The Desert Waits

by J. Carson Black

  Sybil Squire was halfway across the bank, her dated yet classic Italian leather pumps soundless on the marble floor, when Piper snapped out of her trance. A security guard in the foyer held open the door for her, his face passive, blank. Did he have any idea who she was? Or that she had been somebody at one time? Mrs. Squire nodded at him as she passed through the door. She stopped at the curb and looked up and down the street.

  Moments later, Piper pushed through the glass door without waiting for the guard to open

  it. “Mrs. Squire?” she said with a sense of breathlessness.

  She turned. “Yes?”

  “I saw you inside the bank and...well, I wanted to introduce myself. I’m Piper Lundberg, a neighbor of yours. I recently moved into the Vogt’s guesthouse.”

  “The Vogts?”

  “Theirs is the house above yours on Wilson Drive.”

  “Oh, yes. How do you do, Mrs. Lundberg.” She extended a gloved hand. Her smile merely polite, her handshake a brief encounter. She glanced down the street. A light breeze lifted the collar of her blouse.

  “I’ve been a fan of yours for years and years. When I saw you inside, I...well, I just wanted to tell you that.” Piper could have said, ‘You knew my Grandmother Ruth, you helped her and my mother through a terrible time in their life.’ Yet she didn't. Bringing up past tragedies to a woman weighed down with them seemed wrong. Start fresh, she told herself.

  “Thank you. You’re very kind.”

  “I’m in the business, too. A film editor.”

  “I’m not in the business anymore.”

  “Maybe not, but you’re an icon in today’s film culture.”

  She allowed herself a soft chuckle. “I hardly think so.”

  “Oh, yes. In fact, my next project will be to cut Mick Vogt’s documentary on film noir, the classics. One of your films is among the ten greatest.”

  Piper thought she would ask her which film, but her only reaction was to raise a perfectly arched eyebrow. A shiny black vintage Lincoln pulled up to the curb in front of Sybil. The driver, a redheaded woman, leaned over and opened the front passenger door. Mrs. Squire extended her hand again. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Lundberg. Good luck with your project.”

  The bank guard stepped out onto the sidewalk, his gaze riveted to the retreating car, admiration burning in his eyes.

  “Do you know who that is?” Piper asked him.

  He shook his head. “Uh uh, know the car though. Sixty-four Continental with suicide doors. Mint condition. Quite the car. Yessiree, quite the car.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Sybil Squire was born Dolores Annamaria Teresa Robles on June 10th 1926 in Baja, California, in a small village on the Mexican peninsula. Her father, Victor Robles, a fisherman with his own trawler, married her mother when the fifteen-year-old became heavy with child. Victor hoped for a son and was disappointed with a daughter. To make matters worse, when Dolores’ hair grew in as white as the sails on the boats in the harbor (villagers referred to the child as “angel hair”), and her eyes lightened to a pale blue, Victor’s disappointment shifted to distrust, then anger. A desperate Annamaria dyed the infant’s wispy white hair brown; burning her tender scalp in the process...it did no good. Victor sent his wife and her daughter packing.

  — Excerpt from the biography of Sybil Squire: The Platinum Widow by Russell Cassevantes.

  Today was Piper’s thirty-sixth birthday. By Hollywood standards, passing thirty-five was like falling off a cliff. According to Melody’s standards, she was closing in on ancient. Piper could care less about Hollywood standards. Tonight she would celebrate with Lee, if the super agent to the stars could squeeze her into her outrageous schedule. What she’d missed most was not hearing from Nana this year. What family she had had died with her grandmother. There had never been a father figure in her life. Her mother, Maggy, pregnant as a teen and unmarried, relinquished the role of nurturer to Nana. Maggy was happy to assume the role of older sister.

  Since moving into the guesthouse, she filled her days with editing workshops, reacquainting herself with the updated systems and learning the new software. Mick’d had the editing bay set up in the dining area of the guesthouse the day she moved in.

