Five for Forever (39 page)

“There were two mistakes I made in the first attempt to change my life. Not doing a more radical cut was the first one. I hereby correct that. With a little help from the cancer.”

“And the second mistake?”

“Losing Rick.”

Winter turned into spring. It brought changes to Rick in his new job. Styler was a changed
dude
, still very relaxed but driven by a mission at the same time. The first collection came on the market after a mere two months and was sold out after a week. The changes of season also brought changes to the Flint family.

Spring turned into summer and Agnes graduated high school and moved to the next part of her life; she left for Annapolis on July 1. Summer brought changes to Charles, who had quit school, finally accepting that his path was a different one than that of the kids around him. He had started studying medicine at UCLA, based on a merit scholarship by a nonprofit foundation for the super-bright, which had also supported a Dr. Patil Singh of Mumbai, now Baltimore.

With golfing, jogging, and, a little later, outdoor tennis, she slowly got back into shape. Over the weeks she lost fewer and fewer balls in scrubs or in the water, the jogging round got well below forty minutes, and tennis became more than simply getting the ball over to the other side of the net. She still avoided outside life, watched no news, maybe a Netflix movie or series now and then, and still received no visitors. In her nonactive time, she relaxed, reading books on her eBook reader or luxuriously doing nothing.

Fourteen weeks after checking in, Louise Waters was back to 115 pounds, and she followed that good news with the first proper haircut she’d had since she had lost it all. That morning, a new person looked back at her. She looked younger, as the returned flesh, muscles, and fat had moved into new places, less feminine, and the short bob cut made her look boyish. She made a face at the mirror. Tomboy Louise, with a hint of Audrey Hepburn.

Maybe I’ll keep the look? The new Louise. One thing is for sure, I could walk past scores of paparazzi and wouldn’t get a second look.

Two days later, she checked out and had Floris drive her to Malibu. Which was unorthodox, as he was the bodyguard and not the driver. Plus, she sat down beside him instead of in the back. He said nothing, but a glance told Louise that he disapproved.

“We need to talk. And there is no escape in a car. I heard that marriages have broken up during in-car conversations going out of hand.”

“I might crash, Madam.”

“We are not married, so don’t worry!” Louise said. “No seriously. There is one point we need to talk about, and I need to give it to you straight: after five years in my service, I need to fire you.”

Floris gave a small, sad smile. “I had expected this much earlier.”

Louise swallowed. “Floris, you were the rock in my life when everything went to hell. And even though you are my bodyguard and you don’t talk much—actually you never talk—you were much more. You are one of the few people on earth I trust with my life and everything else.”

“Thank you, Madam,” Floris mumbled. He was not an emotional person but was definitely moved now.

“The truth is, I won’t be needing bodyguard services anymore. I have been out of circulation for over eight months, have taken no phone calls, no mail—hell, I don’t even know who won the Super Bowl. I won’t work as an actress again and will continue to stay away from the public. Anyway, that was the first thing I wanted to tell you. I doubt you will have issues finding other work; I’ll recommend you unconditionally to anyone who asks.”

“Thanks, Madam.”

“I’ll kill you if you ever call me Madam again.”

“Thanks, Ma . . . Thanks, Miss Louise.”

“Miss Louise sounds even worse. We are not in the South.”

Both continued the ride in silence until they arrived in Malibu. It was early evening in mid-August, and the sun was beginning its dip into the Pacific.

Floris parked the car, carried the few items of baggage toward the house, and disarmed the alarm while Louise looked around. She had been away for eight months. Almost a whole year of other people’s lives had gone past her. The gardener had kept the small front garden immaculate, the caretaker had given the windows a new coat of paint. The gardener’s kid had started school this year, Louise remembered from the small talk before Christmas.
Other people bear a child in nine months, giving life. I spent the time fighting death. I spent the time beating death!

She entered the house, glancing around. Floris had already helped the maid move the luggage upstairs and then had retreated downstairs to his room.

All as I left it. Dusted, kept clean. The maid let in fresh air. The pool is maintained. But they are caretakers. Like taking care of a tomb. The person living here, moving things around, buying new things, watching TV, eating Greek yoghurt, has been gone for a long time, not leaving her impression. Is this what Rick felt in the house of Vera Folsom?

She rummaged in her handbag and retrieved the three small items that had accompanied her through the last nine months. She placed them on a small desk close to the kitchen. Beside them, she put her Baltimore hospital wristband.

Do I want to be reminded of that life? Don’t be too hard on yourself, Lou-baby, and don’t rewrite your history like an Eastern Bloc dictator. Keep all these little tidbits of your past, all the photos, the stones, the postcards, the knickknacks. The time formed you, made you, and the collection here is a reminder of times gone by, but it is not who you are.

She looked at the little display, then went to the terrace and greeted the endless ocean.

