Amber Eyes (28 page)

Magnolia Hall gates were locked with its chain and padlock, and I couldn’t be sure whether the gatekeeper was at home—he might well have gone to Abbeville to celebrate the 4th of July like everybody else had.

The gates looked somehow tilted. No, they were seriously tilted. I wondered whether a good karate kick would bring them down. Maybe not even a karate kick was needed but simply to shake them violently with both hands. If the keeper was not at home, I would give it a try.

“Mr. Gatekeeper!” I held to the bars with both hands and shook the gates. “Mr. Gatekeeper, sir, are you in?” The gates squeaked louder than a New York subway train.

The troll’s shack remained dark. No lights turned on. “Mr. Gatekeeper, sir! Please, I need to get in.”

I shook the gates once more. This time, they not only squeaked and clattered, but also moved, tilting a li’l bit more. I released them and backed off two steps just in case. A light in the troll’s shack turned on. After some moments, he stepped out and aimed a flashlight at me.

“Damned kid!” he cried in his hoarse voice. “What the hell ya think ya’re doin’? Wanna wake up the entire neighborhood?”

“Sir,” I called, “it’s not what you think. I’m with the Boy Scouts. It’s an emergency. Can you let me in?”

I bet it was impossible for him to tell who was at the gates even with the flashlight, unless he came closer.

“Yar damned leader told me ya guys were all comin’ back together afte’ the fireworks.” He then waved his hand. “Go away! Come back with the rest of yar group o’ don’t come back at all. I’m openin’ the gate’ only once tonight.” He went back inside the shack and slammed the door.

If he didn’t open the gates, I was doomed. I couldn’t wait until the rest of the Boy Scouts returned from the celebration. Yago would come back immediately after them, and he’d learn I planned to hide in the mansion. My chest tightened. “Sir!” I shook the gates. “Listen to me. I need to get in. Please, sir.”

The gates clattered as if bells hung from their bars. The troll came out again. “God almighty, ya scream like a girl, boy. Shut up. Shame on yarself screamin’ like that. Go away and leave the gate’ alone.”

“It’s because I’m a girl,” I yelled. “I need your help.”

“A girl? T’is irregular…” Once again, he aimed the beam on me, but this time he actually looked me over. He went back inside and came out holding his cane. He limped all the way toward the gate and cackled, “What the ‘ell are ya doin’ here? It’s too late fo’ a girl to be alone.”

He stopped short some three of four steps before the gates and aimed the flashlight’s beam at me again, directly at my face—he was wearing his eyeglasses. The beam hurt my eyes, but I didn’t even blink. I held his gaze for what seemed an eternity. Then he shivered and almost choked, “Missu’ Laura!”

I froze. That was not the reaction I’d been looking for, but it didn’t matter. It was altogether handy. He wouldn’t be the first person mistaking me in the last few days. Besides, I myself had thought that the picture of Laura at Grandma’s house was mine, because we looked so much alike. No wonder this poor old man had gotten my identity wrong too.

I nodded and bit my lip.

“Missu’ Laura! Ya should ‘ave told me ya would come back before the Boy Scout’. I’m so sorry. I didn’t recognize ya at first. These damned eyeglasses. Need new ones’. Since I lost my right eye, I can barely see a thing at all at night’.”

The troll was still holding my gaze.

“It’s okay.” I begged, “Can I come in?”

He slapped his forehead. “How stupid of me. Of course, ya can. But… wait, wait. I need the key’. Gimmie a minute.”

The troll broke the eye contact and ran back to his shack. Well, the nearest thing to running because he rather hopped like a bird. He came back with a key ring with one single key with which he opened the padlock. “Be very welcome, Missu’, welcome back.”

He bowed as I walked past the gates and then closed them without locking the padlock. I breathed in the night’s fresh air, scented by the trees, and looked around me. Everything looked
sooo
familiar now. I only spent four years of my life living in Magnolia Hall, but it seemed as if it’d been centuries. I couldn’t get lost in the forest. Not ever. I remembered every path and trail, every tree, every fountain, every pond—my grandmother and I used to amble the park after lunch. Suddenly, I felt somehow tired. But the tiredness was fulfilling rather than exhausting. I was at home. The place was
mine,
I owned it. I smiled.

“Wanna ya go ta the house, or ta the Boy Scout’ camp, Missu’?”

