Cradle (14 page)

Melvin ran into Amanda Winchester one day while he and Marc were on vacation in Key
West. They had worked together briefly on a project that had never panned out twenty
years before. Amanda told him that she had just formed a local amateur repertory group
to do two Tennessee Williams plays a year. Would he be interested in directing them?

Melvin and Marc moved to Key West and started to build their house on Sugarloaf Key.
Both of them thoroughly enjoyed their work with the Key West Players. The actors were
everyday people, dedicated and earnest. Some had had a little acting experience. But
for the most part, the secretaries, housewives, and retail clerks, plus officers and
enlisted men from the US Naval Air Station, were all novices with one thing in common.
Each of them viewed his few days on the stage as his moment of glory, and he wanted
to make the best of it.

Commander Winters came out of the dressing room first. He was wearing his uniform
(he had come straight over to rehearsal from the base) and looked a little stiff and
uncertain. He sat down in one of the theatre chairs next to Amanda Winchester. ‘I
was really glad to see you back again,’ said Amanda, taking his hand. ‘I thought your
Goober last fall was just right.’

Winters thanked her politely. Amanda changed the subject. ‘So how are things out at
the base? I read an article the other day in the
Miami Herald
about all the modern weapons the Navy has these days, pilotless submarines and vertical
takeoff fighters and search and destroy torpedoes. There seems to be no limit to our
ability to build more powerful and dangerous toys for war. Are you involved with all
that?’

‘Only in a limited way,’ Commander Winters said pleasantly. Then, anticipating the
discussion with the director, he leaned forward so that he could see Melvin and Marc
as well as Amanda. ‘I apologize if I was a little flat tonight,’ he began. ‘We have
a couple of big problems out at the base and I may have been a bit distracted, but
I’ll be ready tomorrow—’

‘Oh, no,’ said Melvin, interrupting him, ‘that’s not what I wanted to talk to you
about. It’s your first scene with Tiffani… Ah, here she comes. Let’s go up on the
stage.’

Tiffani Thomas was almost seventeen years old and a junior at Key West High School.
A Navy brat all her life, Tiffani had gone to seven different schools in her eleven
years since kindergarten. Her father was a noncommissioned officer who had been assigned
to Key West about three months before. She had been recommended to Melvin Burton by
the high school drama teacher.

‘She hasn’t done anything for me yet except rehearse,’ the teacher had said of Tiffani,
‘but she learns her lines quickly and has a quality, an intensity I guess, that sets
her apart from the others. And she’s clearly been in plays before. I don’t know if
she can get ready in three weeks, but she’s my first choice by far.’

Tiffani probably would not have been called beautiful by her Florida classmates. Her
features were too much out of the ordinary to be properly appreciated by most high
school boys. Her assets were olive eyes, quiet and brooding, light freckles on a pale
complexion, long red eyelashes tinged with brown, and a magnificent head of thick
auburn hair. Her carriage was proper and erect, not slumped like most teenagers, so
she probably seemed aloof to her peers. ‘Striking,’ Amanda called her, accurately,
when she first saw Tiffani.

She was standing on the stage alone in her short-sleeved blouse and jeans as the two
men approached. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, the way her father liked it.
Tiffani was very nervous. She was worried about what Mr. Burton was going to say to
her. She had overheard the buyer who was playing Hannah Jelkes say that Melvin might
do away with the part of Charlotte altogether if ‘the new girl can’t hack it’.
I have worked so hard for this part
, Tiffani thought.
Oh please, please, don’t let it be bad news
.

Tiffani was looking down at her feet when Melvin Burton and Commander Winters joined
her on the stage. ‘Well, now,’ Melvin began, ‘let’s get straight to the point. The
first scene with you two in the hotel room is not working. In fact, it’s a disaster.
We must make some changes.’

Melvin saw that Tiffani was not looking at him. Gently he put his hand under her chin
and lifted it until her eyes met his. ‘You must look at me, child, for I’m trying
to tell you some very important things.’ He noticed that her eyes were brimming with
water and his years of experience told him immediately what was wrong. He leaned forward
and whispered so that nobody else could hear, ‘I said we would make some changes,
not do away with the scene. Now get yourself together and listen up.’

