The Arcanum of Beth

by Mary Jane Russell

  “James, Sam, you guys are slowing down.” She grinned at the two local black men just a few years younger than her and tapped the face of her watch.

  “Ellen, baby! Hey, should I leave my money in that mutual fund you put me onto last year?” James flipped his baseball cap around backward and held his hands up as though a rookie catcher.

  She wound up and threw him an air baseball. “Absolutely.”

  Sam waved them both off and climbed onto the Kubota tractor with mid-mount mower. “I’ll take my money to Atlantic City and come out better.”

  “That’s the right idea. Investing is a gamble that you should never put more into than you can afford to lose.”

  Sam mimed shooting craps and waved as he drove away.

  Ellen entered the building through the center of the five bays. She gave the new facility director his due—none of the equipment was more than ten years old and all of it was kept clean and maintained by an employee-signed checklist hanging on the wall near each machine. The checklist had been one of the first paper tools she had implemented.

  Ellen went to the far right corner of the building and stood at the rated door in the firewall to the office that was Lou’s as grounds manager. There was an office in each back corner separated by a parts room and a shop. All had solid glass windows with fire curtains that looked out into the bays.

  Lou faced her computer on the side wall with her back to the door. She was intently working on a lengthy text message in her personal e-mail.

  Ellen studied the woman. She was undeniably attractive—5’4” tall, 120 pounds, muscular, brown hair and brown eyes, and deeply tanned by outdoor work. Ellen had always teased Lou about having the appearance, energy, and demeanor of a pixie.

  “You need to rotate your desk ninety degrees so someone walking in doesn’t see what’s on your screen.” Ellen stopped in the doorway, waiting for Lou to minimize the window.

  Lou held up one hand while she finished the line. “Can you believe I have to resort to this to write well enough to impress this woman?” She pointed to a thick dictionary beside the keyboard. “The guys love the e-mails. They beg me to read them out loud for pointers to use at home.”

  “Lou!”

  “Just the ones I write. I have a little respect for others.” She grinned.

  Ellen shook her head in disagreement.

  “Hey, old woman.” She hit the send button, then bounced out of her chair and met Ellen with a hug. “Look,” she pointed to a ring binder on her desk. “The male shit they hired to fill your job still uses your work plan. He just changed the binder. Do you believe it? They ought to pay you commission. God help them when they have to upgrade computers and lose all the macros you set up. Plus, he’s moved his office into the same building with the chancellor and can’t be bothered with us more than once a day, if that.”

  “And that’s a good thing.” Ellen took several steps back and looked into the shop. “Aren’t you supposed to store all tools and clean surfaces before you leave here each day? How many times did I write you up?”

  Lou dismissed her with a wave. “Then get it all back out the next morning. I put a stop to that after you left and no one’s said a thing. We find everything eventually, and we stay on the mowing schedule. No one cares.” She whispered the last. “You just have to let that neat thing go.”

  Ellen frowned. “Speaking of letting things go.” She knew Lou well enough to know what was coming. “Don’t do that.”

  Lou rolled her eyes anyway.

  Ellen continued. “What’s the deal with you and Stephanie? I thought all was well after two years, and she was going to have a kid for you two to raise.”

  Lou shook her head. “She couldn’t get pregnant, and I didn’t want to. A baby is fine, but count me out of gestating for nine months. We’ve been spending more and more nights apart, any excuse will do. You know how it goes. The relationship has played itself out, no bad on either of us.” Lou shrugged.

  “And Stephanie would give me the same answer?”

  Lou grinned. “She’s programmed as two. Call her yourself.” She held out her cell phone.

  Ellen waved it off. “Beth Candler is special. Don’t do your usual to her, and I say that with love and affection. She could be the one to settle your ass down, Lou. Treat this one right.”

  Lou stared at her. “I know. That happens to be my plan.”

  Ellen hugged her. “I do love you, kid, but your reputation sucks. Don’t let me down or my life will be hell to pay.”

  Lou grinned her cockiest. “Really? Well, I might just have to rethink it then. Split up you and Janet and finally have a chance with you.” She appeared to ponder the possibility.

