The Reunion (17 page)

“Of course it does,” Ebony admitted, “but I can’t help believing he knew he made a mistake and that’s why he left you. You may be more sophisticated than me, but he obviously changed his mind. Why else would he have come back?”

“You are a beautiful woman, though,” Cassandra whispered, lowering her eyes. “It’s not hard to see how Ethan fell in love with you.”

Ebony empathized with the woman who had been wronged just as she had.

“If only you knew what I’ve been through,” Cassandra cried, burying her face in her hands. “These last few weeks have driven me to the verge of a nervous breakdown. First, Ethan left me. Then my father got sick. Oh, Ebony, besides Ethan, my father is all I have in the whole world. And the doctors told me to expect the worst if the marriage does not take place because the shock would be too much for him. If the two most important men in my life leave me, life wouldn’t even be worth living. I’ll have nothing, absolutely nothing.”

“What do you want from me?”

“You had five years to stop loving Ethan, but I’ve only had a few weeks. I miss him so much that it hurts in my bones. It is literally painful. Please, Ebony, tell him you do not love him. Tell him to leave this place and never return. Please, for the love of God.” She burst into mournful sobs, and her whole body convulsed. “Please.”

“I want you to leave,” Ebony requested again.

Cassandra instantly reddened with irritation. “I’ve tried to be nice to you, girl. I spoke to you as an equal, but you tell me to leave. Why are you being so difficult? Ethan is my fiancé, and I want you to stop pursuing him.”

“Please leave,” Ebony exclaimed, a terrible headache starting to pound in her temples. “I want to be alone.”

“Alone?” Cassandra asked suspiciously. “Or do you just want to phone Ethan and poison his mind against me? That’s it, isn’t it? You want me out of the way so you can gain an advantage. You’re probably hatching a devious plan right now and trying to cheat me out of what is rightfully mine. Let me assure you, however, that I won’t give in to your intrigues.”

“I have no such plan.”

“Oh, I can read your mind. You think I’m beautiful, but you honestly believe Ethan left me because he loves you more. Isn’t that right? Of course it is. But you’re wrong, my dear.”

“Ethan loves
me
,” Ebony proclaimed.

“I have every confidence that Ethan would choose me even if you were standing right at my side,” Cassandra asserted with conviction. “Are you as sure of yourself? Do you have the courage to go to him now?”

Ebony was deeply wounded by Ethan’s secret, but even more than the pain, she was scorched by anger. How could he have done this? Had he not changed at all? What of all his pledges, sincere speeches, unexpected actions? Was he an actor simply unable to resist a good drama? Or was he plotting out a carefully constructed scheme? Her anger kept building until she was blinded by it. She would confront him face-to-face.

“He does love me more,” Ebony assured the other woman. “I am positive.”

“Will you come with me to see Ethan?” Cassandra challenged.

“Do you know where he is?” Ebony asked, so upset that she was not thinking clearly.

“He drove over to the Harrington house, and that’s where he is right now. I think we need to talk to him to clear this up once and for all.” She shook her head and sighed with fatigue. “Yes, Mr. Ethan Harrington, you have some explaining to do. To the both of us.”

“He does,” Ebony mumbled, rubbing her hands.

Ebony put on her jacket with grim determination and moved to the door.

When the two women stepped outside, it was pouring rain. Cassandra ran to her sports car and jumped in, but when Ebony tried to open the passenger door, she found it locked. She tapped on the window. Cassandra strapped on her seat belt, then unlocked the door. Ebony, without a rational thought in her mind, slipped into the passenger seat.

Cassandra slowly drove down the hill, past the brook, out the dirt road, and onto the pavement. But as she approached Ethan’s house, she suddenly accelerated and sped right past.

“Where are you going?” Ebony asked, fidgeting.

“There’s something I want to show you,” Cassandra said mysteriously, glancing at her with a strange, almost delirious expression. “And don’t bother trying to open your door because only I can unlock it.” She gestured toward a panel of buttons on the driver’s console. “So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the view.”

Ebony felt the inside of the door, and the lock, indeed, would not open. “I want to see Ethan right now.”

“All in good time.”

“Let me out,” Ebony said.

Cassandra ignored her.

“Let me out!”

