NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED
Precious and Bella are upstairs when Lester gets home. Having promised her parents that she’d quit smoking, Bella’s smuggled in cigarettes and is in the bathroom standing on the toilet, blowing smoke out of the window.
The door slams downstairs and a second later Lester is yelling up at her.
“Izzy, où êtes-vous?”
Precious sits up from the bed, where she’s been napping, as Bella runs out of the bathroom, waving the air around and spraying herself with perfume. “I’m upstairs, Daddy.”
She runs over to Precious. “How do I smell?”
“Like perfume—”
“Good.”
“—and cigarettes,” Precious finishes.
“Shit.” Bella frowns and sprays herself again.
“Come down and give Daddy a hug.”
Running to the door, Bella stubs her toe on the edge of the bed. “Fuck!” she yelps, trying to suppress a scream. A few seconds later Bella opens the door and yells downstairs, “I’m uhm, in the shower, Daddy. Une minute s’ il vous plaît. One minute, okay?”
“D’accord, chérie. Okay, I’ll see you at dinner. I need a shower myself. Glad you’re home, dumpling.”
Bella closes the door and waves frantically around, trying unsuccessfully to dispel the smoky air.
Precious looks at her and shakes her head. “Was that cigarette worth all of that?”
Bella looks at her. “Absolutely,” she answers limping back into the bathroom.
At dinner Precious sits across from Bella while Miriam and Lester sit at each end of the table. The food is delicious, but Precious wishes dinner were already over. To say dinner is uncomfortable would be a considerable understatement; it’s excruciating. Lester is charming as always, as he jokes with Precious and Bella. But he barely interacts with Miriam, whom he treats almost like an assistant.
“Would you have the gardener do something about those hedges, Miriam? They’re like dinosaurs out front.”
Miriam’s response is to roll her eyes at him. The tension between them is palpable.
“Chérie, si bon pour vous voir.”
Bella lights up. “It’s good to see you too, Daddy. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve been home.”
“I’m just glad to have you home, Izzy. It’s nice to have a change from the monotony.” He looks at Miriam. “It’s nice to see you too, Precious; you’re one of the few of Izzy’s friends I’ve met. You’d think she doesn’t have many.”
“I don’t—just a few. I don’t like a lot of people, Daddy. You know that.”
“You’re just discriminating.”
“No, I’m not. I just don’t like a lot of people.”
“I would have thought that might have changed. You’ve mentioned two other girls—Hope, was it? And a Zenia girl.”
“Zenobia,” Precious laughs.
“Yep, they’re my four friends. That’s it. C’est tout.”
“She’s joking, Mr. Hunt; Bella has lots of friends.”
“Of course she does. She’s smart and beautiful—what else would she need?”
“Thanks, Daddy.” Bella beams at him.
Talk about a daddy’s girl. Precious isn’t sure how much more she can take, it’s so saccharine. Her teeth are on edge. She can tell Miriam has also had about enough. Bella’s mother is eating methodically, almost as if the delicious meal has absolutely no taste. With every moment, her face seems more and more pinched.
“Miriam, you look like you’ve just eaten a lemon,” Bella says. “What’s the matter?”
“Oh, thank you for including me.” She looks at Lester. “You have compliments for everyone, except me. All you do is issue edicts—‘tell the gardener this, the cook that’—I feel like the help, sitting here. Most of dinner you and Bella have been chattering away in French, as usual, as though I don’t exist. Quite rude of you, really—there are people here who don’t speak French.”
“Miriam, why is it our fault that you chose not to learn French? You lived there for almost two decades. Don’t blame us because you’re lazy, preferring to shop and lunch the whole time you were there,” Lester snorts.
“Shopping and lunching! Is that all you think I was doing? Who do you think was raising your child?”
“The nanny,” Bella and Lester answer in unison.
Miriam drops her fork. “And who do you think was telling the nanny what to do?”
“The housekeeper,” Bella laughs. When Lester joins in the laughter, Miriam throws her napkin onto the table. Precious wishes she could slink underneath it.
“Oh, you’re both very funny, aren’t you?” She turns to Bella. “I thought you’d promised to stop smoking.”
“C’mon, Miriam, don’t pick on me just because you’re mad at Daddy.”
“So it’s true. You’re still smoking.”
