§ § § -- December 23, 2001
Leslie's mood was much lower than her father's and husband's were at the moment. Just about the time they were talking things over, she found herself at the pool, which was lavishly decorated for Christmas, watching people coming and going, swimming, talking, enjoying drinks or just reading. Everything seemed to be going smoothly at the moment; it was a relief, after that morning's fracas in the lane involving four hotel employees. The gist of the whole thing seemed to have been a case of perceived favoritism, and Leslie had finally told them they'd better take their complaint down a level and present it to Jimmy Omamara. Sort of like going directly to the Supreme Court over a fender-bender, she thought with a faint flash of humor. She eventually decided she might as well check at the casino, but before she'd made it out of the pool area, she encountered Maureen with Brianna, Myeko with Noelle and a stroller holding Dawn, and Lauren. It had been a little while since she'd seen Lauren at least, and for a few minutes her spirits lifted somewhat as they greeted one another and Brianna and Noelle scuttled off to take a swim. Lauren and Leslie both admired four-month-old Dawn, who was a lively, animated baby with a huge smile for everyone she saw, and then the four friends located an empty table and took seats.
"Geez," Lauren was saying as they sat down, "that kid's a chunker, Myeko. I guess you were right about her eating every hour on the hour."
Myeko grinned. "She's finally calmed down some. Nick says she decided to go on a diet." They all laughed. "Yeah, Dawn was a surprise, but you know what? Noelle's a terrific help with her, because she was so thrilled to get a sister—especially with Toki and his wife turning out a houseful of boys. And when I stopped and thought about it, I felt wonderful at the idea of having Nick's child. I can't tell you how crazy I am about him, you guys. He's so patient with all the kids, and he thinks Noelle's gonna grow up to be a vet…just tickles him pink. She gets such a kick out of helping with the animals he treats."
"You can thank Leslie for that," said Lauren with a grin. "Come to think of it, I probably owe her some thanks too."
"I didn't introduce you to Brian," Leslie said in surprise.
"No, but you and Mr. Roarke agreed to give away a trip here on a game show, which his sister won, and she invited him to come, and if it weren't for all that, we never would've met. Besides, I returned the favor by introducing you to Christian…sort of." Lauren smirked playfully, and Maureen and Myeko both laughed; but their cheer died when Leslie went silent. "Hey…what's wrong?"
For a day and a half Leslie's emotions had been riding much too close to the surface, like lava bubbling beneath a fragile crust, and Lauren's question gouged the chink in the armor. It took no more than their sympathetic, curious looks to make Leslie drop her face in her hands and burst into tears. Her friends exclaimed in startled alarm and tried to comfort her, repeatedly urging her to talk about it. She just shook her head and went on crying.
Finally Maureen said, "Leslie, is there something else going on? I mean…Grady mentioned he got a call from Mr. Roarke yesterday morning, asking if he might be able to look at what turned out to be the contract that forced Christian's marriage to his second wife. Grady said that since he thinks of Christian as his friend, he couldn't maintain impartiality. He told me about it later on, and he wondered what was up. It just occurred to me to ask about it. Is there some fantasy in progress that you can't talk about?"
"You should talk about it, even if it does involve a fantasy," Lauren said, frowning. "I've never seen you that upset. You know we won't tell anyone—we've known you too long to go around blabbing. Come on, Leslie, before you cry enough tears to fill that pool, give over. Is somebody suggesting yours and Christian's marriage isn't legal?"
Leslie looked up finally and shook her head. "Not quite, but you aren't too far from the truth. Please, guys, you can't tell anyone, especially considering who's here. But I have to talk about it. It's killing me." They waited while she struggled to compose herself; then she looked up and said in a low voice, "It's all turned into such a mess. The count who's Marina's father is here on the island, claiming Christian committed breach of contract by annulling his marriage to Marina, but he knows that both Marina's marriage and Christian's and mine are valid and uncontestable. But he must have some screws loose, because he's determined to get some kind of revenge on Christian, and he decided to do that by selling Christian's soul to the devil. Mephistopheles is on the island too, which means there's going to be another confrontation."
Lauren, Maureen and Myeko looked at one another; while they believed her—they'd known her too long to be skeptical of anything she told them about the fantasy-granting business—they were a little puzzled. "No wonder you look so tense," Myeko said.
"That's only part of it," Leslie said, and her eyes welled up again. "When Father told me, I panicked like I've never done before in my life, and took off to Amberville and pulled Christian out of his office right in front of Anton and Julianne. I was so terrified Mephistopheles might get to Christian before I could get him to safety, I couldn't think beyond making him come back to the main house with me. But Christian didn't understand, and he got upset with me. Then when we got inside, Mephistopheles was there, and Christian just didn't believe what he was seeing. Mephistopheles had to prove who he really was. Even then Christian didn't get it. I kept trying to tell him Mephistopheles was after him, and even when he saw him…" She swallowed hard and tried to slow the torrent of words. "Only when Father explained things to him did he finally realize exactly how much danger he's really in. I warned him the day after we were married. I told him never to even joke about selling his soul for any reason. I thought he believed me. I thought he took me seriously."
"And he didn't, is that it?" asked Lauren softly.
Leslie shook her head. "I was so frustrated with him that I wound up screaming at him for it. And then I ran out…I just…" She gasped loudly and cried, "He was so angry with me, and I got so mad at him, and…"
"Oh no," Maureen said. "You two fought?"
