Juno's Daughters (23 page)

“Lilly would ignore you, most likely, just like she's ignoring me, but she's hiking on Mount Constitution, anyway. It's Frankie. I'm not sure she's up for company.”

“I understand if she wants to be alone with her mom.”

“I'd need to ask her.”

“Of course.”

There was a pause, and neither one of them set down the phone immediately. They sat quietly, listening to each other breathe.

Trinculo said, “What if Ariel came, too?”

Jenny glanced out the window. The wind had died and a subtle rose color had begun to seep into the sky. “He's not with Ferdinand tonight?”

“Apparently Ferdinand has begun to pray for guidance about their relationship.”

“That doesn't sound like a good sign.”

“It's not,” said Trinculo. “I'm beginning to think that our Ariel has a weakness for fundamentally unavailable men.”

Jenny knew what that was like. She shifted the phone to her other ear and stood up from the stool. “Well, if Ariel were to come, I think that would make the whole enterprise more likely.”

“Okay, then.”

Jenny listened to him calling out in the background. She could not hear the other man's answer.

“It's a go,” said Trinculo, returning to the phone. “I mean, if Frankie says yes.”

“Give me a second.”

Frankie still lay on her stomach on her bed, staring straight ahead at the wall. She looked up when Jenny entered the room.

Jenny sat down on the edge of the bed. “What would you think if Trinculo came over with dinner for us tonight?”

She wasn't sure why she didn't say right away that Ariel was coming, too. Perhaps she wanted to see Frankie's reaction to Trinculo first.

“No, Mom. Please? After everything that's gone on with him and you and Lilly, I'd really just rather not see anyone tonight, okay?”

“Ariel would be coming with him.”

Jenny watched Frankie's expression change. She did not feel any satisfaction at witnessing the conflict of emotions that she saw on her daughter's face but was not surprised either when she said, “Well, okay. If you want them to come. But, Mom . . .”

“What is it, sweet pea?”

“Don't have him stay, okay? When Ariel goes home, have Trinculo go home, too.”

Jenny flushed and tried to squash the burst of annoyance she felt. “Geez, Frankie. They're just coming for dinner. Give me a break, okay?” She stood up from the bedside and left the room without waiting for Frankie's response.

Trinculo and Ariel arrived about an hour later with a chicken, a bottle of wine, and a bag of kettle corn. Ariel held this last thing, purchased from the ice cream shop downtown and known by all to be Frankie's favorite, out to her with a feigned expression of distaste.

She lunged for it. “Mom, can I eat some now?”

“Sure. But don't finish it.”

“Heaven forbid,” said Ariel, going for the corkscrew in the drawer.

Ariel had been a frequent visitor since his arrival with the leotard, and by now he had developed a routine. A glass of wine in hand, he would then head straight to the most comfortable wicker chair on the porch and sit in the sun until dinner. Frankie, of course, would follow him out.

Jenny noticed how her daughter brightened at the sight of Ariel, how her cheeks flushed and her eyes glittered and even her chest seemed to fill with air, tilting her shoulders back. After the news about Phoenix, the contrast between before and after Ariel's arrival was even more pronounced. Moments ago she had appeared to be fighting against gravity; suddenly she was two inches taller and rocking on the balls of her feet. Practical or not, requited or not, thirteen or not, Jenny had to admit that what Frankie was experiencing looked an awful lot like love.

As for Trinculo, it was some trick of memory that her mind, in his absence, could never retain how handsome he truly was. Even if it had been a half hour since she'd seen him last, she was always taken by surprise by his blue eyes and jaw and smile and the artfully tousled hair. Good grief, she said to herself now, even as her heart beat faster at the sight of him, an
actor
. What could she possibly be thinking?

“Here's the bird.” He lifted the bagged chicken. “Caught it myself.”

Jenny took it from his hands and carried it into the kitchen. “I didn't take you for a hunter.”

He followed. “Well, it couldn't run all that fast. Those plastic things holding the ankles together slow them down quite a bit.”

“Want a glass of wine?” Jenny poured them each one from the bottle that Ariel had opened.

“Thanks.”

Their fingers touched when he accepted the glass. Jenny's desire was so powerful it was like nausea, like seasickness. She hadn't
promised
Frankie that Trinculo wouldn't spend the night, had she? She wished she could think straight.

Trinculo rubbed his palm against the stubble on his cheek and looked pointedly down the hallway. “Do you want to slip into your bedroom? Just for a brief chat?”

“Oh. Yes.” Jenny glanced toward the door through which Ariel and Frankie had disappeared. Ariel was on the porch in the chair he liked. Frankie was pointing things out to him in the garden.

“Good,” he said. “Because I couldn't eat anything, otherwise.”

“Me neither.”

The door closed behind them with a gentle click and they tumbled on the bed together, knocking noses and chins, pressing lips against skin, loosening buckles, zippers, and straps. An image of Frankie flashed into her mind, the moment before she'd slapped her.
Desperate?
she thought. Oh, yes.

They ate outside on the porch. Trinculo and Jenny sat on the step and balanced their plates on their knees. Frankie carried a kitchen chair out the door and set it on the porch next to Ariel's. The last reds of the sunset lit wisps of clouds visible over the ridge. Jenny thought it might have been warm enough that afternoon for Lilly and the other hikers to have taken a swim in Cascade Lake after their climb. Even now, at sunset, it was cool rather than cold. Bullfrogs started croaking from their hiding places in the mud of the nearest neighbor's pond.

