Chapter 4: Decisions
Elizabeth opened the folder that Clarissa had brought her. It was from a seven year old Nebraska case. Written across the top in faded black block letters, was the name 'Michelle Farrow'. Elizabeth's expression became grimmer and grimmer as, inside the folder, she found a tale of tragedy and evil that she found difficult to accept.
: : : : : : : : :
The folder contained files on several different cases. There was murder, attempted murder, arson, and two different child abuse cases.
Michelle Farrow's father had disowned her and thrown her out of the house when she had become pregnant at the age of fourteen. He had proclaimed it God's punishment for her sins and refused to help her. A fire in the homeless shelter eight months later had killed her two month old baby and left Michelle burned over sixty percent of her body. The doctors in the hospital's emergency burn unit had not expected her to live through the night but somehow she had held on and survived.
Three days later, in the hospital, her uncle had tried to kill her and been shot and killed by the police. The subsequent investigation into the fire and the hospital incident had shown the fire to be arson set by her uncle. It turned out that the uncle had been sexually abusing her and had been the father of her child. He had kept her from telling by threatening to kill her and her parents if she told anyone. After the baby had been born the uncle had become nervous and had set the fire to destroy all evidence of his crime. Her DNA, her baby's DNA and the uncle's DNA had all been evidence in the investigation.
After it was all over the state came knocking at her father's door. He had still refused to take her back. He now was blaming her for his brother's actions, calling her a harlot and other far worse names. It turned out that he was the worst kind of religious fanatic and claimed that the state couldn't force him to take responsibility for her because it went against his religion. Even her own mother could not stand to be in her presence without falling apart.
In the end, the state had been forced to take her in. When the hospital finally released her after many months of intensive care the state had placed her in a Foster home. A note in the folder from a social worker stated that six months later Michelle had disappeared from the foster home they put her in.
That had triggered an investigation. The files on that case included interviews with several children and had led to the arrest of those running the foster home for physical and mental abuse of their charges. Michelle however remained missing and there was speculation that she had been the victim of foul play.
: : : : : : : : :
Elizabeth closed the folder, her face now as grim as death. There was no data covering the intervening six-and-a-half years. What had happened to that poor child during that time? What other ordeals had she endured? How had she ended up in New York? How had she survived all of those spirit destroying events that made up her lost youth?
Elizabeth opened the other folder that had been sitting on her desk for over a week marked 'Jane Doe # 29451'. It was the report from the Bronx division and dated about three weeks ago.
The subject had been found unconscious in an alley two blocks from Claremont Park, possibly a mugging victim. The emergency room doctor had treated the severe scalp wound on the back of her head and noted down the extent of her burn scaring. There had been no sign of rape but the report noted that she had delivered at least one child in the past. A CAT scan showed indications of possible brain damage. Sometime between the when the doctor left her, still unconscious, in the hospital room and the time the police detective had arrived to interview her, she had simply walked out of the hospital.
The extensive scarring along with the recent stitches on the back of her scalp confirmed that Sparrow was that same Jane Doe and Michelle Farrow. The head wound also explained her loss of memory. After a few minutes Elizabeth spoke. "We can and should tell Michelle her true name. As for the rest of this . . . I think we should let her decide if she wants to know."
~ o ~
Clarissa found Sparrow in the third floor library alcove reading 'Huckleberry Finn'. "Sparrow, honey, could you come down to the parlor for a minute? Mother and I need to talk to you."
Curious and just a little anxious because of the serious look on Clarissa's face, Sparrow followed Clarissa down the stairs. In the parlor Elizabeth was standing by the sofa group looking just as grim. David was also there looking a bit uncertain. Sparrow was really starting to get worried now.
Elizabeth spoke. "First I want to reassure you that you have done nothing wrong but we do have something serious to tell you." She gestured to the loveseat next to David. "Have a seat, dear." They all sat down. David put his arm reassuringly around her and Elizabeth continued. "First off we have finally found out who you are. Your real name is Michelle Farrow." She paused, a worried frown on her face. "Does that name spark anything for you?"
Sparrow rolled the name around in her mind. They said that it was her real name but she was drawing a blank. Finally she responded with a shrug. "The name means nothing to me." She shook her head. "It brings back no memories."
