Brain Ch. 08: Consoling Wendy
Dylan and Wendy sat on the couch, Dylan with arm wrapped around her. Wendy was gently rocking and sobbing quietly. Dylan was trying to hold back a cry because right now his mom needed him. He tried to comfort his mom and she rocked and listened to the port authority chief.
A few minutes earlier there had been a knock on the door to their hotel suite. They didn't move out when the supposed stay was over because the search was still on for the William's family. Wendy had mostly been in a comatose state for the past five days after the boat failed to show up back in port.
The authorities had been notified and Wendy was getting a daily report from them on the efforts of the search. Each night the local police chief would come to the suite to give them a report of what was going on and if they had found any sign of what happened to the boat and her family. She could give a damn about the boat, she would have gladly bought two of them if she could just have her family back.
Each night after the police chief left Wendy would drink her self into a stupor. She was smoking again, having stopped many years before when she was pregnant with the kids. Brian hated her smoking and refused to buy her cigarettes or would not kiss her after she smoked. She was going through two packs of cigarettes a day now, and a bottle of scotch every other day. When she was not drinking she was at the harbor, police station, or watching the floor of the room.
Dylan had to make her eat something. Each night he would order food from room service and make her eat. It wasn't easy but he managed to get her to eat about half of whatever they brought up. After eating she would pour herself a drink and would begin her trip into a roaring drunk.
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It was after the third night as Wendy was well into being bombed out of her mind, that she snapped at Dylan as he tried to talk with her to get her mind off his missing family. They were sitting on the couch and the police chief had just left after giving his report on the search.
"Mom, they will be fine. Dad is smart, SF training trained him for things like that. He would never put the family in jeopardy if it was possible to avoid." Brian was rubbing his mother's back while she hung her head down and holding her glass.
"It is my fault, all my fault. I am being punished. If I hadn't, if we hadn't' then this wouldn't have happened. It is all my fault," she said.
"Mom, it is not your fault. You did, we did, nothing wrong it just happened," he told her.
She turned to him and yelled, "YES, IT IS. If hadn't fucked you then your father and sisters would be here right now. They are not here because I fucked you. Don't you understand!"
Dylan turned her to him. "Mom, look at me. Look at me. What happened was not planned, coerced, or anything. It was something that just happened. Do you understand? Don't you see?"
Wendy was shaking her hand and sloshing her drink on to the floor as her body moved with her. "Honey, what we did was wrong. I am being punished for it. You don't do those things with your son. It is not right. I am being punished. Get it through you thick skull, it is my fault they are gone."
Dylan looked at her. "Mom, first let's discuss this rationally. You got the booze talking and you are not thinking clearly. Will you listen to me and let me explain?"
Wendy slumped her shoulders in quiet surrender. Her eyes were puffy from many hours of crying, red and swollen. Her hair was a mess; her combing it was about all that had been done to it since before the family went missing. Her face hadn't had makeup applied for about as long as her hair hadn't been fixed. Dylan looked at her and eyed her body. She was wearing shorts and a halter top. The colors and style didn't match to what his mother's impeccable style. Her legs were being to show light stubble and he knew she hadn't bothered to shave. He could even see that she hadn't shaved under her arms either as she had the beginnings of long dark hair showing. To put it bluntly, she looked like shit.
"Mom, stop saying dad and the girls are dead. We don't know that. Their boat is over due, ok, long overdue. The storm probably had something to do with it. The island authorities they were going to visit reported they had left when they heard the storm. We know they left. They could have had engine problems or something. There are a lot of little islands around the area that are inhabited but with no power or communications. Dad is the best at survival. He has made it through some of the wildest things anyone could ever imagine. He has told us a few and probably hasn't told us all."
Dad has been through all the training the military had to offer. He can make a radio from a bamboo tree and a squirrel." Dylan tried to make a funny for his mom to lighten the situation but she just looked at him in her near drunken stupor and hung her head down again. "Anyway, he is good. The girls can take care of themselves. I worry more about dickhead, opps, Roger, more than anything. He could fuck up a wet dream."
They are going to be fine. They are probably sitting on some island right now basking in the sun while we worry. But dad will find a way to communicate, don't worry. Okay?" He reached down and pulled her chin up so that she was looking at him. "Okay?" he stated again.