Fifty-seven

NOTHING IS EVER AS EASY as it should be.

We had five straight days of rain and wind so strong that we couldn’t lift the awning for fear of having it torn off the building. I met with Doc once and spent some time on the courts, but I was really worried about getting the wall done if the weather didn’t break soon.

And when I worry, I paint.

I went to the studio which had not been used that much for painting since I’d been spending most of my time outside with a four-inch brush. I’d discovered that to do a large-scale painting, you have to scale up your tools too. Our initial problems had been around using brushes that were too small, so the shading and gradations we’d been doing were too fine to be seen from fifty yards away.

But in the studio, I had a new canvas and sketched in the image of Wendy. I brightened the colors and highlighted her hair, adding to the short strands she currently had. Her sleeping bag became silk sheets and I was lost in a world of drapery. Instead of a stuffed toy, she held a tiger kitten, its pink tongue stretched out to touch her cheek. The drapery dropped and showed her breast, painted from memory.

After three days in the studio, Kate showed up to see what I was working on. Melody and Lissa were packing stock. I scarcely noticed any of them as I had my headset on and was lost in Borodin. My player said “Prince Igor,” but I’d heard most of this music in a Broadway soundtrack that my dad has. It just made me think harem and paradise.

“Odalisque,” Kate said. I only saw her lips move and removed my headset. “Odalisque,” she repeated.

“Yeah,” I said. “The harem slave. Puts a whole new spin on it.”

“Are you going to exhibit it?” Melody asked.

“No,” I said. “This is a family piece.”

“Good,” Lissa agreed.

They went back to work and I continued puttering with the nearly finished painting without benefit of music. I stepped back and realized that Kate was still there at my shoulder. I turned to her and saw a tear leak from her left eye onto her cheek.

“What is it, Kitten?” I asked softly. She worked her mouth open and closed a few times before she got her voice behind it.

“I’ve tried not to be a burden, Tony,” she started.

“How could you even imagine such a thing?” I asked. “You are about as low maintenance as they come. Don’t ever think of yourself as a burden to me or any of us, Kitten.”

“But I want to ask something from you and I’ve never done it and I don’t know how,” Kate spluttered.

I took Kate over to the studio recliner. She cuddled in my lap as I lifted the footrest. Melody and Lissa kissed, smiling at us.

“Now, just relax and tell me what you want, lover. Anything I can give you I will. Anything.”

“I want ... It’s so beautiful ... and I love her ... and ... will you give me that painting? I know that we’ll have it in the house where we can all enjoy it, but... please, Tony?”

“Your wish is my command, damsel,” I said. “I’ve a feeling that I will have commissions of at least two other women to add to our collection this summer, and I know they are going to be claimed as well.”

“We do like our toys, don’t we?” Kate sniffed.

“I think this is a little more than a toy, darling. I know how close you are. You know, Wendy does talk to me, too,” I said.

“You mean you don’t just tell her what to do?” Kate asked.

“You know better than that. If you hear that in my voice, warn me. I’m trying hard to be what she needs without being domineering.”

“I’m so glad you could do it,” Kate said. “I just couldn’t. It’s so contrary to everything I think and believe. But Mama says I need to understand that people are different and those we love might not conform to our image of them. If it weren’t for you, Tony, I’d have lost her.”

“Now we are all together,” I said.

“Diamonds,” Kate said softly.

“What?”

“She’s the Queen of Diamonds, isn’t she?” Kate asked.

“That’s what Mama Gypsy said.”

“She made me study the cards, but I never really believed in them. But she used them to talk about different personalities as well as mystical things,” Kate said. “She’s different, but she has the same rank as all the other queens. It isn’t like she’s queen of the slaves or the servants, but she is a queen who serves.” Kate looked into my eyes and I saw her slowly break into her beautiful wide smile. “Thank you for making her your queen,” Kate said. “Thank you for making all of us your queens.”

By Sunday, I was panicked. I’d spent all day Saturday in the gym and on the courts, absolutely pounding the ball. I’d taken on Allison, preparing her for her first National Singles championship. I’d taken on both Brent and Franklin as a team and pounded them. Lissa came on the court and we’d played for an hour-and-a-half never a point apart. I was so emotionally and physically frustrated that I couldn’t contain myself. When Sunday dawned clear and fifty-four, I was off to the jobsite. I was on a lift and painting at seven in the morning.

There were still two full focal points to complete and detail work all over the wall that I needed to work on. And now there was only Kate and me with an occasional hand from Doc. I wasn’t going to make it. The dedication was just a week away. Kate joined me at nine and complained that she didn’t know I’d come early and she would have joined me. We didn’t work together, but chose to split the two focal points between us. Neither of us came close to finishing, even though I worked until seven when the light started going wonky.

I went home filled with dread. I knew what was going to happen and I desperately wanted it not to happen. There was no way around it.

“So, unlike last year when you got there too late to get practice court time, Tony, we’re leaving tomorrow afternoon and will have all day Tuesday to get settled and get our practice in,” Lissa said. I was at the dining table, but Lissa didn’t notice that I wasn’t really there.

“We’ll have our full booth set up on the practice day,” Melody said. “I have more outfits than we could possibly need and we’re set to take pre-orders on our warm-ups. Raquethon is really making a big deal out of Ice Queen Knights presented by Raquethon and plans to sell an outfit to every male player registered. They’re really excited about the reception we’re getting.”

“So, there are only going to be three entries from the school, but it isn’t technically a college competition. Brent and Franklin are going to meet elite level competitors and we can only hope that they can win a couple of matches before they’re eliminated. You two are our stars as far as the product goes.”

“Lissa?”

“And with Bree and me working the booth, we can positively sell out all our stock if you win,” Melody almost screamed. Kate sat across from me and could see what was coming. She took hold of Melody’s and Lissa’s hands.

“Liss,” I repeated. She looked at me.

“I can’t go.” That was all it took. Getting those words out was the forerunner to having me curled up in a ball on the floor bawling like a baby. “I can’t go. I can’t go,” I repeated.

My lovers and my friends surrounded and lifted me. We stumbled to the sofa and plopped down with the seven girls surrounding me.

“Shh. Shh. Tell us about it, lover,” Melody soothed. I was still curled up in a ball on the sofa.

“If it hadn’t rained this week, I’d be done. But the dedication is a week from tomorrow and I can’t finish tomorrow morning and then take the rest of the week to go to Nationals. I have to stay and finish. I can’t go,” I squalled. I was on the U.S. National Team, set to travel this summer to the World’s in the Dominican Republic. But I wasn’t going to make the top singles competition in the sport. I could see that the only ones who truly understood were Lissa and Whitney. Whitney was a month away from the National Track Meet and was trying to make the U.S. Olympic team. I just wanted to play Brian Summers.