Firefly Cove Page 17

  “This could be a seriously bad idea, you two meeting up. I don’t feel right about it.”

  “Say the word and I will cancel. I can only proceed with this if you agree.”

  Her grandmother’s unwillingness to argue left her defenseless. “I’ll discuss this with Dino.”

  “I think that is an excellent idea.” When Asha did not speak, she asked, “Is that why you called?”

  “Not really, no.”

  “Then what—”

  “It’s the age thing.”

  Sonya asked, “What age thing would that be?”

  “You know perfectly well what I’m talking about.”

  “Dino is what, eight years older? Nine?”

  She wailed the word. “Twelve!”

  “Well, that is just terrible. Twelve years. Dino might as well be embalmed and stuffed in a glass display cabinet.”

  “Now you’re making fun of me.”

  “Maybe just a little.”

  “So . . . you think it’s all right?”

  “What I think, my darling child, is that you have met your match.”

  * * *

  Asha’s morning sailed by. Her patients all had manageable crises. Their meetings all ended a few minutes early. She wrote out the required session notes with blinding ease. A few minutes before noon, she locked her office door and unzipped her backpack. Asha hummed as she laid out her change of clothes.

  She had selected a pair of purple track shorts that had vees cut on the side, exposing rather a lot of thigh. She wore two top layers, a lavender tank top covered by an oversized sweatshirt from a late-night café she had frequented as an undergraduate. Across the front was a slice of their famous dessert, with the description BANANA CREAM PIE. Her boots were oversized and required two pairs of thick cotton socks. Last was a hooded Windbreaker she could tie around her middle. Asha checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror and declared, “A good time was had by all.”

  Dino called as she was starting her car. “Where are you?”

  “Coming to meet you, if you’ll just tell me where.”

  “Do you know Highland Drive?”

  “No, but that’s why they invented GPS.”

  “There’s a cul-de-sac at the end. Parking’s no problem.” He sounded slightly breathless, as if he had accepted it was his job to be nervous for them both. “I’m at the sandwich shop on Hidalgo. Do you want anything in particular?”

  “Hummus and sprouts on wheat, hot mustard, hold the mayo.”

  “Okay . . . So you’re saying you’re not interested in pastrami on white with extra butter.”

  “A joke. That’s good.” When he didn’t come back, she said, “Dino.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “This has just become a wonderful afternoon.”

  The nervousness was gone almost instantly. A very different voice asked, “Do you always know the perfect thing to say?”

  “Hardly ever,” she assured him. “Enjoy it while you can.”

  CHAPTER 43

  Asha was standing beside her car, staring at the massive hill, when Dino pulled up and parked. She had seen Bishop Peak almost every day since her arrival in San Luis Obispo. She might even have thought, now and then, that it would be nice to climb up and enjoy the view. But there was a huge difference between idle reflection and seeing it as the day’s challenge. Now she stood at the base and stared at the footpath that meandered through the adjacent pasture, through the grove of trees, then up and up and up . . .

  “It’s not too late,” Dino said. “We can go for a stroll around the mission park.”

  She shook her head, still tracking the path that gleamed yellow in the sunlight. Up and up and up . . .

  “Say something, Asha, please.” When she still did not respond, he asked, “Are you afraid of heights?”

  She was tempted to reply, Not until this very moment. Instead, Asha showed him her number one smile and said, “Let’s get started.”

  * * *

  “Bishop Peak is the tallest of the Nine Sisters, those are the old volcanic hills you see stretching across San Luis Obispo County. This used to be my favorite hike. When you asked me, you know, what I hadn’t done in a while, this was what I thought of.”

  “I’m glad.” Two words were about all she could manage, and they had not even started climbing. They had passed through the welcome shade of oak and bay trees, and were now traversing a grassy slope. The angle was so gentle it had almost appeared flat. Until, that is, they had started across. Now her breath sawed in her own ears. And up ahead was the climb. But she wouldn’t think about that. She would try and focus on the next step, and walking with Dino, who was doing astonishingly well for a guy who hadn’t hiked in years. Asha actually chuckled at what her grandmother would have to say right about then.

  “Something funny?”

  “I thought I was in good shape,” she said, spacing her words around tight breaths. “I go to the gym, I jog . . .”

  “The only thing that gets you fit for hiking is a hike,” Dino said.

  “Somehow that doesn’t sound original.”

  He laughed easily. His breathing was calm. His long strides seemed to glide over the terrain. “About ready to stop?”

  “I was ready ten minutes after we started out.” Then she decided, “Maybe just a little farther.”

  Then the climb started in earnest. Dino led her up a trio of switchbacks, assuring her at each turn that there was a very nice halting place just up ahead. And when they arrived, Asha actually agreed with him. Stones formed a pair of smooth saddles, almost like prehistoric chairs, overlooking the hill to the east.

  Dino handed her a bottle of coconut water. “That hill directly in front of us is Cerro San Luis.”

  Asha wanted to drink the entire container in one huge gulp. But she held herself to small sips between breaths. “Let’s leave that one for tomorrow.”

