Marshall's Landing - Chapter 3
Chapter 3
He discovered the intensity of Ariel’s crush by accident. One day when he was mowing the lawn in his own backyard, he heard Ariel's mom, Gabby Tanner, calling for her daughter from their back door.
Moments earlier, Aidan saw Ariel scamper for the security of the massive Magnolia standing stately in the center of her yard. Tall and grand and protective – Ariel often sought shelter in its boughs. Aidan noticed she was crying, and Gabby couldn't coax her down. He left his mower, spoke briefly to Gabby then nonchalantly walked over the tree and leaned on the thick trunk.
Ariel held her breath, forcing the tears to stop so she could hear what he was saying. Mad at the world but not wanting to miss a syllable he uttered. "Hummm? I wonder where Ariel is?"
Ariel sniffled and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her T-shirt. 'He's looking for me,' she though – her spirits brightening.
Aidan shifted and spoke loudly. "It's a shame too...what with me heading to Tucker's for an ice cream and all." He paused and signed, listening to the little girl shift in the tree. "Guess I'll have to go alone."
"Wait!" Ariel jumped from a spot high above Aidan's head and landed squarely on her feet. Pouting for principal was one thing but missing ice cream with Aidan Thomas was an entirely different matter.
Aidan smiled. "I thought I'd have to eat my ice cream all alone."
"Why don't you just ask that stuck‑up Michelle Wilkes? I bet she'd love to get her hands on your ice cream.” Even at seven Ariel understood the logistics of relationships.
Aidan took Ariel’s hand and headed towards Main Street. Trees shaded the quite solitude of Jessica Lane, sheltering those who lived under them. "I don't want to have ice cream with her – I want to have it with you."
"But you want to kiss her," Ariel said indignantly. "I saw you so lying won’t get you outta this one."
"I'd never do that to you Ariel, you're my best friend. I'd never lie to my best friend."
"But you wouldn't kiss her either." Ariel kicked a stone and sent it scrapping across the black asphalt road.
"Ariel."
Ariel stopped and looked directly at Aidan. Face open honest – almost angelic. "I know you're older than me and I know it's illegal or something for you to like me that way, but that's the way I like you."
Aidan stopped and thought for a minute, inspired by her courage. "You're right Ariel. I don't like you that way ‑ I like you better. See, guys my age, we're kinda slimy, we like to jump from girl to girl."
Ariel could hear the words – their meaning, however was, an entirely different story.
"Like when you can't decide on what kind of ice cream you want, and Bob lets you taste them all. Think of me as tasting ice cream," Aidan explained.
Ariel dropped his hand and skipped ahead, slowing only to balance on a rock ledge at the foot of Main Street. "I always get chocolate."
"But you know what I mean, right?"
Ariel walked a few steps in silence. "I guess so, but when are you going to get to my flavor?"
"Maybe when you get a little older."
"When I get older, you'll get older too. It'll always be the same."
"No, it won't. When people get older, it doesn't matter as much." Aidan chuckled to himself. "It's not illegal anymore."
"But everybody loves you Aidan, and you're going away."
Aidan cocked his head and wrinkled his nose. “Is that what this is about?”
"You're going away to school, Hannah is going to a different camp than me this summer and, after the green cat incident, Scottie can't go to any camp at all...”
Aidan stopped again, making Ariel stop too. "All of those things'll turn out ok."
Ariel frowned.
"Really,” Aidan continued, “you and Hannah'll end up at the same camp - and before school's even over the paint will have chipped from Scott's mom's Persian and he'll be off the hook. You'll see. Cat's don't stay green for very long."
He was probably right about Hannah and the green cat was not the end of the world; only, he’d overlooked the most important thing of all. "Nice try...but you forgot you. You'll be gone forever, and I'll never get a real chance."
"I'm going to make you a promise."
"Better be a good one."
Aidan fumbled with the medal hanging around his neck since Ariel could remember. It was a gold mariner’s cross medallion, and it was a part of him. Given to him by his father, it was the only thing had left of Aidan's grandfather. The cross was a gift from Aidan's grandmother to keep her new husband safe during his tour of duty in World War II. Now, Aidan dangled it before Ariel's big green eyes. "I'm even going to give you my lucky metal, so we'll never forget the promise."
"But your dad gave you that. It's Grandpa Pete's." Ariel's eyes were wide.
"Then I have to come home, keep my promise and get it back, won't I?"
Ariel lifted her chin and stared up directly into his eyes. "What's the promise?"
"Ariel Elizabeth Tanner, this is to remind us that one day I'll come back, and you'll get your chance. Let's make a date right now."