“Miriam.” Bella’s face is turning red. “I’m here because you wanted me to come here, remember? If you don’t back off, I’m leaving right now.”
“Well, what else is new? That’s all you’ve ever done is leave. Just like your father.” She throws her hands up dramatically. “And now he’s probably leaving too.”
“I left because you’re such a pill, Miriam. You’re a nag, and a hysterical one, at that.”
“Maybe there’s a reason I’m so unhappy.”
“I know why you’re unhappy, Miriam—it’s because you’re miserable. You blow everything out of proportion. Maybe that’s why Daddy would leave you,” she finishes.
At this point Precious is halfway under the table. The tension is so thick she could pick up her knife and slice it.
Bella turns to her father and blurts out, “Miriam thinks you’re having an affair with Annabel Marshall. Is it true, Daddy?”
Miriam lets out a gasp and her hand goes to her pearls. Precious feels like she has turned to stone; she can’t move, talk, or even breathe. Lester turns bright red and puts his napkin on the table and looks down at it.
“Why don’t you say something? It’s ridiculous, isn’t it, Daddy? You’d never leave Mommy; she must be off her meds again.”
After several seconds of silence, he finally looks at Bella. “I forget how much like me you are, Isabella. Straight to the business.”
Something is wrong; her father should be laughing by now. “Daddy, what’s going on? It’s not true, is it?”
When Lester pushes his chair away from the table, Precious slides down even farther in her chair. The room is so quiet she can hear the grandfather clock ticking. After what seems like an eternity, Lester looks at his wife.
“It’s true. I’m in love with someone else.” He sighs. “We’re like brother and sister—no, more like strangers, Miriam. We don’t talk, we don’t laugh; we barely know the people we’ve become. We’re like pieces of furniture in a room.” He rubs a hand through his thinning hair. He looks older, tired. When she doesn’t answer he looks at Bella, and says almost apologetically, “Your mother is small-minded.” He opens his arms to encompass the finery of the dining room and the house. “That’s why this overstuffed, well-maintained, and perfectly ordered world of hers is enough. It keeps her in her comfort zone.” He turns to Miriam. “I’m leaving you, Miriam. I didn’t expect to do it this way but it’s done,” he says, his hands coming to rest on the table.
Miriam wipes her mouth with her napkin and places it on the table beside her plate. She is a stranger, calm and in control. When she turns to Lester and fixes him with a level stare, the air seems to leave the room.
“Lester, your greatest flaw, of which you have many, is that you mistake my kindness for weakness; you have the entire time we’ve been together.”
Precious tries to kick Bella under the table to get her to do something. But Bella seems to be enjoying the fallout.
Lester is shocked into silence as Miriam continues.
“You ungrateful, self-involved, pompous, arrogant little nothing of a man. My small-mindedness is what got your interview with the dean of the school, who happens to be a very good friend of mine, I might add. It’s also what got you your diplomatic appointment in Paris.
My small-minded world includes my father’s exceptionally well-connected friends, who, unlike you, don’t forget a kindness. I have reasons why I chose to make my husband feel as though his accomplishments are due entirely to his own merit, but you wouldn’t understand, Lester. It’s called character. But as they say, no good deed goes unpunished.”
Miriam pushes back from the table, gets up, and walks over to her husband. She then slaps him so hard that his head swings back and a red welt appears on his cheek.
“That is for disrespecting me in front of my friends and colleagues with that slut of yours. Pack your things and get out. I’ll see you in court.”
Holding his hand across his cheek, Lester gets up from the table. He looks across at Bella, his eyes pleading with her. “I’m sorry, Izzy,” he says. “So sorry.”
She reaches for her wineglass. “Don’t tell me, tell your wife.”
Lester looks at Miriam. He opens his mouth but nothing comes out. This isn’t how he envisioned the moment he’d tell his wife their marriage isn’t working, that he needs to be challenged and mentally stimulated. His marriage had become stagnant—as long as they were in their right place there was no need to make a fuss. But it’s too late now to say any of this. So he just leaves the room.
Miriam turns back to the dining table and says to no one in particular, “I’m so very sorry about all this. Please finish dinner.” She picks up a wineglass from the table and the bottle of wine and leaves the room.
Bella takes a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, tamps one out, and lights it, inhaling deeply. Blowing a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling, she looks at Precious. “Let’s get out of here.”