Under the Cypress Moon (52 page)

"Yeah.  I heard.  Anyway, what do we do now?  He's drunk off his ass, and we gotta get him home or wherever."  Shanice felt mildly concerned about Mark but far more about just getting him out of her hair. 

"I got this," Melina assured her friends.  "I know where his hotel room is."

"You've been to his hotel room," Tara asked, her eyes bulging out of their sockets in utter disbelief.  "Did you guys... you know?"

"No, not like I didn't want to, but no.  But I was there, so I know where it is.  I'm only kinda tipsy.  I think I'm good.  I should be able to find it."

Tara, feeling slighted, sat back and said nothing on the matter.  Shanice happily obliged her friend's request.  She liked Mark well enough but was a little sick of his company.  She intended for it to be only a "girls' night out" in the first place.

Mark and Melina headed down the beach, stumbling here and there, both trying to catch the other.  More than once, they both went tumbling to the sand, laughing hysterically as they fought their way back to their feet. 

"Kiss me," Melina demanded the last time that she and Mark helped each other up.

"Kiss you?!"

"Yes!  I've wanted to kiss from the first moment I saw you!  I'd be good to you!  I would never treat you like that other girl does!  Just kiss me, and find out!"

Mark stood there in awe, afraid to comply with the command but did not fight Melina away as she lunged toward him and planted her lips on his.  In the midst of all of the turmoil of his life, Mark gave in, closing eyes and seeing Shylah's beautiful face, believing, in that moment, that it was her kissing him and not Melina.  After several seconds, he realized exactly what was happening and shoved Melina away from him.

"What did you do that for," Melina screamed at the top of her lungs as if she were in pain.

"I can't do that!  I told you that!  I know... I know I'm still drunk.  I can't... I can't think too clear now, but I can't do it.  I got... I got somebody.  I can't hurt her."

"She's not here!  She'd never find out," Melina screamed.

"But I'd know," Mark screamed just as loudly.  "I'd know!  You're... you're so damn beautiful, and I knew that before... before I got drunk.  I could really care about you, if I didn't have her.  Exc... excu... excuse me."  Mark fought all that he could but could not keep the next emigration of vomit from leaving his lips.

Mark still allowed Melina to accompany him to his hotel room.  As soon as Mark got inside, he fell face first onto the bed and went out like a light.  The next morning, Mark awoke to see Melina next to him.  Though Mark had his pants on, he had no shirt and wondered if he slept with Melina.  Mark peered under the covers to see if Melina had any clothes on, feeling it would be a good indication.  To Mark's great consternation, Melina was completely nude.

In a great panic, Mark jumped out of the bed and ran to the bathroom.  Staring at himself in the mirror, Mark felt a tremendous sense of self-doubt wash over him, as well as the most overwhelming worry that he ever experienced.  He had no idea at all what he should do, could do, or would do.  As he fell to the floor, sliding his back down the bathroom wall, he began to cry uncontrollably, sobbing like a baby, knowing that he needed to confess to Shylah what he had done, yet he did not know how he could or when he could do it.

Melina was quickly awakened by the loud sobs from the next room and went to see what was the matter.  As she pushed the door open, she couldn't believe what she saw, a grown man sitting on the floor of a hotel bathroom, sobbing onto his crossed arms.  "What's wrong, Mark?"

Mark slowly raised his head to see the nude form of someone he imagined to be the only woman capable of matching Shylah in sheer beauty and perfection of body.  Mark was speechless.  He could not answer at all but could only sit and stare with his mouth agape.

"You're not gonna talk to me?  What's wrong," Melina asked, feeling herself becoming aroused from knowing that at least some part of Mark desired her as much as she did him.

"Did we?"  Mark could not finish his sentence, more out of desperate hope that nothing had happened the night before and from embarrassment than from his continued awe of the sight set before his eyes.

"Are you asking me if we had sex last night?"

"Yeah.  I guess I am," Mark sheepishly and almost inaudibly answered.

"No.  We did not have sex.  I wanted to, to be honest.  I wanted to even before we went out drinking, and I did hope that if I came back here with you that we might do something, but you passed out on the bed before I could even get near you.  You had your pants on the entire night, though you did take your shirt off at one point, twirl it around, and say it was a helicopter before you threw it into the trash can and said 'three points!'"

