ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 70 – MARY PALMER

Ten minutes later they pulled off the highway onto a county road and followed that for about another 5 miles.

“There it is,” said Angela, who was sitting up front with Xander as he approached a small fence on either side of a drive. There was a mailbox at the very end with the faded numbers 90 W. 34 N. on it. “I can’t believe it looks familiar after all this time still,” she said, shaking her head in wonder.

Xander laid on the horn as he followed the long driveway up past a few out buildings, a larger barn, and up toward the large farmhouse. As they got nearer the house, a man and a woman came out onto the porch, then down the stairs, waving in greeting.

Xander brought the RV to a halt, then opened the door, as him, Angela, Ann, and Alex, scurried out, quickly closing the gap between themselves and Angela’s parents. They were all welcomed with a warm embrace.

Watching through the window, Buffy smiled, seeing Xander look so happy, so welcome with open arms into the bosom of this family.

After hugs and kisses, between them all, Buffy saw them all walking back toward the RV. Xander and Angela came in first, followed by her folks.

Angela introd thd them, “These are my parents, Betty and Edward Velucci, and this is Willow Rosenberg, Dawn Summers, her sister,” she hesitated.

“Elizabeth Worthington,” Buffy said.

Angela nodded, “And William Worthington,” she finished.

“Nice to meet you folks,” Edward said, shaking hands all around, “I trust you all had a comfortable ride, here?”

They all nodded.

“Dinner is ready when you are, so if you’d like to freshen up, there’s 2 bathrooms inside the house, and of course, this one,” Betty said.

Willow and Dawn decided to use the bathrooms in the house, leaving the RV’s one to Buffy ailliilliam.

“Think I should change my clothes?” William asked, walking into the bedroom, where Elizabeth was changing.

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s formal or anything, but I’m going to, just because I feel kind of grungy, since I’ve had these on all day. And I bought these today, so might as well get to show them off,” she said, smiling. Then she remembered and handed him another bag, “If you want to change into something else, I got you a couple of things,” she said.

Hok tok the bag from her and turned it upside down on the bed, spilling its contents.

“You didn’t have to do all this, get all this for me,” he said, feeling somewhat not right about it.

“I know I didn’t, but I wanted to,” she came up and gave him a kiss on the cheek, “I…I like being able to have you to shop for.”

He shook his head, “You shouldn’t spend your money on me, it’s not right.”

“I thought I’d explained that all,” she said, sighing, “you’ve got money, so don’t worry about it, you’ll pay me back.” She didn’t want to go into a long explanation of how he’d left her so much and that it was pretty much all his money she was using here anyway. Her money from her school job, spread out over 9 months, would not have begun to cover her trips to Chicago and everything since then.

He didn’t want to seem ungrateful, but he didn’t like the idea of a woman paying for him. It would be different if the money haduallually come out of his pocket andhe hhe had any idea where it came from! However, in the interest of peace and his stomach, which was beginning to growl with hunger, he ceded.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful, it’s not that, you know.”

She nodded.

“They’re very nice,” he said, holding up a couple of the shirts, “which do you think I should wear?”

She smiled, and chose the polo shirt and new jeans. She herself had on a new pink, top with long, flowing sleeves, and jeans. She was going to wear the pink sandals that matched, but she took a look out and saw some puddles from a recent rain, and rocks, she decided her normal running shoes were best.

Elizabeth was standing at the dresser, trying to lean forward to see into the tiny mirror in order to put on some pink earrings that matched her top, when William came back from the bathroom. “You’re a sight for sore eyes, Elizabeth,” he said, coming up behind her and bending over to kiss her neck.

She closed her eyes for a moment, allowing herself to revel in the sensation of what his lips could do to her body. She moaned softly, as she turned around to meet his lips with her own. He pushed up against her, and she suddenly found herself lifted up and onto the top of the dresser, as her legs wrapped around his waist, obviously, on an accord of their own.

“Nooo, no,” she mumbled into his mouth, “we can’t do this right now.”

“Why? Why not? It can be quick,” he said, trying to pull her pants down off of her waist.

“They’re waiting for us,” she said, but was now helping him none-the-less.

“Wait,” she said, between kisses, as she took one shoe off, then one pant leg and one panty leg off. Somehow, it seemed familiar, yet she couldn’t place it, the one shoe, one pant leg, one panty leg off…

“That’ll work,” he said, lifting her back onto the dresser, as he unzipped his pants, freeing himself.

He pulled her forward a couple of inches, kissing her all the while, then slid into her wet heat. His heaven.

They both moaned, as he began thrusting into her, as she hung onto him with her legs, clenching around him, as the dresser rattled furiously.

