Schuyler Square Day 87 Tiffany Loses Weight and Gains a Father

Tiffany was feeling mighty pleased with herself. After almost surviving on a Spartan 1,200 calorie diet for a month, she'd lost seventeen pounds and felt better about herself and the world than she had in a long time. It was amazing to her that by actually doing what all the doctors and gym teachers and other irritating adults in her life had been telling her for years--eat less and exercise more--that the weight really came off. It was awesome!

Standing in her bedroom at her aunt's house, Tiffany pulled on a new pair of blue jeans and was so happy when she was able to zip them up that she almost began to cry. She was going to go back to school in the fall as a brand new, thin, totally attractive person.

"Tiffany, we need to talk." Aunt Mavis barged into her room without knocking, as usual.

"About what?" Tiffany asked. She hadn't mentioned the seventeen pounds she'd lost to her aunt. She was waiting for Aunt Mavis to notice but she was starting to get the feeling that that might be like waiting for an elephant to notice a mosquito.

"We've never really had a discussion about your father, have we?"

"My what?" Tiffany asked. "My father? Why would you want to talk about him? You told me that he was in prison."

Aunt Mavis blushed a little. "I might have exaggerated a touch. What I meant was that he might as well be in prison--he's really not what you would call a success. He's, well, I suppose you could say he's middle management."

"Horrors!" Tiffany said sarcastically. "Next you'll be telling me that he's a Democrat."

"Probably," Aunt Mavis sighed. "Look, Tiffany, it's like this. He lives in Schuyler Square and he wants to see you."

Tiffany sat down on her canopy bed with a profound plop. She felt like Aunt Mavis had just come into her bedroom and dumped a load of rocks on top of her. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because I think you should know him. It's the right thing to do."

Tiffany doubted that. Aunt Mavis rarely did anything because it was the right thing to do. "Am I supposed to go and live with him? Is that why you're suddenly planning a little introduction party?"

"Well, he is your father, Tiffany, and I'm only your aunt."

Tiffany was surprised at how hurt she felt by this latest display of rejection from Aunt Mavis. It was never like her aunt had been a warm and fuzzy type of person but Tiffany had always felt that she at least was a little bit welcome at Schuyler Manor. Not so much anymore. "When are we supposed to get together?"

"Tomorrow night. You're meeting at the club for dinner."

"Thanks for the warning!"

"Oh, Tiffany, don't be puerile. Don't you want to meet your own father?"

Tiffany saw that she really didn't have much of a choice. "I suppose so." Maybe her real dad looked like Harrison Ford and would be nice to her. Maybe he'd treat her better than Aunt Mavis was treating her.

"That's a good girl. And Tiffany, please don't talk about your mother too much. It might upset him."

"What am I supposed to talk about with him?"

Aunt Mavis shrugged as she swept out of the bedroom. "The weather is always a pleasant choice."

Tiffany sat in stunned silence after Aunt Mavis left. Her father? How the heck was she supposed to deal with this new development?

Schuyler Square Day 54 Veronica Doesn't Like Coincidences...or Nosy Girl Reporters

“That is a strange coincidence,” Veronica agreed.

“Isn’t it? It reminds me of a story I once heard,” Chelsea said, nervously fingering the large rhinestone necklace she was wearing. “A friend of mine’s family had tickets to see a play. Her father didn’t want to go so he stayed home. While they were at the play he killed himself. My friend grew up and after she got married, the same play came to town. My friend went to see it again and while she was at the play, her husband committed suicide. Isn’t that odd?”

Tom laughed shortly. “I don’t think I’d be too interested in seeing that play ever again. What play was it?”

“Our Town.”

“Did you make that up?” Tom asked.

“I did not. It happened to my best friend in high school.”

Veronica wanted to get out of the Schuyler Square Country Club in the worst kind of way. “Tom, would you please take me home? Now?”  Not that she was so anxious to go back to the house where Mary Austin had been murdered but she knew that she couldn’t stay for one more second in the ballroom while Ron’s body grew colder and colder in the kitchen.

“Of course. Do you need a ride, Chelsea?”

Chelsea shook her head. “No, thanks. I have our car. Peter went to the station with another officer.”

Tom gently steered Veronica through the crowds of people toward the door that led to the parking lot. Once they were outside in the cool night air, Veronica felt her head begin to clear.  "What would compel Chelsea to share that strange story with us?" she asked.


"Chelsea's been pretty strange herself lately," Tom commented. "She's usually so down to earth but for the past few months she's been acting, I don't know, flaky."


"The direct result of living with a no-good, cheating louse." She should know. She almost lived with one twenty years ago. And now he was dead. “I’m going to call Kirk,” she announced.

“No need to do that,” Tom replied, nodding toward an approaching figure. “Here he comes now.”

Kirk quickly crossed the parking lot and immediately enveloped his mother in a bear hug. “I’m sorry, Mom,” he said. “I know this has to be hard on you.”

“You know?”

Kirk nodded. “I was there when it happened.”

Veronica jerked her head back. “When it happened?”

“I mean right after it happened. I saw…I saw his body in the kitchen.”

“Oh, Kirk. I’m sorry too. What a nightmare. Who could have done this?”

Mindy Cooper joined them, her dark eyes blazing. “Hello, Veronica, Tom,” she said. “Some night, huh? A tragedy, of course, but I just heard the strangest thing—did you know that the woman who was murdered in your house was killed on this very night twenty years ago?”

“Mindy,” Kirk requested. “Not now.”

“Oh, come one. You freelance for the paper, Kirk. You know that this is a live one.”

“I’m sorry?” Veronica asked stiffly. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about Kirk’s newest girlfriend. On the plus side, she was employed. On the negative side, she was incredibly nosy and more than a little pushy.

“A live one. A story that the readers of the Schuyler Square Times will eat up with a big, ol’ wooden spoon. Can’t you see that, Veronica? Two murders on the same night only twenty years apart? We have to run with this one.”

“Mindy, Ron Schuyler was murdered less than two hours ago. Do we have to go into this right now?”

“We in the mass communications world always say that there’s no time like the present.” Mindy looked from Veronica’s face to Tom’s and finally to Kirk’s. “What? You think it’s in poor taste or something to write about this?”

“I’d say poor timing,” Kirk responded. “Give us a few days to catch our breath, OK?”

“I’m not making any promises,” Mindy said. “This might just be my ticket out of this hick town. I could get picked up by one of the big boys, they'll like my style and it will be good-bye, Schuyler Square, hello New York. Or at the very least Kansas City. Wouldn't that be fantastic?"

Veronica looked at Mindy with disdain. She was liking her potential daughter-in-law less and less.