"Oh, thank God," Mark exclaimed, happier than he could remember ever being at any other time in his life.  "You don't know what a relief that is!"

"Relief," Melina asked, her head cocked downward and her brows furrowed.  "It's a relief that you didn't sleep with me?  Am I that ugly?  Thank you very much for that vote of confidence.  Well, I'm glad I didn't get to try."

"No," Mark pleaded, rising from the floor but quickly sliding back down.  Rising once more, he added, "I swear that if I wasn't with somebody, I'd be all over you in a second!  To put it as good as I can, and don't think I'm too much of a pervert for sayin' this, but to put it like my friend T. would say it, I'd tear that ass up!"

"You really mean it," Shylah begged, smiling so beautifully that Mark was, once again, in total awe of her.

"Yes.  Of course.  You crazy?  Damn, girl.  You're hot as hell, and you look like you'd be wilder'n a buckin' bronc!  You look like you could kill a man with your sex!"

"Thank you," Melina blushed, feeling flabbergasted with a newly acquired sense of self value.

"Well, I do mean it.  You're a gorgeous woman.  If I wasn't attached, I'd be real interested, Ma'am.  But I'd do it all proper.  I wouldn't be lookin' to ya for just a hookup.  I'd take ya out and treat ya like a lady should be treated.  I just can't, though.  You know how it is.  I'm sorry to do this to ya, but I think I'm gonna need to get goin' here in a bit.  I got some things needin' tended back home."  Mark smirked a sort of coy but assuring
expression to Melina, along with a gentle wink. 

"No.  I don't really know how it is.  No guy I was ever with was even a billionth the man you are, but it's great to know that there is at least one truly amazing guy left in this world.  Your girl is lucky, and I am definitely very jealous of her.  I'll tell you what, Mr. Mark Crady.  I know this is a long shot, but if things don't work out, and you're ever passing through a little place called Terre Haute, Indiana, you come and look me up.  Ok?  I mean it.  Even if it's just to hang out and get a beer together.  You come by Chili's and ask for Melina Hobbs.  I'll make sure to tell people at work that if they ever have a tanned, gorgeous
farm boy type with a hot Southern drawl ask for me to give you my phone number."  Melina winked and nonchalantly walked from the bathroom and back to the bed, sprawling across it.

Mark walked back into the room, expecting to see Melina at least searching for her clothes but was shocked by what he saw.  He didn't feel so weird anymore about seeing Melina naked and did feel a slight amount of temptation swelling in his limbs, but he still knew that he could not act on anything.  "Why aren't you puttin' your clothes on?"

"I dunno.  Just thought I'd make the offer one last time, Cowboy.  You sure, absolutely sure you wanna leave here, knowing you could have had me but didn't?"

Mark knew that even though his body was telling him that he should take Melina's offer, his heart and his mind would never allow him to do so.  "No, Ma'am.  It's tempting, damn tempting!  I can't, though.  I really can't.  I could not do that to my girl."

Mark hurriedly reapplied his shirt while Melina grabbed up her clothes and threw them back on.  Mark agreed to go downstairs and have breakfast with Melina, but after that, he would take a very quick shower and then head back home.  He had business to attend to, and it was quite urgent.  If there was any chance, any chance at all, to ever find real happiness in this life, it had to be in reuniting with Shylah and living the life that Mark felt had been unfairly stripped from him by terrible luck.

Chapter 24

When Mark arrived at home in the middle of the afternoon, he feared what he might find inside.  The lawn was littered with beer cans and bottles, empty mason jars
, piles of cigarette butts and other trash, not to mention that the driveway and yard were hidden from view by so many cars and trucks that Mark couldn't count them all. Mark walked into the house to find women running around in bikinis, some without tops, loud music blaring so hard that it vibrated all of the walls and windows, and great, choking clouds of smoke everywhere.  Through the haze, Mark could make out a great deal many men lining floors, couches, chairs, and even the hallway.  Mark did not know who anyone was or what was going on.  Some of the people that could be seen through the smoke looked familiar.  Unbeknownst to him, Sara met numerous people at one of the local bars and invited a great many of her friends from Macon.

