Part 25 (1/2)
Amazed, she opened the package.
It was a beautiful gold brooch made in the likeness of a dragonfly, with gossamer wings and turquoise eyes.
”Oh, my Lord!” she breathed, enchanted. ”But this can't be mine! I'm not the dragonfly! May is! I must tell her.”
”Mid doesn't make mistakes like that,” he said. ”He must want you to have it.”
”Can I call out safely?” she asked.
”Yes, but-”
She went to the phone in the kitchen. ”May's number-do we know it?”
”Yes.” May had given him a slip with the number, just in case. He gave it to none.
She dialed it. In a moment she was talking to a surprised May Flowers. ”This gold dragonfly arrived, and you're the bold day flyer, so I know it is for you,” she said.
May laughed. ”none, Mid may have gotten us confused symbolically, but he would have addressed it to me if he wanted me to have it. He likes you; this is his way of saying it. That brooch is yours. Ask Geode.”
”Thank you. I did.” none looked across at Geode. ”She says you were right.” Then she returned to May. ”Oh, May, you must see it! I've never had anything so lovely!”
”Wear it,” May said. ”I will surely see you soon enough.”
none hung up, and saw about pinning the brooch to her dress, awed. To Geode, she looked yet more beautiful in her delight.
* 31 - MAY HUNG UP the phone. So Mid had adopted none! That was good, very good. It simplified things. For Mid did not do that casually. Once he adopted a person, he stood by that person as long as that person stood by him. none would not be thrown back into the cruel world she had left.
Things were definitely looking up, after the horror of yesterday. May was now free of Bull, for whom she mourned not a bit, and free of her apprehension about AIDS, and now Mid had endorsed her action with none. All that remained was the firefly. And Frank, of course. If only he weren't married!
But first she would rest. She had had a hard night, and her elation about its outcome could not sustain her indefinitely. She would sleep today, and return to work tomorrow.
The phone woke her late in the afternoon. It was Frank. ”There's a lead on what could be the firefly,” he said. ”I don't know if it's solid, and I'm tied up with paperwork today and tomorrow. Are you interested?”
”I am,” she said, trying to shake the fog of remaining sleep from her head.
”I'll stop by and give you the details in half an hour, when I get off duty.”
”Thank you.” He could have done it on the phone, but she didn't choose to point that out. She wanted to see him.
When he arrived, she was in a bathrobe, fresh from the shower and feeling better. ”Come in, Frank.”
”Actually, I need to take a statement from you,” he said. ”We got a call-someone saw your black eye.”
”My estranged husband returned and gave it to me,” she said evenly. ”I managed to get rid of him, and haven't seen him since.”
”Do you wish to prefer charges?”
”No. I merely want never to see him again.”
He made a note on his pad. ”Thank you, Ms. Flowers.”
”So we are covered,” she said.
”Yes. I'll file a routine report.”
”What is the firefly lead?”
”Someone saw a monster serpent down in the Heatherwood section. We have had odd reports from that region before, and none have amounted to anything. But when we get a call, we have to investigate, or make sure it's covered. It's probably just imagination, but if our firefly is a serpent-”
”Give me the address, and I will go there tomorrow morning.”
He gave her the address. Then: ”I've been thinking about something you said this morning.”
”Anything I said, I meant, Frank.”
”Well, you didn't actually say it. You implied-and I told you I was married. But after that-”
”You wanted me.”
”You got it,” he said, managing to flush. ”I cursed myself for a fool. I mean, my marriage is on notice, and the moment something happens to ruin this job-I guess I don't want to be single, and that's why I hung on so long. I know you had a bad experience in your marriage-”
”If you're attracted to me now, in this condition, you might continue to be when I recover.”
”I don't care how you look!” he said. ”You're an independent cuss, and I like that, and you know where you're headed, and I like that. But you know, if I lose my job, it'll be h.e.l.l to get another, so it isn't as if I'm any bargain. So about all I can do is be honest and say yes, you turn me on, and if you ever repeat your offer-”
He broke off, for she had opened her bathrobe. She wore nothing beneath, other than a small elastic bandage on her left nipple. ”I think I antic.i.p.ated you, Frank,” she said. ”I'm forty, and I'm no slender starlet, but if you like what you see, it's available.”
”I like it. But you're still bruised-that breast must hurt-”
”Yes, I would rather not be touched there yet. But elsewhere, yes.”
”Now?” He hardly seemed to believe it.
”Do you want me now?”
”Oh, G.o.d, I do!”
”I have discovered that I do not truly enjoy the single life either,” she said. ”I also remember my thoughts when under the influence of those pheromones. It occurs to me that men are not all the same.”
”That's for sure!”
”Take me, Frank. I want it to be you.”
”You got it!” He stripped. He embraced her and kissed her, standing, trying not to press against her sore breast. He had an erection which seemed to be both his pride and his embarra.s.sment; evidently his wife had not been much for doing things by daylight.
May did not ordinarily go into matters like this, and her interest in s.e.x was not great. But there was something she needed to know about Frank, and this seemed the best way to learn it. ”How would you like me?”