Mirror, The (21 page)

"You'd better not get pulled over, Gin. I'm sure the cops wouldn't care much for your holographic driver's license."

"Don't be such a worrywart."

"With you, I have reason to worry," Katie said.

"No, you don't.
If
I get pulled over, I'll just say I left my license at home and bat my lashes. If that doesn't work, then you can pop a button on your sweater and show some leg."

"You're disgusting."

"I prefer to call myself pragmatic," Ginny said.

Katie giggled.

"So how is Steve, anyway?"

"He's fine. He's looking forward to getting out of school and spending more time with me."

"He actually said that?"

"He actually said that. He likes me, Katie. He likes me a lot, though I have to admit he's getting a little restless and impatient with me."

Katie turned down the volume on the radio, which was tuned to the city's most popular AM station. "Little Deuce Coupe" had picked up where "Shut Down" had left off.

"He's 'restless' and 'impatient'?"

"He's been hinting lately," Ginny said.

"Hinting?"

Ginny gave Katie a sheepish sidelong glance.

"OK. He's been more than hinting. He wants to jump my bones."

Katie laughed and shook her head.

"It's not funny, Katie."

"I'm sorry, Gin. I thought you were going to say that he wanted to marry you or something."

"No. It's nothing like that."

"Well, what did he say?"

Ginny berated herself for even raising the subject. She had warned Katie for days not to get too involved with a boy from 1964. Yet here she was doing that very thing.

"He asked me to go boating this weekend."

"So?"

"He asked me to go boating
all
weekend. He said he wanted to show me 'a quiet little place' on Bainbridge Island."

Katie smiled.

"So? That sort of thing never stopped you with Cody. It never stopped you with
anyone
."

Ginny slowed to a stop at an intersection and shot her twin a hot glare.

"You're not being helpful."

Katie turned to face the driver. She wore a more thoughtful expression.

"He's twenty-two, Ginny, and headed to law school. You're nineteen – and pretty. Did you really think he wanted you for your biting wit?"

Ginny pouted.

"Yes."

Katie raised a brow.

"OK. No. Maybe," Ginny said. "I just hoped that guys here might be different."

"Boys are boys," Katie said. "They haven't changed since the caveman days. The only difference now is that they have flashier toys and lamer pickup lines."

"That's not the only problem," Ginny said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I ran out of birth-control pills yesterday."

Katie turned off the radio.

"So get some more."

"I can't," Ginny said.

"Of course you can. The pill has been around at least a couple years. I read something about it yesterday. Just go see a doctor and get a prescription."

"It's not that simple, Katie. You have to be twenty-one or married or have your parents' permission."

"How do you know?"

"I went to a clinic yesterday and asked."

"You saw a doctor?"

"I saw a nurse," Ginny said. "She wasn't very nice either. She looked at me like I was a tramp. I didn't like that. I didn't like that at all."

"It's a different time, Gin. Remember that."

"I know."

"So what are you going to do – not see Steve anymore?"

"No."

"No?"

"No," Ginny said. "I'm going to see him on Saturday, in fact. We're going sailing in the afternoon and to dinner that night."

"Then what?"

Ginny smiled.

"Then, dear sister, I'm going to take a vow of celibacy."

CHAPTER 35: GINNY

Puget Sound, Washington – Saturday, May 30, 1964

With her eyes forward, her mind focused, and her hands on the wheel, Ginny needed less than thirty seconds to come to a clear conclusion: Steve's Performer Tropicana cabin cruiser was as fun to drive as his Corvette and much easier to handle.

"Am I doing it right?"

"You're doing it right," Steve said.

Ginny glanced at the skipper and smiled.

"You're just saying that."

"Have you hit any rocks or oceangoing vessels?"

"No," Ginny said.

"Then you're doing it right."

Ginny smiled again and returned her eyes to the water. She didn't see any rocks or vessels or even troublesome swells but rather a virtually uncluttered inland sea. On the last Saturday of May, Puget Sound was as smooth and inviting as a skating rink in Central Park.

