Remembering London and the Summer (Part 3 of 3)
She looked delightfully puzzled. "I still don't understand."
I put my hand out. She didn't take it. Maybe propriety. Maybe she just wasn't interested. Maybe I'm still that weird guy from the casino in some part of her mind. I still don't know. "Some things you don't know why you know, but you know, right?"
"More these days," she admitted.
"I knew that you mattered. Partially that you were touched by Fate, but not just that. Sometimes, you brush up against someone, and you can feel something. It's a draw, like when two magnets get near each other, like a scent you like. It means that there's a connection, even if you don't know what it is."
"Reilly, when you went looking, did you see Dave?" She'd dropped the "Mister" finally. Maybe by accident, but still, it was a start. Then I realized what she'd said. I pulled my hand back from the table and looked down, and then just nodded. I saw Dave all right. God rest his soul. She pressed for more. "I mean, I know he was dead an' all, but was he...still there? With the boat?" Shine looked troubled.
"After a fashion. His body was. I... I can't speak to his soul." She looked worried, her forehead creased. "But he didn't...show up? You didn't see him? He didn't have to live the wreck over or anything?" I shook my head, still seeing the vision of a drowned body trapped in the netting. "Not while I was there."
She let out a breath I hadn't noticed she'd drawn. "Then maybe I did something right. I don't know what it was, but maybe I did." I quirked an eyebrow curiously, but she just dropped it with "I'm dreadful sorry I brought that up, but I just had to know, and you're the only one who..." and she petered out. "I'm sorry. It's your turn."
"It's all right." She smiled, trying to get me to go on, to think about something else again, I think. "All right, change the subject. What do you do for fun?"
She looked horrified. "Mr. Reilly, I'm working upwards of sixty hours a week, and teaching in Birmingham once a month, and you think I have time for FUN?" Back to "Mister." Dammit. All right, keep it light. "If you have no time for fun, Shine, you should create some."
"Well, I'm helping organize something for Comic Relief. A charity thing. We did it for Sport Relief."
"Sport Relief? Not familiar with it. I gather it's related to Comic Relief?"
"Yes, on the alternate years. You know, the years when Comic Relief isn't. There's a nice older gentleman who I think I can persuade to use his contacts for me. Though his price might be a bit steep." She grimaced slightly, and I frowned outright. She brought back up that dazzling smile, trying to reassure me. "I handled Rio, Mr. Reilly. I can handle Mr. Dunlop." And then she changed the subject again. "And what do you do for fun, Mr. Reilly?"
"Well, I do enjoy drinking, fighting with those who won't break and are good sports about losing, and the company of lovely and charming women such as yourself. I like skydiving and parasailing, and any other sport you could die doing...."
" 'Course, my work is fun, if you don't think about it." Lovely- let's talk about you, dear. She went on "I couldn't bear working in an office. I'm a hothouse flower--I'd wilt," and she laughed. "That, I can wholeheartedly agree with. Office work would kill me, or I'd kill someone else."
"Speaking of which, going back to earlier, why did you think I'd not do everything I can to put a killer behind bars, even if it meant not being "demure"? All I had to do was have some drinks and know that I'd be in the right place at the right time. It was real easy."
"I don't doubt that, given your talents. I simply expected that you'd use other methods, not that you'd give up altogether." I grinned. "I know better than to expect you to give up."
"Well, I wanted to go out on my own, but they wouldn't let me." She pouted, half mocking herself, I think. It was lovely. Then she laughed again. "Well, if we're about finished, shall I pay and walk you back to your hotel, Mr. Reilly?"
"Well, actually, I..." I was most of the way into saying "I can pay for it."- I'd been saving for this a bit- when a waiter bumped into a passing dessert tray and stumbled, spilling the water glasses he was carrying on me. Shine jumped up and mopped my chest with her (rather damp) napkin. It was cute, the way she was trying so hard not to laugh. I accepted her attention happily and tried to calm down the poor waiter, that everything is fine, really, no trouble at all... but the maitre d' was already there, assuring us that dinner would be complimentary as an apology. Shine looked suspiciously at me, but I could only grin and shrug.
