Blue (13 page)

“I love you, Ginny,” he said softly as she kissed him, and she smiled at him, startled to hear the words. It had been so long since anyone had said that to her, especially a child.

“I love you, too,” she said, smiling, and turned off the light, and went back to her room to pack her own suitcase for the trip. She just hoped it would go all right.

Ginny picked Blue up at school in a cab on Friday afternoon, and went straight to the airport with him. She had spoken to Becky that morning, and their father was a little better during the day. And Ginny had Charlene's permission letter in her purse. When they got to the airport, she checked their bags, and they went inside. She suggested they go through security early and buy magazines for the flight.

“Can you buy them in the airport?” Blue asked with a surprised look. And she realized then that Blue had never been in an airport or flown anywhere. He had never left New York City, and the only place he'd seen an airport was in movies or on TV.

“You can buy all kinds of things.” Ginny smiled at him as they stood in line at security, and she told him to take the coins out of his pockets, remove his belt, and shoes. And he put his laptop in one of the plastic bins, as Ginny put hers in another one, and got one more bin for her purse and shoes. And then they went through and picked everything up again. Blue was fascinated by the process and watched everything intently. This was a major adventure for him. She was only sorry they wouldn't have more time. She would have liked to show him around L.A. She had some trepidation about going out there, because of the memories it held for her, but she tried to keep her attention on Blue.

They looked around the bookstore, where she bought a paperback for the trip, and magazines for him. They bought gum and candy, and stopped at a souvenir store. He was hungry after school, so they bought a hot dog, and he ate it before they boarded their flight. She had never done as much in an airport on the way to a flight. Usually she just went straight through after security and got on the plane, but he wanted to see everything. He looked jubilant by the time they boarded and took their seats. She gave him the window so he could look out. After they put their hand luggage overhead and sat down, he turned to her nervously.

“It won't crash, will it?” he asked anxiously.

“It shouldn't,” she said, smiling at him. “Think of all the flights that are taking off and landing right now, and are in the air, all over the world. Thousands and thousands of them. When was the last time you heard of one crashing?” she asked him.

“I can't remember.”

“Exactly. So I think we'll be okay.” He looked reassured. She told him to fasten his seatbelt, and he was excited to hear that there would be a movie and a meal.

“Can I order whatever I want?” he asked her.

“They give you a choice of a couple of things, but you'll have to wait till we get there for a burger and fries.” It touched her to see how new it all was to him, and he looked excited on takeoff, and not scared as the jumbo plane lifted off the ground. He looked out the window for a while, then read a magazine. He took the small video screen when they offered it to him, and selected the movie he wanted to see. Ginny was doing the same, and they both put their headphones on. He was loving the newness of all of it, and he chose what he wanted to eat when they handed him the menu. He ate while watching the movie, and afterward he fell asleep, as she covered him with the blanket. No one had asked for the letter, or questioned why she was traveling with him, or even if they were related.

She woke him before they landed in L.A., so he could see it from the air. He was fascinated when he saw all the lights and swimming pools below, and when the big plane touched the ground, bumped twice, and rolled down the runway to the terminal. Blue had just completed his first flight. She grinned at him. She had almost forgotten why they were there: so she could see her father possibly for the last time. She felt as though she had just come home, even after so much time away. She realized now that L.A. would always be home to her.

“Welcome to L.A.,” she said as they joined the crowd in the aisle waiting to get off the plane, and a minute later they were in the terminal, heading for baggage claim. She had told her sister she would rent a car at the airport so they didn't have to pick her up. And as she stood at the rental desk, she hoped Becky and her family would be nice to Blue. She didn't want him to have a bad time, or feel uncomfortable with her sister's kids. His life experience had been different from theirs in every way. They were the typical suburban family with a mother, a father, a house, a pool, two cars, and three kids. Nothing untoward had ever happened to them. Their kids did well in school, and Charlie, their oldest, had just been accepted at UCLA. Their youngest, Lizzie, and Blue were the same age. She couldn't imagine her sister's children and Blue having anything in common, but she hoped they'd be polite to him at least.

