Fair 9

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Trunks phoned Paresu to come to supper. She met Goten, the younger of the brothers, soon after she arrived. She met Gohan too, but didn't notice him. A strange metamorphosis took place in Marron's cousin. She became quiet. She appeared somewhat aloof. Marron frowned at Paresu. She'd never seen Paresu so conscious of herself. Paresu so vividly self-aware that she stiffened almost into immobility. Her breath was so irregular that she had to sigh now and then to try to start fresh in a breathing rhythm; therefore she appeared to be bored.

For his part, Goten just stared at Paresu. He sat back in his chair at the dinner table and moved his fork idly by his plate. When Trunks addressed any comment to Goten he would start, look at Trunks and lift his brows inquiringly.

Since Trunks and Marron were a little off the world too, only Gohan was steady enough to observe everyone's behavior and chuckle over it. But nobody was there with whom to share the laugh.

The dinner conversation was not memorable. In spite of several "May I's," Gohan never did get a roll or the butter. He organized clearing the table by putting dishes into hands and directing exactly where they should be taken. There was a traffic snarl when Goten and Paresu met in the doorway and stopped to stare at each other, mesmerized.

Gohan was sorely tempted to abandon them and go call his wife, Videl, to tell her about it. She would laugh very softly, for that's how it had been with them. He was glad he and Goten weren't staying in Peach this time. He would be home tonight, home with a Terrible Two, a teething baby and Videl.

When it came to leave, Goten came out of his trance and said, in a dreadful attempt at offhandedness, "Ano. maybe we ought to stay over."

Very firmly Gohan said, "Not this time." He wanted to go home, and he simply didn't allow any debate. He hustled around efficiently, gathering papers, tidying, checking to be sure he had what facts he needed for the weekend.

"You're leaving?" Paresu roused. "You're going to drive this late?" It was seven and would be light for another couple of hours.

Her appalled shock gladdened Goten's heart. He smiled and straightened. "We've a copter. We're staying in Apple, and of course, we have an office there." Then he said, "May I see you safely home?" As if there were dangerous dragons lurking in Peach's alleyways.

Gohan began to protest, "We need to get on." But Goten and Marron were going out the door. Gohan turned to share his amusement with Trunks. However, Trunks was standing with his hands crossed over his chest watching, in elaborate disgust, as Marron sassily anchored two peacock feathers in the top of her hair, knotted high on the back of her head. Then she looked at Trunks quite smugly, and Trunks moved slowly, threateningly toward her, blowing on his magic ring. She laughed that throaty laugh of a woman who knows she's attractive to a man. Gohan put back his head and called, "Videl!" and was unheard by her or anyone around him.

When Gohan started to pace in earnest, Goten came back up on the porch with Paresu. Goten opened the screen door and helped Paresu over the flat threshold and said with pleased astonishment, "She's never personally seen a chopper take off!"

Gohan commented a solemn, "Chikyu to anyone," which went by everyone else.

Goten said casually, "We have her car, so we'll meet you out there."

Gohan held up a traffic cop hand. "Hold it! We all go together."

"Oh, we're not going." Trunks said reasonably and with a perfectly straight face. "We feel that this launch is top secret, and we shouldn't draw attention to it by going out and standing around waving you off."

Gohan was even firmer. "Goten, it's getting late. We'll go out together. We'll take Trunks station wagon, leave it there, and he can pick it up tomorrow."

"I'll drive you!" Paresu said with a blinding smile of inspiration.

Gohan decided firmly, "I'll drive." Then he turned and surveyed Trunks, who had his arm draped over Marron as his hand petted the peacock feathers.

Gohan then turned to Goten, who, with an idiotic grin was looking at Paresu. Then Gohan announced to the ceiling, "Two of them!" before he instructed, "I'll fly too."

Trunks and Marron went out on the porch to wave the trio off, and then went over to sit on the porch swing. "Tell me about this Sharpener," Trunks commanded.

"He's a forty-one year old lawyer who lives in Papaya. I met him during a lease signing for one part of a farm. His client wanted to square off his tilling and planting tidily. He's been to California and will be back in Peach next week."

"Do you love him? Did you?"

