Behind Sanity

Chapter Four

                Stern, cold eyes glared down at her inches above a large frown.  Grey and blond stubble had weeded its way out of his chin.  And of course, she noticed the scars.  They were pertinent fixtures to his appearance now, running at specific points across his face and arms.  How could she ever forget them, though she couldn’t quite recall why they were there.  The man stood in front of her unabashed, wearing a look of pure disapproval.  His tall, hard frame blocked her way to the hall.

                “Alice,” he sneered in his American accent that Alice had always thought disagreeable. “What are you doing in my house?  I leave for a while and this is what I have to come back to?”

                His voice was calm, but full of hatred toward her.  Alice knew this man anywhere, even though it had been six years since she’d seen him.  The first week had been lovely without his domineering gaze, but eventually she’d known he would return to this house.

               “Hello, Tommy,” she said with as much false cheer as possible. “Not nice of you to look, as improperly dressed as I am.  Could I get by please?”

               “You know,” he interrupted, refusing to budge, “I never imagined you’d get out of that place.  I have to know: how did you do it?  Did you do a few favors so that the nice doctor would sign the release forms?  Honestly, I still don’t see it.  I thought it was fairly obvious that you were a fully insane little bitch.”

              “Well, then I suppose I am, Tommy.  It’s always been whatever you think, isn’t that right?  But, you shouldn’t use such language – not with a child in the house.”

              She tried to push past him once again, but he wouldn’t let her by, placing his hands on each side of the door frame.  He leaned down slightly to peer into her eyes.

              “Please let me by,” she said, as nicely as possible.

               “I can’t believe Wendy actually brought you back here,” the man said as if he hadn’t heard her at all.  “If I’d been home, you’d never have gotten past the front door.  I just want to tell you, Alice: one odd behavior out of you towards my family or whatnot; I don’t care what.  You will be out of here and locked up where you belong.”

                “How sweet a welcome.  I’m really glad to see you too, Tommy.  You know, we should just talk about this in the morning,” she said, finally managing to squeeze past him. “Goodnight.”

                She moved away as swiftly as she dared, feeling relief with the fact that she could not hear him following her – even though she did not cease to feel his eyes burrowing holes into the back of her head.

                                                                                  2 

                Thomas Madison watched her – that crazy girl – go into her room in his house.  This had certainly come as a surprise to him, but suddenly Wendy’s desire to have work done to the guest room made more accurate sense.  Wendy had met him at the door with this delicate news, and it had gripped him with such anger and shock that he hadn’t said a word, only stalked off through the house to locate this unwelcome guest.  He saw now that it was just as Wendy had revealed.  Alice was free of Rutledge’s, and she was here.

                He didn’t like the thought of this at all, as Wendy no doubt had known before she’d brought the girl here.  He remembered Alice from the days of her youth, and even then his feelings for her were less than fond.  They had never truly gotten along.  Having married Wendy seven years ago, he remembered Alice when she was a simple young girl who never said much, but then all of a sudden she had changed.  The night he talked about her rabbit: the night he had questioned her sanity.  He remembered it well – a memory that still lingered thickly in his mind like the morning fog.