  Dino unwrapped her sandwich and set it in her lap. She was not hungry until she took her first bite. Then the sandwich seemed to disappear all by itself. When she was done, and Dino asked if she was ready to continue, she found herself responding, “Absolutely.”

  The switchback trail climbed nine hundred feet over three-quarters of a mile. At least that was what Dino said. When the summit finally came into view, Asha felt as though she had managed the California equivalent of reaching Everest base camp.

  She sank down on the bench shaded by the rocky peak and declared, “I may never move from this place. Not ever again.”

  Dino pulled another bottle of coconut water from his pack. As she drank, he named various points to the vista stretched out before them—Cal Poly, San Luis Old Town, Laguna Lake, and in the distance the Santa Lucia Mountains.

  Her heart finally slowed, her breath eased. She sat and felt the heat radiating off his body. As comfortable and as weary as she had ever been.

  Dino finally asked, “Are you sorry you came?”

  “No, Dino. Not at all.”

  “It’s just, you’re so quiet.”

  “I was thinking . . .”

  “What?” When she remained silent, he pressed, “Talk to me, Asha.”

  “I was thinking how this is what a real relationship should be. Where we press each other to grow in unaccustomed directions. Challenge each other to do what doesn’t come natural.”

  It was his turn to go silent. He took the bottle from her, drank, handed it back. Finally he rose to his feet and asked, “Ready to start down?”

  She tried to tell her legs it was time to stand up, start putting one foot in front of the other. But she did not find the strength to rise. “Can I just wait here for the next bus?”

  He looked down at her, his face silhouetted by the sun. “Asha . . .”

  “What?”

  “Do you think it would be all right if I kissed you?” Suddenly rising to her feet was the easiest thing in the world. “Absolutely.”

  CHAPTER 44

  On Thursday night Lucius dined alone in the palatia
l pool house. The cook offered to prepare him whatever he liked. When Lucius replied that he would prefer a plate of whatever fresh vegetables they had on hand. He felt uncomfortable being waited on. But the cook and Jessica’s aide both seemed intent on keeping him in this role as guest. Sarah arrived while he was eating, bearing his meager belongings from the Miramar Bay guesthouse. But instead of carrying them in his shopping bag, everything had been transferred to a valise made from Italian leather so soft he could have rolled it up and stuffed it in his pocket. Inside he also found a brand-new razor, toothbrush, shaving cream, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, even a silver-backed hairbrush.

  All the comforts of home.

  * * *

  Upon returning home Thursday evening, Asha fell asleep in the bath. When she woke up, her muscles had stiffened to the point that getting out of the tepid water required a number of serious groans. She made a fruit salad for dinner and tasted nothing. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

  She awoke at a quarter to five on Friday morning. Half an hour later, she finally accepted that she was not going to go back to sleep. She rose and put on an extra-large pot of coffee, then took her time stretching. She carried the first mug as she made a circular orbit of her apartment, reflecting that the previous day’s hike had given her a fresh new perspective on many things. Over her second mug she reviewed her notes and watched segments of the video of her latest session with Luke Benoit.

  She then poured herself another mug and reviewed her very first session with Luke, which she had also videotaped. Three and a half months earlier, he had reluctantly agreed to the camera. Luke had repeatedly glared at it, as though suspicious of its motives.

  Asha then went back to the latest session, and froze upon the moment she had agreed that he would join her grandmother for church. Luke smiled at the camera, the satisfied look of a professional negotiator who had gained what he wanted. He was going to see Sonya that weekend. He was pleased with himself, and what was more, he showed a genuine affection every time he glanced at Asha. She switched back to the first session from three months ago.

  She studied the young man with his scruffy appearance and unshaven cheeks and red-rimmed eyes and slouched position. The differences between them were so great, they might as well have been images of two different patients.

  The idea came to her while she was making notes over the extreme contrast between the two sessions. Up to then, writing a journal article had seemed like she had been invited to build a lunar rocket. And the reason was, she had not known how to begin. There was simply so much to say, so many changes, such an extreme shift, really night and day . . .

  Now it seemed so simple, really. She would begin with Dino’s predawn phone call.

  She set down her coffee and drew up a new page file. The words flew from her fingertips. She had never typed so fast, for so long. The ideas took shape an instant before she wrote them down.

  Six and a half pages later, Asha typed the words “In conclusion,” and then stopped. Her fingers remained poised over the keyboard. The screen shone on her face, illuminating all her uncertainties. She knew what she was going to say. She felt now as though she had known it before she sat down. The act of writing had merely solidified everything she had already come to know at some deeper level.

  Her grandmother was right.

  It did not matter whether this young man, who called himself Lucius had indeed died and returned forty-nine years later. That was not the issue. At least, not to her. As therapist to this patient, Asha had been wrong to focus upon it. It had blinded her to the vital concern.

  Luke Benoit now lived a different life.

  Her fingers would still not type the words. She saw there on the empty screen all the rejections and derision her words were bound to unleash. But it changed nothing. She was bound to the truth.

  Asha forced herself to begin writing. She was as careful and professional as she knew how. She wanted others to understand the conclusion she had reached, and why. Even if they utterly disagreed. Even if they thought her to be deluded. Even if they threatened her career.