"He was 'suitable'."

"Am I?"

"Suitable?" She laughed. "I found you on a highway and became acquainted with you at a county fair. I have no idea about you at all." She looked up to laugh at him at the preposterous happenings in her life, but he was serious.

"Tell me what you know about me." He took her hand and put his other arm along the back of the swing around her. "What have you learned about me?"

"You drove a Muscle Machine."

"That was the only car available. Car rentals have a lot of them. Meek, family men who own a station wagon drive them and get to live a little. I find them a little confining. Cops watch them especially. They look as if they're going fifty standing still."

"You're strong. You can easily carry me up a flight of stairs. You can ring a bell at a carnival midway, and when the word spreads that 'Trunks is here,' terror strikes into the gambler's heart."

"What else?"

"You have a great sense of humor. You can laugh at yourself. You're big enough to allow someone else to win, and you will compete in a contest with a bully in a game you know nothing about. You were magnificent."

"Nothing more?" He wasn't teasing.

She grinned. "You're a god who looks a little like a battered lion."

With some impatience he questioned, "Haven't you discovered that I care for you? That I want to please you and be with you?"

She laughed a delighted trill. "I did notice that."

"Marron, I'm not talking about making love." His voice was low and earnest. "Haven't you discovered that I love you?"

"How could you? We've known each other a week. Only a week! How could you know you love me?"

"I don't know. It hit me like it's hit Goten, but I handled it a whole lot better. I didn't keel over and act like a substandard wolf. I was perfectly normal. But under it all I was exactly like Goten is now with Paresu except I could carry on a conversation. I moved and functioned quite well."

"I didn't notice."

"How could you not notice when it cost me so such control? I was doing it all for you so you wouldn't think I was a fool."

"I thought you were the most magnificent and exciting man I'd ever seen."

"See?" He was triumphant.

"That's attraction."

"That's a beginning. What will it take for you to be convinced?"

"I don't know." She shook her head sadly.

"I do. You can fly blind, in this case. I know it's right with us. I know it! You can trust me in this and give up to me. Marry me, Marron. I'll do my best for you. For all your quests you set for me. I would give you my life."

"Oh, Trunks, you're just so sweet, but it scares me. This is so strange to me! I've never experienced anything like this or behaved in this way. I don't understand what's happening to me. You're so practiced. This isn't a strange territory for you. I'm lost. I'm a little panicked. How can I know what I feel?" I need guideposts and signs. She was a little teary and gulped. "A map?"

"I love you."

"I've never been this way with any man." It was the best she could do.

He held her gently. "We'll come about. Don't worry. Everything will be exactly right. No rush. For now, just let me love you."

She fingered his shirt button and sighed. "I would feel better if you moved out. I am embarrassed."

"No. Possession is nine points of the law. I don't want you to forget me."

Her laugh was a bit watery. "Oh, Trunks, you idiot. If I never saw you again, I would remember you for the rest of my life."

In his rough voice he urged, "Doesn't that tell you anything?"

"But I have nothing to compare you with. I have no reference points. You are a god come into my life. How can I, a mortal woman, know if you haven't simply bedazzled me because you are so different? How can I know you're willing to marry a mortal, and not become disinterested with one and leave me wrecked when you go find a goddess?"

"Don't you realize you are one?"

"Oh, Trunks. Is that your heart? Or is that your skilled tongue?"

As he said before, he again said. "This may take a while. I've the patience."

"If I were more sophisticated."

"If you were married, toothless, with seventeen brats by some cull, it would be the same between us."

And she laughed, more touched by those words than by his calling her a goddess.

They hadn't heard the helicopter lift off, though it was audible all over town. The first they knew Goten and Gohan had left was when Paresu drove into the driveway and missed the rose bushes with some latent skill.

With studied casualness, Paresu came up on the porch, helped Trunks pull a great wooden rocker over in front of the swing and proceeded to cross-examine Trunks about Goten from his birth to his fillings.

Paresu was appalled to learn that Goten had rashly married another woman five years before, but she understood when they were divorced a year and a half later. It was well they realized their mistake. She was intrigued that he was an engineer, that he had tried to be and astronaut and that he was a cook. She mused, "So complex."

