Chapter 11: Kennedy's Ruby Tuesday

As Kennedy was finishing up with her racing scull, she heard a funny, startled sound from Deb and turned to see what it was. A man was standing a few feet inside the door of the boat house, watching the two of them. At least, Kennedy thought, it wasn't Agent Larkin.

"Uncle Ferinc!" Deb said, obviously upset.

"Niece, please go busy yourself elsewhere for a time. I will talk to you after lunch."

Kennedy wasn't sure how old he was. He looked at times to be older than her father, other times as young as Mr. Glastonbury. Except Kennedy was sure that Mr. Glastonbury was older than he looked, because several times her tutor had spoken in the past tense as if he'd been at events long before.

Ferinc was dressed well, although Kennedy thought the undone trench coat was a little melodramatic. His nose was huge, his skin was dusky, his eyes brown and piercing.

"So, Miss Kennedy. I talked with your Watcher yesterday. He seemed in a hurry to return to his doxie -- not the sort of behavior I've heard of Watchers engaging in before."

"Perhaps he was as horny as the girls in this camp," Kennedy said. She blinked then, aware that those words weren't her own volition. Her eyes flamed with anger.

He held up a hand like a traffic policeman. "Yes, it's true. I laid a geas on you to tell me the truth. Please note that you sensed it at once, and right now, that part of my magic is ... feeling a painful pinch. I promise I won't do it again."

"I don't have any magic," she told him.

He smiled. "No ... and yes. Please, there isn't much time and young or old, sparring with the likes of you will leave lumps and sore spots on my aging body. Miss Kennedy, the Roma owe people like you a debt of gratitude that knows no bounds. I am fully aware of what passed yesterday. There was no way you'd have left my niece while there was still breath left in your body."

"That you have right!"

"Then be assured of this as well: that is how we pay our debts, we Roma. Unto the last breath in our bodies. Melodramatic, but true. We will do everything in our power to keep you out of this. As the saying goes, the fix is in." He grinned at her.

"Okay," Kennedy said, not knowing what else to say.

"One little favor, before I take my leave, day after tomorrow. You and I should spend a few moments together with our blades. Practice, you know. Spectators limited to you and the Roma. A half dozen. It will be a salutatory lesson to all."

"Why is that?" Kennedy asked, curious.

"Because they think I'm a genius with a blade. Perhaps, in the regular world, I am. But you and I, Miss Kennedy, don't belong to the regular world."

"Why should I believe you?"

He grinned. "If I was dark, my family would sense it, almost at once. Deb, of course, first. Then Steffie, then Lauren. All of them try to deny their ability when it comes to Second Sight." He tapped the side of his head. "But you can't hide from another with it. Our King is more short-sighted than most -- but that is our politics, and of no interest to such as you.

"Besides, every time I come to visit Lauren I am reduced to laughter. Do you have any idea how hard it is to scam our king? That my baby sister does it by telling the truth is the most wonderful joke! After this is over, people will be telling this story a thousand years from now. And maybe, just maybe, we might get a king whose claim to fame isn't who his mother slept with."

Kennedy's mind was running in a thousand different directions. It quickly realized the conundrum in the last sentence. "I thought kings..." she paused, unsure how to say it.

"True, Miss Kennedy, very true. However, like your people, we ignore such things in polite company. Now you know far too much about the politics of the Roma. Please, you reflected the geas back on me. Have a heart!"

"I didn't do anything!"

He smiled as if he knew she was lying through her teeth instead of just confused.

Mr. Waterman appeared at Kennedy's elbow. "Roma, do you know seaweed?"

Ferinc grinned. "Not as intimately as I'm about to, am I?"

"No. Now go."

Ferinc turned to go and abruptly sprawled forward, going face down, hard. Only at the last second did he catch himself before his face splatted on the ground.

He rose and bowed to Mr. Waterman, waving the piece of sea weed that had brought him low. "Don't trust hospitality too far, Waterman," Ferinc told the demon.

Mr. Waterman sniffed in derision and Ferinc turned and, this time, managed to escape with his dignity.

"Why did you do that?" Kennedy asked, mystified.

"He and I once loved the same woman. As is the way of the world, she chose someone else entirely. But that hasn't stopped the hard feelings."

"I'm not even going to ask how long ago that was, but I bet it wasn't yesterday."

"Forty-three years," Mr. Waterman said, nodding.

"Yeah, well that was before my parents were alive. Maybe it's time for you guys to give it a rest."

He smiled. "A hundred or so years ago, the Roma caught Angelus, one of the worst of the vampires. They cursed him terribly. One of their nastiest spells. Angelus had been killing gypsies for a couple of hundred years by then. They gave him a soul, so that he would know the depths of evil he'd plumbed.

