Wild Swans (18 page)

He’s only been with us a short time
, Althea thought,
but it feels as if I’ve known him forever.

**
In some ways you have
, ** Lindt replied.

Althea ignored him.

Time is running out
, Althea ruminated as the specter of her upcoming marriage loomed high in her mind. She needed to make a decision and quickly. Before it’s too late. She saw herself once again in a nurse’s uniform.
That’s what I want, but how to get it?

**
There are nurses in the army**
Mr. Lindt’s voice flitted through her mind.

**
The army
,** she scoffed, **
that’s for guys
.**

**
Someone has to attend the sick and wounded
,** Mr. Lindt reasoned. **
And it’s not like you haven’t been considering it on a subconscious level. Besides, they’ll pay for your training and give you a career. You’ll travel to exotic places like Germany or Japan. Aren’t those all the things you were longing for?
**

**
But what if Mom does the same thing to me that Hank’s parents did to him, and force me out of the army?
**

**
It’ll never happen. I strongly suspect that Hank’s parents didn’t have the pull to get their son out either. In fact, I daresay that Hank never joined the army at all
.**

**
You mean he lied to me?
**

**
I mean that his parents browbeat him enough to make him change his mind
.**

**
Hank really doesn’t have the courage to stand up to his folks does he?
**

**
He’s a sweet boy, but no, he doesn’t
.**

**
And when we get married, we’ll both be under his parent’s thumb won’t we?
**

**
I’m afraid so
.**

Althea started to ask Mr. Lindt how he could be so certain, but decided against it. It was clear that Hank saw Mr. Lindt as she did, as a father-confessor. She wondered what else Hank had told him.

**
Nothing that matters
,**Lindt said, confirming her suspicions.

**
And you’re certain that my mom couldn’t touch me once I joined the army
?**

**
Quite sure
.**

Althea was elated. An army nurse. Despite all of her mother’s machinations there’d be nothing she or the church could do about it once Althea became property of the U.S. army. She’d finally be free to travel and see the world. Free to do whatever she wished with her life.
Besides, it’s not like I’d be going to war and actually fighting, she reasoned. I’d be working in a hospital. Maybe at Walter Reed or maybe I’d be stationed in Germany or maybe even Japan. Wouldn’t that be something?

**
I never thought of military life as being particularly romantic
**
.
Lindt’s thoughts were colored by amusement. **
Although I have to admit that Rudyard Kipling certainly made it seem so. And Muriel Spark’s novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie does an outstanding job of romanticizing the Spanish Civil War. Of course that novel isn’t published yet, but when it is I highly recommend it.**

“
How do you know so much?” Althea said aloud, but Mr. Lindt was in deep conversation with Cally and Ruby. Everyone stopped talking, and Ruby was now glaring balefully at the door.

“I swear, is that boy gonna lock himself in his apartment and never come out? You’d think he’d be taking more interest in his bride to be than kneeling on the floor counting all those stupid beads.”

“It’s not stupid to him Mom and quit being sacrilegious. You’re starting to sound like an old hypocrite,” Althea scolded.

“Religion is good,” Ruby agreed, “but not when people go crazy ga-ga over it.” She scowled, her sallow features etched in the yellow light and black shadows. “I knew he was religious and thought that was a good thing. I didn’t know he was so gung-ho about it. I wonder what else the Cathars didn’t bother to tell us.”

“You’d be amazed,” Althea said under her breath.
And if I thought you’d believe me for one minute I’d tell you
, she added silently.

A flash of light near the docks caught her attention. “Now what could that be?” Ruby asked, unease tingeing her voice. Althea rose from her morbid musings and stood up. She squinted, trying to figure out what was shining on the water below.

“What is that?” Ruby asked, alarmed. “You don’t suppose it’s those crazy
moiselles
coming back do you?”

“Just Jake I figure,” Cally replied shielding the glare from the yellow porch light with her hand. “You know he comes nosing down here this time of night looking for Althea.”

“I’ll get the gun,” Ruby said, sounding weary. She stood, the chair scraping against the deck as it slid back towards the wall. “You’d think by how he’d figure out he ain’t welcome here.”