Shine insisted that we leave something, and I offered a tip, at least, so we left something. I still have no idea what amount that odd-colored bill was, but I'm sure that she more than covered anything resembling a tip. I started to argue with her, but settled for buying dessert for her the next time. Then she smiled and slipped her hand under my arm. "Now, since you're in my city and it's only polite, I shall walk you back to make sure nothing...befalls you on the way to your hotel, sir."
I nodded, barely keeping a straight face. "I accept, and bow to your superior knowledge of the city." As we wandered out into the night, she asked "Is there anything you'd like to see on our way back?"
"Other than you? No, I trust in your judgment. What must I absolutely see at night in this area?"
"You know, I'm usually either at work or asleep at this point, so I have no idea. I showed you the lake." She laughed quietly. "Then you showed me the fountain."
I grinned at the memory. "Well, that was a team effort..." On a random whim, I asked "Is there a high place to look out over the city?"
"A high place? London's pretty flat. The Eye'd be closed at this time of night. Did you look in the casino? It used to be a ballroom. It's real pretty." After a moment of thought, she continued "Oh, we can walk up St. James' and I can show you all the old gentlemen's clubs. I'm hoping to go full-time there soon."
"Sounds mighty fine. Let's."
We stopped on St. James as she pointed to number 50. "That's where I want to work. It's got a proper casino, but it's members only. I mean, I work there, but only part-time."
"What's it called?"
"Um, it's called 50 St. James!" she laughed. I joined her, realizing what a victim I am of U.S. marketing. "See, I am _so_ not used to London. In the States, it would be called something airy."
"It doesn't need to be called anything else." she said, simply, and started to walk past. "When's your flight back?"
"I'm not flying, so it's flexible. I use the Gates."
She looked confused. "The Gates?" I nodded. "Anglesey has a portal to Atlantic City."
"Portal?" she said helplessly. Too cute. I tried again. "Like in StarGate." She shook her head. "Sorry, I don't get out much."
"Think of it as a door that opens on another continent." She blinked, but instead of going on with that line of thought, we rounded the corner to Piccadilly, and she offered a new topic instead. "That statue there is of Cupid, and it's supposed to be real famous. This is Piccadilly Circus. We walk up Piccadilly to the Ritz." Then, more quietly, still thinking on the easy trip to the States- "I don't know if I get to go home. I haven't heard from my uncle yet."
"That would be a lovely walk. As to home... when do you expect to hear from your uncle?"
"I don't know. I haven't actually seen him for...nearly five, maybe six years? There was just the letter in the hospital. I hoped he was here."
"Have you ever considered making your own destiny?"
She smiled, like she wasn't sharp enough to get it. Suuuuure. "That's a big word for a little girl like me."
"Nah. You're bigger than your body." And she is, too, if only she'd admit it to herself. There's no limit to what you can do once you're one of us- no limits except those you set on yourself.
She stared at me, not sure what to say to that, to laugh or reply seriously. He settled for "All Southern stories end unhappily. That's why we have so many ghosts. I'd as soon not be one." I shook my head. "Stories end the way you decide they do, now. You can change the world, and any story in it, with force of will. You just have to want it enough." And then she did laugh. "We've already established I'm not too good on that!"
I winked. "You're just not practiced yet."
"I keep telling you, Reilly--Mr. Reilly--that I'm nothing special. I'm real ordinary, and I just want ordinary things, mainly. I'm not a writer, not a high-flyer, not a girl who walks through a door in one country and finds herself in another." As she spoke, she dropped a silver necklace into the hat of a homeless man curled up in a doorway. I couldn't help but laugh. She was taken aback and looked at me wide-eyed. "What'd I say?"
"That is not true in so many ways, I can't even begin to express it."
"But it is true." It was clear that she believed it. It was just as obvious to anyone other than her that it wasn't true.
"Did you even notice that you just gave that man jewelry? Think that happens all the time?"
Shine frowned slightly "It won't sell for much. I picked it up in Birmingham. And it doesn't suit me."
"The point is, dear, that you are no more 'ordinary' than I am."
She looked unconvinced, and stopped outside a sign saying 'The Ritz Club.' "Just have a look in. I don't want Colin to spot us."
