O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [136]
“That summer, his son, Morrie, drove the rounds with him. Can you believe Jacob’s son was an art student in Boston? He was scouring for scenery to paint. Willow saw it as a chance to get free art lessons. Jacob would double back through Nebo in a week or so. Willow talked Jacob into leaving Morrie with us. He slept upstairs in the loft.
“The two of them started sketching me and I felt like a queen. Well, Morrie assured me that all students drew nude models, and after all, there are naked women hanging all over the walls of the museums. I agreed to lower the top of my dress. Zach, it was the most thrilling sensation of my life, other than you. And to make the game fair, Willow did likewise.
“Anyhow, Morrie left me all his sketches and rode off with Jacob, pots clanging. They’re on a pad, tucked away at Inverness. Willow did these three of me during the rest of the summer.”
Amanda stopped, anxious now that it could jolt Zachary, wrongly. He wore a smile that said mischief is mischief.
“Should I finish or just leave it?” she asked.
“As you wish.”
“You’re not angry?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I want to keep no secrets.”
He leaned over and pecked her cheek.
“Willow and I had slept together since we were infants. This was the summer of our sad parting. As she painted me we grew very affectionate. We slept close and kissed and then she felt what she had painted and I did the same. We rubbed a lot and it was really good but we didn’t go inside each other. Willow wanted hers for Jefferson and she would not take mine. So, that’s my secret! I hope I haven’t hurt you terribly.”
“I love you more than I did an hour ago, if that’s possible.”
“Willow and I have not touched each other again. You’re not jealous at all?”
“Envious, a little bit. It seems pretty natural for the two of you, and if you hadn’t, maybe you’d have regretted it all your lives.”
“I guess men have those feelings as well. My dear brother, Upton—”
“Men care for each other and run around bare-assed with their nothings hanging out and talk sex and women all day, but that isn’t part of our world. However, I sure do understand Amanda and Willow.”
That night, the greatest, most impossible fried chicken and mashed potatoes and a round of hymns and a few sea chanteys and Marine songs rang out from Ned and Pearly’s.
And they found a new plateau of loving, a place of trust and truth.
As the truth made them happy, there was the first sounding of an outside world seeking them back.
Time can come and go like a bolt of lightning.
Time can be slowed to a lovers’ infinity.
But time cannot be stopped.
• 42 •
TRUCE
A Fortnigbt Later—Ben’s Cottage
Ben seemed to age before his very own eyes. “Random Sixteen” was done. All the years of pondering and collecting were now writ with a wizard’s logic, ready to be tested, argued, revised, included, or discarded. This was secret for now; there were the keen hands of admirals helping guide it through the bureaucratic rapids.
The same young man who dared write the forbidden name of Japan was soon to take his men to the Amnesty Islands.
Ben could rest a bit; not too much. He had to remain on watch to protect Captain O’Hara’s flanks. Seeing it unfolding was what Ben lived for.
And Christ Almighty, only a year ago it was never going to happen. Zach took the material and made it sing and dance and show a fearless face.
What shithouse luck, Hillbilly Ben! He dozed in his great chair, contentedly, and didn’t try quite as hard to stop the old bones from cracking. Sleeping in the daytime. Lord, what next? Ben wondered. Maybe he’d court a lady for a last fling before a last fling before a last fling. Who was available but a few itchy, out-of-bounds wives?
How about that music teacher, Miss Florence What’s-her-name? She was giving off some powerful looks across her piano, accompanying that violinist, What’s-his-name.
Ben dozed. Nice to doze without guilt.