“God,” she said, between panting, “hope someone doesn’t come in, looking for us…they’ll hear!”

Still holding onto her, he lifted her off the dresser, walked a couple of feet, pushed the lock into place on the doorknob, and then fell with her onto the bed.

Dawn and Willow met up with Betty and Angela in the kitchen. Edward and Xander were with the kids and Betty’s mom, Mary, in the living room.

“Well, we’re almost all here,” Betty said, “think your friends will be joining us soon?”

“They should be along any minute,” Dawn said, then gave Willow a look. Angela caught it and started to giggle.

“What?” Betty turned around, looking at all of them.

“Nothing, mom,” Angela answered.

“Hmmpff,” she said, turning back to the stove, but smiled to herself.

Angela motioned for Dawn and Willow to follow her onto the porch. She pointed to the RV, “You think they’re…?” she asked, giggling like a teenager.

“Who knows?” Dawn answered, “but I wouldn’t put it past them! Maybe I should go out there!”

“No!” Both Willow and Angela said.

“Doesn’t your mom want to get dinner served? I sure know I’m hungry!”

“Oh,ve ‘ve ‘em alone, Dawn!” Angela said, “if they’re not back in the next 10 minutes, I’ll just tell mom to go ahead and serve anyway. I’m sure they’ll understand, especially if they’re…um, busy with other things,” she giggled again.

“They’re always busy with ‘other things,’ lately,” Dawn said, rolling her eyes.

“Well, from what Xander said, they’ve been apart for 5 years, right? If I thought I lost Xander…I don’t know what I’d do,” she said, looking sad for a moment, “but if I found him after all that time, I know I’d be screwing his brains out, too!”

Willow and Dawn both just stared at her with their mouths open, then they all cracked up.


“Do I look okay?” William asked her, adjusting his pants and shirt.

“Aren’t I supposed to be asking you that?” she said, retying her shoe.

“You always look lovely,” he said.

“Lovely, as in lovely? Or lovely, as in, just been fu…just been ‘had’ sort of way?” she asked, blushing.

“No difference. Well, maybe, a little more so, the second thing you said - just been made love to sort of way,” he answered, cupping her hand in his face and kissing her.

She smiled at him. For William, it was always making love, even if it was just a quickie.

“Ready?”

“One more thing,” she said, and went into the bathroom and removed her top, then splashed water on her hair and combed it through. Then she put her blouse back on.

“If anyone asks, I took a shower,” she said, motioning to her wet hair.

He nodded, grinning.


“Here they come,” Xander said, who had just gone out to the front porch.

“Good, I’m starving,” Angela called to him.

William and Buffy walked up, holding hands.

“Sorry if we took too long, I needed a shower,” Buffy said.

“It’s okay, we’re just about to begin,” he said and held the door for them.


The dining room was huge, with tall, thin windows, covered by heavy ceiling to floor curtains. Two large buffet and china cabinets sat on opposite walls, and in the center was a huge rectangle, oak table, with enough chairs to seat at least a dozen people.

“You’ve met everybody here, except my grandmother, Mary Palmer, ” Angela said to Buffy and William as they entered.

“Very nice to meet you,” William said, holding out his hand to the old gray-haired woman in the wheelchair.

She just looked at him, but didn’t take his hand.

“Don’t worry about grandmother, she doesn’t understand things so well anymore.”

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Palmer,” Buffy said, to the same response.


Edward wheeled Mary up to the table and lifted her up to a chair between him and Betty.

Betty had made pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and celery. There was also homemade bread, fresh apple cider and milk. For dessert, there were two freshly baked pies, cherry and apple, along with vanilla ice cream and coffee.

Betty and Edward took turns, feeding bites of food to Mary, who throughout dinner watched the dinner guests with something of a blank stare. Except for Elizabeth and William. Especially William.

Buffy noticed this and it started making her uneasy. She knew it wasn’t right, but she started wishing that they would just wheel her out of there.

Besides that, Buffy was enjoying herself immensely, and she felt, William was, too. It had been a long time since she’d had a ‘family’ dinner, even if it wasn’t hers, along with great food and good conversation. Betty and Edward retold how they’d met (he’d been in the army and had been stationed in Kansas) and how hamilamily came to this country from Italy and settled in New Jersey. Betty told of growing up on this farm, along with her sisters. She talked about what kind of a farm it had once been, where she’d gone to school, and how farms and farming had changed over the years.

“I guess if mom and dad had boys, they could have taken over the farm,” she said.

“Who farms it now?” Buffy asked.

“My sister’s husbands and boys come and look after it. I don’t know what’s going to happen now. can can’t look after this house by herself anymore or even herself,” Betty said, sadly.

