Diane Davidson - Dying for Chocolate

Sissy said, “Since when are you the expert at patching things up?”

I itched to say something bitchy, but remembered my words to Arch regarding taunting on the playground. I’d say, Don’t get down on their level, sweetheart, just walk away. For once, I took my own advice.

“Hey, wait up!” Julian hollered after me when I had reached the landing.

“I’ll be looking for Arch,” I called over my shoulder.

Outside the weather obliged by rolling a cool breeze off the mountains. More dark clouds threatened. Where had Arch gotten to, anyway?

“Look, hey, I’m sorry about that,” said Julian when he reached me. He cast his eyes down, embarrassed. I leaned against a dusty Acura Legend. It was an expensive car; probably belonged to a seventeen-year-old.

I said, “You’re not responsible for the way she acts, you know. Even if you were married to her, you wouldn’t be responsible for her. And by the way, I would strongly advise against further interest in this girl.”

He pulled his mouth over in a half-smile.

“The caterer with the advice.”

“Oh,” I said, “spare me.” I called Arch’s name.

Droplets of rain splatted into the dust as I began to traipse toward the pool site. Julian was close on my heels. I found myself worrying about the water dripping through the pinpoints of Julian’s bleached hair. His scalp would become drenched. He would come down with bronchitis. Not responsible, I reminded myself, not responsible! In fact, I would serve Hostess Twinkies in hell before I would tell him to cover his head.

“Look!” Julian raised his voice over the hissing of the rain. “Sissy’s just—”

“You don’t need to make excuses.”

We came up on the pool site. Fat lot of good a six-foot fence would do if someone left the gate open. In the pool, Arch, splashing around as if he were blind, yelled, “Marco!”

I called again. The two friends who had been answering “Polo!” leaped out of the pool and disappeared. I thought, Aren’t there any regulations around here? I howled for Arch and glared at Julian.

He went on talking as if it were not raining and I was not trying to get Arch out of the pool. He said, “Sissy’s sort of, like, possessive.”

“Ah. Explains everything.” I crossed my arms and tried to ignore the rain. Once Arch realized his friends were gone, he opened his eyes, saw me, and propelled himself up the side of the pool. He yelled that he would be there in a minute.

“Really,” Julian said. He craned his neck back and shook his head the way a wet dog would. “She worries about me.”

“I think you had it right the first time.”

“Thing is, I’m not sure she . . . wants me.” He shifted his weight and looked around. I wanted to say something about perhaps trying another hairdo when without warning he leaned close to me.

“What is it?” I blustered, and thought immediately of Brian Harrington. Why were males suddenly attracted to me? Maybe I was losing weight.

“What’s the secret?” he said in a low tone.

“What secret?”

“About aphrodisiacs.”

I said, “You’re a child, for God’s sake!”

A throat cleared behind us. I turned around.

It was Tom Schulz. His head was cocked, his eyebrows lifted. Arch, wearing flip-flops, clopped up to join us. He shivered underneath his towel.

“What were you doing?” I demanded of him.

Arch tsked, as if I were terribly overbearing.

Tom Schulz murmured, “Might want to ask the same thing of you, Miss G.”

At that moment Sissy strode up; she and Julian wordlessly withdrew.

“Hey!” Arch called after them. “I thought you guys were taking me!”

“Things have changed,” I announced. “I’m taking you. After I get an explanation.”

His lips were blue, but he managed to say, “It’s not official, but they’ve filled the pool with water. We were just having some fun. But then it started raining.”

I said, “No kidding.” I brushed raindrops from my face and arms. “Would you please get into the van?” I handed him the keys. He knew how to start it and warm it up. He also knew better than to launch a verbal defense at that moment.

Schulz said, “Want to get into my car for a minute? I can tell when you’re not in one of your better moods, Miss Goldy.”

“Should I be in a good mood?” The raindrops turned to heavy mist. The road to Aspen Meadow was shrouded in fog and rain, just as it had been after the brunch. The pool water reflected the dark sky. “I’m worried about Arch,” I said. “I want to stay where I can see him.”

Schulz said, “By the way, I do think Julian Teller is a little young for you.”

I gasped sharply.

His large, moist face beamed when he laughed.

“Didn’t you see what he—” I began.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Behind us my van started up. I hoped Arch turned the heat to high. “Listen, the general said you’d be out here doing fund-raising for someone other than yourself.”

“Excuse me? How’d he know that? I was the only one who talked to the fund-raising lady.”

“Look, Goldy, you live with a former member of the intelligence community, you gotta figure he’s going to do what he does best.”

“Great.” If he was going to listen in, why didn’t he just answer the phone himself?

“Anyway,” Schulz was saying, “something’s come up with the Philip Miller case.” He paused and looked around. “Something you said about the way he was driving made me call back the coroner’s office. They just checked Miller’s eyes briefly because he was a cornea donor. You know, that procedure has to be done within a few hours or it’s no good. So I called the cornea bank. You’re not going to believe this.” He took a deep breath, his green eyes suddenly solemn. “Miller’s corneas were rejected.”

“What?”

“The coroner’s office doesn’t remove contact lenses, which Miller had on. Remember, he had gone to the eye doctor that morning?” I nodded and he continued, “Miller’s contacts, according to the ophthalmologist at the cornea bank, were embedded with peroxide. The tainted contacts burned off the epithelium, or top layer of the cornea. He couldn’t see.”

I was incredulous. “Couldn’t see? He could see me at the brunch. He drove fine on the road for a while. How could this happen?”

“Goldy. I do not know. I called the eye doctor. He said Philip Miller was fine when he left his office. And obviously he could see well enough to get to the brunch. Another thing. The doctor said peroxide on your ienses would cause intense pain. And right away. It’s not possible anyone could stand the pain for more than a few seconds.”

I ran my fingers through my damp hair and shook my head.

“I gotta go,” said Schulz. “Lot of work to do. Mind if I peek in at Arch?” He eyed the van.

“Sure.”

He opened the door and said a few words to Arch that I could not hear. They both laughed, then Schulz slammed the door and swaggered over to give me a hug. Into my ear, he said, “There’s just one thing I want.”

“What’s that?”

“Whatever it was Julian Teller wanted.”

Arch explained on the way back to the Farquhars that he was so sick of doing his schoolwork that he just needed a break in the pool.

I said, “That’s not the point. It’s too dangerous to go into a pool that’s not completely built.”

“Mais la piscine est finie!”

Well, I was impressed that he knew how to say in French that the pool was finished. But I was not going to let him off the hook that easily.

“Then why have a security fence around it?”

“Oh, Mom! They just filled it with really, really chlorinated water yesterday. It’s supposed to, like, shock the bacteria out of the pool. The gym teacher said the water would be clear in a couple of days.” He drew some rope and a piece of bamboo out of his magic bag, then dangled them by my face. “Just wait, Mom,” he said. “You’re going to be amazed. Check out these Chinese manacles.”