Burton regained his director’s voice and turned toward Winters. ‘In this scene, Commander,
your character Shannon and young Miss Goodall engage in foreplay that leads to intercourse
later that night. In the following scene they are discovered,
in flagrante delicto
, by the confused Miss Fellowes. And that establishes the desperate situation causing
Shannon to run to Maxine and Fred at the Costa Verde.

‘But our scene does not work right now because nobody watching it will recognize what
you two are doing as foreplay. Now, I can change the movement to make it easier—putting
Shannon already on the bed when he discovers Charlotte behind the door would be one
way—and I can change Charlotte’s clothing so that she looks less like a little girl,
but there’s one thing that I cannot do….’ Melvin stopped and looked back and forth
from Tiffani to Winters. They were both staring blankly at him.

‘Come here, come here, both of you,’ Melvin said, gesturing impatiently with his right
hand. He dropped his voice again. He took Tiffani’s hand with his left and Commander
Winters’s with his right. ‘You two are lovers for one night in this play. It is essential
that the audience believe this or they will not understand completely why Shannon
is at the end of his rope, like the iguana. Shannon is desperate because he was originally
locked out of his church for giving in to the same lust….’

They were both listening, but Melvin’s director’s intuition told him he was not reaching
them. He had another idea. He took Tiffani’s hand and put it into the commander’s,
closing his own hand over theirs for emphasis. ‘Look at each other for a moment. That’s
right.’ He turned to Winters. ‘She’s a beautiful young woman, isn’t she, Commander?’

Their eyes were in contact. ‘And he’s a handsome man, isn’t he, Tiffani? I want you
to imagine that you have an uncontrollable desire to touch him, to kiss him, to be
naked with him.’ Tiffani blushed. Winters fidgeted. Melvin was fairly certain that
he saw a spark, albeit a fleeting one.

‘Now tomorrow night,’ he continued, looking at Tiffani and taking his hand off theirs,
‘I want you to capture
that
feeling when you’re hiding in his room. I want it to explode out of you when he notices
that you are there. And you, Commander’—he looked back at the middle-aged naval officer—‘you
are torn between an overpowering passion to possess this young girl physically and
the almost certain knowledge that it will be the final ruination of both your life
and your soul. You are hopelessly trapped. Remember, you fear that God has already
forsaken you for your past sins. But, despite that, you finally relinquish yourself
to your lust and commit another unpardonable sin.’

Tiffani and Commander Winters both realized at virtually the same time that their
hands were still intertwined. They looked at each other for a moment and then, embarrassed,
awkwardly separated them. Melvin Burton slipped between his players and put his arms
around their shoulders. ‘So go on home now and think about what I’ve said. And come
back tomorrow and really break a leg.’

Vernon Winters drove the Pontiac into his driveway in suburban Key West just before
eleven o’clock. The house was quiet, the only lights were in the garage and the kitchen.
As regular as the stars
, Vernon thought,
Hap to bed at ten, Betty to bed at ten-thirty
. In his mind’s eye he saw his wife go into his son’s bedroom, as she did every night,
and fiddle briefly with his sheets and coverlet. ‘Did you say your prayers?’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Hap always answered.

Then she would kiss him good night on the forehead, turn out his light as she left
the room, and go into her bedroom. Within ten minutes she would have changed into
her pyjamas, brushed her teeth, and washed her face. She would then kneel beside her
bed, her elbows on the top of the blanket and her hands clasped right in front of
her face. ‘Dear God,’ she would say aloud, and then she would pray until exactly ten-thirty,
moving her lips silently with her eyes closed. Five minutes later she would be asleep.

Vernon was aware of a vague disquiet as he walked through the living room toward the
three bedrooms on the opposite side of the house from the garage. There was something
stirring in him, something that he could not identify exactly, but he assumed it was
associated with either the nervousness of opening night or the sudden return of Randy
Hilliard to his life. He wanted to talk to someone.

He stopped at Hap’s bedroom first. Commander Winters walked in quietly in the dark
and sat on the side of his son’s bed. Hap was fast asleep, lying on his side. A tiny
nightlight beside his bed illuminated his profile.
How like your mother you look
, Winters thought.
And act. You two are so close. I’m almost a trespasser in my own home
. He put his hand gently against Hap’s cheek. The boy did not stir.
How can I make up for all the time I was gone?

