Once Is Not Enough (66 page)
Read Once Is Not Enough Online
Authors: Jacqueline Susann
Tags: #Fiction, #Literary, #Romance, #General
There was nothing but silence. There was no use in running, because she felt locked in that one spot. She dropped to the sand. It felt cool and soft. She felt the glow of the new moon upon her. It almost felt like sunlight—warm, comforting. And then she saw him walking toward her. He was coming from the shoreline. And when he walked directly into the path of the moonlight his face was in shadow. But she wasn’t the least surprised that he had those startling blue eyes she had seen so many times before.
And as she watched him approach, she felt no fear. She suddenly remembered a verse from a poem by John Burroughs called “Waiting.” Long ago she had memorized it in Switzerland and . . .
Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.
And now for the first time, she felt all the waiting was over. He came closer and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. It was Mike!
But it wasn’t Mike. His smile was like Mike’s, he looked like Mike . . . yet he wasn’t Mike. He stood before her and held out his arms. She scrambled to her feet and went to him. He held her close. “I’m glad to see you, January.”
“Mike,” she whispered.
He stroked her hair. “I’m not Mike.”
“But you look like Mike.”
“Only because you want me to.”
She clung to him. “Look. This is my hallucination. So it’s going to go my way. Whoever you are—I’ve wanted you all my life. Maybe I always knew you would come. Maybe I loved Mike because he looked like you. Maybe I love you because you look like him. Maybe you both are one. It doesn’t matter . . .
She dropped to the sand, and he took her in his arms. When their lips met it was everything she knew it would be. And when he took her, she knew it had been the moment she had waited for all her life. His caress was gentle yet firm. She reached out for him and held him close . . . closer . . . until they were united like the sand that joins the wave that draws it back into the sea.
“Please don’t ever leave me,” she whispered.
And he held her close and promised he would never let her go again.
JUNE 29, 1972
NEW YORK (AP)
TODAY MARKS ONE YEAR SINCE THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JANUARY WAYNE, HEIRESS TO THE GRANGER MILLIONS. HER FIANCE, DAVID MILFORD, WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR COMMENT, AS HE IS VACATIONING SOMEWHERE ON THE GREEK ISLAND OF PATMOS. BUT FRIENDS STATE THAT HE STILL CLINGS TO THE HOPE THAT SHE IS ALIVE. DR. GERSON CLIFFORD, MISS WAYNE’S PERSONAL PHYSICIAN, SAID MISS WAYNE HAD BEEN IN A DEEP DEPRESSION OVER THE DEATH OF HER FATHER AND STEPMOTHER. IT IS DR. CLIFFORD’S THEORY THAT MISS WAYNE MAY HAVE WALKED INTO THE OCEAN AND DROWNED, SINCE HER CAR WAS FOUND PARKED NEAR A BEACH ENTRANCE THE MORNING AFTER HER DISAPPEARANCE. LATER THAT SAME MORNING, TWO YOUNG BOYS, EDWARD STEVENS, 9, AND TOMMY KAROL, 8, FOUND A HANDBAG ON THE BEACH WHICH WAS IDENTIFIED AS BELONGING TO MISS WAYNE. THERE WAS NOTHING IN THE BAG EXCEPT AN EMPTY WALLET WITH CREDIT CARDS AND A PLASTIC BOTTLE CONTAINING TWO SUGAR CUBES . . .
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