Unfinished Symphony (26 page)

"Her father will be home and you know he's a nice man, a hardworking man."
"You intend to eat dinner with them?" she asked, as if I were going to eat with Aborigines.
"I ate there often last year," I said, "before I realized I was so important."
"Don't be impudent. Very well," she said after another thoughtful pause, "Raymond will take you and pick you up promptly at nine P.M."
"It's Saturday night!" I protested.
"Ten then," she said relenting a bit.
"No one else in my class lives under such strict rules," I complained.
"No one else has your destiny and
responsibility," she replied dryly. "Let's not have these silly discussions."
I retreated, feeling I had won as much as I could from her at the moment. When I told Cary, he was ecstatic.
"I'll bring some lobsters and clams for dinner," he said. "We'll have May with us for a while, but I'll take her home in the afternoon."
"That's fine, Cary."
"She wants to know if she can bike out to Kenneth's with you one day. I explained how dangerous it is for her to go on the road by herself. She can't hear cars and trucks."
"I'll come by and get her one day. We'll be all right."
"It'll be a real treat for her," he said. "I haven't been able to do much for her these days and with Ma the way she is . . ."
"It's no problem, Cary. I want to do it," I assured him.
The next day Theresa and I made our final plans at school. The first time I met Theresa I thought she was a very serious girl, pretty but dour to the point of being angry. Since I was new in school, the principal asked her to show me around. We got off to a bad start because she assumed I would look down on her the way other so-called blue bloods did.
I thought she was one of the prettiest girls in the school, with her caramel complexion, black pearl eyes and ebony hair. After she realized I wasn't like the others, she permitted me to get closer to her and we quickly became good friends.
Theresa enjoyed the idea that we were conspiring against my grandmother. She thought of her just as most others did, The Iron Lady, Queen of Snob Hill.
"If she calls for you on the phone, I'll have my mother say we went to the library. Don't worry about my father. He won't ask questions. Since my mother died, he treats me like an adult. Are you going to spend the whole night with Cary?" she asked, her eyes bright with interest.
"No, I have to be back at your house before ten. That's when Grandma Olivia is sending Raymond to pick me up."
"Bummer," she moaned for me. "But, at least you'll have some time alone."
"Theresa Patterson, just hear you," I teased and we laughed. Everyone in the cafeteria gazed at us with jealousy, wondering what delicious secret we shared. Our sealed lips only stirred their curiosity more.
When Saturday came, I was so nervous I was positive Grandma Olivia would become suspicious, but she was preoccupied with a dinner party she was having for Congressman Dunlap and two of his legal aides. The only thing she said that put butterflies in my stomach was that she was sorry I wasn't going to be at the dinner.
"It's important for you to meet important people now," she declared. I thought she would insist I attend the dinner, but she hesitated and added, "but being named class valedictorian is important too. You'll be the first Logan to do so."
The tone of her voice was explicit: Don't fail to do it. Shaking when I got into the limousine, I took deep breaths and tried to calm down all the way to Theresa's.
As soon as Raymond dropped me off and left, Theresa gave me her bike and I started for the beach. Cary and May were already there, Cary working on the boat. He looked like Adonis, shirtless, his muscles glimmering in the sunlight.
"I was afraid you weren't coming," he said as I walked Theresa's bike over the sandy part of the road. May came running to me. We hugged and I looked at Cary. Neither of us had to say much to each other; it was all in our eyes.
I spent most of the afternoon with May, walking along the beach, searching for shells, telling her about school. She wanted to know more about boys. If any girl needed a big sister, it was May. Aunt Sara wasn't very comfortable explaining things to her. Sex, love and romance embarrassed her. I was the one who had explained what a menstrual cycle was, what changes would happen to her body, what her feelings would be like. Once, we had a long talk about what it meant to fall in love and she told me about a classmate she liked, a boy who had kissed her. Apparently, since I had been away, she had learned much more from her girlfriends at school, for when she looked at Cary and me and the way we spoke, touched and looked at each other, she smiled at us knowingly.
While Cary was bringing May home, I prepared our dinner and set the table. Constantly aware of my curfew, we savored the hours and minutes we had. I waited in front of the beach house, watching the twilight flood the sky with its rosy farewell to the day, flaming the clouds crimson, streaking violet shot through with saffron. Cary returned in the quickest time ever, his truck bouncing hard over the beach ruts.
