Athena's Daughter (9 page)

And there was the rub; a house. Though her
salary rose throughout the years, she’d stayed in that run-down,
crappy apartment because it was cheap, allowing her to put a
portion of her money into savings with the goal of putting a down
payment on a house. She’d managed to squirrel away almost nine
thousand dollars, but she needed more than that to pay down to
where a mortgage payment would be affordable. To be able to bring
home six thousand dollars in just four weeks would make the dream a
reality before Elizabeth began school again in the fall. And to
know that she’d still have her job…

Athena slammed on her brakes as a shiny green
Buick swerved into her lane with no warning. The horn of a VW
Beetle was never going to win any awards for frightening wayward
drivers, but the strangled goose sound that was emitted when Athena
slammed her hand on the steering wheel was even more laughable.
Like everything else on the car, it suffered from a lack of
maintenance since Athena didn’t want to cut into her savings on it.
She kept the oil changed and good tires on it, but the rest of the
car was barely hanging on by a hope and a prayer. If she took
Simon’s offer, she might even be able to afford something a little
nicer to drive, more dependable.

Damn Simon, that wiry little Mephistopheles
and his unholy offer! Athena pressed her lips together in
irritation. It wasn’t the money, or even the time away that was the
problem. Those things she could handle. Derek, however, was another
matter.

If she could just get to Andi’s, her sister
could knock some sense into her head and she could put this entire
mess behind her.

“Do it.”

Athena whirled to face her sister, a
Tupperware container of mac ‘n cheese forgotten in her hand. “What
did you say?” she gasped.

“Do it,” Andi repeated. She closed the
dishwasher and put her hands on her hips, fixing her sister with a
censorious frown that would have done their mother proud. “You said
it yourself; the money’s incredible, and you’d be able to buy a
house now instead of years down the road. Besides, you know Walt
and I will take care of Elizabeth while you’re gone. Take the
offer.”

“It’s not the money, and you know it,” Athena
retorted. Unable to meet Andi’s eyes, she turned and placed the
leftovers in the refrigerator. “It’s not even leaving Elizabeth for
that long.”

Behind her, Andi sighed. “I know. Grab a
couple of beers while you’re in there, and we’ll go talk in the
den. I’m about to start the dishwasher and it’s too loud to talk
over.”

As Athena bent to snag two cans of beer, she
heard the roar of the dishwasher fire up as Andi turned it on. She
needed the beer, but didn’t know if she wanted to talk any more.
After counting on Andi to back her up, it was disconcerting to hear
her urging Athena to go on the road with Wolf. With dragging feet
she followed her sister out of the kitchen and into the
wood-paneled den.

“I’ll go look in on the kids,” Andi told her
as she headed for the hall. “Be back in a sec.”

Athena put the second beer on a coaster next
to Andi’s favorite chair before dropping into her brother-in-law’s
recliner. When she’d arrived to find out Walt was away at an
insurance conference in Cincinnati, she’d been relieved to know she
could talk to Andi without having to worry about Walt’s reaction.
She loved him, but he was so strait laced and rigid that she
wouldn’t have been able to open up to Andi the way she needed if he
was present. Then when she saw how much fun Elizabeth was having
with Andi’s five-year-old twins, she’d agreed to her sister’s
suggestion of a sleepover. But now she regretted it, and wished
she’d taken Elizabeth home. She looked up when Andi came back into
the den giggling.

“Did you know Carrie and Elizabeth sleep in
exactly the same position?” Andi sat down and cracked open her
beer. “Both of them flat on their backs with their arms over their
heads. And Calvin sleeps curled up in a ball just like Walt.” She
picked up the remote and aimed it at the television next to the
fireplace, cutting off Dave Brown forecasting a thirty percent
chance of rain the next three days with the click of a button.

Athena took a swallow from her can. “Yeah, I
don’t know how Elizabeth’s arms don’t go numb from sleeping like
that.”

