One Unforgettable Evening (2 page)

“
Oh, boy.” Leon took the
smallest possible sip of the sweet and bubbly stuff and looked
around to see how they were getting on.

Hopefully there would be a fresh
gallon of milk at home, what with the boys being away at their
grandmother’s for the weekend.

As the revolving crowd swept past the
archway, he picked out Adelia and Mister Darban in amongst the
crowd. They were doing a lovely foxtrot, and honestly, Adelia was
in her element.

He really couldn’t deny it. She was in
her glory now. He turned away thoughtfully.

The music was really good
here.

You had to get a ways back from your
life sometimes, just to see the true beauty in it. Seventeen years
of marriage. Wow. Whoever would have thought?

The truth was that they were happy.
They were having a pretty good life.

His wife really
was
beautiful.

She really did dance well. He
remembered things, many things. Leon looked at his
watch.

It was interesting to see her in the
arms of another man.

A bit of a lesson in life there. If
only one had the wit to see it sometimes.

***

“
He put his hands on my
bum, Leon.”

“
Yeah, that’s kind of
rude, Hon. It’s understandable, though. I wouldn’t worry too much
about it.” They hustled across the dark parking lot, with the wind
whipping the trees and the sky ripped by nearby lightning, still
inside the clouds but it would be along any minute now.

“
I mean,
seriously
…” She was sort
of pleased and sort of appalled. “…with you right there and
everything…”

“
Yes, quite bold, some of
these foreigners.” Leon had no idea of what he was actually saying,
but it sounded well enough.

He was just teasing her.

The first few drops of warm rain
pelted the ground outside the vehicle as they slammed their
doors.

Leon put the key in the ignition and
turned it.

Whirr-irr….irr.
Whrrr…wrr.

“
Aw, no. Shit.”

“
Oh, Leon.”

It was that damned alternator, either
that or the battery, which had been giving him a bit of trouble
lately. He should have known better.

“
Relax, dear.”

Leon blinked through the alcohol
fumes. He wanted to try just one thing before calling the auto club
for a boost.

Popping the hood, Leon took a small
flashlight from the glove-box and went around to the front of the
car. Thunder rumbled on and on all around them.

Maybe, if he wiggled the battery
terminals. Or, sometimes you could just tap on them with
something.

Scene Two

A long black car with engine
positively purring pulled up alongside of Leon as he looked for the
battery cables in the dim light. They were the newfangled ones,
down low, bolted to the side of the casing. His flashlight held
just a dying yellow glow. That was predictable enough.

The right side rear window came
down.

“
Are you having car
troubles? Perhaps we could offer you a ride home?”

The rain was pelting down more
strongly now. Leon straightened up. The connectors on the battery
were tight. He belatedly thought of the bluish-green crust that
came off there. It would eat away at any clothing he touched. He
dusted off his hands and then carefully rinsed them in rain water
from a nearby puddle. He pulled out his handkerchief as Darban
watched patiently.

“
Yes, Mister Darban. Dead
battery.”

He closed the hood with a resolute
thud.

“
Hang on a
second.”

Darban nodded.

Leon got in the driver’s side, leaving
the door open. That side was relatively sheltered.

“
Who’s that, Honey?” There
was a tone of finality in Adelia’s voice.

“
It’s him, dear.” Leon
cranked it over, but it was no good. The battery was definitely
dead.

He looked at Adelia.

“
Any thoughts?”

“
Shit.”

He nodded, and gave a skeptical
shrug.

“
Yeah.”

Leon and Adelia baled out and moved,
head down and lashed by the warm raindrops of late spring as the
man inside hastily popped the door open and slid over to the far
side.

***

“
Well, I must say. This
really is very nice.”

Adelia was clearly
impressed.

“
It is an honour, Mister
and Missus de Marco. The pleasure is all mine, Adelia.”

Something about the way he said her
name. He really was terribly sophisticated, but there was a hint of
something more. He patted her on the knee, leaving his hand there
for a shade too long.

The little squeeze he gave spoke
volumes. Leon didn’t even seem to notice, looking back out of his
side window as if saying some forlorn goodbye to the four year-old
Ford, which he’d actually bought second-hand.

Thomas Darban sat on the left, with
Adelia in the middle and Leon on the right.

There was a glass partition between
them and the driver, but it was down and Adelia caught the fellow,
an Oriental, with a squat, very bald head and wearing a black
bowler hat of all things, studying her in the mirror with his
almond-shaped eyes.

She coloured slightly.

“
Ah. This is my driver,
and my valet, and also, if I might say so, my very close personal
friend for all these many years. Georges Hatsumaka, say hello to
the people.”

“
I am ever so pleased to
meet you.” Georges nodded politely, making eye contact with her in
the mirror. “Hello.”

Georges spoke very good
English.

“
Pleased to meet you.”
Adelia fumbled with her handbag.

Her eyes slid to the right.

Leon still seemed
oblivious.

“
I wonder.” Thomas seemed
pensive.

“
What?” They spoke as
one.

Leon was at last back with them, and
that was good.

“
What, Mister
Darban?”

Adelia put her hand on
Darban’s knee, shocked by the casual nature of it, but maybe it
would
spark
something in her husband.

