Neighbors

by Danielle Steel

  He walked home from Meredith’s house, and thought about her all the way. He wondered if she’d really go out to dinner with him. He wanted to spend time with her without half a dozen other people around. He wanted to know more about her, and what had driven her behind her walls. He hoped she would stay engaged in life now, for her sake, as well as his.

  * * *

  —

  When they went to their room that night, Tyla saw the familiar look in Andrew’s eye. She knew it well. He started to say something to her about going to the shelter again, and she turned on him with a look he’d never seen before. Will and Daphne were brushing their teeth and for a minute they were alone. She hissed at him almost like a snake.

  “If you touch me, or hit me again, I’m calling the police, and I’ll tell everyone in this house what you do to me.” He pulled his arm back to hit her, and just as quickly realized that she meant it.

  “Who have you been talking to?” he said to her, taking a step toward her menacingly, but he put his arm down.

  “I don’t need to talk to anyone. I’m never going to let you hit me again.” She said it coldly and clearly as their children walked back into the room. Andrew didn’t say another word. He got into bed, and turned his back to her, and he didn’t lay a hand on her that night.

  Chapter 6

  Arthur was the first of them to get his contractor to come to the house, ten days after the earthquake. He had cleverly used his age, the fact that he was blind, and preparing for a concert in two weeks to get the owner of the company to come and assess the damage. There were deep tears in several ceilings, two of which had to be torn out and reinforced. His bathtub was cracked right down the middle, his kitchen cabinets had come loose from the wall, and all his plates were broken. The floors had been torn up, and several light fixtures were hanging by a thread. In the midst of all of it, miraculously, his beautiful piano was untouched. His housekeeper, Frieda, had hired a crew to remove all the broken glass. She had made a list of furniture that had to be repaired or replaced. Frieda was elderly but efficient, and Peter helped with whatever he could in the evenings.

  The contractor estimated two to three weeks of work in the house, but once the windows and bathtub were replaced, Arthur could live there while the work continued, which he wanted to do, so he could rehearse for his concert on his own piano. He had invited the entire group to attend his concert, since it was in San Francisco.

  The contractor got a glazier there in record time, and installed the bathtub, and two weeks after the earthquake, Arthur told Meredith, regretfully, that he was moving back to his house the next day. The power on their entire street had come on two days before, while three blocks away, the residents still had no electricity. The gas lines had been checked at all their homes and found to be intact, so the gas and electricity were on, and they had lights. Arthur was genuinely sad to leave the group. They had become a family after living through the aftermath of the earthquake together.

  Meredith organized a dinner for him the night before he left and planned the menu carefully, since the grocery stores and most businesses were open again. Debbie was still being chilly with Meredith, ever since she had refused to believe that one of them had stolen the Fabergé box that was still missing. Meredith decided not to worry about it. She had more important things to do.

  The dinner for Arthur and Peter was a festive affair, and she served her best wines and champagne, which irked Jack immeasurably. He acted as though his personal reserves were being depleted. He and Debbie occasionally drank some of Meredith’s best vintages when they could get away with it, and had become connoisseurs of French Bordeaux. He preferred Lynch-Bages, while Debbie favored Chateau Margaux.

  Arthur was very touched by the trouble Meredith went to, and since the power was back on, they ate in the dining room. The dinner was elegant and stately, even though they all dined in jeans and sweatshirts and the rough clothes they’d been wearing for two weeks. And in spite of herself, Debbie prepared a delicious dinner. Meredith knew what everyone liked to eat by then, and went out of her way to pick a dinner Arthur would love. The next day, Meredith, Jack, and Peter helped Arthur move back to his home. There were workmen everywhere, and the repairs were underway. He looked ecstatic the moment he sat down at his beloved concert grand piano.

  Ava was heartbroken when Peter moved out, and she went to the house every night, with the excuse of helping Arthur. Five days later, Joel and Ava moved out, and went back to his place. They were tearing the house apart, and putting it back together. All of which left only Tyla and Andrew still with Meredith three weeks after the earthquake. They’d had trouble getting a construction company to come and start working on their house. They finally found a small outfit that agreed to do it, and a month to the day after the earthquake, they were ready to move out and go home.

  Meredith helped Tyla get the children settled in, and she felt bereft when she went home to her empty house. She had dinner on a tray in her study that night, and only picked at it. Debbie was offended when she declined to eat with them, but she had lost the habit of sharing her evenings with them. All she could think of were Will and Daphne, and she was worried about Tyla. Andrew was back to his normal office schedule by then, and in a better mood, but alone with Tyla at night, Meredith had no idea what he would do. Daphne’s admission that her father sometimes hit her mother had terrified her, and Tyla still hadn’t admitted it to her.

  The only thing that cheered her was Arthur’s concert at the symphony at Davies Hall the day after the Johnsons moved out. They had all agreed to have dinner together afterward. Meredith invited Charles Chapman to join them, and he was delighted. The OES was still swamped, but he said that things were slowing down a little. They were still trying to help people find short- and long-term housing, but the shelters were closing down one by one, schools were open again, some in temporary government locations, and Meredith was back to her quiet life behind her walls. She dropped in on Arthur occasionally, and noticed that Ava was there whenever Joel was busy or out of town. The night of Arthur’s performance, she looked incredible in a short sexy black dress that showed off her breathtaking cleavage and her long legs. Peter looked stunned when he saw her.

