Chapter 3, Unexpected Encounters

"Well, Miss Katey, I didn't expect to run into you here." James Phelps said.

"Nor I you. What--what're you doing here?"

"In town on business," he said with his patented charming smile. "And yourself?"

"I live here."

"Let me help you with that." James said, picking up the bag she had set on the cement.

"No--don't--I--" but he already had.

"Can I help you get these home?"

Kateyhad "no, thank you" on the tip of her tongue, but it was a mixed bag. On the one hand, she wouldn't accidentally drop one of her bags and break a carton of eggs if she had help with them. But on the other hand, she would have to spend time with the lugubrious James Phelps. Fine.

"Sure. It's good to see you again." she said with an enthusiasm that she didn't feel.

"I'm good. And you?"

"Fine." she settled the bag onto her hip and started walking toward her building. He followed.

"It's been a while. How's your family?"

"Fine. Mom and Dad are still in St Lois. Susie goes to Columbia. I graduated from Radcliff."

"Impressive. Where do you work, are you married?"

Katey smiled.

"I work at the Times. I have a column and no, I'm not married. Yourself?"

"I work with a law firm in Seattle. I'm in town for a conference. Yes, I'm married," Katey looked at his left hand and now saw the gold band. "To Eve. You remember her, don't you?"

"How could I forget?"

"Have you heard what's happening in Cuba? It's awful."

Katey looked at him. He looked the same. The fall sunlight shown in his bright blue eyes. His hair was a bit different, but he was still the same James.

"Yes, it is awful," Katey said softly. "They all had so much hope."

When she had returned home from Cuba in 1959, she had read everything she could get her hands on about the goings-on in Cuba.

"Is this you?"

"What?" she asked. She had been thinking about Cuba, a subject that had been pushed from her mind long ago, but had returned the previous night.

"I asked if this is you." James was pointing to her apartment building.

"Yes, it is." she smiled at the doorman as she walked by. He tipped his hat to her.

They walked up the stairs chatting about their lives since they had seen each other last. When they reached her apartment, James asked the question Katey had hoped wasn't coming.

"Do you still write to…..your friend?"

Katey dug her key out of her purse, not looking at him and thinking of what to say.

"No, I don't. It's been so nice to see you again James, a real pleasure. Thank you for your help. We must get together while you're still in town." Katey sounded just like her mother. She shook his hand, opened the door and set the bags inside.

"Yes, nice to see you too. May I have your number so I can check about getting together? Eve is here also, I'm sure she'd like to get together with you also."

Katey winced. She'd rather eat pins and die, but if she was rude to James, her mother might find out, and then there would be hell to pay. Jeanne Miler still liked to have her daughter within her reach, although she was an adult.

"Yes. Of course." Katie pulled her card out of her purse and gave it to him.

"Take care." he said as he walked away.

Katey smiled until he turned his back and then she gave him the finger.

"Damn you to hell, James." she said, still angry at him for what he did to her in Cuba.

"So, what'd he say?" Susie asked. Katey was sitting at the table hours later as Susie puttered around the kitchen making dinner. She knew her way around well; she stayed with Katey so often.

"Just asked how I was, what was going with everyone. He's married." Susie whirled around.

"To who? Who would marry that--"

"Eve. from Cuba. He said they met again three years ago. He works for her dad. Apparently it was love at first sight.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!" Susie squealed "Oh. I don't think your back left burner works."

"Nope. The super said he'd fix it in a few weeks."

"But how can you live?" asked Susie, who was majoring in culinary arts. Katey shrugged.

"I mostly live on take-out. I only went shopping today because you're here."

"Yeah, when I got here your fridge had nothing but a half-empty bottle of milk and enough condiments to feed Tuvalu."

"What's Tuvalu?"

"A country, stupid."

"Oh. He also said--" Katey was cut off by a knock at the door. She got up from her seat at the table and crossed the living room to answer the door. She answered it to find a man with wild gray hair and wearing a brown bathrobe standing at her door.

"You're doing it again." he said.

"Mr. Heckles, we weren't making any noise." Susie said from the kitchen, used to Katey crazy downstairs neighbor.

"You're disturbing my ferrets. They're breeding."

"Mr. Heckles, you don't have ferrets." Katey said.

"I could have ferrets."

"Good-bye, Mr. Heckles." Katey slammed the door.

"You owe me baby ferrets." he said through the closed door.

She sighed and pushed a hand through her hair, her eyes closed.

"Everyday," she said. "Everyday."

"He's just hoping that one day you'll answer the door in a towel." Susie said absently. Katey smiled.

"Did he ask about Javier?" Susie asked while they were eating dinner. Katey put down her fork.

"Do we always have to talk about him?" Katey asked quietly.

"No, we never talk about him. You don't, at least. You haven't talked about
him in years."

"That's because I don't want to." Katey said, picking at her wild rice.

"Katey, it's been five years. You have to move on."

"I have moved on."

"Fine. When was the last time you went on a date?" Susie asked.

"Last week I went to the movies with a guy named Steve." This was only half true. She had gone out with Steve, but it had been two months ago.

"Steve The Lizard Man? That's so gross! I met him; he's the one that breeds iguanas in his closet. How could you have gone out with Steve The Lizard Man?"

"It was only once. And he was nice." He was nice. And she didn't mind the lizard thing that much. He was sweet, and gentlemanly."

"Fine, then how come it was only once, huh?" Susie pressed, her voice getting louder.

"Because--" Katey was interrupted by a banging noise. It was Heckles below them, banging on his ceiling with a broom. She and Susie stomped on the floor instinctively.

"Because you're still in love with Javier, admit it!" Katey got up and washed her plate in the sink. She put it in the dish rack and went into her room, slamming the door. She could hear Susie slam the door of the other bedroom. Heckles pounded on his ceiling once more and the girls both stomped, although neither one knew the other had.

Katey sat on her bed, trying not to cry. She hugged a pillow to her chest and pulled out a shoebox from under her bed. She opened it and pulled out a picture that she hadn't looked at in months, maybe years.

She and Javier smiled happily in it. It was the last night they'd seen each other, and they looked so…..wonderful. They both looked elated dancing together. Katey shoved the picture back into the box and kicked the box off the bed. It spilled onto the floor, a picture of Javier was facing up. Katey turned away and buried her face in a pillow and cried.

Javier was the beautiful Cuban boy she'd tried so hard to forget. She had been almost empty when she met him, and he had introduced her to a world she never knew existed. He had taught her about Cuban dancing and how to dance. And how to love. She remembered the first time she'd seen him, when she knocked into him and spilled the tray of drinks he'd been carrying. She remembered Eve, who'd insulted him. She remembered so many things, but they all ran together in her head. Things were starting to get to Katey again. She hadn't thought of Cuba in so long. Why had she had that dream?