Fair 7
Disclaimer: Not mine.
It is one thing to decide on a thoughtful - and final - goodbye to an impossible relationship, and adjust to that logic with maturity, but it is another thing altogether to see that relinquished dream turn up where he has no business at all.
At the sight of Trunks Briefs mowing her lawn, Marron neglected to readjust her steering wheel and thus ran Emma into the rose bush by the porch. Emma screeched like a wounded cat as the paint along her right side was scraped. Marron slammed on the brakes and tried to gently back Emma from the bush, but another shriek sounded.
Marron stopped, leaving her car as it was until she could deal with it alone, and not with Trunks standing there with his hands on his hips and grinning that wicked, wicked grin.
He opened Emma's door and offered Marron a hand to help her out as he said, "You took your own sweet time getting here."
She sputtered, "How did you ever in this world find me? I never told you any last name or the name of my town and..."
"Emma told me." His eyes checked out to see if Marron was still the one he'd dreamed.
"Emma!" She thought he was being silly and she was annoyed enough as it was.
"Her li-" he began.
"License! You had it traced! What are you doing here?"
"I've decided I'll marry you."
"Mar- mar-"
"There's that vocal motor acting up, not able to do anything but sputter. Here, I'll fix it." He backed her against Emma's side and he kissed her, holding her bottom in both of his big hands. Making sounds deep in his throat, he kissed her some more.
Her last thought for that time was, How shocking that he's here.
He lifted his mouth and looked into her big blue eyes and said, "It's taken you forever to get home. Why did you take so long?"
"I was evaluating our relationship and, realizing it would never work, I was giving you up."
"Foolish woman." He kissed her again, pressing close to her, helplessly trapping her against Emma as he ran his hands up the sides of her body to the sides of her breasts and then back down her hips. Inhaling deeply, he said, "Come on inside."
Marron allowed Trunks to take her hand. He led her up the porch steps, where he shed his grassy shoes. Her mind registered that the door was unlocked before he took her inside, up the stairs, and to her big bedroom and to the bed, on which was the Paw Prints quilt. She realized what was happening to that point, but then her response to him took over and she was no longer reliable.
He came to say goodbye, she thought as he eased her out of her clothes. This is a better way. Our separation was too abrupt. This is more tender.
He tore off his own trousers and lay down on the bed with her.
She had assumed their coupling would be poignant lovemaking that regretfully would be the last time. A rose of love to be pressed in memory. It wasn't like that at all. It was feverishly breathless, panting need, rubbing hands, and frantic fingers. It was starved bodies and hungry kisses. It was a wildly furious, scrambling love that filmed them with sweat amid tore the bed apart.
They lay spent, and now that she was replete, she was just a little ticked off that he'd led her into such a maelstrom for their last time, for she had wanted sweet and tender love. Not that basic, brawling, animalistic mating. But her eyes were heavy and she smiled.
"I missed you." His deep voice was reedy with emotion. He lay facing her, and his hand pushed the hair back from her face. "Why did you run off that way?"
"That cameraman! Do you know the picture was in the Avocado paper?" She was aghast.
"The original is so beautiful. Wait till you see our copy."
"Our copy?"
"Yeah. After I smashed what I thought was his only camera, he managed to make me listen to reason. When I found you and Emma gone, I went with him to a darkroom, where he developed the pictures. I selected those he could use, and in return he printed up the rest. That way I signed a release for us..."
"Us?"
"Umm. The others will be part of a County Fair series he's doing."
"And... that one?"
"Your back is just glorious. Do you know that? That's a brilliant picture, Marron. You have to know that. He's an artist. I took out those pictures where you could be identified. I know you're a little shy, but wait till you see the ones I have. I'd show you know, but I've been in some sort of near-fatal collision and I can barely move."
"He's going to publish pictures of us?" Her voice was the clam that can be so dangerous.
He smiled lazily in contentment and said, "It'll be fine. And the pictures are really excellent. He's a great photographer. An artist."
"I will not have my picture spread all over some publication!"
"These will be all right. You'll see."
"How dare you decide without my consent!"
"Are you feeling chagrined?"
"Quite hostile," she snapped. "It wasn't a decision you had permission to make for me. I will not allow this."
