Gabriel knows something is wrong. Just like Rushton he needs love, light, and laughter in his life. Unlike Rushton, he has yet to figure out why he can't meet his needs. It has been suggested to him that he is mentally ill. He sometimes presents as schizophrenic, at other times you would think he was suffering manic depression or some sort of personality disorder. None of this is true. But since Gabriel knows better than to tell on Louisa nobody knows why she is able to indoctrinate him with fear over and over again.



I only became aware of her Jedi mind tricks when she tried to pull it on me. Innocently telling me about how she used to want a fur coat until she saw a group of her friends at a function, dressed to kill, dripping in pearls, gold, diamonds and furs. She said they looked like witches. Now, Louisa is well aware that I own several furs. I like my jewelry. No status symbol for me, just a fun way of continuing the game of dress-up I played as a little girl rummaging through my grandmother's closets. Besides, I've never seen a witch wear a fur coat.



Another time I confided in her about the difficulty I was having casting dancers for Gabriel's show. Louisa went into a long diatribe about how and why I couldn't get it done. The show was due to open soon and I as the casting agent had failed her son by not providing him with dancers. I thanked her for her input all the while wondering why she did not refer me to any of the many accomplished people she claimed to know. I did find the dancers. Louisa did have a fit. How dare I give Gabriel something she wasn't sure she wanted him to have.



Jedi mind tricks, cult programming, and hypnosis can only work if you are able to bypass the critical thought process. While I claim no special immunity to these tactics, I'm not an easy mark. More intuitive than logical, anything that doesn't "feel" right to me immediately sets off an alarm. Red flags pop up everywhere, calling my immediate attention to the situation at hand. Adding insult to injury, Gabriel began to brag about how well I facilitated his every desire with amazing ease. Game, set, match.



Gabriel came home one day, livid that I had spit in his food. (paranoid schizophrenia) I was caught completely off guard. This is not the kind of thought that randomly occurs in a man's mind. Unless a woman puts it there. Besides, the level of intimacy we shared would make such a preposterous idea moot. I don't spit, I swallow. But Louisa would have no way of knowing that. Several days later he screamed that I was setting him up to fail. Later that same day he asked me to go out to a movie. (bipolar disorder) Why would he go out with a woman that was trying to destroy him? He claimed he would still treat me as "human" despite the fact that I was crazy. (personality disorder)

Gabriel once called me his shield. My love for him was fierce. Against any and all odds. Ordinarily soft spoken, I was ready to battle tooth and nail for him. Quietly, competently, or balls out if all else failed. I adored the man. And it showed. People often commented on my devotion to him. His mother could barely tolerate it. She continued inciting him to violence. I continued putting out the brush fires. Until that fateful night.

My King, my King...Gabriel is one of very few people who can get me to raise my voice in anger. Even still, I only raise my hand to clear and present danger. After a whole day of strumming my last nerve Gabriel pulled the straw that broke the camels back. All day he had been on that damned cell phone. Furtive conversations, texting, flashing it in my face. By the time we got into bed I was smouldering. One last comment and I hurled a drinking class across the room where it shattered against the closet door. My King shoved me out of bed on my ass. When he rushed over to pick me up I saw a look of utter confusion in his eyes. I now think he was as surprised as I was. Now we're both raging. I wanted to leave, he wanted me to go. I put a few things in a bag and told him to take me to a shelter. He put me in the car screaming about how I had disrespected his home. We ended the night clinging to opposite sides of the bed.

The following morning he told me I had to leave. I told him I would exercise my option and move back to California. I put a call in to my pastor who had previously counseled me about this relationship. Pastor advised me not to leave town. Maybe a brief "vacation" was in order, but I shouldn't leave just yet. I had to admit he was right. The show we had worked on was due to open in about ten days. I had to dig way down into myself to come up with the emotional strength and fortitude to finish it in a professional manner. I wasn't afraid of Gabriel, but he was getting scary. I bought new drinking glasses and continued doing what I had been doing in regards to the show. My name was on this thing.