"Everything's almost ready," I said when he hopped out of his truck and followed me into the house.
"Looks great," he said, but his eyes never left my face. Every time I turned, every time I lifted my gaze from the pots and dishes, I found him staring at me hungrily. My body filled with an ache, a hunger for his lips and his touch. Perhaps it was because we were so far from anyone, alone, in a domestic setting, behaving like married people, whatever the reason, I never felt more desire and passion for him than I did that night. We could barely eat, neither of us saying very much.
Cary leaped out of his seat at the end of the meal to help me clean up. Everything we did seemed designed to keep us under control. It was as if we both understood that the minute we were free of any other distraction, the moment we turned to each other, we would be in danger of consuming each other. Finally, I dried the last dish.
He stood back, gazing at me.
"Melody," he said softly and held out his hand. I took it and he led me out to the guest bedroom. Next to the bed, we kissed and held each other tightly. "I love you," he said.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and nodded. "I love you, too, Cary. Very much."
I kept my eyes closed as his fingers undid the buttons of my blouse. In fact, I stood there, unmoving, waiting as he peeled my blouse down my arms, undid my skirt and drew it below my knees, lifting my leg gently for me to step out of it. Then he kissed my shoulders, my neck and undid my bra, drawing it from me while at the same time, he brought his lips to my nipples and nudged my breasts with his cheeks. My heart pounded hot blood through my body. When his hands lifted from my breasts or my shoulders, I cried out for their return.
Gently, almost in inches, he slipped my panties off. Naked, I stood before him, my eyes locked on his.
"Kenneth couldn't come close to portraying your beauty," he said. "Even if he worked every day for the rest of his life."
I smiled and he undressed himself. Moments later, we were in bed, embracing, moving our arms, our legs, turning ourselves to each other, drawing each other deeper and deeper into each other with every kiss, every touch.
"Are you ready, Cary?" I asked, breathing my last bit of caution before my thundering heart closed down all avenues of thought and left me longing only for him inside me, making us feel like one.
"Yes," he said with a smile. "Protected."
I felt myself being drawn up higher and higher, dangled above the earth, exquisitely tormented by the danger and the sense of abandon. Our moans mingled until each was indistinguishable from the other. I dug my fingers into his shoulders to hold on and to keep him close. We came at each other like the lovestarved people we were; desperate for a loving touch, a longing word.
When it was over, we collapsed in a delightful exhaustion, both gasping for breath, neither able to speak. I took his hand and put it over my heart.
"Feel this pounding," I said, shakily. "It's scary, but wonderful."
"Mine's the same way."
"If we died here together, Grandma Olivia would be very upset," I said and he laughed.
"She'd have everyone involved sworn to secrecy and then she'd have us buried at sea."
"But she wouldn't cancel her dinner party that night," I added.
He laughed and turned to embrace me. We lay there, holding each other, whispering sweet promises, dreaming, constructing our wonderful fantasies, weaving a cocoon of dreams tightly around ourselves. After a while, we stopped and dozed, which almost proved fatal, for when my eyes snapped open, it was nearly nine-thirty.
"Cary!"
I sat up, shaking him to wake him.
"Whaa ."
"Hurry, get dressed. Raymond will be at Theresa's before you get me back!"
We both leaped off of the bed and threw on our clothes. We got into the truck and for a few frantic beats it wouldn't start. The engine groaned and groaned.
"Cary!"
"It's okay. Just give me a second," he said. He hopped out and opened the hood, fidgeting.
"Hurry, Cary. She'll make so much trouble for you and your mother if she finds out about us."
He jiggled wires near the battery and tried again, and, thankfully, this time the engine started with a sputter. Then we shot off, bouncing so hard over the beach road, my head nearly hit the roof of the truck cab. Once on the street, he burned rubber until we arrived at Theresa's, just minutes before Raymond and the limousine. I didn't even have a chance to kiss Cary good night. Instead, I jumped out and ran to the house, where Theresa was waiting anxiously.
"You're cutting it kind of close, aren't you?" she remarked with a smile.
"We feel asleep," I whispered.
"No calls, at least."
Moments later, we saw the limousine pull up. I thanked her and rushed out, promising to call her in the morning.
