“It’s my car. But before you do anything rash, listen to this.” His voice had suddenly developed a hard edge that Penny had never heard before. “What do you think Gary will do when he finds out that I know you have a mole on your left breast?”
Penny turned to look at him and almost drove off the cliff. She jerked the wheel to turn the car away from the cliff and then had to slam on the brakes to prevent them from driving into the mountain on the other side of the road. She brought the car to a stop and sat there trembling.
“How do you know that?” She immediately realized that it was the wrong thing to say. She was admitting that he was right. How could he know? It must have been a wild guess. She could tell from his wolfish grin that he knew he had scored.
“Remember the party at Joan’s house when we were seniors in high school?”
She shook her head.
“Let me refresh your memory. Halloween night. Everybody went in costume. As I recall, your boyfriend of the moment was off somewhere. You put on quite a show.”
It was coming back. She had long forgotten about that night. Repressed it. She had gone as a cheerleader. Nothing unusual about that since she was a cheerleader at Fenwick High School. Underneath her cheerleader uniform she had worn sexy pink panties, instead of tights, and a pink bra.
It was her secret, and she didn’t really intend to show off her fancy underwear-at least that’s what she told herself-but when the Thunderbird wine started flowing, she became warm-from the wine, the bodies, and a fire in the fireplace. Somebody put marching music on the phonograph-the kind the school band played at football games. That’s when she started doing cheerleading routines. Which made her even warmer.
The boys, who had also been sucking up the wine, started shouting, “Take it off.” She used the heat to rationalize taking off her sweater, evoking more cries. So she took off her skirt. She remembered doing handstands and then going out in the yard and turning cartwheels. She wasn’t certain what happened after that. Alfred must have been at that party-she didn’t remember-but what did he know that she didn’t? How did he find out about the mole on her breast? Penny decided that silence was her best defense.
Horns blew behind her. She was stopped in a traffic lane on the narrow road. Cars were trying to get by. She drove forward, still trembling a little.
“You did a striptease,” Alfred said. “Then you passed out on the lawn.”
She must have passed out because her memory ended at that point. It was definitely out of character for her. It had cost her a boyfriend, although that had been a minor loss. There were plenty of boys aching to go out with her. But what about Gary? She had represented herself to him as an All-American girl. Would this bother him? After all, it had happened seven years ago. Youthful indiscretion.
What had occurred after she passed out? She was afraid to hear what Alfred was going to say next.
“Of course, I wasn’t drinking,” Alfred continued.
Ouch. Puritan Alfred.
“I was looking out for you. I and another guy carried you upstairs and put you on a bed in Joan’s spare room so you’d be safe.”
Uh oh. She definitely didn’t want to hear this. She spotted the green VW stopped at a turnout. She pulled in behind it. This should give her a reprieve for a moment. And time to collect her thoughts.
CHAPTER 14
Gary saw the Ford coming around a curve and breathed a sigh of relief. He had started to worry when he saw that Penny was no longer behind him. He pulled into the first available turnout and waited for several agonizing minutes. Had she lost control of the car and…? He couldn’t bring himself to finish that thought. But he realized how empty life would be without her.
Penny brought the car to a stop and got out. Alfred exited awkwardly from his side. He really was hurting. Maybe it was dangerous for him to drive. Penny walked directly to Gary and gave him a big kiss. That was a nice way to be greeted.
“What happened to you?” Gary’s anxiety made his voice harsher than it should have been.
“I…I thought I had a flat tire. We stopped to check.” Her voice sounded strange.
“It’s dangerous to stop on this road. Let me check the tires.” Gary walked around the Ford. The tires looked fine to him. He went back to Penny. Alfred was a few feet away, looking up at the Garden Wall, a spectacular mountain ridge.
“Is Alfred acting okay?” Gary sensed that Penny was jumpy. He had labeled Alfred as a weirdo from the moment he met him.
“He’s fine,” Penny said, quickly but unconvincingly. “He’s complaining about his aches and pains, but I can handle him.”
“He can ride in the VW with me for a while.”
“It wouldn’t be fair to foist him off on you. He’s my classmate and my problem. I’ll drive him.”
“Your problems are my problems.”
“What I mean is, I don’t want him to bore you. At least he and I can reminisce about the old days.”
Gary wasn’t satisfied. He was about to argue when Penny said, “His legs are really sore. He has to stretch them out. He needs the legroom in the Ford.”
The VW actually had a lot of legroom for such a small car, but Gary didn’t want to start an argument right there, especially in front of Alfred. He decided to accept the situation.
Penny dreaded what was coming next, but she couldn’t let Alfred ride with Gary, at least until she heard how bad Alfred’s story was going to get. He had become a loose cannon. The little convoy started up again, with Gary in the lead. Alfred didn’t say anything at first. Penny decided to wait him out. Maybe he would forget about it. Maybe it was just a bad daydream. She navigated the mountain road slowly and carefully, staying close behind Gary.
“The guy who helped me carry you upstairs was drunk. He wanted to do more than just put you on the bed, if you know what I mean.”
Penny cringed inside. She knew all too well. She noticed that Alfred had placed his hand on his stomach with his fingers inside his shirt, like pictures of Napoleon she had seen. That gesture had helped her identify him at the Space Needle.
“I kicked him out of the room and shut the door. I put you under the covers so you wouldn’t be exposed.”
Alfred paused again. What did he want, a medal? This was agonizing, hearing the story come out piece by piece. She didn’t know whether he was telling the truth, but she couldn’t contradict him.
“You don’t remember any of this, do you?” Alfred said.
He had called whatever bluff she had. “I remember things.” She tried to sound indignant, but the words didn’t come out very forcefully.
“You were very grateful to me.”
Penny could tell that Alfred was watching her, waiting for her reaction. She decided to return to silence.
“ Very grateful, if you know what I mean. And I really like your mole.”
So this was the story. This was what he would tell Gary. She shuddered.
Additional memories returned to her. She had indeed woken up in Joan’s spare bedroom in the wee hours of the morning-naked. With a splitting headache. Once she figured out where she was, she turned on a light and found her clothes in the room. Someone had collected them for her. She got dressed, snuck out of the house, and walked home. It was less than a mile. She snuck into her own house and made it into her bedroom without being seen. Her brothers were asleep. Her mother was asleep. Her father was asleep and probably drunk to boot.
There was gossip at school, of course-that’s what had cost her a boyfriend-but nothing that enlightened her about what had happened when she was unconscious, except that it was Joan who had put her clothes in the room. It was a lost slice of her life that she couldn’t get back.