The rental car company at the airport gave her a brand-new SUV, which Blue thought was exciting, and they headed into the traffic on the freeway, toward Pasadena. They had taken a five o'clock flight out of New York, and with the time difference, it was eight o'clock in L.A., as people headed home or out for dinner, on a Friday night, or left work late. The traffic was worse than ever, and it was eighty degrees. Blue loved it and was grinning from ear to ear.

“Thank you for bringing me with you,” he said, looking at her shyly. “I thought you'd leave me at Houston Street for the weekend.” He was thrilled she hadn't and grateful for everything she did for him.

“I thought you'd have fun here, even if I have to spend time with my dad. But he sleeps a lot, so we can drive around a little, and I'll show you L.A.,” Ginny told him. Except Beverly Hills. She didn't want to go near it, or see the street where they'd lived. She didn't want to be reminded of the life she had once lived here, and had walked away from three years before.

“What did you do when you lived here?” he asked with interest. He had never inquired about her previous life—he knew it was sensitive for her. He never talked about Mark and Chris unless she brought them up first, and she rarely did, except for a passing comment about something she remembered, or something one of them had said.

“I was a TV reporter,” she answered his question, as they crawled along in the traffic.

“Like
on
TV?” He looked stunned as she nodded. “Wow! You were a star. Were you the one sitting at the desk, or the one standing in the pouring rain with your umbrella inside out when they lose the sound?” She laughed at the description, which seemed apt even to her.

“I was both. Sometimes I filled in at the desk, with Mark. He was the one at the desk every day. And sometimes I covered stories in the pouring rain. Fortunately, it doesn't rain much here.” She smiled at him.

“Was it fun?”

She thought about it, then nodded. “Yeah, most of the time. It was fun with Mark. People used to get excited when we went places and they recognized him.”

“How come you don't do that anymore?” Blue watched her face as she answered, and glanced at him.

“It wouldn't be fun anymore, without him. I never went back after…I stayed at my sister's for a while, and then I left, and went to work for SOS/HR traveling all over the world.”

“Nobody shoots at you when you're on TV. You should go back to it one day.” She didn't answer for a while, then just shook her head. All that was over for her, and she wanted it to be. She could never have gone on doing it without Mark—it would have been too unbearable with everyone feeling sorry for her. Now what she did was new every trip.

They took the Arroyo Seco Parkway exit to Pasadena, an hour after they got on the road. Ginny drove them down tree-lined streets with handsome homes on either side, and then up a small hill and turned into a driveway, outside a large good-looking stone house with a big pool along the side. It had gates, but they had left them open for her. She had forgotten how big their house was, and it suited them perfectly. And a black Lab barked in greeting when they drove up, as Blue took it all in.

“This is like a movie,” he said in awe of the house, the pool, and the dog. And as they got out of the car, Becky came out to greet them, and Ginny was relieved to see she hadn't changed. She was wearing a striped T-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops. Ginny watched her check out Blue carefully and smile coolly at him. She didn't approve of his existence in Ginny's life and it showed. But he didn't seem aware of it, and Ginny was glad he wasn't. He was too busy taking in the scene.

Becky's hair was a darker blond than her younger sister's and it was piled up on her head in a banana clip. She wasn't wearing makeup, and she never did. She looked no different than she had when Ginny last saw her. She had been prettier in college, but after she had Charlie, she had gained fifteen pounds and never bothered to get rid of it. And she wore the same kind of casual clothes and flip-flops every day. She called it her uniform, and she was too busy taking care of her kids, and now their father, to care.

