Soulmates (16 page)

***

Pam stood on the sidewalk in front of her beautiful beach house. The architect planned the angles of the house so that its size wasn’t apparent until you were at the front door. There was a slight rise of earth between the house and the road, giving the place an almost diminutive feel belying the vast space within. The serpentine walkway was a delight to the senses. Pam had put every planting in place herself, balancing color, form and scent. Specimen trees, a mugo pine, Chinese maples, weeping junipers, flowering crab; graced the center of each flowerbed. A newly installed, flamboyant four-tier marble fountain dominated the area. Watching while John and two workmen put the finishing touches on the speed and force of the water as it bubbled over into the basin below, Pam didn’t know if she was pleased or appalled.
Watch out what you wish for.
She remembered feeling the same way when Jack replaced the unpretentious terrace that used to be off the back of the house, its slate floor and wisteria vines with the massively ostentatious veranda. She wasn’t sure about it at the time but later would say it was the best place to be in the entire house.

“Well, what do you think?” John yelled across the yard. Pam nodded her head and smiled. He was taking ownership and she was ready to share.

“Do
you
like it?” she called. He took at few steps back and examined it, looking this way and that. Turning to her, he shouted over the splashing.

“I love it! Now
that’s
what I’m talking about!” He high-fived the workers before they walked to their truck. John came over to her, putting his arm around her.

“You aren’t buying that for me,” she said. “I can’t imagine how expensive a gigantic marble fountain is.”

“I got it cheap at Ferry Stone, the place making your countertops. It was in their selvedge area. A customer put a summer kitchen in where the fountain used to be.”

“That must have been one heck of a summer kitchen,” she said. “It’ll take some getting used to because of its size. But it’s growing on me.”

“Oh, no. You don’t really like it, do you?” He was crestfallen.

“Its beautiful!” she walked over to it, looking at it with a critical eye. From a distance, it looked like an ordinary grey marble, but up close, veins of turquoise blue dotted with copper ran through it. “The marble is beautiful.”

The splashing water seemed a bit redundant with the ocean on the other side of the house, but then she had a change of heart; the fountain only pointed to the yet undiscovered things out of view. It offered visitors a taste of what was to come.

“It’s fine,” she repeated. “I wanted a change and I think you’ve provided it.” They held each other, scrutinizing the yard. It might be time to liven up the plantings. “Maybe we need to do something else with the landscaping, too.” So as it often happens, one thing led to another and John and Pam would undertake a complete front yard makeover project while the kitchen was torn apart.

Chapter 14

By the third day of the cruise, the staid Bernice and proper Nelda had taken to wearing bathing suit cover-ups, hair in banana clips and no make up but lipstick. They spent their days lounging around the pool, drinking Mai-Tai’s and eating hot dogs from the snack bar.

“I’ve never done this, even as a kid,” Nelda said.

“You must have! Not even at Coney Island?”

“I’m from Detroit, remember,” Nelda said. “More exactly from Hamtramck. We didn’t go to the beach. Well, that’s not exactly correct. I remember some weekend trips to Lake Erie with my family but never like this. Never with a girlfriend.”

Bernice grabbed her hand. “Is that what we are?” she asked. “Are we girlfriends?”

“Oh my God, are you kidding me? Of course, we are!” Bernice struggled not to tear up in front of everyone around the pool. Nelda squeezed Bernice’s hand. “Ever since you offered to host my daughter’s rehearsal dinner when Jack and Pam got married I’ve been indebted to you.”

“I did? I must have been drunk the whole time because I don’t remember.”

“Yes, well I was drunk, but I remember what you did for us,” Nelda said. “And the past five years have been filled with excitement and happiness because of you.” Knowing most of it was paid for by Pam didn’t minimize how gracious Bernice was once she got used to Nelda always being around.

“I’ll never forget the first night I spent in the Smith Mansion on Columbus.”

“That was a fabulous house, wasn’t it?” Bernice reminisced. “It was a privilege living there. The beautiful gardens, that conservatory, the flowers and statuary. Sometimes I forgot I was in the middle of Manhattan. ”

“My daughters decided I was losing my faculties. I might have been; living alone in Brooklyn was depressing. So I went to live at the beach. It was nice living there, too. But it must have been hard on my daughter.”