Marron was indulgently amused, as she sat there. Her small hand was hidden under Trunks' large one; not really listening to his and Paresu's talk lulled by the motion of the swing controlled by Trunks' foot.

Paresu finally ran out of sensible questions but, not wanting to give up talking about Goten, started asking inane, sporadic ones. But she finally, slowly rose and said tentatively that she must go. Trunks had stood up too. He took her arm and led her down the steps to her car. One repeated question surfaced again, "And they'll be back on Monday?"

Patiently Trunks replied, "Yes."

She reluctantly left, and Trunks came back up the steps to stand before Marron. "It's time for bed, Marron."

"Trunks." She took the hand he held to her and stood up. She laid her hand to his chest and looked earnestly into his face. "You must not sleep with me tonight."

"Honey, I don't mind. If you don't want to make love this time of your month it's okay. I'll just hold you."

"It isn't that." She allowed him to hold her to him. "It's that I feel we shouldn't."

"Ah?"

"It confuses me. I can't think straight. It influences me."

"Me too."

"Then you do understand?"

"No, I didn't mean to give that impression. I'm just willing to give you time. But not much, Marron."

She slid her hand from his chest and wrapped her arms around his body to hug him. "Oh, Trunks." She sighed shakily. "Life was so uncomplicated not too long ago." She had almost said before she'd met him, but that wasn't true. She'd been having problems before she met Trunks Briefs. She had been uncertain, restless and discontented. Now she was still uncertain. More so. He'd only made it all more complex.

They went separately into their rooms to lie awake, thinking. She heard him get up and go to the bathroom to fill a glass with water, and she heard him pause outside her door. She clenched her fists and was silent. She heard him later as he went down the stairs to the study, but she didn't get out of bed to follow him. She forced herself to lie there and be silent and still.

Could she trust Trunks? She wondered. He was so worldly. He had taken her by storm at a vulnerable time. She knew he was special, but could she be certain that this madness she felt for him was love? How could she be sure she wasn't self-deluded? She felt such strong emotion for him, but was it simply physical? That she wanted him was thrillingly sure. That she wanted to be with him was adamantly positive. But how much experience did she have with such decisions? Was it simply so unique that she was mesmerized?

What if she lost him? How could she ever go back to being the Marron Chestnut she'd been before he came to her life? She felt so bleak and empty that she was alarmed. How could a man take hold of a woman's life so fast? She loved him. How could if possibly have become love in so short a time? Was it only obsession?

Whatever it was, however long it would last, she wanted as much of him as she could have. She couldn't waste any time. She rose from her bed and in her sleeveless cotton nightgown walked slowly, deliberately across her room to her door. Then she went down the stairs to the door of the study, to pause there.

She'd moved so silently that Trunks hadn't heard her approach. He was so deep in his thoughts that when he sensed her, then looked up and saw her, he momentarily thought he'd conjured her image. She blushed. No image blushed, he realized, rising from the chair. He moved to her, in thrall. She had come to him! He took her hungrily, possessively into his arms and crushed her to his body. She gave up herself. Her surrender was complete as he lifted her in his arms.

But he didn't carry her into the hall. He took her with him to his chair there in the study and sat with her on his lap. He held her. His deep rough pirate voice whispered endearments in her ear. "My love, my own, my goddess."

She clung to him and wept. Her tears ran down her cheeks until she calmed. Then he rocked her gently in the swivel chair, murmuring soothing words, as he petted her swirl of golden hair from her moon-pale face. Her lashes spiked with her tears and her breath trembled with them. Eventually he could ask her. "What is it, my love? Why do you cry?"

"I can't give you up."

"Ah, progress." He had no handkerchief, although heroes never lacked them. But he found a clean, envelope-size ink blotter in the desk and blotted her face with it, causing her a wan smile.

"I'm not sure." She lifted her clotted eyelashes to look up into his face and added with a pulled-down mouth. "I'm so tiresomely unsure."

"Your instincts are doing great."

He settled her into his lap, in his arms, and told here a long, tedious story about a cruise he was on at age eighteen. So he had been a sailor. She smiled, her neck muscles jerked with the residue of her weeping and she settled into her harbor and fell sound asleep.