“To the house.” Then I thought I shouldn’t have told him. The fewer people who knew my plans, the better. Even better if nobody knew them at all.

The troll shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “I apologize, Missu’. The lights… t’is long ago since the last time they worked. The main avenue… t’is completely dark.”

“It’s okay, I know my way.”

He opened his eyes wide. “Ya’re not plannin’ ta walk the avenue alone, Missu’ Laura, are ya? You can’t walk alone in the middle of the night. I’ll go with ya. I’ll show ya the way.” The troll pointed with a crooked finger to the flashlight he held. “I’m smart. I’ve got t’is flashlight. Follow me if ya please, Missu’.” He thrust his chest out and raised his chin.

He led the way down yet another half muddy, a half cobblestone-paved trail flanked by tall trees and blind street lamps, remnants of a glorious, dead past. I remembered how this avenue shone like Times Square when all those street lamps were on. I sighed. An infinite sadness filled my heart.

After some minutes of silent walking, the troll said, almost in a whisper, “I’m sorry, Missu’, that ya found everythin’ so different. Those people, the union folk’, they camped before the gate’ for several day’. The master and the missu’ fled for their lives in a chopper. I did my best ta stop the mob, but t’was impossible. They knocked down the gate’. When t’was all over, I repaired the gate’ but couldn’t do it properly.”

His voice cracked. Abruptly, he was no longer a troll. He was a poor hunchback, an old man who had tried to do his best. I felt angry because I couldn’t remember his name. How could I be so mean to forget such a loyal servant’s name?

“That night, Missu’,” he kept on, whispering, “I brought my shotgun and fired twice in the air, but nothin’ could have stopped ‘em. Even the police ‘ad a ‘ard time. Over 300 people arrested. I cleaned the ‘ouse and the fountain’, but everything t’was lost, completely lost…” He glanced at me, wiping his cheeks with a hand. “I managed to repair only one fountain. T’is the one closer to the ‘ouse, in the big roundabout. The one with the angels—”

“I saw it. You did a terrific job,” I said. His lips curved slightly upward, and there was a gleam in his one good eye.

In that moment, the bluish and reddish glow of the fireworks brightened the sky. We stopped and turned our faces upwards as more and more fireworks exploded. The gatekeeper checked his watch. “4th of July again,” he sighed. “So many good partie’, so many good memorie’ when Master Aaron and missu’ Amanda used to live ‘ere… Those were grande’ days.”

I bet they were. I stared at one of the dead street lamps above us and it started to blink many times until it finally turned on. When I stared at a second one, it turned on as well. A third and a fourth one followed. Each lamp I stared at turned on. Were my eyes doing their trick again? Some moments afterwards, the whole avenue was lit, like back in those grander days.

The gatekeeper squinted as he contemplated the street lamps turning on one by one. He locked his hands behind him and tilted his head to the right and to the left. First, he pouted, but afterwards, a lazy smile drew itself on his face. After the last street lamp had turned on, he turned off his flashlight. He looked like the accomplice of someone who’d just robbed a bank. “It seem’ the flashlight t’is not necessary anymore. Follow me, Missu’ Laura. We’re almost there.”

A few minutes later, we crossed the grounds around the house with the grass up to our thighs. The fireworks still cracked in the air. The gatekeeper stopped short away from the towering main doors—one of them still missing—and pointed at the house.

“There ya’re, Missu’,” he said, shaking his head. “I… I can’t go any furthe’. T’is been many year’ since the last time I went inside. Unless ya want me ta—”

“It’s not necessary. Thanks a lot.” I moved closer to him and kissed his cheek. “You’re super nice. I appreciate it.”

He blushed. “T’was nothing, Missu’.”

Inside of the house, darkness reigned. No lights turned on, either by magic or by ghosts, or by negative energy. The smell was still the same: a blend of dust, moisture, and years of oblivion. The chandelier still lay half buried at the center of the main hall, and the window at the top of the marble stairway remained broken.

I tiptoed down the grand hall, glancing right and left at my own reflections on the many mirrors. They were cracked, so each of them reflected me several times. It seemed like many people were walking in the same direction. At some point, I could have sworn I saw Laura in one of those mirrors, and my grandmother, and even my dad. I stopped at the foot of the stairway and looked up. This time, I was sure I was alone: no ghosts or negative energy from the past, no actual or make believe people calling me on the phone, and no Boy Scouts waiting under the porch either to kiss me or spy on me. I was on my own.