"Where are we headed?"

"Right now we're headed to Blake Island. You like salmon?"

Ginny nodded.

"Then you'll like Tillicum Village. The folks there cook their salmon over an open flame."

As a lifelong resident of Seattle, Ginny needed no introduction to Blake Island. She had visited the attraction several times on church and scouting trips, but she had never seen it in 1964 and certainly not in the company of a would-be law student with his hands on her shoulders.

"Did you do this a lot as a kid?" Ginny asked.

"You mean go to Blake Island?"

"Yeah."

"No. I didn't. In fact, I've been there just twice. Tillicum Village opened only two years ago. Before that, there wasn't much to see except rocks and trees."

"What about boating in general? Did you do that a lot?" Ginny asked.

Steve paused before speaking.

"Yes and no."

Ginny smiled and glanced over her shoulder.

"Now, that's the clear answer I was looking for."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to be vague," Steve said.

He sighed and tightened his hold on Ginny's shoulders.

"Truth is, I came out here a lot when I was young. My dad wanted Connie and me to like and appreciate the water, so he took us out in his boats at least once a week in the summer."

Steve pulled his hands away.

"Then I took a break from water," he said.

"You took a break from water?"

"I did."

"How does one take a break from water?" Ginny asked.

"They do it by staying away from it."

"OK. Now, I'm really lost."

Steve smiled sadly.

"When I was twelve, I fell out of a sailboat not far from here and nearly drowned. I was just horsing around in the back of the boat and fell out. I was in the water eight minutes."

"This water is freezing."

"It's not quite that cold, but it felt like it that day. I didn't go near the water again for three years. I didn't go in Lake Washington. I didn't even go in swimming pools."

Ginny looked away for a moment as she tried to juxtapose the image of the confident man behind her with a boy who was afraid to swim even in a pool. Steve Carrington suddenly seemed more human and vulnerable. She liked that.

"Why did you decide to go back? You obviously like the water now."

Steve smiled wistfully.

"I decided to go back because I got tired of seeing my friends have fun at the beach and the pool. I got tired of my kid sister razzing me about being afraid of the water."

Ginny didn't have trouble imagining that. She could picture Veruca Salt needling others the day she had popped out of the womb.

"Do you get along with your sister?"

"I do now. We've never been close, but I think we understand each other better than we used to. Now that Connie's graduating from high school, she looks at the world differently."

Ginny shifted her eyes to the water and tried to steer the nineteen-foot craft toward the green sliver of land in the distance. She had done a fair job of keeping the boat on the straight and narrow since they had pulled out of Seattle's Salmon Bay marina at ten after ten. Then again, piloting a motorboat was less challenging than driving a muscle car through a school zone.

"Speaking of graduations, when is yours?" Ginny asked.

"It's in two weeks – two weeks from today, as a matter of fact."

"Are you excited?"

"I'm relieved," Steve said.

"I'll bet your parents are excited. Parents like graduation ceremonies."

"My dad's looking forward to it. Mom's a little stressed."

"Why is that?"

Steve returned his hands to Ginny's shoulders.

"She's worried she'll miss something. We actually have two commencements on June 13. Connie graduates from East Shore High in the morning. I graduate from the university that afternoon. Fortunately, the ceremonies are four hours apart."

"I suppose you'll have a house full of relatives. Katie and I did at our graduation."

"We'll have a crowded house that night but not the whole weekend. Most of the relatives want to stay in motels and do some sightseeing. Only my grandparents will stay with us."

"What's going on that night?"

Steve smiled.

"Oh, just the other thing that's causing my mom stress."

Ginny looked at him with bewildered eyes.

"She's throwing a party for a hundred," Steve said.

"You've invited a hundred people to your graduation party?"

"No. We've invited
two
hundred, but we expect only half to actually show up. At least my mom hopes only that many show up. She's afraid we'll run out of food. She's been trying to find a caterer who is flexible."