He held her for a long time after she slept. Did she love him. enough? And his face was harsh and his mouth was almost snarled over the thought of ever losing her. All his plans had come to right. He wondered how big a threat Sharpener was and if he could actually do him bodily harm if it came to that.

At last he lifted her out across his arms, stood and found one of his legs was half asleep. He hobbled painfully across the room with part of his mind amused by his predicament. He had to walk around downstairs before he trusted his leg to be safe in carrying her up the steps to her room. where he laid her on her bed to sleep in solitary isolation.

The next day she was a little shy again with Trunks, but he acted perfectly natural. They cleaned, grocery-shopped, and he organized the study and worked on papers. It was late Saturday afternoon when the phone rang. Trunks picked it up automatically, but it was man who asked for Marron. Trunks soberly handed her the phone and his mind snarled. Was it Sharpener?

She was equally curious and said, "Hello?" And without and self-consciousness at all, Trunks listened to her half of the conversation. "Oh, yes, Rev. Empitsu. That's very kind of you. Yes, thank you for calling. Yes. Goodbye." Slowly she laid the phone in its cradle before she looked up into Trunks' avid stare. "It was Rev. Empitsu."

"Oh?"

"He just called to see if I needed to see him and to be sure I'd be in church tomorrow."

"I see."

"Some of the people here in Peach told me they'd told Rev. Empitsu about you living here with me. I suppose he thought he ought to see me."

"Is he coming over here?"

"He doesn't live in Peach. With the towns dying, there aren't enough people to support even one local minister. He comes three Sundays out of four. No one ever agrees with him. Poor man. This new one is from Pineapple City. He had to learn to drive a car because, you know, the transit system is so good in Pineapple City, and parking cars is impossible, that no one drives. He ran into the fireplug the first Sunday he was here. It didn't work anyway - the fireplug."

"He must find central Mango somewhat different from Pineapple City." Trunks sat down and patted his knees for her to sit on his lap. But she sat rather primly in another chair.

She agreed. "Actually, he said it was something of a culture shock." She waited for Trunks' surprised laugh. "And he is an only child. That's been no help at all for he wasn't prepared for the squabbling among us. None of us agrees, and no one hesitates to contradict or criticize."

"How's he holding up?" Trunks was by then amused.

"He is fascinated. He wants to write a book about us, but word leaked out and a committee visited him to forbid it. He promised no one would recognize anyone. But they couldn't allow it. They said it was all very well to squabble at home, but no one broadcasts it around - outside the family, so to speak."

"Wouldn't that be interesting reading? An outsider's point of view."

"Well, no," Marron disagreed. "You see, since he's a preacher, he would probably use us as a horrible example of Christianity, and we all think of ourselves as shining examples of pure thought and." She faltered to a standstill, looked down and blushed.

"A little guilt creep in there?"

"I believe that's my whole problem in a nutshell, Trunks. I don't feel any guilt about you at all!"

It was as if the sunshine was truly in him as he whispered, "Oh, my love."

"Now don't go getting mushy. We're doing very well right now."

"I thought you didn't feel any guilt."

"Not about anything we've done, but I can't just go on so loose and wanton."

"Do you feel wanton?" He frowned a little, earnestly watching her.

"No." She smiled at him. "Only guilty about the way you make me feel when I look at you."

He sat up straight and took a deep breath. Then he stood up, gasping air as he walked around, shaking his head and rubbing his stomach. He came over to her and leaned over to show her the top of his head as he asked, "Is it still there? It feels as if you just blew it off."

She ruffled his lilac hair and laughed. "You silly."

Then he squatted in front of her chair and put his hands on her knees to steady himself. "So I make you feel wanton, do I?"

"I don't think it's a very good idea to talk about it, Trunks. I'll get all upset and agitated."

"Of course, I would remain calm and placid."

"It's nice you have such control!" She retorted, and she stared as he burst out laughing and shaking his head. "You don't? I've been very impressed. You put me to bed and left me there alone. That was sweet of you, Trunks, when I'm so perplexed and confused. You are considerate."

