This night had a strange feeling to both women. Even since Annabelle had moved in, they had slipped effortlessly into a profound sleep, only waking up by degrees when the sunlight's persistence in shining into the two women's eyes finally succeeded in waking them from their slumbers. During the daytime, their moods had zigzagged back and forth between all ends of the emotional spectrum, being playful,serious, tender, passionate and whatever else came into their minds. At night-time, when they'd discarded their day clothes and their nakedness pressed up against each other, their lovemaking meshed with the moods they felt until they'd finally slipped into a peaceful sleep, their bodies wrapped around each other.
True darkness of spirit is the three in the morning blues. Both women had far too much nervous energy pulsing through their veins. They each thought the other was fast asleep and didn't want to disturb until Simone felt the way those shapely fingertips traced a deliberate pattern down her forearm.
"What's up, darling? Can't you sleep either," murmured Simone in the general direction of the darkness.
"Talking to my parents and trying to get that trust money out of them is really freaking me out," said Annabelle into her lover's shoulder who gave her a reassuring squeeze."It's just hitting me right now."
"Sweetheart, don't worry," Simone said in her tenderest tone of voice, gently stroking the other woman's face and hair."Together, we'll deal with it somehow. You might stumble and I'd pick you up. I might lose my footing and you'd pick me up. That's how it goes between us."
The dark-haired woman thought about her lover's sensitive insight into them. It was true. She'd been thinking in terms of herself only, the way she used to live.
"Sweet of you to say it," murmured Annabelle tenderly into the dark, moving around so she could feel her lover's breasts against her own."You're really sure it's not to late to make love?"
"Perfectly sure," laughed Simone light-heartedly, cheered up as, after all, Annabelle's feelings were her own Somehow this darling woman was also off on another tangent.."You know what we're like. We're greedy. It was you who introduced me to the concept of multiple orgasms after all."
Annabelle laughed softly at her lover's literary way of phrasing their sexuality.
"You mean we'll settle down quicker like this?"Annabelle added teasingly, her body flexing that tiniest little bit against her lover's curves. She felt how hard her nipples felt against her lover's and was sure that Simone's misconceived resolution was weakening.
"All right, I give up," Simone exclaimed with mock annoyance, sliding her leg greedily down her lover's thigh and roughly kissing Annabelle. Her insides were crying out for her lover's nimble fingers to stroke her just the way she liked it so when her very frustrated lover pushed her on her back and started kissing and caressing her, she'd forgotten how sombre and reflective she'd felt only a moment before.
Later than their normal time for waking, a very bleary eyed Simone staggered to the kitchen to fetch them a cup of hot pick me up medicine with plenty of sugar in it. She slopped some hot water on the work surface and spilt a powdering of sugar but she didn't care. Her bare feet took their way past the letter receptacle and a stray impulse prompted to see if anything was there beyond bills and junk mail. To her surprise, she spied a letter addressed to 'Miss Annabelle Tillman' that had been obviously readdressed here struck her eye. What's more, the writing looked startlingly familiar.
"Hey, sweetheart, a letter for you," she called out in clear tones, edged with excitement. Already, she was putting two and two together.
The younger woman was lying on her side, barely being able to separate her eyelids. She really reacted badly to a bad night's sleep
"You open it Simone, whatever it is. You tell me what it is,"she mumbled sleepily.
The fair haired woman laid down her mugs and, with a shaking hand, ripped open the envelope. The covering letter on headed notepaper with a stylised illustration of St Theresa's front facade enclosed a graduation notice. She shouted out with pleasure as she took in the grades.
"Annabelle darling, it's your graduation results. You've done brilliantly."
The jolt to Annabelle's existence separated her eyelids like lightning. She threw aside the duvet cover, reached for the coffee mug on the bedside table, took a swig from it and switched her glance back and forth between her naked lover to the formal sheet of paper before her eyes.