Only one more thing to do.

thirty-three

Forever

She took the Lexus and drove west toward Oxnard along the coast, like that first time she had gone with Josh. That trip felt like it was from another century. Louise was free. And alive. She had not cheated death, she had won square and fair, and that meant promises to keep. The weather was August perfect, the reason why she would always love Southern California. The street where the Flints lived still looked the same as she drove up. She came unannounced; no reason to explain anything in advance. The Flint house had a taxi service passenger van parked in front, an impatient cabbie pacing. Britta and Charles came out of the front door, each with a suitcase on wheels at their side. Neither had noticed Louise’s car right away. She opened the door and stepped out. First a glance, then another. Unknown woman. Then Charles’s head snapped up again and he stopped in his tracks, she saw his mouth move, and Britta’s eyes also fell on Louise. She said something back to Charles that, from lip reading, looked to be a collection of four-letter words. Louise closed the car door and came closer. She didn’t know what to say, so she simply let things happen. Things were already written long ago.

She stood three yards in front of the two kids.

Ticket printouts in the backpack, everyone’s IDs, drinks, snacks, wet wipes. Money, credit cards, phone, charger. Rick was going through the final checklist. Keys, no car-key needed, taxi waiting outside.

“Last chance for the toilet!” he announced to Dana, who determinedly put her backpack on.

“I am good,” Dana replied. “Wanna see Aga! Wanna fly again.” The little professional traveler.

“We will see Agnes tomorrow, don’t worry. Let’s go.”

He heard shouts and cries outside—hopefully Charles and Britta were not killing each other. Last look, all lights and stove off. Appliances in normal state, no perishables in sight to feed the ants. Rick pushed his own suitcase that contained his and Dana’s stuff toward the front door.

His eyes fell on Britta and Charles wrestling down an older boy. Now that was a bizarre sight, as his kids definitely weren’t the brawling types. No, not wrestling, they were hugging. Not a boy but a woman with short hair. Not any woman with short hair. Charles and Britta fell away from her, and she looked up. It was a first look at someone who looked familiar but couldn’t be placed for a second, reminding him of . . . And the new Louise gave Rick the most beautiful smile he had ever seen in his life.

Dana exploded beside him and with two steps was in Louise’s arms, crying and laughing at the same time. Rick watched, wishing this moment would never end. Then Louise freed herself from the kids’ embraces, straightened and walked over to Rick.

“Going somewhere?” was the first thing after almost a year she said to him.

Rick swallowed, playing along, playing it cool. “Actually, yes. We are flying out to Baltimore tonight.”

“I thought I had left that behind me. What’s going on there lately?” Louise asked.

“Parents’ weekend in Annapolis. Agnes had her induction day on July first.” Rick still had goose bumps thinking about his shorthaired daughter in her white uniform at the Oath of Office ceremony, navy jets streaking the sky above them.

“I’ll join you.”

“You don’t come prepared.”

“I come prepared with a Platinum Amex card. How far do you think that will get me?”

“Ticket availability?”

“Flint, you are a hard sell, like on our first date! One call and I’ll have hired a jet to take us east. Of course, you may decide to still cram into coach instead.”

“You came suddenly.”

“I promised to come back.”

“Yes, you did. I don’t know what to say, Louise.”

“Just say the first thing that pops into your mind, then.”

“Don’t go away ever again,” Rick said.

“I made you a promise. Now I am here. And I want it all.
All
started about two minutes ago.” Then Louise stepped up to Rick, embraced him and kissed him. She looked different, felt different, but she kissed like the old Louise had done. And then the three kids crowded around them for a group hug. After a few minutes of laughing, kissing, and crying, Britta got out her phone, and they all posed for a selfie.

Midshipman Flint came back into her dorm room in Bancroft Hall and opened her locker after the evening exercise. Thankfully no dirt track, only plain old running and an obstacle course. After six weeks her body had adapted to the constant muscle pain and the tight, stressful schedule that dominated every day during the Plebe Summer, the Naval College’s orientation course “to turn civilians into midshipmen.” Half an hour of personal time before lights-out. Her smartphone had been returned to her that evening after six weeks of only letters connecting her to the outside world. It gave an endless sequence of vibrations to indicate the collected incomings of weeks of absence. A message from Britta ended up on top. So great to see the gang again tomorrow! Agnes checked the attached photo, a selfie. She took a second to process what she was seeing, who she was seeing. She read the caption.

Agnes smiled.

All was well.

644ever. CU tom. DLBCD&LOL

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Dear Reader,

Thanks for making it this far! Hope you liked the story. If you did, please recommend it to friends and family and maybe leave me a good review on Amazon or GoodReads. Also feel free to check out my other books that are available on Amazon and many other digital bookstores. Although I might warn you that
Five for Forever
is a slightly different genre than my
Troubleshooter
suspense thrillers or the
Calendar Moonstone Brilliant
heist mysteries.

How did this book come about? This is the seventh (or eighth or ninth, depending on how you count) book I wrote. All the books I wrote before were targeted at my kids or resemble books I like to read for myself. However, my wife only read my works in a perfunctory manner as a special editor. Not because she liked them. During our summer holiday in 2014, she read a series of really tacky romances of the modern kind (those
Devil Wears Prada
rip-offs where a fish-out-of-water country girl gets into a big-city career and falls in love with her boss or whomever and hilarity ensues). I had a pitying look at some of the chapters and declared on the beach, “I can do that!” Actually I said, “I can do better than that!”