When the Mirror Shatters

When the Mirror

Shatters

Mary Joyce Lawhorn

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

When the Mirror Shatters

Copyright © 2010 by Mary Joyce Lawhorn

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4502-7482-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-7483-8 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 11/22/2010

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Conclusion

Prologue

The beautiful girl watched the old man sleeping, and for the first time in a long while pity washed over her. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she felt any kind of emotion, for her heart had become hardened so as not to feel the pain that caring could bring. Her remorse was like a broken mirror that could never be put back together.

She thought of that four year old little girl so long ago, who would sneak her mothers antique mirror out of the vanity to play with, though forbidden for her to hold.

Penelope! What have you broken? She could hear her mother ask from the kitchen as clearly as if it were yesterday.

Nothing, Mama! she said, as she stared at the shattered glass that distorted the perfect face staring back at her. Then quickly placing it back in its red silk bag. How scared she was that she would now have seven years of bad luck, not to mention what punishment her mother would mete out to her when she found out. Little did she realize that it was an omen of things to come.

Maybe these feelings surfaced because she knew that this would be the last night she would spend in Chicago with the man who in part had made her a wealthy woman. She thought of how hurt he was when she told him she wouldn’t be seeing him again. He knew this day would come, but what he hadn’t realized was how much he had grown to love the beautiful girl; the one he couldn’t imagine life without.

He would be her last client for she had planned it that way. It seemed fitting that since he was the first he should be the last one who would pay for her services before she would be leaving the escorting service; a fancier name for the oldest profession of women.

Memories of the last few years filled her mind, threatening to bring another sleepless night. Only this time she would sleep with the knowledge that this part of her life would be over soon, as she drifted off into peaceful dreams, listening to the even breathing of the old man for the last time. Tomorrow she would be leaving her alias, Misty Lee behind forever, going back to be the good girl she was before she left Kentucky.

Chapter 1

Penelope never thought she would be happy to see her old home place again, for when she left she had no intentions of returning. It wasn’t the run-down house she would be happy to see, it was the lady who lived there, Abby Thornapple, Penelope’s mother who had given her everything she could since she had been born, while expecting nothing in return.

_________

The dim lights glowed in the distance, peeking in and out from behind the trees that lined the winding gravel road. It was about dusk, so she knew her mother was getting ready to cook supper. She would soon see the familiar dark smoke ascending thickly from the chimney of the old wood cooking stove. Penelope’s mother always used scraps of discarded rubber tires to start the fire blazing, but before it caught the wood on fire the smoke would be pitch black, then turning gray as it burned out and the logs caught fire. Even on the hottest days of summer a fire was built so she could cook supper, which later on becomes an embarrassment to the young girl.

Turning twelve brought with it an intense awareness of the things around her, the material things she didn’t have, but wanted so desperately. It was around this time when she noticed they lived different from her friends. It was around the late 60’s and most of the folks by that time had either gas or electric cook stoves.

As she came to a gate that had to be opened manually she stayed in the car, remembering a time she and her mother were so poor she was ashamed to ask her friends over to her house, except Beverly Hall, who had been her best friend since the first grade. Beverly had always known how the Thornapple family lived.

Bev’s family, on the other hand had all the modern conveniences, yet Bev hadn’t noticed things like that, but took for granted all the nice things she had. Even though she had been to Penelope’s house lots of times she never thought about how poor they were either.

Bev never looked down on her friend as some of the kids might have, had they known the Thornapples had to draw water from a dug well, letting down a galvanized bucket tied to a rope, for there was no indoor plumbing.

Rather than an imposition, it was a treat for Bev to help fill the huge tub with water for their bath when she spent the night with Penelope. Mrs. Thornapple always had a boiling pot of water on the stove that she would pour in the cold well water to take the chill off, before the two girls jumped in squealing from the shock of the still cool bath. As Penelope grew older she did notice these things, she realized she was the one who was poor and everyone else to her were rich, even Bev. When she was at Bev’s house she would admire all the furniture that matched, and the plush rugs that her feet would sink into when she walked on them. All she had ever been used to were the worn out rugs or rough planks in her house. The Hall family had indoor plumbing too, where the water came out the pipes pouring into a beautiful white bathtub at just the right temperature. It was up until then she took for granted everyone else lived the same way as she did, for the simple ways of life were all she was used to.

