Intaglio: Dragons All The Way Down (5 page)

“So how’d the
meeting with you and Cole go?” she asked.  With her words, a curtain fell
across Frank's face, cold control replacing his laughter.

“Mmph…”

“Not good?” she
prompted. 

He grumbled
again, lifting his hand from the truck, and taking a step back.
 Pulling
away.

“You know,” Ava
rushed to explain, “the first session’s the hardest.”  Frank’s eyes widened in
surprise.  “At least that’s how I remember it.”

He cleared his
throat, standing silently.  He glanced back to the building, then back to her.

“I’m glad you’re
here to pick him up today,” Frank answered, the lines on his face deepening. 
“I don’t know if this will work, Ava.  Cole’s just not...”  He shook his head. 
“It’s like he’s not interested.”

“It’ll take
time,” Ava said quietly.  “Cole’s here.  That’s huge.  Try to keep that in
mind.”  Her voice dropped.  “And of course it’s hard to begin with.  I’m sure
you and Nina found the same thing.”

He pulled his
glasses off and cleaned them on his shirt.

“Maybe,” he said
tiredly, putting the glasses back on.  He reached out, rapping his knuckles
once on the side of her truck.  “Alright then, Ava, I’m gonna head home. 
Thanks for coming by for Cole.”  He stepped up to the curb, then turned back. 
“Nina’s right, you know.”

Ava tipped her
head, confused.

“About what?”

“You’re good for
Cole.”

Heat rose up her
neck to her cheeks.

“Um… thank you,
sir.”

Frank laughed at
the formality.

“Why do I think
when you say ‘sir’,” he said, raising a bushy eyebrow, “you actually mean
something totally different.”

Ava winked.

“Because you’re
a wise man.”

: : : : : : : :
: :

Ava was fiddling
with the radio, smiling in bemusement,  when Cole came out of the office.  He
climbed in the truck, ashen-faced and unspeaking.

“Hey,” she
said.  “How’d it go today?”

He made a
choking sound, letting his face fall into his hands, body curling down.  Ava
slid past the gear shift, fitting herself next to him on the bench seat.  She
put her hand against his back, rubbing lightly.

“That good,
huh?”

Cole laughed
bitterly.  Ava wrapped her arms around him, her chin settling on his shoulder. 
Beyond the pitted windows of her truck, the afternoon sun slanted across the
buildings, lighting them with the golden tones and deep shadows of an Edward
Hopper painting.  She waited, but he sat motionless, face in hands. 

“I hated going
at first,” Ava said quietly.  “I didn’t have a choice about going... wasn’t
making an effort, like you are...” 

She closed her
eyes, remembering this other version of herself, her rage coming out against
everyone and anything.  It was strange remembering herself this way.  It
reminded her just how lucky she was to have had her father with her. 

“I had to go to
counselling as part of my probation,” she admitted, her hand circling gently
against his shoulders and arms, her face next to his ear.  “It certainly wasn’t
something that I wanted to do, and I fought it tooth and nail.  You think you
were a rotten teen?  I made my dad’s life a living hell.”

For some reason,
it was the last statement that broke the melancholy mood.  Cole choked back a
laugh, glancing at her.

“I don’t believe
you.”

Ava punched his
thigh twice, indignant.

“You’re damn
right, I did.  Total fucking badass.”

“Uh-huh?” Cole
said, chuckling again. This time she grinned, leaning back in, brushing her
cheek against his shoulder.

“Cole Thomas,
I’ve got street cred you can’t even dream of having.”  He snorted, and Ava
continued.  “The first session was really hard,” she said, tightening her arms
around him.  “Really fucking awful.”

She felt Cole
shifting so that he could move his arms around her too.  She smiled against him
as he pulled her into a hug.  The two of them were side-by-side, the light on
the buildings becoming burnished, blue shadows lengthening.  Cole’s hands ,
clung to her like he was in too-deep water and she was a raft.

“Must’ve been
hard,” he said. His face was hidden from view against her ear. His voice was
thick and close to tears.

“Yeah, it was,”
she admitted, her fingers running down his back, feeling the tension ebb away. 
“But it had to be, because if you don’t get the hard stuff out, then you can’t
move past it.  That’s the whole point.”

He nuzzled her
hair, lips brushing her neck.

“Was it worth
it?” he asked. 

There was more
than that to the question... layers of self-doubt and fear, and she knew it. 
Ava pulled back after he said it, her hand running down the side of his face,
comforting him.

“You, Cole, are
absolutely
worth it,” she said, answering the question he hadn’t asked.

He nodded,
leaned in to kiss her with sudden passion.  When they finally broke apart, she
could see that some of the worry was gone, the despair faded to resignation.

“Thank you,” he
said, “for coming to get me.”

She giggled.

“You’re not the
only one who can break someone out of jail, you know.”

: : : : : : : :
: :

The storm blew
in that night, leaving the lights flickering angrily for ten minutes before
finally going out, plunging the house into darkness.  Cole suggested he and Ava
drive back to the city, but Nina refused.  She was full of reckless
excitement.  Marta Langden had been her suggestion and Nina seemed determined
to use the first meeting to force Cole and Frank together.

“Family was the
whole point of you two coming out,” she argued.  “Power outage or not, I want
my family time, and I’m getting it.”

Nina was adamant
and no one was willing to argue.  Cole and Ava were staying the night, no
questions asked.

Under her
instruction, the group gathered in the den next to the stone fireplace,
surrounded by the warm glow of candles set around the room.  There was stilted
silence between Frank and Cole, so Nina told stories about her childhood and
her many years as a journalist.  She was happy and lighthearted; the atmosphere
was easy as heavy drops of rain snapped against the windowpanes.  Her words
eventually slowed and then stopped, the roaring rain filling the room with dull
static.