“I never heard Pam say a negative thing about you,” Bernice said. Nelda reached to put the back of her hand up against Bernice’s forehead.

“Are you okay, Bernie? Since when do you defend Pam? Anyway, you were losing it around the same time….”

“I beg your pardon; I was never losing it, as you so crudely refer to having a lapse of memory. It was simply due to the demise of my husband and son and Bill’s imprisonment so close together.”

“Whatever, Bernie. As I was saying,
Pam
thought you would benefit from my presence, so I moved in with you. And it was love at first sight.” She chuckled.

“We did hit it off, didn’t we? I admit I wasn’t thrilled because I felt like I was going to be forced out of my house. And I guess I was.” She’d been angry at Pam until recently for moving her into an assisted living center and selling the mansion to a group of Japanese businessmen who put up a hideous high-rise apartment building.

“Did you see that some of those upper floor apartments in the building are selling for five million? Ridiculous.”

“I guess the proceeds from the house are helping to pay for this cruise,” Bernice said proudly. “I try to remember my contribution when something makes me feel like a poor relation because I live with my daughter-in-law.”

“Yeah, well you don’t know what a poor relation is,” Nelda said. She lay back on the chaise, closing her eyes. “I’ve waited for this moment for forty years.” Bernice sat up again and turned to her.

“What moment?”

“Where I’m so old, I can let my skin fry in the sun, the moment in which I can smoke a pack of cigarettes and it won’t make a damn difference because I’m already ancient. Is smoking allowed on this cruise?” She’d gotten Bernice’s attention.

“In the casino and on the balconies. Do they sell smokes on the ship? I bet not.” A uniformed waiter with a tray of drinks passed by and Nelda paged him over to ask.

“Oh yes, mam, they sell all manner of tobacco products in the duty-free shop.” That did it, the woman worked their way to the edge of the chaise, gathered up their belongings, and walked as fast as they could in their sandals to the duty-free shop.

“Annabelle will probably give us hell,” Bernice said.

“To hell with Annabelle. She’s having the time of her life on this cruise, and if I want to puff down a pack of smokes, I’ll do so without any interference from her.” After finding the duty-free shop, the women found the correct elevator to take them to their staterooms.

“We should have gotten matches,” Bernice said.

“I’m ahead of you,” Nelda replied, holding up a lighter. They made good time getting to their floor. “You have a bigger balcony. Let’s go to your room.”

Bernice got out her key and swiped it through the reader. After the familiar click, she pushed the door open, but screamed when she saw Annabelle, naked, flying through the air to get to the bathroom after pushing a naked man off her; a boy really, a very impressive erection pointing at the women.

“Yikes!” Bernice screeched. “Were you just screwing my maid in
my
bed? The boy grabbed a pillow and held it over his frontage, bowing, mumbling something in a foreign language. He bent over to pick up his clothing strewn over the floor, mooning the women in the process.

“Oh my lord!” Nelda hollered but then started to laugh, elbowing Bernice as she pointed to the boy’s ass. Instead of backing out into the hallway, they stood in Bernice’s room watching the young man fumbling, trying to get dressed.

“You had better get out of my room immediately, before I call the authorities,” Bernice said. Nelda frowned; authorities? “Look, he’s wearing a uniform.”

“Yes, young man you better beat it out of here before my compadre here calls the Policia.” The word police sent him flying out of the room, still naked, slamming the door behind him.

Bernice went to the bathroom door and tapped. “Annabelle, you can’t stay in there for the rest of the trip. Come out, please.” Annabelle slowly opened the door. Standing in the doorway with a large hotel towel wrapped around her body, she saw her employers standing side by side, their straw hats still tied under their chins, towels and beach bags still draped over their skinny arms. She reached for Bernice’s bag first, then for Nelda’s.

“Ladies, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I shouldn’t have used your room and I’ll change the sheets right away.”

“How did you ever end up in my room in the first place?” Bernice asked.

“I called the front desk for an ice bucket and he brought it up. One thing led to another and before I knew it, we were kissing each other.”

“But how did it progress so quickly to screwing him in Bernice’s bed?” Nelda asked, intrigued.

