Over the Rainbow - Book One - 'The Gathering Place' (22 page)

“
I'm sorry… freedom from
what?”

“…
the rest of my life.”

Trina’s face crinkled again. “What do you mean- 'the
rest of your life', you're not going to jail, are you?”

“
I might as well be.” Chris
shrugged in resignation, “No, I'll be joining my father's business
in a couple of days...”

Jen chimed in, smiling slightly,
“Is that
bad
?”

Chris replied with mock-despair, “Terminal.”

Jen leaned over and lightly touched his hand. “Gosh,
you make it sound like you have cancer, or something.”

“
Nah, nothing that fortunate. This
is a much longer, lingering death- probably won't take me until I'm
at least eighty.”

Jen laughed- a crystalline, musical sound, “Oh, come
on, it can't be that bad.”

“
Oh, trust me- it's far, far
worse.”

Trina countered, genuinely interested now, “So,
what's your Dad do?”

“
Ever heard of 'Matthews
Incorporated'?”

Not exactly a Dow Jones analyst,
Trina responded, “Uh,
no
.”

Chris continued as if he hadn’t
heard her, addressing them both a bit of barely restrained vitriol,
“You ever wonder why so much of the cheap plastic crap you buy is
made in some third world nation?” Jen and Trina just stared,
“My
Dad
is
why...”

Trina replied flatly, “Oh.” And then her chirpy
nature resurfaced, and she got to her point, “Hey, have you noticed
how little night-life there is around here?”

“
Hadn't really thought of
it...”

“
Well, we have. I mean, we dig the
beaches and all- But there's like nothing to do here at night! What
have you been up to? You been anywhere since you got
here?”

Chris started to respond, again
almost launching into his wild tale of adventure, and then
hesitated as the whole
weirdness
of it made him pause in reflection. He decided to
take the easy way out. “Me? Uh, no, I got here really late last
night… and today-? Just spent it kicking back, enjoying the peace
and quiet, you know? So, no, I guess not, nothing much
really.”

“
Oh- cool. So anyway, Jen and me,
we were wondering, maybe, if you were interested, in like going to
a club with us.”

“
With- both of you?”

“
Uh, yeah- You're okay with that,
aren't you?”

Chris leaned back on the bar, taking them both in
with a cool gaze of appraisal. The oblique offer from Angel was
certainly enticing, and the waitress at the restaurant was
deliciously intriguing, but this- the possibility of a threesome?
This appealed to more than just his ego- it tugged at his
unquenchable sense of adventure. His smile spread and his dimples
deepened to their fullest as he replied, “Sure. Why not, I don't
have anything else planned tonight…”

The trio rose, polishing off drinks with haste, and
Chris looped an arm over Trina’s shoulder and the other around
Jen’s waist as they began to head toward the stairs at the opposite
end of the pool area. They had just placed their feet on the first
steps when a stiff gust of island breeze carried with it yet
another distinct tinkling of the mysterious wind chimes. Chris
suddenly stopped and his eyes narrowed as he looked pointedly off
into the distance, his brows furrowing in tortured curiosity as he
sought the source of the mysterious chimes. He awkwardly disengaged
himself from the girls and said in vaguely apologetic fashion as he
continued to look from side to side, vainly seeking the source of
the enigmatic sounds, “Well- maybe some other time. Thanks,
though.” And with that he began to hastily move off in the opposite
direction, his pained and forced smile morphing into a twisted
frown.

Trina whirled around in confusion as she watched
Chris walk into the distance, unsure of what had just happened and
cried, “What?! But you just said-”

Chris turned and replied with a flaccid wave of
conciliation, “I'm sorry. Some other time- okay?” And then his pace
quickened as he strode away, disappearing around a row of cabanas
and into the night.

An incredulous moment later, Trina shook her head
and replied, “Yeah, sure. Whatever. C'mon Jen-” And then she
stalked off, Jen striding beside her, still looking back in askance
at the now-absent form of Chris, asking no one in specific, “What
the hell-?”

Trina responded by throwing her hands to the heavens
in exasperation, “Shit, I don't know. Maybe he's actually-
gay.”

The gentle melody of the mystical
chimes drifted back and forth on the breeze as Chris rounded the
far corner of the hotel, but this time actually
building
in volume rather than
diminishing. Chris walked along the darkened side of the building,
the waves exploding on the rocks below, the water misting him with
a warm salty spray that scattered in the wind. Chris flinched
slightly and turned his face from the sea, and it was then that he
finally he saw it- the enigmatic source of the mysterious musical
chimes.