I glanced in, and the place was startling. My eyes drank it in as I asked "Colin?" It was gorgeous, a ballroom from a century ago. I was still blinking when I looked back at Shine. She shrugged, still thinking about this Colin fellow. "Sometimes he forgets we've had a little talk about him being possessive."
"Ah. I see. If you ever need someone to chat with him in a man-to-man way, keep me in mind. But I trust your judgment on if that's needed." Be a damn shame if I had to break an otherwise decent man because he got overly possessive.
"Oh, it isn't." And we let it go at that, since we just got into the lobby of my hotel. She stopped at the elevator- the lift, I guess- and asked "Do you want me to see you to your door, Mr. Reilly?"
"Actually, I'd love for you to join me for a nightcap, if it wouldn't be too improper for you."
She thought about it. She really seriously considered it, then backed off, just an inch. "Please don't, Mr. Reilly," she said. Then the words came tumbling out unchecked, as fast as a Delta drawl could be. Her voice was breathless, fighting against itself, even as the Lady's threads swirled about her- "Don't...don't let us end tonight normally. Let it stay unspoken...beautiful. Impossible. And then when I hear a rush of wings overhead, I'll think of you flying."
I felt it... a burst of summer sun, warm as only memory can make it. Shine put her hand on my shoulder, raised on one toe, and kissed my cheek- soft as the petals of a morning glory. As the moment faded, she looked at me wordlessly. Then I could see the mantle of death fall on her again, and she turned to leave.
I was disappointed, in a way- who wouldn't be? But in another way, it was better this way. Never thought I'd say that, but it's true. I smiled, bittersweet. "All right. Then we'll say good night. But there is nothing about ending an evening with you that would make it normal, or boring. I can't imagine it, despite all I've seen. The impossible is real in my world- and that world is yours, too, now. If only you believe in it. If you believe in you."
Shine turned to go, then looked back over her shoulder, curls tumbling. "Good night, Steven."
"Good night...
"Laura."
I smiled, really smiled then. She was trusting me. Slowly, but it was there. "...Laura"
She returned my smile with one of her own, honest and genuine as pure gold.
I still don't know if she could hear me when I whispered "See you soon..."
I put my hand out. She didn't take it. Maybe propriety. Maybe she just wasn't interested. Maybe I'm still that weird guy from the casino in some part of her mind. I still don't know. "Some things you don't know why you know, but you know, right?"
"More these days," she admitted.
"I knew that you mattered. Partially that you were touched by Fate, but not just that. Sometimes, you brush up against someone, and you can feel something. It's a draw, like when two magnets get near each other, like a scent you like. It means that there's a connection, even if you don't know what it is."
"Reilly, when you went looking, did you see Dave?" She'd dropped the "Mister" finally. Maybe by accident, but still, it was a start. Then I realized what she'd said. I pulled my hand back from the table and looked down, and then just nodded. I saw Dave all right. God rest his soul. She pressed for more. "I mean, I know he was dead an' all, but was he...still there? With the boat?" Shine looked troubled.
"After a fashion. His body was. I... I can't speak to his soul." She looked worried, her forehead creased. "But he didn't...show up? You didn't see him? He didn't have to live the wreck over or anything?" I shook my head, still seeing the vision of a drowned body trapped in the netting. "Not while I was there."
She let out a breath I hadn't noticed she'd drawn. "Then maybe I did something right. I don't know what it was, but maybe I did." I quirked an eyebrow curiously, but she just dropped it with "I'm dreadful sorry I brought that up, but I just had to know, and you're the only one who..." and she petered out. "I'm sorry. It's your turn."
"It's all right." She smiled, trying to get me to go on, to think about something else again, I think. "All right, change the subject. What do you do for fun?"
She looked horrified. "Mr. Reilly, I'm working upwards of sixty hours a week, and teaching in Birmingham once a month, and you think I have time for FUN?" Back to "Mister." Dammit. All right, keep it light. "If you have no time for fun, Shine, you should create some."
"Well, I'm helping organize something for Comic Relief. A charity thing. We did it for Sport Relief."
"Sport Relief? Not familiar with it. I gather it's related to Comic Relief?"