“You’d think so,” Cally agreed. “But you know how boys are.” She offered Althea a side ways glance. “Especially if they’re being encouraged.”

“Not by me he’s not,” Althea said.

“Oh?” Cally asked, her interest piqued.

“I caught him balls deep in Matilda a few days ago. They were in the alley beside the drug store,” Althea said.

“And what, young lady, were you doing in that back alley?” Cally asked.

Althea started to tell the truth, but changed her mind. How could she tell her family that she ducked into that filthy alley because she was literally afraid of her own shadow?

“I heard a noise,” Althea lied. “I went inside and caught Jake balling her.”

“That’s not something a lady should say,” Ruby snapped.

“I’m not a lady. How can I be without a father?”

“Don’t start with me girl.”

“Like I care.”

“Yeah that’s definitely Jake all right,” Cally interrupted. Althea felt her temper rise another degree. “That’s his flashlight shining on the docks. He must be tying up his boat.”

“Now ain’t that some nerve?” Ruby asked. “Ain’t it just like a boy to be out with one girl while sniffing around looking for another?”

“Don’t worry about it, Mom. I’ll give him the heave-ho,” Althea said as she stomped off the porch and strode down the lawn toward the docks.

“Wait,” Ruby cautioned, “it might not be him. It might be something else.”

Althea ignored her.

****

Ruby and Cally watched her go. Ruby, befuddled, looked at Cally, whose silhouette was outlined by the porch light. She said, “What do you thinks gotten into her?”

“Gumption,” Cally replied. “And it’s about dang time if you ask me. I think you’ve finally pushed that girl too far, Ruby.”

“I can’t imagine what makes you think that,” Ruby said, flopping down into her seat. “It’s not my fault that she’s gotten uppity.” She turned around so she could see her sister better. “All I know is that I’m getting fed up with that smart mouth of hers.”

“She’s all grown up now, Ruby and there’s nothing you can do about that. When she turns eighteen she can stand right up at that altar and tell you to go straight to hell. And knowing her, she probably will too.”

“I don’t think she’ll have the nerve to do that. Not while the whole church is watching. She’s always been obedient to the Church, if not to me.”

“It still doesn’t make it right,”

“What am I supposed to do? Just turn her loose and let her do whatever she pleases?”

“Yes,” Cally said.

“The world is too dangerous a place for that,” Ruby said.

“If Althie had been a boy would you still think that?”

“Don’t ask me a question like that,” Ruby said. She uttered a rude sound. “It’s not all just about being safe from harm. I just want...” Her voice trailed off. “I just want her to be happy. I want her to have all the things she deserves.”

“You mean all the things you didn’t get?”

Ruby crossed her arms and looked out toward the docks. “I don’t know,” she said so softly nobody could hear.

“I’m honestly glad she’s getting rid of Jake,” Ruby said after several minutes lapsed. “I’m tired of him fooling around here all the time, filling her head with who knows what.”

“So once Althea is married and gone off, what are you going to do, Miss. Ruby?” Mr. Lindt asked.

“Find a man,” Cally laughed.

“Oh, no I won’t either.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Cally said. “Finding a good man of your own that is. You can’t spend the rest of your life alone you know.” She slipped her arm around Mr. Lindt’s. Looking up at him she added, “I know I can’t.”

Mr. Lindt chuckled and patted her arm. “You’ll find the right man I’m sure. And a lot sooner than you think.”

Jokingly taken aback Cally asked, “And you ain’t?”

Mr. Lindt laughed and patted her arm again. “Poor lamb,” he said. “Poor little lost lamb.”

“Yes I can,” Ruby said with the same stubbornness as her daughter who had just disappeared down the long sloping lane toward the docks. “And as far as a good man is concerned, there ain’t any. No offence to you, Mr. Lindt.”

“None taken.”

“I don’t know about that,” Cally drawled as she moved closer to Mr. Lindt. “Lindt, honey you never did tell us your first name. What is it?”

Smiling faintly, he leaned over and whispered it in her ear.

“Well?” Ruby asked as her sister flushed in the moonlight. “What is it?”

“I can’t pronounce it.” Cally giggled. Mr. Lindt laughed. “But I’m willing to learn,” she added.

