The Story of Therapy Dog Tails 470
Where Everyone Gets a Dose of Puppy Love
FICTION 35: Colors of the Past 10
Colors of the Past
a novel
W.D. Haverstock
Part One
Chapter Two
… “When you introduced us this afternoon, he seemed very kind,” Melissa said, “gentle even.”
“Oh, he is. He was then. I don’t know if it was the way he told the stories or the way I felt when he told them, but I used to slip way down in the bed and beg him to go on.”
They stopped at the furthest point from the house. Susan looked through the shimmering silhouettes of the trees and the bushes that had once haunted her and toward the house. She imagined the bedroom window that looked out on the woods and the face of a child that had often been there.
“Did he?”
Susan turned quickly. “Did who?”
“Did he go on?”
Susan turned off into the shadows again and for an instant could not understand the question. She could not recall the conversation or identify Melissa’s voice. She could not see beyond these ominous, black figures that sprouted from the ground all around like ghosts from the past of parents she had never known. It was as if the present had disappeared and left her in a timeless state from which her past stretched back into the looming spirits of her childhood, as unfathomable as the future.
“When you slipped under the covers, did he stop or go on?”
“I don’t remember really,” she said as the memories dissolved into the present. “I just remember thinking that the world ended beyond my window and that that was where the dangerous jungle began. My room was just up there.”
They came out of the trees at the back of the house. Through a tall, narrow window a man was visible. He was seated at a desk, facing away from the window, and seemed to be studying something intently. The room was brightly lit.
“Maybe you are lucky after all,” Melissa said. “You could have grown up in a much worse place. You could have grown up with someone who didn’t want you.”
“Yes, I’ve thought a lot about that. Uncle James did not have to take me in and did not have to treat me as well as he did. I know that my grandmother wanted to take me but she moved around a lot. When she used to come to visit, I thought it would be fun to live with her. I guess I thought that every day would be a special day. But later I was glad that I had Uncle James and this house and that I never had to worry about where home was.”
As they watched from the shadows of the trees, James stood up. He stretched his arms and massaged the back of his neck with both hands. The narrow window frame emphasized the vertical lines of his body so that he appeared unnaturally tall. His hands seemed almost to reach the ceiling.
He turned to face the window and looked absentmindedly out into the yard. Although he looked directly at Melissa and Susan, he was unaware that they were watching.
“Look,” Melissa said, “he can’t see us.” She moved a step closer to the house. “It’s too dark out here. He doesn’t know we’re here.”
James was a handsome man who looked younger than his years. His complexion was red and his hair thick and full and somewhat lighter than Susan’s. It was combed straight back from his forehead. His nose and chin were angular, long and narrow, his cheekbones prominent. He was casually dressed in a shirt that was open at the neck and carefully tailored trousers that fit snugly to his trim waistline.
“Don’t you feel naughty standing here like this?” whispered Melissa. “It’s almost like watching a movie or spying on someone.” She bumped her shoulder against Susan’s and tugged at the braid in Susan’s hair like a schoolgirl. “Maybe we’ll discover some secret. Maybe we’ll see his secret lover.” She giggled and moved another step closer. “Now I know what you mean about this place.”
“I can’t imagine what secret Uncle James could have,” Susan said with a laugh that echoed off the window and into the trees behind them.
“Well, maybe you don’t know everything there is to know. He is a very good looking man, even more handsome that I thought at first. He could have been a movie star. Don’t you think?”
Susan looked her uncle up and down with Melissa’s voice in her ear and thought that he was everything she suggested. “I suppose he is,” she said, “but I’ve never thought of him that way.”
“I know he’s your uncle but still, you must have noticed. Your friends must have noticed. Did you say he never married?”
“He told me once that he never met the right girl.”
“What a pity. He must have had the ladies talking once. He must have had his choice of any girl he wanted. And from a family like yours and with a beautiful, big house like this - what girl would have refused?”
They watched for a moment as James stared through them.
“I guess he never did find the right one,” Melissa mused. “He could have had anyone he wanted.”
Susan raised her hand above her head and waved in the direction of the window but James did not react.
“He still doesn’t see us,” said Melissa. “I wonder what he’s thinking about.”
“I don’t know.”
“He must be thinking the things a father thinks on his daughter’s wedding day. He’s wondering where all the years have gone and what happened to the little girl he thought would never grow up.”
“Is that what they think?”
Melissa laughed. “You know what my father told me the day I got married?”
“What?”
“He said, when I was little, he wanted me to grow up. When I got older, he wished I was a baby again. And on that day, he just wished that it would all start over again so he could wish the same things again. That was the only time I’ve ever seen him cry.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Uncle James cry.”
As they watched, James turned his head slightly. His lips moved silently and they could see that the door behind him and across the room was open.
“He must be speaking to Katie,” Melissa said. “Katie must have opened the door.”
A few seconds later James turned back to the window as if he were resuming his previous thoughts.
“What did your mother say?” Susan asked. “What did she tell you the day you got married?”
“I don’t remember any one special thing,” Melissa said when she had thought for a moment. “We were together the whole time, that day and the day before, but I think I was doing most of the talking. I was so nervous. I don’t know how you can stay so calm. I guess she had already said everything she was supposed to say that day. There weren’t any big surprises left. I still talk to her almost every day.”
“That sounds very nice,” Susan said in a voice almost too soft to hear.
Through the window they saw that James' lips were moving again. Now his head was tilted slightly back, as if he was looking at the sky.
“He looks as if he’s praying,” Melissa said.
It was a thought that Susan could never have had. They had never gone to church together and she had never imagined that such matters might concern him. But he seemed to be looking toward the tree tops where she had often looked herself as if searching for the spirits that lived there. “I never thought he did,” she said.
“What?”
“I used to pray before I went to bed at night and I remember wondering a long time ago if Uncle James did, too. For some reason I decided that he never did.”
“I hope he can’t hear us,” said Melissa. “Do you think he can? Try to get his attention again.”
Susan started to call out her uncle’s name but at that moment he lowered his head and turned away. She choked off the word in her throat. James turned his back to the window and sat down again at the desk.
“He couldn’t have heard us.”
“Let’s not disturb him now.”
Melissa took a cigarette from the pack she carried in her hand and lit it. “I don’t suppose there are any big surprises left for you and George.” She dropped the match into the grass. “Are there?”
Susan stared at the ground where the match had fallen until the tiny, red tip disappeared. “We’ve known each other since we were children.”
When she looked up, Melissa was smiling.
“We grew up together.”
“Then you know everything there is to know about each other?” Melissa said.
“Well, he knows everything about me.”
“I guess that’s good. Most people don’t know anything at all about each other,” Melissa said. “Most people don’t even know much about themselves.”
“How long had you known Gary?”
“We met at college.” She was speaking of her husband but thinking of the first time she’d met George. “We’d known each other for about three years by the time we got married.”
“That’s long enough.”
“We’ll see.” She remembered the look in George’s eyes when they had shaken hands and that Gary had not seemed to notice. She remembered that George had called her sometime after that, when Gary was away, and that she had talked to him and told him to call again. He had never mentioned Susan ….