“You need to go, Athena,” Andi said gently.
“For Elizabeth’s sake more than anyone else’s.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Andi looked nonplussed. “Well, you are going
to tell Derek, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know,” Athena hedged. “It’s been so
long, and…”

“That has nothing to do with it. She’ll be
seven the end of May, and it’s only right he knows. You have to
tell him.”

Athena’s brows drew together in a frown. “If
I remember correctly, you’re the one who told me not to tell
him.”

“That was seven years ago,” Andi countered.
“Like you, I believed that horrible girl who said she was going to
marry Derek, and I thought he was just some nineteen-year-old
Casanova who was using you.” She bit her bottom lip, and pushed
back a sandy curl that escaped her ponytail. “And even if that was
true, I was wrong to tell you to keep it from him. You know that,
right?”

“Yes,” Athena groaned. She put down her beer
and covered her face with her hands. “It was wrong, and I was
wrong. But I don’t know how in the world I’m going to break it to
him, Andi.”

“That’s why you need to take their offer and
go with them. I know you said he was mad today, but if you’re with
him that long it’ll give you both a chance to get past all that and
be friends again.”

“Oh, yeah, he’s going to want to be bosom
buddies when I tell him he has an almost seven-year-old
daughter.”

“Well, no matter how he reacts, he deserves
to know, Theenie. So does Elizabeth.”

“Don’t call me Theenie,” Athena muttered.
With a sigh, she lowered her hands and sat back in the chair, using
her toes to create a gentle rocking motion. “You’re right. I have
to tell him, and this would be the best way to go about it. I’m
just a little freaked out.” She shook her head. “She looks so much
like him. I mean, I always knew she did, but being face to face
with him today, and then seeing her right after just threw me. It’s
like looking at you and Donnie, or Carrie and Calvin. They’re
almost mirror images.” She snatched up her beer and drank, seeking
the mellowing effects of alcohol on her frayed nerves.

“So you’ll go?”

Athena looked around the room with its
comfortable furnishings and feeling of cozy security. Though she
could never afford a place in Germantown, if she took Simon’s offer
she could at least get a nice house that she and Elizabeth could
call home. And more important, depending on how Derek took the
news, she might even be able to give Elizabeth what she wanted most
– a father.

“Yeah,” she capitulated. “I’ll go.”

England, Summer of 1967

Tagging along with a fledgling rock band as
they played any place that had at least two people in the audience
had not been on Athena’s agenda, but she wouldn’t trade it for all
the tourist traps in the UK.

It was uncomfortable, exhausting, and often
filthy, but she didn’t care. She was with Derek, and that was all
that mattered. She was crazy in love with him and would do anything
to be with him, especially after he told her he loved her, too.

She existed in a state of perpetual bliss
that rendered the hardships of the road negligible, and also served
to deflect some of the disapproval she sensed from Simon, the
band’s almost too intense manager, and to a lesser extent, from the
band’s bass player, Robin.

It seemed Robin was a little afraid of Derek,
for reasons Athena couldn’t fathom, and that kept him from saying
anything about her presence on the road. Instead, he treated her
like she was a gum wrapper stuck to the bottom of his shoe,
irritated but unable to shake her loose. Simon, however, was more
vocal.

When Derek informed his manager that Athena
would be accompanying them, Simon flatly refused to allow it.

“The last thing we need is our guitar player
distracted at every turn,” he declared. “She can stay here in
London, and that’s all there is to it.”

“Fine,” Derek responded with an indulgent
smile. “You do understand, of course, that I’ll also be staying in
London. Enjoy your shows.”

After a period of railing and cursing, Simon
gave in, stating that it was too late to attempt to replace Derek
in the band. Athena thought the truth was that Derek was just too
damn good to let go, and if it took bringing her along to keep him
in Wolf, then Simon would put up with it.

As it turned out, Athena was more a help than
a hindrance. Simon discovered that they had more luck scoring
accommodations if Athena was sent in to secure the rooms than if a
group of weary, long-haired musicians and their hyperactive manager
descended en masse. His admiration and approval of her was cemented
the night she not only discovered the band was being cheated out of
their part of the take at the door, but called out the perpetrator
and berated him in front of everyone in attendance until he turned
over the money. After that, Simon accepted her fully.