After a few days Gabriel asked me if I was still leaving. I'm not so much leaving as being sent away. He reiterated. Get out, bitch. Later on he asked me to put the old furniture up for sale on Craig's List so we could redecorate the house. Now I'm really confused. I ain't taking no ass whippings from nobody, but I am not ready to walk out on the man I love when he obviously needs help. Maybe we should take a vacation together when the show closes?

Fool that I am, I asked him where he would like to go. I don't have a passport so we had to stay stateside. All available assets had been spent on the show. We used my credit card as usual. Again I wasn't paying attention. Gabriel had been on the same job for almost twelve years, owned his own home, car paid for, but my credit limit was roughly ten times greater than his. We always made major purchases for the house on my card. He always paid the bill in a timely manner. He was responsible it never occurred to me that he would default.

Louisa Clay has a glitch. A small town girl of mixed heritage from the wrong side of the tracks, she hates to lose. Often alienating people with her aloofness, her need to manipulate, control, or micromanage every situation. If you do not succumb to her will she can and does treat you as if you are of no consequence, as if you don't exist. You're only a player if you're on her team and she owns both sides of the field.

Rushton Cates, affectionately known as "Reds", was intelligent, charismatic, and incredibly handsome. Judging by the longing eyes of several women, he was also a fantastic lover.Reds was also from a small town. His grandfather owned most of it. Of course Louisa would never call him Reds. She would never allow him to realize how much she cared for him. Terrified he might use this knowledge to gain the upper hand in any given situation.

First time in Big City they met at a house party hosted by a girl niether of them was very well acquainted with. Louisa took note of him as everyone else did. Rushton took note of her as she seemed to be suffering a terminal case of ennui. They had a volatile chemistry. The reactive push and pull of a struggle for dominance. Reds, because he was to the manor born. Louisa, because she knew how to wrest power from whomever might be weilding it.

Having no pen or paper when Louisa deigned to give him her number, Rushton had to commit it to memory on the spot. He called to ask her out, she refused, several times, until she was satisfied she would be able to get a firm grip on his desire for her and use it to her advantage. Reds was smitten. They did marry. It was many years before he realized that Louisa toted an iron fist in her velvet glove.

She had to keep him interested, so after five years of occasionly allowing Reds to "express his prmitive urges", Louisa became pregnant. Abortion was not legal at the time but that didn't stop her from trying everything she knew to evict the parasite that had infected her womb. The side effects took thier toll. She was ill the entire nine months. Eventually giving birth to a small sickly little boy. A little boy that was Reds reincarnate.

They named the child Gabriel Barnabas Cates. Gabriel for the archangel, Barnabas the son of laughter. But Louisa wasn't laughing. In fact her misery was now doubled. She couldn't stand the sight of "Little Reds", a constant reminder of once again letting the situation get out of control. Besides, children have needs that are sometimes difficult to manage.

Louisa played the role of martyr well. Nobody knew why Gabriel was such a recalcitrant child. Nobody could figure out why Little Reds was given to tantrums. Nobody except Louisa, and of course she wasn't telling. She would tell no one how she deliberately withheld Gabriel's feedings, diaper changes, even affection in order to frustrate the child and make him totally reliant on her. No none knew about her creeping into his room where she would break glasses, rattle cultlery, bang pots and pans, startling him out of a sound nap. How she would just sit there in full view of him screaming, reaching out for mothercomfort which was not forthcoming. Louisa silently smiling, relishing this control over his fear.

Like most people with control issues, Louisa didn't know how or when to stop. Rushton finally divorced her in favor of a younger, more yielding, more capable woman. He even had more children. Louisa was infuriated. How dare he try to be happy without her! She used Gabriel as a shovel, digging a pit for all of them to fall into. Perverting Rushton's right to visitation, she would refuse to relinguish the child. Making much effort of preparing the child for an extended visit with his "family"she would encourage Gabriel with anticipation of the "fun" he was going to have. She then left Gabriel to sit and stare out the window waiting for a Daddy that would never arrive.

Gabriel is now fifty years old with a long list of failed marriages, ruined relationships, two estranged children, and no friends. Louisa has already lost one man to another woman. She'll be damned if she allows it to happen again. Gabriel will never ascend the throne as long as the Queen Mother is alive. Just ask Prince Charles.