"Irony, Miss Kennedy, is that they thought in a week, perhaps two at most, he'd kill himself, going mad with grief and guilt. Instead, here it is today and they have a vampire on their hands who goes around saving people and doing good, trying to redeem himself as contrition for his past sins. They created him and now they can't unmake him. Ironic, yes?"

Kennedy could only shrug. How do you make heads or tails of a war that was thousands of years old, and that involved practically everyone, even if practically no one knew about it? But it was clear what Mr. Waterman's point was: Angelus had killed for centuries and had never been forgotten or forgiven. They'd done what they did, and now a century later they talked about it as Mr. Glastonbury talked about current events.

She went to lunch with the others in her cabin, then Debbie went to see her uncle while Kennedy went to the hiking group.

"Today," Steffie told the group, "we're not quite so many as we were yesterday. Does anyone not understand why that happened?"

There was no sound, several of the girls were looking at the ground. "Good!" Steffie said with false cheerfulness. "Then we'll never talk about it again, and no one will ever be that brain-dead again."

She waved at the camp. "Yesterday we hiked more or less cross country. Today we'll do something more difficult. It's a mile and a third to town, the same amount back. We'll hike along the road.

"I'll not kid you; this is dangerous. All it takes is one clueless driver to mow us all down. We will be walking on the wrong side of the road, so we can see them coming. Anytime there is a vehicle of any sort coming at us from any direction, you'll pay attention to it and be ready to get out of its way if it becomes necessary. Odds are, it won't be a problem -- but it only takes one clueless idiot to spoil the rest of your life.

"Oh, and one other thing: you will find that walking on asphalt isn't nearly as nice as walking on dirt and forest litter."

She set off at brisk pace, everyone keeping up this time. Still, Kennedy hung back and walked just in front of Cindy. Cindy didn't say anything; she just walked along without expression, her oversize pack jutting up over her head.

They'd gone halfway when Ruby pulled up. She sat down on a rock near the road and started to take off her boot. Cindy came up and stood next to her. "What's the problem?"

Ruby sounded exasperated and angry. "I didn't want to stop; I swear, I didn't want to stop. But I have a rock in my boot and..." Kennedy saw the other girl close her eyes and start leaking tears. "I'm not a wuss. I can do this!"

She opened her eyes and looked at Cindy. "I can do this! I can! I'll just be a second."

Bravado was gone; threats were gone. Kennedy waved at the leg Ruby had been favoring. "Let's see what you did."

"I'm fine, really."

Cindy had been around the block as well. "Ruby, girl, you can do one of two things. Take off your boot and show me, or join Kennedy and I as we run to catch up."

Ruby closed her eyes, squinching them shut with frustration. There were even more tears, Kennedy saw.

Without a word, Ruby unlaced her boot, then pulled off her sock. Kennedy saw the brown stains and so did Cindy. Both of them stared stonily at the ruin that was Ruby's foot.

"Girl, I'm not going to bother to ask how you could walk on that." Cindy turned to Kennedy. "Steffie said to treat you like another junior counselor. I don't know about that. The two of you go back to camp. It's not that far."

She spoke to Ruby. "You need to keep your weight off that foot. Not just some of the time, but all of the time. Lean on Kennedy; use her as a crutch. Hop."

Ruby looked at Kennedy then at Cindy. "She's too tall. I could do it with you."

"And I can't leave Steffie out here with that many campers without an assistant."

"I can carry her, it's not a problem," Kennedy told her.

Cindy nodded. "Yeah, that'll work. A fireman's carry works best. She hangs on your back. Not hard at all."

Kennedy shook her head. "No, I'll just carry her in my arms."

"It's half a mile girl, and Ruby isn't dainty fluff like me."

Kennedy smiled. "Maybe not to you, but to me, she's like a dandelion puff."

Cindy frowned. "Pick her up then," she waved at Ruby.

Kennedy promptly scooped up Ruby, holding her easily.

"Well, try it. If nothing else she can lean on you until we get back. Someone can spell you then."

Kennedy nodded and Cindy started after the rest, while Kennedy looked both ways, then crossed the two lanes of asphalt and started walking back to camp.

"It would be easier," Kennedy said after a second, "if you put your arm around my neck."

Ruby sniffed. "I'm not stupid! I'm not like that, okay? I was, but I gave it up!"

"Whatever, easy or hard makes no difference to me," Kennedy said and continued along.

They'd been going for ten minutes and the camp gate was in sight, when Ruby said something Kennedy couldn't understand. "What was that?"

"I hate you, do you understand? You can help me, you can do whatever you want, but I still hate you."

Kennedy chuckled. "That hate and five bucks will buy you a cup of coffee at any Starbuck's. It's nothing to me."

"You said you wanted to make friends! I'm your enemy!"

