The Sweetest Gift (The Gift) (14 page)

Denise and Ray were sitting in the hot tub along with
the two young women.

“Come on in and join us, Maggie and Justin. There’s
plenty of room,” Ray said.

Justin looked at Maggie and when she didn’t say
anything, he said “I think we’re going to go to bed, Ray. It’s been a long day.
Good night, every one.”

Justin took Maggie’s hand and then they went back to the
guest bedroom and got into bed with Jake who was sleeping peacefully.

“There’s no better birth control than sleeping in the
same bed as your kid,” said Justin and he laughed quietly.

“Well, if you want to have sex Justin, you can always go
back and join the two young ladies in the hot tub,” she teased.

“No thanks Maggie, I’m fine right here,” and he put his
arm around her even tighter and kissed the back of her neck. Within a couple of
minutes, they were both asleep too.

.

Chapter 18

The next morning, Jake woke up at dawn wanting
to rejoin the other kids sleeping down in the playroom. Maggie and Justin got
up with him and settled him in downstairs in his sleeping bag with the older
children who still weren’t quite awake. Then they went into the kitchen to make
coffee and breakfast. They noticed that the two young women were still sleeping
in the chairs out on the deck where they had spent the night. As the sun
started to rise, the remaining barbeque guests drifted into the house from the
studio, happy to help themselves to coffee and leftovers from the previous
night. Eventually Denise emerged, still dressed in her bathrobe, and offered to
make scrambled eggs and toast for the stragglers.

 After everyone finished breakfast, Ray and Dave joined
the two young women on the deck and they passed a joint around. Maggie and
Justin watched them through the glass sliders from inside the kitchen.

“I can’t believe they’re getting high already,” Maggie
said. “Is it always like this around here?”

Justin shrugged his shoulders and said “Pretty much.”

“I don’t know Justin, I don’t think I’m cool enough to
live in California,” Maggie said and sighed.

Justin laughed. “Oh, Maggie. You’re cool enough to live
anywhere.”

She smiled at him for a brief moment and then said, “You
know what I mean. After everything we’ve been through trying to get Zak through
rehab, I don’t think I can be around constant drug use anymore. I don’t want
the kids to get the message that it’s acceptable. Doesn’t it bother you,
Justin?”

“It didn’t used to. But now that I’m here with the kids,
I can kind of understand your point of view.”

“You wouldn’t want Jake to use drugs?”

“No, of course not Maggie.”

He leaned over and kissed her and whispered in her ear, “I’m
sorry, my love.”

They remained quiet until Ray opened the sliding door
and came into the kitchen to sit with them.

“That was a good practice last night, Maggie. So are you
ready to sing with us at the Oakland Coliseum this weekend?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever played a venue that large
before, Ray.”

“We played at some pretty big bluegrass festivals,
Maggie,” Justin reminded her.

“I guess that’s true and I played at some pretty large
venues with Tucker. I guess I can handle it.”

“I’m sure you can Maggie,” Ray said and smiled at her.
“We have a great sound guy, so I don’t think you’ll have any problems. It
should be a lot of fun.”

Later that afternoon, Maggie and Justin took the kids
back to Sausalito. They spent the next several days exploring San Francisco
with the children, one day in Chinatown having dim sum and shopping, another
day at the Exploratorium, a science and art museum in the historic Palace of Fine Arts. Then Justin persuaded his parents to babysit for a day so that he
could take Maggie to visit Berkeley to see where her mother had gone to
college. Justin’s parents drove over to his place in Sausalito and borrowed his
van to take the children to the beach.

“So how are we going to get around, Justin?” Maggie
asked.

“We still have the motorcycle,” Justin said grinning at
Maggie.

He opened the door to the hall closet and pulled out two
motorcycle helmets and his black leather jacket.

“I’m sorry I don’t have a leather jacket that will fit
you, but your denim jacket should be o.k. And you might want to wear something
a little dressy because I thought we’d go out to eat.”

Maggie put on some gray wool slacks and a lavender
blouse, topped by a black cardigan.  She then put on her denim jacket and
strapped on her helmet.