_________

She knew it hurt her mother that she was ashamed of being poor. Back then Penelope didn’t appreciate her for all she did for her. A single mother who worked two jobs while taking in ironing to make extra money so her daughter could have nice things to wear like the other girls her age.

Everyone talked about how they had never seen a newborn so pretty when Penelope was born. All her life that was the first thing people would notice about her, so much so she felt that she had to look perfect all the time in order to be accepted. She would yearn for someone just once, to compliment her on something she had accomplished, rather than how pretty she was.

Penelope lost track of time sitting there thinking how far she had come since then. It had been at least fifteen or twenty minutes before she jumped out to unlatch the gate. She hoped her mother had not seen her car there for so long.

After four years living in the city, she was home again, and she couldn’t wait to see her mother. It didn’t matter that things would still be the same as the day she left, because that was about to change.

_________

From the gate she could see her mother at the door to meet her, but, when she opened the screen door Penelope was shocked at how her mother had gone down, she was thin and tired looking, not the strong women she remembered rushing to get to the next project that she had going, always working rings around anyone half her age. How could she have changed so much in four years? Penelope thought as she hugged her mother, who even felt frail. Remembering the soft round of her body when she would hold her while singing her to sleep when she was little. Penelope still remembered her mother always having the clean scent of Jergens lotion that she would rub on her hands at the end of a hard day and it was so comforting to know she still used that lotion.

Mom, I’ve missed you so much. Still hugging her mother as she took in the familiar surroundings, Penelope said, I didn’t think the old house could look any more rundown. She didn’t mean it the way it came out, for she was no longer the shallow young girl she once was; the way her mother most likely remembered her as being when she was a teenager who was ashamed of where she lived.

Oh Penelope! It’s so good to have you back home. I was going to have the place fixed up a little before you got here, but you didn’t give me much notice.

Mama, please! I came to see you, and I’m just happy to be home.

Home! Abby Thornapple thought, her daughter never wanted to be home, but it was a pleasant surprise to hear her actually say it.

Maybe the old saying was true. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. All that mattered now was her baby girl was back home in Jefferson County where she belonged

Penelope took her bags out of the car, lugging them up the stairs to her old room that looked different to her, it looked smaller, not the same as it was the day she left, and remembering how happy she was that she would never have to sleep in it again. Somehow it seemed safe to her now, with the familiar smell of bleach coming from the freshly washed sheets, and the white cotton drapes that were rippling with the soft summer breeze.

Tears welled up in her eyes when she thought of how she must have hurt her mother when she would complain about not having a nice home like everyone else, but she had time over the years that she was away to think about a lot of things, time enough to grow up and appreciate what a good mother she was truly blessed to have. One who made an honest living, sacrificing her whole life to an unthankful daughter while doing without herself.

It would be different now; she would make things right. She had a large sum of money, money her mother didn’t know about, nor how she had acquired it, and she intended to use every dime on making her mother comfortable for the rest of her life. As she looked around she thought, no one will ever look down on me or my mother ever again, instead they will envy us as I used to envy them.

_________

Yes, Penelope had changed. Some might think for the better by the way she carried herself; with the confidence she projected, but they couldn’t see the hardness inside from what she had gone through; what she put herself through for the sake of money.

While she was away she often remembered the verse her mother read to her from The Bible, the one where it says, For the love of money is the root of all evil. At first, the profession she chose made her feel guilty, and for awhile she tried to do something else, but she would always go back, Justifying her actions, telling herself that beauty never made her pay check increase as a receptionist, and it was then she decided to live by her own motto, The lack of money is the root of all evil.

