Chapter 21: His Backstory

Rachel came back to the bakery after her extended break with a disgruntled expression on her face; she did not look rested and ready to work the extended hours that she had agreed to. Faye noticed at once.

“Honey, are you alright? I gave you an extended break to sweeten your disposition not sour it. You look like you just lost your best friend. What gives?” Faye inquired.

“I went to the park and had lunch with Arthur.”

“Oh, that sounds nice. I always liked that young man. So, why the long face?”

“It started off well but ended abruptly after I mentioned his late mom.”

“Oh my...yes, that is a sore spot with him.”

“I guess. It was just so great at first, going back and forth with light conversation. I don’t understand.”

“Let me preface this by saying he had a complex relationship with his parents, but especially with his mother,” Faye began.

“I didn’t know that was a subject that we couldn’t discuss.”

“He had a very hard time of it growing up with divorced parents on two different continents.”

“Sometimes I think it’s better for the family if the parents separate. All of that negativity can’t be in the best interest of the child. That’s all I meant when I told him that his mom left him behind with his father in order to give him a better life: public prep school education, career guidance, and a male figure’s advice and help in becoming a man.”

“That’s a mature and enlightened view. Unfortunately, little Arthur did not see it that way. He wanted his parents to be in love and stay together providing a stable family unit, not bouncing him around from boarding school to boarding school in the United Kingdom or pushed off on some unknown and unwilling relative of his mom’s in the states.”

“Everyone whose parents divorce wants that. He’s not different because of that.”

“Perhaps not. His parents’ divorce was nasty, however. He lived with his mom in North America for a few months at a time, then with his dad in the United Kingdom for a few months at a time and back and forth. There was no stability until he came to live with his grandmother during his months off from school.” Faye paused.

“His parents fought about every aspect of the divorce, using child custody as the ultimate way to hurt the other. They failed to focus on Arthur and they were hurting him most of all. He was my little helper at the bakery during his time with Beatrice for the school holidays. He worked hard and put himself entirely into every task he took on. Working in the bakery gave him stability. 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on school holidays, he knew where he had to be. Even then he had a good, strong, work ethic.”

“He did not mention that when I told him I was promoted to Assistant Manager,” Rachel shared.

“It was a hard time. His father’s work as a corporate attorney in London did not lend itself to child rearing and all the travel he had to do was not good for Arthur. It uprooted him time after time. After an unsuccessful year of traveling across Europe with a nanny and a private tutor in hopes of his dad making him into a man, his father put him in boarding school without discussion.”

“And his mom?”

“She was trying to find herself back in the states, and that was code for pursuing a new man with deeper pockets. But usually when she had little Arthur, no matter for how long or how short the duration, she would leave him with some member of her family in Georgia, her family’s home base, or with anyone she could push him onto for an extended time. She was not that particular,” Faye’s face looked very sad after she told this part of Arthur’s story.

“He often wondered why they fought for custody if neither one wanted to spend the time or make the commitment to raise him past the age of 12. He never felt wanted or loved. Personally, I don’t think they were cut out to be parents. That calling takes real self-sacrifice,” Faye concluded.

“True. I had no idea.”

“Even though he hated it and won’t admit it, boarding school made him the intellect and hard-worker that he is today...that and his time with Beatrice.”

“Ahh. O.K. That explains a lot. The deference to her discipline. And not seeing time spent in boarding schools across Europe as a ‘better life’ like I said to him about his mom’s choice.”

“I don’t know what he would have been like if Beatrice had not been there providing the personal touch when school was not in session. Boarding school and Beatrice turned him around.”

“But there are boarding schools in America. Then he could have spent time with the mom he feels abandoned him; he could have been closer to her.”

“Yes, Honey, but she did not get enough child support to make that possible. Also, if he stayed with his American mom instead of with his British dad, big Arthur was going to fight to reduce all of her alimony and keep her tied up in family court for years, just to hurt her. Neither one of them was thinking about Tres...little Arthur. He was their pawn within their divorce, then the custody battles, and within their fractured family several years thereafter.”

Rachel chimed in, “Parenting is a life long job, not only up until the teen years or up through college. I lost my mom when I was about to start my senior year in college and I was nineteen. I still miss and need her until this day.”

“Not everyone has that luxury of having a mom as long as they’d like to, Honey, or they’d set the default on forever if blessed with a good mom. Not everyone has a good mom either.”

The afternoon break patrons started filtering into the bakery, expecting their tea, so the chunky and informative conversation with Faye about Arthur’s backstory had to be put on pause. Her processing of it, however, did not. She reached for a pastry, she thought about Arthur. She brewed tea, she thought about Arthur. She rung up an order on the cash register, she thought about Arthur. She swept the floor, she thought about Arthur.

He was a challenge and now that she knew more about him and how he grew up, she understood more. Because she understood did not mean that she would tolerate his sometimes brooding, rude attitude toward her; it only meant that she would have more patience when he turned from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde.

She was no counselor or therapist. She was not skilled in helping him with reconciling his past with his present. She worked through her longer workday of never ending bakery tasks hoping that he would stop by after the library closed. No matter how busy things got her thoughts continuously drifted to wondering which aspect of his personality was the better kisser and when the next opportunity would present itself for her to find out.