  Standing at the deck railing, taking in her new surroundings, she thought again how much she loved the neighborhood in this section of the hills. The compelling view had a certain nostalgic charm, the mature landscaping that wove up, down and around the maze of twisted streets of 40s bungalows mixed in with renovated mid-century modern and Mediterranean villa-style estates. It was no longer the wealthiest neighborhood. Those were further west. This was old Hollywood, established and eclectic, saturated with culture and a hundred-year history of filmmaking. Not far away was the Hollywood strip, Schwab’s (now a shopping complex and movie theater), the original Spago’s, the Sunset Towers and Chateau Marmont. This community inspired her like no other. She felt alive, eager to rejoin this surreal world of make-believe.

  Piper leaned on the railing and faced the two-story Squire mansion. The earthy hue of the red tile roof and ochre exterior appeared richer in the morning light. A pair of doves nested in an arc in the roof tiles. Living in that house was an icon of the old Hollywood, Sybil Squire. An icon who would unfortunately be remembered for her real life role as a tragic leading lady and not her many outstanding and versatile performances.

  Since that day at the bank a week ago, there had been no further contact between them. Piper had made the first move. It was up to Sybil now. Although Sybil was considered a loner, she wasn’t one to remain cloistered away, hidden behind window shades and heavy drapes. The drapes were opened every morning, left open throughout the day and sometimes late into the night. The afternoon breeze drifting through the hills carried the sweet songs of the canaries to Piper as she sat on the deck. At dusk, the birds fell silent. Of course, she didn’t make it a practice to spy on Sybil, yet she couldn’t help but notice when she swam in the pool, or rode off in the passenger seat of the Continental, or strolled around the grounds. Her redheaded housekeeper usually arrived at ten o’clock in an old Volkswagen bug. Piper heard her car long before it turned into the driveway, chugging to a stop at the back. They were close, the housekeeper and Mrs. Squire, apparent by the quality time they spent together. With the passing days a pattern emerged. Every afternoon at three o’clock, they played a card game in the shade of the back patio. At six, they both sat down to the meal the housekeeper had prepared, eating in the formal dining room, sharing a bottle of wine. From what she had observed, Sybil led a quiet, unassuming existence. Her life seemed tranquil--at least during the daylight hours. If there were demons snapping at her heels, they came out at night when she was alone, at a time when demons do their best work.

  Sybil appeared in the garden wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat, a long skirt and a short-sleeved tunic in pale blue. Piper felt a tingle at the back of her neck, as though she had somehow conjured her presence with thoughts of her. After leaning down to take in the fragrance of several red roses, Sybil pulled a weed from the base of the rose bush, pulled another, then tossed the weeds aside and moved away. She strolled to a padded wrought-iron bench, sat, opened a brown book, and began to write in it.

  A journal or a memoir. It was an intimate moment, someone writing down their innermost thoughts. Piper stood up to leave, to allow Sybil her privacy. Just then the phone inside rang. Sybil looked up, searching for the source of the ringing. Their eyes met. Piper raised a hand in greeting, then looked away and retreated into the guesthouse.

  Lee’s office phone number lit up her Caller ID.

  “There’s been a change in plans,” Lee said as soon as she answered. “Things at the office got screwed up. Incompetent idiots. Can you meet me here?”

  “Sure.”

  “See you at seven. Happy birthday, Piper.”

  Not more than five minutes after talking to Lee, there was a knock at the door. Assuming it was Belle, she called out, “Come in.” When the door did
n’t open, she looked up from her computer screen. Sybil Squire’s housekeeper stood to one side of the glass door.

  Piper crossed the room and opened the door. “Yes?”

  “You Mrs. Lundberg?” the woman asked. She was a thin, wiry woman with teased, orangish-red hair, a shopworn face, and tight, flashy clothes too young for her sixty-plus years.

  Piper nodded.

  She handed her a folded piece of paper and grinned. “A note. Don’t this seem Victorian and all? But she didn’t know your phone number.”

