Читать книгу Intertwined - Myrna G. Raines - Страница 5

Mylia had been right. Her mother was ecstatic that she was actually going out and with a boy! Her daughter stayed home and took care of her too much and since she was so ill, Mylia had to do almost everything. It hurt May Li that her daughter had so much responsibility, and it made her feel guilty. Most of the time, when she wasn’t in school or cleaning, Lia only sat and read and watched her sleep. No life for a young girl was May Li’s opinion.

Lia made the tea, took her mother a lunch tray where she sat in the deeply cushioned chair she’d dragged up the stairs for her. They sat and ate in relative silence, but every once in a while her mother would smile at her, the beautiful smile that had faded so quickly since she’d been in the hospital with the fever.

“Wear blue dress,” her mother finally broke the silence. “Make you take shape. You want boy to like you, wear blue dress. I not get you back, no?” May Li laughed a little. In her country girls were already married at Mylia’s age. She’d been only fifteen when she’d married Taylor who was twenty-four at the time. Taylor had given the orphanage five whole American dollars for her. She didn’t talk much about their wedding because Mylia must never know the circumstances that surrounded it. Sometimes she cried herself to sleep for the deception that Taylor had contrived, the deception that only she knew. And he had sworn her to secrecy, but it was not fair to Mylia for her not to know her ancestors. Ancestors very important. There was a very good explanation why her daughter looked nothing like her, but she could never reveal the reason, although Mylia had asked her time and time again why she was a blonde. Why wasn’t she short and dainty like May Li? Why was she taller and did not possess the slanted eyes of her mother? May Li only told her that she was lucky and that she looked exactly like her father. And Mylia could see it to a certain extent. She looked American and not Chalayan like her mother.

May Li had sworn to Taylor that no one would ever know that she was not Mylia’s mother. But what difference did it make now? Her country was not at war. Mylia would not be in danger any longer. May Li fought with herself daily as to whether she should do something about the situation, but Taylor never had, although he knew the fighting had been over for years. They had discussed the situation, and Taylor had said he’d never allow Mylia to go back to Chalay. But she belonged there, May Li had argued, and wondered why no one had come searching for her. Taylor had told her that he’d covered their tracks well and there was no way anyone could find Mylia. May Li also loved Mylia very much, how could she ever part with her? Mylia was her life, her very existence, but if her daughter somehow found out who she was, would she ever be able to forgive her?

Looking for a parking place, Lia finally found one that she could pull into and not have to parallel park. She hadn’t quite got the hang of that, although she’d had to park the Mercury a couple of times, always at least a foot away from the curb. It seemed she just couldn’t get the wheels of the big car to go where she wanted them to go. When she’d taken her mother to the new doctor they’d found in Speesburg, she had had to pull out of the parking space and try again. At last, on the second try, she had been close enough to the curb that someone wouldn’t come along and sideswipe the car.

Locking the door, she saw Butch, Jenny and Darian heading her way. What was she to say? What was she to do? She’d never done this before. And Darian looked so good. Tall, with an athlete’s body, he was wearing blue, too. Did they have ESP or something? She couldn’t have told anyone what Butch and Jenny were wearing. All of her focus was on Darian and her stomach seemed to do flip-flops at the sight of him.

And Dari was on cloud nine. How Jenny had managed to get this girl to consent to a date with him after the way she’d acted the night before, he didn’t know, but he was sure happy that she had. He couldn’t stop grinning, and then felt like a fool. Somehow he had to stop showing how elated he was or she’d think he was a total idiot.

“Hi” he tried to say in an offhand manner, but couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice. “I’m glad you could come,” he stated, worshipping her with his gray eyes. “Looks like it’s going to be a pretty good movie,” he said, for lack of something else to say except ‘you look absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking’. Attempting to look cool, he didn’t want to overdo it and start babbling. He took her hand and led her back to where the others waited.

“I’m glad I could, too. I had to sneak out past my mom,” Mylia stated the necessary lie. “She can be pretty nasty if she thinks I’m going to be with a boy. I told her I was going to Jenny’s house.”

“It’s a shame you had to do that, but if you were my daughter, I’d probably keep you in a cell. Under lock and key. You’re not an ordinary looking girl, you know.” And he gave her a sideways grin that had her heart thumping wildly.

They sat through the John Wayne movie and Mylia could not have told anybody much what it was about. It was something about the fight at the Alamo, but she couldn’t keep her mind on the plot. The boys got up once, went to the concession stand and came back with popcorn and Cokes. She and Jenny had been giggling about Dari and Butch. How different they looked, but how much alike they were.

“They’ve known each other forever from what Butch told me. And they’re both on the football team,” Jenny said. “That’s generally all the jocks talk about is football, but I haven’t heard a word about it today. I think Dari’s got it bad for you, Lia. Looks like he’s got stars in his eyes and could eat you up.”

“I hope he doesn’t think I can get by with this every day. My mom would really get suspicious if I’d go out all the time.”

“It doesn’t matter. Dari can’t get away either. His dad owns a garage, and Dari usually works there every night during the week after football practice. He only has Sunday’s free and Saturday nights, of course, when he goes downtown cruising. Friday nights they usually have a game until the football season is over.”

“Thank goodness. At least he won’t be out looking for me.” And Jenny wondered what she meant by that, but didn’t have time to ask anything about it. The boys had returned with their refreshments.

They sat and ate their popcorn, sharing, and Dari’s hand touched Lia’s. They stared at each other, but he didn’t move his hand. He reached over and kissed her lightly on the lips, and Lia sighed, with him not knowing it was her first kiss. A light touch of the lips, but it shot a charge of electricity down through her body. Dari was everything she’d ever wanted in a boy. She lowered her head not wanting him to see how very much the kiss had affected her.