Cassandra put in a compact disc of heavy metal music, then turned it so loud that it muffled Ebony’s voice. Realizing she could do nothing, Ebony leaned back and tried to sort out the confusing situation.

For the next fifteen minutes, neither woman spoke as Cassandra sped along the narrow, slippery road. She skidded around corners, slid across the center line, and even fishtailed on muddy shoulders. Ebony was terrified. She clung to her seat and held on for dear life. She could hardly see the road through the driving rain, and when the lights of an oncoming vehicle shone into Cassandra’s car, Ebony could see the woman’s eyes were glazed with smoldering madness.

Cassandra finally slowed down and turned into a secluded road. She turned off the music, and all was eerily quiet. “Do you know where this leads?”

“Of course,” Ebony said with obvious anxiety. “It goes to Peggy’s Cove.”

Cassandra drove up a winding hill.

“Do you know what I noticed about this cove the first time I saw it?” Cassandra asked.

“No.”

“It’s quiet here. A dull, deadening kind of place. I’m sure it hasn’t changed in a million years.” She pointed to the houses scattered on the hills overlooking the cove. “The fishermen who live here have never and will never amount to anything. They are insignificant. No one cares whether they live or die. Even when they’re alive, they might as well be dead. Not one of them is capable of making a mark on the world. They, like this place, are dull and boring and useless.”

“I think it’s pretty here, and the people are very nice. It would be a wonderful place to raise children and live out your life.”

“As I was saying,” Cassandra said, angrily raising her voice, “this cove is dull and unimportant.”

At the top of the hill, to the right, partially protected by a guardrail, was a rocky cliff that descended steeply downward into the ocean. The sea, whipped by high winds, surged against the sheer granite wall with thundering claps and smashed into sheets of white foam and spray.

“Has anyone ever died here?” Cassandra asked as she reached the very summit.

“Yes,” Ebony murmured, terrified that the wind might literally pick up the car and toss it over the edge of the cliff. “People have been washed into the ocean.”

Cassandra positioned the car on the edge of the road and turned off the ignition. They were within five feet of the edge. Looking out her window, Ebony could see the Atlantic churning madly, as if it was reaching for them, intent on claiming more victims in its frigid depths. It really did seem to be a living force. One moment it would press forward in a potent mass, ripping on the sharp points of granite outcroppings. Then it would subside and drain away in a powerful undertow.

“Beautiful and deadly,” Cassandra said, staring at the scene below. “The attraction is almost irresistible.”

Cassandra touched the clutch of her car. Being on a slight incline, the car inched forward toward the cliff.

“My God!” Ebony screamed. “What are you doing?”

Cassandra took her foot off the clutch, and the car came to a stop about four feet from the edge of the cliff. “Remember the boring cove we visited?” Cassandra said in the distracted voice of someone slipping in and out of reality. “That cove was dull and lifeless. As soon as you look at it, you feel a deadening pall come over you.” She turned and looked Ebony in the eyes. “That cove is you. But me”—she looked out over the dark ocean—“I’m the beautiful and wild sea. I can be sullen or dangerous, even fatal. One adventure with me can linger in your mind for a lifetime.”

Ebony stared at her in disbelief.

Cassandra rolled down her window. The wind gushed in and whipped her hair about in all directions. The sounds of the turbulent Atlantic, loud a moment ago, now echoed with frightening closeness. The rain pelted against Cassandra, smudging her makeup and turning her face into a horrible mask. She suddenly turned to Ebony again, her eyes gleaming like embers, and the green light from the nearby lighthouse glowed on her face, making her look like a witch.

“Has anyone ever driven their car over the edge of this cliff?”

“What are you saying?” Ebony asked, her heart pounding madly and her mind numb with fear. She tried the door again, but it would not open. “Let me out!”

“I love this.”

“Love what?”

“This feeling of power.” She laughed. “Have you ever held a moth in your hand? You know what I mean. You’ve got this creature in your grasp, and it’s perfectly helpless. You control it. If you want, you can torture it by pulling off one wing at a time. Or you can clap your hands together and squash the life out of it. You see, its very existence depends upon you and your fickle mood. Life or death, it’s your choice.”

“That’s why people have a conscience, to prevent such cruelty.”