"A date?"
"Yeah, a date. Like, for when you're in college?"
"What if you're married by then?"
"Can't." Aidan smiled. "I have a date."
"For real?"
"For real." Aidan took her hand and again they headed for Tucker's. "Is it a date?"
Ariel fondled the medallion, holding it tightly to her chest as they passed the antique shops and sidewalk cafes on Main Street. "I'll come back, and you won't even want a shot." Aidan held the door to Tucker's open for her.
"Bet me?" Ariel whispered but Aidan did not hear.
Jessica Lane cut through Main Street between Tanner's Antiques and Regalia’s Italian. It was a proud road, lined with large trees and stately homes, Dutch Colonial, Cape Cod, Victorian mostly. Ariel’d lived on it her whole life and loved the way it felt as much as she loved the way the shadows danced off the trees and guided her home.
Jessica Lane was the kind of place that elicited good neighbors, with houses far enough apart to insure privacy, but close enough for block parties and parades. The yards were lavish, the lawns lush and the landscapes groomed, in a very old, very traditional, very American way.
Ariel lived in the center of the block. A two-story Dutch Colonial with sweeping porches and wavy windows, built by her great grandfather when he gave up prospecting for gold and opened a mercantile instead. Looking in from the road Hannah’s house was on the left, Aidan's the right and Scottie’s directly across.
A majestic magnolia with curly gray moss dripping from its branches shaded the entire front yard. Azaleas, scarlet and profuse, bloomed in beds below the large clapboard porch, that hugged the fresh white walls, and made them a home for the family inside. In the back, the porch was enclosed with square pane glass allowing afternoon sun to saturate the air and create a greenhouse environment for Gabby's overgrown ferns, orchids, and other tropical plants that intermixed, lovingly, with the well-worn wicker furniture Ariel had lived so much of her life on.
The lawn behind the houses stretched nearly a full acre back to the creek. They’d spent many hours splashing in the icy water, panning for gold, looking for tadpoles, sailing sticks and dreaming up great adventures.
Pink, violet and rich lavender crape myrtles dotted lawn and a sapphire pool, complete with slide and diving board, rounded off the feeling of home and heart.
There were no fences between Ariel's, Aiden’s, and Hannah’s backyards – just one expansive playground. The Thomas’ house was Mediterranean –with roses and grape vines hugging the stone and stucco and while it contrasted the easy American landscape of the Tanner's, it blended in certain and distinct friendship as did the mismatched people living inside. Off to the far right was an enormous vegetable garden just beginning to sprout, ensuring no shortage of zucchini for everyone in Marshall’s Landing who happened by.
Inside the Tanner home, Gabby was getting the snack ready for after her youngest daughter's little league game. She worked hard to make the house a home and her daughters loved her for it. Gabby was always an inspiration for Ariel, the mother who owned the most successful antique store in three counties but still manages to be room mother and scout leader and bake the best chocolate chip cookies in the entire world.
Gabby hummed as she worked, arranging fresh fruit and those famous cookies into a box for the hungry Little Leaguer's post-game snack. Gabby did not even need to look at the clock to know her youngest daughter would be late without a little coaxing.
"Katie!” She waited. No answer. “Hurry up, honey! We're going to be late."
Upstairs, ten-year-old, Katie Tanner was frantically tacking a banner up over her sister’s bed. Welcome Home Ariel -- would greet her big sister when she walked into her room and settled in for probably, the last whole summer she would spend in Marshall's Landing.
Ariel's room was a room in-between. Decorated in Lauren fabrics with cases full of books, dolls and awards lining the walls. A large Stanford banner hung over the bed, as did a collage of pictures. The room was sunny and beckoning and growing up -- for this would be the summer the dolls came down, the patterns on the bed and windows changed, and a thousand memories built a wall of strength and courage around Ariel that she would carry with her forever.
Katie finished with the banner, arranged a bouquet of balloons on either side of the bed and jumped onto the floor, straightening the footprints she’d left on the sunny spread. She took a six-pack of Diet Coke out of a bag and put it in a cooler on the desk. Her final touch came by way of a one-pound bag of peanut M&M's under Ariel's pillow. All her sister's favorites.
"Katie!" Gabby called again from downstairs.
Katie sighed, darted from the room but reappeared an instant later to admire her work and grab the baseball mitt she'd left behind.
"Katherine Elizabeth Tanner!" Came wailing up the stairs.
Katie flew down the hall. "I'm coming."
