Bloodchild (6 page)

Jillian looked at her a moment, and then, sensing she had already been dismissed, left the room and went downstairs. Harlan was in the living room making himself a cocktail. She watched him for a moment, sighed, and came forward.

"What's that you're making, Harlan?"

"Bourbon sour," he replied. "I don't do it often, but…"

"Never mind how often you do it," Jillian said. "Make me one, too, and make it a double," she added.

He smiled. "What's wrong?"

"Modern motherhood," she said, and dropped herself into the big-cushioned, soft blue chair to the right of the picture window, welcoming the way it swallowed up her diminutive body, practically allowing her to collapse.

While Harlan mixed her drink, she brought her hands to her own breasts, as if they, too, were somehow threatened by the lips of Dana and Harlan's adopted child. Her nipples stiffened as she vicariously experienced the event. She didn't take her hands away from her breast until Harlan turned and she realized from the expression of curiosity on his face just how protectively she was holding her palms over her bosom.

Colleen clutched her hands at her waist as the tension drew her to her feet. The entire Centerville section of the stadium had risen like a wave in the tide of excitement. Teddy and his teammates burst out of their huddle, exploding with determination, and went into their formation. The crowd was screaming at such a high pitch, it sounded like thousands of bees humming. Colleen held her breath. The score was tied; it was the final minute of the fourth quarter. Centerville was on the Liberty fifteen-yard line and it was the third down.

Suddenly an eerie stillness came over the fans as they waited in anticipation. Teddy chanted the numbers, his voice powerful and steady, the voice of the Iceman, she thought, and then the ball was snapped with such force, it looked as though Teddy had drawn it to his hands on a giant rubber band. He turned to his right and faked a run; then he spun to his left, ran laterally for two or three yards, leapt in the air, and threw the football, threading it perfectly between two Liberty players and into the waiting arms of Bobby Reynolds, who was standing in the end zone.

The stadium literally rocked. Colleen felt the structure tremble and had a flash of fear that it would collapse. Her schoolmates were throwing things up in the air, embracing one another, slapping hands, kissing; some of her girlfriends were actually crying. She looked around in stunned amazement and then out to the field. Teddy's teammates were hoisting him onto their shoulders. The referee was blowing his whistle, his cheeks ballooning with the effort, but it looked like a scene from a silent movie because the crowd noise was so great, the sound of the whistle was drowned out.

The game wasn't over; fifteen seconds remained. The umpires and stadium personnel finally got the field cleared, and the ball was put back into play. Danny Singleman kicked the extra point and Centerville was ahead by seven.

The final ten seconds went by quickly because the Liberty team had been depressed by the final events. When the gun was sounded to end the game, it seemed more like a gun fired to start a race. The stadium crowd had been poised to charge forward and instantly broke onto the field to embrace its football heroes. Colleen stood back and caught a glimpse of Teddy being carried off to the locker room.

"Oh, what a game. What a game!" Colleen's girlfriend Audra exclaimed. Even with the animation in her round, ebullient face, her normally wide brown eyes opened to their limits, her soft, thin lips twisted like a string of strawberry licorice, Audra Carson's statement sounded like an understatement. It was the greatest, most exciting game Colleen had ever seen, and not only because she was romantically involved with the quarterback. The lead had seesawed back and forth continually, until the score remained tied for the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Teddy's excellent efforts had been matched by those of the talented Liberty quarterback. It had really been a contest in which both boys had to reach back and call up every bit of skill they had.

Colleen couldn't help but watch the Liberty players retreat from the field. Some looked back enviously at the Centerville crowd and players. She saw that some even wore smiles, probably imagining what it would have been like had the situation been reversed. The Liberty quarterback departed with his head down, his teammates already beseeching him not to feel sorry but to feel proud of the effort he had made.

She turned back just as Teddy was carried into the locker room, and then she followed Audra into the aisle, proceeding to the parking lot, where she would wait for him.

