Dark Kisses Pt. 02

"You remind me of a friend of mine from high school. He went to one place for the burgers, another for the fries and a third for the shakes. Wherever you want to go is fine with me."

"OK, then," he said.

"This is great pie," David said, pushing another bite into his mouth. Suddenly, he had whipped cream all over his face as Carolyn pushed his spoon into his face. "I thought that was the bride's prerogative," he quietly said.

She startled, dropping her own spoon onto the table, ice cream flying. "What did you say?"

"I said..."

"I heard... don't play with me, David, I'm not in the mood, today."

"I'm not playing. I'm dead serious." He looked at her face, searching her eyes for something, for the magic he knew was there.

"David, don't be silly. We've only known each other..."

"...and been constant lovers most of that time. I don't know how, I don't know why but I'm in love with you, Carolyn, deeply, madly in love with you. If I had a ring with me, I'd be down on my knee right now. Je t'aime avec tout mon coeur. I've been studying."

She sat back, shocked at his revelation. She knew she was in love with him; she had to be to make love to him. To know that he was just as in love with her was the blessing she hoped for but was afraid to ask for when Kendra first approached her.

"Oh, God," was all she could quietly say. "Oh, God." So much for a slow, careful romance. What had happened to her? to them?

**********

"...and so, even though birds are still their own group, today, they've been moved over in the scheme of things to the dinosaurs. Something to think about the next time you throw some food at the pigeons around here. Now, tonight, I want you to read pages 426 through 487 and answer questions 7, 8 and 10 on page 490. We've a few minutes, so talk quietly until the bell, if you want."

David closed his notebook and put it on top of his desk. Thank God, he thought, I've already the presentation for tomorrow. He looked at the clock and waited for Tuesday to end. Carolyn had been on his mind the whole day; her situation was bothering him. He had a plan but he didn't know if she would agree, especially with Michael's continuing attitude toward him.

Was it, though, toward him or toward the situation he had grown up with? Was the boy's anger at his father coloring his feelings toward me? David shook his head, unsure what to do.

Helping Carolyn move into an apartment wasn't really a solution at all, since money would still go out faster than it might come in. He knew she'd balk at outright charity and didn't want to ruin their relationship. Her pride and her son could put her in financial disaster.

**********

Kendra carefully opened her grandmother's book, the ancient pages crackling as she ran her finger looking for what she needed. The spells were all there, she just had to find the right one. She wondered how old they really were, going back to her ancestors in Africa.

Her grandmother had explained the difference between black magic and white magic and the spirits surrounding everyone but she was becoming desperate. Michael was still irate about their mother's affair and the basketball loss had done nothing but make things worse.

She smiled, wondering if there was a spell to change her brother into a toad.

"Ahh," she said, quietly, finally chancing on what she wanted.

**********

Wednesday afternoon found them sitting in David's accountant's office, listening to the bad news. They both knew it was coming but to hear it made it all that much worse.

"Mrs. Smith, the best thing I would advise is to clean it up and rent it out for whatever you can get. Find a smaller place to live or move in with relatives. Until the economy comes around, that's about the only way I can think of saving your house unless you want to sell it and I think you know what kind of market we're in."

"Thank you for your time. You've given me plenty to think about."

They sat in his car, the radio on but unheard.

"Well, that was uncomfortable. Even if I find a small apartment, I still don't think there's going to be enough to take care of Kendra's expenses... you know, gas money, books, things like that. At least the Social Security checks will keep coming in for them."

"Listen... hear me out, here. We rent out your place as best we can and you all move in with me. I've got four bedrooms." He gave her an erstwhile look that was so enduring and yet so unbelievable.

"Are you crazy? Kendra's one thing, maybe, but Michael's a whole different thing, altogether. If it was just you and me... or, you, me and Kendra..." She started to cry, her hands covering her face.

"How 'bout I talk to him?" David tapped his steering wheel, thinking.

"You? Oh, yeah, that'll go over real good. David, it's not going to work."

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Please?"

"Ohhh-kay... just be prepared to run like hell."

David wanted to take her to dinner or at least share a pizza but she wanted to go home. She realized she had never invited David in and today would be no different. While the house was neat and clean, she was still embarrassed by the neighborhood's rundown condition. How can I bring him home to this? she wondered, never thinking he wouldn't care where she lived. She drove home, alone.

Carolyn walked through her house, looking in each room as she did. Memories were made in each one, some good, some bad... mostly bad. She remembered the day they had come to the door, chaplain in tow, as she stood there with two children wondering when their father was coming home.

She wouldn't miss the house, no matter what memories lived there. It was time to make new memories, ones not so sad and full of guilt. "Kids! C'mon, get in the car; we're going to David's."

The four of them sat at the kitchen table, unopened Cokes and cooling pizza in the middle.

"...and so, I lost my job and we're going to have to move." She held her can, squeezing it as her hand shook. David took it away before someone forgot and it exploded all over them.

"So... Mr. Christy... David... has a proposition. We rent out our house and live with him." Carolyn looked quickly at her son, waiting for some reaction, good or bad. Instead, he sat there and actually took a piece of pizza from the box and chewed a bite out of it.

Kendra looked at her brother in astonishment. She expected something from him, jumping up and yelling, not taking a piece of pepperoni pizza and calmly chewing it. She took her own and carefully watching everyone else, took a bite. "Sounds like a good idea to me," she declared and took another bite, stringing some still warm cheese from the pizza to her lips.