"There isn't one of those pictures to be published that can be identified as you. Relax. I made the decision as you intended. I knew you aren't the kind of woman to sleep with just any man. So I know we'll marry."
"We shall not," she told him, lying there naked on the Paw Prints quilt, in the disordered bed and nose to nose.
"You just haven't adjusted to the idea. You have to remember the ring. Did you notice I've had it reset?"
She watched in amazement as he removed the ring from his finger and showed it to her. It was still that same strange ugly lumpy green stone, but the setting was now a very masculine platinum. "You had that stone reset?" She couldn't believe it.
Complacently, he replied, "The jeweler said he'd never seen anything quite like it."
She blinked at him, then laughed. She rolled over on her back to have the room for her surprised lungs, as she laughed hard.
Leaning up on his elbow, Trunks gave her a big smile. Then he put the ring back on his finger and she continued to laugh. She repeated, "He'd never seen anything quite like it! I should think not!"
"I explained that it's magic, and that fascinated him."
"Tell me you didn't go to Mr. Oolong!"
"Why, yes, as a matter of fact I did. He didn't have a suitable setting and we had to special order one. The whole thing quite delighted him."
She was still laughing, but she shook her head. "And you had it set in platinum."
"The stone was lost to us for many centuries. I needed a more secure setting."
More sober but still amused, she asked, "And do you really think it's magic?" She was sure that he would laugh.
His voice as soft as it could be, he replied, "Yes. I'm here with you." His face was serious and so tender. He leaned and kissed her. Then he raised his mouth and his lashes veiled the electric blue of his wicked eyes. "It is the magic of perfect love and quests. With it, I'm invincible and nothing is impossible."
"I believe you aren't playing with a full deck." She lay on his quilt, watching him, the laughter gone, her eyes solemn. She thought he still looked like a pirate. Who ever heard of a pirate believing in a magic ring? She licked her upper lip and took a breath to speak, but he leaned and kissed her again.
His kiss was gentle, searching and quite skilled. That was one thing about sailors who sailed the seven seas and had a girl at every port; they did know about kissing and... other things. He put his big rough hand on her tender stomach and rubbed it, first gently, then more firmly as he kissed her again.
It felt marvelous, and she made a long sound of pleasure. That only encouraged him. The rubbing hand moved, enjoying the hills and valleys of her body, the feel of her. His kiss went on forever and was interspaced with nips, pilling at her lower lip. He took handfuls of her hair and crushed the silken mass in his fingers. He put his hand to her hip, turned her to him and moved his hand in strokes and swirls from her nape to her rounded bottom as he worked on her ear with a knowledgeable tongue.
Then he gave her a rather extended lesson in allowing her tongue to engage in his in a series of marvelously sensual encounters, and she became languid, while he became tense and earnest. His fingers curled around her and reached to touch. His tongue teased her. His hands stroked and he became heated with his renewed desire.
She stretched and turned with sensual lethargy and made him tremble. Her mouth held a tiny smile, and her eyes were teasing with heavy lids with long lashes.
She was pleased. This was the way their goodbye should be, with long, slow lovemaking. An exquisitely tender emotion governing each touch, each kiss, each movement. This was the perfect goodbye.
With endless time to relish all their touchings, he made love to her. And she accepted it as his farewell gift. To cherish. She was very accepting. He was very giving. They made beautiful love.
Then they slept awhile. Curled naked together on a hot July day on top of the Paw Prints quilt, which had a strange aphrodisiacal influence.
They wakened abruptly to the slam of the front screen door and a female voice calling, "Hey you two!"
Marron jerked her head over and looked with wide, shocked eyes at Trunks. "It's my cousin!" She gasped.
Quite ordinarily he agreed, "Paresu."
"How did you know her name?"
"She introduced herself."
"What- "
From the bottom of the stairs came Paresu's amused voice, "Am I interrupting anything?"
"No!" Marron panicked. "I'll be right there!" Through her teeth she snapped at Trunks, "Get dressed."
"Well, of course," he replied virtuously. "I would never go down like this."
Marron scrambled off the bed and tiptoed over to ease open the heavy walnut drawer. She snatched out a pair of shorts to drag them on quickly, then sorted out a knitted top, which he pulled, over her head. She looked at herself in the mirror and realized she would never fool Paresu. Her eyes were heavy, her mouth looked excessively kissed, and her hair was a mess. She attacked her mane with a brush and looked over Trunks, who was calmly putting on his shorts. She hissed, "You stay up here."
