by Donald Wells
“I want to thank you for all you’ve done. Years ago you helped my sister, and now my niece, you’re a very kind man.”
“It was my pleasure. Felicia is a very special girl.”
“What about my other niece Captain, have you arrested her yet?”
“No Ma’am, we’re still looking.”
“If you find her, tell her to expect no help from me. Murder is heinous, even against an animal like her father.”
David stepped closer to Felicia.
“Have you ever been to New York City?”
“Once, when I was little, my mother took us to the circus.”
“When you come home, I hope you’ll allow me to show you around.”
“I… I guess.” Felicia said, and again she blushed.
GQ was after my girl, no doubt about it. The two of us would have to have a talk soon.
“We’ll stop by your house, to help you gather your things, and then we’ll be on our way.” Sophie said. “You’re going to love our estate in Hudson Valley, Felicia, it rests on thirty acres and has a horseback riding trail, by the way, do you ride?”
Felicia stammered out. “I… I…no… but Aunt Sophie, I can’t leave today, it’s too soon, there are things at the house I need to do, also a friend of daddy’s offered to pay for Mona’s legal fees. I have to meet with a lawyer to set things up.”
Sophie sighed amidst a smile.
“Perhaps I am rushing things. I’m just so happy to meet you. I think you’ll love it in New York and I hope the two of us become friends.”
Felicia went to her aunt and hugged her. “Thank you for taking me in. I know you don’t have to do it and I’m very grateful.”
Sophie gave her a squeeze. “You’re welcome dear. Why don’t we do this, take a week or two here to settle things and then you can come and live in New York.”
Felicia smiled, “That would be good.”
“Yes,” Sophie said, while speaking only to me, with disdain in her eyes. “It will give you a chance to say goodbye and put everything in this town firmly in your past.”
15
Days later, Felicia spoke with a lawyer named Tori Jameson, and if Tori and GQ David ever became a couple, they’d make Ken and Barbie look like Fred and Ethel.
Tori Jameson was in her mid-twenties, blond, blue-eyed and tall. She was an incredible looking woman and knew it, knew it and used it to her full advantage.
Still, as she escorted Felicia and I down the corridor that led to her office, I watched with amusement as Tori frowned, annoyed at the behavior of her male colleagues, who craned their necks and widened their eyes to watch Felicia walk by.
Apparently, Tori was not used to being in the presence of a woman whose beauty surpassed her own.
Despite the law degree, the fact that Tori’s name matched the name on the building led me to wonder if she was just daddy’s little girl playing in the family business.
Her corner office on the twentieth floor was tastefully done in a modern style, and granted a stunning view of downtown Philly.
Felicia and I sat across from her with a glass-topped desk separating us, and watched while she read Scaggaretti’s card.
She then looked up at Felicia.
“I’m sorry for the loss of your father and your sister’s troubles.”
“Thank you.” Felicia said.
Tori then stared at me. “Faron? That wouldn’t have been shortened from say… Faroni, would it?”
I grinned. “I have nothing to do with Mr. Scaggaretti. Felicia is my girlfriend and I’m just here to keep her company.”
Tori Jameson looked me over, her eyes drifting down through the glass of her desk to take in all of me.
“You have a very nice voice Mr. Faron, kind eyes too.”
“Thank you.”
She then buzzed her assistant. “Carol, please step in here for a moment.”
When Carol, a thirtyish Asian woman appeared, Tori gestured toward Felicia.
“Please take Ms. Delgado to conference room four and have her fill out a client sheet.”
I rose to follow Felicia and Tori motioned for me to stay.
“Mr. Faron, please wait here. There are a few questions I’d like to ask you and it would save time if I did so while Ms. Delgado is filling out her forms.”
Felicia hesitated in the doorway, looking quite uneasy about leaving me alone with Tori Jameson. “I’ll be right back Johnny.”
I smiled at her. “Okay baby,”
As Felicia left the room, Tori signaled her assistant to lock the door as she was leaving, and then we were alone.
Tori got up and took the client chair that Felicia had just vacated. She was wearing a black silk skirt, and as she crossed her legs and faced me, her hemline rose to mid-thigh, a very sexy and shapely thigh.
“Did you really beat up Mr. Delgado?”
“Yes.”
“I defended him once on an assault charge. He was collecting from a man, when the man’s two friends objected, soon after that, the man and his friends were treated for serious injuries at the local ER. Mr. Delgado would not have been an easy man to beat.” Tori reached over and squeezed my biceps. “You must be very strong.”
I sent her an ‘aw shucks’ shrug as I said. “My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.”
She leaned back in her seat, a surprised look lighting her beautiful face.
“My my, poetry, I guess we’re not all brawn after all.”
I sat quietly. She wasn’t done yet and I thought I’d let her get to it in her own time.
“How old are you Johnny?”
“I’m nineteen,”
She shook her head. “So young, so much energy and staying power, so much to learn… and be taught,”
“I think you told Felicia you had questions for me?”
“Yes, after you take her home, could you be back here by five?”
“I could, but why would I?”
