Wasted Youth 

MacKenzie Duncan was the kind of man that most poor girls dream of getting their hooks into… in his late fifties, distinguished, suave, and debonair. And filthy rich. A mansion in Bel Air, limos, Rolex watches, the works. 

Ashley Amos was nothing like the woman an older man who could have anything he ever wanted would choose… she was shy, and introverted, plain-faced and prim. And poor as a church mouse. The only thing Ashley had going for her was the energy of her youth, and a determination to succeed in life where her parents had failed.  Her father had a janitor in one of the banks in downtown Los Angeles for as long as Ashley could remember. He had died at the relatively young age of forty-five; lung cancer, caused by his three-pack-a-day cigarette habit. His early demise had left them with only a tiny bit of Social Security to survive on, because Ashley’s mother was not well educated, and therefore unable to find work other than as a housekeeper.  

It was that necessity that had brought Ashley into Mac Duncan’s life. Caroline Amos had been hired as the live-in housekeeper for the Duncan household when Ashley was fifteen, and over the next six years, she saw him on a regular basis, but always from afar, since her mother took great pains to see that Ashley stayed away from the family so that she wouldn’t be a disturbance. They had a small house on the Duncan estate, which Ashley was pretty much confined to when she wasn’t at school.  

Fate intervened in Ashley’s life in a series of events that brought her to Mac Duncan’s attention just a few months past her twentieth birthday. The first had been that Duncan’s wife of twenty years, Cecelia, had fallen down the grand staircase of the Duncan mansion and had broken her neck. For a while, rumors had flashed between the members of the household staff that Mac had done her in, since he was found standing over her body with a look of what could only be described as delight on his face. However, since it was discovered during the investigation that had followed that Mac Duncan had been in his office speaking on the phone with his attorney at the time Cecilia had taken her fatal tumble, her death was ruled an accident.  

In the aftermath, Ashley was puzzled by two things; the first was the fact that while he dutifully appeared to mourn his deceased spouse in pubic, in private, Duncan appeared to behave more like a man who just been released from twenty years of confinement. The second thing was that he had taken a small sip from the Fountain of Youth, because the gray in his hair had become less visible, and the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth seemed shallower than they had previously. Ashley was certain that even had there been time for him to have done what would be the first thing that would come to mind – dye his hair, and have a face lift – that Mac Duncan was not the kind of man who would succumb to such vanities. It confused her greatly. 

The next episode in this series of events was that on the evening of a dinner party that had been planned for months in advance, one of the girls whom Caroline used as a helper suddenly came down with a severe case of the flu, leaving Caroline in the lurch. In desperation, she had asked Ashley to substitute for the ill girl, and Ashley had agreed. 

During the evening, she had glanced at Duncan on several occasions while serving, only to find him studying her dispassionately. She felt a shiver of revulsion go through her each time it would happen 

Not long after that, he began to happen across her at various times as she helped her mother out around the household, and it was almost as if the man who had been at the dinner party that night was a completely different person. He smiled at her, and spoke to her in a polite way that became more familiar as the weeks passed. Eventually, there came a day when he told her that he had decided that she was the perfect choice to be his next wife. Ashley was stunned. It seemed from that moment, she’d lost all control of herself. She seemed to have become a puppet, acceding to everything that Mac wanted; otherwise, she would not have entertained the idea of becoming the wife of this strange man for even a moment. Imprisoned within her own mind, she could only wonder why he wanted her when there were dozens of women of his social circle who would fairly leap at the opportunity to be his wife.

 Things all moved at lightning speed; Mac wanted a civil ceremony; he’d had a big church wedding with Cecilia, and felt he could forego another one. Ashley found herself agreeing, even though it had always been her dream to be able to have an elaborate ceremony for as long as she could remember. The honeymoon would be at his summer home at Martha’s Vineyard.  

Within a few more days, all of his plans had come to pass, and they arrived at Martha’s Vineyard, and were alone together, husband and unwilling wife.  

“I see you have questions.” he commented as he laid her down on their bridal bed. “You can ask them now.” 

Startled that she was at long last herself again, Ashley stuttered out, “W-w-hy me?” 

“Because you’re young, my dear Ashley, and I am old…” he replied. “So very old, and worn out.  And dying, of course. Not much time left in this old body… a matter of weeks or even days, the doctors tell me. But you’re young, and youth is always wasted on the young.  Youth should be for the people who have accomplished great things in their lives, like I have, for those who are geniuses and great philosophers, not ones like you who will never accomplish anything in their lives, and who just throw that precious youth away. Science should find some way to keep great men alive forever, and only the useless of this world should suffer death.”

 “He’s completely mad…” Ashley said to herself. “Whatever he’s dying of has destroyed his mind.”  

“Actually, my mind is as sharp as it ever was.” he remarked, shocking her with his knowledge of her thoughts. “It’s only this body that’s worn out. And when you get this close to dying, you start making deals with the devil.” 

“You are insane!" she whispered. “And I’m leaving here now… this minute!” She tried to rise from the bed, but he grabbed her arms and forced her back down on the pillows. “No, Ashley, what you’re going to do is to go to sleep. Close your eyes and sleep… it will all be better in the morning. …” 

Once again, she found herself with no control of her body and everything was quickly fading into a black haze of fear.

Dawn… the sun was beginning to peek through the windows just yards from where she lay, and she sat up with a start. After Mac’s lunatic ramblings the night before, she was surprised to find that she was still alive. As the thought came into her head, a sharp pain went her chest, and it wrenched a hoarse cry from her. The sound of running water from the bathroom stopped, and through the fog of agony that was wrenching through her, she saw a figure come through the doorway. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing… her own eyes were looking back at her from her own face. As the pain grew and darkness approached, she raised her hands to look at them and screamed with surprise… they were a man’s hand… a very old man’s… withered and desiccated, blue veined and ancient.

 “I told you, Ashley…” came her own voice as the light faded away. “Youth is wasted on the young….”

Back to Penney's Place