He smiled with such amusement. "Caught."
She glared, took a bracing breath and marched barefooted out of the room, with Trunks right behind her, ignoring her commanding stare. They went downstairs to a laughing Paresu.
Paresu was Marron's last relative in Peach and was soon to leave for bigger and better things. She was tall and slender, vital and alive, with brown hair and brown eyes. She said, with only fair control of her humor and questioningly arched brows, "I can't imagine what's going on here, but it looks shocking!"
Stiffly Marron replied, "Nothing's 'going on,' Paresu! Don't be silly!"
Paresu laughed and flipped back her long brown hair. "A while ago, I came along, saw your car in the bushes and the lawnmower stopped in the middle of the yard. I come back two hours later and it's still the same way. I find that almost as interesting as seeing you downstairs barefooted and bra-less! What brought on this remarkable metamorphosis? Don't tell me. Let me guess. A magic ring!"
"Good grief!" Marron sputtered.
Her cousin greeted her cohort, "Hello, Trunks. Going pretty good, huh."
"Tolerably," he replied lazily, and yawned. Paresu thought that excessively funny, and Trunks grinned as he said to Marron, "I'll go move your car and finish the yard," and with a wink at Paresu, he went out of the screen door, stepped into his discarded shoes and down the porch steps.
Paresu turned to Marron, "Well, darling, you're proof that we never really know one another, any of us humans. How remarkable! When you come out of your shell, you don't fool around!"
"It's not at all like that," she began primly.
Paresu laughed. "You lucky, lucky woman. He tells me you found him at a carnival over in Apricot..."
It was a very nice county fair," Marron corrected.
"I'm going to start going to fairs. What a prize! Marron, you lucky dog, you!"
"Paresu, there's nothing in this. He will be leaving right away. He simply came to say goodbye."
"Sure."
"I mean it. We are two very different people and- "
"Very nicely different."
"You have always had a rather crude way of putting things, Paresu, and you are very mistaken in this."
"Sure."
"I am telling you the truth. We were just now... saying goodbye."
"And with that done, he goes out and finishes mowing the yard? Yeah, sure."
"You don't understand any of this."
Paresu laughed. "Come on and fix a farewell glass of tea for us all."
"So you're leaving." Marron had turned toward the kitchen but stopped to look sadly at her cousin.
"Actually, Trunks talked me into waiting a while."
Lightning flared in Marron's blue eyes. "You?"
Her eyes lazy, Paresu replied, "I."
Trunks had been in Peach for several days. He was a fast worker. He... She...
"He's dating you?" Marron couldn't exhale. Her face was sheet white, her eyes enormous, her hand on her heart.
Quite kindly, Paresu touched Marron's shoulder as she said, "No, of course not. He said there will be changes in Peach and I ought to stick around and see them. So I thought I would. He's quite zonked by you, you know. Has he shown you the pictures? Or has he gotten around to that yet?"
"P-pictures?"
"That remarkable one of you standing in the water and him going for you. It's fantastic."
"He showed it to you?" She was appalled.
"After I questioned his right to move into your house."
"You let him in?"
"He'd picked the lock. When he knew my name I let the local militia I'd summoned go back to the nursing home and allowed Trunks time to prove his story. He showed me that marvelous picture. You know, Cousin, there's hope for you."
"How could he have known your name?" Marron asked as she again turned toward the kitchen to make the tea.
Following, Paresu suggested, "You told him."
"I very carefully did not. Nor mine, but he had my license traced."
"Clever man."
"Perhaps extra so."
"You think he's a fortune hunter?" Paresu frowned.
"How depressing."
"You've had fortune hunters before."
Marron nodded as her eyes moved to the open window to where the mower sounded. She said sadly, "But this time was so... impulsive and innocent."
Paresu chuckled. "Innocent? I saw the picture."
"It was the day. A day stolen from reality. It was so special. Now he's come and moved in and it will be spoiled."
"This is different. You still have that day."
"He hasn't a job."
"Sometimes they make life interesting and worthwhile." Paresu was setting out the glasses. "Not everyone has to be a steamroller corporate mover and shaper. He's already changed your life. Ride along for a while and see what happens."