She might have been adept at tricking people
into letting a rock band stay in their accommodations, but she
didn’t get a lot of opportunities to use those talents. Most of the
time everyone slept in the van among the guitar and drum cases and
amps, bedding down wherever they could find space. For one thing,
they didn’t have the money to spend on rooms with beds. Another
problem was the lack of rooms with beds in the majority of places
they played.

The resultant lack of privacy turned Athena
and Derek into masters of the art of the quickie. Both of them were
constantly on the lookout for any nook or cranny that might afford
a few minutes of privacy, whether it was a bathroom, a secluded
doorway in an alley, or, on one memorable occasion, behind a flimsy
partition at an outdoor music festival.

Not that they were all quickies. Athena lived
for the times they had to sleep in the van on the outskirts of some
town, because that’s when she and Derek would grab their blankets
and sneak away to whatever field or pasture that was near. Away
from the others, they would spend the whole night making love, slow
and long and beautiful, and then watch the sun come up cradled in
each others’ arms. Of course, sometimes they ended up making love
in the rain and trudging back to the van soaked to the skin, but
neither of them minded.

Such a nomadic, hectic life wasn’t easy, and
sometimes they snapped under the pressure with quick, hot arguments
that ended with Derek stomping off in one direction and Athena in
the other. These fights never lasted long, though, and they always
found their way back to each other.

As summer drew to a close, they headed back
to London, the band still looking for its big break. Athena was
just looking for a soft bed, clean clothes, and regular meals in
addition to spending some quiet time with Derek.

But first she had to break the news to her
parents that she wouldn’t be returning home.

Lungs burning for air, Athena forced her legs
to run up the stairs and down the hall to Derek’s flat. She burst
through the door and ran straight to the bedroom, ignoring the
startled look Derek gave her as she dashed by. Ordinarily she would
have stopped to admire her shirtless boyfriend as he sat playing
his guitar, especially since he was playing “God Only Knows,” the
tune they considered their song; but since she’d just received the
worst news of her life, she didn’t have time to admire the view or
the sentiments in the song.

Dropping to her knees beside the bed, she
reached under and dragged out the small leather bag in which she
kept her important papers. She hadn’t looked in it all summer, even
though she’d been careful to keep it with her on the road. No one
knew when or if she might be asked to present her visa or birth
certificate, and she’d wanted to be prepared.

She clawed the bag open and dumped its
contents on the bed.

“Athena, is something wrong?” Derek knelt
beside her with a concerned frown.

“My visa,” she muttered as she shuffled
through the papers that seemed determined to stick together. “Where
the hell is it?” She pounced on one document, and pulled it from
where it was folded between the pages of her passport. When she
tried to read it, her hands shook so much that the printed words
were indecipherable.

Derek plucked the visa from her and spread it
on the bed. “Okay, angel. What’s wrong with your visa?”

Her eyes scanned the paper, her heart
pounding from the combination of her panicked rush from the phone
box and the desperate hope that her mother was wrong. But no, there
it was in stark black and white. She pressed her hands to the sides
of the visa and looked again.

“It’s going to expire,” she whispered with
disbelief. “Son of a bitch, it’s going to expire.”

“What?” Derek leaned close to see.
“When?”

“Day after tomorrow.” Tears of anger filled
her eyes when she realized how stupid she’d been. She knew the visa
was set to expire in September, but she’d lost track of the days
while on the road with the band. To her, it seemed like yesterday
when they’d set out on what they jokingly referred to as The Hole
in the Wall Tour. But now it was September, and in two days she’d
be in the country illegally and it was all her fault for not
remembering.

Derek snatched the paper from under her hands
and held it in front of his face, as though seeing it closer would
change the outcome. “What does it mean, then?”

Athena heard the note of suppressed panic in
his voice; he knew exactly what it meant. “It means I have to go
home.”