  Ellen gave her a push back into her office. “Dream on. Now play nice. How about letting me mow this morning for old time’s sake?”

  “Give up my four hours of hemorrhoid development on the tractor seat and stay in my office on the computer?” Lou wasted no time tossing her the key. “Knock yourself out.”

  “You behave, or I’ll knock you out.”

  “How did you know I liked it rough?” Lou called as Ellen walked away.

  Ellen checked the oil and gas levels and switched on the ignition. The tractor roared, then settled into a smooth rhythm. She had to give the devil her due—Lou was a topnotch mechanic who kept all the mowing equipment in perfect condition. Lou could work at any of the auto shops in town but chose the college campus for the two-legged scenery and slow pace. Ellen looked at Lou’s complete focus on the computer and didn’t feel reassured about Beth.

  Chapter Five

  Ellen listened intently to her BlackBerry, unused to talking into it. “Greg says the door is open, come on in, make ourselves at home, they can’t leave the Viking right now, whatever the hell that means.” She shrugged.

  “It’s their commercial range.” Janet looked at Ellen as they walked in the front door of Greg and Andy’s house. “Damn, I feel badly that we didn’t at least bring a bottle of wine.”

  Ellen leaned toward Janet. “I don’t. They don’t like the wine we pick out because we won’t spend over ten dollars for one bottle. Besides, they like to fuss about with the food and drinks.” She looked around the foyer.

  The boys had purchased the house directly from the contractor before a Realtor ever listed the property. Both had worked on the plans—Andy for the heating and cooling system, Greg for the electrical circuits. They fell in love with the house on paper, only to learn that the contractor had to have a quick turnaround and would sell it practically for cost to get out from under the construction loan.

  The exterior was faux English Tudor, borderline tacky, but the boys liked to think of it as campy. A ten-foot-diameter turret rose above the roof line at both front corners. The main level was four large rooms for living, dining, library, and kitchen. The master suite was upstairs using two dormers to span the midsection of the house for a bedroom with fireplace, walk-in closets, and bathroom complete with a corner whirlpool tub for two. The two guest rooms were on the ground level along with a two-car garage. Everything about the house was constructed to a larger scale from the ten-foot ceilings to the bidets in each of the three baths. Andy referred to it as their English-country-comes-to-town house.

  A knock sounded on the door behind them. Ellen beat Janet to the handle. “Welcome to Tudorville.”

  Beth and Lou stood on the front stoop, ending a long kiss while waiting for the door to open.

  “Don’t mind us, but you rang the bell,” Ellen said.

  “But you weren’t supposed to be so close to the door.” Lou motioned for Ellen to leave them alone.

  Ellen obligingly pushed the heavy mahogany door toward its frame.

  “Just kidding. Where are Batman and Robin?” Lou bounded into the house as Beth adjusted her hair and clothing from the quick grope.

  “We seem to have arrived at a critical time with something going on in the kitchen so they asked us to entertain ourselves for a few minutes.” Janet p
ointed to each room visible from the foyer. “Lovely rooms. If I could decorate like this, no one would ever recognize our house as a simple ranch built about the time we were born.”

  They all looked into the dining room that appeared as though furnished from a medieval castle with traditional heavy English table and sideboard, then into the library just enough to see the huge partners’ desk that filled the room and walls covered with bookcases, then into the living room that had the decor of a California white room with an L-shaped sofa positioned with its vertex across from the fireplace.

  Lou whistled. “Damn.”

  Greg slid across the hardwood floor in his sock feet. “You called?” He hugged each of the women.

  “Where’s the cute one?” Lou asked him.

  Greg looked duly offended. “Now don’t be jealous. He and Beth were an item a long time ago…no need to be bitchy any more so than you usually are.”

  Ellen looked at Janet. “Ouch, I felt that one.”

  “Serves her right. No one had better say anything derogatory about my favorite nephew in my presence.” Janet pointed to her face.

  Greg kissed her cheek. “Auntie, I’m your only nephew.”

