Eileen rounded a display, and ducked behind it again, narrowing her eyes. She peeked around the corner. There was Melissa, lying on a long low stone bench that sat in an elevated alcove against the wall. Melissa’s hip and arm sank into a padding of blankets.
Melissa laughed. “Oh, show me more of that dance. Show me more.”
“Like this?” Steward’s voice came from beyond another display case.
“Yes, that one.” Melissa laughed again.
Steward’s shirt landed on the floor just within Eileen’s view. There were candles around the room and a bottle of champagne sitting on a nearby display case.
“Woman of timeless beauty,” Steward half sang as he danced toward Melissa with something in his hand. She didn’t say anything, but crinkled her nose with amusement. Steward danced into Eileen’s view. His head of hair bobbed around. “Tonight,” he said, “we’ll perform rituals that will make the land fertile. You and I. Queen and King. Goddess and God.” He placed a crown on her head. Then he spoke a few words in a language Eileen didn’t understand and stepped back.
Eileen almost gasped. Maybe she’d never noticed how beautiful Melissa was, or maybe some kind of transformation had taken place. Steward took the champagne flute from Melissa’s hand and set it down. The different textures of Melissa’s gown, crown, hair, and skin all caught the light and reflected it differently. Eileen could see Steward’s body moving with his breath. He took Melissa’s free hand and held it while he leaned over her and kissed her neck. Eileen watched Melissa’s eyes close as Steward moved to kiss her face. To Eileen’s shock, Steward placed Melissa’s palm on her own breast and then guided it down the curves of her body. The last thing Eileen saw before she turned and scurried away was Steward’s hand over Melissa’s helping her inch her skirt up her leg one finger-length of material at a time.
Eileen stopped at the threshold of the south wing to compose herself. She leaned against the stone wall next to a statue that had been removed from Pompeii. She heard footsteps and shrank into shadow, happy that the only light in the room came from the open door.
Efrem walked through the door and headed toward Steward and Melissa. Eileen thought about calling to him, but she didn’t want to explain why she was hiding in the dark. She waited for Efrem to disappear into the next room before walking back to the reception. She entered the dining hall with a slight smile she hoped conveyed calmness and contentedness. She found her parents and parents-in-law making polite conversation. Ah, the kindness of polite conversation. Conventional and comforting. She found herself a glass of champagne, which raised her mother’s eyebrows, but Eileen didn’t care. Then she joined the conversation too. She stood between the two fathers which allowed her to watch the door Efrem would return through.
She could see him coming from a room away. His head hung down and she could see him shaking it. She registered his disapproval and felt disapproval too. How vain. How vulgar. And poor Bill. Efrem reached her. A lock of his hair had fallen in a sickle across his forehead. He tried brushing it into place, but the lock refused. He looked up, met her eyes, and smiled.
Chapter 23 Prophetic
Jet’s room looked the same as it had the day she’d left for art school. It was a tiny room on the second floor with just enough space for a bed. The walls were covered in shelves that held books, pictures, rocks, shells, and school art projects. There was one bare column of shelving that had once held Jet’s clothing. A small window, too high to see out of unless one were to stand on Jet’s pillow, lit the room during the day.
Ed and Maggie sat cross legged on the bed. “Your palm, please,” Maggie said.
“Which one?”
“Your right please.”
Ed offered his hand. “The first thing you’re going to say is ‘hm’.”
“Hm.” Maggie said upon taking his hand.
“All palm readings must start with ‘hm’,” Ed said.
Maggie was frowning.
“Okay, now you’re going to say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.”’
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Maggie said. “The lines on your palm, they include an outline of India.”
“I know. I was hoping you’d ask for my right. And I should’ve kept guessing at what you’d say because that’s exactly what Jet said the first time she examined my palm. My palm lines don’t really make India– that’s a scar. It happened when I was really little. I can’t remember it at all, but I’ve heard there was a lot of blood. My mother was a wreck, screaming for help. My uncle Steward was nearby. He called the doctor.”
“Jet examined your palm?”