  Piper unfolded the paper. Written on a sheet of notepaper printed with: From the Desk of Sybil Squire, she read:

  Please join me for coffee, if convenient. S.

  Piper looked up, trying to appear casual, and feeling anything but. “Now?”

  “What?” the housekeeper said, leaning toward her. Piper saw she wore a hearing aid.

  “Now? Does she mean now?”

  “Only if it’s convenient,” the housekeeper said, pointing at the note.

  “Yes. Yes, it is. Convenient,” she said. She glanced down at her bare feet. “Could you give me a minute?”

  The woman shrugged. “I guess you know where she lives.” She started down the steps “She’ll be by the pool. Use the driveway entrance.”

  “I’ll be right there. Tell her I’ll be right there.”

  Outside on the street, Piper caught a glimpse of the car with tinted windows cruising up the hill. That was the third time she’d seen it in the neighborhood. There was something ominous about a dark car with tinted windows. She hadn’t heard a word from Gordon since she’d packed up and moved out. His words--You’ll regret this--echoed in her head.

  She shook her head. Sybil Squire had issued an invitation to tea--well, coffee actually, but close enough--and on her birthday. Nothing was going to spoil this day. She ran fingers through her hair, looking around the room for her sandals.

  “Yes,” she said laughing. “Yes. Yes.”

  ****

  Sybil was seated at a wrought-iron patio table when Piper let herself in through the gate along the south side of the property. A hummingbird hovered at the honeysuckle vines covering the fence. The red-tailed hawk was back, circling. Two cups and saucers and an old-fashioned carafe sat on the table. When she approached, Sybil motioned for her to sit. She sat with her back to the pool house, the morning sun bright in her face. To her right she heard the canaries singing, to her left the soft swish of a pool sweep.

  “Thank you for inviting me.”

  “You’re welcome. Sugar? Cream?”

  “No thank you. Black is fine.” She took cream, but there was none on the table.

  While Sybil poured, Piper took in her surroundings. The yard was well kept. A lawn service came once a week. She supposed Sybil herself tended the rose garden. The rest of the foliage consisted of hardy ivy, ground cover, and silvery Russian Olive hedges.

  Piper looked back at Sybil. She was watching her. She smiled.

  Piper returned her smile. “I know you must hear this all the time, but I think you’re even more stunning in person,”

  “Thank you. You’re wondering if the hair is natural or from a bottle.”

  “Oh, no, I know it’s natural. Although it’s extraordinary.”

  “It’s been both a curse and a boon. My father cast me off because of it. I can’t say I blame him. My parents were of Hispanic descent. Both dark. So what happened?”

  “A flaw in the gene pool?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “But he came back into your life later.”

  “Oh yes. Whatever prejudices he harbored suddenly vanished when the ugly duckling became the white swan--or should I say, the golden goose?”

  “He helped with your career,” Piper added, wanting to hear more, to know all there was to know about this woman.

  “Yes. Do I sound ungrateful or bitter?”

  Piper shrugged. “You have reason to.”

  “You’ve been reading. Those biographers love conflict. What’s that saying? Without conflict, there is no story. My life is one huge conflict.”

  “I don’t believe everything I read in them, especially the unauthorized ones,” Piper said.

  “Russell’s book is close enough, but that other one, the woman writer, a pack of lies. I think she was on LSD when she gathered her information. She had me confused with at least two other actresses. Now that columnist, Cricket Summers, she was just plain evil. In the end, she got what she deserved with that libel suit. But enough about me.”

  When Sybil pushed the coffee cup and saucer across the tabletop, Piper noticed a beautiful diamond ring on her left hand. Emerald cut stones set in platinum, two carats each.

  “Your Mr. Vogt is an accomplished producer. The way he’s going, he’ll soon be too good for this neighborhood.”

  Piper dragged her gaze away from the ring to her face. “You’re familiar with his work?”

  She nodded. “I looked into it. Upper Limits. Are you the Piper listed in the credits?”

  “Yes. They used my maiden name.”

