Hadrian's Wall (26 page)

She bit her lower lip,
staring at the ground. I thought I heard her mumble something like
‘Obviously, I’m not doing this right...he’ll kill me’ but I wasn’t
sure.

Having regained her
composure, Charity gazed at me again in her typical coquettish way.
“
AC
described your
drawings to my uncle. He persuaded him that you are
exactly
the kind of
illustrator that the great patriarch needs. He was already prone to
protect you so he didn’t need much encouragement to get excited
about the idea.”

“I will not accept pity!” I cut her
explanation short.

Maybe I was feeling a perverse satisfaction
in seeing her less arrogant in front of something that only I could
give her. That is my “yes.”

Perhaps this satisfaction
was responsible for making me reject the proposal so strongly.
Still, I was impressed with her persistence. I wanted to see how
far she would go to get something that she obviously she didn’t
like to do.

“As I said before,”
Charity interjected, “although they don’t talk much, my uncle
respects AC’s opinions and vice versa. Listen...It’s not pity. It’s
a
job
. Where and
when will you have another opportunity like this?”

“A job...right. I nodded my
head and Charity smiled again. “I need time to think about it. If I
accept...and I’m not saying I will...but I won’t give you an answer
until after Adrian’s father looks at my drawings with his own
eyes.”

She said nothing before turning on her heel
and pointing to the landscape ahead, calling my attention to the
next sight she wanted to show me. I blinked several times,
delighted with the architectural diversity. The lakeside clubhouse
looked like a Spanish monastery.

“Here is where the
liveliest festivities take place—the most important events of the
town and the county. The clubhouse has a disco, a ballroom, an
amphitheater, a sauna, and both an indoor and an outdoor pool.” She
looked like a real estate agent trying to convince someone to buy a
property. “You can’t see it from here, but over there, on the
terrace overlooking the lake, is the club’s restaurant called ‘Le
Solitaire Promeneur.’” It was recently recognized with six stars on
the international guide of the finest restaurants in the
world...one star more than most of the world’s most traditional
restaurants. Isn’t too much?”

This is too much... for my mind.

* * *

The
pier
was connected to a lush
landscaped square with wide sidewalks decorated with colored tiles.
The public gardens, as well as the sidewalks’ layout demonstrated
that the whole place had been planned by some genius of landscape
architecture.

I saw people jogging,
others walking their dogs, or exercising on the equipment in the
fitness center. Wherever I looked I was amazed to view such a
peaceful, beautiful vista. The contrast between the old stone
buildings and the standard buildings made of brown bricks
replicated different architectural styles. It was a difficult
balance to explain, but it was there and it worked! I think this
combination made Hadrian’s Wall a unique town.

I heaved a sigh. It was a
shame we couldn’t stay longer. I could be happy just sitting on a
bench or stand on the
pier
and gaze at the lake, but the gentle breeze had
begun to dissipate the late afternoon heat, making me suspect that
a change of temperature was imminent, repeating the pattern of the
last several days.

As the afternoon drew to a
close, I thought I’d better speed up my “plan,” but Charity said,
“I think we should go. Whenever the next party takes place at the
Club, you’ll get to see the interior decor. You’ll be my guest of
honor!” She pretended more enthusiasm than she probably felt. “It’s
really a shame that we don’t have enough time to see it
now.”

Charity radiated grace as she glided along
the sidewalk. No longer did I feel like a clumsy ogress, I now felt
like a real orangutan! She paraded and I stumbled as we returned to
where the Porsche was parked.

While Charity maneuvered
the exotic car out of the parking lot and back
onto
the road, I held
onto
my head scarf to
avoid losing it.

“Do you have a dream that you want to come
true?” she asked, abruptly changing the subject.

Well, two can play that game.

“Apart from having a
cottage to myself on top of an isolated mountain, outside of the
civilized world?” I glanced at her to see her reaction.
“Definitely, a golden retriever for company. Oh, let me see... a
good job would be cool...for now, of course. You know, something to
fill my time and so I wouldn’t starve,” I joked.

“Dating? Marriage? Children?” she suggested,
her voice speculative.

Indiscreet questions!

“No way,” I said, lowering my head, but
replying in the same irreverent tone as before. “Love is not for
me.”

She frowned, but said nothing.

“I’d rather have a dog,” I
said. “I think I’m too young to think about marriage,
children...divorce.”

The silence was lengthy,
until suddenly Charity said, “If what you want is a house, a dog,
and a good job, I don’t understand why you’re so reluctant to
accept my uncle’s proposal.”

Checkmate!

“Seriously
, Charity...I really want
be a professional who could meet your uncle’s expectations, but I’m
not...I’m just an amateur.”

She sighed. We were driving up a steep
slope, about to reach the main wall.

“You need have more
confidence in yourself, Mel. Adrian wouldn’t have spoken with his
father about your drawings if he didn’t feel they were as good as
they are. I, too, have seen what you can do.”

“A mere caricature,” I sniffed. My tone was
contemptuous.

“As an illustrator, you should know that
making caricatures is not easy,” she gently scorned.

Yeah, I know, but I wasn’t willing to
concede my position.

“I have other priorities, now...such as
recovering my true memories.” Would she recognize my defiant
tone?

Silence. The car made a
sharp turn. I grabbed the handle so that I wouldn’t feel the impact
of the seatbelt on my ribs.

“How’s your therapy going
with Adam?”

Seriously!
I couldn’t get used to her sudden changes of
subject.

“I really like him,” I said
“It seems like we’ve known each other for years.”

She gave me a quick, sharp glance.

“Adam is great friend of our family.”

I detected a touch of
melancholy in her voice. Did she have a crush on my doctor? That
would explain his dislike of me, wouldn’t it?

