Destined (24 page)

“At any rate,” he continued, “They
managed to postpone the marriage for several years and when the time came to do
something about it, neither one of them was really interested.”

“Oh, that’s good!”

“You might say so, but it was quite
upsetting for our boy at the time.”

“Why, did he mind? I thought he didn’t
care about her?”

“It seemed that the girl had fallen in
love with someone else, someone quite inferior but Johnny-on-the-spot as it
were, and she had become, well,
enceinte
.”

“Oh! You mean, pregnant?”

“Yes, alas. Or, happily, depending on
one’s point of view.”

“Very true.”

“While all that time, traveling the
wide world to its most exotic ports where legendary beauties reside, Tony had
considered himself to be an engaged man. And being
honorable
, he conducted himself accordingly! I
can bear witness.”

“You mean, he was faithful to her
while she was back in England having a sleazy affair with some guy?”

Mr. Paradis nodded, a twinkle in his
eye.

It was hard for me to imagine. The
girl must have been totally out of her mind. Lucky for me! I had no doubt from
what Henry said that Tony would have gone ahead and married her, if she had
expected it. Maybe she was just too young, or she thought of him as a brother.
Maybe she had grown up in such a wealthy, privileged world that she never
learned to appreciate real loyalty. She sounded frivolous to me.

Tony must have been crushed, even if
secretly relieved. Not so much because of what he had deprived himself of over
the years, as Henry indicated, but for the end of his dream of a loving wife
and family. He had worked hard at school and achieved financial success, but
suddenly he was heading down that road alone. Not that he had remained alone
for more than a few weeks, I suspected. No longer protected by an official
engagement, rich and handsome, he must have been chased around the globe by
more than one enterprising husband-hunter.

I poured us both some fresh-brewed
coffee. Henry’s scones sat untouched on the plate, but I was too curious to
stop asking questions.

“So, how did the two families react to
all this?” I inquired.

“They were not a problem. They were
sorry the husband was not to be Tony, but glad about the baby coming, and her
parents threw the happy couple a big wedding. Tony was one of the groomsmen.”

“Very civilized! I approve.”

“Yes.” He sipped his coffee and slowly
took a bite of scone. I started to put together the layers of tomato sauce and
eggplant in my two casseroles.

“When was this?” I asked.

“A few years ago. I think the child is
two or three now.”

“So that doesn’t really explain why he
decided to move so suddenly. Does it?”

“Emily,” he said deliberately, “When a
man like Tony suddenly sees a clear path to the future he desires, he does not
waste time. Especially if he has been searching for this path for many, many
years. That’s why he sold his house.”

“What path?”

“Ahhh, now we are getting back to your
second question of the morning, the one to which you already know the answer.”
he said, rising out of his chair slowly, holding his back and cringing a little
as he straightened. He shuffled toward the door to the hall.

“I suggest you ask him yourself, my
dear, if you dare!” he called over his shoulder, heading up the stairs.

That afternoon when the lunch
customers had tapered off I left the shop in the competent hands of Henry and
Siri, gritted my teeth, and walked the eight blocks to my previous place of
employment. I walked slowly, trying to decide what to say. I forced a smile
onto my face and attempted to look friendly. People on the sidewalk smiled
back, so it must have looked fairly natural. My upper lip stuck to my front
teeth. I ried to get back to the forgiving, peaceful state of mind I had
achieved the night before. By the time I reached the Gladstone Gallery, I was
feeling calm and relatively optimistic. I pushed open the door with its elegant
gold lettering and went inside before I could change my mind.

The first thing I noticed was the
amazing new art show that the Gallery was displaying. It was obviously all the
work of a single artist. Very large canvases and framed monotypes were hung on
every wall, stunning abstract figures done in a bright palette, predominantly
flaming red and orange but a few in bright blues. A series mounted on the long
side wall had a musical theme. I saw mysterious figures playing guitars, black
and white keyboards, horns, drums. The work was brilliant, and I was so
transported by the images that I didn’t even notice when she first entered the
room.

“Good afternoon, can I help you with
anything?” came Lexi’s voice from behind me. She sounded stuffy, like she had a
cold.

I turned around and faced her
silently, trying to radiate good intentions and not knowing how to start. When
she recognized me, a strange look came over her face. I realized that Lexi
looked like she had been crying. Her eye makeup was smeared and her nose was
red. She looked at me first in disbelief, and then with an intense emotional
gush she threw her arms around me and burst into tears on my shoulder.

“Oh my god,” she sobbed, “I can’t
believe you’re here! How did you know?”

I nearly fell over when she collapsed
on me, I was so surprised. I rallied, and patted her back consolingly as she
wept. Obviously something had gone very wrong in Lexi Land!

“Lex? How are you doing, sweetie?” I
ventured, mining for clues. I hugged her and kept on patting. She was a
complete mess.

“Oh my god,” she said, distraught, “I’m
still in total denial. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe she’s just, gone!
Gone!” She burst into fresh paroxysms of grief. In a minute or two she
straightened up again slowly and pulled back, sniffling.

I offered her a kleenex from my bag
and probed cautiously, “When did you find out?”

“This morning,” she sniffed, blowing
her nose. “Daddy called here, just as I was opening up.”

