Chapter 3

Charlene called her father, Nick Carpenter, and waited to be connected. Her call went to his secretary first. He was a ver busy man.

Charlene’s mind wandered as she waited for her farther to come on the line. She saw long lines of trees on a distant African horizon and elephants marching across a flat green plain in her,”mind’s eye.”

Farther out, off in the distance, large mountains sat as they had sat for millennia in a haze of early morning mist or dust kicked up by soft swirling breezes. A river ran down from the mountains to near where she was standing in the sun. Hippos stood lazily eating the tall grass and doing what hippos do. Charlene could almost feel the warm breeze on her face.

Charlene’s parents had been divorced for years. Her father’s infidelities were said to be the end of the marriage. But there was more to the story, of course. Her mother’s story was one sided but Charlene had no reason to believe otherwise until years later She was just a young girl at the time of the divorce, and had no reason not to believe her mother when her father disappeared. Charlene had learned over many years to use his sin against him over and over again.

Nick had cheated on his wife, Charlene’s mother, more than once and disappeared form Charlene’s life for all intents and purposes at the moment his wife had discovered the “act of treachery” as she called it for so many years now.

But as Charlene grew older she understood that her mother, Sally, was not an innocent in the failure of this marriage. Charlene’s mother played a part in this failure of her marriage to Nick. She had played her part all too well in this family drama.

Her drinking was a large part of the downfall of their formerly happy and fulfilling relationship. Sadly Sally loved her wine and spirits and had no desire to curb her intake as far as Nick could see. She paid a price over time for habits and had lost a good deal of her intellectual curiosity, beauty and charm to them. Nick loved those qualities in his wife. These were what drew Nick into her orbit. Eventually they were wiped out forever, or so nick thought.

The divorce was a long fight over the usual things. The care and custody of Charlene, their only child, living situations and money, of course, were Nick’s primary concerns. it took a a good deal of time and money to settle the issues to both parties satisfaction, of course. Several attorneys were made more wealthy as the divorce dragged on.

Nick was denied visitation with Charlene by Sally and they fought about that and many other issues before they finally came to an agreement. Sally didn’t want her daughter to be with an adulterous father and Nick didn’t want his daughter live with a drunk.

After years of fighting, the parents had finally created a truce, if nothing else after a fashion. Over several years and many false starts, an arrangement had been created and Sally let Nick start seeing Charlene again. But much time had passed and their relationship had to be rebuilt from scratch.

Sally never let Nick forget that he had cheated on her. He decided not o mention his feelings about her drinking and lack of attention to him during the marriage. He knew that it would just lead to more trouble and money spent on lawyers. Yes he had cheated and left what was remaining of their marriage, but Sally had been far from perfect. Nick felt that he had tried as long and as hard as he could for a very long time but he could not save the marriage alone.

He had finally chosen another woman and a new life over Sally. Sally was less than the perfect partner as far as Nick was concerned. “Somewhere deep down she must have known that herself,” Nick often thought. Sally often made Nick’s life a misery, even after all of the legal battles were left far behind them. She did it in subtle and not so subtle ways. She often used his enormous guilt to her personal advantage but even that gave her little satisfaction as the years passed.

Charlene’s mother was now a depressed wreck and ghost of her former self. her drinking had increased and she was miserable. Her heavy drinking had led to making many bad decisions when it came to men and money. She had gone through a large portion of her divorce settlement from Nick, who was a very successful attorney from a very wealthy family.

Charlene knew Joe’s lack of drive was one of the many issues that Susan had often pointed out in their arguments. Joe had tried to defend himself to Charlene at lunch more than once about that issue.

Charlene tried to listen to Joe objectively but that was impossible. She was in love with Joe even with all of his many faults. Charlene saw Joe as perfect. Charlene waited patiently for her father to come onto the line.

—–Here’s a little more of “Joe in Africa.”

“This is the law office of Barnaby and Storm, how may I direct your call?” “This is Charlene Betty. Is my father available? I need to talk with him.”

Betty knew the reason for the call from Charlene. They were usually for some kind of financial assistance from Charlene’s father. Betty felt sorry for her boss, but kept quiet. It wasn’t her money or place to interfere. Betty thought that Charlene was immature and even a little devious in her dealings with her father.