Winters gently nudged his son awake. ‘Hap,’ he said softly, ‘it’s your dad.’ Henry
Allen Pendleton Winters rubbed his eyes and then sat up quickly in bed. ‘Yes, sir,’
he said, ‘is anything wrong? Is Mom all right?’

‘No,’ his father answered, and then laughed. ‘I mean yes. Mom’s all right. Nothing’s
wrong. I just wanted to talk.’

Hap looked at the clock beside his bed. ‘Ummm, well, Dad. What do you want to talk
about?’

Winters was quiet for a moment. ‘Hap, did you ever read the copy of the script that
I got for you and your mother, the one from my play?’

‘No, sir. Not much,’ Hap replied. ‘I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t get into it. I think
maybe it’s above my head.’ He brightened. ‘But I’m looking forward to seeing you in
it tomorrow night.’ There was a long pause. ‘Umm, what’s it about anyway?’

Winters stood up and looked out of the open window. Beyond the screen he could hear
the gentle susurration of the crickets. ‘It’s about a man who loses his place with
God because he can’t or won’t control his actions. It’s about….’ Winters turned his
head around quickly and caught his son eyeing the clock. A sharp emotional pain raced
through him. He waited until it had abated and then drew a breath. ‘Well, we can talk
about it some other time, son. I just realized how late it is.’

He walked to the door. ‘Good night, Hap,’ he said.

‘Good night, sir.’

Vernon Winters walked past his wife’s room to the third bedroom at the end of the
hall. He undressed slowly, now even more aware than before of an unfulfilled longing.
He thought for a fleeting second about waking Betty up to talk and maybe… But he knew
better.
That’s not her style
, he said to himself,
never was. Even before when we slept together. And after Libya and the dreams and
tears at night who could blame her for wanting her own bedroom
.

He slipped into his bed in his underpants. The soothing melody of the crickets enveloped
him.
And besides. She has her God and I have my despair. There is nothing left between
us except Hap. We couple as strangers, both fearing any discovery
.

‘The communication room will close in five minutes. The communication room will close
in five minutes.’ The disembodied recorded voice sounded tired. Carol Dawson was weary
herself. She was talking to Dale Michaels on the videophone. Photographs were strewn
all over the desk underneath the screen and the video camera.

‘All right,’ Carol was saying, ‘I guess I agree with you. The only possible way for
me to decipher this puzzle is to bring all the photos and the telescope recording
unit back to Miami.’ She sighed and then yawned. ‘I’ll come up there first thing in
the morning, on the flight that arrives at seven-thirty, so that IPL can get an early
shot at the recorded data. But remember, I must be back here in time to pick up the
golden trident at four. Can the lab process all the data in a couple of hours?’

‘That’s not the hard part. Trying to analyse the data and piece together a coherent
story in an hour or two will be the tough job.’ Dr. Dale was sitting on the couch
in the living room of his spacious flat in Key Biscayne. In front of him, on the coffee
table, was a magnificent jade chess board with green and white squares. Six carved
chess pieces were still on the board: the two opposing kings and four pawns, two from
each side. Dale Michaels paused and looked meaningfully at the camera. ‘I know how
important this is to you. I’ve cancelled my eleven o’clock meeting so I can help you.’

‘Thanks,’ Carol said automatically. She felt a trickle of irritation.
Why is it
, she thought while Dale talked about one of his new projects at MOI,
that men always demand gratitude for every little sacrifice. If a woman changes her
schedule to accommodate a man, it’s expected. But if a man revises his precious schedule
it’s a big fucking deal
.

Dale droned on. Now he was enthusiastically telling her about a new Institute effort
to survey the underwater volcanoes around Papua New Guinea.
Whew
, Carol smiled to herself when she realized that Dale’s self-centred focus was bothering
her,
I must really be beat. I believe I’m on the verge of being bitchy
.

‘Hey,’ Carol interrupted him. She stood up and started to pick up the scattered photographs.
‘Sorry to bring a halt to this party, but they’re closing the room and I’m exhausted.
I’ll see you in the morning.’