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I sit with her for a while as she drifts back to sleep I listen to the robins that have nested in the tree below herShe’d wanted to show the for an excuse to talk to me I haven’t been very kind to her, or fair She can’t help that she’s oblivious, that she’s so young She can’t help that she grew up in a world without parents, in an orphanage that allowed her to be taken for either a bride or a corpse She doesn’t kno fragile she is, how close she came to death in that van
But I do I push soled hair from her face and say, "Have sweet drea anyone can hope for, in this place
I’ht of hi he advances to my bed I don’t open the sheets, and so he stops I turn on the light and act as though I’ him
"Hello," he says softly
"Hello," I say, and sit up
He touches the edge offor an invitation? Did Cecily give hi to force himself on us, then Cecily is the only one ill ever allow hiht, in the orange grove"
"I didn’t think you noticed me," I say Even now, he doesn’t look at me He looks out ain, howling like the dead Oranges and roses led in the air
"Can I co the blanket neatly across my lap
He looks at me, raises a delicate eyebrow "No?"
"No," I affirht There’s tight silence between us, and then I say, "But thank you for asking"
He stands rigidly and see to decide where to put his hands His pajama pants don’t have pockets "Then how about a walk?" he says
"Now?" I say "It looks like it’s a cold night" Florida has proven thus far to have strange weather
"Wear a coat," he says "Meet me at the elevator in a few minutes"
Well, I suppose there’s no harht knit coat over own, and a pair of thick socks that le my feet into my shoes
When I meet Linden at the elevator, I see that my coat is the feminine cut of his, and I wonder if this is coincidence Deirdre, hopeless little roned it specially to match I suppose sheyet She has plenty of years to learn what true love is, or at the very least what it isn’t
The elevatorin her billowy dresses,room
You want to know about true love? eneticist said to my brother and me as atched the about true love It’s no science to it It’s natural as the sky
Love is natural Even the hu things How fitting that I would end up in this shae
Outside it’s bitter and cold There’s a burned, leafy smell like autumn I think of Windbreakers and rakes and new kneesocks for school Things that are a world away, but lingering still My nose is frozen; I pull the collar of my coat up around in to walk, not through the rose garden but toward the orange grove All traces of the party are gone, and now I can see it for what it really is: straggly and natural and pretty A place where I would want to lie on a blanket and read I can see why Rose spent so much time here, and I wonder if she knew she was ill that day she collapsed I wonder if she thought she ht slip away quietly, shaded by soft white blossoed
The wind rustles everything, and I feel her serenity everywhere I feel peaceful, not so angry anymore
"She’s here," Linden says, like he was reading ree
We walk for a while, along a vague path of well-trod grass and dirt There are no man-made ponds here, no quaint little love seats or benches The wind comes in such loud bouts that e open our mouths, all hope of words is sucked fro Linden wants to say, and when it’s cal and takes my hands The cold has chapped my knuckles, but his palms are smooth and moist over thereen in the ht "I will share this place with you Anywhere you wish to go, just ask and I’ll allow it But this place is sacred, all right? I will not let you use it as a weapon againstforceful about his tone, but he squeezes my hands and lowers his head so our eyes are even So he knows, then He knows that estion was malicious, and yet he didn’t raise a hand to me
He didn’t abuse me for my defiance like his father abused Gabriel Why? Why would a irls from their homes show me any kindness?