Windward Secrets (7 page)

Claire rudely snatched the phone from Drew and looked at the picture again briefly.

“You know I think it’s just the trees starting to change color.” She turned the phone off and handed it to Diane who looked at her curiously.

“Well, let’s get these dishes taken care of,” Claire said, getting up from the table.

Drew looked from one woman to another. “Pervert? What’s she talking about?’

“Oh,” Claire said, quickly, “just an old joke.”

Claire gave Jill a warning glance and very slightly shook her head no.

Jill gave an almost undetectable nod to acknowledge she understood she was not to tell Drew about their experience with Wendell.

Drew and Jill remained at the table while the others cleared the dishes.

In the kitchen, Diane turned to Claire. “Why did you grab the phone from Drew?”

“We don’t know him. He could be a friend of Wendell’s.”

“Claire, you’re being paranoid again,” Diane said.

“Oh, I don’t know Diane. If that is Wendell’s truck, what would he have been doing there? I doubt he was fixing the toilet at the lighthouse,” Claire said, in Caroline’s defense.

“Let’s just hope it wasn’t him,” Diane commented.

Caroline mixed up a pitcher of sangria and the three headed for the roof.

A loud “woof” at the screen door brought Claire back to the kitchen. “Come on boy,” she said, opening the door for her new best friend.

As they passed the locked room Ike again pawed at the door and looked up at Claire. “Sorry Ike. I don’t know what you like about that room, but we’re not going in.”

Settled in their lawn chairs on the roof, the three women could see Jill and Drew still seated at the picnic table below.

“Okay, who’s going to be the one to break this up?” Diane asked, pointing to the couple.

“I’m the bad guy, I’ll do it,” Claire said, getting up from her chair. Standing near the edge of the decorative railing that bordered the roof, she placed two fingers in her mouth and gave a shrill whistle that could wake the dead. “Yo! You down there. Curfew!”

Jill looked up and waved.

Drew helped Jill to her feet. With the roof dwellers watching he bent and kissed her. “Thank you for a wonderful evening. You’re a great cook.”

“Good night, Drew. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Claire watched Drew walk down the beach toward his cottage and then turned back to Diane and Caroline. Ike was working his way around the perimeter of the roof sniffing feverishly and whining. “I know I don’t know anything about dogs, but I think Ike’s behavior is peculiar.”

“He’s got a scent of something,” Diane replied. “My dad’s hunting dogs used to do the same thing.”

Jill suddenly burst onto the roof. “Really, Claire, did you have to be so obvious.”

“It’s my job dearest,” Claire replied, lifting her glass toward Jill.

***

The Confessional

Diane

“Diane is thinking about a man thanks to you Jill,” Caroline volunteered.

“Really, Diane? Is that true?”

“I like watching you and Drew, and I wonder if maybe I have been taking advantage of an old friend. That’s all, nothing serious.”

Jill looked down at her lap a little embarrassed and then back up at Diane. “It’s nice, Diane. I like being with him. I like his smile, his smell, and most of all, I like seeing my reflection when I look into his eyes.”

Diane smiled at her friend. “Claire seems to think that Ed has had an ulterior motive for hanging around all these years.”

“She’s probably right. How long have you known him?” Jill asked, looking at Diane.

“Since about five years after Tom died.”

“Diane, why didn’t you figure this out sooner?”

Diane was pensive. “I hurt so badly when Tom died that I couldn’t see anything but my grief. When you lose the love of your life it’s truly devastating. I think I was semi-comatose for years. I didn’t feel anything but emptiness. I felt barren… vacant… without purpose.”

Suddenly, Diane set down her glass and doubled over in her chair. Holding her knees, she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.

Claire spoke up. “You don’t have to talk about this Diane.”

“Yes. I think I do. This roof is our confessional and this vacation our cleansing. It’s way past time to move on.”

Anticipation hung in the air like an unseen priest behind an opaque divider.

“I remember it like it happened yesterday,” Diane finally murmured. “Tom came in the back door after mowing the lawn and walked toward me. He got a look of surprise on his face and then collapsed to the floor. I knew he was gone even before I reached him. I knew. I just knew.”

Tears filled her eyes and rolled uncontrollably down her cheeks. Diane sniffed and wiped her tears with the corner of her blanket.

“The kids didn’t just lose one parent, they lost both of us. There was no insurance. I wasn’t working. My parents were our saviors. We moved in with them and they watched the kids when I found a job. It was like they were raising all three of us. I started as a secretary at an ad agency and was lucky to work for a wonderful woman who mentored me. I threw myself into work. It was like a drug, it numbed my senses.” Diane picked up her glass and took a sip of sangria. “Have you ever heard of lost limb syndrome?”

“No,” the other three answered, in unison.

“Well, when a person loses a limb, for whatever reason, it feels to them like it’s still there. Even after the pain is gone their mind thinks the limb is there. Of course, when they try to use the limb it’s gone. That’s how I felt. Only I still had the pain and refused to believe Tom was gone. I expected him to walk in the door any minute. I listened for his car. I waited by the phone for his call.” Tears starting rolling down Diane’s cheeks again, but she continued. “I was catatonic. I don’t know why my parents didn’t have me committed. I wasn’t a mother. I wasn’t a daughter. I wasn’t anything. Because I was hurting so badly, I couldn’t help the kids with their grief. I let my parents do all the work. I was selfish. I wanted Tom back at any cost.”

Claire pulled a box of tissues out from under her chair and handed them to Diane.

“Where did those come from?” Jill asked.

“The way things have been going up here, I thought it might be a good idea to be prepared… like you and your luggage Jill.”