Again Kennedy laughed. "Ruby, you have no idea who my enemies are. If you did, you'd hide under your bed, with your teeth chattering. Yeah, I want to make friends. But there are hundreds of girls at the camp, and I'm not going to meet most of them, much less make friends with them. I'm spending my time with those I know."

"Fucking."

"Ruby, I'm sorry your first year wasn't what you expected or wanted. But you have to understand that was your experience. Not mine, not that of most of the other girls who come here. Why not just be quiet and let us have a good time? If you want to have a bad time, that's your choice. Leave the rest of us alone."

"Yeah, and if you didn't want to fuck me, tell me why you want me to put my arm around your neck?"

"Because if your arm was around my neck, I could run back to camp and we'd have been there ten minutes ago. I might be younger than you, but that doesn't stop me from taking even the smallest responsibility seriously. I will get you back to camp, safe and sound."

They walked a little further and Kennedy finally broke the silence. "How come no threats this time? No spells, no geases, none of that?"

Ruby laughed. "It's one thing to play around on the bus. My mother would totally freak if she found that gypsies run the camp. A couple of years ago she had a gypsy palm reader read my future. The old woman mumbled for a very long time, I mean, more than an hour; nothing she said made sense. My mother yelled at her to sober up, and either say something sensible or give us our money back.

"That old gypsy woman laughed at her. 'Your daughter will be a great hero. Or a great evil. Either is in her heart. You though, you have a small heart. Go away. I don't want your money.'"

My mother started yelling at her, screaming at her, awful words. Words like I hear at school. You know what the old lady did?"

"Not a clue," Kennedy told Ruby.

"She said, 'Begone the begonias!' and then waved her hands. When we got home Mom's prize begonia bed was dead. I mean, not just a little wilted, but stone cold dead. Nothing she has been able to do in the last two years will get anything to grow there, not even weeds."

She looked at Kennedy. "I want to be a witch. I do. I figured, where there's gypsies, there's magic. So I came back, even though I hate it."

"Why do you hate it, Ruby?" Kennedy thought it was a simple question. She had a lot to learn, she found, about what a simple question truly was.

"Go fuck yourself! You want to fuck me! You are all alike!"

"Ruby, I wish I had a tape recorder so I could play back your words," Kennedy said patiently. "No one wants to sleep with you because you're like a porcupine. All spines and hate. I'm sorry about whatever happened before, Ruby, but I'm not going to fuck you; I'm not even going to try. I like sweet and cuddly friends!"

"What happened before? A girl made love to me. It was different; it was nice, wonderful and beautiful. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. Then she told me she was a butterfly and I had to understand that it was time for her to find another flower.

"I cried, do you understand? The bitch fucked me and then went to someone else! A slut! Do you understand? She was a slut! And then this other girl was sympathetic, she listened to me and assured me that she was something else. And we made love and it was even better than before."

She was silent then as Kennedy steadily carried her. "Then what happened?"

"Then camp came to an end. She lived a long ways away. We talked a few times on the phone; we exchanged emails. Then she said she'd found a friend who went to her school and hoped I understood."

Kennedy was silent after Ruby had her say. Finally Kennedy stopped for a second. "Well, you'll never like me then, not at all. They call the first kind of girl a butterfly. The second a nester. Me, I'm a Carnival girl."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Ruby demanded.

"Butterflies change partners a little less often than you change socks, Ruby. Nesters don't change partners, not here -- and I understand, maybe not later, but I understand how it could be hard to be faithful to someone one far away that you rarely or never see."

"Not if you love them!"

Kennedy sighed. "Ruby, if you know what love is, let me know, because I haven't a clue about it. I feel urges in my body towards people. Some more than others, and none at all towards some. Love? I have no idea about love whatsoever. I like my friend, Harriet. She was my first ever friend. We kissed goodnight once, for about a second. I kissed her on the cheek yesterday. I don't think that counts. We don't live close together, but we talk on the phone, we send letters and emails. I don't think anything will ever shake our friendship.

"You didn't say what a Carnival girl is," Ruby returned to her theme.

"Someone who doesn't even think about tomorrow," Kennedy said. "Love today, no heed for tomorrow, much less the day after."

"Put me down!" Ruby demanded.

Kennedy obliged. Ruby was furious, Kennedy saw. "You're not trying to seduce me?"

"No," Kennedy said. No matter what Deb said, she wasn't.

"And all you're doing is carrying me back to camp because my foot's messed up?"

"That's right."

"And you don't secretly have the hots for my body?"

Kennedy shrugged. Not!

She realized Ruby had a funny look on her face. "What are you thinking, Ruby?"

"I'm thinking maybe it should be me fucking you, you know, eh?"

Kennedy laughed. "Ruby, a gypsy laid a geas on me earlier today; I was supposed to tell him the truth. I did once, then blew it back at him. I have no idea how I did that, or even, for that matter if I did it, because I have only his word for it.