“At a bar on our first date.”
“What a good girl.”
“Jet told me my scar matched the outline of India and that you had hung a map of India on her wall next to some pictures cut from a book of South Asian art.”
Maggie pointed to a row of pictures along the top of one wall. “A friend gave me that book when we chose Jet’s name from it.”
“She said she’d fall asleep looking at those pictures, dreaming of India.”
“She used to beg me and Sam to take her there.”
“She still wants to go,” Ed said, looking at the pictures. The last time she took money from our bank account, he thought, was at the airport. He turned back to Maggie. “That’s where we’ll find them. Jet took the baby to India.”
“What could be more true?” Bud’s voice drifted from the bathroom into Jet’s room.
Maggie and Ed exchanged surprised looks.
Bud crawled off the shelf, back through the bathtub, and down the stairs, where he fell asleep curled up on some floor pillows with another big pillow pulled over him for warmth. He slept there with his dark blue rag tied around his head, dreaming of the ocean until late the next morning.
* * * * *
The rain had stopped at dawn. Sam looked out the front door. If it didn’t start again, they’d be able to drive out by tomorrow morning. He packed an old backpack with the things he thought he might need, and things he knew he’d need: His clothes, a few headlamps, duct tape, LSD, two sleeping bags, a long rope, mushrooms, an extra bandana, his toothbrush and toothpaste. When he could hear the others moving around the house, he set the table, poured everyone a glass of tomato juice, and made country fried potatoes and topped them with fried eggs. Once everyone was seated, Sam told them when they’d be able to get out in a day, maybe two.
Bud had broken his yolks and had a forkful of potatoes halfway to his mouth. He stopped and looked at Sam. “Safe?” he asked.
Sam smiled and patted him on the back. “Safe, little buddy.”
Little buddy! Good thing for him he’s built like a mountain, Bud thought as he took a first bite. “This is really good, Sam,” Bud said. He shoveled his meal into his mouth and listened as the others discussed a plan for finding Jet.
At first Bud had stayed silent because he thought it would be best to let Jet’s family make the decisions. Then he stayed silent out of shock. Then he couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “Wait, wait, wait. You’re headed to India?”
“Yes,” Maggie said as Sam and Ed nodded.
“Are you people completely insane?” Bud rubbed his eyes. “No, seriously.” He looked at each of them. “Do you realize you’re crazy?”
Nobody said anything.
Bud turned to Ed. “Oh, geez. Ed? You don’t really think you can find your wife and son because last night my ridiculously unprophetic ramblings were set in India? A country which happens, and I did say happens, meaning totally by coincidence, to be a similar shape as the scar on your hand, but only if you have a good imagination.”
“No,” Ed said. “My scar looks just like India. You don’t have to have a good imagination at all. Besides, you said it was true?”
“I think you’re missing my point Ed, and I never said anything was true.”
“You told us that it couldn’t be more true. We both heard you,” Ed said and Maggie nodded.
“Look, Mr. Magic Cookie made it so I don’t even remember the conversation you’re talking about. Where were we?”
“I don’t know where you were,” Ed said.
Bud rubbed his eyes again. “This is crazy. You’re crazy, and you’re making my head hurt. I’m going to go lie down.” Bud turned while in the doorway and pointed his finger at his friend. “Ed, Captain Butt-Eye can’t lead you to your wife.”
Ed just looked at him.
“This is insane,” Bud said. When he was just through the door he spun around and leaned toward them pointing. “Captain Butt-Eye is a stupid name and it’s a stupid story and you’re all nuts.” Bud laid back down on the couch, tossed and turned a few times and then slept. It’d been a rough night.
While Ed and Maggie were making travel plans, Sam thought of a few more things to put in his bag. He walked through the living room and looked at Bud sleeping on the couch. His bandana had fallen from Bud’s head in the night, and Sam had it now in his pocket. He took a moment to put it back on his head.
Chapter 24 Struggling to be Good
Eileen and Efrem had been married for three years and their son Ed was just over two years old. He was a good, healthy, and thoughtful child. He had a favorite stuffed mouse and he loved staging little adventures where the mouse could be the hero.
