Eli and his friends did not have to wait for a servant to lead them into the house, when they visited Mr. Anderson the next day. Grace Griffin was waiting at the doorway for them, in a beautiful garden dress, her red locks flowing gorgeously. She beamed at seeing them.
"Oh thank God, come in," she said. "I've had nothing to do all day. It's a little known secret that an 'exclusive neighbourhood' actually means unimaginably boring. Come on in. You are about the only interesting things I've seen around here so far. I'm counting on you to make my vacation fun."
She brushed Eli's arm as she said this, walking with them to the dining room. "Come on Eli, sit next to me," she whispered in his ear. "It will save me from having to answer Caleb's questions all night."
Eli happily agreed, and he never imagined he could have so much fun in a room that had been hell the last time he'd been here. Eli and Grace spoke all night. He told her about Toronto, she told him about New York. She spoke about the places she'd gone, he spoke about his family. They talked about books, and movies, and music, and found they had pretty similar tastes.
Faith Diaz was talking more than usual, but this only to her step-father, and that only for having to answer the questions he kept posing her. Still, Eli kept noticing her gaze slip away, see Faith Diaz staring at him and Grace curiously. Eventually, even Caleb Anderson's attention fell on the pair.
"What are you saying over there, Grace? What are you talking about? What are you telling Eli? Come on, let me hear."
"I was just telling him…what a beautiful pool you have." Grace winked at Eli.
"Yes, it's true. I can show it to you all if you want. Do you like swimming, Eli?"
"I guess. I'm not really very good."
"Pity. Faith's brother is excellent. I believe he won a medal for it in school?"
"Yes, he did," said Faith. "It was just about the only sport I could get him to go into. He didn't want to do one that involved physical contact or hand-eye coordination." The table was offered a rare treat, Faith Diaz giggled. Her fond eyes glowed, then she seemed slightly saddened. "It's a shame I won't be spending Christmas with him. It's the first time that I haven't. He's on a cruise with his school for the break. I encouraged him to, I felt it would be a good way for him to make new friends."
"Yes," said Mr. Anderson. "It's very important to be physically active when you're young. I'm sure if my son Andrew had been healthier, he would have been an extraordinary athlete. Come on, let's go sit by the pool side. Eli, since you're so interested, feel free to take a dip. I always keep extra swimming trunks around in case of company. With a pool, it's really a must."
"Oh, wonderful," said Grace. "I'm going to go change into my swim wear. Come on Faith, you have to, too!"
"Oh, no, no. Really. I'll just sit by the water."
Eli, personally, would not have minded sitting out either, but as Grace insisted, he borrowed one of Mr. Anderson's pair of trunks as Grace changed into a bikini. Chase and Samuel decided to go for a swim too. Mr. Anderson, along with his son, sat by the pool edge on expensive-looking patio furniture, Faith beside him, still be interrogated with questions. Lillian, not wanting to miss anything her boss said, sat out too, though she occasionally waved and Chase and blew him kisses.
As Chase and Samuel splashed around and goofed off in one side of the pool, Grace and Eli were swimming across on the other side. Eli could not swim very well at all, and Grace asked him to stride across the pool to see how well he could, and to offer improvements. He struggled to stay above the water more than a few seconds, kept splashing up gulfing for air, and felt pretty silly doing it.
As he was doing this a second time, he suddenly notice Faith had wandered away from the others, and was now standing at the pool's edge, staring right at him. Feeling her eyes on him, Eli could no longer concentrate. He looked up and saw her, arms crossed, lips pressed, her eyes narrowed on him.
"And just what are you doing, Faith? Trying to intimidate me? Well, good luck. You don't frighten me, Ms. Diaz."
"Well, do you want me to put on a scene and say how wrong you are?" said Faith. "But why I should I? I know you don't really think I came here to scare you. I've known you long enough to know you really enjoy saying ridiculous things as seriously as possible, even if you don't believe them."
To this Eli just laughed. Then she turned to Grace and said, "Look at how she's trying to ruin my character! Soon you won't believe anything I say is serious. It's too bad I had to run into someone who knows me so well, when I'm so far away from home, and I could have done a good job passing myself off as a completely different person. It was a bad idea for you, Faith, to try to give away my secrets – especially when I know things about you that would just shock your cousin here."
"You don't frighten me, Mr. Bennett."
"Go on, what do you have against her?" said Grace. "What is Faith really like? Let us all know."
"Alright, but hold on, make sure you don't faint when you hear it! The first time I ever saw her was at a party. Faith spent the whole night sitting down alone, not talking to anyone. She even refused to dance with people her friends tried to set her up with. How rude she is!"
"No, I didn't dance," said Faith. "I didn't happen to know anyone there, besides my friends."
"Uh huh," said Eli, "because nobody ever meets new people at a party. Come on, Grace. Explain to me how I should kick my legs when doing the stroke you taught me – "
"I'm not good at talking with strangers, alright?" said Faith.
"Should we ask her why, Grace?" said Eli. "Why would a stunning, rich, famous, successful young woman, one of great education and who's travelled the world – why should she have trouble talking with strangers?"
"No need to ask, I can tell you," said Grace. "It's because she doesn't want to bother."
"I just doesn't happen to come to me as easily as it does to others," said Faith. "I'm not…I don't always know how to start conversations, especially with people I don't know. I don't know how to start, or what to talk about, and I don't find mindless chitchat for the sake of chitchat interesting."
"Yes, and I don't swim as well as say, your brother does. But that isn't because I'm not just as capable as he is. It's just because I haven't practiced at it as much."
Faith grinned, and said, "Of course, you're dead on. You've spent your time practicing something much more important. It's much harder to tell how closed you are to strangers."
"What's going on over there?" they heard Mr. Anderson call. "What are you doing over there talking Faith? Come back! Andrew's lonely here by himself! Come keep him company!"
Faith did not hesitate to leave Eli on that note for the rest of the evening.