  “Excellent film in every respect. Good editing. You managed to project or help the audience experience an essential subconscious emotion. You should be very proud.”

  Piper couldn’t believe it. Sybil Squire had taken the time to look up something she’d had a hand in. She was complimenting her. “I am. Thank you.”

  “If it’s not prying, may I ask why you’re working on documentaries rather than feature film? Being affiliated with an Oscar nominated project should have opened a door or two for you. Yes?”

  “No. I mean, no it’s not prying. Not at all. And yes, after that one, I worked on Devil’s Due and The Last Clock.”

  “Impressive. And?”

  “I, well, I took a hiatus.”

  “Oh?”

  “I got married.”

  “And moved away?”

  “No, we lived in Santa Monica.”

  “Ahhh,” she said. “I see.” Yet it didn’t look as if she saw at all. Her eyes flickered upward, toward the guesthouse.

  Piper looked down. “We’re separated.”

  “Was he abusive?”

  “No, not really. He lied to me.”

  “Another woman?”

  Piper nodded. “But that’s not why I left him. He told me he wanted kids as much as I did. He said if I quit my job, we could start a family right away. What he didn’t tell me was that after we were married, during a business trip to Geneva, he had a vasectomy. He didn’t intend to have a family. Ever.”

  “How did you find out?”

  “He was sleeping on and off with his receptionist. She told me. She was with him in Geneva.”

  Sybil’s eyes held hers. Piper saw compassion there. Sympathy. She felt a strong tugging deep inside. Whatever she had felt for this woman in the past, the sense of closeness, the admiration, intensified in those few seconds of looking into her expressive, soulful eyes.

  “You did the right thing. Family is everything. Love cannot thrive on deception and lies.” Sybil took Piper’s hand in both her hands and squeezed. “If I had been more like you, my life might have been entirely different.”

  Piper was about to ask her what she meant by that when Sybil’s face softened and she said, “Are you related to Ruth Parrish?”

  "She was my grandmother."

  "There's a strong resemblance. And of course, your maiden name on the film credits. I was sorry to read about her passing early this year. She had a beautiful soul.”

  “She thought the world of you. You were there for her when she had no one to turn to. She never forgot that.”

  "She would’ve done the same for me. Ruth and I had a lot in common, much of it bad, but some good. We bonded right away. She mailed me a picture of you when you were just a toddler. The proud grandmother. I didn't respond. I have no excuse. Self-absorbed, I suppose. I regret that.” She looked away. “How is your mother? I remember she loved the pool. Swam like a fish."

 
“She died in ninety-four. In the Northridge earthquake."

  "I'm sorry. More heartache for Ruth. Well, at least your grandmother had you."

  It was Piper’s turn to change the subject. “I can hear your canaries singing when the wind’s just right. It’s nice. How many are there?”

  Sybil brightened and said, “Five right now. All males. Only the males sing, you know. They seem to compete with each other. Mario is the leader, the others follow.”

  “Mrs. Vogt has a cockatoo. He tries to imitate your canaries’ songs.”

  She laughed, a delightful laugh that made Piper smile.

  “He also screeches. There were times, before I realized it was only a bird, when I wondered if someone in the neighborhood was being attacked,” Sybil said. “I took up the care of canaries about fifteen years ago. They give me so much pleasure. Would you like to see them?”

  “Yes, very much.”

  “How about a tour of the house? I know you must be curious.”

  “I’d love it.” They started to rise. Piper had pushed back her chair, but before she could stand, the housekeeper, who had quietly come up on them, interrupted them.

  “Sybil, there’s someone at the front door asking to see you.” The housekeeper turned to look down the driveway. A late-model car sat in the drive, partially obscured by the corner of the house and the bushes lining the wall.

  The expression on Sybil Squire’s face was one of bafflement. In fact, both women had the same expression. There seemed to be some unspoken communication between them because Sybil didn’t ask any further questions. When she rose, Piper rose too.

  “Dear, this shouldn’t take long. Help yourself to more coffee. Then we’ll tour the house.”