The sound of Gisselle's laughter coming from the stairway sent us both into a frenzy. We replaced our discarded clothing quickly and he turned on the lamp. Then I straightened my hair. He rose from the sofa and went to the fireplace to stir the logs just before John, carrying Gisselle in his arms, entered the parlor.
'We decided to see what you two have been up to,' she said. 'And John's so strong, it's faster and easier for him to carry me up and down the stairs than for me to use that stupid electric chair.' She clung to him like a baby chimp holding onto its mother, her arm wrapped around his neck, her cheek against his chest.
Kneeling at the fire, Beau looked at me and then up at her.
'I know that expression on your face, Beau Andreas.' She smiled at me. 'Don't try to hide anything from your twin sister, Ruby.' She looked up at John, who was holding her as if she hardly weighed a thing. 'Twins sense things about each other, did you know that, John?'
'Oh?'
'Yes. Whenever I'm unhappy, Ruby senses it quickly, and when she's been excited . . .'
'Stop it, Gisselle,' I said, feeling the heat return to my cheeks.
'Wait a minute,' she said. 'John, bring me to the sofa.' He did so, and she gazed down at me. 'What's that around your neck? Is that your ring, Beau?'
'Yes,' he said, standing up.
'You gave her your ring! What are your parents going to say?'
'I don't care what they say,' Beau replied, coming to my side. He took my hand. I saw Gisselle's look of surprise change quickly into a look of green envy.
'Well, there's someone back at Greenwood who's going to be heartbroken,' she quipped.
'I've already told Beau about Louis, Gisselle.'
'You did?' she asked, dripping with disappointment.
'Yes, she did,' Beau said. 'I must see if I can thank him for helping her at the hearing,' he added. Gisselle smirked and then beamed with excitement, her facial expressions clicking on and off and changing as if her face were a television screen changing channels.
'Well let's celebrate your giving Ruby your ring. Let's all go someplace. How about the Green Door? They don't check for IDs, or at least they never used to.'
'We told Daphne we were staying at home tonight and it's late already, Gisselle. She'll be home soon.'
'No she won't, and what's the difference what we said? She's being different, isn't she?'
'Which is why I don't want to upset her,' I replied. 'How about popcorn? We'll make it in the fireplace and play backgammon.'
'Oh, that's just bundles of fun. Come on, John. Let's go back up to my room and leave these two old people knitting in the parlor.' She ran her hand along John's upper arm. 'Isn't he strong? I feel like a baby in his arms.' She kissed him on the neck, and John blushed and smiled at Beau. 'I'm so helpless,' she wailed. 'But John is gentle, aren't you, John?'
'What? Sure.'
'Then let's go up. I need my diaper changed,' she said, and laughed. I thought John was going to drop her, but he turned away, his face crimson, and hurried out of the parlor with her bouncing in his arms and giggling.
'I can't help wondering,' Beau said, 'why I ever started with her.'
'It was Fate, Destiny. If you hadn't,' I told him, 'you and I might never have met.'
'I love you, Ruby. I love the way you can find the good in things, even in someone like Gisselle.'
'That's a challenge,' I admitted, and we laughed. Then he asked me to play Louis's symphony. We sat listening with his arm around me.
'It's wonderful how you inspired someone to do something so beautiful,' he confessed.
At twelve we went upstairs to call John out of Gisselle's room. She complained, of course, and did her best to try to get him to stay, if simply to violate Daphne's curfew. But Beau wasn't taking any chances about riling Daphne again. He told John sternly to come out and he did so.
I kissed Beau goodbye at the door and then went upstairs.
Gisselle was waiting in her doorway. The sight of her standing, even though I knew she was capable of doing it any time she wanted, still looked incongruous and surprising.
'Well aren't you the happy one now,' she said. 'You've got Beau Andreas forever and ever.'
'Do you want someone forever and ever too?' I asked.
'Of course not. I'm too young. I want to explore, have fun, have dozens of different boyfriends, before I marry someone just dripping with money,' she said.
'So why are you jealous?'
'I'm not jealous.' She laughed. 'I'm hardly jealous.'
'Yes you are, Gisselle. You won't admit it, not even to yourself, but you want someone to love you, only . . . no one's going to love someone so selfish.'
'Oh, don't start one of your lectures,' she whined. 'I'm tired. John's a very good lover, you know,' she added, smiling. 'A bit stupid, but a good lover. My pretending to be so helpless turns him on. It turns them all on, you know. Men like feeling in charge, even though they're not. I could play him like a . . . a flute,' she said, laughing.
