In My Sister's Shadow (9 page)

Mark froze. A mixture of shock, anger and disbelief began to grow in the pit of his stomach. Bijou’s tone was cool as she stood abruptly from the table and began to make her way out of the kitchen. Mark jumped up, his footsteps fast and heavy as he walked briskly after her, grabbed her arm and forced her to turn toward him, causing her long hair to sway. His eyebrows bunched as he sunk his teeth into his bottom lip. He stared her up and down, then brought her shaking body towards him.

“Oh, no, Bijou. You don’t get off that easily. We are in this together.”

Bijou stood there, looking despondently. She turned away, a sudden look of angst on her face.

 “Now, I don’t know for certain if it is Rhine or not, but I also don’t believe in coincidences. You are going to tell me right now,” he pointed to the ground as he spoke sternly, “why she’d do this to you…to
us
. You’re not the only one affected by this and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a dead person mess up something that didn’t even have a fair chance to get off the ground!”

Bijou snatched herself loose and took a few steps backward.

“I don’t want to get into it. I’m going to get dressed and leave…I’m sorry.” She fled up the steps, racing towards his bedroom door with Mark hot on her trail.

“Sorry?” he repeated loudly as he marched behind her, slamming the door closed behind them.

He watched her pick up her discarded clothing from the floor. She removed his robe, placed it on the bed and began to slide her panties back up her thighs.

“No, ma’am, Ms. Bijou. You’re not going anywhere, until you tell me what the hell is going on! You know something, you know more than you are telling me and you are going to spill it, right now!”

Bijou sighed and shook her head as she continued to dress. “It’s best we just leave it like this. She’ll leave you alone, and we can just…”

“I deserve answers!” Mark’s voice thundered in the room, causing Bijou to jump. “Now look,” he said calmly as he put his hands up in the air and approached her. “I know you and your sister had some problems, but I also know you loved her very much. You said you’re not a very religious person, I suppose you’re agnostic though you didn’t use that word, but nevertheless, I suppose I am different from you, because – I believe.”

He lifted her chin and stared down into her eyes. “I can have enough faith for the
both
of us. You think a floating umbrella is going to make me forget about you?” he teased, trying to calm her, convince her, sooth her. “Besides, it’s too late, Bijou.”

He kissed her softly, ignoring her resistance. She melted against him, embracing him tightly as he stroked her hair and continued to lavish her lips with loving attention. “Now, sit down,” he whispered as he pointed to the edge of the bed. Bijou sighed and dropped to the bed, causing her bare breasts to bounce. The room was noticeably warmer, almost hot. He sat beside her and put his arm around her waist…and waited.

Bijou crossed her ankles and looked down at her hands as she nervously twisted them into a ball.

“My sister and I…had an unhealthy competitive relationship, Mark. My mother worked a lot, and it would just be her and me and my father.” She rolled her eyes. “His whereabouts were seldom known. Anyway, the trouble began when she believed our parents, particularly our mother, favored me, over her. It wasn’t true but…” Bijou shrugged. “That’s what she thought and well, you can’t really argue with emotions. They are what they are.”

Mark nodded in agreement.

“So, even as adults, it continued. Sometimes she’d accuse me of making eyes at some of her boyfriends, which wasn’t true. One of her boyfriends hit on me, and she blamed me for it. She was the type of person that kept a lot of her emotions inside and unfortunately, when she’d explode, I often got the brunt of it. She and I have both been accused of being aloof. It’s not only that; we were just raised to not wear your heart on your sleeve and keep your personal business to yourself.”

Mark leaned forward, taking in the brief silence before speaking. “You know, when I first met you at the funeral, I thought you were kind of closed off, but you intrigued me. Once I spoke to you at the party, I liked what I saw. Is that what I had seen before? The aloofness, as you call it?”