“Don’t leave any details out,” Bernice said. “We’ll know if you are.”

“And how is that possible?” Annabelle asked, walking back to her cabin. “I need to get dressed.”

“It’s not like we haven’t seen your ass before,” Bernice said.

“More than her ass after this afternoon,” Nelda said. “In my youth I believe what we saw was called a
beaver shot
.”

“Yes, that was it,” Bernice said. “A beaver. Yours is very nice, by the way.”

Annabelle was appalled, trying to escape the women as they bore down on her. “That’s disgusting!”

“Not quite as disgusting as your friend balling you on my down comforter. What are we going to do about that, by the way? You’ll have to strip the whole bed now.”

“Balling? Who uses that term anymore?” Nelda said, chuckling. “Shag; shag is a word I’ve heard.”

“That’s outdated,” Bernice said. “The English use it, not Americans. Americans say screw…”

“Or fuck,” Nelda said. “I believe I’ve heard that used just since we’ve been on this boat.”

“You are both impossible,” Annabelle whined. “Please give me some privacy. I’ll get dressed and promise to tell you every detail, although your voyeurism is disturbing.”

“Trust me, it’s not as disturbing as the sight of that young man’s boner staring me in the face,” Bernice said.

“Or his red-eye when he bent over! I don’t think I’ll be able to fall asleep tonight after seeing it,” Nelda said. At that, Bernice bent over, hollowing.

“You’re both demented!” Annabelle yelled, slamming her door.

“Where’s the cigarettes?” Bernice said. “Let’s light up before she comes out.” Nelda was wiping the tears off her cheeks, periodically bursting out laughing at the sight of Annabelle leaping into the air when they barged in.

“It’s not that funny,” Bernice said.

“You’re just jealous,” Nelda said, trying to light the lighter.

“You’re damn right I’m jealous,” Bernice replied. “I don’t like watching other people having more fun than I am.”

“I know what you mean. It’s been a long time.” They puffed on their cigarettes, looking out over the vast ocean.

“This water is boring,” Bernice said softly. “I like to see the land. The thing that makes being at Pam’s so wonderful is watching the people enjoy the beach. Even in the winter, seeing our neighbor walk his two German shepherds is thrilling to me.”

“Which house does he live in?” Nelda asked, intrigued that Bernice, hopelessly self-absorbed, was connecting with the people in the community.

“His parents own a house across the street from Jeff Babcock’s place. I remember when they were just puppies. Jack and I played with them on our boardwalk for an hour; they were so cute with their foul puppy breath. Jack confessed he wanted a dog, but couldn’t take care of it because he stayed in the city all week. He didn’t want to ask Pam to take on anything more because of him.”

“I wonder if she would have minded.” Nelda thought a puppy might put Jack in the position of having to come home more often. When he moved the family out to the island, everyone thought it was odd he would continue to stay in the city. Why not commute to the job from Babylon like everyone else did? Of course, now she knew why; it was so he could keep playing around. Did Pam realize that she was being moved out so he could continue his bachelor lifestyle?

“Bernice, level with me. Did you know about Jack? I mean, did you know he was a player?” Bernice leaned over the railing to see if there was anyone sticking their head out before she threw her cigarette over the side. It hit a wave and she watched it trail behind the ship until it was out of sight.

“I did, but I didn’t condone it. There was nothing I could do because he was a grown man. I wish I had acted when they were younger though. I wish I’d had the courage to leave Jack’s father.” Nelda didn’t respond at first, hoping Bernice would continue with her thoughts, but she stopped talking. It was too painful of an admission to make; that she’d hidden in her room while her husband was abusing her boys. Too painful and much too embarrassing.

“You wished you’d left him? Why? It would so difficult to walk away from that lifestyle,” Nelda said, but the minute the words were out of her mouth, she knew she’d probably insulted Bernice, who turned with her back to the railing.

“I’m not that shallow,” she said, indignant. “My father was a baker, a Jew who baked for the Italians in the neighborhood. My father baked a rum cake that would have knocked your mother-in-law off her feet. Money didn’t mean anything to me then.”

“I’m sorry; of course, I didn’t mean you were shallow. But to walk away from the mansion and that lifestyle and try to support two boys on your own would have been tough.”