Wild Swans (7 page)

“Althea,” Ruby warned under her breath.

“I’m not a lapdog,” Althea snapped. She turned toward the Cathars and said, “Nor a broodmare.”

“Then quit acting like a bitch,” her mother whispered. “So help me when we leave here tonight...”

“When we leave here tonight you won’t do a blessed thing,
Mother.
”

“High strung, just like I said,” Cathar boomed. “Hank boy, you’re gonna have your hands full.”

“And I’m sure you’re more than ready to help out,” Althea growled.

Bruce Cathar’s mouth slammed shut, Mrs. Cathar looked scandalized. Ruby appeared to be on the verge of a stroke.

“You know, what, Hank?” Althea said as she tossed her knife into the butter soaked plate. “I do believe I’ll take that walk.”

Ruby stood. “I’ll chaperone.”

“You will not. We’re not going far, just out to the car and back. I don’t need a babysitter for that.”

“Althea,” Ruby warned.

“Come on Miss Ruby, leave the kids alone. They ain’t gonna do nothing but talk. You know that,” Mr. Cathar said.

“Well,” Ruby said, easing back down into the chair.

“I promise I won’t get pregnant before I get back,” Althea scathed, then with a flick of her hair, left the table. Hank stumbled along behind her.

“Such high spirits.” She heard Mr. Cathar laugh as her mother uttered vague apologies for her daughter’s behavior.

Althea shut out the rest of the conversation by closing the door a little too loudly.

Chapter Five

“My God, what an awful old bat,” Althea grumbled to herself as she exited the building and stopped just beyond the door. She leaned against the dusty brick wall and calmed herself. Hank, thankfully, was nowhere in sight. Where he went she had no idea, nor did she particularly care. All that she knew for sure was that he seemed to disappear just as they got to the lobby, which was just as well; she needed to be alone with her thoughts.

True, Hank was a handsome enough boy, but his head was filled with sawdust as far as she could tell. He certainly didn’t stand up to that lecherous old man of his, or that hateful racist old bitch of a mother.

Where have all the real men gone?
She wondered.
What happened to all the heroes, the knights in shining armor? For once, just once, I’d like to see a man make a stand for something. Clearly Hank has less guts than Jake.

Althea wandered away from the lighted parking lot and walked down a narrow path leading away from the restaurant. It was dark, lushly forested and quiet, just the thing she yearned for. It was cool beneath the trees, which was a relief from the oppressive heat and humidity. She paused, listening. Althea heard the trickling of water somewhere off to her right. Probably a stream, she thought. A stream glistening in the moonlight would be lovely right now. She moved deeper into the woods in search of it.

The tree line gave way and Althea found herself standing in a clearing just behind the tree line, moonlight glistening off heavy drops of dew as if someone had tossed jewels onto the grass. The effect dazzled her.
I could stay here forever
, she thought.
It’s so beautiful, so safe. Like a fairytale world

A brief flutter of cloth caught her attention. Althea’s heart skipped a beat when a shadow detached from the forest and moved towards her.

Is it one of those things I saw this morning
? She wondered. Her pulse hammered up a notch as the vision of the horrible shadow-creature hovering over the river came to mind. She turned, ready to run, but she tripped in her high heels and fell on her bottom, jarring herself hard enough to knock out her breath.

The shadow morphed underneath the moonlight, solidified, the golden hair of her fiancé glistened, and his pale skin seemed to glow as he approached her. It’s Hank, she realized. She laughed as she saw him quicken his pace.

He arrived, as handsome as a prince in a fairytale. He offered her his hand, and she took it shyly, because her heart was hammering even harder now, but not from fright.

“Thank you,” she said as he pulled Althea to her feet. She laughed as she adjusted her dress. “New shoes,” she explained. “I’m not used to heels.”

Hank looked down at her feet and said, “I don’t see how you girls walk in those things.”

Althea laughed. “Sometimes, I don’t either.”

“What a zoo,” he said. He flipped two cigarettes out of a pack he retrieved from his coat pocket and lit them, handing one to her. “The folks, I mean. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. And you?”

“
Now Voyager
,” Althea said as she took a drag, stifled a cough, dropped the thing and snuffed it out with her heel.

“Now what?” Hank laughed.

“
Now Voyager
, with Bette Davis and Claude Rains. He handed her a cigarette just like you did. I thought you knew. Everyone who’s anyone is doing it.”

“Really? I just thought it was cool.” Hank took a thoughtful drag and said, “You didn’t answer my question.”

