Shadows - Girl In The Shadows Part 2

Arliss and surely not Rhona. She never did any ch.o.r.es around here and had no interest in wine except to drink it with her friends."

"How come they had only one child?"

He continued to pluck the grapes without responding, so I thought he wasn't going to answer. A breeze had picked up from the north and the cooler air felt refres.h.i.+ng. I saw Echo standing behind the screen door looking out at the driveway in anxious antic.i.p.ation of Tyler Monahan's pending arrival.

"They had another child," Trevor suddenly replied. He worked as he spoke. "A son born after Rhona was born, but he was born with some defect in his brain stem and died a few days later. They did all they could. Mrs. Westington got so she denied the boy was ever born. Don't mention it to her. She never even gave him a name. Wouldn't do it. Mr. Frank named him after his father. Byron, but she didn't acknowledge it and she didn't attend the funeral or the burial. As far as I know, she never visited the g-rave either. After that, they had no more children. Closest I ever heard to why not was her saying once that she didn't need to be told twice. Don't you go mentioning any of this to her," Trevor warned me. "or you'll be one sorry young woman. Ain't n.o.body who hates gossip more than she does, although she'll do her fair share of it," he said with a wink.

We both turned at the sound of an automobile coming up the driveway. It was a red convertible sports car. Tyler Monahan's wavy long dark brown hair floated about his face, hiding his features. He parked in front of the house and got out quickly, a packet of books and notebooks under his ann. Echo immediately stepped out of the house to greet him, signing quickly. He signed back and almost entered the house without seeing me. He glanced our way and then he turned sharply and paused. I stared back at him almost as hard as he was staring at me. I knew from the picture of him and Echo in the living room that he had distinctly Asian characteristics. With a name like Monahan, his father had to be Irish, of course. The mixture of races had produced a strikingly handsome and interesting face.

"That's her tutor," Trevor muttered.

"Yes, I know," I said.

Tyler looked about six feet tall. He was slim and very fit looking. He wore a light blue polo s.h.i.+rt and jeans with blue boat shoes. I thought he was going to wave at us, but instead, he brought his hand up to brush back his hair and then he turned and hurried up the steps to join Echo. They went into the house.

Trevor glanced from them to me and then back to his grapes. "His mother comes from Hong Kong,"

he said, imagining my questions. 'She's a very independent woman, but family means a whole lot more to her than to most. No way he'd ever desert her like Rhona deserted Mrs. Westington and her own baby, However. Mrs. Westington ain't very fond of her," he paused to whisper. "Whenever she talks to her, she says the woman makes her feel like she suspects Mrs. Westington's got her hand in her back pocket, like she's going to steal away her son or something, as if she has secret plans to bring back the vineyard and needs his help. Stuff like that.'

"Speaking of help, would you like some?" I asked.

He laughed. "That's something I ain't heard much around here, Sure." He reached down for a basket and fixed the cord that held it around my neck.

"Frees up both your hands." he said. 'Be gentle with them and don't just drop them hard into the basket.

okay?"

"Okay," I said, and began. I felt him watching me out of the corner of his eve. The grapes were like his babies.

"That's good," he said. He looked back at the house. "Don't be surprised if she bawls you out for wasting your time."

"It's not a waste of time to me. I'd like to learn all about the wine-making process."

He shook his head. "That's something else I ain't heard much around here," he said.

"Does Echo ever help you?"

"No. I don't want to cause no problems.

although I often see her sitting off to the side wis.h.i.+ng I would ask. She knows about the winery and the process. You can't live here alongside me and not know it." He winked. "Take a letter," he said. and I laughed.

I nearly had half a basket picked when I heard the screen door open and then heard Mrs. Westington call for me. "Stop wasting time out there and come meet Tyler Monahan," she shouted, tapping her cane.

"You got more important things to do than waste your time with that foolish man. girl."

"Go on," Trevor said. 'Before she skins me alive."

I took off the basket cord and carefully set the basket down.

"That man," Mrs. Westington said, glaring out at Trevor when I approached the steps. "He could talk a bee into stinging itself. Go on in and meet Tyler Monahan." she ordered, and stepped away from the door.

I entered slowly and started down the hallway to what had been Mr. Westinton's office, but to my surprise. Tyler was waiting in the living room.

"In here." I heard.

I stepped in. Echo wasn't there. Tyler was standing by the window, his hands behind his back.

He turned slowly and looked at me. I had no trouble understanding why Echo would have a deeply felt crush on him. A girl didn't have to be lonely or isolated to swoon before so handsome a man. He had eyes like black pearls, a firm, full, masculine mouth, and skin like smooth b.u.t.ter. Brenda would call him buff, and although she had little interest in men, would admire him for the respect he obviously had for his our well-being and physical fitness. His narrow waist made his chest and shoulders look bigger than they were. I doubted he had two ounces of fat on him.

He made me more conscious of my own weight problem. I embraced myself and waited for him to speak. He fixed his brilliant pearl black eyes on me, scrutinizing and making me feel even more self-conscious.

"Who are you?" he asked. It sounded more like a demand, especially in his deep, baritone voice.

"My name is April Taylor." I didn't know what else to tell him exactly.

"You're not claiming to be a long, lost relative?"

'No. Mrs. Westington has asked me to stay here for a while and help her with Echo."

Why was he cross-examining me like this?

"You don't attend any school?"

"Not presently. no."

"You just want to pa.s.s a high school equivalency exam?"

"Yes."

