Bang, Bang - Epilogue
Epilogue
Forty-four years after the incident
Nigel eased out of the cab and closed the door. As the vehicle sped away into the night, he gazed up at the townhouse door with dread. Tapping his cane twice for luck he slowly climbed the steps. The door swung open before he had a chance to ring the bell.
“Thanks for coming so quickly, Uncle Nigel.” Caroline Priestly-Wright stepped aside as Nigel entered.
“Hello, sweetheart.” Nigel set his cane against the foyer table and started to remove his coat.
Caroline gently assisted him and hung it in the closet. Nigel retrieved his cane, and they moved down the hallway.
“The doctor just left. He said it could be anytime.” Caroline briefly clasped Nigel’s arm. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Nigel nodded and patted Caroline’s hand. He paused at the doorway of what used to be the formal living room. In the last month it had been transformed. In the center of the room, a hospital bed held the frail body of his dearest friend. Cassidy Priestly-Lewis was at the bedside holding the older woman’s hand. She leaned in to whisper in the woman’s ear. He watched as the woman faintly shook her head.
“So stubborn,” Cassidy said softly. She looked at Nigel and grimaced. “She refuses to take any more painkillers.” Cassidy waved Nigel to the chair beside the bed.
“Six, are you causing trouble?” Nigel reached for Andy’s hand as he sat.
“I refuse to spend my last hours drugged into unconsciousness,” Andy rasped. “How are you, Nigel?” She squeezed his hand.
“I’m fine, darling. I could ask you the same thing, but I know the answer.” Nigel set his cane aside and leaned against the bed.
“I endure.” Andy gave a faint smile and closed her eyes.
“That’s the answer.” Nigel raised the delicate hand to his lips and kissed the translucent skin. Since the day of Miranda’s funeral, Andy had answered each inquiry into her state of being in the same way. “I endure” became her way of saying she was waiting to be reunited with the love of her life. She had been patiently waiting for five years. Andy seemed relieved by the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer six weeks ago. Where her family and friends had been horrified and grief stricken, Andy projected a beatific calm.
“Has anyone else been by?” Nigel looked across the bed to the twins. Cassidy was seated holding Andy’s other hand. Caroline stood behind Cassidy rubbing her sister’s shoulders.
“Emily, Serena, and Isabella were here earlier. The rest of the family came by this morning after you left. She didn’t want us to call anyone else.” Cassidy wiped the tears from her eyes.
“Didn’t want everyone’s last memory of me to be like this.” Andy’s voice was soft and barely carried beyond the bed.
“Just like you didn’t want anyone to visit you after the incident.” Nigel shook his head thinking back to those dark days. Her fierce protective streak never ceased to amaze him.
“It would have hurt you seeing me in that place. It would have hurt me watching you leave.” Nigel watched Andy’s expression twist in pain as her body tensed.
“Andy, let me ask the nurse if she has something not quite as strong as the other stuff.” Cassidy laid her hand on Andy’s shoulder. “Just something to take the edge off.”
Andy swallowed and gave a slow nod. Cassidy started to get up but Caroline patted her shoulder and left to get the night nurse.
Within minutes the nurse prepared and injected the requested medication before leaving the family to their vigil. The relief was immediately noticeable as some of the tension drained from Andy’s body.
Caroline slipped around her sister to move to the head of Andy’s bed. She started combing her fingers through Andy’s gray hair. “I don’t think we ever said thank you,” she whispered before leaning down and kissing Andy’s forehead.
“Watching you grow up and have families of your own was thanks enough,” Andy murmured.
“Mom said we owed you so much.” Cassidy leaned closer. “She said we should ask you about that night. I don’t know how many times we tried,” she sighed.
“No need. You know what happened.” Andy seemed to force the words out. Nigel thought her breathing sounded labored.
“No, I don’t think we do,” Caroline guessed. “Nigel? Do you?”
Nigel rubbed his chin and stared at Andy, waiting for her to open her eyes. When she did, he raised one eyebrow.
“No need.” Andy sighed and closed her eyes again.
“Miranda would disagree,” he gently corrected.
“She’s not here,” Andy breathed out. “Yet.”
“Cassidy was right. You are stubborn.” Nigel gently caressed the frail hand he cradled.
“But you love me anyway.” Andy struggled to open her eyes again. She glanced at Nigel before turning her gaze toward the girls. “I did what needed to be done that night out of love. Love for your mother and for you. Nigel?” Nigel gently squeezed Andy’s hand as her eyes drifted close again. “After. Make sure they understand.”
Nigel nodded at the twins and wiped a tear from his cheek.
For the next couple of hours, Andy seemed to drift in and out of consciousness. At times she would murmur incomprehensible phrases. Her breathing gradually became more labored. Nigel, Caroline, and Cassidy took turns sitting and holding her hands or pacing at the foot of the bed. Around 2:30 a.m. Andy roused and weakly squeezed the hands holding hers. Nigel was again sitting on one side, Caroline on the other, with Cassidy sitting on the foot of the bed petting Andy’s leg.
Andy turned her head and stared over Nigel’s shoulder. Nigel felt a cold chill race down his spine when Andy smiled and whispered Miranda. That long exhalation was her last.
***
Two weeks later Nigel again exited a cab in front of the townhouse. This time it was early afternoon, and the November sun was bright. Andy had been laid to rest next to her beloved a week prior. Today he would tell the girls about the incident.