  Arthur’s performance was superb, and dinner afterward at a Greek restaurant they all loved was a jovial affair. They were the last ones in the place and Charles, Peter, Arthur, Joel, and Ava came for drinks at Meredith’s house afterward. Andrew and Tyla had to go home to let their babysitter leave, and at two A.M. Arthur finally conceded that he was tired. Peter took him home to go to bed, and then went back to Meredith’s to join the others. In the past month, they had become their own little family block party, and Tyla planned to invite Meredith to dinner whenever Andrew allowed it.

  The morning after Arthur’s concert, Tyla told him that Meredith was coming to dinner that night, to test the waters.

  “Again? Why?”

  “We lived with her for almost a month. She’s alone now. The least we can do is have her to dinner occasionally.”

  “Haven’t you seen enough of her? Why don’t you just have her move in with us?” Andrew said, and then slammed the door to their bedroom when he went to dress for work. The day was off to a bad start but he didn’t forbid it. Meredith could feel the tension when she arrived, and Tyla looked nervous when she put dinner on the table. Andrew was furious when she burned the rice, and snapped at Will and told him to get his elbows off the table. Daphne was clutching Martha to her, which Meredith knew now she did whenever she felt anxious. She never let go of the doll for an instant the day after her father had hit her mother. It was always the same day Will had one of his bad stomachaches that kept him home from school, so he could be with his mother.

  Meredith had been slightly late for dinner because Debbie had made a fuss when she left the house.

  “You’re going out again? Why didn’t you tell me? I made your favori
te dinner.” She looked like she was going to cry, and Meredith felt terrible to hurt her feelings.

  “I left you a note in the kitchen this morning,” Meredith said gently.

  “I didn’t see it.” She made a great show then of throwing out the dinner, which made Meredith arrive twenty minutes late at the Johnsons, after apologizing profusely to Debbie. She ran down the street to the Johnsons, and left Debbie looking mortally wounded in the kitchen. As soon as she left, Jack broke out a bottle of Debbie’s favorite Chateau Margaux, and she had dinner for him in the oven.

  “She’ll get tired of them,” he reassured her, “or they’ll get tired of her. They’re not going to want an old woman hanging around all the time, and she’s not going to want to hang around an eighty-two-year-old man. Peter and Ava are going to be sneaking around seeing each other. They won’t want an audience for that. All Joel wants is to get laid. He won’t want Meredith underfoot either,” Jack said smugly.

  “What about the colonel?” Debbie asked him, concerned, as they drank the wine and ate the dinner she’d hidden in the oven. “He seems pretty interested in her.” Debbie didn’t like the look of him. He was always watching her and Jack as though he was suspicious of them.

  “She’s almost ten years older than he is. How long do you think that will last?” Jack said cynically. “He’s got his eye on Ava. I think he wants a piece of that himself.”

  “And she wants Peter.” Debbie laughed. “They’re all so screwed up. You’re right, they’ll get bored with each other in no time, and she’ll come crawling back to us,” Debbie said, getting drunk on the wine, while Meredith had dinner with the Johnsons.

  The atmosphere stayed tense between Andrew and Tyla all through dinner, and not wanting to make it worse, Meredith came home as soon as the children went to bed. The house was quiet by then, and Meredith could see the lights on in Jack and Debbie’s apartment as she walked home. She hoped that Debbie had forgiven her for not eating the dinner she’d prepared. She hated upsetting her. She knew it had been a hard month for them with everyone staying there after the earthquake. She’d given them extra days off as soon as the guests left. It had been a good month for her, but challenging for them, and they acted as though their own home had been invaded. She still remembered Charles’s words about them, and knew he was overreacting and had misjudged them. They had been moody while the guests were there, but they weren’t evil people.

  She was thinking of him when the phone rang. It was only nine o’clock. It was Charles, calling to check on her, and thank her for inviting him to Arthur’s concert.

  “How are you doing without your houseguests?” he asked.

  “I miss them. I just had dinner with Tyla, Andrew, and the children.”

  “How was that?”

  She sighed when she answered. “Tense. I worry about her, and the kids. It’s like living on the side of a volcano. She still claims that everything is fine with them, but I know it isn’t. She burned the rice and he had a fit. Poor Daphne looks terrified whenever she’s around him. I just want to scoop them up and take them home with me.”

  “Before you do that, how about dinner with me tomorrow night? You can scoop me up and take me home,” he said, and she laughed. They had never had dinner alone and she was nervous about it. He made it sound like a date, and she didn’t know if she was ready for that. She hadn’t been out on a date since before she married Scott. She felt ridiculous going on a date at her age, especially with a man eight years younger. She wanted to be friends with him, and thought it was probably better if they left it at that, but she was embarrassed to say it to him. “Are you comfortable going to a restaurant, or will everybody recognize you?”