I sighed. Laura had killed him. She’d killed my dad. It’d been an accident, but also a homicide. Worst of all, she didn’t face it but fled. She pretended she was willing to face it only to push that poor cop. He lied in his report and turn into her accomplice. Even if the truth were discovered later, that cop would make sure it never surfaced. He’d been one of Laura’s boyfriends. Laura had started to date guys when she was still married until it turned into a vice.

I stomped my foot on the floor. My entire family story sucked! Dad had been an alcoholic. It sucked. Laura had cheated on dad. It sucked. The two of them had argued and it’d ended up in a stupid murder. It sucked. Laura’s last boyfriend—Yago—the worst of them in a long list of bastards was after me because he couldn’t rape me a week ago and still wanted to. It not only sucked, but it was pathetic and nauseating all at once.

Note to self:
Get a new family, pronto.

This story was gonna end up right now. No more fear, no more running, and no more hiding.

I started to climb the stairway. When I was halfway up, somebody entered the mansion. A swift shadow strode down the grand hall. I stopped short and held my breath. Was it the gatekeeper? Had he finally decided to come inside? The shadow reached the foot of the stairway and stopped. Whoever it was rested an elbow on the railing and turned their face up at me. The pale moonlight pouring in through the broken window illuminated him. It was Edward. His face shone and his lips were slightly parted.

“Justin,” he called in a hushed voice, extending a hand, “what are you doing here? Come down.”

I gulped, frozen, wondering why on Earth he’d followed me. Another voice called from the top of the stairway, although at first I couldn’t make what the voice had said. I looked up. Somebody stood in front of the broken window. It was difficult to tell who it was because the moonlight shone behind that person. I squinted and he moved a bit: it was Aaron, the teenage kid I’d met some days ago.

“Laura,” he said extending a hand. “What are you doing here? Come up.”

I looked up and down alternately several times but couldn’t decide which direction I should go.

# # #

I decided to climb down, taking Edward’s hand. I stood one step above him so I could stare right into his eyes. He’d been frowning, but when our gazes locked, his features softened.

“Why didn’t you tell me you’re a girl?” he asked. He wasn’t angry but curious. “You didn’t have to pretend you were a boy. I would have helped you anyway.”

He would have. I knew he would have. I had panicked like a fool, but there had been a reason, or at least I thought there had been a reason. “I was afraid.”

“But, your grandmother…?”

Time for the truth. It made no sense to hide anything anymore. Part of the problem last night had been I hadn’t been open enough with the only person who had cared about me in Abbeville. I shook my head. “My grandma’s not in town. I discovered she was traveling after you left me at her door. I freaked out ‘cause I didn’t know what to do and had nowhere to go. So, I joined your group.”

Edward passed a hand through his hair. “Jeez, you really gave me a bad time! I thought I’d kissed another guy. I was regretting it like hell. You’re so pretty and have awesome eyes that I couldn’t resist.”

I almost burst into laughter. With hindsight, it all seemed so funny. All the hate and the anger I felt towards him suddenly vanished in the light of the truth. It hadn’t been his fault but mine.

“Do you still regret it?” I asked.

Edward smiled. His perfect teeth glowed in the moonlight. He reached out and caressed my cheek. “Not anymore.”

Edward moved his hand to the back of my neck and tenderly pulled me toward him until our lips found each other’s, and he kissed me. Free and unburdened, I put my arms over his shoulders, and my muscles relaxed. Edward grabbed me around the waist and held me. My muscles had relaxed so much that my legs no longer supported me—Edward’s embrace was. But he hadn’t stopped kissing me, nor I him. Not for one second. Our lips and mouths connected us like a bridge over troubled waters.

Edward’s lips tasted like spicy Mexican food your mom has warned you not to eat too much. Feeling them rubbing mine, and the contact of his tongue, bristle my hair and accelerated my breathing. My heart swelled so much it no longer fit inside my chest. Edward’s arms closed around me, holding me rock-hard. For one moment, I wanted nothing but to remain within his arms and kiss him, feeling his strong hands caressing me. His hand found my Lycra shirt’s lower rim and I felt his sweaty hand on my tummy. It crawled upwards, caressing my skin. Goosebumps spread all over my torso and a warm sensation spread inside me. When he found my boobs, Edward’s hand squeezed them and all my body shivered.