The Birthday Bash

by Elizabeth Sorrells

Overview

Murder has a way of ripping all wounds wide open, but Marion Mae has been a survivor all her life and she was not about to stop now. Looking upon her brother’s battered remains’; she tries to absorb the details of his homicide. The images of watching his heart stop. Instead, Mae’s mind is suddenly opened to morbid memories that are returning to her for the fi rst time. Rage consumes her as she struggles to accept the lies circulating about Seven’s last days on earth. As the police and district attorney’s offi ce attempt to gloss over mistakes, the suspect list grows; Mae becomes determined to set the record straight. Even with her broken heart, Mae refused to rest until the memory of her brother was repaired. But the closer she comes to the truth, the harder it is to accept. Mae needs answers before she can go on with her life. As she attempts to uncover the motive for his murder and discover who exactly was involved, she soon discovers that the details of Seven’s life and death are far murkier than she could have imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781450280501
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/03/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

Read an Excerpt

THE BIRTHDAY BASH

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By Elizabeth Sorrells

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Elizabeth Sorrells
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-8049-5

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Chapter One

"Please, please, please, send me a sister or brother." Little Mae sat on her knees beside her bed, holding both hands together before her face, with her eyes squeezed shut. The lights were out, and she wasn't supposed to be out of her bed. Most nights she'd just stay under her covers, but every so often she felt it important to pray harder. Despite the fear of what might try to grab her from underneath the bedstead, nothing dissuaded her from the belief God would provide what she needed.

"Someone that I can talk to and I could share my room with." Praying wasn't something she did at meal and bedtime exclusively. Having no one else but her beloved German shepherd and God to talk too, she chattered all day with a constant flow of ideas, questions, needs and fears.

"Help my daddy and mommy to be happy. Thank you. Amen." Without a second in between, she'd slid silently back in her bed. Closing her eyes, she knew her prayers would be answered.

Some of Mae's earliest memories were situated in the middle Seventies with the Vietnam War coming to an end. The little blond girl, filled her days exploring the thick woods of her parent's land, situated in the center of twenty acres of uncut and overgrown woods in western Alabama. The house and acreage was private and secluded, which only added to Mae's solitude.

She was a fearless youngster while exploring the dense acreage with her dog King. Ever mindful of the dangers lurking around, she was careful of rattle snakes, spiders, scorpions, poison oak and ivy, as well as the threat of long abandoned deep wells. Playing in her own carefully controlled fantasy world, she had no fears in her dark and enchanting forest. It was in the walls of her house, she would have every reason to fear for her life.

The "Police Uniform" was created for someone like Mae's father, Joel Lee Tripp and he took tremendous pride in wearing it. With or without the "magic badge" on his chest, he lived and breathed discipline and control. Mae could never be sure what any twenty four hour period might bring in the form of lessons she needed to learn.

"Like this!" Joel stormed in after a difficult day on the job, grabbing his four-year-old daughter by the arm. "When you try to kill yourself, you need to cut this way, not this way!" His gun swinging in her face, as his finger traced lines across her wrist.

"Yes sir!" Mae never questioned her father's orders. Love came in the form of control, discipline and appeasement, using his favorite Vietnam War military belt. Holding his small and helpless daughter by one arm, allowing both of her legs to dangle, while her feet were kicking, he'd whip her as many times it took in any given day, to teach her right from wrong. Growing up, Mae wasn't aware of what a child abuser looked like, nor did she understand why her daddy felt the need to teach her such violent lessons. She didn't realize her life to be unusual.

Mae's mother, Mary Baker Tripp, was as befuddled as her daughter was, as to why Joel turned out to be so brutal to his daughter and discontented with his marriage. Fresh out of high school, Mary had fell head over heels in love for the tall, popular and good looking Joel Tripp. Even though Joel joined the military, with the draft forcing many young men to fight in a war, far from home, she married him, and moved to where he was stationed. Mary was a catch herself. Full formed, blond and petite, she had been a majorette for years, as well as shared the same circle of friends as Joel. The couple seemed destined to live happily ever after.

"I'd never been so lonesome in all my life." Mary described her early marriage, the days before Mae's memories. "Joel worked out in the world as a military police, while hiding me from the dangers he claimed to be lurking in the streets. I wasn't allowed any military wife acquaintances, and was required to make quick and brief trips out in the public for basic necessities only." Being young and naive, she believed making her husband happy was all she had to do, and trusting him was part of the process.

In the early years of the marriage and being stationed in Michigan, it was a distance from the southern climate, family, and friends, and the culture shock kept Mary obediently behind closed doors. Quickly under Joel's command and control, Mary determined to make her marriage work. Once they finally moved back to Alabama years later, Mary hoped her obsessive husbands gripping hold would loosen up. Instead, being near their families and hometown support, made Joel Tripp worse than ever.

Visiting Joel's parents, Clay and Marion, down in Florida at least every year or so, kept little Mae in touch with her beloved grandparents. They never denied their youngest son's family love, actually doting on and spoiling Mae as much as time allowed. They wouldn't involve themselves in the affairs of his marriage, no matter what he did. It was during one of their eight hour trips down for a visit, that Joel would pull one of his famous stunts of abandoning his family, to demonstrate his moral.

