Unforgettable (25 page)

“He looks so healthy, but I saw the test results myself. We’re strong — I didn’t sugar-coat it when I told Papa and Mama first, then everyone else, that his doctor was right. A year, maybe two. He’s had symptoms of ALS for two years now and didn’t tell anyone that his doctor had diagnosed it.”

“ALS?”

“Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It’s incurable.”

“I’m so sorry, Angel.” Her worries about how they would maintain a relationship over a long distance seemed petty.

Angel swallowed convulsively, then cleared her throat. “Not to go to perhaps an even less cheery subject for you, you were going to tell me about seeing your mother.”

Rett felt pummeled. “There’s actually nothing to tell. I feel much better about that than I did this afternoon.” I just suddenly feel a whole lot worse about us, she wanted to add. Not now. Angel’s nerves were too raw. “She has never felt anything but annoyance for me and she never will. I accept it.”

“Under it all, she must—”

“You don’t have to comfort me.” Rett said it more sharply than she intended. “Really,” she said more gently. “I think I went because I thought that way. I thought I might see a glimmer under her bitter exterior. But there really isn’t anything there.”

“I can’t even conceive of it.” Angel was pulling off the road.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just want to hold you.” She turned off the engine and pulled Rett into her arms. “Or you can hold me. Just hold me.”

They sat in silence with Angel’s head on Rett’s chest. Rett was burning with what she wanted to say. The words were in her mouth. They wanted out. Her heart was pounding so loudly she thought Angel would wonder at the cause. She had never felt this pressure in her heart to put a name to the feeling. She’d said the words before and thought she’d meant them. This time was different. This time she felt like a child diving into the deep end of the pool for the very first time.

“I love you.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. She’d gone so many years not letting herself completely love anyone because she’d felt her love wasn’t of value. Thinking if she offered it to anyone they’d spit on it and throw it back in her face. She’d never loved Trish, she’d only loved the ego-stroking Trish gave her. She was filled with love for Angel, all of her, even the parts of Angel’s mind that went to places she could never follow. Love crept into dark places she’d always known were there. In that instant, with the words she’d managed to say echoing in her head, all the dark places were suffused with light.

A barely audible sniff told her that Angel was crying. Muffled from her chest the words floated up. “I love you, too.”

Is this happiness, Rett wondered? The euphoria was more powerful than the post-performance rush. The words were addictive — she wanted to say them over and over. “I love you.”

“I’ve always loved you, you shit.”

Rett grinned. “Now that’s romantic. You think you can drive so we can go make up for some more lost time?” What did living two thousand miles apart have to mean, anyway? It was just a plane ride. They could work it out.

Angel found a tissue in the glovebox and blew her nose. “Say it again.”

“I love you, Angelica Martinetta.”

“Say it a lot.”

“I love you, I love you, I love you.”

“More.” Angel pulled out onto the road again.

“I love you.”

“Sing something romantic. Make my bones melt again.”

” ‘A-B-C, one-two-three, baby, you and me.’ ” Rett kept singing the boisterous little Jackson Five ditty until Angel’s playful slapping made her stop.

“My sisters and nieces want to go to the Mall of America — are you up for that?” Angel pulled one of Rett’s tank tops over her head. It could have been a short dress on her. “I wish I’d remembered a change of clothes,” she said for the fourth time.

“I’d love to go back.” Rett toweled her hair a little longer, then reached for her brush.

“I want to find a different dress to wear tomorrow night. The dress I brought is very professorial. I don’t feel professorial and it is a wonderful feeling.”

“No, you’re not in the least professorial. I’ll sign an affidavit.”

“I intend to dance with you, Rett Jamison.”

“We’ll start a riot.” Woton High had not had many lesbians dancing in its gymnasium.

Angel kissed the end of her nose. “It’s overdue.”

“Find a dress to go with these.” She handed Angel the little velvet box with the topaz earrings.

“Rett, these are beautiful.”

“They reminded me of your eyes.”

“I don’t know what to say.” She held the simply set stones up to her ears. “I don’t have pierced ears.”

“Shit.”

“I’ll get them pierced.”

“It’ll be less painful to take the earrings back and find clip-ons.”

“You have a point.”