Nigel mentally rolled his eyes. Girls indeed. The twins were in their mid-fifties with hair more gray then red. Cassidy was already a grandmother and Caroline’s youngest daughter would soon give birth. Old habits, he thought as he climbed the stairs. He rang the door bell and waited.
This time Cassidy opened the door and welcomed him into the townhouse. “Hello, Uncle Nigel.” She kissed his wrinkled cheek before helping remove his coat as Nigel passed his cane from hand to hand. “We’re in the sitting room at the end of the hall.” Cassidy hung the coat in the closet and joined Nigel in the slow walk to the sitting room. The door to the formal living room was open, showing that it had been restored to its previous state. The medical equipment and furnishings were just a sad memory.
The two had just entered the sitting room when Caroline came in from the kitchen carrying a tray with a tea service. “Hi, Uncle Nigel. I made your favorite.” She placed the tray on the coffee table and proceeded to pour and pass cups to her sister and honorary uncle before taking her own. Everyone made themselves comfortable and sipped their drinks.
“What will happen to the townhouse? Will you sell it?” Nigel relaxed back into the overstuffed chair and gazed around the room.
“My daughter, Amanda, is going to move in,” Caroline said. “She’s always loved this place, and she wants to raise a family here.”
“I think Mom and Andy would have loved that.” Cassidy smiled at her sister before sipping her tea.
“It will be wonderful for this house to be filled with the sounds of children and family again.” Nigel raised his cup to salute the idea.
The trio refilled their cups and settled in for their meeting. Nigel took a deep breath and gave Caroline and Cassidy a pointed look. “Are you sure you want to know what happened that night?” He wasn’t surprised by their decisive nods. “Very well. I’ll tell you exactly what Miranda told me. Five years after the incident, I came by to keep your mom company. Andy asked me to stop in because she was out of town and was worried that Miranda would be bored. You were spending the evening with friends.” Nigel took a swallow of tea before setting his cup on the side table.
“The night of the incident, your mother was in her office working on the Book. Andy was at her desk working on expense reports when Irv barreled past into Miranda’s office.” He watched Cassidy barely keep from spewing a mouthful of tea and Caroline nearly dump her cup in her lap.
“But? That’s not, they said,” Cassidy sputtered.
Caroline’s mouth dropped open. “They said Andy was next to Mom,” she finally blurted out.
“That was only the first lie told that night.” Nigel gave the twins a wry smile. “That is a direct quote from your mother.”
Cassidy set her tea cup down before standing and rushing out of the sitting room. Nigel and Caroline exchanged confused glances before she came back in with three glasses and a bottle of single malt whiskey. She set the glasses down and poured a generous measure into each. “I have a feeling we’re going to need this.” Cassidy handed Nigel and her sister each a glass before retaking her seat. She took a healthy swallow before gesturing to Nigel to continue.
He repeated what he had learned that night. When he got to Andy’s arrest, Cassidy slammed her glass down on the coffee table.
“Mom just let Andy take the blame,” she seethed.
“Stop!” Nigel held up his hand and glared. “Your mother did not JUST do anything!” He slowly lowered his hand and took a breath, reining in his temper. “It was Andy’s idea, and she had to convince your mom that it was for the best.”
Cassidy slumped back in her chair. When Nigel glanced at her sister, he was surprised by the bemused look on Caroline’s face.
When Cassidy noticed, she pointed at Caroline. “You aren’t surprised. You knew!” she accused.
“No.” Caroline slowly shook her head. “But I always thought there was something off with Mom and Andy’s story. They just seemed weird if anything remotely connected to the incident came up.” She stared at Cassidy. “Do you remember after the trial, we were hanging out in my bedroom and you said ‘The only reason Andy shot Irv was…’.”
“Because she got to the gun first.” In a whisper, Cassidy completed the quote. “That was it. Deep down we always knew Mom was capable, but we never expected the same from Andy.” Cassidy rubbed her forehead.
“I knew Andy was protective.” Caroline looked at Nigel. “But I always thought she was more the kick-your-ass or upper-cut-to-the-jaw kind of protective.” She picked up her glass and finished her whiskey.
“Now that you know the truth, will you tell the rest of the family?” Nigel asked.
“No!” Caroline and Cassidy answered at the same time.
“It really doesn’t matter anymore. The official story is that Andy did what she did to save us. Bottom line? That’s what happened.” Cassidy shrugged and tossed back the rest of her drink.
“And I’m certainly not revising Mom’s memoirs,” Caroline added. “We worked on those for two years. The incident and the years immediately following were the hardest parts to write. She didn’t want to talk about it. At least now I know why.” Caroline refilled her glass and waved the bottle at Nigel and Cassidy. When they nodded, she topped off their drinks as well.
Nigel and the Priestly women sipped their drinks in silence, lost in thought. “I think you’re wrong,” he finally whispered staring into his drink. “Andy would have gladly murdered Irv to keep you safe. As far as she was concerned, Miranda going to prison was a no-go, and the two of you living with your drug-addicted father was not happening on her watch.” He ran his hand over his bald head. “Andy maintained that the simplest lie is always the best.”
Caroline leaned back in her chair and stared at a point on the far wall. “She did it because she loved us,” she whispered.
“Mom or Andy?” Cassidy raised one eyebrow and ran her fingers through her hair.
“Both,” said Nigel. He raised his glass. “To Miranda and Andy and the love they shared.”
Caroline and Cassidy raised their glasses. “To Mom and Andy.”
The End