Irises
by softydog88
Chapter Ten
Neil Who?
"For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." —Vincent van Gogh
August 29, 1998
Jason pushed open the door with a grunt.
"Well, we finally made it," he declared. "The roof of your new apartment building."
"Stupid broken elevator," Marilyn said. "Ten more seconds of those stairs and I would have passed out. We should have waited until next weekend to come up here. I'm still sore from packing and moving all those heavy boxes.
"Is that what you were doing?" Jason laughed. "I thought you were, you know, supervising."
"An optical illusion, Jason. Besides, I did a lot of work before you showed up. I'm just glad my new apartment is on the ground floor. And that reminds me of something. My mom couldn't be happier. She told me you're a very nice young man to offer to help. Of course, that was after warning me that there would be other boys in my life and I shouldn't get too hung up on you. I guess she has to say that though, doesn't she? She said it was the same advice passed from mothers to daughters for thousands of years."
"Not just mothers to daughters. My mom told me the same thing about you. She seems to think that all I need is a couple of years to grow into my personality and the girls won't be able to leave me alone. In other words, she's full of it. Besides, what do I want with anyone else? I have you, and that's not only good enough now, but it will be forever. And now that that's settled..."
Marilyn took the cue and moved in close. They kissed, and Jason moved his hand to the small of Marilyn's back. He didn't dare go lower, which was good because she was prepared to swat his hand away the moment he tried. Still, Jason found the sensation was more visceral than tactile and he imagined that she was transmitting something of her soul through her nerves where it leaped out of her body to his hand and then up his arm and into his heart. He tried to part her lips with his tongue, but she was having none of that, either.
"Nice try," she said, and he blushed. She wagged her finger at him playfully.
They looked around. The roof was old and neglected. To the left were rows of boxes now overgrown with weeds that were a feeble attempt at a garden in days long past. Lined up against the far edge was a dilapidated washer and dryer with two ratty couches for accompaniment.
"What a pit," Jason said, kicking an empty beer can.
"Yeah," Marilyn agreed. She saw something behind him and moved to the side for an unobstructed view. "Hey, look, Jason. Lounge chairs."
A quick inspection showed them to be clean and bug-free. "They must have been put here recently," Marilyn observed. "Why don't we lie down and talk?"
"I feel like an old man," Jason said as he sat down. "Every muscle in my body aches."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Marilyn replied as she stretched.
"So...are you looking forward to going to Muir?" Jason began. "Our last step before high school."
"I don't know. Kind of, I guess. Part of me wants to go to parties and play soccer and volunteer at the recycle center. But the other part of me is afraid of losing you."
"Losing me? Don't be crazy. You can still do all that stuff if you want. We'll still be at the same school, so I can even do them with you if you want. And even if I don't, I'll still be your boyfriend."
"My boyfriend?" Her perplexed response took him by surprise.
"Aren't I? I mean, you don't go around kissing other boys, do you?"
"No, of course not. It's just that I never thought of you in that way before."
"Well, then you should start. And with that in mind, we should spend tomorrow, our last free summer day, doing something awesome. Something we haven't done before."
They laid there, staring at the night sky, trying to think of something to do. The hum of New York hovered in the background―cars honking, helicopters overhead, loud music from seemingly all around them, the occasional siren and, somehow, snatches of a thousand conversations.
"Wow," Jason said a few minutes later, "a shooting star! I'll bet we'd see a million stars if we were in the country, away from all the city lights."
"That's an idea," Marilyn said.
"What is? You want to go to the country?"
"No, but why don't we go to the Hayden planetarium tomorrow? Miss Gianpietro told us about it in science class. It sounds great. We can see the stars that way."
He nodded. "Yeah, it does sound pretty cool. OK, tomorrow we'll go. I'll pick you up at 11. And when my mom asks me where I'm going, I'll tell her that I'm going to the Hayden planetarium with my girlfriend."
"Beckett, you have more shoes than Meredith and Gina put together," Castle protested.
"Really?" Beckett said from behind a wall of boxes.
"No, of course not. It's just that this is the eleventh box of shoes that I've opened and put in your closet in our home. I don't want my own shoes to get an inferiority complex."
"Our home. I like the sound of that. But you should know that I got every pair of shoes in those boxes on sale. You get everything from Neiman Marcus. $900 for Valentino sneakers? No inferiority complex there."
"How did you know that?"
"I heard your mom telling her boyfriend on the phone. I think she was doing a little bragging about how successful you are."
"Ugh. I hate it when you use that word. Especially about Benny."
"What word? Boyfriend?"
"Yes. At least, don't use it when talking about mother. It brings to mind all kinds of unpleasant scenarios. Mother and Benny doing...things. Eww."
"You're jealous, Castle. Benny is taking your mother's attention away from you and you can't handle it."
"I can handle it," Castle whined. "I don't mind her dating, but I don't want to know any details, just like she'd never want to know any details of our sex life."