The lightning
was blinding when it hit, and for an hour, flashes came in quick succession,
leaving bright after-shapes that slowly faded from view.  Torrents of rain fell
in heavy sheets, leaving the room reverberating with a buzzing sound that
crackled in its sheer intensity.  The four of them were together, secluded by
the noise.  Wrapped in the vibration of it.

Nina and Frank
sat on one couch.  She was tucked under his shoulder, watching receding flashes
of lightning on the water while he stroked her arm.  Frank’s gaze was soft and
hazy, his attention lost in the distant storm, a pensive look painting his
brow. 

Cole and Ava sat
across from them, nestled together on the second couch.  Ava lay
partially-reclined across Cole’s lap, his fingers combing her hair.  During the
heaviest part of the squall, she asked him about living here as a child...
about what it was like to see these storms. 

His words were
muffled from Frank and Nina.  He recounted the memories in a hushed tone,
starting with his childhood fears of lightning and the angry ocean storms...
later switching to happier tales of learning to sail with his grandparents, and
then finally... inevitably.... to Hanna.  By this time, the sound of the rain
had faded, hiding but no longer obscuring his words.  Ava lay in his arms, the
two of them focused solely on each other.  For the first time in many years
inside this room, Cole’s laughter was genuine and happy.  He told her one story
after the other, reliving the details of his sister’s life and their years together,
ending finally with cliff-diving that long-ago summer.

“God, Ava, you
just should’ve seen her.  No fear, though she should’ve known better!”  Cole
chuckled, but there was truth in his words. “If Dad had known, he would’ve
killed us, but Hanna was determined to do it... wanted to say that she had.” 
Cole laughed.  “I think it actually had more to do with her showing off for all
her friends than anything else, but damn if Hanna wasn’t single-minded about
the idea.” 

Cole was
grinning ruefully.  Their eyes were on one another, everyone else forgotten.

“I was down at
the bottom of the cliff,” he continued, “floating in the water, waiting for her
to jump.  There are rocks there – like I said, Dad had warned us... threatened
us really...”  Cole shook his head, “...but we were there anyhow.  Two stupid
kids pulling the dumbest stunt we could’ve pulled.  I remember Hanna jumping
off the cliff and me just waiting there terrified.  So scared shitless you
can’t imagine.  But she asked me not to tell him, and so I didn’t.  I thought
she could…”  His voice broke.  “Thought she could do anything.”

Ava put a hand
against his cheek, smiling sadly.

“She sounds like
a pretty amazing sister.”

Cole nodded.
There was a slight lull, the rain fading until it was only a steady hum in the
air.

“She really
was,” he said mournfully.  “You can’t imagine what Hanna was like.  Everyone
loved her, and she just did everything full tilt.  Present in the moment.” 
Cole paused, his expression soft.  “I’ve never known anyone so… so...
alive
like that…”

From on the
other couch, Frank Thomas cleared his throat, the sound pulling everyone’s eyes
to him.

“I have,” he
said quietly.  “I see that same quality in you, Cole.”

Ava wore a
form-fitting dress from a consignment shop and a new pair of high heels.  She’d
done her eyes with winged liner and her hair in a retro Marcel wave.  The
ensemble left her feeling adult and sophisticated.  Even her father did a
double take as she walked out of her bedroom.  He was coming to the show
tonight, though Frank and Nina wouldn’t be attending until later in the
semester, as Frank had come down with the flu.

Chim and Suzanne
were at the university gallery when Ava and her father arrived.  Oliver walked
up to Marcus, and Ava did a slow circle, wondering where Cole might be.  As she
finished the turn, she got her answer.   He was watching her from the side of
the room.  Ava smirked as she took in his apparel: he was dressed in faded blue
jeans, a wrinkled black t-shirt, and a motorcycle jacket.  He walked across the
room, eyes never leaving hers.

“Really dressed
up tonight, Cole,” she said, raising an eyebrow as he reached her side. 
“Classy...”

He laughed,
taking her arm and pulling her closer. 

“There’s no
point, baby,” he answered.  “I don’t clean up half as nice as you do and
besides,” he said, dropping his eyes down her body in that way that made her
heart pound, “I kind of like the idea that you’re slumming it by being here
with me.”

She giggled and
he draped his arm over her shoulder.

“You look
amazing,” he whispered as they wove their way through the crowd.  “Almost makes
me wonder if you’d look better in or out of that dress.  You think I might find
out later?”

Ava led them
over to Chim and Suzanne and her father.

“Only one way to
find out,” she said lightly.  “You’ve got to test your theory.”

The gallery was
a series of rooms, each one packed with people.  With parents and students
along with the invited guests from the art community, it was hard to move. 
Chim’s large piece, featuring a repeating portrait of Nelson Mandela overlaid
with carefully rendered commercial images – a dust-buster, an ab-roller and a
Big Mac, to name just a few – dominated the wall near the front entrance.  Ava
grinned as they approached; there was a growing group gathered around the
image.  Two unfamiliar suited men were there.  One was scribbling notes into a
small coil-bound book, the other muttering into his cell phone.  They were
clearly not parents or students or teachers.

‘Art dealers looking
for the talent,’
her mind announced. 
‘Marcus Baldwin is definitely going somewhere as an
artist.’

Ava put her arm
around Cole's waist.  Her father was talking to Suzanne about her own artwork,
which involved creating containers to house random household objects.  There
was a velvet-lined, form-fitted box enclosing a hair dryer; sitting next to it,
a silk-covered sphere for holding a bar of soap.  The mundane contained within
the extravagant.  Oliver found it fascinating.

Ava leaned into
Cole, her lips brushing the curve of his ear.

“I want to see
your sculpture of me,” she said, smiling.  “I never did see it finished.”

Cole nodded,
leading her to the back of the gallery.