“They were only doing it for mom’s sake,” Betty said, “they really don’t make any money from it anymore, so it’s not like they’re going to want to keep up with it.”

“I wish we could, mom,” Angela said.

“I know, but it’s not your life or Xander’s or your babies. There’s no money in it,” Betty said.

“I just wish…”

“I know.”

“Times gone by, eh, mom?” Betty said to Mary.

Mary didn’t respond; only continued looking at William.

“She can’t talk?” Xander asked.

“Can’t or won’t, we don’t know for sure,” Betty said, “only that she hasn’t said a thing since I’ve been here. She’s got early-stage Alzheimer’s too, and now with the stroke…”

“Why is great-grandma Mary staring at William?” Alex asked, suddenly.

Everyone turned to look at her and William, who was embarrassed by the attention.

“I don’t know,” Edward answered, “maybe she reminds him of someone she used to know.”

They had their dessert then, with everyone now and then, looking to see Mary still staring at William.

After dessert, Edward helped Mary back into her wheelchair, and wheeled her back into the living room, where they all adjourned.

After Angela and Betty had put Alex and Ann to bed, Edward opened up a bottle of brandy and poured each of the adults a small amount, “To friends,” he toasted, and they all drank to each other.

“Well, mom? What do you think? Time for you to go to bed, also?” Betty asked, getting up in order to push Mary to her bedroom.

Buffy sighed in relief. Her staring at William all evening had given her the wiggins. William, too, had tried to avoid looking at Mary, because he sensed her eyes boring in to him from across the room. Buffy had taken his hand and given it a squeeze a few times, but she could tell the intense scrutiny that Mary had him under was making him uncomfortable, whereas, otherwise, they were having a lovely evening.

As Betty was wheeling Mary out of the living room, she kept her eyes fixed on William. He glanced at her and smiled as she went by.

“Older than me,” she said, and everyone stopped to look at her.

“Mom? What did you say, mom?” Betty stopped pushing Mary and looked at her.

With much effort, she lifted her frail hand to point at William and once again, spoke, “Older than me,” she croaked out.

Buffy looked at William, who had turned pale. She put her arm around his waist, and gave him a hug.

“I’m sorry, William, my mother hasn’t said a word since she’s been back from the hospital, I don’t know what’s gotten into her tonight, first staring at you like that, now with the odd thing she just said.”

“It’s alright,” William mumbled, head down.

“Mom, it’s me, Betty. Mom?”

Mary paid her no mind, only stared at William and kept repeating, “Older than me!” over and over again.

“Let’s go mom,” Betty said, wheeling her out of the room.

“Older than me!” they could hear Mary still saying, then beginning to w


“Gosh! That was weird. William, I’m sorry about that. My grandmother used to be such a sharp person. It’s painful to see her like this. I’m sorry that she decided to come out of her shell at your expense, talking nonsense and all that,” Angela said, and came around intuitively with the brandy bottle.

Buffy handed him the glass and he took it, hands shaking, trying not to drink it down in one gulp. He had noticed how the others, rea reacted with shocked silence, to Mary’s pronouncement, focusing their attentions on him, then looking away, as if they hadn’t. All except Angela, who had just focused on Mary.

“Do you have a restroom?” he asked suddenly, forgetting that he had been raised never to speak of such private things in public. It ly wly wasn’t why he asked anyway.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Elizabeth whispered.

He shook his head, not even bothering to take the time to be annoyed.

Angela pointed out the locations of a couple of thHe cHe chose one off the kitchen, rather than down the hall toward the bedrooms. He didn’t want to chance having Mary see him again.

He closed the bathroom door and leaned against it for a few moments. He went over to the sink and looked at himself in the mirror above it. His retiontion stared back at him. Blue eyes, rather aquiline nose, smallish chin, and largish head, with brushed back, curly, light brown hair. Noo boo bad looking, he thought. Age? 26, 27, 28? 156? He shook his head, turning away.

“No! These memories can’t be true, they can’t! They can’t…but if they are…what the hell sort of freak of nature am I?”

“William?” said a voice at the door.

“Um, just a minute,” he answered, and flushed the toilet, turning on the water, looking at his refection once again.


Angela had left the room, leaving the four of them in there.

Buffy looked agitated. She stood up and began to pace, stopped to pour herself another shot of brandy, “Fuck,” she said, softly.

“Well, that was weird,” Xander said, laughnervnervously. Willow and Dawn looked over at him, and he stopped laughing.

“Don’t worry about it, Buffy. Just an old woman’s ramblings,” Willow said, evenly.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Dawn echoed.

Buffy turned around and shook her head, “How…? How could she?”