"Speaking of our sex life, we're all alone in our home. Perhaps we should get busy christening it."
"Why Kate Beckett, that's a wonderful idea. Where should we get started?"
"How about the roof?"
"The roof? Never!"
"OK, then the kitchen. I'll show you more ways to use chocolate sauce than you ever dreamed."
So she did.
"The American Museum of Natural Science," Jason said as he stared at a statue of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback. "We're almost exactly opposite the Met. It's just on the other side of the park."
Marilyn glanced over her shoulder, but all she could see were trees and a path that led through them. They bought tickets for a show called An Insider's Tour of the Universe at 2 p.m. and spent their time looking at the highlights of the dinosaur exhibit. Finally, they made their way into the planetarium at 1:45 and took a seat. It was crowded, but not sold out. In the middle of the room was the projector, a wild cylinder with a bulb on each end and little lenses peppered all over it, making it look like a ray gun or an alien bulb covered with crystals. It was supported by large arms on either side and pointed at the ceiling, making Marilyn think of Marvin the Martian. She wondered where the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator went. The music, typically, was new-age, vaguely spacey music that was intended to set the mind thinking about the stars. The lights were dim, and there was a purple glow around the perimeter of the dome.
"This is cool," Marilyn said, taking Jason's hand.
"It sure is."
The lights came up and a tall, imposing man entered the room.
"Good afternoon," he said. "My name is Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. Our regular presenter is sick today, so I'll be taking over."
His voice was deep and authoritative, but friendly and both Marilyn and Jason instantly liked him.
"Today's show is nothing less than a tour of the Cosmos as we know it. We're going to work from our own solar system to the edge of the universe, starting with...the sun!"
His voice boomed on the last two words and the room went dark for just a moment before a huge fireball exploded into view and filled most of the dome. A massive orchestral burst filled their ears and Marilyn's hand trembled against Jason's as the splendors of the universe unfolded before them.
"That was incredible," Beckett said from the floor of Castle's office.
"I work on that desk," Castle frowned.
"I'd say you did your best work on that desk. Except when you rolled on top of your stapler," she laughed.
"Yeah. Thank goodness it was empty or you'd still be pulling staples out of my butt. I don't know how I missed that when I swept everything else off."
"You were very 'take-charge' there, but your laptop did take a pretty nasty fall. I hope it still boots up. But which room did you like best, Castle? The bathroom? You seemed pretty into it during that shower. It never occurred to me to use soap-on-a-rope like that."
"Actually, I liked the laundry room. Turning the dryer on first was a stoke of genius. Talk about hot! Maybe next time we'll throw some sneakers in there. Get some good vibrations going."
He turned his head suddenly. "Shh! Did you hear that?"
"Hear what? I didn't hear anything." They craned their necks back and forth like kittens watching a game of ping pong. Then they both snapped their heads to the left at the distinct sound of giggling from another room.
"Damn," Castle said. "I have to remember to take Alexis' key back."
The lecture ended and the lights came up. Marilyn and Jason were blown away. As Dr. Tyson asked for questions, Marilyn's hand instantly shot up. Hers was the fourth question Dr. Tyson took.
"First of all, that was great," Marilyn said. "I learned a lot. My question is this: having dedicated your life to science, can you still find time for art?"
"Absolutely," Dr. Tyson replied. "In fact, I see art in science. When I look at the night sky, or at pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, it's just as amazing to me as when I stare at the beautiful paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When I look at the structure of crystals under a microscope, it's like looking at the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. I even have a print of a van Gogh painting in my office. It's called Starry Night, and it's the first painting I know of where the background, the night sky, the stars themselves, were more important than the foreground. If you like art and you like science, this is the perfect intersection of both."
"You have a van Gogh in your office?" Marilyn's voice broke in ecstasy.
"No. I have a print of a van Gogh. The actual painting would be astronomically expensive." He giggled at this little joke and thanked Marilyn for her question.
Later, in the gift shop, Marilyn found a necktie with a print of Starry Night. She snapped it up immediately and got in line at the cash register.
"Thanks and all," Jason said, "but I never wear ties."
"It's for Dr. Tyson," Marilyn said. "I'm going to send it to him to thank him for the lecture. I hope he wears it."
"Is the moving all done?" Sandra asked that night.
"Yes," Marilyn said, her voice breaking. She held her hand against her mother's cheek.
"It'll be all right," Sandra said. "The important thing is we have a new place to live. Someplace your father doesn't know about, and we can be safe."
"But he knows where you work," Marilyn cried. "He can get you again, and you'll end up back in this awful place, or..."
"That won't happen. The police will pick him up soon. And Detective Montgomery told me that he'll be put away for a long time. He promised."
She took Marilyn's hand. The only sounds were the beeps and hisses of the intensive care ward at Lenox Hill hospital, the labored breathing of Sandra Singletary and the soft weeping of her daughter.