“It's like night and day,” said Jenny. They were discussing the differences between the Waldron audience and the ones on Shaw. “You saw everyone in jeans and fleece and all, but they were sipping Chardonnay,
expensive
Chardonnay, instead of homebrew, and they drove home in Mercedeses and BMWs. To vacation houses worth millions of dollars.”

Frankie said, “Jewel has a house there. Do you know Jewel? The singer?”

“Really?” said Trinculo. “Wow.”

Frankie pretended not to have heard him and took a bite from a piece of bread.

“They're used to good theater,” said Ariel.

“Oh, they are,” mumbled Frankie, mouth full. Her selective hearing was demonstrably complete.

Trinculo drained the wine in his glass. “This
is
good theater.”

Ariel met his gaze. “Of course it is.”

Jenny said, “They loved it. You should have seen the paper.”

“I never read reviews,” sniffed Ariel.

Frankie wiped a bit of grease off her cheek with her hand and then wiped her hand on her T-shirt. “One more on Lopez. Then seven on San Juan. And then it's
over
.”

Suddenly the little party on the porch was lit up by the brights from a vehicle pulling into the drive.

Jenny shaded her eyes and saw a blue 1979 camper van with a large steal-your-face decal on the side window. She looked at Frankie. “Is that Kevin driving Lilly home?”

Frankie shook her head. “It's Devoney's van now. She bought it from him last month.”

“Oh, Lilly, is it?” Ariel stretched his arms over his head with an exaggerated yawn. “Well, it's getting late.”

“Too late now,” said Trinculo, under his breath, just as the back door slid open with a loud thump and disgorged Lilly in hiking boots, shorts, and a hoodie.

She met the chorus of good-byes from the van with some loud kissing noises and pretended to reel under the few pieces of additional clothing that were tossed at her from inside. Frankie, Jenny, Trinculo, and Ariel sat silently on the porch and watched her. Jenny was quite sure that Lilly was aware of them watching. When the van finally started backing out, she turned and shuffled toward the front steps, dramatically exhausted. She didn't look up until she was practically upon them.

“Oh. Hey everyone. I didn't notice you there.”

Ariel crossed his legs and raised his chin with a snort.

Jenny set down her plate and stood up. “Did you have a nice hike?”

“It was a blast.” She shifted the things in her arms, which looked like a battered daypack, a beach towel, and a couple of T-shirts or leggings and glanced casually in Ariel's direction. “Ferdinand was there. He is such a crack-up. I couldn't stop laughing all afternoon.”

Ariel's spine straightened. He looked past Lilly into the woods as if weighing, for Frankie's sake, what it would be worth to him exactly to separate Lilly's head from her body.

Jenny appreciated his apparent restraint. “There's hot water, Lil, if you want to take a bath.” She took a step to the side in order to allow Lilly to pass by them into the house.

Instead, Lilly leaned against the post on the porch.

Trinculo made a motion toward the house. “Do you want a chair?”

She looked at him coldly. “No, thank you.”

Jenny wished she had filled up her glass and maybe had one or two more, for good measure. Lilly had not slowed down since the revelation about her mother and Trinculo; quite the opposite. They had seen very little of her; she rarely appeared in a group as small as this. She had been holding court at the after-parties on Shaw and sleeping on the beach on Orcas with an ever-changing crowd of young actors and islanders. She had been zipping around the islands like a first-time tourist, in fact. Doe Bay, Jakle's Lagoon, Lopez Village, Mount Constitution. Like a tourist, thought Jenny, or a girl who knew this summer on the island was to be her last.

“What part of Seattle do you live in, Ariel?” asked Jenny, wishing that Lilly would just go inside.

“My hovel is in the La Salle on Harvard Avenue, Capitol Hill.”

Lilly said, “I know Capitol Hill. Ever been to Venom?”

Ariel rolled his eyes. “I know it.” He looked at Frankie. “Honey, you are not missing anything,” he said. “Believe me. That place is totally ghetto.”

Lilly stood up straight. “It is not.”

“Oh, but it is.” Ariel smiled sweetly at her. “I can see where you wouldn't be able to tell, though, being a girl who's grown up in the woods.”

“Jesus, Ariel!” Trinculo sputtered, after nearly choking on a sip of wine.

“Don't you Jesus me,” said Ariel softly. “She's not after
your
girlfriend.”

Lilly looked like she was about to spit. Jenny could not help but watch in fascination as Lilly's anger washed over her and then ebbed and then turned into something else entirely. Determination, with a hint of pride.

“I'm moving to California in two weeks.”

“What?” Frankie had been looking at Ariel. When Lilly spoke she swung herself around.

“To Marin County, California.” Lilly did not seem to be aware that Frankie was even there. She was talking to Ariel. “Maybe you've heard of it?”

“Well, that is
so
nice for you,” said Ariel. “I couldn't be happier.”

“What do you mean you're
moving
?” Frankie stood up and made a motion to go toward Lilly. Halfway there she stopped and looked at Jenny. “She's making that up, right?”