"Nothing will happen. We've said goodbye, and he will be leaving."
"This episode between you two has certainly brightened our lives here in Peach."
Marron gaped, "Everyone knows?"
"He met all the neighbors in the first two days. He's been everywhere. Interested in the town, asking questions, meeting people."
"Assessing what I own."
Paresu shrugged. "Possibly."
Marron removed the covering from a silver tray and set the pitcher of tea on it, adding the ice-filled glasses, the sprigs of mint from a pot in a south window, and slices of lemon. She carried it out, as Paresu held the side door, and they settled it on a wicker table on the side porch. Trunks saw them, gestured to indicate he had only a little more to do and would finish quickly.
"He isn't lazy. It might be nice to have a handyman around. He fixed the lattice on your drying porch."
"He's still 'trying out.' Men do all sorts of things to attract a woman's fancy. I know about that. Remember that guy a few summers ago?"
"Not all men are like that."
"He was going to sue me for 10 million dollars, saying that I'd broken his heart."
"At least Mrs. Kan tied a can to his tail."
"I forgave her for being so blatant about eavesdropping after that. If it hadn't been for her hearing me object and coming to the door, he'd have stayed that night. He had it all set up, and he'd intended taking pictures." She turned horrified eyes toward Paresu. "Do you suppose Trunks..."
"I would bet my life on Trunks being straight, honest and honorable."
"Why, Paresu!"
Trunks came up to a porch drying his chest with a towel, for he'd hosed off after he finished mowing. He was barefooted again, and he flopped down onto the empty wicker chair and sighed. "There's sure a lot of chores around here, Miss Chestnut, ma'am, and if the work goes on this way, taking up all my time and all- serving you- I'll have to have a raise." He grinned wickedly.
Marron was blushing again, and Paresu laughed. "I'll bet she'll pay-" Paresu thoughtlessly began, but Marron stabbed her with a shocked look and stopped her tongue.
Trunks drank all of his tea then reached for the pitcher to refill his glass as he said, "Who's Sharpener? All your neighbors are glad you're getting married to me, but one or two wonder about Sharpener."
"You told.." Marron gasped.
"Honey, I had to. They did wonder why I'd moved in. Your little cousin here brought over a shriveled-up man she had to help up the curb- the law, he was- and even he wanted to know. And I had to shout it because he was so deaf, and Mrs. Kan heard, and soon everyone just knew." The words sounded like and explanation, but he was so amused.
"Why did you come here?"
"To marry you. So you can burn the peacock feathers. I brought them along, you know."
"Did you?" She smiled a little.
"Peacock feathers!" Paresu exclaimed. "With peacock feathers in a house, no one gets married."
"He won five of them for me... that day."
"She gave away three. I made her keep the last two."
Paresu frowned. "So she- wouldn't marry?"
"To keep her from marrying anyone until she married me." He explained quite reasonably.
Paresu finished her tea and said to Marron, "I must go. I had to see you. You two have done so much to liven up the town. We're all grateful. Take care now." She grinned at Trunks, who rose in his marvelous effortlessness as she leaned to kiss Marron's cheek.
"Did you drive?" Trunks inquired.
"No. Not in Peach. No need to see me out." But he handed her down the steps. She looked back at Marron's and said, "He's worth it." Although she smiled, her eyes were serious.
Paresu left and Trunks returned to the wicker chair next to Marron's and leaned to kiss her mouth but she turned her head. "You must leave, Trunks. We're creating a scandal. No Chestnut has ever been in such a scandal in the entire Peach history."
"So you're a first," he congratulated her.
"This is no time for jokes."
They were silent. He was comfortable and contented. She was the opposite. She said, "You were very nice to fix the lattice."
"You're welcome."
"And the yard looks nice." He smiled at her. She went on, "But Mr. Shibafu earns a part of his living by mowing lawns, and you ought not to do it for him."
"I paid him to let me. He said it was the week to mow it diagonally, but I said I couldn't do that because it tilted my equilibrium. He argued and said if I was going to mow it straight I had to pay him double, because it would throw off his schedule."
Laughter bubbled from Marron, because she could actually see that exchange between Trunks and Mr. Shibafu.
He had paused long enough, and he sighed and said, "So I did."