The shopping trip was great fun. Rett hadn’t been around teenagers very much. Angel’s nieces were confident and friendly without being petulant, a quality she’d been told countless times was synonymous with “teenager.”

Angel assured her, however, that all of her relatives seemed to be on their best behavior. “Hang around long enough and you’ll see us with our hair down,” she had said.

Rett wanted to kiss her all over, but public kissing was akin to a strip show in Minnesota. “I’ll hang around, then.” She didn’t know if Angel understood it was a promise.

When they got back to the motel Angel refused to show her the dress she’d bought, saying she’d been ably advised by her nieces and wanted to surprise Rett. Rett realized suddenly that the dance tomorrow night was sort of like a date. An official Date with Serious Clothing and Shaved Legs.

“If Bunny hadn’t made such a point of it, I wouldn’t go,” Angel was saying. “I’d rather sleep with just you.” She stuffed pajamas borrowed from one of her nieces into her small overnight bag. They’d stopped at Rett’s motel for her things before coming to Angel’s parents where she bunked with her nieces who had wanted to be closer to Nana and Nana’s kitchen. The rest of the family was occupying several of the cabins at the nearby lake resort.

“I feel exactly the same way.”

“A slumber party, at our age.” They looked at each other and Rett knew a word from her would send them back to her motel for the night. “We have to go,” Angel finally said. “It’s the right thing to do. Bunny went to a lot of trouble.”

Later in the evening Rett was glad Angel had prevailed when it became clear that more than half of the twenty or so women Bunny had invited weren’t going to show. When they settled on sleeping bags arranged around the room there were eight of them. Bunny had already sampled heavily from her homemade rum punch, and Lisa, Mary and Kate were also in various stages of intoxication. Natalie was so butch in her Army-issue pajamas that Rett’s gaydar would not stop going ka-zing.

After a walk around the acreage to see the small farm and enjoy the sunset, Angel and Rett had changed into their PJs and sat down with the others. Bunny had reached the stage where everything was funny. The only one who didn’t seem to want to get in the mood was Cinny. A week ago the sight of Cinny in her orange silk pajamas would have put Rett in a fever, but now she found Angel in her niece’s Batgirl nightie far more alluring.

“This is really good.” Rett sipped from her punch again. “I don’t usually go for hard liquor, but this is way excellent. “

“Almost better than sex,” Kate said. “It is better than the sex I got in the last year of my marriage.”

“Oh, don’t start ragging on men again,” Lisa said. “Rett and Angel will probably join in and then I won’t be able to resist.”

“I’ve got no reason to rag on men,” Angel said. “I’ve never had a bad relationship with one.”

“You always were the smart one,” Kate said. “I wasted eighteen years trying to make Alan happy, and he trades me in for a bimbo with abs of steel.”

“You have to tell me, Angel.” Mary rolled onto her stomach and waved her feet in the air behind her like a child. “Is life without men really satisfying?”

Rett rolled her eyes. Typical preconceived notions. 

“There are lots of men in my life,” Angel protested.

Kate took another sip of her rum punch. “She means sex without men.”

“Works for me,” Angel said nonchalantly. “What about you, Rett?”

“What can I say? I can’t speak to what I’ve never had, and that’s a man in my bed, but I have no complaints and have heard none.” She couldn’t help the dopey grin she gave Angel.

Bunny choked on her drink. “Wait a minute — you two? No way!”

“Oh, man,” Mary groaned. “You’ve probably had, like, oral sex more often in the last four days than I’ve had in the last four years.”

Rett enjoyed the blush that ran up Angel’s neck. “I’m not admitting to anything.”

Mary nudged Lisa. “Just think about it — oral sex isn’t just a birthday present. It’s required. Like, every time.”

Lisa giggled. “It’s your problem if Mark is delinquent in that area. Lee may have been an asshole, but he was not reluctant when it came to that.”

“I’ve got no complaints,” Bunny said adamantly.

“Are we going to talk about sex all night?” Cinny was still sitting up, her drink untouched. She was pale.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“There’s more to life than sex,” Natalie pronounced. “You go without for years at a time because if you don’t you’ll lose your career and pension and you’d be surprised how unimportant sex can be.”

Rett thought that was a major hint from Natalie. 