  The patient who returned was not the patient who had departed.

  When she next looked up, Asha was astounded to discover she was due for her ten o’clock meeting with Luke Benoit in forty minutes. She had been at this for four and a half hours.

  Swiftly she scanned her writing once more, and was filled with a conviction that it was not just good.

  It was ready.

  * * *

  Lucius woke twice in the night, fearful that he had been overtaken by the black dog. But the attack did not come, and both times he eventually returned to sleep. He awoke soon after dawn, slid open the glass doors, and stepped outside to discover a pair of swimming trunks and fluffy robe on the chair next to his door. He held them up to his waist, wondering if they and the valise and silver hairbrush had once belonged to the former lord of the manor.

  The swimming pool was rimmed on two sides by a veranda, which joined to the L-shaped apartment. The guest chambers were twice the size of Luke Benoit’s apartment. Everything about this place was gargantuan. Lucius changed into the trunks and went for a swim. The pool was overheated, but he did not mind. He thought he shared the morning with only a few birds and a passing squirrel, but as he toweled off, the cook came down the path leading to the main house. She carried a tray that held coffee and breakfast. “Good morning, senor.”

  “And to you, ma’am.”

  “Last night I forget to ask what kind of fruit you like. There are peaches and blackberries here in the bowl.” She unfolded a starched linen cloth and covered a poolside table. “The yogurt, it is plain but I can bring you other flavors. And here a banana.”

  Lucius wondered if someone had run into town this morning, just so he could have his requested breakfast. “This is perfect. May I ask your name?”

  “Consuela. You are certain, you no wish for toast or eggs?”

  “No, thank you, Ms. Consuela.”

  “The senora, she had another bad night.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “This morning she tell me she is not coming down today.”

  Lucius was disappointed, but all he said was “I understand.”

  Consuela hesitated, then added, “Senora Wright, she is too much alone. It is good you are here.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. That means a lot.”

  “When you are ready, come speak with me, and the gardener will take you to the car place.”

  He watched the woman return down the long path, then ate his breakfast in thoughtful silence.

  An hour later, the gardener drove him away in a late-model Mercedes. The man did not speak once the entire journey, which suited Lucius just fine.

  The dealership came to a complete standstill when Lucius rose from the car. He pretended that nothing was out of the ordinary, though that required a bit of a stretch when the lady handling the service counter informed him that there was no charge for his repairs. Lucius was tempted to argue. Paying his own way was an ingrained habit. But the woman was already nervous enough, dealing with a man who had spent the night in the forbidden kingdom. So he thanked her solemnly, and asked, “Is Mike around?”

  His question only heightened her anxiousness. “He had to run into town, Mr. Benoit, sir.”

  “No problem. Would you please thank him for me?”

  “Absolutely, sir. Soon as he’s back I’ll tell him.”

  Lucius accepted the keys and followed her directions out back.

  The Jaguar gleamed in the sunlight. They had polished the exterior and, from the fragrances that greeted him, saddle-washed the leather interior and even waxed the burl. Lucius slipped behind the wheel, rolled down the windows, and started the car. The only reason he didn’t shout with joy was because of all the eyes watching him.

  * * *

  Lucius was just pulling from the dealership when his phone rang. He could have ignored the incessant chime. Perhaps he sho
uld have. But then with a start he realized that he had missed an appointment with Asha. He pulled over to the side of the road and rummaged through the leather valise, which Sarah and the cook had both insisted he take. Naturally, the phone was on the bottom. “Hello?”

  Asha sounded almost as anxious as the woman at the service counter had looked. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes, yes, I’m fine. But I got sidetracked by events. I’m sorry.”

  “So sidetracked you couldn’t be bothered to check your messages?”

  “My . . . messages.”

  “On your phone, Luke.”

  “You must show me how—”

  “I’m in no mood for that. Do you realize if I had told Dino that you’d missed your appointment he would have wanted to alert the police?”

  “I . . . No.”

  “I want you to come by now.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Why not?”

  Lucius hated how this conversation made him feel guilty. He disliked even more the sense that he owed that pair of doctors an explanation. “I’m not in town.”

  “Where are you?”

  He took a breath. Knowing it was all going to come out now. “I’m in Miramar.”

  CHAPTER 45

  When Luke did not arrive for his ten o’clock session, and then did not respond to her phone calls, Asha grew increasingly alarmed. Her apprehension only deepened when she learned where he was, and why.

  Calling Dino did not help at all. He responded to the news with an alarm all his own. He grilled her like a cop, demanding every shred of information she had, which was very little. Then he said he had to alert the school’s administration, and asked her not to leave her office until she heard back from him.

  It was a shame, Asha reflected, that the harmony between them could not have lasted a little longer.

  Dino called back at four thirty, while she was with the day’s last patient. He left a message that they had a meeting with the university president at a quarter past five. Asha completed the day’s paperwork, then crossed the campus through dry desert heat. The admin building’s air-conditioned foyer greeted her with a frigid blast. Asha thought of Luke describing the moment he woke up in the morgue, the biting cold, the astringent odors, the sheet covering his face. She decided she could not bear to seal herself inside the elevator and took the stairs.