A Woman Scorned(Iain Cambridge) A WOMAN SCORNED

‘She doesn't appear to think that she has done anything wrong’ said one of the doctors that had been called in to evaluate the condition of the patient who sat quietly in her room humming a tuneless song and looking out of the window.
‘Well that’s just the thing isn't it, technically she hasn't’ came the reply from the Psychiatric Physician that had been assigned to ‘HER’
‘Apart from the murder that is’
‘Apart from that of course. She recognizes that she is guilty of that but sees nothing wrong with the – the other thing’
He shuddered at the thought of the ‘other thing’ that required inverted commas in order to hide its horror.
‘Is it true about the – special gift she has?’
‘Oh yes, that’s true enough. The crime she committed was twenty five years from now’
‘So she is the last then?’
‘Time walker? Yes – in fact I think she is the only one ever’
The evaluating doctor looked at Alexis through the one-way mirror that showed the view to her room
‘What stops her doing it now?’
‘Nothing – nothing at all. She could leave at any time and go to any time’
The doctor looked at his peer with puzzlement
‘Why doesn't she then?’
‘She says she is waiting?’ came the reply
‘For what?’
‘Not what – who’
‘Who?’
The physician handed over a hand written note ‘She wrote this down when we asked her that question when she was taken in’
The doctor looked at the note.
‘The Devil?’ he said
‘Read it again’
The doctor looked back at what appeared to be a misspelling
‘The D’Ville!’

*

Twenty-five years from that point Alexis had been sitting around the dinner table with her friends and more importantly, her husband. She was enjoying the informal party that had been arranged by the only man she had ever loved. But love was too small a word for what she felt. She adored him with every bone, muscle and cell in her plump little body. He was her everything, her universe and her life. She gazed at him through mist of cigar smoke that had wafted around the table and coyed shyly when he caught her eye. He looked directly at her, smiling, and tapping his glass to raise attention, and to quieten the room, he stood as if to make a toast.
‘Wouldn't that be just like him’ she thought, ‘to toast the cook – his beloved wife with whom he was just as enamored as she was with him. ‘Or maybe it was something else. Maybe he was about to declare his love for her in front of all of his – and her friends’
In this Alexis was so right.
And so wrong at the same time.
The declaration was one of love, but not for her. The words coming from him did not make sense to Alexis. Splashes of ‘Someone else’ and of ‘Divorce’. Sentences seemed to echo the feelings of discontentment and of unhappiness – of an unhappy and boring sex life. Bit by bit her world was torn down in front of her and more importantly in front of her friends. The ‘someone else’ was mentioned again and turned out to be a woman called Dana with whom he had worked, and as the cold realization of what was happening started to solidify itself something inside her, along with her heart – broke.

Soon after he left their home and moved in with the Dana person, leaving Alexis alone and confused. She wandered aimlessly around the empty house trying to connect to something that would pronounce that all that had happened in the past twenty-four hours was merely a figment of her imagination. Eventually her wanderings brought Alexis to the hallway mirror. It was a half-length affair with a gold ornate frame that spilled elegance and taste, two things that Alexis always thought she lacked. Looking around she saw that her whole house was styled in the same way as if overcompensating for her physical failings. Alexis stood for a while looking at her reflection and trying to see what it was that had driven her husband into the arms of another woman. She was shorter than the average woman but a pair of not too high heels made up for this lack in height, they were just tall enough to make her normally short legs look longer. She was also a little plump; this had more to do with genetics rather than lack of exercise or bad eating habits. Her hair was wavy and a deep red, almost auburn in colour, and stopped just past her shoulders. Her choice of clothing did little to hide her obvious charms; in fact it did everything it could to show the world what she had to offer. The red corset she wore drew in her waist giving her the classic hourglass figure that most women would kill for. So what then could this other woman have had that would make her husband leave? It was only after a few minutes of staring at her reflection that Alexis began to realize that the image in front of her was not her own.
‘Penny dropped yet?’ said the image.
Alexis put her hand to her mouth and staggered back, dropping to the floor as she did so. The image stayed as it was whilst looking down on Alexis with an eyebrow arched in question.
‘Who -Who are you?’ stammered Alexis. Her fear had partially caused her to lose bladder control, something her unconscious mind fought to regain as her body violently shook with the sudden flooding of adrenalin to her bloodstream.
The image said nothing and continued to stare down at Alexis. Eventually it turned its back in order to retrieve a chair; she (for the image was most definitely female), placed it in front of her and walked around to face Alexis once more. She sat down and crossed her legs, letting the skirt she wore ride up to reveal a tattoo that was just visible above her stocking top. When she spoke again it was as if the voice echoed in Alexis’ head as it left the lips of her reflection – or whoever’s reflection it was.
‘I am, or will be, you – when you want me to be that is. What he did to you – to us, was unforgivable, and the thing about unforgivable things is that they can never be forgiven, or ‘should’ never be forgiven. So, to that end I am about to make you a proposal.’ Alexis was still in shock at the apparition that was being reflected back at her and babbled quietly to herself.
‘This is the Devils work’ she said ‘I have gone mad – surely?’
‘Possibly – yes, and no it is not – but I do like the name’
Alexis stood up on shaky legs and made her way over to the mirror, albeit slowly. A thin trickle ran down her leg only to be stopped at the knee by her sock. She turned her head to one side and the image did the same as if both of them were appraising one another. The image flicked her eyes down at the moisture that had collected around the hem of one of the orange socks that seemed to be part of the uniform she wore. Along with her armor of woolen sweaters and thick black-rimmed glasses the socks added to an image that made Alexis look a little like Velma from Scooby Doo. The reflection turned her top lip up in disdain.
‘You mentioned a proposal’ said Alexis apprehensively and ignoring the unapproving stare.
‘Yes – I did’ said the image seemingly snapping itself back to the topic in hand.
The image was hers, but a different, confident and a lot more self-assured version. The way she dressed and the way she carried herself was everything that Alexis was not. Even her make up was flawless.
‘You’re not me’ she said. It was a statement rather than a question.
‘But I could be’ came the reply.

