Chapter 5: Mimi--The Unlocked Door

Chapter 5: Mimi—The Unlocked Door

"Pierre has a new mistress, Mimi."

Michele raised her eyebrows as she took a sip from her lemon water. She placed the glass back onto the cafe table, the warm autumn sun glinting spears of light through it. She placed both of her hands into her lap, and leaned forward, her lips thin with concern. "Oh, Coco," she said, "How do you know?"

Coco Lacroix pushed a brown lick of hair off her forehead and looked sadly into the lunchtime traffic of LoDo Denver. "I know," Coco said, "I can tell. It’s just like he was last summer...he ignores me, he’s polite to me...he always buys me flowers...he’s never home.."

Michele nodded. "I see," she said. "I’m sorry...but you don’t know for certain?"

"I don’t know who she is," Coco said, "but I know she exists...what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I make him happy?"

"Coco! Mimi! Hi!"

The women were startled by the voice squealing from across the cafe. It was Debbie Sakic. She was absolutely adorable in a pale blue skirt and blouse, and she was glowing standing on her toes, waving at Michele and Coco. Her son Mitchell was holding onto one of her tiny wrists, and sucking his thumb. Their nanny, Cecile, was toting the diaper bag and the twins in a double baby buggy.

"We’ll talk later, OK precious?" Michele said, patting Coco on her thin, blue veined hand.

Debbie, with her glorious smile, talked in a low voice to the hostess and within the second, she and her entourage were trotting to them. Coco remained sitting but Michele stood up, smiling and holding her arms open to Debbie. The women hugged as a troop of waiters moved a table next to Michele’s to allow them to sit together.

"How are you two? Isn’t the weather gorgeous!" Debbie gushed.

Michele smiled. "It’s lovely," she said. "You look wonderful today."

"Oh," Debbie said, "Thanks...Coco how are you? I haven’t seen you in a few days."

"Tired." Coco said bluntly with a slow nod of her head. "I think I was just about to go home, I need a nap."

"Really?" Debbie asked. "Ah well..I hope you feel better. You can’t stay a little longer?"

"No," Coco said with a sad smile, "No I can’t. But I’ll see you soon, and Mimi...please call me?"

"Of course," Michele said. She stood up and kissed Coco on the cheek, not a fake air-kiss that most women do, but a friendly kiss.

Coco sighed, gave little Mitchell a big kiss on the forehead, Mitchell giggled as if her were tickled. "Ooooh!" Coco said, "I wish my Eric were that small again!"

With that, Coco had left. Debbie watched her leave and frowned. "Is she OK, Mimi?" she asked.

"No," Michele said frankly, "she’s not...but she’ll be fine."

Debbie nodded. "Cecile," she said, "can you please go down to Wild Oats and get those groceries we need so we don’t have to go later? You can leave the twins here."

Cecile, a petite, pale young woman with glittering green eyes and black hair smiled with pretty white teeth. "OK," she said brightly, "That makes sense. Come on Mitchell, wanna go get a smoothy?"

Mitchell beamed and hugged Cecile who picked him up and waved good-bye to the women. Michele watched the nanny leave and sniffed. She had never had an actual nanny before, and didn’t think she’d ever want one. She didn’t like the idea of someone else trying to play mommy to her children. A baby-sitter was different, she rather liked the idea of her kids running those girls up the wall.

After Cecile had left, Debbie looked directly at Michele. "So what’s going on?" she asked.

"Pierre," Michele said simply, pulling a roll of white bread from the basket on the table and nibbling at it.

Debbie frowned. "Again?"

Michele nodded.

Debbie shook her head. "Poor Coco," she said, "She’s too sensitive."

A perky, young waitress took lunch orders from the women and floated away.

"What about you?" Debbie asked, "Is Patrick depending on Forsberg’s spaghetti and meatballs nowadays?"

Michele laughed. "No!" she said. "Actually I don’t know where Patrick is right now, but it isn’t game day so I won’t bother to care."

Debbie narrowed her eyes, a sly smile on her face. "Oh, Mimi don’t pull that with me! The only time you don’t care where Patrick is, is when you care where Patrick is."

Michele smiled prettily, thanking the waitress who gave them their salads. Debbie Sakic was a woman she had found bland and boring at first meeting. She seemed so vanilla and frail...but then again, she had always thought that of Joe Sakic’s reputation as well. It was a delight to find that although Debbie’s body was weak, as a result of her bout with Crohn’s Disease, her mind was wicked and entertaining.

"Don’t leave me in the dark, Mimi," Debbie tutted, "I outrank you!"

Michele’s eyes widened in mock horror and the women laughed.

"Alright, alright," Michele sighed, "I’m dying to tell someone anyway."

Debbie beamed and took a bite of her salad.

"Patrick and I have another "assignment" for each other," Michele said.

Debbie swallowed in one big, gulp. "Noooo!" she said. "And when were you going to tell me? Ooooh who is it? It was just getting boring around here!"

Michele grinned. "Did you know that Danny Hinote is a virgin?"

Debbie nodded. "Yes," she said. "He and Cecile have been dating since late last season. She’s a virgin too. It’s some sort of religious or quaint thing they’re up to."

"Really?" Michele said with raised eyebrows. "That’s nice. Do you think that it’ll last?"

Debbie shrugged. "Well, they’re both gorgeous, and if it’s lasted this long than yes I think it’ll.....wait a minute...Mimi you aren’t thinking of.."

Michele frowned a bit. "Well I was certain but now I’m thinking of something a bit different. How did they meet?"

"New York, when Danny was at West Point," Debbie said, "Cecile decided to follow him here, and since she’s been a nanny for a few years now, Danny suggested she work for us."