"Holy cow," Myeko said, wincing. "Not you two…the lovebirds of the century." That made Leslie break down into sobs, and Lauren and Myeko both rubbed her shoulders, trying to calm her a little. "Leslie, come on, you'll make up. Couples fight all the time. Nick and I kept nagging each other over how much time each of us spent feeding Dawn and how much time we weren't devoting to Alexander and Noelle, right up till earlier this month when Dawn finally learned to let more than one TV show pass between meals. We really hollered at each other a few times, Leslie. And look, we're still completely blissed out together."
"I make you a bet Christian's just as miserable as you are," Lauren said gently. "When Brian and I fight, we're always in such funks till we make up."
Leslie shook her head. "I can't get past it," she said helplessly, tears streaming down her face. Her friends looked at each other.
"Can't get past what?" Maureen asked.
"He didn't trust me," Leslie said starkly, her eyes filled with a pain and betrayal that made her friends nervous. "I thought he took me seriously when I told him about Mephistopheles. It looked like he did. Then yesterday he treated me like someone just escaped from a funny farm, and even after he realized it really was Mephistopheles, he still thought I was nuts. I realized then that the only way he'd believe it was if Father told him, and that's when I just lost it." She closed her eyes and let the tears fall. "Do you know how much it hurt me to realize that? Of all the people in the world, I thought he trusted me…"
Lauren and Myeko looked at each other uneasily; Maureen cleared her throat and leaned forward. Among all Leslie's friends, she was the most grounded, the voice of calm and reason, the one who seemed to see things more clearly than any of the others. "Leslie," she said, "how long have you lived on this island?"
"Since I was almost fourteen," said Leslie, looking at her blankly.
"And how long has Christian lived here?" Maureen went on.
"Almost a year…I know where you're going with this," Leslie said tiredly. "Father told me the same thing yesterday. Maureen, that's not the problem. He should have trusted me!"
Maureen sighed patiently. "Leslie, think about what you were telling him. Fantasy Island or not, it's kind of hard to swallow the idea that Mephistopheles can pop up out of nowhere and call you on it if you make a wisecrack about selling your soul. Try to think about it from Christian's point of view. Anybody would've been skeptical. I know I sure would've been, and I was born here. Y'know, a few years ago Grady and I were in southern California with Brianna, doing the usual tourist stuff, and people were always surprised to hear we were from Fantasy Island. We were staying in Anaheim, in a hotel near Disneyland, and actually met up with someone who'd had a fantasy granted years before. When he heard where we were from, he told us a little about it, and he mentioned that we were the first people he'd given any details about it to since he'd made the trip. Turned out his fantasy had something to do with some Russian folk tale, and he knew nobody would've believed it if he'd told them about it."
"What's your point?" Leslie asked when Maureen paused for a breath.
"My point is, people know about this island, and about Mr. Roarke, and they know what he does—but they don't really understand everything that's involved, or what can happen here. Most folks just go on with their everyday lives without ever meeting up with all the crazy beings and events that are practically second nature to you and Mr. Roarke. That even applies to people here. Leslie, don't you realize you're the only one of our group who's ever seen Mephistopheles, or Athena, or that weird Finnish god that killed Teppo, or a ghost? I'm not saying we don't believe you when you tell us about this stuff, but it's hard for us to visualize, and that's one of the reasons we're always so fascinated by your war stories from your job—because it's all so removed from everyday life. You, on the other hand—you're so immersed in it, you hardly even think about it anymore."
Lauren nodded. "That's true," she said, "and you know, Leslie, even though Christian's married to you now, he still isn't as close to it as you are. He doesn't see any of this stuff any more often than we do. Don't you think you're expecting too much from him?"
Startled out of her tears, Leslie stared at them both, slowly falling back in her chair and absorbing Maureen's observations and Lauren's postscript. Her gaze turned inward; her friends waited patiently, watching her face change as it slowly sank in. When she looked up, she was pale. "You're right," she whispered. "Father tried to tell me that yesterday, but I felt so betrayed by Christian's reaction, I wasn't ready to hear it."
Myeko gave her a game little grin. "I bet he trusts the heck out of you now, Leslie."
Maureen and Lauren both laughed, and even Leslie had to smile a little. "So what're you gonna do now?" Lauren asked.
Leslie sighed, a heavy, shuddering sigh, and propped her elbows on the table again, resting her head in her hands. "I can't read Christian's feelings," she admitted. "I don't know what he's thinking. I've learned he has a real capacity to brood, and when he does that he'll just go dead silent. I have to coax him to tell me anything then. I learned that when Arnulf died this summer and Christian was trying to come to terms with his and Arnulf's history. He'll sit and glare, but I can never tell what's really going through his mind."
"So ask him," said Myeko with a shrug. "Nick gives me the most murderous looks on earth when I ask him, but he tells me anyway."
"We have to prepare to face Mephistopheles tonight," Leslie said and shuddered in her chair enough to shake the table. "I can tell you right now, I'm terrified. That count…I know enough to know he and Christian hate each other. He'll do everything he possibly can to see to it that Mephistopheles walks off with Christian's soul. He supposedly has that contract with him. We don't even know how valid it is." She looked up at her friends, her eyes swimming again, her chin trembling. "And you know something," she whispered, tears overflowing, "I just can't live without Christian. I can't. It'd kill me."
"So you go in with Mr. Roarke, you fight the devil and Count Crazy, and you save Christian's life," said Lauren, shrugging. "Seems pretty cut-and-dried to me, Leslie. Or are you still so mad at Christian that you're considering not going?"
"What if the count's right?" Leslie cried and began to sob again. "What if…" Her voice dissolved into her misery and she finally rested her head on her folded arms, weeping brokenheartedly. Lauren and Myeko rubbed her shoulders again, feeling useless, and Maureen sat gnawing on her knuckle, a worried gleam in her green eyes.