She smiled at me brilliantly. “I leave work at five.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,”
She suddenly looked bewildered. “What?”
“Nothing personal, but Felicia and I are serious.”
“I’m sure she’s a yummy snack, but I’m offering you a gourmet meal.”
I laughed in her face then. I shouldn’t have, but I did.
She turned a variety of red and got up to stand at the window with her back to me.
Tori was silent for a few moments, then, she took a deep breath and a swipe at her eyes before turning around and asking me a question.
“That quote, what poem is it from, do you know?”
“Sir Galahad,”
She gave a slight shrug. “Is it just something you’ve memorized?”
“Sir Galahad was written by Lord Alfred Tennyson in 1834; Galahad was a knight of King Arthur’s round table and also reputed to be the son of Sir Lancelot. Tennyson later revised the poem in 1842 by cutting a stanza, something about Galahad’s invincibility, but I don’t recall it verbatim right now, sorry.”
That bought me a smile.
“I take it you read a lot?”
“I prefer it to TV,”
Tori retook the seat behind her desk.
“What are you reading now?”
“Anna Karenina, among others,”
Tori gave a little laugh. “That’s my favorite book.”
We sat gazing across the desk at each other in silence.
A moment later, there came a knock at the door. Tori reached to a corner of her desk and pressed a button to unlock the door, and then Felicia was escorted into the room by her assistant, and retook her seat.
Tori spent the next few minutes being a very businesslike lawyer with Felicia, while making it a point not to look in my direction.
As we were leaving, she called out my name.
“I enjoyed our chat, well, most of it.”
“It was nice meeting you Ms. Jameson.”
“And you as well Mr. Faron,”
&nbs
p; * * *
In the elevator, Felicia was full of questions.
“Why did she want to talk to you alone? And why was the door locked when I came back? She came on to you didn’t she?”
“She flirted some,”
“I knew it! I could tell by the way she was looking at you.”
Once we were in the car, the questioning continued.
“Did you think she was beautiful?”
I laughed. “Baby, that woman is nearly in your league, but I have no interest in her. I love you, period.”
“She was beautiful, elegant even; I guess I was a little jealous.”
“Then we’re even, I didn’t like the attention you were getting from David the other day.”
She grinned. “He was handsome. I’ve only seen men who look like him in the movies.”
I had just placed the car in gear, but now I shut off the engine and stared at her.
“When you move to New York State we won’t be seeing each other as much, Westchester County is a fair distance away.”
“I was thinking about that Johnny, why don’t you move to New York too? You’re the best mechanic around; you could get a job there easy.”
I made a helpless gesture. “My grandfather, he’s spry for his age, but I can’t leave him alone.”
She looked as if she were about to cry.
“You’re right. It’s just that I’ll hardly ever see you.”
“I’ll see you every weekend and in less than two years you’ll be eighteen and can live where you want. We’ll get through this baby.”
She gave me a playful punch in the stomach.
“Stay away from women who look like Tori Jameson; I don’t want you tempted.”
I kissed her. “God hasn’t made the woman that could tempt me from you.”
* * *
We arrived at the Thorne Estate on a drizzly Saturday afternoon. I was driving an old Mustang that I had tinkered with, and as I calculated the distance to gas ratio, I was pleased to see that I had barely used a quarter of a tank. Before my altering of the carburetor and fuel pump, the trip would have eaten up well over half a tank.
I had been obsessed for years with finding a way to increase gas mileage and at last it looked like I might be on to something.
I made a mental note to write down what I’d done to achieve the increased efficiency when I got home. I was a great tinkerer, but a lousy record keeper and if I’d finally achieved progress, I’d better make sure I knew how to duplicate it.
Felicia’s things had been sent ahead, and so she only carried her purse as we exited the car. As I grabbed my overnight bag from the trunk, Sophie pointed to it.
“What’s that for?”
“Johnny’s staying overnight and heading back tomorrow; is that all right?”
“No, that is not all right. I don’t know what was going on in Dominic’s house, but in this home, sixteen-year-old girls and their boyfriends do not sleep under the same roof.”
Felicia gestured at the house, which was huge. I figured it must have at least eight bedrooms.
“But Aunt Sophie, there’s so much room.”
“No dear, I’m adamant about this.”
“Felicia,” I said. “It’s okay. I’ll stay at a motel and come back tomorrow.”
“But it’s silly, Johnny.”
I smiled. “Your aunt’s just looking out for you baby, it’s no big thing.” I wanted to defuse this. It wouldn’t help any for Felicia and her aunt to have an argument first thing out of the box.
Felicia nodded. “Okay,”
Aunt Sophie turned her gaze on me. “That fight you had with Dominic, was it your first?”
I sighed inwardly. “No Ma’am.”
“Have you ever been incarcerated?”
“I spent two days in a juvenile detention center when I was fifteen, the police thought I had stolen a car, but I hadn’t, after they realized their mistake, they released me.”
Sophie frowned at me. “I see.”
Felicia spoke up for me. “Aunt Sophie, Johnny’s a very good person.”
“I’m sure he is dear. Now come inside, I’m anxious to show you around.”