If she hadn’t wanted to talk about it, she wouldn’t have brought it up. “Don’t ask, don’t tell is a real bitch, isn’t it?”

“Damn square. I spent a lot of time on the dance floor burning off excess energy.” Natalie chuckled. “I’m bugging, you know. I thought I was the only lesbian to ever graduate from Woton High, and here are the three of us.”

“That’s a trip,” Bunny said. “Something in the water, maybe?”

“As far as I know, there’s been no research study into water and homosexuality.” Angel was serious. That lightning quick change from laughter to reason fascinated Rett.

Bunny hiccuped. “Just kidding. Who wants some bagel bites?”

“If I don’t eat something I’ll get blotto,” Rett said. “I don’t like getting blotto.”

Bunny turned her head sharply. “What the hell is that?”

Rett heard a long, persistent scratching noise. There was a tap at the window across the room, then the front door rattled. Mary squeaked in alarm.

“It’s the boys!” Bunny sat up. “Tom and some friends. How high school are they?”

Natalie scrambled across the floor to turn off the lights. “I say we free our territory of desperadoes.”

Lisa was laughing so hard she almost couldn’t stand up. “Who do they think they’re dealing with?”

Bunny stumbled to her feet. “We are not the girls we used to be.” She came back from the garage with two AK-47-style water rifles. “I didn’t want Tom to buy these for the boys, so I’ll be glad to get even.”

Natalie grabbed one. “Let’s get ready to rumble!” 

Mary took charge of the other water gun. “I’m in the mood for this.”

After a few questions to Bunny, Natalie planned a course of attack. Two long hoses at the back of the house would provide the containment barrage, preventing the desperadoes from moving beyond the front yard. The water guns would attack from above while water brigades using buckets would provide refills for the air attack and take care of any downed enemy.

Natalie slipped out the back door and used the farm tractor parked behind the house to reach the rain gutter. She swung herself up with ease, then helped Mary and Lisa onto the roof. Bunny and Kate headed for the hose bibs at opposite ends of the house while Angel and Rett filled buckets in the mud sink to hand up to Cinny on the tractor, who handed them up to Lisa.

Rett heard the scuffling of feet on the roof, then from around the corner of the house the approach of whispering voices. There was a hiss as the hoses slowly filled.

All was quiet for just a moment. Even the crickets stopped chirping. Then the night was split with a Xena-like yell and very close by a man exclaimed, “What in hell was that?”

Bunny let out her own banshee yell and opened her spray nozzle full force while Natalie shouted positions and instructions from above. Rett kept passing buckets up to Cinny, who got drenched when one slipped out of Lisa’s hands.

Lisa screamed with laughter and gasped out, “I’m gonna pee my pants,” while Cinny swore and turned the next bucket upside down on Rett, who in turn dumped a bucket on Angel. Angel returned the favor, and then they all fell back as heavy footsteps pounded across the backyard toward them. Angel grabbed the next full bucket and flung the contents in that direction.

Curses faded into the night.

“The enemy is in retreat,” Natalie hollered from the rooftop. She let out another Xena yell.

Mary screamed, “Loooooosers!”

Natalie stayed on the roof while Bunny went to turn on the front-yard lights. There was movement at the end of the driveway behind Rett’s rental car.

Rett found her voice. ” ‘These boots were made for walkin’!’ ” The other women chimed in and they repeated the verse several times before something that looked like a white flag was waved over the rental car trunk.

“What are the terms of your surrender?” Natalie called out.

Tom’s voice floated back. “I just want some dry clothes, Bunny.”

“You wuss,” another voice judged.

“I want some dry clothes,” Tom repeated. “You’ll have some when we get back to your place, but they won’t fit me.”

“Is that you, Mark?” Mary brandished her hose.

“We’re going now, honey.”

“Bunny? Sweetie? Can I at least have dry pants?” Tom risked raising his head above the car.

“You better git!” Natalie punctuated her orders with another squirt from her water gun. There was a satisfying curse in response and the desperadoes quit the field of battle.

They dragged the hoses and buckets back to the rear of the house while Natalie shinnied off the roof and helped Kate and Lisa down. Rett went back to the front of the house to see if there were any more buckets. Finding none, she went around the side for a last look there.