The dog followed them inside. They went in the back way, and walked into the kitchen, where all three kids were having dinner at the kitchen table. They were having pasta and a big salad and chicken wings. Ginny could see that Blue was hungry again, as he walked shyly into the kitchen and hesitated when he saw Becky's children. Margie was the first one to get up and give her aunt a big hug and tell her how glad she was to see her, and then Ginny introduced her to Blue. She wondered what Becky had said to explain him, but Ginny just introduced him as “Blue Williams,” without saying anything about his relationship to her, or that he was staying with her in New York. And then Charlie came to hug her and shake Blue's hand. Ginny was startled by how tall her nephew had gotten—he was even taller than his father and was over six foot four. And then Lizzie bounded up to them, kissed the air somewhere around her aunt's cheek, and looked straight at Blue. They were exactly the same height and age, and she had long straight blond hair like her aunt.

“Hi, I'm Lizzie,” she said to him with a broad grin, and she still had braces, which made her seem younger than Blue, but she had a woman's figure and was wearing a pink T-shirt and white shorts, and he looked dazzled by her. “Do you want to sit down with us and eat?” she offered and he looked relieved. He felt awkward standing there and he looked to Ginny for her approval, and she nodded and told him to sit down, while Lizzie got him a plate and offered him a Coke. Margie and Charlie started asking Blue about the trip. They seemed much more grown up at sixteen and eighteen. But Blue looked instantly at home, while Lizzie chattered, and he helped himself to pasta and chicken wings.

“Where's Dad?” Ginny asked her sister in a low voice.

“He's upstairs, sleeping. He usually goes to sleep around eight o'clock.” It was almost nine by then. “I gave him something for the pain. His arm is hurting him today, and I think the cast bothered him last night. He gets up at the crack of dawn as soon as it gets light. Alan will be home in a few minutes. He played tennis after work.” The strangest thing about being there, for Ginny, was seeing how little anything had changed. They were doing the same things as when she had left, in the same house. Even the dog was the same, and recognized her. The children were bigger, but nothing else was different. In one way it was comforting, but in another it made her feel even more out of step. Her life experience in the past three years had been so far removed from theirs. She felt as though she had just landed from Mars, as Becky poured them both a glass of wine and handed one to her.

They left the kids in the kitchen, wandered into the family room, and sat down. They used their living room only on Christmas and Thanksgiving. They gathered in the kitchen the rest of the time. And they had a huge flat screen TV over the fireplace in the family room, where they watched Monday-night football and sports on weekends, and any kind of play-off game. They were all sports nuts. Becky and Alan were great tennis players, which Ginny never had been, although Mark had played a good game and had played with them sometimes. And all their children were on various sports teams—basketball, soccer, baseball, girls' volleyball—and Charlie was the captain of the swimming team at his high school. He was graduating in June with honors. None of them had ever done anything wrong, or even had bad grades. Becky was smug about it, and she was very proud of Charlie getting into UCLA.

“He's cute,” Becky conceded, referring to Blue, and her sister understood.

“Yes, he is, and smart. He's remarkable considering what he's been through and how little help he's had from anyone. If I can get him into that high school, it would be great for him.” Becky still couldn't understand why Ginny was doing it, but she had to admit he was very polite when they arrived. He had thanked Becky for letting him come when he shook her hand. And when they went back to the kitchen, he and Lizzie were talking about music and seemed to like all the same bands. She was showing him something on YouTube on the computer they kept in the kitchen, and they were both laughing. They seemed to have found common ground. Then Charlie announced he was going out. His mother told him to drive carefully, and as he drove off, Ginny realized that he had his own car now. He really had grown up. Margie drove, too, although she had to borrow her mother's car and didn't have her own.

Lizzie offered to show Blue the downstairs playroom, and she and Margie left with him to play video games. Blue was doing fine. And then Alan walked in and made a big fuss over her. He was pleased to see her, although he told her that she'd gotten too thin. Her face seemed longer and more angular than it had before, and she looked even less like Becky now.

“What are we having for dinner?” Alan asked as he poured himself a glass of wine. “I'm starving.” He was wearing his tennis clothes and was still a handsome man.

“Salad and scallops,” Becky said efficiently, and put three shells in the microwave that she had gotten at the market that afternoon. With Becky, everything was speedy and well-organized, even if it lacked a certain charm. But the scallops were delicious when she served them, and Alan poured them all more wine.