"Michael?" Carolyn asked, afraid of his answer yet knowing she had to have it.

The boy took another bite and after chewing it and swallowing, opened his can of Coke and took a long drink, emptying half the can. He got up, walked to the back door and then looked back before going out.

David stood up; Carolyn patted his hand and he walked out after Michael.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Kendra asked.

"God, I don't know. Michael's got such a chip on his shoulder. Who knows what they're talking about?"

Carolyn and Kendra strained to hear what was being said. Five minutes... ten minutes... a half-hour.

Shadows on the window... arms waving in the air... heads moving forward and back... then... nothing.

Mother and daughter looked at each other in surprise. They ran to the back door and looked out the window but saw... nothing. They ran outside to the pool and saw... nothing... and then around to the driveway only to find David and Michael shooting baskets... rather, Michael was shooting baskets and David was throwing him the ball.

They stood there in shock, watching the two work the ball and Michael showing David how to hold the ball to make a free throw.

Michael turned to his mother. "We can move whenever you're ready." He turned back in time to see David finally make a basket and gave him a fist-bump.

"I put the basket up yesterday evening, just in case," David said.

"...and this is the airplane he flew in," Michael said to his sister, showing her the model F-15s on the shelf. "He sat in the back seat and was in charge of the weapon system. He said he was something called a 'whizzo'."

Kendra walked over to her brother. She had to admit, she wondered why the man had toys in his living room... and now, she knew.

**********

Using a U-Haul and a couple of Michael's friends from the team, it took the entire weekend moving their furniture to his house. Both Kendra and Michael were given their own bedrooms and enough of their furniture to feel at home while most of the rest went into David's garage to share space with his old Chevy. His Malibu was banished to the driveway, far enough back to give Michael room to practice.

That first night, Carolyn went into Michael's bedroom for the longest time, it seemed to David, before she finally came into their bedroom, officially, for the first time.

He had been looking out the window toward the street at her car parked at the curb and turned at the sound of the door closing and locking.

She had on a horrible-looking bright pink bathrobe and a scarf on her hair. David didn't care. She could have worn a suit of armor and still looked good to him.

David's little teasing kisses were moving as he talked, saying nothing, saying everything, from her ear to the back of her neck to the hollow of her throat. He reached for the belt of her robe and his mouth continued its downward path, past her breasts to her dark valley as he knelt between her legs...

His hands moved on their own. His fingers lightly brushed her curves, his hand seeking and finding.

"David..." she whispered.

"Shhhh..." His strong hand began to play, determined fingers teasing, caressing, probing.

"Oh, God, don't do that. We have to be quiiii..."

"Baby, we don't have to do anything... but there are a few things we might want to do. His mouth moved where his fingers had traveled. After that, she made sounds that resembled speech but her brain was already scrambled. For at least an hour more, nothing that came out of her mouth made any sense.

**********

Chapter 6: Everything went black...

Carolyn wandered around David's house, familiarizing herself with where everything was. She stood in the hallway for a long while, looking at his medals and then going on the internet to look them up. In all their time together, he had never mentioned his time in the Air Force except in passing. She tried to imagine him in his fighter plane, zooming through the skies high above the earth.

She stopped for lunch, making a ham sandwich and then went back to her explorations. And then, her heart came to a stop as she opened her daughter's closet and found the ancient bag she recognized in her mother's house so many, many years ago.

Trembling, now on her knees, she pulled the bag out and opened it, afraid of what she knew she would find. The old book, more sheaves of musty parchment than anything else, lay there and the smell of primeval power rose into the air, causing her to sneeze as the dust settled around her.

She opened the pages, turning them one by one until she found Kendra's last visitation, marked by the yellow ribbon she always wore in her hair. Carolyn slowly read the incantation and tears formed and began to flow down her now dusty face.

It was all a lie... her love... his love... none of it real, only the result of her own mother's black magic spells and her daughter's interference. The yellowed parchments fell to the floor, scattering across the rug as she wept.

She wiped her face with her fingers, gathered up the almost faded spells, carefully put them into the bag, got her keys and drove to her mother's house.

When the old woman opened the door, she guessed what had happened and when she saw the old carpetbag, she knew. Carolyn's mother stepped back as her daughter angrily stormed into the house and stood in the middle of the living room.

"Take it back!" she screamed, "take it back to the way it was!"

The woman looked at her daughter. "I can't. It's forever, ma chère fille. It cannot be undone. Kendra..."

"Damn Kendra and damn you. Make this go away."

"Je suis désolé, ma chère, s'il vous plait, sit down. I must think."

"Mère, make this go away... I don't care how you do it, just do it. You have ruined my life. My love is built on a lie. What have you done to us?"

"Kendra wanted you to be happy, chère, that's all."

"But, now I know."

"Yes, now you know. Does it matter? Is he not everything you want? Is life so bad with him?"

"But, now I know and it will never be the same, again. I will always know. I would rather die than live this lie."

"Sit. I must think. I will make you some tea."

The air shimmered and turned grey and nebulous and thick and Carolyn had trouble breathing; there was a tightness in her heart and then everything went black.

**********

The dull roar of the vacuum filled the house as Carolyn went from one room to the next, leaving its tell-tale track on the rug. She had her I-pod cranked with The Temptations... "I've got all the riches, baby, one man can claim..." She had her Christmas gift shuffling through the songs, yet 'My Girl' always seemed to play each day. Maybe it wasn't as random as she thought; maybe she had the settings wrong. She decided to ask Mr. Christy after dinner if he'd look at it.