Charlene’s mother and father had taken her for a mental evaluation years ago when some troubles emerged at school. Charlene had a wide variety of friends. Some were great students and athletes while others seemed a to be form a different world or planet. She had done everything possible to destroy her health, safety and relationship with her parents. She often put herself in danger. She had a wild side, no doubt. She knew people who would do anything for a fix or a few pills.

She had access to any number of people who would harm or kill another person for little reason or a small amount of money. That thought had haunted her in the past but now she thought that one of those people might become useful in the future. She wasn’t sure how they might be useful yet, but she needed to reconnect with a few old friends.

Her parents had been told by the psychiatrist at school that examined her at that time that she had a borderline personality disorder. He had read several reports from school and her short but interesting police file. After reading about several incidents in her private school he had come away with a professional opinion. After that clinical review and several others over the years, Nick was now fairly sure that the diagnosis of that first doctor had been correct.

Her parents had even taken Charlene to a another prominent psychiatrist in the city at that time of the first evaluation. That relationship between Charlene and the doctor was ongoing. Charlene’s psychiatrist had talked to her parents more than once over the years since she graduated from university about her condition. Charlene had had her ups and downs.

Dr. Taylor had spoken to the family on one of their last visits two years ago in some depth. I”m sorry to say that she might even be a sociopath, Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter.” The news broke her father’s heart.

Nick remembered part of the conversation, verbatim. “Perhaps she should be placed in a facility for awhile for some in-house treatment.” “She is my daughter, Dr. Taylor. It is our responsibility to watch over her and take care of her when necessary. What might an institution be able to do that her mother or I couldn’t?” “That’s a fair question,” the doctor answered. This is not a perfect science and we are still searching for clues that might lead to cures of issues like your daughter faces.

Perhaps a new medication would be a better than her being placed in custody and care in a facility.” We might give that a chance. I have been doing a great deal of research on a few new drugs now coming to the market. Let’s try one of those for a while and see what transpires,” the doctor suggested. Nick’s heart soared with the thought of a possibility of a decent life for his daughter. This was one of the rare incidents of Charlene’s parents making a joint decision for Charlene’s well being. They both agreed that this was a better decision than putting her in a facility were more damage might be done. Charlene had improved greatly in the two years since the decision was made and the new drug was added to her regimen.

—————

Hang in here, things are going to get very interesting, very soon. More of Chapter 3

The light on Nick’s desk reminded him to push the flashing button on the phone in front of him. “What’s up karen, I’m in the middle of something.” “Your daughter is on line one, Sir.” “Thanks Karen,I’ll talk with her.” All the thoughts and memories of Charlene’s problems and psychiatrist visits flooded Nick’s brain as he pushed the button for Charlene to come on the line. Nick pushed the light and spoke. “Hello sweetie, how are you?” “Daddy, it’s me, Charlene.” “I know dear, how nice to hear your voice. How are things going? How’s your mother?” “Oh she’s fine. Same as always, I guess. Her father knew what that meant. His ex was a mess these days and worrying about things beyond her control as always.

“What have you been up to?” “Oh you know daddy, mostly working and just living day to day like the rest of the single, working girls in the city.

Nick looked out his windows and peered down down into the streets ten stories down below him. Many yellow cabs and black town cars were slowly making their way past his building and across town. “How may I help you Charlene?”

“I have a chance to go on a fabulous vacation which may lead to marriage. I just need twenty thousand dollars or so to see it happen.” “I see dear, who might the man be?” Do I know him or his family?” “No you don’t daddy but I have worked with him for some time. I’m his personal secretary and he is a fine gentleman.” “I see. Has your mother met him yet?” He asked with some jealousy. “She should have by now if this is a serious relationship. I’d like to meet him as well.”

We are on the verge of that as we speak,” she lied, knowing that her parents seldom spoke to each other or anyone in each of their circles. He father, Nick Carpenter, ran in the New York elite and Hampton circuit. Her mother had little to no social life left these days. her erratic behavior had seen to that. Her mother’s health was also declining for some unknown reason that her doctors hadn’t quiet figured out yet. She never mentioned her penchant for smoking and drinking too much or that she hardly ever ate anything. Charlene had figured that out years ago.