Elizabeth took a deep breath. "I meant it when I said that you had done nothing wrong but your background has turned out to be a particularly unpleasant one and we did not know whether you would want to know." She set the folder she had been holding on the coffee table. "In my opinion, this past is best forgotten but if you wish to know, I have as much of it as I've been able to dig up here in these folders." She looked Sparrow in the eye, her own eyes full of deep sympathy. "Personally I think you're better off putting the past behind you. You have a fresh start at a new life here and I think you should concentrate on that." She paused. "It is your decision, Michelle."
Sparrow looked over at David as though looking for his opinion. He shook his head. "I don't know, Sparrow. I haven't seen what's in that folder so I can't really advise you in this. All I know is that, based on the emotions I'm picking up, the information must be pretty grim and Grandmother thought that you might need my support. I can only tell you that I'm here for you regardless of what's in that folder."
The grim look on the faces of both Clarissa and Elizabeth was enough to convince her. "I think I would rather not know . . . and I kinda like the name Sparrow better. Somehow that name just feels right and that other name means nothing to me."
Elizabeth patted the folder. "OK, but I will keep these folders some place safe for you in case you ever change your mind and decide that you need to know." She picked it up taking rather decisive possession of it. "Remember that we are all here for you. Meanwhile I think I'll put this away where it will be safe." She paused a moment. "By the way, one thing that I think you should know is that your birthday is February 14, 2036."
Elizabeth and Clarissa stood up as Elizabeth remarked. "We have to get back to the office but we'll be home in plenty of time for dinner." Then they both headed out of the brownstone. A half hour later David headed back down to the tunnels and Sparrow, it was still the only name that she could see herself with, headed back up to the library.
As she sat in the library, the book barely noticed in her hands, Sparrow thought about the week that she had spent in this house. In that short time Sparrow had been treated like just another close family member and it had felt nice to be so readily accepted. The hints dropped by Elizabeth and Clarissa as well as her own feelings had left her with the distinct impression that this had not been a normal situation for her in the past.
Then her thoughts shifted to last night at that fantastic Winterfest celebration where she had met several more of David's relatives. She had been surprised at how many others like David there actually were. One of the things that she noticed was how surprisingly beautiful all of their wives were. One was even a retired supermodel! She had also noticed how many offers to dance from very pretty young women David had declined in order to remain with her all evening.
She had developed a serious crush on David in the last week and was very grateful for the attention he had paid to her, but she could not avoid being aware of how much better he could do for himself than a badly scarred girl with no memory of a terrible past and who couldn't even spend more than a few hours a year in his magical subterranean world.
After a few minutes she got thirsty and went down to the kitchen for a soda. She was about to head back up to the library when she heard sounds coming from the open basement door. She knew that she was the only one currently in the house. Everyone else was either at work or had gone below to help clean up the great hall. Glancing around the kitchen nervously, she spotted a decorative rolling pin and grabbed it.
She cautiously made her way to the door and quietly eased her way down the stairs until she reached the corner near the bottom. She peered around the corner through the opening into the basement. There were four girls in the basement and they were loading tablecloths into the oversized washing machine.
The oldest of the four girls was talking. ". . . danced half the night with Russell." The other two appeared suitably impressed.
As Sparrow turned to go back upstairs the second girl spoke. "Stevie, you're so gone on Russell. Everyone knows you've set your hook for him. Personally, I like David. He is soooo hot." Her words seemed to grab Sparrow and stop her in her tracks. I tried to get close to him last night but he spent the whole night with some girl that I've never seen before."
The third girl spoke up. "Yes I noticed that. Who was that girl he was with last night?
The girl named Stevie replied. "Don't know . . . maybe some new helper."
The fourth girl commented. "I heard a rumor that she was badly burned and looks pretty hideous without her wig and she has to take some kind of medicine just to be able to come into the tunnels."
The second girl continued in a slightly petulant tone. "I don't know what he sees in her. He can have any one of us from 'Below' that he wants."
Sparrow became very uncomfortable as she backed quietly up the stairs.
~ o ~
David was helping to clean up the Great hall when he felt a hint of disquiet. He looked around but he couldn't identify a source for the feeling. He shrugged and picked up one end of one of the large tables. Soon he and his younger brother, Russell, were carrying the table out the main doorway and up the windy stairway to the dining chamber where it normally belonged. The tables were too big to take up by way of the tunnels behind the great hall so they had to be taken up the long way. Then he was hit by a strong sense of acute unhappiness and disillusionment.