“Oh my.” Mr. Lindt laughed harder. “I’m in trouble now.”

Chapter Eleven

Althea found Jake standing on the dock next to the ramshackle boathouse. One hand clasped a heavy duty flashlight and the other was tucked into his jeans’ pockets and his shirt was billowing slightly in the breeze. His head was lowered as he gazed at the dock’s planks. He looked ashamed, and it made Althea’s heart jolt in sympathy. For an instant she thought about running to him and holding him in her arms. Then the image of him and Matilda rutting like a pair of dogs behind a stack of orange crates made Althea’s blood boil. She quickened her pace, a plan forming in her mind.

“Althea,” Jake whispered, his voice barely carrying above the sloshing sound of bayou water. Althea fumed as she approached. The rebel-with-the-vulnerable-side was not going to faze her tonight.
Not now
, she told herself,
not ever again.

Jake looked up at her as she strode towards him “Althie I’m sorry. I—”

“—Shut up,” Althea interrupted as she grabbed him by the shirt and, pulling him close to her. kissed him soundly. Her breasts pressed hard against his chest, causing her nipples to harden. Jake went rigid, more from shock than heat, and she was pleased with the reaction. She felt anger and lust raise together, her body electrified as she kissed him harder. He responded after her third kiss, placing his hand on the back of her head, his fingers entwining in soft curls. He muttered between her lips and she pushed her body closer to his, slowly rubbing his crotch with the palm of her hand. Jake grabbed her by her upper arms and pulled her even closer as he explored her mouth with his tongue. He wasn’t whimpering and begging, (how could he with his tongue jammed down her throat like that)?. He was just letting her do as she pleased.

“Althea,” Jake whispered as they parted, stunned as she unzipped his jeans and knelt before him.

“Althea, please wait.”

“Shut up,” she said, her face flushed with rage and lust which was fueled more from defiance than from desire.

Althea felt like an adventuress, excited in the knowledge that she was about to become a full fledged co-inheritor of her own mothers’ sin. She touched Jakes warm soft lower belly, and he trembled with pleasure. He had both hands on the back of her head now; guiding her toward something she would never have dreamed of doing before.

But she dared to now; dared to because she hated/loved her mother, felt betrayed by life, her aunt and Mr. Lindt who had become her dearest friend, especially after the firefly incident. Yet he too, had kept the truth from her.

I was doomed to hell the moment I was conceived,
Althea told herself
. Of course it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters any more. What’s one more sin in a litany of sins that began before I was born?

Jake groaned, his fingers twisting in her hair.

Althea hated it. She despised him and she loathed what she was doing, yet she continued. She hated the taste, the feel, the texture. She detested the smell. Matilda’s smell. She continued despite this. She let rage drive her on, her hatred for Jake in particular and all men in general.

Jake, she knew, was clueless. Like every man ( her mother had told her more than once) he was driven by urges and instinct whereas women were driven by intellect. All he knew he was getting one of the most intense pleasures of his life, whereas it took everything Althea had to keep from emasculating him.
What trust
, she thought.
What foolish loathsome trust. I could turn him into a eunuch in one instant and yet all he’s thinking about is what he’s feeling. Good God I hate him!

Jake had dropped his flashlight, the light tumbling onto the dock in a golden arc at Althea’s knees. He groaned, his hands pushing on the back of her head as she did something she could never confess to the local priesthood. Jake rocked back and forth on his heels while Althea dug her nails into his flanks, the blood glistening crimson between her fingers.

He groaned above her, swaying on the balls of his feet, moaning as if he were about to tear apart at the seams. Then, just at the height of his passion, she stopped abruptly, stood, knocking his hands aside and then in one fluid movement, shoved him as hard as she could.

Shocked, his arms wind-milling as he stumbled backwards, Jake took a backwards dive off the dock.

Althea stood like an angry warrior queen on the aged pier while Jake’s head broke the surface. He treaded water, gasping and spitting out muddy ooze while she laughed above him.

“Dammit, girl what’s gotten into you?”

“I’m what has gotten into me,” she said proudly. The moon rose behind her, huge and yellow and full. It cast her hair in a silvery sheen. She stood with her arms akimbo and glared down at him, her eyes virtually blazing in the darkness.