It was a tiny, glass walled building, most likely a
wedding chapel of some sort, standing in solitary silence in the
darkened courtyard. The multi-faceted panes of etched and beveled
glass sparkled from the light of a single tapered candle that
flickered from within, painting the whole structure with a thousand
points of color and light. Chris approached the building and then
stopped and studied it in focused curiosity with hands on hips,
noticing the singular door in the center of the glass wall before
him. Fully expecting the structure to be locked up tight and secure
for the night, Chris inexplicably reached for the handle and gave
it a twist-

And the door popped open.

Abigail and Walter leaned against the rail on the
rear deck of the ‘Evening Star,’ a calm, fragrant breeze blowing
backlit puffs of cloud across the sky, the huge full Moon painting
a fractured path of light back to the ship. Abigail looked to the
oddly silent Walter with a look of gentle concern as the sounds of
a Jazz Combo softly emanated from the interior of the ship’s
ballroom.

“
Walter, you're so quiet, what are
you thinking?”

“
Oh, I don't know... Do you think
I've been too hard on him?”

“
Who, Chris? I'll leave that for
you to decide. Personally, I've always thought so, but I figured
you had your reasons.”

“
Well, I did... But now I'm
beginning to wonder.” Walter turned and looked out to sea,
contemplating his destiny on the horizon. “I don't do anything
without just cause- you know that, right?”

“
You've always given me that
impression. What's this have to do with our son?”

“
Well, it's just that... He's my
only hope…”

“
For what?”

“
For the future of Matthew's… for
us.” Walter gazed at the distant Moon and sighed, “You were right,
you know.”

Abigail smiled a loving smile at her husband and
kissed him lightly on the cheek as Walter conceded the point. “I
usually am. What was I right about this time?”

“
The fact that I need to let go,
to walk away, before it's too late.” Walter turned to Abigail,
studying her face intently, and then looked away to the sea,
leaning tiredly on the rail with both hands as he continued, “Abby,
this job is slowly killing me. I had a checkup a couple of weeks
ago, Dad insisted.”

“
And-?”

“
Marvin told me that if I don't
slow down, and soon, I might just implode. I guess I- I guess it
scared me a little bit.” Walter glanced over his shoulder at
Abigail and then his gaze drifted again to the horizon. “Honey, I'm
afraid that if I don't get him ready, prepare him for what he is
going to be up against, he won't be ready to take over.”

Abigail frowned and took both of
Walter’s hands in her own, fixing her gaze with his as she stared
concernedly up at him. “Does he really have to? Take over? I mean,
look at him- he's miserable. That little episode at the club should
have made that crystal clear.” She smiled encouragingly and asked
brightly, “What about Michael, couldn't
he
step in?”

Walter stiffened, scowling, and replied, “Mike? No
way. Honey, both you and I know that my dear brother Michael is a
spineless fool. There's no way Dad is going to let him run the
company. Chris has the brains, and the drive, to keep that going.
No one else even remotely does.”

“
Not even Dan? He graduated top of
his class at Wharton.”

Walter looked aghast, “Oh, my God,
Abigail, I can't even believe you suggested that. Dan? No way.
Honey- in case you haven’t noticed, our lovely nephew makes
a
Klingon
look
polite.”

“
Well, what are you going to do?
Maybe it's not too late to bring him around. Talk to him. Tell him
the truth.”

“
Abby, I don't know... What if it
backfires, what if by telling him how important he is, it turns him
into another Dan? Then we're right back to where we are
now.”

“
There's only one way to find out.
Talk to him. Explain the situation. Maybe he'll
understand.”

“
I suppose you're right.” He
looked quickly to Abigail as a tilted smile of amusement formed on
her lips and said, “Don’t…” And then he smiled dourly to himself as
the weight of the situation caused his broad shoulders to sag and
he again went disturbingly silent.

As Walter ruminated in pained silence, the Moon
suddenly popped from behind a wisp of cloud, its light illuminating
Walter like a light bulb over his head and he exclaimed in a burst
of revelation, “That’s it!” He turned to Abigail with genuine
excitement and said, “I know what I’ll do- I'll take him out
golfing in the morning, just him and me. That will give me a chance
to present this to him, give him a chance to consider what it is he
needs to do.” He looked to Abigail with a gaze that begged
assurance. “You really think this will work?”

“
What choice do you
have?”

“
None. You're right, again.” And
with that, he placed a finger on her smiling lips, stifling the
inevitable reply, as the jazz combo began a cover of Norah Jones’
‘Come Away With Me’. Walter smiled endearingly as he embraced
Abigail around the shoulder and steered her back inside the ship.
“C'mon, they're playing our song.”

“
Loveable liar- we don't have a
'song'.”

“
No? Then it's high time we did.
Come on, I feel a need to just hold you, and let tomorrow take care
of itself.”