"You're so lucky, so lucky to have him for a boyfriend," Audra said, turning back. Colleen smiled at Audra's unabashed revelation of her feelings. She liked her just for this reason: Audra was refreshingly innocent and open. She was a trusting and warm seventeen-year-old girl who sometimes seemed so oblivious to the way other girls mocked and abused her, it was as if she were from another planet. Colleen often felt the need to protect her. She was indeed Audra's only true friend, but Audra had been the first to welcome her to the school, and welcome her warmly.

With Audra, Colleen didn't feel the undercurrent of jealousy, jealousy that sometimes took form in vicious ways, that she sensed in other girls at the school. Audra was a pure spirit, vulnerable but full of forgiveness. Colleen couldn't help but like her.

And she liked Audra's mother too. Her father had left them when Audra was just ten, and they had embraced religion, but in a much different, if not strange, manner. They didn't become ardent churchgoers. If anything, Audra's mother, Lucy, seemed to eschew organized religion, as if all churches and all clergy were undercover organizations and agents working for the devil. Their home had become their church, and although they didn't discuss and promote it the way some ardent believers and clergy would, they had a confident belief that God spoke directly to them. There was no need for intermediaries.

They read the Bible together daily, and they had a clear and trusting faith that seemed childish at times. Audra wore her thick silver cross like a shield, sometimes fingering it in private prayer. Others were turned off by this ostentatious religious activity, but Colleen felt comfortable in their home; she felt welcome and sincerely wanted.

She sensed that Lucy Carson was happy and even grateful for Colleen's friendship with Audra, a friendship that was often hard to defend; for her other friends—even Teddy—couldn't understand why she wanted to be friends with such an unsophisticated and, in many ways, strange girl.

"Do you want to come with us to the Beast Burger?" she asked Audra. It wouldn't be the first time she had brought her along with her and Teddy. He had forgiven her for it before, and she was positive he would forgive her for it now, because he would be so elated, nothing she did would make him unhappy.

"Will you be upset if I don't? I promised my mother I would go with her shopping for shoes tonight," Audra said. The five-foot four-inch girl wore an expression of sincere concern.

Colleen shook her head and smiled.

"I'll see you in school tomorrow. Have a good time, and congratulate Teddy for me. I was praying for him to do well."

"I'll tell him. Thanks. See you," Colleen said, and Audra walked off, her dark brown ponytail so long and tied so high, it swung back and forth rigorously.

The moment Audra left Colleen's side, Colleen's other girlfriends approached and gathered around her, everyone talking excitedly. Colleen stood in the center, smiling. She was Teddy's girlfriend. For the moment she was his ambassador. Talking to her and being around her was like talking and being around him. She felt and understood this; it made her feel good. It crowned one of the most exhilarating days of her life, and with all the talk before the game, the game itself, and now in its aftermath, she had little time to think about her strange reaction to her brother's adopted child and the changes in her sister-in-law's personality.

By the time Teddy appeared, Colleen was emotionally exhausted. The girls around her were talking so excitedly, so quickly, their voices so high-pitched, that they sounded as if they had all inhaled helium. First they heard the boys cheering and singing, their voices reverberating in the locker-room corridor, and then Teddy appeared, surrounded by his teammates, all of them in tune with his every move.

His wonderful performance and the team's great victory had inflated him. He looked taller than his six feet one inch and broader and more muscular than his one hundred and eighty pound frame. He had his silky sable hair blow-dried and styled with that wave in the front, and his eyes sparkled like two diamond-shaped pieces of black marble washed by a thousand years of ocean tides. There was a glow about him, and his friends and teammates bathed in the light.

Colleen didn't rush to him. She stood back as the other girls congratulated him, vying for an opportunity to touch him and be touched by him, as though his sports accomplishment had given him divine powers and one could share in the glory simply by a laying-on of hands. She saw the way the girls who touched him and were touched by him turned back to one another, their faces radiant with ecstasy and satisfaction. She wasn't jealous, but she was bothered by it because she saw that it was having a bad effect on Teddy. He didn't need his ego stroked; his head was already too big.