Mae loved visiting the sunny state of Florida with the salty taste in the air and the golden sand holding back that massive water called ocean. They had only been their long enough to unpack the car before she was eagerly asking to go for a walk to the little tourist shop, up the sandy road. Paw Paw and Maw Maw Tripp gave her a few dollars in case she found something she liked, and Mary gave her permission to leave the yard all by herself. Sea shells lay all around, causing Mae to pause often to pick some up to examine closer. The shop was only a few blocks away, and just as she walked up to the front display table holding Sunshine State souvenirs, she noticed her daddy pulling the car into the small parking area. Mae briskly made her way to him, noticing their suitcases sitting in the back seat, the same ones she'd just witnessed being unloaded from the vehicles trunk. Looking around the little shop, a few tourists walked about, and she hoped it would deter a beating. He was rolling down his window, which she took as a positive sign she wasn't getting the belt.

"Tell your mother, I've gone home." He was unusually calm, nearly cheery.

"Yes sir!" Nearly saluting as she backed up and watched with confusion as he pulled the car onto the road, back towards Alabama. Suddenly scared, she ran back without haste to inform her mother as she was instructed. Once back, no one seemed to notice Joel and the luggage were gone. It took Mae a few minutes to really get Mary's attention, because she was in the middle of talking to Marion. Being brought up not to interrupt adult conversations, Mae patiently waited until they had a quiet moment, and then she announced the news.

"Daddy said to tell you he has gone back home." Mae's words were followed by a long silence from all the adults looking down at her.

"What?" Both Clay and Mary quizzed together. Mary jumped up and started for the bedroom, while Mae began to cry as she repeated slowly.

"He went home." Shrugging her shoulders, Mae didn't really know how else to put it.

All three adults were shocked and upset. This was exactly what Mae didn't want, but somehow she felt she was always the bearer of bad news or the cause of most commotion.

There was no way to call Joel and ask him why he left, and no one would have persisted for an answer from him to start with. Paw Paw Tripp brought his son's family back home, and Joel never gave a reason for abandoning them.

Joel's behavior, though disturbing, was tame in front of observers and family. In the privacy and seclusion of his house, Mae's father made it very clear; he could simply kill them all. Sometimes his rage and anger, slipped out of the confines of his house. One day it caused a car "accident".

Two days after the car wreck, Mae returned to her first grade classroom. The teacher encouraged Mae to describe what happened to her, to the entire class. Terribly shy, at first Mae couldn't bear the thought of everyone's attention on her, but the class full of curious youngsters, implored her to explain. Still nervous, the teacher sat Mae on her lap, and allowed the children to sit around them on the floor. Carefully, Mae began to recount what she'd been through, fearful she might reveal what really happened.

"Daddy was driving, and I was sitting in the front seat with Momma. The car started slipping and sliding, and Daddy couldn't keep it on the road. I hit my head, and blood was covering my eyes and it was going in my mouth."

"What did it taste like?" Red headed Warren questioned out loud, while politely raising his hand for permission to speak.

"Ewe ..." Most of the girls wrinkled their noses in displeasure.

The teacher quietly reminded them that questions and comments come after the story. She then looked down and smiled, heartening Mae on.

"An ambulance picked Momma and me up. I had to stay in the hospital all day and sleep there all night." Mae sat quietly for a second, to let that sink in, because staying in the hospital had been no fun at all.

The same boy was bouncing around with his hand up again, dying to ask the question everyone else was whispering, if the ambulance had its lights on, but the teacher motioned for him to put his hand down.

"Mae, what was it like, in the hospital?" The teacher wanted Mae to finish.

"They stuck me with lots of needles, and I had to have these put in my head." Mae pulled the bandage off her new scar going across her forehead. All the children were impressed to see the tiny stiches.

The actual true version of the accident would never be known, and for Mae became part of her haunted collection of locked up memoirs. Only after her brothers murder years later would she be able to recollect the factual events of that day.

Joel Tripp, dressed in his Valley Point Police uniform, was running late. Everything was to blame for the tardiness, except for Joel himself. Unpunctuality drove him nearly insane and he still had to drive Mary to work and drop Mae off at her great grandmother's house. As they left the driveway, Joel was yelling at his wife.

Mae sat squashed in between her mother and the door. She was accustomed to hearing her two parents fuss, and she drifted in and out of sleep to the roaring sound of his voice, bouncing within the confines of the tiny Toyota. It was the tone of her mother's terrified vocals that made Mae's eye's open wide.

"I tell you what!" Joel screamed in a military tone. "I will kill us all Mary, I'll kill us all right now!"

"NO JOEL! NOOO ..."

It was too late; Joel had already floored the gas pedal, steering straight for an old Oak Tree. Luckily, he lost complete control, and only managed to throw his wife and daughter into the windshield. Joel suffered no injuries, and even though Mae was admitted into the hospital for observation, her daddy never stepped foot in the hospital to check on her, until his police caption made him. It was reported as a simple accident.