Downstairs, Gabby held the front door open smiling as her little girl took the last fourth of the stairs in one giant leap, slid on the shiny hardwood floor and fly out the door. “I’m a horrible mother for letting you do that.”
“Probably take me away one day,” Katie winked. “Abuse and all.”
They pulled onto the street as Aidan and Mary drove into the driveway next door. Gabby blew the horn as Mary called out of the window to Katie. "Good luck, Slugger, break a leg!"
Katie waved. “That woman spends too much time in the theater. I don’t think break a leg is what you tell a ball player.”
“She means well.”
Coming from the other direction, Ariel turned her car into the familiar driveway in time to see Aidan wheel into his house.
The butterflies were back, but different. Aidan wheeling was difficult for her to see. Her perfect neighbor reduced to the confines of the human body. It seemed tragic…tragic, but it didn’t change who he was or the way she felt when she saw him, even now after the amazing year she’d had. Somewhere deep within, where only the shadows linger, she always knew Aidan was human she only wished that reality hadn't manifested in such a horrible way.
Scott honked from the street, bringing Ariel back to the present. She pulled all the way back to the garage behind her house, jumped out and sprinted to Scott's pick-up at the curb.
Ariel caught a wafture of moving curtains and saw the shadow of Aidan watching them as they headed towards the field. She paused and looked again as a flicker of light danced above him and was gone.
Scott touched her hand. "He's a different person. Let it go."
“Did you see that?” she asked.
Scott put his arm around his friend and guided her into the truck. “I’ll say it again, don’t ask if you really don’t want to know.”
Puzzled, Ariel let it drop, for now.
Inside, Aidan pulled back from the window and nearly ran his mother over as she carried the last load of groceries into the kitchen.
"I'll bet they're going to the game." She smiled that trademark Mary Thomas smile. The one that exuded strength and fortitude. "You haven't seen Ariel for so long Aidan. Why don't you go too?"
Aidan wheeled around his mother. "I’ve nothing to say to any of them."
"Nonsense. Just go and try to enjoy yourself."
"They’ve outgrown me and who can blame them. Ariel was the little kid next door who thought Aidan Thomas could do anything. She’s best to stay clear of what I can do now – of who I’ve become in the darkness."
“Don’t talk like the darkness is alive.”
“You’ve no idea mother.” He moved to the family room, clicked on Netflix, and scrolled obsessively
Mary followed, persisting. "I’m serious Aidan. Some old timers don’t take kindly to making fun of the darkness. Some believe in legend and superstition."
"I have company coming."
“Those people?” Aidan did not answer. “I don’t like them Aidan. I don’t trust them, besides, you get so gloomy, so haunted, when they are around.”
“Let it be mother.”
Mary crossed the room and headed into the kitchen. "Always do."
She sighed, desperately trying to catch her breath and stop the tears that constantly threatened to fall.
Aidan looked around the room - a virtual shrine dedicated to his childhood accomplishments. The walls were filled with various team photos: football, basketball, track, swimming, baseball ‑ many pictures at different ages. Sport trophies, debating team awards and acting medals lined the shelves. A Congressional Medal of Honor hung from his college senior portrait. Every certificate he'd ever earned as team captain, every scholarship note or even honorable mention ribbon -- was there too, beside a Sigma Chi fraternity mug by a composite with Aidan -- top row center, President.
Framed pictures, embossed with gold lettering on the bottom, labeled his college memories: Sigma Chi Dad’s Day, White Rose Formal and Mom’s Day, were intermixed with school pictures and framed snapshots chronicling his life. Aidan realized his proud mother stopped taking pictures about a year ago. Not one memento hung on the wall with the darkness and the one honor they had bestowed on his broken body. The album on the wall was how he viewed himself...alive and active, a winner...until dusk fell, and darkness enveloped him forever.
Aidan knew the darkness was lurking and he had less than two months to decide.
Pictures in a double frame almost made him smile - almost. One was Ariel at six sitting on the shoulders of a teenage Aidan and the other was Ariel by his side at his graduation from Cal.
How he longed for that life back. He clicked off the television, wheeled to the window and watched his mother pull weeds from her saffron beds. He felt sorry for her and for his father, having to endure, not only the effects of the accident but the other thing, that unmentionable other thing that plagued their futures. He closed his eyes and wished for a way out of the inner turmoil he was causing those around him and knowing either decision would forever change those he loved.
When he was himself, he could rationalize the effects he had on others, but more and more the darkness sheathed him, and he was unable to control his algific words or forlorn manner.
Thanks for reading,
Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti
Comments
Post a Comment