“She doesn’t Buffy!” Willow said, “just an old lady rambling. She probably did think William reminded her of a long, lost relative or something. It could have been any one of us, and then she would have blurted out the same thing.”“Yea“Yeah, or she could have blurted out, ‘You’re an alien from Mars!’ but you wouldn’t be freaked about that,” Dawn said.

“Or, she could have said, ‘You look just like a cucumber!’ but you wouldn’t have paid her any mind. Just saying…” Xander added.

Buffy looked at them, “Guess you’re right, but you all reacted too. Just like when Alex made that comment to William about being a vampire,” she whispered, “we’ve got to stop doing that, I think…I think he noticed this time. I could feel him tensing up.”

“We’ll try. We will. It’s just…Alex, now Mary, they’ve taken us all unawares, these things have been blurted out all of a sudden,” Dawn said.

“I know, “Buffy said, collapsing back onto the couch, “me, too, we just have to be prepared for the unexpected.”

“We’ll try,” Willow said, getting a nod from everyone in the room.

William came out of the restroom and saw Angela, “It’s all yours,” he said to her.

“I wasn’t waiting for the bathroom, William. I was waiting for you,” she said, smiling kindly at him.

“Oh,” he said, surprised.

“I wanted to apologize for my grandma, again. Also, I may have an explanation as to her odd words.”

“What’s that?” he said, his heart pounding hard inside his chest all of a sudden.

“Xander told me about Sunnydale; that somehow, after its collapse, that you had survived?”

William nodded.

“Not only that,” she said, smiling warmly at him, “but that somehow, you’d managed to save Elizabeth and many others?”

He shrugged, “So I’m told…but I don’t remember any of it,” he said.

“Xander also told me that for 5 years, you’ve been missing,” she said, looking at him sympathetically, “and since Elizabeth found you, that not only don’t you remember your past, but that you…you seem to remember a different time period altogether?”

He looked at her, shocked. He had no idea what any of them had been told of him.

“I’m sorry. By the look on your face, I guess you didn’t know that Elizabeth had shared something so personal with Xander.”

He nodded, “I didn’t,” he looked away, embarrassed.

“Listen William, here’s the reason why I think grandma said thohinghings to you, I think that when you develop Alzheimer’s disease, that part of your brain stops working, but the other part, with old memories works overtime. But, it’s also like having a mental illness, which by the way, in other cultures, would be looked upon as having some sort of ‘special sight’ to be cultivated, not locked up. Anyway, if you have memories floating about in your brain, even ones that aren’t true, such as being from another time, and grandma has this weird brain thing going on from the disease and the stroke, well, maybe, just maybe, she picked up on some of what your ‘memories’ are. Like your being from the 1800’s?”

William looked at her with interest, “You think?” he asked, more hopeful than he let on.

Angela nodded, “Yes, it is what I think. Before I married Xander, I was going for a degree in psychology. I had lots of ces, es, but outside of the normal college courses, I also took some parapsychology courses, which is more in line with what I’m saying.”

“Parapsychology?”

“Yeah, sort of a cross between the paranormal and psychology. Interesting field to studying things that aren’t explained away so easily by normal reasoning.”

“You mean like the supernatural? Ghosts? Monsters?”

“Well, a bit like that, but not only that.”

“I don’t really believe in that sort of stuff,” he said.

“That’s alright, William, most people don’t. I’m not even sure I do, but it’s still interesting to look at the mind as…there’s so much we don’t know. Anyway, that’s my take on what happened in there.”

“Thank you, Angela. I admit, your grandma had me a bit rattled.”

“I know,” she said, giving his arm a squeeze, “I wish you could have known her years ago, she was so bright and fun and full of life!”

“I wish I could’ve, too,” he said.


Buffy was on the couch, looking solemn, when Angela and William came back.

Buffy took one look at the relaxed, trouble-free look on William’s face and was immediately grateful to Angela, for whatever she had said or done.

They all stood up. Xander walked over toward Angela, as William moved toward Elizabeth, putting his arm around her.

“I guess we ought to call it a night,” Xander said.

“Buffy? Willow and I are going to sleep in one of the spare bedrooms, so you and William can have the RV all to yourself tonight,” she said, then winked at her.

“Oh. Okay. You sure there’s enough room in the house?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, there’s something like five bedrooms, so there’s more than enough.”

“Well, we’ll say goodnight then,” Buffy said, as her and William started to head toward the door.

“Wait a minute, Buffy,” Xander called, “here’s a flashlight and here’s a walkie-talkie. We’ll call you in the morning, about an hour before breakfast.”

“Roger that, then,” Buffy said, as William looked at her funny. He’d never get used to the funny expressions they all used, especially hers!

END CHAPTER 70