“
Well, yours is such a
lovely city. Perhaps you would care to join us, and enjoy a ride in
my lovely limousine—and perhaps you could show me, that is to say,
Georges and I, around in return.”

“
Well…”

Leon spoke up.

“
I gotta piss. Real bad,
Thomas.”

Adelia slapped the back of his hand
and he grinned unexpectedly, leaning out a bit to exchange
pleasantries with Mister Darban, attentive on the far
side.

“
See what I got to put up
with?” He put his left arm around Adelia and gave her little
squeeze.

She tried to look pleased, and modest,
and, oh, so elegant, as if she were enjoying herself and that they
did this all the time.

She really ought to watch that hand.
It seemed to have a mind of its own. She met Leon’s eyes and
flushed scarlet.

Thomas smiled inscrutably and nodded
knowingly.

Leon reached over with his right hand
and took her right leg just behind the knee. He gave it a little
squeeze, and then rubbed, hand going around in small
circles.

“
She’s a good person
though, and I love her so very much. So, I just sort of put up with
it.” Leon belched slightly. “That’s the key to a good marriage. But
seriously, folks. I really need to go.”

Adelia heaved a deep sigh,
relinquishing his stare.

Rolling her eyes, she twisted in her
seat to regard Thomas a little more directly.

“
And now you see
what
I
have to
put up with.”

He nodded in all solemnity.

And then she turned her head around to
re-engage Leon, still holding her leg and kneading it a little just
to remind her that he was there. Her skirt was creeping up under
the assault, she realized, and that’s when Thomas reached over and
patted her on the knee again. She gave him a distant look out of
the corner of her eye, but said nothing.

Her lips parted and she felt very warm
all of a sudden, a little confused maybe, and her eyes slid away to
be caught by the eyes of the man in the mirror, who licked his lips
and looked away…oh, wow.

Georges reached up and adjusted the
mirror. Downwards, just ever so slightly…

As for Thomas, he wasn’t looking at
her eyes, he was looking at her cleavage, which was the one thing
this stupid dress had going for it. The fingertips of Leon’s left
hand were stroking her ear.

Oh, my word.

After the pat on the knee, Darban sat
back, but Leon was still nuzzling at her right ear. He was just
showing off, she decided.

“
Stop
it.”
She giggled, watching Thomas. “You
brat.”

Thomas chuckled.

“
Ah, yes, yes, let’s see
here.” Darban exposed a console hidden inside a burled walnut
panel, lacquered to high perfection.

Lights and switches and dials glowed
in the dim interior as he found some jazz music, which had always
been Adelia’s favourite. She especially loved the slow and sultry
sax, with maybe a tinkling piano and someone who knew how to play,
with the drums soft and sensual in the background.

Darban cleared his throat and
addressed Mr. Hashimodo or whatever his name was.

“
Georges.”

Adelia stifled a grin at
the thought.
Hashimodo.
All the champagne was getting to her. Leon wasn’t
the only one feeling it.

“
Yes, Mister
Darban?”

“
Pull into the park here.
Our guest needs to relieve himself.”

“
Yes, sir. I know just the
thing.” He rotated his head and gave Leon an understanding look.
“I’ve done it myself—you know, as a professional driver.
Ahem.
All that sort of
thing.”

Craning his neck, he took a quick peek
at Adelia’s exposed legs and then winked at Leon.

Grinning, Leon gave him a nod.
Anywhere along here would do…holy, hell, what was the man holding
out for?

“
Just give me a good-sized
tree, my good man. Almost any tree will do.”

Thomas chuckled, and as she looked
over, held her eye strangely, with his chin rising in
query.

Georges nudged the wheel and drew her
to a smooth halt.

“
All out who is getting
out.”

The remark was pretty much lost on
Leon, who was halfway out the door.

***

“
Your husband’s taking a
long time, Adelia.”

“
Yes, well, we’ll have to
leave it up to him—”

Leon climbed in, not too soaking wet
but damp enough. You’d think all that rain would have helped him to
relieve himself, but for some reason he was maybe a bit tense.
Probably from thinking about the car, he decided. He was also
aroused by the little game.

That Thomas was really
something.

“
We’ll have to call the
auto club tomorrow.” He looked over at Thomas and then at his wife.
“Ask me about what?”

“
I have a proposition to
make, Leon.” Darban looked at Leon, and then back at
Adelia.

She pursed her lips and looked off
into nowhere.

Leon perched on the edge of the seat,
waiting.

Yes, the fellow was quite enamored of
Adelia. She seemed very subdued.

Leon looked at his wife.

“
What?”

She looked primly down at her hands,
folded in a calm and neutral fashion in her lap. Adelia was sitting
up very straight, as if to narrow the space that she was taking
up.

“
What?” Leon looked over
at Darban.

“
Go ahead, Thomas. Ask
him.”

Adelia’s voice was flat and
uninflected.

“
Ask me what,
Thomas?”

Thomas nodded. There was nothing else
for it, and he’d gotten himself into the situation. But they were
both men of the world.

“
Leon. I would very much
like to make love to your wife.”

“
What! I mean,
what?”
Leon was
flabbergasted, this much was true.

But the man had been
paying them, or
her,
rather, all kinds of gallant attention, all
evening.

What he
wanted
wasn’t exactly a
shock.