They told Andreas that night that Charlotte had agreed, and he said that he would have his lawyers arrange for transfers of funds and whatever else would be needed. His secretary would see about schools in New York. He thought that a Catholic school run by nuns would be a good choice, and Charlie was not overly delighted about it. She wanted to go to something “free thinking and American,” not more nuns, which was where she went to school in Athens. But she was so delighted at the prospect of going back to the States that it eclipsed all her complaints about the school. But on the whole the atmosphere in the house for the next two weeks was bittersweet, all of the excitement was tempered with sorrow.
Three days before they were to leave, Vanessa called Teddy and Linda and told them that she was bringing Charlotte. She had written them long letters about how it had been and how happy she was in Athens. And she told them how marvelous Andreas had been, but she didn't tell them that she had had an affair with him. She felt private about that, and Linda had sensed that there was something she wasn't telling.
“Will you meet our plane?” Vanessa sounded tired but not totally unhappy. She had explained about Andreas's illness and they understood only too well how hard it was on her. But they couldn't know fully how hard it had hit her. They didn't know how much she loved him.
“Of course we'll meet the plane.” Teddy sounded ecstatic. “We'll even bring the baby.” And then he had a thought. “Do you want me to call John Henry?”
“No.” Her answer was instant.
“Sorry.”
“That's all right. Don't worry about it. I'll call him when I get back.” But she sounded vague.
“He's called here a couple of times, wondering if we had news. I think he was worried.”
“I know.” She had only sent him two postcards in the beginning of her trip, and nothing at all since she had reached Athens. But she couldn't write to him. She couldn't concentrate on them both. She had become totally involved with Andreas. “I'll take care of it.” But Teddy suspected that it was over and told Linda so when he hung up the phone.
“I think she's still not ready.”
“Maybe not.” Linda looked worried but had to go look after the baby.
And in Athens the preparations went on, until at last the valises were packed. Several boxes had been filled with things to ship, like Charlotte's stereo. Andreas had told her once that she could come home in five months for Easter, but very little was said about that. In the past few days it had become apparent that his cancer was moving very quickly.
The night before they left, Vanessa sat next to Charlie's bed and told her about her life in New York, Teddy and Linda, the baby. “Don't you have a boyfriend?” Vanessa shook her head, and she looked disappointed. “Why not?”
“I just don't. I have friends.” She thought of John Henry and felt a little shiver of guilt. She owed it to him, in a way, that she had come to Athens. He had made her promise to do it. “And there is one nice man I see.”
“What's his name?”
“John Henry.”
“Will I like him? Is he handsome?” She looked suddenly very much sixteen as she snuggled in her bed and Vanessa smiled at her.
“He's sort of handsome, I guess. And I think you'll like him.”
“I'm going to find a boyfriend.” She said it with determination, and Vanessa grinned and stood up.
“Well, first get some sleep.” They had said very little about Andreas. It seemed odd to Vanessa, but Charlie seemed as though she had made her peace with the situation. There was something fatalistic about her, as though she were wise well beyond her years. Andreas had prepared her well. “Sleep tight. I'll see you in the morning.”
“Good night.” And then as Vanessa stood in the doorway, “Are you going to Andreas?” Did she know? Vanessa looked stunned.
“Why?” She stood very still.
“I just wondered. He loves you, you know.”
And then Vanessa had to say it. “I love him too. Very much.”
“Good.” Charlie didn't seem disturbed. “Then we will love him together.” It was as though, as he had said, they would be taking him with them on the morrow.
Vanessa gently closed the door and went down the hall to Andreas, where they spent the night in his bed, holding each other tight, and at last he slept soundly in her arms. She knew at that moment that for the rest of her life she would take him with her.
57
Their parting was brief, heroic, and brutally painful. Charlotte clenched her teeth, held him close, and stood back for a moment, looking at him.
“I love you, Andreas.”
“I love you too.” And then, “Good-bye.”
With Vanessa it took a moment longer. He reached out and held her to him, felt her warmth against him for a moment, and then set her free. “Take what you learned and use it well, my darling. I give you two gifts, that of my heart and that of courage.” He said it so softly that no one could hear him, and when he stepped back, he pressed a small box in her hand. His eyes insisted that she take it. And then suddenly they were being rushed onto the plane and he was gone and she and Charlie were both crying. They boarded the plane with their arms around each other, and it wasn't until after they took off that they felt like talking. Charlie was subdued, and Vanessa looked at her, thinking that she looked absolutely splendid. She was the prettiest girl Vanessa had ever seen, and she had noticed a number of heads turn as they had taken their seats. It was the combination of the ivory skin, the emerald eyes, and the sheet of black satin hair. It was a dazzling combination.
It wasn't until later that Vanessa opened the small package Andreas had given her. A thin gold chain fell into her hand, and at the end of it a starkly beautiful single diamond in a setting that made it look like a star, and as she hung it around her neck she understood its meaning. It was their falling star. As she touched it with her fingers she felt her eyes fill with tears again. She had only known him for six weeks, but it seemed like a lifetime.
The plane landed in London an hour and a half later, and they had to change planes, and discovered that they had to wait for two hours until they could board the plane to New York.