“Cruelty? How can it be cruel to squash a moth? The bug might be alive, but its life is totally insignificant. Therefore, I have the power. If I so choose, I may let it live another day. If it bothers me, or hinders me in any way, or if I simply feel like it, I will squash the creature without the least regret.”

“Are you talking about an insect, or are you talking about me?”

“Power,” said Cassandra, her eyes flashing. “To hold someone else’s life in your hand, to determine, on the most trivial whim, whether that person shall live or die, that’s power.” She paused for almost a minute. “Imagine, for instance, if I were to put this car in neutral and then jump out. It would roll over the edge, plummet into the sea, and smash into the rocks.”

“You would never do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because you would be caught and charged with murder.”

“Murder is such an inappropriate word,” Cassandra objected, screwing up her face as if she tasted something sour. “If you kill a moth, is that murder?” She checked her makeup in the rearview mirror. “But, my, haven’t we gotten awfully philosophical? And all the result of a hypothetical situation. Perhaps not even that, really. I was just talking off the top of my head, trying to entertain you.”

“You’re not entertaining me. You’re scaring me.”

“Good,” said Cassandra as she started the car and backed up. “You see, I can be a nasty piece of goods, but if you do as I say, if you stop chasing my man, I’ll leave you alone.”

“Take me home.”

“Of course. I’ll be very pleased to do just that.” She lit a cigarette. “Ebony, I’ve had such a wonderful time tonight. It’s hard to make friends when you come to a new country, yet I get this feeling that we’ve really gotten to know each other and we’ve come to an understanding.”

Both women remained silent for the drive back to Shad Bay. When the car stopped in her yard and Cassandra released the lock, Ebony got out as quickly as she could and ran into the house. Cassandra followed closely behind. Ebony tried to prevent her from entering, but was unsuccessful.

“Get out of my house!” Ebony hollered, her chest heaving. “Get out of my fucking house!”

“Oh my,” Cassandra returned, looking surprised. “You really are a plebian. What kind of hospitality is that? Here I am, a visitor, and you curse at me like some kind of ghetto tramp. I’m disgusted.”

“Get out!” Ebony screamed.

Cassandra fixed her hair in the mirror. “I will leave, but first tell me if we have reached an agreement?”

Ebony glared at her. “You’re insane.”

“Have we reached an agreement?”

“An agreement on what?”

“Weren’t you listening?” Cassandra said impatiently, glancing at Ebony with obvious frustration. “I want you out of the way. Surely you can understand me wanting to protect my fiancé from your shameless ambitions.”

“If Ethan wants you, he’ll come for you. But what I want is for you to get out of my house this minute.”

“What are you going to do? Call one of your pimps to throw me out? No, you whore, I’m not taking any chances. Right now Ethan’s wondering about his life. He’s confused, lost. I can offer him what he’s always wanted—power, excitement, challenges. I can give him all those things. What can you offer? Nothing but a life of imprisonment in a common and meaningless existence. Don’t even think of it. You would destroy him.”

“It is you who would destroy him.”

Cassandra laughed cynically. “Oh, get real. Look around you, Aunt Jemima. Look at all the oppressive boredom and poverty. Look at the worthless people. They are without talent, without a single quality to recommend them. I’m sure that not one of them has ever had an original thought in his life. They are a herd of dumb beasts. Do you really want to pull Ethan down to their level? He is as different from them as I am from you. He belongs with me in a society of equals. Don’t suffocate him.”

“If Ethan was a boat,” Ebony said, suddenly thinking of something, “he would moor in a sheltered cove. He would never steer toward a dangerous reef. In the cove, he would be safe and secure. He could live out his days there in peace and tranquility. In dangerous waters, he could be battered and smashed against the rocks. That’s why he would choose me. You said it yourself. I am the cove, and you are the cliff. You are death.”

“Not death,” Cassandra said, staring intently into Ebony’s eyes. “I am the edge of death. I live for the moment, day to day, hour to hour. I dread boredom and comfort and security. Give me passion and fire. That’s what makes life bearable.”

“You’re nuts.” Ebony stared at her as if trying to see into the depths of her soul. “You are absolutely mad.”

Cassandra laughed. “Tell me what you’re thinking about right now.”