  “Exactly, dear.”

  They all laughed and walked into the living room to enjoy the large, well-padded sofa and the gently blazing fire.

  “I almost had to turn the air conditioning on this afternoon to have the fire. I wanted crackling logs to add to the atmosphere tonight for the love bugs.” Greg added chemically treated pine cones to the fire to create sparkles of blue and green. He poured wine for all of them. “Not that your palate can taste the difference,” he said to Ellen, “but this is a very good Riesling we found at a winery in Nelson County.”

  “Not that we’ll ever find the same route to it again,” Beth said. “That was a fun Saturday.”

  Lou looked at Beth questioningly.

  “The boys and I used to go exploring on weekends. Just guessing whether to turn right or left and seeing where we ended up.”

  “We’ll have to try that some time.” Lou put her arm around Beth.

  “You have to leave the house first. We know where you two always end up.” Greg sighed. “Young love, I remember it well.”

  “Old love isn’t so bad, either.” Andy came into the room wearing a red apron and sat on the arm of the sofa next to Greg. “Ladies.” He held up his hands to show off his gay pride oven mitts. He looked to the center of the room at the large flat-screen television mounted above the fireplace. “I can’t believe he doesn’t have HGTV on.”

  “Thanks for reminding me.” Greg reached for the remote and they all groaned. “It’s a healthy addiction.”

  “And you, young lady, never answer your telephone at home anymore.” Andy looked at Beth and lost his stern expression to a grin. “How are we supposed to find out all the details about this grand love affair?”

  Beth blushed as she pulled a cell phone from her jeans pocket. “Modern technology is a wonderful thing.”

  “For some of us anyway. Do you two ever listen to your messages?” Greg stared down his nose at Janet and Ellen. “I tried to catch you all afternoon to pick up garlic cloves for me on the way here. But, no, I had to run out to the store myself.”

  “You just had to bring that up. You can always e-mail me.” Ellen held up the new BlackBerry.

  “She’s attached to that thing and only uses e-mail anymore. I don’t even try to call her,” Janet said.

  “I hate talking on the telephone.” Ellen shrugged. “Of course, some of us can’t hear the clicks on the line that mean a message is waiting because of those big-ass throwbacks to the 1960s earrings.” She pointed to Janet’s ear lobes.

  “I remember my mother wearing those when I was a kid,” Andy said as he noticed Janet’s jewelry.

  “They’re my trademark. The guys wear flashy ties to court. I needed something to show my personality when wearing those drab suits. I became hooked on collecting them.” She held her ear out so they could admire the tight circles of tiny purple beads that made her earring about the size of a thick silver dollar.

  “So…” Greg crossed his legs and leaned against Andy. “Have you two called Acme Moving Company yet?” His face was the picture of innocence.

  Beth looked puzzled. “There’s no Acme Moving in our area.” She turned to Lou.

  Ellen made the roadrunner beep. “You know, every service on those cartoons was provided by Acme something or other.”

  Janet studied the two young women. “I think he’s asking when you two are doing the traditional second date and moving in with each other.”

  Beth glanced at Lou. “Well, now that you mention it, what are you guys doing two weeks from today?”

  Greg held out his hand to Andy and wiggled his fingers. “I bet him it would be within a month of your first real date.”

  Andy handed Greg a twenty-dollar bill. “I need some help in the kitchen…Beth, Ellen.”

  “That was subtle,” Lou said as they left the room.

  Andy turned to Beth as soon as they entered the kitchen. “Have you lost your mind? Tell me you’re at least going to rent your house so you can move back if you need to.”

  “The Realtor’s sign goes up this weekend. She already has other agents calling her wanting to see the house for clients.”

  “Beth!” Andy went to the Viking range and turned down the gas on all the burners. He threw off his oven mitts. “It’s too soon.”

  “You’re being overprotective. How long did it take you and Greg?”

  He wouldn’t answer.

  She walked over to him and made him hug her. “Be happy for me.” They fit together like an old pair of gloves.