Joel was the law, inside and out of his home. Mary had felt trapped for years, while Mae grew up believing such things were normal and part of daily life. Feeling so alone, Mae had believed that having a sibling could help solve so many painful problems, if not for her parents, at least to ease some of her own solitude.

"Please, please, please, Dear God, send me a sibling."

Chapter Two

Little Mae could have simply slipped from this world with her terror and turmoil. Fortunately she did have her mother's family to provide her with the tender love a young girl needs. Mae's grandfather, Owen Baker was a spirited fellow, well known and respected in Chambly County, Alabama.

"I love you little one." Owen wasn't shy with his affection for Mae and he never let her leave his presence without hugging her and telling her. Thulah Jean, her grandmother, was Mae's biggest fan. After Mary had given birth to Mae, she came home for a bit, while Joel served in Tuy Hoa, Vietnam

Infant Mae would start her days in that little brown brick home situated on Highway 51. Back then it was known as Route 1, and was a well, traveled road that Owen had watched as it was first paved many years before. The old brick house was built by his father "Edward R. Baker", with the money his two sons sent home while they were serving in World War II. It sat on five acres of pasture land, which back in the day, was considered a rural farm. Mae would run and play all day long out there, alone for many years, being the oldest grandchild of Owen and Thulah. They both called her affectionately, "Doll Baby" and Mae always knew, they kept her close to their hearts. Mary's two younger siblings, Mae's Uncle Frank and Aunt Denise both joined in on the spoiling of their niece, so while Joel didn't seem to like her, the family took up the slack in loving her.

Another crusader in Mae's life was Anne Grey, her great grandmother. Anne was the mother of Thulah Jean, and she lived in what Mae considered the big city limits of Lanyard. During the weekends Mae would usually be at the country home of the Bakers, but during the week days, she walked to and from school, from Granny Anne's house. In Mae's eyes, Granny Anne was amazing, and Mae was taught so much about being a "Southern Lady" with her charm, quiet nature and honest opinions. Anne demonstrated to her great granddaughter how to quietly endure life and to see people in a particular way.

In the early mornings when Mae was dropped off by her parents, Anne would have a cup of hot Tasters Choice instant coffee and a warm bowl of grits with bacon chunks, waiting for her. Sitting on her wooden floor, Mae would watch "The Little Rascals" and "Tom and Jerry" before walking the four blocks to school. It was the seventies, so it was safe for a six year old to walk the streets. After school, Mae walked by the local bakery and drug store, and would spend the nickel or dime; Grannie Anne would have given to her. Drivers Bakery had chocolate shaped gingerbread man cookies and the corner drug store, "Red's", had penny candy. Mae considered her blessings every time she had those two little brown bags of goodies to take back to her Granny's, but it was rare for the gingerbread man to ever remain fully intact.

The afternoons were always the same when she'd get back to Granny Anne's after school, they would sit on her front porch swing. That's where Anne would listen as Mae told her about the day, as they sat watching the neighborhood activities. Anne had retired from the Lanyard Textile Mill which sat within view of her front yard. It continued to be the main employment of the area. She lived alone in her small mill house, her husband Ransom Grey, called Rance, had died years before Mae was born, in a car crash

During those early years of her life, Mae wasn't sure what other's thought of her father's behavior. No one offered to defend or step in to stop him, so she assumed it had to be normal, regardless of how unpleasant it felt.

All that speculation was put into clear perspective one Saturday morning, inside the Baker house. It was before the days that her parents owned the land and home in the woods, and they were temporarily staying with Owen and Thulah. It was tough times and two families living under the same roof, didn't make anything easier. To make matter's worse; Owen was recuperating from a broken hip and had to use a walker to get around. It made him more ornery than normal.

Mae had gotten up early for the Saturday morning cartoons, she herself just getting over a bad case of pneumonia. Wanting a bowl of cereal, she asked her daddy to pour the milk for her.

"Pour it yourself."

Mae, in her long flannel gown, opened the refrigerator and took hold of the glass container, full of milk. Before she could get the container across the room, it slipped right out of her hands, crashing to the cement fl oor.

"Now look what you did!" Grabbing Mae off the fl oor by one arm; he spanked her with his bare hand, twisting her around with every smack. Dropping her, he thrust a dish towel into her hand. "You clean up every drop!" He walked back into the living room, leaving her to get the glass and milk off the floor.

Once she was finished, she'd lost her chance to eat cereal, spilling all the milk. She hoped to at least get to see her favorite show, Land of the Lost. Joel was sitting in her favorite chair in front of the television, so Mae crawled up on the couch. Not wanting to bring any more attention to herself, she silently sat looking at the program playing, wondering if her daddy was really watching it, or just making sure she couldn't watch her favorite show. Th ere was no way she was going to ask him to change the channel.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from THE BIRTHDAY BASH by Elizabeth Sorrells Copyright © 2011 by Elizabeth Sorrells. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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