“You want to know what’s gotten into me, Jean-Jacques Duplantis. I’ll tell you. I’m sick. I’m sick and tired of you, of your stepping out and then having the audacity to sneak back here hoping to get into my pants too. You treat me like a
putain
instead of a lady. Well not any more, bub. You’re not landing on the shores of Althea Thibodaux, you got that? Not now, not ever!”

“After what we just did?” Jake asked, puzzled. “But I thought you loved me, I thought you wanted—”

“Well you thought wrong,” Althea interrupted with intense satisfaction. “You didn’t do shit. I did it. It’s what I chose to do. I wanted you to know what it’ll feel like not to be with me. I wanted you to know what you’ve lost because of your liaison with that fat dumpy cow you screwed in the alley. That’s why.”

“I’m sorry, Althea,” Jake said, sounding genuinely contrite as he paddled toward the dock. “I really am, but a man has needs. I tried to wait for you. I did. A man ain’t like a woman. We have to have sex, we’ve just go to. If we don’t we’ll get a bad case of blue balls and they’ll fall off if something ain’t done about it.”

Althea laughed so loud she startled a small group of egrets roosting in the trees. “You really think I’m stupid don’t you? Blue balls my eye. Ain’t nobody died from being horny.”

“But you don’t understand what a man goes through.”

“I’ll have Father say a mass for your nads,” Althea said dryly.

“But a man has. . .”

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you. It’s just a bunch of ya-ya gumbo. I’m a woman and I have needs too. And,” She added as she glanced over her shoulder towards the plantation house, “It’s high time people around here found that out.”

“Althea what are you going to do?” Jake asked as he struggled to get back onto the dock. “You’re not gonna tell anyone about us are you? Your momma is wicked mean with that shotgun.”

Althea turned her back on him and walked away, offering him the one finger salute as she went.
I don’t need him any more
, she told herself, as Jake’s soft cries carried off into the distance. He’s just a boy and a louse at that. I can do better. I will do better and it won’t be with Jake the Louse or with Holy Hank, the Jesus Boy.

**
Bravo
,** Mr. Lindt’s voice whispered in her mind. **
Bette Davis would be so proud
.**

**
Are you going to tell my mother what I did?
**

**
I wouldn’t dream of it
.**

**
I really don’t care if you do or not
.**

**
That’s what you say, but not what you’re feeling
.**

**
What I’m feeling is none of your business
.**

**
What, may I ask, brought on this moment of sexual liberation
?**
Lindt asked after several moments lapsed.

**
Don’t you know?
**

**I’m not God
,**
he told her dryly. **
I don’t know everything
.**

**
I’ve sworn off men, starting with Jake
,**
she replied as she stomped up the rise and onto the lawn. She could see her family sitting on the porch. She wondered off hand how much of a show she put on for them.
Had they seen? Did they have the indecency to watch?
No,
she decided as she grunted up the last few yards to the porch
. If they had, Mom would have broken it up. With that shotgun of hers, no less.

**
No one knows but me,**
Lindt said, confirming her suspicions
. **And as I have indicated before, I have said nothing.
**

“What happened?” Ruby asked as Althea stomped up the steps. “I thought I heard a splash.”

“You did. It was Jake taking a backwards dive off the pier.”

Mr. Lindt guffawed.

“Lord, girl what did you do?” Cally asked.

“I took care of Jake that’s all. He won’t be coming back. And if he does, pepper him good with your shotgun for me, Mom.”

“That’s good to know,” Ruby said, relieved. She sighed, settling back down into her favorite chair. “I was afraid you’d take him back after all that Matilda business.”

“Not a chance. He tried to give me the whole, ‘a man has needs’ bit. I didn’t buy it.” Althea looked around. She paused, giving the veranda a scathing appraisal. “This dump is such a bore,” she said. “Old Lady Cathar was right about that much anyway.”

“I don’t know. I think it’s perfectly charming,” Lindt said.

“What’s got you so upset,
bay-bay
?” Cally asked. “You haven’t been right since you and your momma had that spat this afternoon.”

“I’m bored, that’s all. Bored and sick and tired and disgusted and, oh I don’t know,” she said, leaning against the railing.