"Trunks." She sobered. Having said only his name, she took a long breath to tell him again that he must leave.
But he said, "Come see the pictures."
He rose, pulled her to her feet and hugged her, but she squirmed and said, "They'll see us!"
He grinned, opened the door and patted her bottom as she walked through it. He took the tray and carried it to the kitchen.
As they went into the hall and on back to the morning room, he said, "We'll need a bigger house when we have the kids. We could buy the one next door from Mrs. Kan and she could move in with Mrs. Rinjin..."
"They don't agree on anything!"
"And we could keep this house as a guest house for when our families come to visit. We'd all be more comfortable that way."
"I'm not going to marry you, Trunks."
"Oh, not today!"
"Nor any other..." But she stopped then, because the pictures were spread out all over the morning room. Enlarged, adhered to cardboard and covered with clear plastic, they were superb reminders of that shared day. She stood looking, and beside her he was silent.
Finally, as she began to move around to pick up one, a marvelous shot of him swinging the sledgehammer, Trunks said, "You can see they must be shared." He lifted one of her holding the sleeping child, the peacock feathers in Marron's hair looked like a fairy crown. It was as if the moon maiden had come to bless an earth child.
There was one of Trunks laughing helplessly in the water by the log, and one of the horse race and Marron tying a feather to the horse's mane. There was one of Trunks sopping wet from the log rolling and leaning to kiss Marron, who had lifted face to his. And there was the priceless one of them in the water.
"These aren't the only pictures. These are only the ones of us. The others are equally beautiful. As you must see, the man has talent. Look at you!" Her silhouette was outlined against the sun-soaked field as she stood with the wind blowing her dress. "I wouldn't let him publish that one, and I regret it. He gave me the negative, and this is the only print."
In the picture she was looking up at him, with the feathers in the back of her hat, her body outlined and her hand on his chest, like a beautifully bold and inviting woman. Had she looked like that to him? In a tiny voice she said, "I look like a hussy."
"No, you look like a woman who likes a man. Me."
"It was a very special day."
"It was the start of my life."
"Are you a fortune hunter?"
He was so startled she couldn't know if it was because he was not, or if it was because she'd found him out. He finally said, "Do you believe I am?"
"I don't know. I do have some property."
He touched her cheek. "Would it bother you if I had no property?"
"I don't know."
"Then this may take a while." Quite confidently he leaned down and kissed her. They looked into each other's eyes for a long time before he said, "You do agree those other fair pictures are all right for the photographer to use?"
"They're beautiful. I'm glad we have them."
"So you agree?"
"Yes. But when they're published everyone who was at the fair will remember about us. About... what we did."
"They did the same thing. We drew lots for the sites. We didn't want to crowd each other and I knew you'd be shy about undressing-" he heard her sharply in-drawn breath "-where someone might see you... besides me."
"They were all married here!" She protested, but then added, "No. Not Uub."
"He's to be married," Trunks told her. Softly he added, "We'll be married soon enough."
"No."
"Yes."
"No. I will not marry you."
"Why the hfil not?" He asked in a mild amused way.
"I don't know you well enough."
"You know me well enough to make love with me."
"That's different."
But he only laughed. He wasn't the least disturbed by her refusal. Why not? She wondered. Was he going to compromise her so thoroughly that she would have to marry him? She could not allow that to happen.
Then to one side, on an end table, Marron saw the last two peacock feathers. He'd brought them to her! She took some comfort in the fact they were there in her house, protecting her from marriage.
My imagination's running low today so the quickest solution to naming Marron's neighbors was to name them after the things they're associated with. Mrs. Kan got her name from "Kan" which is Japanese for the word can since she "tied a can to his tail." Are you still with me? "Shibafu" means "lawn" and "Rinjin" means neighbor. You can expect more of these things in the next chapters.
I haven't addressed your reviews because I really don't know what to say except thank you. Also, that I really enjoy reading them and they do brighten up my day. The uni is. well not exactly the perfect world. What else? I have two more stories in my mind but I haven't gotten round to writing them. Describing things is exhausting. Also, I can only write when I'm completely alone, which is difficult since my sister is home and Leona is actually writing a paper on her pc! Do you think that my chapters are too long? Should I shorten them a bit? Not in this story but in the next one. Tell me what you think. Onegaishimasu?