When she first arrived in Chicago she worked for pennies in a flower shop taking orders, then one day a middle aged, but handsome lady came in. Right away Penelope noticed her jewelry and the nice car she drove and she wondered what she did for a living. Then, it wasn’t long before she found out. She was a madam who ran a well known up-scale escort service. Flo was her name, and she became friendly with Penelope after coming in a few times. She told Penelope she would give her a job, saying, With your looks there is no limit to how much you could make in a day.

Finally, after giving it some thought Penelope accepted her offer. At first she would literally be sick after each time she had to go out with some old rich man who was well known. That’s why they used Flo’s services; they knew it would be kept a secret from their wives and acquaintances. Only the money kept Penelope from finding other employment in the beginning. Soon it was just a job and nothing more.

There were perks to it though. Often a wealthy man would bring her expensive gifts such as diamonds. Once this old congressman gave her a real mink coat that he asked her to wear when he came over; only the mink with nothing else under it.

_________

Penelope could tell some stories about those men with their weird fetishes, but some of them were lonely and all they really wanted was to be held or someone to talk to them until they fell asleep. Most of the time they would give her extra, sometimes as much as five thousand dollars, but to them it was like an average person leaving a ten dollar tip.

Then, there were times she used some of her clients, raking in thousands by casually mentioning with an undertone of a threat. Some of the girls wouldn’t think twice about exposing their clients, but I never would do such a thing!

It was understood that for enough money she could keep the other girls quiet. It worked, for there was too much at stake. For instance, there was the Catholic priest who made a mistake by choosing Misty Lee. He gave her thousands of dollars over a few years time, but the funny thing about him, he never touched the girl, but would fall sound asleep with his head in her lap. Yet, he couldn’t let it be known that he frequented a whore house. That was her other life now, one she didn’t intend to go back to, nor was she proud of where she had been.

The secrets she kept of the past four years were about someone else, a girl all the customers would ask for, a girl whom Penelope called Misty Lee. But, she remained the innocent girl who was born in poverty, whose father never knew her, because he abandoned her mother to fend for herself before their baby ever came into the world.

Chapter 2

It was good to simply be Penelope again. Walking around with the cool grass under her bare feet brought back a memory of the time she went to the outhouse before daybreak without her shoes on, while frost was still on the ground. When her mother asked her why she would go out in the middle of winter barefooted, she couldn’t think of one reason why, until this day she still didn’t know. It might have been, because she had a brand new pair of red slippers that she didn’t want to get mud on. Who knows the thinking of a six year old, for that matter, she couldn’t understand a lot of things she had done, not just when she was a child, but especially as an adult.

_________

Tonight Penelope was taking her mother into town to have dinner, it was getting late, so she hurried in to freshen up while her mother waited down stairs all spruced up in a pretty pink dress. Penelope was happy to see her looking nice. Mama, you look so pretty, are you excited about going out tonight? She asked, but not telling her mother what the other surprise was. She wanted the evening to be special for her.

Honey, you know I am! It was so sweet of you to do this. I’m ready to go anytime you are. Abby had been looking forward to this day for a week, and she felt like the queen of England wearing the diamond necklace her daughter had brought her from Chicago.

They pulled up in front of one of the nicest restaurants in town, a place where they come out to park your car for you. She noticed some people looking at her black jaguar. She knew there probably wasn’t another car like it within a hundred mile radius.

When they walked in, she could tell her mother was uncomfortable, for she had never been in a place this fancy before, so Penelope took her arm as they followed the hostess to be seated. Penelope could feel the eyes on them; she also saw the shock on some of their faces when they recognized Abby Thornapple.

Why, she does my ironing! and How can she afford to dine in a place like this? Penelope knew what they were thinking. She could almost see the wheels rolling in their high-minded heads. She leaned over and whispered to her mother that she was the classiest looking woman in the room, her mother blushed, and her shoulders straightened up a little. Abby was at that moment truly a queen.

It was a wonderful dinner, just the way Penelope had planned. What she hadn’t expected, was to run into someone she knew, especially, the