Traveling Vivian

Chapter Thirteen - Core of Attention

Traveling Vivian

Part Thirteen

The next night Lady was busy yelling orders to get the house tidy up. She threw me onto a swing as I saw the two maids, Jean and Peggy, clean left and right. I couldn’t believe how much tidier Lady wanted the house to be. I thought it was tidy enough. I saw Lady run across from the living room to the kitchen and shaking her head. She pointed her hands this way and that until Daddy came in. He placed a kiss on her forehead and then walked to me. He noticed me sitting in the swing and frowned. He picked me up and walked back to Lady.

“Why is she sitting alone in the swing?” He asked Lady as she glared at him.

She was holding a vase with dead flowers. Peggy took the flowers out of it and walked back to the kitchen. “She was in the way of me cleaning our house!”

“Damnit Lysandra! You could have told me!  I would have taken her out for a walk! Why did you have to treat her like trash sometimes? We both wanted her right?” He said as he held glared into her eyes.

“You did! I didn’t! I didn’t want another baby girl! I wanted a boy! I couldn’t deal with having another baby girl especially after you killed her!” Lady yelled as she dropped the porcelain vase. It crashed beneath my feet and I saw it shattered into a million pieces. I looked up at Daddy as Jean came in with a broom.

“I did not kill her! You agreed to let her ride that pony! I told you she was too young!” Daddy screamed. “Peggy take Vivian outside! I want to have a word with Lysandra!”

Peggy nodded and took me from Daddy. I saw from behind me as Jean finished cleaning and went outside.  Lady was crying as Daddy yelled. “Lysandra! It’s been four years! We need to move on. I have and you haven’t? Lysandra, Melly would not like to see you like this! Please stop. We adopted Vivian but she isn’t a replacement. It was because we both felt comfortable in adopting a baby rather than making one.”

Lady sobbed and glared at Daddy. “I wanted a baby boy! Not a girl! To see that whore’s daughter sleep in the purity of my daughter’s old bed and to play with the toys that she used to play with! It breaks my heart! She doesn’t deserve to touch such things! She should be in that foster home, playing with old toys!”

Daddy, enraged, slapped her face. I saw Lady held her right cheek as it flamed up in the color of red. “You fucking bitch. Don’t you ever say such things about something so innocent like a baby like Vivian!”

Lady cried and ran upstairs. I saw Daddy watched after her. Then he went to the kitchen and grabbed a beer.

 Peggy finally bought me to the play area where it was farther away from the chaos inside the house.  I saw Lady upstairs, talking on the phone and crying. I looked at Peggy as she smiled at me. Peggy had blonde curls and she was around the thirties. She was a slim and slender lady who walked like a feather. She let me ride on the bouncy rides. But I couldn’t help but noticed Lady crying up in her room.

Daddy came out with a water bottle. He kissed my head and then nodded to Peggy. He had a pair of blue track pants on with a white tank top. He definitely was going to exercise room. I saw him wear some blue and grey sneakers. “Peggy, please make sure the house is ready for tonight. We have a couple of guests coming over to celebrate our new addition.” He said to her in a solemn voice.

Peggy nodded and walked from me. I was sitting in the sandbox when she walked away. I cried after he but Daddy picked me up.

“It’s okay Vivian. Daddy got you. How about you come to the exercise room?  Daddy is going to work out for a bit. You can come in and watch Smart Tikes? What about that?” He asked as he walked us to the exercise room. The exercise room was one of the sheds in the backyard. The exercise room, however, connected to the barn and right upstairs from the barn was the entertainment room. It had a piano, a big screen television, lounge seats, a mini bar, and a skee ball machine.