“Do you want something to eat?” Vanessa looked at her sister after they had checked in, and Charlotte looked excited. She had bounced back after leaving Athens, and now there was a fresh spark in her eyes. She had met two English boys and a girl her own age on the plane and had talked to them at length. They were on their way to London, she explained to them that she was on her way to New York. Vanessa marveled at how lively and open she was, at how easily she talked to people. She had none of Vanessa's restraint, no fears at all about being hurt or rejected. She was used to being loved, to spreading joy wherever she went.
They walked into the coffee shop arm in arm and took a table, and Charlie ordered a hamburger and Vanessa ordered tea.
“Don't you want to eat?” Charlie looked surprised, but Vanessa seemed suddenly nervous. “Is something wrong?”
“I don't know.” Vanessa looked strained. “I think it's this airport.” And then as she said it the memories began to flood back, the times she had been there with her mother … with her mother and Vasili on their way to Athens … when they had left London the last time for New York. Vanessa looked into Charlie's eyes and trembling a little, she recalled it all, even the appalling scene in the hospital in London, when she had called for Teddy to come and save her mother's life. “What were you thinking just then?” Charlie looked worried, but Vanessa slowly smiled.
“About when you were born. …”
“Andreas said that Mommy almost died.”
“She did.” Vanessa answered gravely. “My uncle Teddy came and delivered you by Caesarean.” Charlie nodded.
“Where was my father?”
Vanessa looked distant as she answered. “I don't know. He had disappeared.” She sighed deeply then. “He was awful to my mother in those days … to our mother,” she corrected, and Charlie nodded.
&nbs
p; “He used to scare me. After a while Andreas wouldn't let me see him.” She had been five when he had got out of the institution, and fourteen when he died. But she had only seen him four or five times over the years. They said nothing more about him, and Vanessa sat lost in her own thoughts.
“What was it like when you were little?” Charlie looked at her with her big green eyes and Vanessa smiled.
“It depends when. Some of it was wonderful… and some of it wasn't.” But she seemed to look at it differently now. She looked at everything differently since she had met Andreas. None of it seemed quite as overwhelming as it had before.
“Do you remember your father?” Charlie was curious about all of it now. She was crazy about her sister in every way.
Vanessa shook her head. “Not really. Just from pictures. The only man I really remember from my childhood is my uncle Teddy.” But now she remembered Vasili too. It was odd now that she remembered him so clearly, he seemed ugly to her, in the things he had done to her mother, but he didn't frighten her as he had before. When she thought of him, it was with anger and sadness at what he had done, but she thought also of Andreas and the love she had just shared with him. Vasili was only one man now. He no longer represented all men. And as she thought of it she looked at Charlie, and then glanced at her watch with a sudden thought.
“Are we late?” Charlie still wanted a milk shake.
“Go ahead. I want to make a phone call.”
“To who?” The sixteen-year-old eyes were always curious and Vanessa laughed.
“A friend in New York.”
“From here? It will be so expensive!” Andreas had made her a speech about not being too extravagant in New York. “Why don't you call from there?”
“Because I want him to meet us at the airport, Miss Nosy, that's why.” She grinned at her sister and went to the phone booth just outside the restaurant, as Charlie ordered a chocolate milk shake and a piece of pie, none of which showed on her figure.
The phone rang twice and he answered it, and her voice sounded strained at first. She told him that she was fine and that she was arriving with Charlie. And then after an awkward pause, “I'd like to see you, John.…” She didn't know what else to say, how to tell him. …”
“At the airport?”
“Yes.”
“I'll be there.”
And when they landed in New York, he was. Vanessa and Charlie came off the plane, looking rumpled and tired and expectant. They came through customs, and as they did Vanessa looked up high at the glass-enclosed deck, and she pointed them all out to Charlie.
“There they are, love, waiting for us.” There was Teddy and Linda and the baby, and John Henry standing beside them, looking terribly serious, as his eyes never left Vanessa's face. She looked different to him as he watched her, more sophisticated, he thought, and somehow more womanly than she had before. And as she stopped to speak to a customs officer, he looked down at her neck and saw something sparkle. It was the diamond Andreas had given her when she left.
“Are you ready?” She looked at Charlie with a smile as they prepared to leave the customs area.
“Yes.” Charlie said it almost breathlessly.
Hand in hand they were going into their new life. The doors opened automatically and they stepped into the terminal, and for an instant Vanessa could see Teddy catch his breath. Seeing Charlotte for the first time was like seeing Serena return to life. Only the hair was different but even that seemed not to matter as one looked into the familiar green eyes. Teddy stood very still, looking at her, his eyes filled with tears, and then with a sudden gesture he brushed them aside and hurried toward her, he took her into his arms and he held her, remembering the last time he had seen her, when she was only an infant in court. And now she was back with them, sixteen years later. And he held her, knowing that Serena's baby had come home at last.
Linda watched him and held their baby, as Vanessa walked slowly toward John Henry. He only looked at her and he said nothing. There were no words that had to be spoken between them. She had gone to Athens as he had told her, she had touched her past, found her sister, and she had come back. She felt his arms tremble for a moment as he held her, and when he looked into her face and saw her smiling, he knew that all was well. John held tightly to Vanessa's hand, and Teddy slipped an arm around Linda, and Charlie walked between the two couples, with a broad smile.
“Welcome home.” John Henry said it over his shoulder.
And Teddy whispered softly, “Welcome back.”
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August 1989
v3.0
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