"Honestly!" Michele said, "Nannies are never virgins! This woman must be lying."

"I think she’s telling the truth," Debbie said, "She’s a choir girl...she’s never even looked sideways at Joe and you know nannies love him!"

Michele took another sip of her water. "You know," she said, "This is going to be quite interesting. Would you like to make a wager on which innocent slips first before I begin?"

Debbie clapped her hands together. "That’s what I love about you Mimi! You know how to keep a lady entertained. If it weren’t for you...I’d...I’d have died of boredom years ago."

"Ooooh," Michele said with a mock pout, "How could you be bored with that beautiful husband of yours?"

Debbie tightened her lips and sighed. "Michele," she said, "Quite frankly, the most exciting place Joe can think of for sex, is the foot of the bed.....and that’s only on special occasions."

"It’s my Game-boy! Give it back!!"

"Come on Jana! Let me have it a bit longer I just want to try this game!"

"Nooooooo!"

"Freddy give it back to her! I gave it to Jana not to you!"

Then there was a chorus from all three, "Moooooooom!"

Michele looked sideways at her oldest son Jonathen who was sitting in the passenger seat and then over her shoulder at her remaining children, Frederick and Jana.

All three of them were blinking at her with large blue eyes, so unmistakably their father’s eyes. Jana was red as an apple and already blinking through tears.

"Freddy give it back to Jana, I’ll buy you a new one of your own. You can have it in purple, you like purple," Michele said calmly.

Freddy wrinkled his nose and gave it back to his sister. Jana’s smile was instantaneous as she hugged the toy. She looked up at Freddy, blinking like a bunny. "Here you go, Freddy," she said in her tiny voice, "You can play it if you want. I don’t mind."

Jonathen laughed. Looking surprised at first, Freddy then wooped like an Indian and snatched the Gameboy back. "Wooooo!" he howled. "Death Cave Three here I come!"

Michele smiled as she peeked every so often at the two in her mirror. Freddy was laughing and moving his body with the game while Jana leaned over his shoulder watching, wrinkling her nose every so often. Her left eye fluttered a bit, that worried Michele, two of the three children had seemed to have inherited some of their father’s facial tics.

As she neared the house, Michele frowned when she saw that their front door was wide open. Alex used to do that when he lived with them, maybe he was there now. His car wasn’t anywhere near the house Michele drove past.

"That was weird, mom," Jonathen said, "Do you think Alex is home?"

"Alex! Alex!" Jana squealed.

"Die cave scum, die!!!!!" Freddy giggled.

Michele drove up the street to Mrs. Allison’s house. She stopped at the sidewalk.

"OK kids, get out and go inside, tell Mrs. Allison that I’ll be back soon.."

"Wooohooo!" Freddy and Jana asked no questions as they burst out of the car like two little greyhounds at a race. Jonathen slowly unbuckled his seatbelt and looked at Michele, his left eye beginning to flutter. "Mom," he said, "Don’t you think you should come in, too?"

Michele was filled with absolute love for her son at that moment, she couldn’t think of any reason why she was so lucky to have him. "No," she said with a smile, "I’ll just have a look it’ll be fine."

Jonathen sighed and sniffed, hopping out of the car and dragging his feet into Mrs. Allison’s house. Michele wanted to come in too, maybe call the police from there. But no, that wasn’t a good idea, she thought as she drove back over to her house. She remembered the hell after the last time she called the police to their home, how she picked up the children from school everyday, and how they were always crying. She didn’t want to bring any policeman there if she didn’t have to.

The front door was closed now as she got out of the car. Maybe she had imagined it? No. Jonathen had seen it too.

She walked up to the front door, opening it. It was unlocked. She peeked her face in. "Alex?" she called, "are you here?" Maybe one of Tanguay’s friends had dropped him off, they did that sometimes.

The house was quiet. Michele frowned and steeped inside. She didn’t like it, if Alex were here, he would already be scampering out from the kitchen, with sugar-pie crumbs on his face.

Michele turned around to leave but it was too late. As she tried to go out the front door a hand covered her mouth before she could scream, and dragged her deeper into the house.

Michele kicked out but only managed to hit the front door and kick it closed. Whoever had her was strong, she could feel his hard muscles as he lifted her up in the air and carried her into the kitchen. Once in there, he hissed into her ear, "Are the children in the car?"

All of Michele’s anger turned into blind rage at the mention of her children. She raised her foot high in the air and brought her thick heeled shoe down onto the man’s in-step. The man screamed and as he recoiled from the stomp, Michele drove her bony elbow into his sternum. There was a gasp from the man and he let her go. Michele staggered forward and tried to dart out of the kitchen but the man had her again, his fist closing in on her hair. Michele screamed, blinded with pain and clawed at his gloved hands. She kicked behind her, her foot slamming into a soft part of his bady, the man

screamed again and let her go. Before Michele could get any farther from him, he grabbed her by the arm and whirled her around. Michele looked him straight in the eye, his face was covered by a ski-mask and only his brown eyes and mouth showed.

"Bitch!" the man snarled as he slapped her in the face.

Michele’s face went numb as she fell hard onto the kitchen floor. Never in her life had she been slapped in the face, and the pain shocked her and broke her spirit. The man was on top of her now, trying to pin her wrists together. All Michele could think was that she was glad that she’d left the children at Mrs. Allison’s.

"What the hell are you doing!"

The man on top of Michele wasted no time in jumping off her at the sound of the voice, and dashing out of the kitchen door into the backyard. Michele remained where she was as someone ran past her and after the man.

"Michele, are you OK?"

Michele looked up at the other man by her side. She had never thought that Alex Tanguay could ever look so beautiful.

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