Russell gave him a confused look when he paused momentarily. As he continued up the abyss stairs his mind drifted to thoughts of Sparrow. She had been staying with them in the brownstone for about a week now and David had become very fond of her. He had even spent every moment of Winterfest with her. Maybe he was becoming more than just fond of her. His musing was interrupted by the need to negotiate the opening into the painted tunnels from the abyss stairs.
~ o ~
Sparrow stood in her room looking in her mirror, her wig in her hand. "What could he possibly see in me?" She spoke to her reflection. She looked down at the brown wig in her hand. "I'm just fooling myself." She mumbled sadly.
After a few more minutes of serious contemplation she made a decision. Then she strengthened her resolve to do what she had decided was the best thing for everyone.
~ o ~
After several hours the tables and benches that belonged in the dining chamber had been returned to their proper location and the Great Hall was finally cleaned up. David sighed and looked tiredly around at the Great Hall. Normally he would have felt the contentment of a job well done but he just couldn't shake the sense of disquiet that had plagued him for the last few hours. He felt like he was missing something important but he couldn't figure out what.
"Well we're finished here." He told Russell with a friendly slap on the back. "It's late and I'm bushed. Mind if I crash 'Below' with you tonight, brother?"
Michael closed and barred the main front doors then headed up the main abyss stairway. Russell threw his arm across David's shoulder. "Fine with me, if you can support me long enough to get to our chamber." Together the brothers headed up the back stairs. Twenty minutes later Russell and David were both in bed, dead to the world. Peter trudged in about the same time and collapsed into bed next to Cherry who had arrived ten minutes earlier after a full day of shuttling Christmas shoppers around in her taxi cab. Elizabeth and Charles also got home very late and ended up going straight to bed.
~ x x x x x ~
It had been about twelve hours since she had left the brownstone and Sparrow was beginning to have doubts about the wisdom of her decision to leave New York but she suspected that if she had stayed in the city they would have been able to find her and try to get her to return. David would be better off without her hanging around getting in his way. Her damaged lungs made it impossible for her to live in his underground world and, despite that lovely home that they had, his leonine appearance made it impossible for him to have any kind of a life in her world. The rest of the family had been exceptionally nice to her and she didn't want to hang around too long and become a burden to them.
She had taken with her the brown wig and what clothes she could shove in a pillowcase. After a moment's hesitation she took the small stack of cash from the vanity drawer then she had left the building and headed toward the Lincoln Tunnel. She had only gone a few blocks when she had been given a ride by a young family that was on its way to their parent's place for the Christmas holidays. The next four hours had been filled with interesting and often amusing conversation. Then they had reached their destination. They had tried to talk her into staying with them because of the lateness of the hour but she declined, preferring to keep going.
She had been walking along the dark highway for almost five hours when a cargo truck picked her up. For the next three hours the trucker she was riding with had said very little and she felt disinclined to say anything to him. During the last hour however she had begun to feel a bit uncomfortable with the way the trucker would glance over at her. She had started looking for some convenient place to ask the trucker to let her out but there was nothing but trees along this stretch of road.
She spotted the roof of a building through a break in the trees just ahead and was about to say something when the trucker pulled off the highway. He pulled up and stopped next to the building that turned out to be some type of large old three story mansion. In front of the building next to where the curved drive branched off from the highway access road was a sign that read "Dillon Bed and Breakfast " Below that sign was attached a small plank that read, "Closed through Christmas" Next to the large house and attached to it by a breezeway, was a smaller building with a sign that read "Katy's Restaurant and Pub".
She turned to thank the trucker for the ride when he placed his hand on her leg. "Just a little R-n-R stop." He grinned wickedly at her.
~ o ~
David woke up with a start. Something was not right. The feeling of unease had intensified and now he was certain that it was coming from someone else. Sparrow! It was Sparrow he was sensing! Then fear and disgust hit him like tidal wave. He was out of bed in a flash and, grabbing Russell's cloak, he shot out of the chamber at a dead run.
Russell looked up bleary eyed at the flapping tapestry and blinked in confusion.
~ o ~
Peter sat up in bed, puzzled at the sudden confusion he was sensing from Russell and the worry and anxious uncertainty he was sensing from David. Cherry sat up beside her husband. "What's wrong Peter?"