Before we took another step, David raced into the circular driveway in a new Porsche. It made my restored ‘76 Mustang look like a beater. He emerged from the car wearing tennis clothes and carrying a trophy. He had a lean build, yet his muscles were hard and well defined, but his arms and legs were hairless, as if he shaved them for some unknown purpose.
David walked past me as if I weren’t there and gave Felicia a hug that I thought lasted much too long. I decided that I wouldn’t have a talk with him after all. I would simply beat his brains out.
Sophie greeted him with a warm smile. “David, you’re just in time, I was about to give Felicia a tour.”
He offered Felicia his arm. “I’ll take that job.”
Felicia smiled shyly, but then she slipped her arm through his and off they went. I felt a pang of jealousy and asked Sophie a question.
“This David, he doesn’t visit you very often, does he? I mean, Hobbes University isn’t exactly a hop, skip and a jump away.”
Sophie smiled at me. “Oh, you misunderstood John, last week David was simply visiting a former classmate; he’s been out of school for months now.”
“So where does he live?”
Sophie’s smile grew wider, gleeful even.
“Why David lives right here, in fact, his bedroom is directly across from Felicia’s.”
And with that, she sauntered off.
I knew right then, that when I got through pummeling David, I would send a swing or two Sophie’s way.
16
I was miserable that weekend.
Felicia and I barely spent a moment alone and Sophie missed no opportunity to pair her with David. On Sunday, I overslept in my motel room and didn’t arrive back at the house until after breakfast, giving me even less time to spend with Felicia.
When Sunday evening came, I reluctantly trudged out to my car with Felicia and prepared to say goodbye.
“I’m going to miss you so much.” She said.
“Me too, but I’ll be back on Saturday.”
Her face clouded. “About Saturday…”
“What?”
“Aunt Sophie is going to Boston to visit friends of hers, and she wants me to come along, I’m sorry.”
“Let me guess, David will be going too.”
She smiled at me. “You’re jealous.”
“No baby, I’m worried. I don’t want to lose you and I’m not afraid to say it. Look at this place—it’s a mansion, complete with boy gigolo.”
“David is just being nice, nothing will happen, I promise.”
I stared at the ground.
“I hate this! I just want to take you home with me.”
She hugged me. “Someday, someday we’ll spend every day together.”
We kissed and talked a while longer, but inevitably, it was time for me to leave. She reached up and removed a charm from around her neck. It was a cheap, little gold trinket in the shape of a heart that I had won for her in a carnival game, when she was only thirteen.
She placed its chain around my neck. “I want you to keep this safe until I come back to live with you in Castle Ridge.”
I kissed it. “I can’t wait to give it back.”
I started the engine and watched as tears flowed down her cheeks. She gave me one last kiss, a hard, hungry offering that would have to last me nearly two weeks.
I drove away from there, watching her grow smaller and smaller in my rearview mirror, as I fought to hold back my own tears.
* * *
I was eight miles from home, on County Road, lost in thoughts of Felicia, when it happened.
The fire started in the carburetor, but spread quickly, before I could pull off onto the shoulder. Within three minutes the car was completely engulfed and sending a steady stream of black smoke into the starry sky.
After ca
lling the fire department, I stood there on the side of the road and thought about the last thing I saw, before bailing out of the car. The gas gauge,
I ran the calculations in my head and realized that I had achieved a burn rate of approximately seventy miles per gallon.
Now, if I could only figure out how to do it without destroying the car.
17
Over the next six months, Felicia and I only saw each other a dozen times.
Aunt Sophie seemed to always have a weekend getaway planned under the guise of bonding with her niece. I thought of them as deliberate attempts to keep us apart.
It was now July, and with school over for the year, I’d hoped that Felicia and I could spend more time together. I had worked like a demon during the spring, in order to be able to take off a few weeks during the summer, and spend them with Felicia.
Aunt Sophie, of course, had other plans.
“California? For how long?” I asked.
“Until Labor Day, Aunt Sophie is going to a spa out there and then we’ll also do some sightseeing, Hollywood and such.”
We were seated on a swing on the wide porch of the Thorne Estate. I had come up to surprise her with a weeklong visit and she informed me that she would be leaving for California in two days. I felt sick. I was seeing less and less of her and also getting the impression that it mattered less and less to her.
While my days were filled with long hours of work and loneliness, Felicia’s days were packed with the excitement of a new school and new friends, of expensive weekend getaways and shopping, of horseback riding, and of David, ever-fucking-present David Thorne.
“Baby, how are we supposed to be together when you’re never around?”
She looked at me, eyes misting.
“I know, I’m sorry, it’s my aunt. She just wants me to go everywhere with her and she’s been so nice to me, really, she treats me like I’m her own daughter.”
“And how does David treat you?”
She hesitated a moment before speaking.
“He wants me. He’s not crude about it or pushy, but he’s told me that he cares about me.”
“And how do you feel about him? Is there anything you want to tell me?”
She gave me a hurt look. “I’m not sleeping with him and I won’t. I only want to be with you.”