“Yes, apart from that.”
“The truth is,” he said when they were sitting together in the sun, “I wish to speak to you of several things. To begin with, my pH has been corrected and I feel fine. Secondly, I am in love, I think.”
“Me too.”
They kissed again. Her mouth was sweet and tart. His tongue went in her. Her tongue, surprised, was taken aback, then ventured forward, parting his lips shyly. Kissing her was like entering a new and happy land.
“What have you been eating?” he asked her.
“Pawpaws. They’re best after a frost.”
“Let me taste.”
They kissed again. They were sitting now. He noticed that no matter how they kissed, standing or sitting, her body somehow fronted and flew against him.
“Kissing you is a delight but not a rounded and closed-off delight,” she said.
“No?”
“No, it is an opening-out delight and a wanting. Kissing is like now fine, more is better, and what about it?”
“I know.”
“Your tongue is welcome but you, that is, the salient you, would be even more so.”
“I know, I know.”
“Was there ever such a wanting?” she asked.
“Not that I remember.”
“For true?”
“For true.”
“Oh say so.”
“I want you.”
“Oh fine. The word is go. It is, that is, yes I’m saying.”
“I understand.”
“Ah ha, it is more than evident you do,” she said.
“I know, I know.”
“Are you fond of me besides?” she asked.
“Yes, yes. I must be sure you’re all right. Are you?”
“Similarly and moreover. Do you feel a smiling ease with me as well as a sweetness for me in the deep regions?”
“Yes, in the deep regions, a sweetness, as well as the smiling ease.”
“Is it possible that there is such a life?”
“As what?”
“As a life of smiling ease with someone else and the sweetness for you deep in me and play and frolic and dear sweet love the livelong day, even at four o’clock in the afternoon turning the old yellow green-glade lonesomeness into a being with you at ease not a being with you at unease?”
“Yes, it’s possible.”
“Could such a thing be? What a miracle, and we haven’t even mentioned the nights.”
“No, we haven’t.”
“Imagine ten hours of darkness every night!”
“Yes, imagine.”
“What will we do?”
“Whatever you like.”
“Then you are fond of me?”
“Yes.”
“Let us not speak of love yet, I’m not sure of the word.”
“No, we won’t speak of love, though I feel that in the future we might.”
“Similarly and moreover.”
“Moreover what?”
“Moreover a continuity is beginning for the first time but it is not climbing on me.”
“Me either. Something else is also clear to me.”
“Over and beyond.”
“Yes, over and beyond. It is this. We need each other for different things.”
“What is the manifestation of the difference?”
“I need you for hoisting and you need me for interpretation.”
“Say what?”
“I fall down from time to time and you are very good at hoisting. It would be pleasant to have you around to give me a hand,” he said.
“The pleasure would be mine. In short, I’ll do it. I am so happy about your pH.”
“By the same token, I remember everything and you forget most things. I’ll be your memory. Then too, your language is somewhat unusual. But I understand it. In fact, it means more than other people’s. Thus, I could both remember for you and interpret for you.”
“Our lapses are not due to synapses.”
“No, they are as they should be.”
“The implication of your consideration is that people think I’m crazy.”
“That is correct. Moreover, for this very reason they are coming for you this afternoon.”
“And you don’t.”
“Don’t think you’re crazy? No. Now.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s sit here by the dog. There are some things which I think you must do. Moreover, it is a pleasure to sit here beside you. Dear sweet Lord, what a pleasure. There are many things I don’t know. But certain things have become clear to me as far as you are concerned. Therefore, I am taking it upon myself to do what I seldom do, even in the practice of law: tell somebody what to do. I also think you are ready to be told.”
“The feeling is reciprocal. I am listening.”
“The pawpaws are very good.”
“Yes.”
“However, the taste of them in your mouth is even better.”
“The pleasure is mine.”
“For true?”
“For true.”
He kissed her again. Again she flew against him, from the side which was not possible, yet with no trouble at all.
“Now here is what you must do.”
“Yes?”
“Do you wish to go back to Valleyhead?”
“No. Assuredly not. Not ever. Never.”
“Very well. You don’t have to. Dr. Duk and your mother and possibly the sheriff are coming for you later this afternoon, but you don’t have to go.”
“I don’t?”
“No.”
“Who says?”
“I say.”
“Let’s leave now.” She buried her face in his shirt. “The cave! Let’s go in the cave!”
He laughed. “No. We don’t have to go in the cave. The cave is over and done with. We can live up here. How would you like to begin your life?”
“It is time. How would you like to begin yours?”
“I would like to.”
“It’s about time.”
“Yes.”
“Is it possible for you?”
“Yes. Now listen to me.”
“I am.”
“Pack a few things.”
“I only have a few things.”
“Don’t worry, we can buy some more clothes later. There will be plenty of time but I want you to leave here within ten minutes. The sheriff’s coming for you. Don’t worry, this is your property and you can come back and live here if you want to. So is the island. But go get ready. I’m taking you to the Holiday Inn for a few days.”
“Okay,” she said. “Let me get my NATO knapsack. Do you recall how Perry Mason would stash away a client in an obscure hotel under a false name for a few days?”
“Yes.”
“I read two hundred Perry Masons at Valleyhead. It was beguiling to think of the client living there with Delia Street in the Beverly Arms on Sepulveda.”
“Yes, but never mind that. Let’s get out of here. I want to get you some hot food, a hot bath, and some clean clothes. You’re too thin.”
“Do I also smell bad?”
“You smell like peat moss and army clothes. I think I’ll buy you a dress. Imagine you in a dress! While you take your bath, I’ll get a hot plate from the Holiday Inn buffet. They close at three, so hurry up. Then while you eat, I have a short errand to run. Then I will have something to tell you.”
“How about my dog?”
“Leave him here with some food. We’ll come back for him. He’ll discourage visitors. He knows you’ll be back, doesn’t he?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
2
The room at the Holiday Inn was second floor rear. It was warm from the afternoon sunlight. The balcony overlooked a parking lot, a strip of grass, a chain-link fence, a meadow to the west where Holstein cows grazed, and beyond, the violet hulk of the Smokies, tall and dim enough to be a cloud.
While she bathed, he fetched two plates from the buffet, Tennessee pork sausage, sweet potatoes, butter beans, corn on the cob, ten pats of butter, corn bread, buttermilk, and apple pie. This was no ordinary Holiday Inn. When she came out of the bathroom in her pajamas, the very pajamas she had worn in her escape from Valleyhead, places were set at the round black woodlike table next to the drape, which was drawn enough to show a strip of sunlit meadow.