*

‘Three weeks after her husband had left her she received the divorce papers from his lawyer, one Adrien Moorehouse’ explained the physician. The doctor smiled. ‘Even you are talking as if this is something that has already happened’
‘It’s hard not to. When she tells the story she does it from her point of view’
‘So she has spoken to you about it then?’
‘Oh yes, she is quite willing to accept the murder charge, as I said’
‘So what happened after she got the papers?’
‘Well that’s the funny thing. After her humiliation she seemed quite calm and rational in her actions. She called up her husband and asked if they could get together and sort out the details of the divorce. There were children involved and property to divide, etc’
‘And he was willing to do this?’
‘He must have been – he accepted an invitation to dinner the next night. Apparently a lot was sorted out. He was to have the children every other weekend, she would have and live in the family home, and the money from other properties would be split sixty/forty in his favour’
‘Would it be that all women were so rational’ laughed the doctor ‘Maybe she could talk to my ex-wife’
‘You may change your mind about that’
‘Go on’
‘When he left the house he went home to his lover’
‘Dana’
‘That’s her. Anyway when he arrived at her apartment she had gone out and so he waited up for her return in order to tell her how the evening had went and how well things had turned out.’

*

He couldn't help but wonder if leaving Alexis had been a good move for both of them. She seemed to have changed in the three weeks since the split. Her dress, confidence and overall look had gone trough a dramatic change. In fact she had turned into the type of woman that he would have left her for years ago – if that made any sense. Dana was not home when he returned, but this was not anything unusual as she was a very social woman and tended to be at one function/dinner/fundraiser or another. He waited for her return. The night passed without the return of Dana and in the morning Alexis’ ex husband phoned around a few of her friends in order to see if she was there. She had not been seen by any of them and so he called her work number only to be told that she had not been into work the previous day or indeed that morning. He called the police but was told that someone had to be missing for forty-eight hours before they could be classified as a missing person. As a last resort he had ended up back at his old house to ask his ex-wife if she knew anything.
‘I know this is the last place I should be and I know you are the very last person I should be seeking help from. But Dana has not come home and I am a little worried to say the least’
Alexis looked out from the eyes of her new friend as she had done all through the dinner date with her ex-husband the night before.
‘I am the details’ she had told her when she had asked the question as to who she was. ‘I am everything you want to be and will do everything you want to do, but will not do. Not evil and definitely not the Devil – or maybe just a bit of him – or her, I never really thought about that – The D’Ville maybe’
Ms D’Ville smiled at the worried looking man standing in the hallway of the ex-home of his soon to be ex-wife.
‘Did you two have an argument maybe? – Did she come round to see you? You see no one seems to know where she is'.
‘Oh I know where she is’ said the sleek and dark voice of Ms D’Ville.
A look of confusion, panic and anger swept over the face of Alexis’ ex-husband. ‘Where is she Alexis?’ he demanded. Madam D’Ville moved closer to him and, pressing herself up against him, moved her mouth close to his ear and placed her hand on his stomach.
‘Here’ she said.

*

‘With that’ said the physician ‘she came here and confessed all’
The colour had drained from the doctors’ face
‘She cooked the Dana woman and fed her to her ex-husband?’
‘Apparently. He did not believe her of course, but still took himself off to the hospital in order to find out for sure. They were equally not convinced and told him that she was trying to scare him as things like that only happen in horror movies. They gave him something to make him puke, as he was insistent that they made sure, and sure enough the contents of his stomach showed human remains. He broke down and was later committed to a psyche ward and she disappeared to our time’
‘So who are we looking at then’ asked the doctor
‘At the moment it seems to be Alexis in there’
‘But she is waiting for this D’Ville person to return?’
‘Yes, and all she asks from us is that we hear her confession and let her wait for her friend.’ There was another pause from the two of them that was broken by the doctor saying.
‘So she is insane then?’
‘Oh, for sure – nutty as a fruitcake’
‘So is she going to be committed or arrested for murder?’
Neither – the laws of causality state that we cannot commit or arrest someone for a crime in potentia’
The doctor looked puzzled for a minute
‘Is that where she lived’?
‘Where?’
‘Potentia’

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