  Ellen spoke when Andy turned to her for support. “I said my piece to Lou several weeks ago. Janet lectured this one. They’re already in too deep.” She sighed with resignation. “What can we do to help?”

  “I have a big favor to ask of Janet. I’ll wait until she has more to drink.” Beth pulled them toward the others. “Come on, buddies.”

  And they did.

  Chapter Six

  Janet tried not to frown as she mused to herself about how she managed to be talked into some of the things she did, being a reasonably intelligent and independent woman. Just how had Beth maneuvered her into driving Keith into the mountains to the house she had just moved into with Lou? She didn’t even know Keith that well—a few minutes in the office to go over wills and powers of attorney and a few lunches with her and Beth. Seeing her daughter for the first time as half of a lesbian couple should be something Keith would do with one of her closest friends.

  Janet had already loaded boxes and locked the doors at Beth’s by the time Keith had driven the twenty miles from the Candler farm southeast of the city. Andy, Greg, and Ellen had wished Janet well as she waited and headed out, each driving a pickup truck and following Beth’s Subaru—they had packed the trucks the afternoon before, covered the loads with tarps, and tied everything down tight.

  “Keith, how are you? Please, make yourself comfortable.” Janet spoke to her through the open window on the passenger’s side as she leaned across the seat and opened the door. “Adjust the seat and the window as needed. If the music is too loud, please turn it down.” Janet hoped that music might deter conversation. She watched the other woman settle in beside her.

  There was a grim set to Keith Candler’s features—the usual twinkle in her blue eyes and easy smile were nowhere to be found. She was clearly not pleased with today’s trip, but she was also not ready to disavow herself from her only daughter. She had to see for herself what Beth had gotten into. Keith was in her mid-sixties, about ten years older than Janet, as well as a little shorter and much heavier. Gray mixed with the brown of her hair.

  “I’m as well as can be expected, Mrs. Evans. If this doesn’t trigger a heart attack or stroke, nothing will.” Keith drew her sweater around her and crossed her arms. “Have you been to the house before?” It sounded like an acc
usation.

  “Please call me Janet.” She was determined not to rise to any provocation. “No. But you know Beth…she drew us a map, doesn’t look too difficult to find.” Janet handed her the neatly drawn map on grid-ruled paper.

  “Out in the middle of nowhere.” Keith glanced at her watch. “I’m timing how long her drive will be back into town to work. I thought she left the farm so she wouldn’t have a long commute to the office.”

  This was going to be a long afternoon, Janet knew. She could understand Keith’s disappointment. She just hoped Keith could move past imposing her own values on her daughter—a near impossible task for any parent.

  “How well do you know this Lou person?” Again, the sound of an accusation. Keith glanced at Janet before resuming her straight-ahead stare.

  “We’ve met a time or two for dinner. My partner, Ellen, worked with her for about a year before she retired. I don’t know her that well. The girls are about the same age and both like being outdoors. Beth seems very happy.” Janet tried the last statement tentatively.

  “Beth has no idea what she’s doing. It must be some sort of a midlife crisis or depression. I can’t believe she sold her house the first weekend it was listed.” Keith’s hands were clenched into tight fists.

  “Beth is a grown woman, Keith.” Janet glanced at the map. “We stay on the main highway another mile?”

  “Yes.” Keith snapped the piece of paper. “I know she’s grown. She’s also intelligent, attractive, and makes good money. What did I do wrong for this to happen to my daughter?” Keith was on the verge of tears.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong. Neither has Beth. It’s life. It’s her life. It’s unexpected, not planned. Beth didn’t just make this huge, life-altering decision. Haven’t you seen it coming?” Janet kept her eyes on the road for fear of wrecking her car.

  “What?” Keith’s answer was very soft.

  “Keith,” Janet sighed, “it’s not the end of the world. It’s not a fatal disease. It’s a lifestyle, widely practiced. It’s the way she is. It doesn’t change anything about the daughter you’ve loved all these years. My guess is that when you think about this later, after it all calms down a bit, you’ll see the indicators that have been there since she was a child. It’s the way she was born.” Janet tried the obvious logic.