C Science
C- Mathematics
A English
B- Social sciences
B- French
C+ Performing Arts
"Wow. I mean wow. After being expelled from two schools, I end up graduating so my Alma Mater will end up actually being proud of me, thanks of course to my brilliant teacher who is here even as I speak,"Annabelle spoke in her deliciously ironic manner, casting a glance at her one time teacher's gorgeously physical charms.
Simone broke out into peals of excited laughter and threw herself on top of Annabelle, feeling ecstatically pleased for them both. She reached underneath the younger woman and hugged her to her bosom. Presently, they lay back, feeling sleepy still but happy beyond belief.
"I'm so pleased for you, darling. I couldn't believe it when I saw the grades," Simone said , thrilled beyond all reason at this news which couldn't be better times to raise their spirits. In her mind, she blessed the justice that had so rewarded her darling..
Annabelle threw her lover a curious look at the conundrum that her lover unfolded before her. She did her best to be polite. "Hey Simone, didn't you help out with some of that grading? I owe you so much for everything."
All at once, the one-time teacher put her forefinger to her lips in an appealingly childlike fashion. Of course, she remembered how the sympathetic honest teacher, once known as Miss Bradley had spent conscientious hours assessing the coursework placed in front of them and filling in reports and Ms Tillman's handiwork had been streets ahead of her peers in her sensitive understanding of the structure and stylistic construction of the poetry and English assignments she gave her. That restless, insatiably curious intelligence made connections that her peers didn't get and her retentive memory added a solid bedrock of knowledge that bolstered her flights of inspiration. She remembered how she had got to love the texture of the French language, her ears pricking up at her own aside that French is the natural language of love. She'd swiftly decided that Annabelle's ready knowledge of social science owed nothing to her politician mother whose estrangement she'd swiftly known about. It was all part of that intuitive streak in Annabelle that caused her to relentlessly seek the truth around her, along with Simone's own guarded nature. Sister Clair had taken Annabelle for Mathematics and Science so Simone's capacious memory found nothing in its furthest reaches that she could relate to. She had supposed that the side effect of Annabelle's blossoming interest in her meant that she wouldn't have given Sister Claire too hard a time, especially as unnaccountably, she'd somehow wheedled the rather straight and severe woman into supplying her with cigarettes. The kind and understanding woman who'd taught Annabelle Tillman all that last year felt a long way away from the passionate creature who'd been liberated from her constraints and whose hand gently stroked her lover's stomach. Her gorgeous lover had said something about their shared past. What was it that she'd just said, she asked herself as her eyes misted over. Oh yes, now she knew.
"I suppose I did darling," Simone eventually replied in an abstracted fashion, making Annabelle smile so tenderheartedly at her. This woman of hers was such a babe.
"Only C+ for performing arts?" Simone asked in true innocence.
"Yeah well, I wrote a load of songs about you like that song I sung at the party. They were all about unrequited love as I thought it and I made them pretty gender specific. No one could imagine they were about some guy. I ought to look them out some time and rewrite them as requited lesbian love songs," Annabelle concluded, throwing Simone a dazzling smile. The fair haired woman leaned her head against her lover and gently snuggled up against her. Five minutes later, after having feasted their senses by embracing each other, feeling cheered up, a sudden thought crossed the younger woman's mind.
"Hey, what about the coffee?"
Simone's expression of sweet embarrassment at her memory lapse was classic. Tenderly, she sat up and passed over her coffee mug and sat up in bed to drink from her own mug. It tasted lukewarm but still drinkable.
"Hey, it's no big deal waiting for it to cool. Try it."
Simone did as she suggested and was surprised to find that, having pushed away her ingrained sensibilities, it was drinkable. She reasoned that it didn't have to be drunk at lethally scalding temperatures so she ended up drinking it all down in one gulp. Instantly, her planning, organising, questioning mind kicked into gear. First of all, she picked up the envelope and examined it closely.
"Annabelle, what's this other address this letter was sent to?"
"My parents," exclaimed Annabelle, anger swelling inside her as she started to work things out a mile a minute."So how the fuck did they know to send this here?"