He shook his head. "Why?"

I looked away. His policemanlike questioning brought hot tears to my eyes. I fought hard to keep them locked under my lids.

"It's a very long and painful story," I replied, not looking at him. "If it's a problem, forget about it."

"I didn't say it's a problem. We don't know yet if it is or if it isn't. It's just weird, that's all."

"Yeah, well, maybe it is, but that's the way it is right now." I told him, and glared back at him.

"I'll have to prepare some evaluation exams to see what you know and don't know, where you are in the core subjects. It's not something that can be done in a week or two. How long are you staying?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"Well, if I did all this preparation and you left, it would be a colossal waste of my time."

"I don't see myself as a waste of anyone's time."

He considered me. We heard Mrs. Westington come back into the house.

"Just a minute," he said, and went out to speak with her in the hallway. He spoke in a whisper, but loud enough for me to hear.

"I don't understand this. Mrs. Westington. She's not related, and from the little you've told me, it looks like you've taken in a complete stranger who wanders about the country in a motor home, some sort of a gypsy girl?"

"No, no. She's nothing like that. She was living with her uncle just like I told you and he died on the road. She came here for help and she's got no one else right now. She'll be good for Echo."

"How do you low that? She might be a terrible influence on her. Echo's very vulnerable. She's had very little contact with the outside world. This girl might be the worst example for her. She just left school to go on the road with her uncle. Who knows what sort of riffraff she a.s.sociated with and what sort of things she's done? She looks like..."

"Don't worry about it. Tyler. When you reach my age." Mrs. Westington replied, "you know who has goodness in her heart and who doesn't. Believe me, you know who you should be trusting and who you shouldn't. That poor girl's been hauled over the coals. She needs a little tender loving care. As do we all."

"I can't guarantee any success with her. I have no idea what her mental abilities are, what preparation she already has, what her reading ability especially is and..."

"You just do the best you can. Tyler. I'll pay you for it, of course."

"You're sure you want to do this? If she picks up and leaves after I've put in some time, you would have wasted money."

"I'm sure."

"I can't afford to give her too much extra time.

You know my mother needs me and complains about the time I spend over here as it is," he warned. "And I don't like taking any attention and time away from Echo."

"Give it what you can. Tyler." Mrs. Westington said, her voice filling with frustration and fatigue.

I heard nothing else and then he returned to the living room.

"Okay, I'll bring some testing materials tomorrow so we can evaluate you." he told me. "After that I'll be able to see if there is any way of successfully dealing with you."

"Thank you," I said, even though "dealing with me" wasn't exactly how I wanted it put.

"What kind of work were you doing with your uncle on the road?" he asked.

"I was helping him with his magic and ventriloquist act. He was a well-known magician.

Maybe you've heard of him, the Amazing Palaver?"

"No. I never heard of him. I don't follow road acts," he said, twisting his mouth as if I had asked him about a stripper or something, "So you just ran off to live with him and put your high school education on hold?"

"Something like that," I said.

"You left in the middle of a semester?"

"Yes."

He looked at me and shook his head as if I was absolutely impossible to understand, Maybe I was.

"Okay. I've got to get to Echo." He started out.

"Can I watch?" I asked.

"Watch? Watch what?" He had a way of grimacing that made me think he had something that tasted horrible on his lips.

"How you teach her. I'd like to see what you do so that maybe I could help, too, maybe help her with her work when you're not here."

He widened his smirk, drawing those almost too perfect lips deeply into their corners.

"I'm not sure I want you to do that. You could confuse her if you don't teach her correctly and that could damage what I do and put her behind,"

"That's why I'd better watch you, to see the right way to communicate with her." I countered quickly.

"Do you know anything about signing, anything at all about how to communicate with a deaf person?"

"No. I mean, a tiny bit. I'll learn," I added quickly.

He thought a moment. "All right, You can come along, but just stay in the background, watch, and listen," he decided with obvious reluctance and walked out. I hurried after him.

Was it me? Was there something about me that annoyed boys? Was I that distasteful, ugly, and fat?

Echo was sitting patiently in front of the desk.

She smiled at me when I appeared behind Tyler. He moved his chair around deliberately so that she would have her back to me and then he began siring quickly, so quickly I couldn't understand anything. Whatever he told her caused her to turn and look at me curiously. Then he tapped her knee and she turned back to him.

"We're doing her math problems first this morning," he announced. "Just sit on the sofa there and don't do anything to distract her."

I quickly sat and he opened a textbook, pointed to something on the page, and began. Most of his communication with her was through very quick signing that I couldn't follow, so that pretty soon I felt totally left out. Finally Echo began working on problems and he sat back. He was staring at me so hard. I felt like I had food on my face.

"What?" I asked.

"I'd hate to learn that you are taking advantage of these people," he said.

"I've only been here three days," I said, fixing my eyes sharply on him the way my sister. Brenda, could fix her eyes on someone who challenged her.

"but I. too, would hate to learn that anyone was taking advantage of them,"

He seemed to like my reply and softened his eyes.

"What about your parents? Why would they let you leave school and travel around the country in a motor home?"

"They're both dead."

"You have no one, no other immediate family?"

"I have an older sister but she is a professional basketball player and off on a tour in Europe. After my uncle's death. I was going to go live with a cousin I hardly know, but Mrs. We stington wouldn't hear of it."

"What did your uncle die of?"

"He suffered from alcoholism." I reluctantly revealed.

"So you traveled about with a drunk?"