Once, Ed had taken Mouse into the collection where Mouse jumped around and escaped from under the claws of invisible monsters. Mouse had had to escape into a small and delicate alabaster vase. The vase was so thin around the middle that one could see the silhouette of flower stems in it. Ed was doing his best to get Mouse out when he broke the vase in his palm. He screamed for his mother, who ran to him, but when she’d seen blood pouring down her child’s arm she also fell to screaming, and the rest of the household came running.
Eileen liked to feel in control and she liked composure. When the blood was cleaned up and Eddie was smiling again, she found herself mortified by her performance.
Of all the people in the household, Efrem had been the farthest away and distance had softened Eileen’s screams into the faint moaning of a woman in the south wing. The sound drew to the foreground of Efrem’s thoughts the moment he’d witnessed between Melissa and Steward. Efrem had been surprised on his wedding day to find that he thought Melissa was the most beautiful woman in the world. But it wasn’t her beauty that had haunted him. It was the way she’d been looking at Steward that Efrem had thought about thousands of times. He hadn’t been able to see Steward’s face, but the way he held his head told Efrem that Steward and Melissa were exactly where they wanted to be.
Efrem had reversed course that night as quickly as he could without being heard. He’d made a point to appear unperturbed as he returned to his wedding reception. But, as Efrem had walked, the image of Melissa’s sea-green eyes below the straight line of her dark bangs had floated in his mind. He’d pushed them down, but they’d resurfaced. Her eyes bobbed in his consciousness, not just that night, but many to come.
He’d tried to shake Melissa’s eyes out of his head before taking the hand of his new wife. He’d shook his hung head back and forth as he walked. He’d imagined the shore and waves rising and breaking, and he’d placed Melissa’s eyes there. He’d shaken his head with the waves and forced her eyes to fade into the water. When Efrem looked up, he’d met Eileen’s eyes from a room away. He walked to her, took her hand and announced that it was time to go.
Chapter 25 Baby Talisman
When Bud woke again, he found Sam, Maggie, and Ed all in the living room with him.
“Hi, Bud,” Ed said like they hadn’t seen each other in years.
Bud didn’t say anything. He sat himself up and felt a piece of the blue bandana flop around on his head. “Bah,” he said as he fought it off. The moment the bandana came free, he was hit with an incredible headache. The sudden pain made him equally frantic to get it back on. Once the bandana was back in place, the headache faded and Bud let out a sigh of relief and defeat.
“So, you’re coming with us right?” Ed asked.
“Too India? Shit, Ed.”
Ed looked hurt.
“Oh hell, someone’ll need to watch over you,” Bud grumbled.
“Great,” Ed said. “I called Mother and she had someone pack a bag for me and she sent someone to your house to do the same. Our bags will be waiting for us at the baggage claim in India.”
“You called your mom? What’d she say? No, no, don’t even answer that question. What’d you say? Did you tell her ‘Argh, I be setting off to find me wife and baby, but never fear, I be bringing a palm reader, a magic cook, and the infamous pirate, Captain Butt-Eye?”’ Bud didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m sure she was relieved.”
“No,” Ed said. “I told mother that Jet and the baby needed help getting home. I said I’d visit with the baby as soon as I got back and that I’d be bringing some of Jet’s family, and, well, you. She really likes you. She sounded relieved.”
“I’m sure.” Bud turned to Maggie. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sewing a baby talisman.”
“A what?”
“I’m sewing some of Jet’s things, some herbs, a couple of rocks, and a crystal into a talisman shaped like a baby.”
This is Ed’s family, Bud thought, and you’re going to be traveling with them. Be nice, he told himself. But he couldn’t help saying, “Maggie, a crystal is a rock.”