"Don't worry, my love. It will all work out." He leaned up and kissed her cheek. "Let's go out and walk."

The July day was hot, and the evening barely less so. They wore cotton pullovers, jeans to protect their legs, and running shoes. They got into his station wagon and she directed him into the country along a dirt track to a part of one of her farms that lay fallow. They stopped at a wide wooden gate. She got out to open it until he drove though and then closed it behind the car. They drove on down the tractor track, got out and walked.

There was a cow or two that watched their progress with wide-eyed curiosity. A dog joined them for a time, but they simply walked. She didn't mention the land was hers. He said, "You know your way without keeping track of landmarks."

"I grew up here."

"Then moved into Peach to live the life of a city girl?" He teased.

"I've been to Europe five times."

"Excellent."

" 'Small town' doesn't mean isolated. Not in this day and time. Probably television has had the most to do with expanding people's knowledge. Television is a remarkable tool. You don't have to be able to read to learn what other peoples are like. Or what the world is like."

"I love you, Marron."

"Because I like TV?" She laughed up at him and swung his hand a little.

"Because I can't believe I've found you."

"No, it was I. I deliberately picked you up, you know. I had worried a little about walking past you, then I saw you crawling out of that wicked car, and your movement did something strange inside me. I stood there and I couldn't move. I was trying to think of how to approach you, you know, in a flirting way, and you said, 'Well, hello.' How did you think to say that perfectly ordinary thing to me? You didn't scare me. You didn't make me feel threatened. You were so easy. Just 'hello'."

"I was glad to see you. You were a miracle. I probably would have throttled that cameraman for scaring you off, but after I saw the pictures I forgave him. I knew I'd find you again. Bu I regret that night was cut short."

That Saturday night was a long one for Marron. She dreaded to go to church the next day. She wondered if she'd be tarred and feathered. But she examined her conscience and she felt no great terrible wrong within herself. She wasn't a loose or promiscuous woman. She would face censure bravely.

However, when she came down to breakfast - dressed quite carefully in a dark gray, short-sleeved cotton suit and heels - she asked Trunks offhandedly if he would like to come to church.

"Not this time," he said a little absently. "I've a pile of figures to go through, and I can get it done without you here in the house distracting me." He smiled at her. "You look gorgeous."

She also looked a little pale. He went with her to the door. Their town had the early service that morning. She seemed reluctant to leave him, and he was touched by that until she smiled and straightened and said, "I'll probably come back with a stack of scarlet A's to sew on all my clothes." And she gave him a quick, false laugh.

Rigid with sudden understanding, he stood frozen as she went down the steps and began to walk down the street.

No one was actually rude to her. Everyone did speak. People in small towns can't afford not to speak when they're mad, because, there wouldn't be anyone left to talk to. Their reception of Marron was very cool and formal. Except for Henko Taido, but then she wasn't reliable and would do and say almost anything.

"Come sit with us," Henko invited. "You know we always sit at the back row and pretend we aren't actually at a service, but we'll make room."

"Thank you, but I'll sit where I regularly do."

So she sat alone. The pews were family conscription pews. She'd always sat alone. But now no one turned and whispered to her. No one stopped to chat, although everyone did give her at least a cool nod. She waited.

The organ pumped up with a single note, then crashed into the opening hymn as the Rev. Empitsu came into church. They all stood and sang before they bowed their heads in opening prayer. Then they sat down in a rustling and with an occasional elbow or knee bumping hollowly against the wooden pews. Suddenly, there was an electric silence and an almost chorused in-drawn breath.

Marron looked at the Rev. Mr. Empitsu, but he was simply arranging his notes on the lectern, then he glance up, smiled a warm welcome down the aisle, and continued his brief delay as Trunks, neatly shaved and dressed in suit and tie, came to Marron's pew and smiled down at her.

I've nothing against Christian services. Please don't hate me. It's just that I think that it makes the small, conservative town atmosphere more believable since they are bound to disapprove of such a union between our favorite couple. Ne?

Coming soon! The new fic is gonna be called Helpless. Physically-challenged Trunks is determined to get his life back to normal at all costs. But the hired temp ruins his plans for good.