“Well, it’s what I’ve been told,” she shrugged. “Not much really bothers me, quite honestly. I’ve always been that way. I just don’t sweat the small stuff but regardless, I was the friendlier out of the two of us I suppose, and all that did was garner me more attention, making her even angrier. Rhine seemed to believe, that I was doing something
to
her, always trying to get one-upmanship. She even came after a couple of my boyfriends as payback for these alleged indiscretions.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“Wait a minute, I thought you said she was always accusing
you
of trying to take her boyfriends? Why would she try to do the same to you?”

“Mark, you have a
lot
to learn about women if you really don’t know the answer to that.” Bijou looked at him, shook her head and chuckled uneasily. “Why? To pay me back, of course. She honestly believed everything she accused me of. We depended on one another. Sometimes, all she had was me.”

“Bijou, that relationship sounded dysfunctional. Just because someone is your sister doesn’t mean you have to put up with that sort of thing. You have to learn to love people from a distance.” There was a brief pause. “Regardless, you need to…”

Bijou shrugged and huffed in annoyance. “You don’t understand.”

“Oh, yes, I do, more than you know. I have a brother, like I told you, and he and I used to be very close but my own peace of mind was more important to me. What was it about her, besides her being your sister, that caused you to not be able to distance yourself?”

“When times were good, they were remarkable, but when they were bad…” Bijou shook her head. “It was like a battlefield.”

“Wow.” He deliberated over the information. “So, it makes sense to me that this all piled up on you emotionally and added to your feelings of guilt.”

“Yes, and things didn’t end well between us. She’d recently gotten engaged. I was happy for her. She was so excited to get married; she’d waited for this for so long. She was supposed to get married in two months…and now, her dream of getting married is gone…” Her voice trailed off.

Mark remained quiet while he listened to Bijou bare her soul.

“We’d go three or four months, sometimes even half a year, happy as clams and then, bam!” Bijou briefly closed her eyes. “It was so draining. We fell out again a week or so before she died. We kind of made up after that, but then got into another stupid argument, like I told you.” Her eyes watered. “And now that I really think she was in that bathroom with me, her anger…” Bijou lowered her head and rubbed her forehead anxiously. “Mark, the anger was so real. It was like being two inches away from a lion! I cannot tell you how frightened I was!”

Bijou’s voice escalated while Mark held her tightly against him.

“I’ve never been afraid of my sister before, ever! What am I talking about? I don’t even know if that was her…I feel like I’m caught in a nightmare. I don’t even believe in ghosts! This whole thing is like an out of body experience. I want this to stop! Whatever
this
is!” She was hysterical now.

“It’s OK, it’s going to be OK.”

“It was her,” she muttered under her breath. “I didn’t want to believe it was – it was just heaviness in the air. I didn’t know who or what it is, but after tonight, there is no doubt in my mind. I can’t even believe what I’m saying.” Bijou shrugged and wiped her eye, shaking her head as she continued to think. “She’s still angry…I…”

“What? What is it, Bijou? Tell me what happened when you saw her,” he pushed, seeing her trying to retreat from whatever memories flooded her at that heart-felt moment. He needed to hear it; he needed her to say it, to let it out, to release the demons that held her back for her own sake, and for
them
.

“Some days ago…something was breathing on me while I slept,” she admitted, looking away. “It only happened one time. I didn’t tell anyone, I was in disbelief, complete denial after it happened. Something hovered over me in my bed. I screamed! It was the shadow, like here. After a few minutes, which felt like an eternity, it just vanished. I tried to chalk it up as just a bad nightmare, but then, the thing in the bathroom was the same. I’d never had it happen before, but my bedroom, the following morning, smelled like her…like her perfume.” Bijou shook her head as tears fell from her eyes. “I didn’t want to believe it! I couldn’t afford to believe it! Deep down, she really was a good person, Mark.” She ran her hand through her hair. “She really was.” Her eyes pleaded with him, begging for understanding – for him to believe her.

“Look how she died,” Mark said softly as he helped brush her hair away from her ear and nestled close to her. “She died saving a child. That has to speak for something.”

“Yes, it does because, despite our tumultuous relationship, she was a good person.” She sniffed. “To other people, Rhine was gold…if she was given a chance. She was just…introverted. She went to college, got her teaching certificate and had a good career. So many of her students loved her; she was really happy at her job.”