“About the parents? Yes, in spades,” Althea replied. “I don’t mean to offend but your folks are as bad as my mom. My, how loudly they put on airs. I think the whole restaurant overheard. It was embarrassing.”

“Very...Embarrassing, that is.”

“I think that was the whole point,” Althea added, after a pause. “Am I wrong?”

“Not even close.”

Silence descended on them. The girl in the party dress looking up at the young man with golden hair, French smoking, relaxed in his skin, like Bogart. Althea found herself liking him.

“People were laughing at them too,” Hank said. “That’s why I needed to get some air.”

“I just needed to get out. I didn’t see where you went.”

“Out through the kitchen. No reason, I guess other than you had already gone out the front. I didn’t see any point in scandalizing us any further.”

“You could have followed me.”

Hank smiled and shrugged.

The conversation lagged. Hank, tall and handsome in his suit and tie, looked down at Althea, who felt suddenly as if she had river mud on her face. She didn’t have time to bathe before she left this afternoon and was regretting it.

“I found something down by the creek if you’re interested in taking a look.” He snuffed out his smoke. Althea hesitated, and Hank said, “Hey, I’m not a wolf or anything. You’re safe with me.” He jerked his head toward the far side of the glade again. “If you don’t want to go with me I’ll understand. Reputation and all that jazz.”

“Hang my reputation,” Althea said feeling her ire rise once again. “What did you find out there?”

“You have to see it to believe it.” Taking her hand he led her toward the woods. “Come on.”

Intrigued, Althea let Hank lead her away from the restaurant and deeper into the forest beyond.

“Keep holding my hand, now, I don’t want you to get lost,” Hank was saying as they stepped onto a small animal trail. The ground sloped here, and the sound of running water was louder.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see; we’ll be there in just a minute.”

The forest was spared undergrowth. Pine needles and decaying oak leaves crunched beneath their feet as they proceeded deeper into the woods. Althea could hear her soft chiffon dress swishing around her ankles as she followed Hank. Just when she thought the woods wouldn’t get any darker, the trees gave way to a wide meadow, much larger than the first. A family of deer grazed on the opposite side of the field, aware of their presence but not frightened enough to bolt back into the darkness.

Althea realized then that she was holding her breath. She let it out slowly. She turned to Hank and looked up at him, his face shining in the full moon light.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

“Hang on, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said.

As if on cue, fireflies flickered in the darkness. Thousands of them flashed amongst the trees, illuminating them like miniature Christmas lights. Althea rested her hand on Hank’s arm. “Thank you for showing this to me,” she said. “I love it.”

Hank smiled down at her, and for a minute she thought he might kiss her. But he didn’t, and she felt suddenly and keenly disappointed.

“Don’t you want to kiss me Hank? I thought this is why you brought me here.”

Hank rubbed the back of his neck. He was blushing again, Althea knew. She could almost feel the heat.

“I brought you out here to show this to you. I didn’t want to seem too forward since we’ve just met.”

“But we’re going to get married.” She teased. “Don’t you want to know what it’s like to kiss your wife to be?”

Again he blushed.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you like me? Don’t you want to get married?”

“Well, about that... I think you’re beautiful. I mean that.” He looked out at the meadow beyond. The deer slipped back into the forest. He was quiet for several minutes and she wondered what was on his mind. She was about to ask when he spoke.

“Looking out there out in that meadow, it makes me think that life goes on regardless of whatever happens to you. The trees don’t care if we get married, and the fireflies don’t care whether I love you or not. The deer didn’t care if we shared their meadow. Nothing matters to the world. It just goes on with or without us.”

“Impermanence,” Althea said.

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Oh it’s something someone said to me once. That even though we’ll get married, it’s only temporary in the great scheme of things. After all, one of us will die and leave the other behind.”

“Or maybe we’ll die on the same day.”

“Even so, that ends the marriage, right? Till death do us part?”

“Do you really want to wait that long to get out of this?” Hank asked.

“I didn’t mean for it to sound that way.”

He faced her, then caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. “You are beautiful.” He sighed. “I just wanted it to be my own choice, you know what I mean?”

“I do,” Althea replied. “I really do.” The confession felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted. “So you don’t want to get married either?”

Hank stared at her. “This is all my folk’s doing. It’s been weighing on me really bad these past few weeks. I know what they’re up to, but I don’t know how to tell you or even if I do, whether or not you’ll believe me even if I did.”

“What is it?”

Hank slumped. “It’s an awful burden to bear. But I have to be honest with you. I can’t get married to you if we ain’t honest from the very start.”