Grandma Olivia's dinner party was still going when I arrived. Her guests were in the parlor talking. I was afraid of what I looked like since I hadn't had time to check my hair or straighten my clothes, but I knew if I didn't stop to say hello, she would be furious. I paused in the doorway.
"Good evening, Grandma," I said.
"Well, did you study hard?"
"Yes, Grandma."
"Good. My granddaughter is the prime valedictorian candidate this year."
Everyone nodded with appreciation.
"Melody, you have already met Congressman Dunlap and his wife."
"Yes, how do you do, Congressman, Mrs. Dunlap," I said, stepping forward. They nodded, smiled and Grandma Olivia looked pleased.
"This is Mr. and Mrs. Steiner and Mr. and Mrs. Becker," she added. I smiled and greeted the other couples. Then I quickly excused myself and hurried up the stairs.
I washed and got into bed, my fatigue now settling into my body firmly. Despite that, I felt wonderful. When I closed my eyes, I saw Cary's loving face before me and imagined his lips on mine again and again. Across the dunes he was most likely in his attic hideaway, thinking about me, gazing out at the same ocean I saw through my window, the water dazzling under the starlight, each whitecap looking like a string of pearls cast back at the shore.
Below me, the voices grew softer until they drifted out of my hearing and I was left with nothing but my own thoughts, whispering promises, counting dreams that took me softly into sleep.
Over the next month, Cary and I were able to meet secretly twice more, each time as wonderful as the time before. His progress with Kenneth's boat continued and it soon began to take shape. Kenneth brought some friends out to see Cary's work and one of them seriously considered hiring him to do a custom sailboat for him as well.
One early spring afternoon after I picked up May and we both peddled out to Kenneth's, I heard a small bark and saw the most beautiful golden retriever puppy poke its head out of the front door of the beach house. May and I ran to pick him up.
"I'm calling him Prometheus," Kenneth announced. "I figure I'll stay with mythological names."
"He's beautiful, Kenneth."
"I thought you'd like him."
May held him and he licked her face, making her laugh.
"She's growing up, too," Kenneth said. "Starting to look like a young lady."
"I know."
"She'll need you around more," Kenneth warned. "Big sister stuff."
"She already has," I said. His eyes widened.
"Oh? Well, urn, that's great that she has you to confide in. I have a second surprise for you," he declared, obviously eager to change the subject. "I'm putting Neptune on display . . . finally. We're going to have a showing at the gallery and a pretty big party afterward."
"Where?"
"I suppose this is the third surprise," he said. My heart began to thump. "Your grandfather's house."
"Judge Child's house? Really? Kenneth that's wonderful!"
"He volunteered our home when he heard about the opening at the gallery and I decided, why not? He couldn't even begin to pay me what he owes me. If I don't take what I can, my brother and sister will anyway," he said.
I didn't like his cynicism and he saw it in my face. "I don't have to love him to let him do things for me, do I?"
"Yes, you do, Kenneth. You have to love him. He's your father, no matter what," I lectured.
"My father . . . died a long time ago in the aftermath of a confession. This stranger with the same name and resemblance is just some old, rich man," he insisted. "Anyway, I'm not doing it for myself. I'm doing it for Neptune's Daughter. I think that has a certain sense of irony, don't you? Sure you do," he said before I could reply. "You're one of the brightest young women I've known, Melody. You understand much more than you pretend to understand."
"But Kenneth--"
"Let it be, Melody," he said. "Just let it be."
He smiled at May cuddling Prometheus. Then he looked toward the boat and Cary.
"We'll all take a maiden voyage in a month and celebrate the birth of something very beautiful. Right?" he asked me.
"Sure, Kenneth," I said. "Maybe you should invite Holly to the opening," I suggested. I wanted him to have someone at his side.
"I already did," he said.
"And she's coming? That's wonderful. I can't wait to see her again."
"I'm not saying she's coming. She still has to check her chart first and be sure it's safe," he teased, his eyes sparkling with mischief.
We watched May rush out to show Prometheus to Cary and then Kenneth looked at me in the strangest way. I tilted my head because of the way he was staring and the way a fleeting shaft of sorrow crossed his face.
"What's wrong, Kenneth?"
"Just for a second, with that soft smile on your face, your eyes caught in the sunlight, you reminded me of Haille when she was not much older than you. It was as if . . . as if time had gone backwards, as if nothing terrible had happened yet.