"Ruby, you couldn't force me to list my little finger on your best day, on my worst."

Ruby spun and started running into the forest, away from the road. She got a dozen steps, and ended up leaning against a tree, her face twisted in pain, balancing on one foot. Kennedy took her time, deliberately walking up to her. "What was that about?"

"I want to die. I want to run and run and run and never stop. Except my foot hurts too fucking much." Ruby slowly slid down the tree until she was sitting on the ground.

Kennedy smiled at her. "You know what, Ruby?"

"What?"

Kennedy reached down her hand and took Ruby's wrist and hauled her upright. Kennedy put her hands on the other girl's waist and lifted, then leaned her against a tree. Kennedy waved at the tree. "Think of it as a support structure."

Ruby said something that didn't sound very nice.

"You know what I think?" Kennedy finally said, looking at Ruby.

"Who the fuck cares what you think?" Ruby replied.

"You do. You know what your problem is? You want someone, anyone, to love you. But you don't dare even try to be loveable, in case someone actually tries, because you have no confidence in your judgment or theirs; you're afraid they'll leave you again."

Kennedy leaned close and brushed her lips over Ruby's. Ruby stared at Kennedy, her eyes wild.

"I'm a Carnival girl, Ruby. But for you, I offer a blue light special: say the word and I'll stick with you forever. A true nester. I'll swear I'll never take another lover until you tell me to get lost. How's that for a vote of confidence?"

"Where do you live?"

"Near White Plains, but I can, if I need to, be driven anywhere in New York state, if I want, any time I want."

"Why?"

Kennedy laughed. "Because it's the right thing to do. You don't trust anyone, do you? Me, I've learned to rely on the people around me. I need to talk to my teacher to hear what he says about if it's possible. But he's a resourceful fellow and I suspect it is."

"You'll tell everyone about us!"

Kennedy smiled to herself when Ruby said that. Girl, Kennedy thought, you just gave away the farm.

"No, I'm going to ask my teacher which is right: relying on those I know or others."

Ruby looked confused. "I don't understand."

"With luck," Kennedy told her, dragging her lips over Ruby's again, "you'll never find out. It's not something you ever want to know."

Ruby lifted her lips and kissed back. In a few seconds, tongues were entwined. Kennedy was the first to go past kissing, popping the snap on Ruby's jeans, then sliding her hand inside the other girl's panties. Ruby moaned and Kennedy slid her finger inside Ruby, stroking the walls of her vagina. Ruby moaned again, then sighed loudly.

Kennedy was surprised. Ruby had come with a fraction of the effort of any other girl she'd met.

Ruby confirmed that a second later, when she stopped Kennedy's hand from pursuing a second orgasm.

"Now you know my secret."

Kennedy shook her head. "Now, I have no clue."

"How easy it is to make me come. Rub my breasts, rub my pussy and a few seconds later, I come. I cry sometimes, scared that a boy will find out. Kennedy, I don't know how to say no!"

"Well," Kennedy said with a laugh, "you don't have to say no to me. But we'll see if there's something we can do about it."

"You'll tell on me!"

"Ruby, if you want to do this again with me, people will notice. I won't have to tell anyone, you don't have to say anything -- they'll see."

Ruby started crying. "I don't deserve a nice person like you, do I?"

"Ruby, it's not a question of deserve, okay? It's about people who care about each other. Tonight, Ruby, I don't know what's on the schedule, but I'll be a step behind you, okay?"

"You will?" It seemed like the idea was a stunning surprise to Ruby.

"I will. Look, there's this other girl. Tonight, I swear, I'll kiss her and that's all. One kiss; not terribly long. I just can't leave without something, you understand?"

"You'd do that for me?"

"Ruby, if we become lovers, we'll be partners, do you understand? I'm not going to dominate you and you're not going to dominate me. Together, do you understand? Equals."

Ruby nodded her head as if Kennedy was talking the highest treason, but one she wanted to have a part in.

In the distance, Kennedy heard voices. With a start she looked at her watch! It had been a half hour!

"The others are coming, Ruby, and we're going to have to appear."

"I had to pee," Ruby said with sudden assurance.

Kennedy shook her head. "You wanted to talk, okay?"

Ruby looked at her and shook her head. "Someone will guess!"

"Ruby, people may or may not. Who cares? I don't. You shouldn't. This is our business, between you and me. I swear to you the girl I've been with is okay with my leaving."

"And I wasn't with anyone," Ruby mused.

"That's right. Ruby, I don't lie, okay? Not ever, not even about the smallest thing. I may not tell people all I know, but I don't lie."

"That's stupid."

"It's who I am, Ruby. You have to take the good with the bad."

Ruby snapped her jeans together, zipped them up and Kennedy went out to the road.