"I don't know for sure but something has David very upset and he's headed in a westward direction at a very fast pace."
They both looked at each other. "Sparrow?" Cherry jumped out of bed threw on a robe and ran over to Sparrow's room.
The door was ajar and her room was empty. There were a few empty hangers on the bed and the brown wig was missing. There was a folded note on the bed with David's name on it. After a moment's uncertainty Cherry picked up the note as Peter entered the room. She opened the note and they both read it.
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David,
You have been so kind to me and I hate to leave like this but it's for the best. I don't want to become a burden to you or your family. I have seen the type of women all of the Chandler-Wells men have married and you can do so much better than a wreck like me. Also neither of us can live in the other's world. I cannot let your kind act of sympathy stand in the way of your future and I don't want someone who goes with me just because they feel sorry for me. It's not fair for either of us. Please say goodbye to your family for me.
Sparrow
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"That poor child." Cherry remarked. "She doesn't seem to understand how much she means to all of us."
Peter shook his head. "It may have been sympathy that motivated David when he first found her but it is love that is driving him now. I don't think he even realized that he was falling for her until just now." Peter looked westward. "If she is as far away as his continued movement indicates then he must have formed a bond with her as well." Peter paused as a new though struck him. "He first sensed her in the park all the way down in the home tunnels." He looked at Cherry in surprise. "Could he have formed the beginnings of a bond with her before they even met?"
"I've never heard of that happening before." Cherry looked at her husband.
"Neither have I. The whole concept of forming a bond with someone that you have never even met seems so absurd." Peter shook his head. "I just don't see how it could happen."
"Do you think he met her some time before she lost her memory?" Cherry asked.
"I don't know. David never mentioned seeing her before and I'm sure that he would have remembered if he had."
~ o ~
The truck driver tried to force himself on her. Sparrow fought back with every ounce of strength she had. Her fear and disgust peeked only to be matched by a powerful flair of anger. The truck's horn sounded twice during the ensuing struggle. The driver tried to grab her hair and came away with a handful of brown wig.
With a harsh cry of surprise and disgust the trucker stared in horror at her scarred face and milky left eye. Then he kicked opened the passenger side door and shoved her out of the truck's cab. With a final shiver of disgust, he threw the wig at her and drove off without bothering to close the door. Stunned and the wind knocked out of her, Sparrow lay sprawled out on the cold damp gravel drive staring after the retreating truck.
A woman came running out of the building, glanced at the retreating truck, and then at Sparrow taking in her scars, the torn condition of her clothes and the wig on the cold wet ground next to her. "Oh, you poor girl! Come on; let's get you inside out of this nasty cold weather." The woman picked up her wig and helped Sparrow to her feet while trying not to stare at her scarred face. "That was a terrible way for that man to treat you." She shook her head. "I can't believe how awful some people can be." She noticed the blood on Sparrow's skinned elbows. "You've been hurt. We'll take care of that."
~ o ~
David stood beside the Hudson River, the chilled wind whipping the cloak about his body, and looked in dismay across to the Jersey shore. She was somewhere out there and he could still feel her anger and pain. His sense of her was weak so she had to be far away, but he couldn't tell how far. He sighed. It didn't matter. As long as he could get a sense of direction, that was enough for now. He glanced over his shoulder at the first faint glow in the east that heralded the coming morning then scanned the shore on both sides of him. There was a ferryboat docked about two hundred yards to the south.
He pulled the dark cloak tight about himself and faded into the shadows as he quickly made his way toward the ferry. Ten minutes later as the Ferry pulled away from the shore it carried one extra passenger hidden under the frame of a slightly beat up U-Haul truck. On the far shore the truck pulled off the ferry with an extra passenger still clinging grimly to its undercarriage. The truck stopped at a traffic light near a large heavily wooded park and the stowaway dropped off. A few startled drivers saw the strange vision run past them and quickly disappear into the park but they were in too much of a hurried to get to their jobs to do more than gasp open mouthed at the sight.
Continued in Part 5
'Beauty and the Beast' and its characters are owned by Witt-Thomas Productions and Republic Pictures. No infringement on copyrights is intended. This story is presented merely for the enjoyment of fans. Original concepts and story elements may be used by other authors as long as appropriate credit is given.
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