“So things were good with her fiancé, too?”

“I don’t think she loved her fiancé. She said they didn’t have a lot of chemistry, but he was nice to her. I met him and he seemed decent enough. He travelled a lot for work though, so he wasn’t around often. I think she just wanted to get married, like many women – and I just wanted her to be happy. Our relationship was always so wishy-washy, but I could still tell she was feeling better about herself. Then…the storm hit and took my sister away!”

Mark squeezed and rocked her.

“We weren’t perfect, but she was
my
sister! She was
mine
and I
hers
…” Bijou pounded her index finger into her chest. “Mark, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I really think, for your own good, I need to leave you alone. At least it’s early on, and we can back out sooner rather than later. I’m sorry I’ve gotten you into this mess.”

“Stop it, don’t ever say that to me again.” He pulled back from her. “We haven’t had time to take this to the next level. I want time to do just that. I care about you, Bijou, and I believe you care about me, too.”

“I do, I care about you a lot, but that doesn’t matter.”

“That’s
all
that matters.”

“No, this isn’t fair to you. This is not a good time for me to be getting involved with a man if this is what it will bring.”

She stood and continued to dress, resolute. Mark’s angst turned into burning hot rage, yet he contained himself, remaining quiet and still, racking his brain to try and find a way to convince her she was wrong.

Bijou walked out of his bedroom. He stood from the bed and made his way down the hall to the staircase, calling out to her. But her shoes clicked fast against the wood toward the steeple shaped vintage stain-glass door.

“So Rhine wins again, huh? Your bullying big sister gets to chase me off, even after death! Wow, Bijou…”

He white-knuckled the catwalk as he watched her become smaller and smaller. Her hand clutched the brass front door knob.

“I’m sorry, Mark,” she said before opening the door and closing it securely behind her.

* * *

Two weeks later…

“And there have been no further instances?” Mr. Kennedy asked as he pushed his bent, gold wire frame glasses up his nose. His disheveled salt and pepper hair spread in various directions as he deeply scratched his scalp.

“No, not since Bijou left my home.”

The local bookstore, Book By It’s Cover, was quiet, except the occasional drone of a flute from a nearby record player spinning as people mulled about with vintage LPs, new releases and stacks of magazines. Mr. Kennedy crumpled his newspaper as he looked down at it over his glasses, his thin, pale skin drawn downward.

“I don’t know what they call it down there in Miami, but here in ‘
Orleans
, we call it a succubus.”

“I know what that is…” Mark looked away in disgust. “It didn’t go that far though, but it was bad enough.”

“Well, that’s what happened, regardless of the intentions. Bijou is gone, but the sister is still there, trying to seduce you. Why didn’t you tell Bijou what happened?”

“Because I didn’t want her more scared than she already was. It doesn’t matter now though. She ran off, thinking she was protecting me.” Mark slammed his hands on the small, unsteady table, causing his coffee to rock back and forth. “The air works fine now. No more bumps in the night, no more umbrellas flying around, but she still came last night; it was brief, but it was her.”

“She kissed you while you slept. She wants you, Mark.”

Mark rolled his eyes. “Look, is there some way I can help Bijou? I really, really like this woman but we have a…rather unusual problem here, wouldn’t you say?”

“Well,” Mr. Kennedy sighed and leisurely rolled his paper up in a tight wad. “That’s where my sister, Clarabelle comes in.” He rubbed his long, pointed nose and leaned his frail body into his chair. “You see, Mark, it is apparent to me that Rhine wants to keep you two apart. She may not know she’s dead; I have no idea and that isn’t my expertise. She has set her sights on you.” He looked at him intently, “Bijou thought it was just because of her, but it has evolved since then. She is not the type of woman to want this sort of attention, this drama.” He smiled crookedly. “It’s a small world…I had no idea you were dating my great niece, yet you and I play chess here, once a week. All this time, you never told me you were dating a new girl. You always tell me about your love life.” He chuckled.