“There’s plenty to do if you look for it,” Cally said.

“You’re right
Tante
. I want to go to the Bijou. Where’s that man of mine?” Althea said loud enough for anyone inside the house to hear. Hank? Where are you at? Still fumbling with those stupid beads?”

“Althea that’s no way to be,” Ruby scolded.

“You know what? I just don’t care.”

Cally leaned toward Ruby and whispered, “must be that time of the month.”

Althea scowled.

“It’s not a good idea to go out after all the strangeness that’s been going on.” Ruby warned. “I think you should stay close to home.”

“Nothing weird has gone on for quite a while now,” Althea replied. “I think it’s stopped.”

“I certainly hope so,” Ruby agreed. “I don’t think I could put up with much more of that.”

“I’ve been thinking about
les moiselles
,” Cally said. “I heard that army ammunition plant over in Karnac, Texas has been dumping Lord knows what into Caddo lake. I know it’s a ways from here but you don’t suppose they might have poured something radioactive out into the lake and it got down here do you? Started mutating bugs and stuff?”

“Cally I swear I don’t know where you get that imagination of yours,” Ruby said. “That sounds like something right out of a science fiction movie.”

“Stranger things have been known to happen,” Mr. Lindt said softly.

Ruby turned and stared at the man who was partly obscured by a tangle of overgrown azalea bushes and crepe myrtle growing a tad too close to the porch.

“Somehow,” Ruby said as she studied him, “all this oddness seems to have begun just about the same time you showed up. For all we know, you’re an alien or something. Is that what you are, Mr. Lindt? An alien?”

Mr. Lindt laughed. “No.”

“Don’t let him kid you. He’s got an eye in the back of his head.” Althea said, deadpan. Mr. Lindt laughed harder. He took out a white hanky from his pants’ pocket and wiped his eyes.

“Now who’s sounding weird,” Cally commented. “I think you’ve both lost your minds.”

“Just what kind of work do you do, exactly?” Ruby asked.

“Construction,” Mr. Lindt said.

“I know that but what kind? Do you build houses or roads or something like that?”

“I’m into superstructures,” Mr. Lindt said. He absently took out a couple of cigarettes, and lit them, handing one to Cally who giggled and accepted it.”

“Since when did you start that?” Ruby asked Cally.

“Oh a few days ago. Relax, Ruby. Anybody who’s anybody smokes these days.”

“If I catch Althea getting into that filthy habit I’ll hang the both of you.”

The couple laughed. Althea walked to the door and stopped, tapping her foot, belying her inner agitation. “Come on Hank,” she called into the dark inner recesses of the house. “Don’t you hear me? What on earth are you doing in there?”

“In his room still counting those silly beads I suppose,” Cally replied as smoke from her Pall Mall curled around the top of her head. “He’s the most religious boy I’ve ever met. I swear, he’s been locked up in his room since he got here.” She shifted in her seat so that she could look her sister in the face. “That boy ain’t right, Sister. There’s something peculiar about a kid who’d rather spend his time counting the rosary than being outside with a lovely young lady like Althea.” She lowered her voice. “You don’t suppose he’s a fag or anything do you?”

“No of course not,” Ruby countered. “It’s his first night here, and he’s just a little shy that’s all. It’ll take a bit for him to get used to us.”

“Maybe it would have helped if Hank wasn’t dumped on us like a stray puppy,” Cally said.

“Don’t you start,” Ruby warned.

“Well I’ll go tell him since I’m the answer to his prayers.” Althea flounced across the threshold and into the darkened foyer.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Ruby asked.

“To Hank’s apartment.”

“Not unescorted you don’t.”

“You didn’t object when I went down to talk to Jake.”

Ruby turned around to stare at the door. “You said it was because you wanted to get rid of him.”

“It was and I did, so what? Are you afraid I’m gonna give Hank the boot too?” Althea asked as she stepped back across the threshold, her arms folded across her chest. “Because it ain’t a bad idea from where I’m standing.”

“I don’t want you spoiled before your wedding day,” Ruby said through gritted teeth.

“I’m not all about jumping in the sack,
mother
. Not like some people I know.”