Justin smiled at her lovingly.

“God Maggie, you look so cute in that helmet,” he said
and kissed her.

Then he put on his jacket and buckled on his helmet and
they went out to the driveway to his motorcycle. Justin kicked the stand out of
the way and then turned the bike around so that it faced the street. He sat on
the bike and told Maggie to get on behind him.

“Put your arms around my waist and hang on tight,” he
said as he started the bike and revved the motor.

“What kind of bike is this, Justin?” she asked.

“It’s an old Vincent Black Lightning.”

She laughed. “I hope that’s not some kind of omen.”

 Maggie and Justin simultaneously thought of the day
that Maggie had been hit by lightning at the Grey Falcon Bluegrass Festival.
Her heart had stopped and if it weren’t for the immediate ministrations by a
doctor in the crowd, she might have died from cardiac arrest. Justin shuddered
for an instant and then immediately reassured her.

“Don’t worry Maggie, you’ll be fine,” he said loudly so
she could hear him over the roar of the bike.

They took off down the driveway and rode through Sausalito until they got to Route 1. Maggie was afraid to look around at first, but after a
while she got used to being on the bike and was especially appreciative of the
view as they drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. They drove through San Francisco and then took Interstate 80 over the Bay Bridge into Oakland.

Justin stopped first at Jack London Square.

“You’d probably be interested in this area Maggie, since
you were an English major. Jack London lived around here and went to college at
Berkeley. That bar is Heinold’s First and Last Chance saloon where London used to hang out. They also moved the cabin that he lived in from Alaska and
reassembled it next door. I thought we’d go in the saloon and have a beer.”

Justin took Maggie’s hand as they walked through the
front door.

“Careful Maggie, the floors are incredibly slanted,
probably from the 1906 earthquake.”

Justin and Maggie sat down at one of the three small
tables in the bar.

“I can’t believe how small this place is, I don’t think
it can hold more than fifteen people,” Maggie said.

Since it was the middle of the afternoon, there were
only three other people in the place. Justin went up to the bar and asked for
two pints of Linden Street beer. He brought the beer back and sat down next to
Maggie.

“I thought you might like to try this beer, it’s made
right down the street from here.”

Maggie took a sip and smiled at Justin. “It’s great,”
she said and licked a little foam off her upper lip. Justin leaned over to kiss
her.

 “It’s pretty dark in here, Justin. I’m having a little
trouble seeing.”

After a minute or two, Maggie found that her eyes were
starting to adjust to the low light. She noticed that the walls and ceiling
were covered with old business cards.

“I think this bar was built around 1880 and it still has
its original gaslights,” Justin said.

“It’s very atmospheric,” Maggie said agreeably.

“That table over there is where Jack London used to sit
and do his homework when he attended college. The guy who owned this bar paid
his tuition to Berkeley.”

“I read ‘Call of the Wild’ and ‘White Fang’ when I was
in high school, so I think this is pretty cool.”

“I think that Ambrose Bierce and Robert Louis Stephenson
used to come here too.”

Half an hour later, they finished their beers and went
next door to check out London’s reconstructed cabin from the Klondike. It was
built of logs and had a sod roof.

“It’s hard to imagine living in a house this small. I
think the interior is about the size of your kitchen,” Maggie said.

“Makes it easy to heat though,” Justin replied.

Justin and Maggie walked back to Justin’s bike and then
rode up Broadway and Telegraph Avenue to the Berkeley campus.

“See that café there Maggie? That’s where Allen Ginsberg
wrote ‘Howl’.”

“Justin, you could give tours for English majors,” said
Maggie laughing.

“And that small park is People’s Park where there were a
lot of violent demonstrations during the 1970’s. The open space at the top of
the road is Sproul Plaza. There were a lot of demonstrations there too. The
tall tower is the Campanile.”

“Yes, my mother told me about that. Do you think we
could park the bike for a while? I’d like to go over to the bookstore in the
Student Union and get a sweatshirt for my mother.”

“Sure, Maggie.”