"Yes, on the alternate years. You know, the years when Comic Relief isn't. There's a nice older gentleman who I think I can persuade to use his contacts for me. Though his price might be a bit steep." She grimaced slightly, and I frowned outright. She brought back up that dazzling smile, trying to reassure me. "I handled Rio, Mr. Reilly. I can handle Mr. Dunlop." And then she changed the subject again. "And what do you do for fun, Mr. Reilly?"
"Well, I do enjoy drinking, fighting with those who won't break and are good sports about losing, and the company of lovely and charming women such as yourself. I like skydiving and parasailing, and any other sport you could die doing...."
" 'Course, my work is fun, if you don't think about it." Lovely- let's talk about you, dear. She went on "I couldn't bear working in an office. I'm a hothouse flower--I'd wilt," and she laughed. "That, I can wholeheartedly agree with. Office work would kill me, or I'd kill someone else."
"Speaking of which, going back to earlier, why did you think I'd not do everything I can to put a killer behind bars, even if it meant not being "demure"? All I had to do was have some drinks and know that I'd be in the right place at the right time. It was real easy."
"I don't doubt that, given your talents. I simply expected that you'd use other methods, not that you'd give up altogether." I grinned. "I know better than to expect you to give up."
"Well, I wanted to go out on my own, but they wouldn't let me." She pouted, half mocking herself, I think. It was lovely. Then she laughed again. "Well, if we're about finished, shall I pay and walk you back to your hotel, Mr. Reilly?"
"Well, actually, I..." I was most of the way into saying "I can pay for it."- I'd been saving for this a bit- when a waiter bumped into a passing dessert tray and stumbled, spilling the water glasses he was carrying on me. Shine jumped up and mopped my chest with her (rather damp) napkin. It was cute, the way she was trying so hard not to laugh. I accepted her attention happily and tried to calm down the poor waiter, that everything is fine, really, no trouble at all... but the maitre d' was already there, assuring us that dinner would be complimentary as an apology. Shine looked suspiciously at me, but I could only grin and shrug.
Shine insisted that we leave something, and I offered a tip, at least, so we left something. I still have no idea what amount that odd-colored bill was, but I'm sure that she more than covered anything resembling a tip. I started to argue with her, but settled for buying dessert for her the next time. Then she smiled and slipped her hand under my arm. "Now, since you're in my city and it's only polite, I shall walk you back to make sure nothing...befalls you on the way to your hotel, sir."
I nodded, barely keeping a straight face. "I accept, and bow to your superior knowledge of the city." As we wandered out into the night, she asked "Is there anything you'd like to see on our way back?"
"Other than you? No, I trust in your judgment. What must I absolutely see at night in this area?"
"You know, I'm usually either at work or asleep at this point, so I have no idea. I showed you the lake." She laughed quietly. "Then you showed me the fountain."
I grinned at the memory. "Well, that was a team effort..." On a random whim, I asked "Is there a high place to look out over the city?"
"A high place? London's pretty flat. The Eye'd be closed at this time of night. Did you look in the casino? It used to be a ballroom. It's real pretty." After a moment of thought, she continued "Oh, we can walk up St. James' and I can show you all the old gentlemen's clubs. I'm hoping to go full-time there soon."
"Sounds mighty fine. Let's."
We stopped on St. James as she pointed to number 50. "That's where I want to work. It's got a proper casino, but it's members only. I mean, I work there, but only part-time."
"What's it called?"
"Um, it's called 50 St. James!" she laughed. I joined her, realizing what a victim I am of U.S. marketing. "See, I am _so_ not used to London. In the States, it would be called something airy."
"It doesn't need to be called anything else." she said, simply, and started to walk past. "When's your flight back?"
"I'm not flying, so it's flexible. I use the Gates."
She looked confused. "The Gates?" I nodded. "Anglesey has a portal to Atlantic City."
"Portal?" she said helplessly. Too cute. I tried again. "Like in StarGate." She shook her head. "Sorry, I don't get out much."
"Think of it as a door that opens on another continent." She blinked, but instead of going on with that line of thought, we rounded the corner to Piccadilly, and she offered a new topic instead. "That statue there is of Cupid, and it's supposed to be real famous. This is Piccadilly Circus. We walk up Piccadilly to the Ritz." Then, more quietly, still thinking on the easy trip to the States- "I don't know if I get to go home. I haven't heard from my uncle yet."