Chapter 26 Ms. Mae Considers Reconciliation
For the third time in three minutes Mrs. Mae readjusted her sitting position. Her chair seemed less comfortable than usual. She thought about calling Luisa to help her fix it. Instead, she walked to her desk and looked around for something. Anything. Mrs. Mae pushed some papers around, stacked a few, picked up her paperweight, set it on them. She leaned on her desk looking at the green shadow cast by the paperweight. It looked different. She picked the paperweight back up. It felt wrong. Too light, or maybe too heavy. Wrong. She picked it up and set it back down. Wrong. Everything seemed wrong, and then the phone rang. Mrs. Mae pounced on it.
Ed hadn’t elaborated on his plan to bring the baby back home, but she didn’t mind. She gathered from their conversation that he’d be taking a few people with him and that Bud was going. She’d always liked Bud. She sent someone to both Ed and Bud’s homes to have bags packed for each and instructed that both bags be brought to her before they were taken to the airport. As she ordered people around, her momentum grew. She moved faster and faster.
By mid morning the sun had burned through the fog and Mrs. Mae stopped to admire the great expanse of ocean and was surprised by its beauty. It had been years since she’d looked at the ocean without using her telescope. She called Luisa to tell her she’d take lunch in her room and that she didn’t want to be disturbed by anything until then.
Chapter 27 Efrem Runs Away
After a few years of marriage, Efrem began to suspect that making a list didn’t mean he’d achieve his aim. His initial response was to make more lists. Then he began to make lists where a goal was broken into the most minute steps possible. This worked even worse. Sometimes a list that he’d worked on for hours would be spoiled by an unforeseen event or unexpected response early on. Or, worse, when he was nearing the end. His stomach started to hurt. Then his head. Then his head and his stomach.
There were a number of reasons why Efrem admired Eileen, had decided to marry her, and wanted to stay married to her. She was smart and organized. She had also developed an effective air of command. Every detail of the Mae family’s business, or social life that Eileen took charge of was flawlessly run. It was true that while they’d dated he’d never considered spontaneity or a romantic personality to be important. Neither he nor Eileen held these characteristics. Eileen seemed even to take pride in being a prude. Efrem began making pedantic lists aimed at spontaneous and romantic behavior.
Efrem was sitting at his desk, which was littered with aborted lists, when he realized for the first tim
e just how ridiculous this particular list making endeavor was. He began to laugh to himself. He rested his eyes on the heels of his palms. He laughed louder.
“Hey, Ef, is that you?” Steward’s voice floated up the stairwell.
Efrem jumped into a composed sitting position. He saw his mental state expressed by the mess on his desk. He began stuffing defunct lists into his wastebasket as he yelled, “Yes” in the direction of the door. By the time Steward had made it up the stairs, Efrem was sitting with his hands folded on his desk. Steward plopped into a chair across from him.
“What are you doing?” Steward asked, looking at Efrem’s empty desk.
“Oh, nothing much,” Efrem said. “Just thinking. About work, of course.”
“Efrem, Efrem, Efrem,” Steward said, “you work too much. It’s after five. Look– me and some guys from school, you’ll know most of them, are headed out into the woods behind the south tower to play mountain golf. It’s like golf, I think. I’ve never played golf. Anyway, you use a croquet set and you play on a huge unmanicured course. You smash the ball around like mad. You break mallets. Sometimes the balls break. It’s hilarious and, best of all, you’ll be great. Want to come?” To Steward’s surprise, his brother agreed.
They walked to the base of the south tower where Steward instructed him to pick a mallet, a ball, and a beer. They headed into the woods to find the rest of the guys. Efrem felt great. He hadn’t been out in the fresh air with a group of guys since he played his last football game in college three years earlier.
The guys had set up the course with the tee-off point for the second hole starting from the top of a log. The hole was a croquet wicket on the other side of a clump of boulders. Efrem aimed and hit the ball as hard as he could. It ricocheted off of a tree trunk where it split in half. One half landed at the base of the tree, but the other wobbled through the wicket. The guys stood open mouthed, and then a beer long argument began over whether or not half of a ball through the wicket should count. They decided it counted, grabbed another beer, congratulated Efrem, and told Steward that he never should have invited his brother because no one else would ever win again.
Mending the Past Page 9