white T-shirt and panties.”
Helena dropped the phone and Ella’s leash. She ran as fast as she could, fighting the sand that bogged her down. Ella barked loudly, following behind. Helena stumbled. She stood up, her ankle burned; she continued to run. She was screaming Frankie’s name before she reached the house. Terror tore through her body as she hunted for the key in her pocket. It was gone. She’d lost it in the sand. She pounded on the patio doors. No one came. She screamed Frankie’s name again. She frantically searched for a rock large enough to break the window. Finding one, she threw it against the sliding glass door. It cracked all the way down, but didn’t break. She picked the rock up again and threw it harder. This time the window came crashing down as shards of glass cut Helena’s arms. She climbed through the gaping hole. “Frankie! Frankie!”
She wasn’t on the sofa. Helena scanned the room still illuminated by the television set. She felt sick.
“Mom? What the heck? Why did you do that?” said Frankie, pointing to the door. She stood in the hall doorway rubbing her eyes.
Helena rushed over and threw her arms around her, sobbing. “Oh, God. I thought, I thought…”
“Thought what?” Frankie looked at her as if she were mad. “Oh man, you haven’t been drinking?”
“God, no!” Helena tightened her grip.
“What’s wrong?”
“Where were you just now? Didn’t you hear me banging and yelling?”
“I was trying to pee, Mom. You were making so much racket you couldn’t hear me yelling back at you from the bathroom, and then you broke the door. What were you doing?”
Ella ran up and whined outside the broken glass. Frankie wiggled out of Helena’s arms to help her through.
“No, don’t!”
“Mom, she wants in. She’s afraid of the glass. She’ll cut herself.”
Helena tried to regain her composure. She wiped the sand off her clothes and face. “I’ll do it. I don’t want you to get cut either.” Helena gently picked up Ella, her ankle killing her, and brought her over the glass and into the house.
“What is wrong with you? And you’re limping? What happened?”
“Here, help me move this.” Helena went over to an armoire she used as a bookcase, hastily removing the books while Frankie watched, horrified.
“Mom?”
“Hold on a minute, just help me please, and then I’ll explain.” It took the two of them a few minutes and quite a bit of effort to move the piece of furniture to cover the gaping hole where the patio doors once stood. When they finished, Helena got a sheet and pinned it up against the window. She then took an ice pack from the freezer and sank onto the sofa to ice her ankle. Frankie stared at her. She patted the seat next to her, inviting Frankie to sit. She didn’t want to alarm her daughter, but she also knew that Frankie was old enough to be made aware and cautious. She told her everything, beginning with the incident with the van and her thought that Leeza was behind it.
Frankie brought her knees up, wrapping her arms around them. “So, someone was watching, seeing what I was wearing tonight. Like, you think from outside the window?”
Helena nodded. “I think so.” She grabbed a blanket draped over the sofa and covered Frankie’s bare legs.
“Sick. It could still be her. Leeza, I mean. She might have some creepazoid keeping tabs on us. She’s psycho, Mom. It sounds exactly like something she would do.”
“I know, honey. But do you think she’d go that far? That’s pretty damn brazen. It’s even crossed my mind that she’s the one behind the fire at Shea House. I don’t know anyone who hates me that much, unless its gangsters like the fire marshal has suggested. If not, then it could be Leeza.”
“I think she’d do about anything to get even with you. You blew up her world when you and Dad made the decision to tell me the truth. The only pleasure she got out of it was that she beat you to it by telling the tabloids and divorcing my dad. She loved that.”
“This might even be too low for Leeza. I’d like to call your dad. I’m a little scared. It might be best for us to head back up to Santa Barbara in the morning. You’d be safer there, I think, at least until we get this figured out, find out who’s behind this.”
“Mom, you promised we’d go shopping for my birthday.”
“I know, and we can. I’ll take you in Santa Barbara.”
“But Rodeo Drive is so cool. Please.”
“Frankie, someone was watching our house tonight. He might still be. We have Ella to warn us through tonight, and I’ll call my security service to have them keep an eye on the place. If I call the police, we’ll wind up on the front page of
The Scene
, and that’s the last thing we want, especially following the fire. Word is that Claire Travers is already snooping around, seeing what dirt she can dish.”
“Mom, I’m sorry all this is happening.”
“Me too, baby. We’ve got to keep our chin up though,” Helena said trying to sound reassuring. “And, whether or not Leeza is behind this stunt, at least up at your dad’s she can’t have her creep watching you.”
“What about you?”
“I’m a big girl. I’ll be okay. Maybe I’ll have Tim come and stay for a while. I’m needed here with Rachel and Shea House.”
“But you’re the one that nearly got killed by the crazy in the van the other night. Even if it is only Leeza acting like her usual witch self. I do think she’s psycho enough to hurt you.”