After a few moments he began to search the crowd, and when he saw her, he moved quickly forward, the others parting to clear his way.

"Hi."

"Hi," she said. She smiled, leaned forward, and kissed him on the cheek. "Nice game."

"That's it? Nice game?"

"For now," she said, looking at the others and then back at him suggestively. His expression of disappointment changed quickly into a knowing smile of anticipation.

"My father let me have the RX-7."

"Great," she said, now happy that Audra had not agreed to come along. The RX-7 sports car had only two seats.

"I'm starving," he announced, and everyone rushed on to their vehicles. He took her hand and they headed into the parking lot. "You know, just before I went into that final huddle, I looked up into the stands and saw you."

"I thought maybe you had."

"You looked so worried."

"I was."

"I just felt it," he said. "I felt I was going to do it. I can't explain it, but it was like a warm glow. It just came over me and I felt so confident."

"I'm glad," she said. They reached the car.

"Then how about really showing it?" He took her by the shoulders and drew her closer to him. They kissed. Some of the other kids howled, but she really didn't hear them. When Teddy pulled back, she sensed another kind of need in him. She felt his hunger for real companionship. Strong feelings, even such good strong feelings, could be overwhelming. They had to be shared in a personal way. For the first time she sensed that he was a lot more sensitive than he made out to be. Harlan was right—she was defrosting the Iceman.

"Want to go somewhere by ourselves?" she whispered. His eyes filled with interest. He took a quick look around at the others, who were getting into cars and pulling out of the lot, screaming at one another, waving at him. He nodded.

"We'll just sneak away," he said. She smiled, happy that he really wanted to be with only her at this moment, that he really didn't need or want the continuous compliments and adoration from the others.

He made a couple of quick turns, downshifted, then sped up so quickly on the major highway that he lost those who were tailgating. Then, laughing at his deception, he made a turn, working his way back toward the stadium and off to Old Centerville Station. He and Colleen would go to the reservoir and follow the truck road down to the dam where he could park and they could look out over the water, turned silvery by the sinking sun, relinquishing its command of the sky to the full October moon. The reddish-gold orb revealed Nature's plan to continue the Indian summer for at least another day.

After he parked, Teddy got out and went around to the rear of the vehicle. He opened the back and took out a blanket, which he spread over the cleared area just to the right of the. car. She watched from inside, pretending not to know what he was doing. For a moment he stood with his hands on his hips. Then she laughed and got out.

"And how did you just happen to bring that along, Teddy Becker?"

"It's always in the car. For emergencies," he explained.

"For what kind of emergencies?"

"Come over here and we'll find out," he said. As soon as she was within reach, he pulled her to him and they kissed again, only this time it was a much longer and much more passionate kiss. She felt herself soften. He pressed his cheek against hers and the two of them lowered themselves to the blanket. There, under the moonlight, with the water just below them, they kissed and stroked each other tenderly, their mutual desire growing more intense with every passing moment. Teddy unbuttoned her light blue sweat-suit jacket and brought his hands to her sides. She felt his fingers slip under her cotton turtlenecked blouse and then move up over her ribs until they touched her breasts.

She sighed and leaned back. He followed her, pressing his mouth against hers, running his lips over her cheeks and chin and down to her neck. He embraced her fully and gracefully unfastened her bra. When the loosened garment lifted under his touch and the tops of his fingers stroked her nipples, she moaned, but suddenly, instead of thinking of him and the moment, she thought about Dana and the new baby.

Teddy stripped off the sweat-suit jacket and peeled up her blouse. In moments he brought his lips to her breasts. He had done this before. Just the week before, they had made love in his room when no one was home, but now, the moment his lips touched her nipple, she imagined Dana's baby bringing its lips to Dana's breast, and the image, for reasons she didn't understand, frightened her. She pulled back, pressing Teddy's head away from her.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"I…" She looked around, unable to explain and yet unwilling to continue. "I feel funny doing this out here. Suppose someone comes along?"