Dari had felt the jolt, too, but just thought Lia was shy and smiled to himself. What a girl! The most beautiful in the whole town, and she was with him. How could he have gotten so lucky? He’d have to get down and kiss Butch’s feet for suggesting they double date and Jenny’s for asking Lia. He couldn’t wait to get to know everything there was to know about this girl. She was so darned special.

After the movie, Butch suggested they go down to the river and watch the boats for a while. Another month and the boats would be in dock and none of them would be out. Getting too cold for that. Lia was hesitant, thinking she should be getting back to her mother, but she didn’t want to leave Dari just yet. And a walk along the riverbank would be something she could tell her mom about. She sure couldn’t tell her much about the movie! She’d been too excited just sitting beside Dari.

It wasn’t long before Lia understood what was going on. Butch and Jenny went one way and she and Dari walked another. She’d never been alone with a boy in her life! What would they talk about? More importantly, what did he expect from her? Was he one of those guys who were nice to a girl and then expected her to put out? She wasn’t like that and she sure wasn’t going to start now, although she’d never seen another guy she’d rather be with than Dari.

Walking along, slowly, he pointed to different speedboats, telling her who they belonged to, that he’d worked on this one or that one, and it set her at ease. The river was clean and beautiful, and she could look down into the edge of it and see some small fish swimming close to the bank. The lush trees and brush, just turning gold and orange, hid them from view, and she started to get a little worried. He held her hand, but that was about the extent of it, until he asked her if he could come pick her up the next Saturday night and they could cruise together.

“I don’t think so, Dari, but maybe I can meet you downtown. I’ve told you how my mother is. She’d have a conniption fit if she knew I was here right now and I’ll have to be going soon. If I’m gone too long, she might get suspicious.” God, she hated to lie about her mom like that, but what else could she do? If Dari ever saw the rooms they lived in over her uncle’s garage, with cast off furniture, he’d never even look at her again. His dad owned a garage and he probably lived in a very nice house with a mom and a dad and maybe even a couple of brothers and sisters. She only had her mom and the proverbial church mouse had more than they had. And they wouldn’t even have that place to live in if her Uncle Warren changed his mind and decided he wanted them out. Probably wouldn’t be him since he’d suggested it in the first place, but would be that old witch he was married to, Patience. It was a constant fear for them, him putting them out when they had nowhere else to go.

They turned and strolled back toward the marina, meeting Butch and Jenny walking from the other direction. Jenny’s hair was sort of messed up and Lia wondered if she and Butch had been making out. Dari hadn’t even touched her except to hold her hand, but as the other couple approached, he casually took his arm and put it around her waist. Why now? Why hadn’t he done that while they were walking along the bank? Perhaps he thought she might object but with Butch and Jenny there, she would feel safe, wouldn’t feel like he was rushing things.

Lia couldn’t even suspect what a battle Dari had fought with himself when all he wanted to do as they’d walked along was grab her and kiss the mortal life out of her. And it didn’t help to know that was probably what Butch was doing with Jenny. But he didn’t want to scare Lia off by making her think he was that kind of guy. It was even hard for him to talk in a normal voice. He’d never met anyone as sweet and nice as Lia, and had certainly never been with anyone so beautiful. He didn’t want to mess up a good thing by coming on too strong.

Making their way back up to the cars, they all decided they would cruise together the next Saturday night, and when they got to the Mercury, Lia unlocked the door and Dari opened and held it for her. She got into the seat and looked up at him with his arm lying across the top of the open door. He reached down and kissed her, deeper than he had done in the movie theater, and she thought she would surely melt into the seat.

And Dari thought he wouldn’t be able to walk back to his car. His legs felt like willow branches and he was about two feet off the ground. He wanted to go on kissing Lia, but a yell from Butch brought him back down to earth. Forgetting there was anyone else in the world except Lia, he finally realized he had to go.

“See you at school. And I can’t wait until next Saturday,” he fairly whispered to her. He didn’t trust his voice.

“Yeah. Me, too. Oh! Thank you for the movie. I had a really good time. See you, Dari.” She was so rattled by the kiss that she almost forgot to thank him. That would have been real nice of her, to let him go without even a thanks. And she backed out of the parking space and sped away, her heart beating as fast as the engine was revving in the powerful Mercury.

“Well?” her mom said as soon as she walked in the door. “How it go? I see you still here so he not steal you.” She smiled at her daughter and Lia thought her mother was as excited as she was. Lia sometimes forgot that her mother was only sixteen years older than she was. May Li had said that she and Taylor had married when she was fifteen, so she had to be just sixteen when Lia was born. She sat down on the floor at her mom’s feet anxious to tell her all about Dari.

“Mom, he’s wonderful. I’ve never met anyone like him.” Then she giggled. “I’ve never met any boy before now. I wouldn’t let myself. But he’s different. He’s… He’s…”

“Wonderful, you say. And makes you feel like queen. The way he looks at you, you melt down in puddle and his kiss set flames running up and down body. You not want to ever, ever leave him.”

Mylia gave her mother a skeptical glance. “How did you know that? You don’t know Dari.”

“True. But I know your father, and it does not change. Every generation think these new feelings, but they been going since start of time. If they not, none of us be here,” and she held out her thin arms, palms up, shrugging her shoulders. She smiled at her daughter, who was blushing, and knew that this boy was special for Mylia. Although Mylia had only known him for a short time, she was already fascinated by the boy. God, how she’d love to meet him! But that was impossible. They could not have him come here to this place. She would not bring shame to her Mylia.