“Hank? You ain’t dying are you?”

“No.”

Her heart slammed in her chest. “You ain’t one of those funny boys are you? The one’s that is queer for other men’s rears?”

Hank laughed aloud. “No, I swear that’s not it.”

“Then tell me. You said yourself there should never be any secrets between us, so just come out and say it.”

Hank kicked a small pebble disrupting some of the soil around it. “We ain’t rich,” he muttered.

Althea’s eyes widened. “You’re not?”

“No. All that money Mom and Dad claim to have...it’s not theirs. It belongs to my grandparents. Or did at one time. My grand pappy was rich, but that was a long time ago. It’s true he was an oil man and he did well during the Twenties. But the Depression hit and he ended up speculating and lost way too much money. He sank two dozen wells but the last ten came back filled with salt water and nothing else. The last two didn’t even produce that.”

“What about the rest?”

“They pump out a little every month or so. Just a few hundred dollars in residual money, that’s all.” He shrugged. “It’s just enough to buy groceries and pay a few bills every month, and even then I have to work part-time to help Dad make ends meet.”

“Oh.”

“My parents can’t even afford me, or so they say. I was going to join the priesthood, but Dad wouldn’t have it. Then I decided to sneak off and join the army but they found out and brought me back. I signed up and everything, but Dad called some congressman fishing buddy of his and they had me discharged before I went to boot camp.”

“Wow,” Althea said. “I didn’t know they could do that.”

“Yeah.”

The couple fell silent. A soft breeze kicked up, touching their hair, tugging on their clothes.

“He and Mom met your mother at the Olympian Ball. They think she’s loaded and thought that we’d be a good match. Once they got us hitched they figure they could milk your mother for all she’s worth. They figured you were rich enough to support me, my family and yours as well.”

Althea tossed her head back and laughed so loudly she disrupted an owl perched on a limb behind her.

“Well you’re mom and dad are in for a shock too because my mom is probably as broke if not more so than they are.”

“But your mom... She said she owns the plantation house where she grew up. And she owns a grocery store and a couple of natural gas wells.”

“My mother owns only one thing and that’s that colossal ego of hers. The Caddy we came in on belongs to our landlady. And the plantation house? Yes it’s true we live there but it’s divided into apartments and owned by the same lady who has the Caddy. And it’s Mrs. Bristow that has the natural gas wells. Oh and the grocery store, that’s partially true too. She and her sister lease it. They run the store all right but the actual building belongs to Mrs. Bristow. And it doesn’t make that much either. Just bayou people come there and the occasional hunter in the fall, but even then, most of the fishermen trade at
Esco
and not with us.”

“And it’s not a Safeway? She said she owned part of the Safeway franchise.”

“She lied. She runs a little rinky dink country store with one gas pump. And like I said before, only the locals go there.”

“So all of this is a lie,” Hank said. “Your mom and my folks. It’s all a lie.”

“I’m afraid so.”

Now it was Hank’s turn to laugh. “So Miss Ruby was going to sponge off of us huh?”

“Looks that way.”

“So I guess there won’t be a wedding now.”

“Are you kidding? If I tell my mother she wouldn’t believe a word of it. Not one single word. She’ll think I’d be lying to get out of the marriage. Nope, I’m afraid the wedding would go on as planned.”

“And if we had it annulled?”

“We’d be old and gray before the Pope got around to ruling on it,” Althea said. “Besides, I thought you wanted to be a priest.”

“I do. But you haven’t told me what you want. What dream do you want to see come true?”

“I want,” Althea’s voice trailed off. “I thought I wanted to marry my boyfriend Jake. In fact, I tried to talk him into running away with me but he said no. And then Mom told me this story about him messing around with Matilda Larou, and then she said something else that made me think. . .wonder about whether he’s really faithful.”

“Has he ever done anything to make you suspicious?”

“No, not exactly.”

“Is he what you want? I mean really?”

“I thought I did at first, but I can’t give you a good answer. The one thing I know for sure is that I want to get away from my mother and her scheming ways. I tell you Hank, she’s schemed before but not like this. I’ve never seen this side of her before. And to be honest, I hate it. This is the worst she’s ever been. And I’m quickly growing to hate her too.” She crossed her arms and looked up at the moon peeking down at them. “What I want more than anything in the world is to go away. I’d like to go to Paris, or Rome. It doesn’t matter, long as it’s someplace where I don’t stink of bayou water and where my mother can’t try to hitch me up with someone every time I turn around.”

“And then what?”