Diane laughed and went on. “I finally came to my senses and realized I had to stand on my own two feet. I saved enough money for a down payment on a house and the kids and I moved out of Mom and Dad’s. I met Ed when I went to a convention in New York City. He’s an attorney and lives in Boston. He was single. We started running into each other more often. Before long we were having lunches and he was stopping by the house when I needed help fixing something. It’s gone on like that all this time.”

Caroline was dumbfounded. “He has never made a pass at you in all these years?”

“Caroline, I don’t know if I would have noticed. To me, he was the brother I never had. When I think of him now, I see what I never saw before. He is a loving, caring, and definitely attractive man, who has truly blessed me with his friendship. He loves my kids and they love him. I think maybe Tim saw it, because there was a time when he didn’t want Ed around. I wasn’t smart enough to figure out why he felt that way.”

“So, now what?” Jill asked.

“I like seeing the potential of something developing between you and Drew.” Then looking at Claire, she said, “and I want what you and Spence have had all these years.”

Caroline was quiet and looked thoughtful.

“I’m sorry Caroline,” Diane said. “I shouldn’t be talking like this with what you’re going through.”

Caroline leaned toward Diane and looked her straight in the eyes. “Diane, our situations are entirely different. You have suffered terribly from a life-shattering event beyond your control. You’ve made me realize I have nothing to complain about. I had a good marriage for a long time. I never had the fear of not being able to support my children or worrying about holding down a job. If my marriage ends, it ends because my husband is an ass with a capital ‘A’. There’s a huge difference.”

“And, that might not be such a bad thing,” Jill interrupted.

Three sets of eyes snapped toward Jill.

“What do you mean,” Caroline asked.

“If it hadn’t been for Bill’s actions you would not have found yourself this week. You’d still be running around in high heels, worrying about your grey roots showing, and dripping jewelry.”

Laughter burst out that could be heard the whole way to Haworth.

Ike finally settled down beside Claire’s chair with his head on her left foot.

Diane looked at her friend. “Well, Claire, we’ve all had our time in the confessional except you. What’s your deep dark secret?”

“Hell, Diane. You all make me feel like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Compared to the three of you, my life is boring.”

Jill wasn’t about to let Claire off that easy. “Come on Claire. You have to have had some problems over the years. Isn’t there anything you yearn for?”

Claire thought for a minute. “The only thing I want is to keep on going the way we have. We don’t have a lot of material things or even much savings, but we have had a great life. I love the way we have grown and matured. We’re better friends and lovers now than we ever were. You only get that with time. I can tell you, I wouldn’t want to go through what you three have faced.”

“You’re not leaving this roof until you give us something to think about,” Caroline injected.

“Hmmm. I guess there is something. I would like to make life easier for Spence. He works like a dog.” Looking down at Ike, she added, “No offense, Ike.”

Jill interrupted. “So do you Claire. You’ve been a working mother and kept home and hearth together better than anyone I ever knew.”

“Oh, thanks Jill, but I haven’t done anything that millions of women don’t do every day.”

Diane brought the conversation back to Claire’s statement. “How would you like to make life easier for Spence?”

“I worry he’ll have a heart attack from the stress of working day and night. I’ve tried for years to find a better paying job but there’s nothing where we live. My work is okay, I’m not complaining about the work. My boss is okay too, but he knows he can get away with paying us less because there are no other jobs in the area.”

“What do you want to be when you grow up Claire?” Diane pressed.

“You pushed me. Now, it’s your turn Claire,” Caroline added.

“You know I majored in business. I’ve always been ashamed that I never used the education my parents worked so hard to give me. If there’s anything, I guess it’s that I want to use my education, what little I remember; and, my life experiences to a profitable end so that Spence can slow down.”

“Have you been thinking of anything in particular?” Jill asked.

“Well, don’t laugh, but I have been thinking about something for several years. There’s an abandoned sweater factory in our town. It closed about ten years ago and that’s when our town took a real nose dive. Over four hundred people lost their jobs. Homes were foreclosed on and our downtown has been closing up shop one business at a time ever since.”

“And…,” Diane encouraged.

“I would love to bring another industry into that building to provide jobs and start rebuilding our town.”

“What kind of a business?” Caroline asked.

“Oh, I don’t know, Caroline. I never really researched it because I don’t have the money to pursue it.”

Diane sipped her sangria. “That’s a wonderful idea Claire. I think you should follow your dream.”

Ike suddenly jumped up bumping Claire’s chair so hard she spilled her sangria in her lap.

“Ike!” Claire yelled, catching her glass before it hit the roof.

The dog ran to the door to the house barking at the top of his lungs.

“What in the world is wrong with him?” Jill asked, annoyed.

“He probably has to go. I’ll take him down,” Claire said.

Diane got up and folded her blanket. “It’s getting cold. We may as well move to the parlor.”

As soon as Claire opened the door, Ike bolted down the steps. He was in the parlor barking when the women reached the bottom of the stairs. There was a fire burning in the fireplace and Ike was sniffing the room.

“Oh damn, here we go again,” Diane said. “Who left a door open this time?”

Jill checked the front door. It was locked.

“I’ll take Ike out and check the kitchen door,” Claire volunteered.

“Not by yourself you won’t,” Caroline declared. “Nobody goes anywhere alone from now on. Something fishy is going on around here and we’re not taking any chances. It’s two-by-two from now on. Buddy system.”

“I’ll go with her,” Jill said, getting her jacket out of the closet by the door.

Diane looked at Caroline. “Let’s all go. We could use the walk.”

Jill reached the kitchen door first. It was locked. Four sets of worried eyes looked at each other.

Claire snapped the leash on a reluctant Ike who wanted to continue his investigation, but an authoritative command from Claire brought him to attention and he followed her dragging on the leash.