"What the hell is this," Mark screamed, though few could hear anything that he said.

Mark searched helplessly and hopelessly for Sara to inquire of her what she was doing and why she had allowed such a commotion in her brother's absence.  Clearly, she had no respect for anyone, Mark mused.  Something must be done right away.  Sara would have to be dealt with and quite harshly. 

"Hey, Brother," Mark heard a voice announce from somewhere behind him as he strode down the hall toward his bedroom.

Mark turned around to see Sara staring back at him with a joint in one hand and a beer in the other.  Turning back in the other direction, Mark peeked into his room to find two naked women and a naked man lying in his bed, seeming not to have gone all the way yet.  Mark immediately ran the people out of his bedroom, threatening them with severe physical punishment and notification of the law.  Rushing behind them with a baseball bat in his hand, Mark soon came face to face with his sister again.

"Sara, what the hell is this shit you got goin' on in my house," Mark demanded.

"Your house?  You mean our house?  I live here, too."

"No, Sara.  You stay here.  You don't actually live here, and this IS MY HOUSE!  I own it!  You wanna go ask Stan Walker?  I got the house.  It might not technically be in my name yet, but it is mine!  You get what you got comin' to you, and I think maybe that's a hell of a lot more'n you deserve!"  Mark glared with eyes of pure, melting fire, blazing hotter than the heat of a thousand suns.

"You really feel that way, Big Brother?  You want me out of 'your house?'"  Sara held up her hand in which she held the lit joint, making air quotation marks as she spoke, only angering Mark further.

"You ain't got respect for nobody!  I think maybe you just got shit for brains!  If you can't respect me or my house, yeah, get your shit, and get out of MY HOUSE!"

"Ain't got respect for nobody?  Wow.  Have you never cracked a book in your life?  You hillbillies.  Maybe you need to do these things called learning to read and learning to speak as if you have an ounce of sophistication.  But hey, relax.  Have a smoke with me.  Maybe that will mellow you.  You're too uptight, Big Brother."  Sara smiled as she offered Mark her joint.

Mark, furiously enraged, knocked the joint from Sara's hand and stomped it out with his boot heel.  "You like to look down on people?  For your information, I am an educated man, more educated than you are.  I don't give a damn how you talk or how other people talk, you little bitch!  Education don't make ya better'n somebody else or give you the right to treat people like you do!  I grew up talkin' like I do.  I didn't change just cuz I went off to school!  Does that make me worse than you?  I'm honestly sick of havin' you here, but I'm not a bit surprised.  It took me til now to see it, but Shylah was right about you.  You treated her like a dog, and now, you're treatin' me like one!  If it wasn't for you bein' a woman, I'd knock you on your damned ass!"

"Somebody's got some big balls," Sara laughingly replied.  "I'll go.  Fine by me.  I have plenty of money now.  I could just go buy a nice house around here.  I'd probably have like ninety-nine percent of my money left.  Maybe I'll just buy the town.  What would that cost, about five, maybe six thousand dollars?"

Without saying another word, Mark walked to where it seemed the music was coming from and after locating the stereo, immediately smashed it with his bat, not caring that it was his own stereo.  In a tumultuous uproar or noise, Mark began to shout, "Everybody out of my house!  You got three choices.  You go right now, of your own accord, you wait til I call the law on ya, or ya get hit with this bat!  Or maybe, I just go get one of my eight guns!  I know how to use every damn one of 'em!  You done mess
ed with the wrong man!" 

Soon, the house was nearly empty.  Thinking that only he and Sara remained, Mark felt quite pleased with himself.  He was not about to tolerate any
more disrespect or callousness.  He felt a change surge through him, a desperately needed one.  It seemed, however, soon after that, that there must still be some people in some of the bedrooms.  Mark could hear laughter and an occasional shout emanating from upstairs.  Mark looked forward to the task now placed at his feet.  Dragging his bat along the banister of the stairs, Mark headed to the second floor to check, room by room, for stragglers.