"That would be a lovely walk. As to home... when do you expect to hear from your uncle?"
"I don't know. I haven't actually seen him for...nearly five, maybe six years? There was just the letter in the hospital. I hoped he was here."
"Have you ever considered making your own destiny?"
She smiled, like she wasn't sharp enough to get it. Suuuuure. "That's a big word for a little girl like me."
"Nah. You're bigger than your body." And she is, too, if only she'd admit it to herself. There's no limit to what you can do once you're one of us- no limits except those you set on yourself.
She stared at me, not sure what to say to that, to laugh or reply seriously. He settled for "All Southern stories end unhappily. That's why we have so many ghosts. I'd as soon not be one." I shook my head. "Stories end the way you decide they do, now. You can change the world, and any story in it, with force of will. You just have to want it enough." And then she did laugh. "We've already established I'm not too good on that!"
I winked. "You're just not practiced yet."
"I keep telling you, Reilly--Mr. Reilly--that I'm nothing special. I'm real ordinary, and I just want ordinary things, mainly. I'm not a writer, not a high-flyer, not a girl who walks through a door in one country and finds herself in another." As she spoke, she dropped a silver necklace into the hat of a homeless man curled up in a doorway. I couldn't help but laugh. She was taken aback and looked at me wide-eyed. "What'd I say?"
"That is not true in so many ways, I can't even begin to express it."
"But it is true." It was clear that she believed it. It was just as obvious to anyone other than her that it wasn't true.
"Did you even notice that you just gave that man jewelry? Think that happens all the time?"
Shine frowned slightly "It won't sell for much. I picked it up in Birmingham. And it doesn't suit me."
"The point is, dear, that you are no more 'ordinary' than I am."
She looked unconvinced, and stopped outside a sign saying 'The Ritz Club.' "Just have a look in. I don't want Colin to spot us."
I glanced in, and the place was startling. My eyes drank it in as I asked "Colin?" It was gorgeous, a ballroom from a century ago. I was still blinking when I looked back at Shine. She shrugged, still thinking about this Colin fellow. "Sometimes he forgets we've had a little talk about him being possessive."
"Ah. I see. If you ever need someone to chat with him in a man-to-man way, keep me in mind. But I trust your judgment on if that's needed." Be a damn shame if I had to break an otherwise decent man because he got overly possessive.
"Oh, it isn't." And we let it go at that, since we just got into the lobby of my hotel. She stopped at the elevator- the lift, I guess- and asked "Do you want me to see you to your door, Mr. Reilly?"
"Actually, I'd love for you to join me for a nightcap, if it wouldn't be too improper for you."
She thought about it. She really seriously considered it, then backed off, just an inch. "Please don't, Mr. Reilly," she said. Then the words came tumbling out unchecked, as fast as a Delta drawl could be. Her voice was breathless, fighting against itself, even as the Lady's threads swirled about her- "Don't...don't let us end tonight normally. Let it stay unspoken...beautiful. Impossible. And then when I hear a rush of wings overhead, I'll think of you flying."
I felt it... a burst of summer sun, warm as only memory can make it. Shine put her hand on my shoulder, raised on one toe, and kissed my cheek- soft as the petals of a morning glory. As the moment faded, she looked at me wordlessly. Then I could see the mantle of death fall on her again, and she turned to leave.
I was disappointed, in a way- who wouldn't be? But in another way, it was better this way. Never thought I'd say that, but it's true. I smiled, bittersweet. "All right. Then we'll say good night. But there is nothing about ending an evening with you that would make it normal, or boring. I can't imagine it, despite all I've seen. The impossible is real in my world- and that world is yours, too, now. If only you believe in it. If you believe in you."
Shine turned to go, then looked back over her shoulder, curls tumbling. "Good night, Steven."
"Good night...
"Laura."
I smiled, really smiled then. She was trusting me. Slowly, but it was there. "...Laura"
She returned my smile with one of her own, honest and genuine as pure gold.
I still don't know if she could hear me when I whispered "See you soon..."