"That's easy, Annabelle. One quick phone call to the Mother Immaculata and she checks out the archives. That'll be somewhere on my file. I'm surprised she hasn't burnt it as she can't burn me like a witch at the stake. What's puzzling me is why didn't your parents open the letter first and why didn't they phone you? After all, they ought to be proud of you for your academic success?"
That brought up Annabelle short. Her face was as still as a statue. This very perceptive woman had called into question everything she had thought about her parents and how they saw her. Her left hand reached out for Simone's slim hand to clasp who, in turn, did her the infinite favour in keeping quiet while she thought. Her past came back to her as she pictured this restless, inquisitive child, dressed in frilly dresses, playing alone with her toys, her hair brushed to perfection. She was in the care of a succession of child minders while her mother was always distantly placed in the room, her attention being forever elsewhere. Her father would come round, buy her a candy bar and be off elsewhere.
"You're asking me a good question, Simone. I know I've been a bull-headed teenager, unwilling to compromise and I know my attitude to school drove them mad but was I always like that? Didn't I do anything to make them think that I could make them proud or were they so self-absorbed that they really couldn't see me as I am? I wore those cute dresses when I was little but I always wanted to know the answer to everything. My mother told me in her cold tone of voice that the first word I ever learnt was 'why' as if I had some kind of contagious disease."
"That's so beautiful, Annabelle. I could so easily imagine it," Simone said in melting tones. Annabelle grinned and squeezed her lover's hand affectionately. It spurred her on so her words poured out in a rush of charged emotion.
"I'd say things that were obvious but they really shocked my parents. My old teachers were all the same. When you came along and, yes I was blatantly flirting with you, you immediately got what I said. You didn't try to shoot me down like all the others did. I felt we really connected, first time I ever spoke up in class."
"When you asked me if I'd take off the cross if the Mother Immaculata told me to,I went to a desk drawer and dug out this photograph album of Amanda and I. That's when I started to seriously think about you. This is all really important as you need to dig down and figure out how come your parents take any interest in your exam results."
"I think I've got it figured now," Annabelle said, having taken a deep breath and admiring the way her lover pursued this tangent so persistently. At that moment, a bright shaft of sunlight poured into the room, illuminating them as they sat up in bed, part covered by the duvet and perfectly relaxed in their nakedness. This scene of beauty meshed in with the way this compassionate woman knew what she was doing and she loved Simone for it."Either they think I flunked all the exams and don't want to see what they perceive is the truth. Alternatively, if the Mother Immaculata has told them the truth, they're throwing the rattle out of the pram as I've succeeded on my terms. That really would burn them up. Another possibility is they just don't care and yet another is that I've moved on and away from my parents in my time at St Theresa's. I felt happy I'd spent the spring holiday over here as I'd disengaged from my parents from what little there ever was between us."
"There's another thing, darling. We can explore these interesting possibilities when we see them this afternoon to get them to honour your grandparent's trust. We also need to talk with them about your graduation. Everything puts us in a much stronger position," put in Simone quietly with an audible smile of satisfaction in her voice.
Annabelle's mouth dropped open. This woman was so smart she couldn't believe it and loved the way she kept talking about us. She knew that Simone would be here for them both.
"You are a genius and I love you for it," Annabelle exclaimed, the glow of love in her eyes."I have got to be there and you have to be there with me. We've both fucking worked for it. As for my parents, well they'll have to do their thing if they're even bothered to turn up at all."
To the younger woman's delighted surprise, Simone nodded her head slowly and decisively. It told Annabelle that her true ally had carefully weighed everything up and in her quiet way, would match her determination. Annabelle breathed in and out with relief spreading through her system and her angry expression gave way to a brilliant smile.
"Look, I know we've got to get ready and all that shit but do we really have to get out of bed right now?"
How can I resist the way this adorable woman shifts around in such an appealing way. She felt really tired as their bad night sleep was catching up with her and she was sure that her lover felt the same way. She looked at the alarm clock on the side she used to have in her bedroom at St Theresa's and reckoned they could make time. She took Annabelle in her arms and kissed her deeply and warmly, feeling her lover curl around her and gently stroke her fair curly locks at the back of her head.