“I am so sorry, Lexi, “ I said,
meaning it in every way, even though I still didn’t know what she was talking
about,

“Thank you,” she answered, trying to
blot the running mascara from under her eyes.

“What exactly did he, er…say?”

“There was a tree down across the
road. Nobody knows why. It must have just fallen. It was pitch dark out there,
and she drove right into it. She never had a chance.”

“Oh, no!”

“Yes, she died instantly. Mummy says
they’re planning the funeral for day after tomorrow. Will you come with me?
Please, Em? I don’t think I can do it alone.”

“Where, Lexi?”

“The Island, that’s where they’re
going to bury her. I just can’t believe my sister is gone. I feel like when we
get off the ferry, she’ll be standing right there!” Tears welled up and rolled
down her cheeks. She blotted them away with the kleenex.

I thought quickly, and realized that
this was surely the perfect chance to transform our relationship back to into
an amicable one. I wasn’t terribly eager to drive her out to the Cape and take
the long ferry ride to Nantucket, nor to go to a sad family funeral attended by
a bunch of rich people I had never even met. However, opportunity was knocking
at my door. As I had requested and right on schedule, too.
Carpe diem
, and all that. I took a deep breath
and committed myself.

“Sure, I’ll go to the Island with you
Lexi,” I said, “I’d be glad to. I’m so sorry for your loss. And, I’m also sorry
that things haven’t been, well, very good between us lately. I’m sorry for
whatever I may have done to contribute to that. I want to be friends.”

She regarded me solemnly, twisting the
tissue in her hands.

“I forgive you, Emily. Do you forgive
me?” she said, her lip trembling.

I nodded mutely and we hugged again.
When we pulled apart we were smiling at each other. I kept one arm draped
around her shoulders comfortingly as I steered her toward the seating area at
the back of the gallery. Two couches and several big easy chairs were clustered
around a glass-topped coffee table. We sat down together on one of the sofas.

“You know,” she confided, “I feel so
weird about this. I never thought I even liked Suzi very much, but now I’m just…
devastated
!
”

“That’s totally understandable,” I
said. “You always love your family, even when you’re mad at them, or whatever.”

“No,” she protested, “It’s more than
that! I really didn’t like her. In fact, she’s the whole reason I never had
many girlfriends, you know. She tortured me when we were little. I never could
trust her. She made fun of me all the time.”

“Was she older than you?” I asked,
vaguely remembering this fact.

“Four years,” Lexi answered. “She was
always so pretty, so slender and graceful. And I was a pudgy little child. She
used to call me The Toad.”

“Oh no, that’s awful!”

“Yes,” she nodded seriously, “One time
she locked me in the attic of the Westport house for a whole day. Nobody could
find me. They thought I had run away, and Daddy called the police!”

“And nobody heard you calling?”

She regarded me with a hint of the old
Lexi peeking out, giving me that “Are you stupid or crazy?” raised eyebrow. I
figured she must have felt a little better.

“Are you kidding?” she asked, “In a
20,000 square foot house you don’t hear a small child calling from behind a
closed door on the third floor, Emily!”

“OK, well, that must have been scary
for you, Lexi.”

“Yes, it was!” she nodded. “I had to
pee in a little bowl. There was nothing to eat or drink. I cried all day.”

“You poor thing! You must have been
dehydrated!”

“Yes, I suppose so! And Suzi thought
the whole thing was just hysterical. She laughed and laughed.”

I made sympathetic noises as Lexi
related a series of incidents from their childhood, some bad and others good,
gradually growing more and more calm as her crying jag receded. I received the
impression that Suzi had been a mischievous bully, not a dangerous devil, but
someone who had made a major impact on the growing insecurity of her little
sister. I wondered if Suzi had been jealous of Lexi, who must have been just as
bright and aggressive for attention then as she was now as an adult. I was
willing to bet that Lexi was never pudgy at all, either. I doubted there was a
single day in her life when she didn’t wake up pretty first thing in the
morning.

“When do you want to leave? I should
make plans to be away,” I said, thinking of the shop, and Tony, whom I had
hoped to see again tonight.

“Oh, I’m too blown away to get
organized today,” she said, rubbing her temples. “I think I’ll just lock up and
walk over to the spa for a massage. We can go tomorrow. I’ll call Mummy and
tell her when to expect us.”

“OK, I’ll pick you up at your place in
the morning, then.”

She nodded, placing her hand over
mine.

“Thanks for being here, Emily.”

I smiled at her, genuinely glad of the
same thing.

“I’ll call you later to confirm after
I reorganize my schedule,” I said, “ I’m sure it will be OK, I just need to
check.”

We stood up and hugged again, then I
left and walked back to my shop. When I told Siri what had happened, she was
ecstatic. Her beautiful eyes lit up and she gave an excited whoop.

“You did it!” she cried, “You have
transformed the negative into the positive!”

“She totally adores me now! Can you
believe it?” I said, grinning.

“And how do you feel about her?”

“Actually,” I said thoughtfully, “I
kind of like her too. I just have to remember how things are in Lexi Land, and
be patient. Understanding where she is coming from really helps. Though I’ll
keep my guard up, too, just in case.”

“That’s right,” Siri said approvingly,
as though satisfied with me, her pupil. “If you concentrate on her good side,
she will show it to you more often!”