"I can see why she's stressed."

"She's also trying to line up some music and a bartender. I offered to help with both, but she said she wanted to do it herself. She was born to plan events like this."

"It sounds like it will be fun," Ginny said.

Steve pulled her close.

"It will be more fun if you're there."

"You want
me
there?"

"Of course I do," Steve said.

Ginny pondered the invitation. Maybe she had underestimated his interest in her. Maybe she was more than just fluff on the side, someone to keep him entertained until he ran off to law school and a life that didn't include nineteen-year-old hitchhikers.

"I'd love to come. I'll just have to run it past Katie."

"How come? Do you have something else going on?"

Ginny shook her head.

"I haven't planned anything. I just told Katie that I'd spend the day with her. Neither one of us has to work that day."

"So bring her along. My parents would love to meet her. I'm sure a lot of people would love to meet her."

"Would you care if she brought a date? She's kind of attached to this guy at the store."

"Bring him too. If we run out of food, we run out of food. There are worse things that could happen on a Saturday night."

Ginny looked back at Steve and smiled broadly.

"I want you to take the wheel."

"Why?" Steve asked. "Are you getting tired of steering the
Titanic
?"

"No."

Steve looked at her with curious eyes.

"Then what is it?"

"It's nothing, really," Ginny said playfully. "I just want to make sure we don't crash on the rocks when I turn around and kiss you."

CHAPTER 36: KATIE

Seattle, Washington – Wednesday, June 3, 1964

The staff lounge was not the biggest room in Greer's Grocery or the most comfortable or even the most brightly lit, but it did have three advantages: it was accessible, quiet, and usually private. Katie pondered these virtues as she gazed across a small table and started what she hoped would be a meaningful conversation.

"Your mom told me a little about Mitch at dinner last night. She said not a day goes by that she doesn't think about him. How come you don't talk about him?"

Mike stared back with eyes she had seen before but still couldn't read.

"There's nothing to talk about. I barely even remember him."

Katie reached across the table and put her hand on his.

"He was your brother. Surely you think about him."

Mike sighed and stared at a bulletin board. The dozen or so notices pinned to the cork advertised everything from changes in workers' compensation laws to staff birthday parties to a 1954 Olds 88 Holiday coupe that Greg Reynolds wanted to unload for six hundred bucks.

"Of course I think about him," Mike said with an edge in his voice.

"You don't need to snap, Mike. I'm just curious. He was a part of your family," Katie said. She tightened her grip on his hand. "I want to know more about your family."

Mike smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry."

"It's all right," Katie said.

"What all did my mom tell you?"

Katie relaxed and silently cheered when she heard the words. After more than three weeks of trying, she was finally able to get her introverted friend to open up.

"She said you and Mitch were very similar on the outside and just as different on the inside. I can relate to that. Ginny and I are the same way. Most people think we're copies of each other when, in fact, we're completely different people."

"I've never had trouble sorting you out," Mike said.

Katie laughed.

"You're growing on me, Michael Hayes."

He smiled warmly.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"You should," Katie said. "I meant it as one."

Katie sipped from a can of ginger ale. When she saw that Mike had no intention of starting a new topic, she quickly resumed the old.

"Your mother also told me something else."

"What's that?"

"She said that when Mitch died you changed as a person. She said you were like a cub that had lost his mother. You became kind of a loner."

"Yeah," Mike said. "She got that right. Did she also tell you I was just as bad as Mitch?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I was just as sick."

"She didn't mention that," Katie said.

"I'm not surprised. That's the part she doesn't like to talk about. She almost lost both of us."

Katie cocked her head slightly.

"Please tell me. I'd like to know what happened."

"OK. I'll tell you, even though there's not a lot to tell," Mike said. "About the time Mitch started to go downhill, I started to get better. He stayed in the hospital. I came home. By the time he died, I was cancer-free. The doctors called it 'spontaneous regression.'"