  “I’m not sure. I don’t go out much. Almost never,” she said. He had seen a few heads turn the night before, at the symphony, and the Greek restaurant, but no one had bothered her. They just stared at her for a few minutes and whispered to one another when they realized who she was. Her looks hadn’t changed much since she had stopped making movies, and she was easily recognizable, particularly when she was dressed up like the night before. She had worn a simple black dress, with her hair pulled back and diamond earrings. Everything about her was sleek, elegant, and understated. For an instant, he had felt overwhelmed, realizing he was out with Meredith White, but she was so open and easy to be with, that she made it possible to forget what a big star she was, and what an icon. In some ways, she had become even more famous, by being so mysterious and disappearing from public view when she went into seclusion.

  “I know a little Italian restaurant out in the Avenues. No one will bother you there. Or would you rather go someplace fancier?”

  “I’m a pizza and hamburger girl myself,” she said simply.

  “You make things awfully easy. I can cook for you at my place too. I’ve become a decent cook in the past two years.”

  “We can eat here, if you like,” she suggested, but he didn’t want to do that. He wanted to get her away from the watchful eyes of Jack and Debbie, and to make it a real date.

  “I’ll figure it out. Pick you up at eight?”

  “That would be perfect,” she said, and regretted it as soon as she hung up. She felt ridiculous going on a date with him at her age. She was past all that, or she had been for the past fourteen years, but he was slowly pulling her out of seclusion, against her better judgment.

  She made a point of telling Debbie the next morning that she was going out to dinner again, for the third night in a row. She felt dizzy thinking about it. She was sorry she had told Charles she would go out with him. She was planning to make it clear to him at dinner. They could be friends and nothing more. She wasn’t interested in romance at her age. She was thinking about it when she went to the drugstore to buy toothpaste and nail polish remover. She had found what she needed when she almost collided with Tyla, who had just picked up a bottle of foundation and an ice pack. Meredith looked shocked when she saw the bruise on the side of her face. It hadn’t been there the night before, and Tyla looked instantly embarrassed and turned her face away.

  “I walked into the bathroom door last night. I forgot where I was, and Andrew had left it half closed,” she said immediately.

  “Are you okay?” Meredith asked her as they walked to the checkout counter together.

  “I’m fine. I’m sorry dinner was so lousy last night. I’ve forgotten how to cook, after staying with you and being spoiled for a month.” She smiled and Meredith saw that her lip was slightly swollen too.

  “Dinner was good, I was going to call you in a little while. But, Tyla, I’m worried about you.”

  “You don’t need to be. We’re fine. I know I look terrible. I just bruise easily. I’m always walking into things, or falling over my own feet.” Meredith felt sick as she listened to her, and she was sure the children were upset too.

  “Tyla, you don’t have to put up with anyone hurting you.” Meredith tried to make it sound as nonjudgmental as possible.

  “Andrew doesn’t hurt me,” she said, coming to his defense immediately. She knew that if she told anyone, he would kill her, just as he said he would. If she left him, where would she go and what would she do? She couldn’t deprive her children of their father. They needed him too.

  They chatted for a few more minutes, and then Tyla scurried off and said she had to pick the kids up from school.

  Meredith was still worried about her when she dressed for dinner, and Charles could see that something was bothering her when he picked her up that evening, and drove her to the Italian restaurant he had mentioned to her. She told him about it over dinner, and it disturbed him too. He commented that no one defends an abuser like their victim.

  “I don’t know what to do to help her. She’s never admitted to me that he hurts her.”

  “You can’t do anything until she tells you,” Charles said. And then they spoke of other things.
Charles knew a lot about movies, and had seen all of hers. He admitted that he’d had a crush on her when he was first in the Air Force. “I was just a kid then, and so were you. I never thought I’d be having dinner with you one day.” He told her about the missions he had flown, being in military intelligence, and winding up at the Pentagon. He had had a distinguished military career. His son had gone to West Point, and was in the army now, and his daughter was a private pilot for a major corporation and lived in Texas. She was married to a commercial airline pilot and had two children. “I guess I gave her the flying bug when she was a little kid.” He sounded proud of her.

  “Maybe it’s hereditary. I hardly know my granddaughter, but she’s trying to be an actress,” Meredith said softly.

  “Do you miss it?” Charles asked her.

  “Sometimes. Not much anymore. It was another lifetime. I loved it when I was doing it. It was thrilling. And then I stopped. Everything stopped…when my son died.” She looked at him with eyes that told the whole story of loss and bottomless grief, and he didn’t press her about it.

  “Would you ever go back to acting?” he asked her and she shook her head.

  “Not now. It’s too late.” And then she remembered Arthur telling her it was never too late. “I’m not even sure I could do it anymore, or that I’d be any good. It’s been too long, and there aren’t a lot of great parts for women my age.”

  “You could make a comeback if you wanted to. Even kids who never saw your movies know your name.”

  “It’s the only job I ever knew, or that I wanted. I loved it,” she said, and her eyes lit up. It was the first time in years that she had admitted it, even to herself. “I just couldn’t make myself go back after Justin died. It seemed so insignificant compared to losing him.”