Have You Ever Got Over On Somebody?, page 1

"Have you ever got over on somebody?" Clara asked Mabel, as they strolled through the park that crisp fall afternoon.

"What do you mean, love?" Mabel replied, absently bending to pick a cotton top flower, which she proceeded to blow as absently as she had picked it.

"Oh, ya know, got em good. Like, somebody who wronged you, you know, ya got over on em, ya bested em at their own game."

"Why, I don't suppose I ave, love. I mean, ol Ronald was a whizzer and a pizzer but I ne'er felt the need to get over on 'im."

Mabel plopped upon the soft grass and patted the ground, so Clara plopped next to her aunt and there they sat for quite some time, watching the ducks and the clouds and the people with their dogs.

"Who'd ya get over on, love? Ya canna jus' start a tale and leave an old woman hangin' as such."

"Well, you have to promise not to tell anyone else, Aunt Mabel, especially mother. She.....she doesn't know yet."

"Bwaha! So ya got o'er on yer mother, oh do tell, do tell, my sister has always been such an uptight wench, why twas her doin that ended me up with ol Ronald in the first place! I suppose if e'er I were to get o'er on someone it would indeed be yer mother."

"Oh, no! I did not get over on Mother, although with this latest of victories I feel confident it would not be as difficult to do as I once thought."

"Well, child, what 'appened then? You MUST tell me, and get on with it, it will be dusk before you even begin yer tale!"

"OK, it all began three years ago, when I took the job of maiden to Lady Louis, the rich old dowager who lives upon the hill. Oh, it was a wonderful job....at first. But as the years past, Lady Louis became mean and mistreated me, oh she was awful. Sir Brighton, her right hand man and payer of me fees, was even more hideous. Why some days that man ....touched me...."

Mabel put her hand on Clara's thigh and patted gently. Composing herself, Clara continued.

"Well, I have wanted to quit for sometime you know, because I could hardly bear the thought of the long trudge up that hill just to face a new days abuse. Mother was no help she kept telling me be grateful you have work, and such nonsense. Oh Aunt Mabel I lost so much weight from agony my clothes had to be taken in, much to mother's disgust.

Well, one day, when Lady Louis was napping and Sir Brighton was in town on rare business, the cook told me that if I quit I would never get a severance package, but if I were fired and the employer could not prove malice, I could live on the severance until I gained new employment. All mother cares about is the money she really cares not how it comes into the home, but I figured someone as highly educated as Sir Brighton would have made certain I could never best him in the severance department. His taunts would make me cry daily, saying things to me like I might as well wear shackles I would be a slave to this job forever, such hurtful words."

Clara stopped, remember those hurtful words, all of Lady and Sir's horrible treatment, and it all passed across her countenance as Aunt Mabel sat quietly and listened.

"I decided that day to do something I had always feared doing before then....to begin complaining of illness, which was clearly brought on by the job. I went to the town doctor, and everything, and began to call in sick when I was sick. I always had a DR excuse, and Sir Brighton always laughed and ripped it up. But I kept copies. One day he fired me, and told me I would not get severance because I had been the most horrible employee he had ever had! I thought, I bet he will ruin severance for me, but guess what? The Office of Severance and Benefits believed ME, Aunt Mabel, and I got over on Sir Brighton and Lady Louis, isn't that wonderful?"

Aunt Mabel laughed and hugged her neice.

"Oh child tis the most wonderful story, the little one comes out atop. Such an uncommon occurnce these days love."

Mabel noticed the child's smile fading.

"What is it, love?"

"I feel kind of bad for feeling so....good....about getting over on em, yet I earned my severance! Why do I still feel....guilty?"

"Oh, Clara, stop feeling guilty! Tis yer mother's doing, indoctrinating such nonsensical thoughts into yer being. Now you enjoy this victory, Clara, it is yours and no one can take it from you."

They rose and began the stroll home, pausing to cross the street. They looked both ways but did not see the old Cadillac racing towards them. Poor Clara never saw it coming.

Thank goodness, because it would have killed her to see the sardonic smile on Sir Brighton's thin lips as he realized who the day's victim turned out to be.