“He’s very competent, you
know... but their methods are not ...conventional.”

I nodded, understanding exactly what she was
saying.

“Yep! We’re playing
RPG.”

“What?” She gave me an incredulous
smile.

“He proposed a game. If I participate, I get
pieces in order to assemble my own personal puzzle.”

She shook her head. Her
face was a mix of delight, surprise, and something else that I
couldn’t identify. She became even more mysterious when she
commented to herself, “He found a genius way. Amazing!”

Why would role playing games be something
amazing?

Well, whatever it was, she
didn’t give me time to think about. She quickly began pointing to
the houses we were approaching as we proceeded uphill.

“You also decided to pursue
the profession of your ancestors?” Now it was my turn to change
abruptly the subject.

“No. I couldn’t...cutting
people. I think...I don’t...I wouldn’t be able to live with myself
if I had to do that.” She gave me a tremulous smile. “Actually, I’m
taking a specialization in biochemistry to help Adrian in his
studies on human blood. Our family has laboratories working in the
production of medicines. Some of them are directly involved in
further research on blood diseases.” She absentmindedly touched her
pearl necklace—two strands around her slender neck as she pondered
what to say. “Let’s say that now I’m getting ready to take over the
management of central Cahill laboratory.”

This platinum blonde who
wore French perfume and adorned herself with pearls, is she a
biochemist? Who could say? She didn’t look like a nerd or a lab
rat...yet appearances can be deceiving indeed. The more time I
spent in Hadrian’s Wall, the more I r
ealized the truth of the old saying—appearances can be
deceiving...

Charity stopped the car at a lookout point
from which the lower part of the town could be seen. She got out
and headed straight for the guard post that I had seen as we left
the hospital. I was mesmerized by the panoramic view that seemed to
have come straight out of a movie—the mountains silhouetted in the
background, the sun shining brightly in a cloudless sky, the waters
of the lake shimmering...but when I realized that Charity was not
in sight, I ran to catch up with her.

As I approached the
guardhouse, I realized I had been previously mistaken—the guards
I’d seen were not police officers, they were private security
guards. They wore dark uniforms with a small emblem on the vest.
This time I couldn’t control my curiosity.

“Do you have a Police Department?”

“Of course we do!” She
chuckled in disbelief. “And a Town Hall, a school, hospital,
university, shops...why do you think we don’t have one?”

“I haven’t seen any police
car...not even a traffic policeman,” I replied, giving her a wry
smile. I didn’t want her to think I was belittling her
town.

She started pointing out many different
landmarks, too fast for me to follow her gestures.

“Over there is the Police
Department. Beside it is the Forest Police. There’s the Town Hall.
Down there, on the right, is the school.” She grabbed my hand and
pulled me along with her. As I struggled to keep pace, I felt a
stinging on the bottom of my left foot. The piece of paper that I’d
inserted to cover the hole in the sole of my shoe was
gone.

The security guard
acknowledged us with a nod of his head when we entered the huge
wrought iron gates. Wow! Those gates were something...intimidating.
I felt like I was going into the Arkham Asylum without
buying
a ticket, but it
was only my first impression, like when you open a “surprise
package” and find something different than what
you were expecting.

T
here was nothing even remotely scary beyond those gates.
Inside was a small, picturesque
tram
terminal where people were awaiting their turn to
ride.
On one side I saw a ticket office,
turnstiles, and a cafe, and on the other side, the platform with
the cables passing inside the cable house from this base to the top
of the hill.
I assumed that
one of the trams
was for
going up and the other for coming down as they were on opposite
sides of the same platform.

The cable car stopped in
front of a huge red arrow painted on the floor. Charity subtly
pushed me so that we joined the queue forming outside the vehicle’s
door. Everyone boarded quickly and soon we were seated near one of
the windows. A few minutes later, the red cable car began to rise
slow and smoothly.

During the
ascent
, the view was
amazing! We crossed above the two big columns supporting the
cables. For those inside the cable car, it created a visual photo
frame for the compact background of pines, all the way down to the
buildings around Bluewater Lake. Charity pointed to some of the
houses, explaining about their origin and who owned them.
Apparently she knew everyone in town.

Less than five minutes
later, the cable car docked on the upper platform and we followed
the other passengers as they disembarked. Once outside, I noticed
that the cable car was not the only means of access to that upper
area.
Many pedestrians were walking along
the aqueduct that I’d seen earlier, which spanned until the gateway
of the walls next to the cable car platform where we
were.

Interesting...now I
understand perfectly why this town was named “Hadrian’s Wall.” It
wasn’t just because of Adrian Cahill, the founder. The urban lower
and upper zones were located on separate plateaus. The upper side
was divided into smaller adjoined terraces surrounded by the wall
which protected the residents from encroachment by the pine forest
outside the walls, just as Hadrian’s
Wall
had segregated the territories conquered by the Romans from the
untamed territory of the Caledonians
.

Soon we reached the
entrance gates, identical to those at the lower platform. There was
also a guardhouse with two security guards. One of them spoke into
a handheld radio and when he saw us and waved us through while
other passengers lined up to present their identification
tags—another surprise package. There was a cozy little park behind
the iron gates. Similar to a village square, it had an exuberant
fountain in the middle. The place was what older people once
called
a promenade.

The upper town gradually
came into view as we walked along the promenade, enjoying the
sounds of birds and snippets of conversations of passersby. Soon we
could hear the unmistakable sounds of humans—people talking, sounds
escaping through the doors of business establishments, footsteps,
bicycles... as we approached the heart of the uptown area—the
shopping district—stores, restaurants, salons that occupying small,
brown brick buildings which it seemed to be the town’s trademark,
all glued together, occasionally separated by very narrow streets,
too small to accommodate cars.