 There was a garage nearby so they parked the bike there
and walked over to the Student Union.

“This is a huge school. I think it’s ten times the size
of my college.”

“It probably wasn’t this big when your mother went to
school here.”

“No, probably not.”

Maggie had fun shopping in the bookstore and bought a
sweatshirt for her mother and t-shirts for her children. She noticed that
Justin kept checking his watch.

“What’s going on, Justin?”

“I have a surprise for you, Maggie. I made dinner
reservations at Alice Waters’ restaurant Chez Panisse.”

“I thought you had to wait a month to get a reservation
there.”

“Yes, for ordinary mortals, but I am a rock and roll
god,” Justin joked. “Actually, I know someone who works there, so she got us
in.”

After a short walk down Shattuck Avenue, they arrived at
the restaurant, right on time for the first seating. Maggie was starving, they
hadn’t eaten anything for lunch and had worked up an appetite sightseeing.

 Justin’s friend Susan met them at the entrance. Maggie
recognized her from Ray’s party, she was one of the young women who had been
sitting in the hot tub. After exchanging pleasantries, Susan seated them at a
small table in the cozy wood-paneled dining room. Justin explained that the
restaurant featured a set four course menu that changed daily. He told her that
Alice Waters was a proponent of the ‘Slow Food Movement’ and that all the food
for the meal was organic and grown locally. Susan asked Justin if he would like
to order some wine, and after looking at the wine list, he decided on the Merry
Edwards Sauvignon Blanc. Susan went off to get it, and Justin reached across
the table for Maggie’s hand.

“It’s too bad that we don’t have time to go on any
winery tours. You’re going to have to come back some time, I’m sure you would
enjoy that.”

“I feel like there were so many things that we didn’t
see while we were here. I think a return trip would definitely be a good idea.”

“Maybe you could stay longer the next time. It might be
fun to spend the summer here while the kids are out of school.”

“I think the kids would enjoy that, I know I would,”
Maggie replied.

Just then, Susan appeared with the bottle of wine. She
uncorked it for them, and poured a small amount in a wine glass for Justin to
taste. After he indicated that it was fine, she poured two glasses for them and
then returned to the kitchen. A few minutes later she appeared with the warm
asparagus salad with black truffle vinaigrette. Maggie started eating and said,
“Oh my god, Justin. I think this is the best salad that I’ve ever had.” Justin
laughed.

“This is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in
the world, Maggie. I’ve only eaten here a couple of times, but I don’t think
I’ve ever been disappointed.”

The next course was Dungeness crab in a cannellini bean
velouté with curry.

“I can’t believe it, but this is even better than the
crab that I had in Tiburon.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it, Maggie.”

The crab was followed by grilled quail with pancetta,
young spinach and artichokes and Sicilian-style roasted potatoes.

“I’m not sure that you could do a restaurant like this
in other parts of the country. The produce from California is so fresh and
varied.”

Justin agreed with Maggie.

“It might be tough in Boston finding fresh fruits and
vegetables during the winter. I guess you would have to adjust the menu to
compensate for that,” he said.

Susan finally brought the dessert, a Meyer lemon
soufflé. Maggie thought it was the best dessert she had ever eaten in her whole
life. Susan also brought them some Blue Bottle French press coffee which helped
them recover from the effects of the bottle of wine.

As they finished their dessert, Maggie reached across
the table and took Justin’s hand.

“Thank you so much, my love. That was an extraordinary
experience. I think it was the best meal of my life.”

Justin smiled, extremely gratified to hear this.

As they were leaving the restaurant, Justin whispered to
Susan.

“Thank you so much for the incredible meal. I put your
name on the guest list for the concert at the Coliseum if you want to come.”

Susan beamed at Justin.

 “I’d love to.”

“O.k., just check in at the box office. You can come
hang out with us back stage before the concert.”

Maggie and Justin said goodnight and left the restaurant
to walk back to his bike.

“How about if we go to San Francisco now? I thought we
could go have a drink at the Top of the Mark,” Justin said.

“That’s where my parents went on their first date.”