A Live Coal in the Sea Part 25

Madeleine L'Engle222 Lee no longer asked Camilla why Taxi's father did not come to visit. He sent expensive presents regularly, and Camilla wrote him long, chatty letters about the children.

This ch.o.r.e was the sad point of the week. She had lost Rafferty as her father when he sent Taxi to them.

E A R L Y I N T H E S P R I N G, when Taxi and Frankie were four, Mac finally received his seminary appointment. His job would begin in February with the Lenten term. He would be tutoring a group of junior seminarians, and teaching a seminar in ascetical theology, as well as doing his own work for his degree.

'What's ascetical theology?' Camilla asked.

'Oh, prayer, mediation, contemplation. Things like that. I'm glad I haven't been asked to lecture in church history or Anglican polity. Are you ready for thebig city?'

'I'll miss a lot of people, especially Dr. Edith, but in many ways I can't wait to go home.'

'Has Corinth been so awful?' he asked again.

'No. Corinth has been wonderful. Frankie was born here. Taxi came to us here.

It will always be special. But I'm ready to leave. The children are still young enough to be able to put down new roots. I was brought up in New York, so I don't see it as a bad place for children.'

Mac said, 'There's a playground for them at the seminary, and it's safe enough so they can go about the grounds on their own.

TEN.'What about Quantum? We can take him with us, can't we?'

Madeleine L'Engle224 'Of course. There are lots of pets there. When the kids are old enough, maybe we can get a dog.'

'Quantum's enough for now.'

Mac pulled on a light sweater. 'We'll be here for Christmas with the parish, and I'm glad of that. I'll miss our little brown church.'

'We'll ask Dr. Edith to come to us for Christmas as usual.' 'Of course. And we should have a Christmas party for the youth group.' But his mind went quickly back to the seminary. 'The dean suggests that we come to New York the last week in January, and have a few days to settle in before term starts. We're being given an apartment in one of the buildings on the seminary grounds, and he says it's plenty big enough for the four of us.'

'January,' Camilla said.

'Moving day will be on us before we know it. The dean's going to send us a floor plan of the apartment. It sounds bigger than the rectory. There are three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms.'

'More than one bath! Bliss!'

'All right, love. I've got to get back to the office. I'm still uncertain about my sermon. Palm Sunday's almost here, and we have all those extra services in Holy Week. You all rightg'

She looked out the kitchen windows to the back yard, where the children were on the swings which Mac had made, hung from a frame near the big pine. Frankie was standing up. 'For heaven's sake, get Frankie to sit down!' Camilla exclaimed.

'She's much too young to be swinging that way. Where did she get that from?V 'Not from Taxi,' Mac said. 'He's a cautious little kid. I'll stop the little h.e.l.lion.' The screened door slammed behind him. She watched as he strode to the swings and made the little girl sit down. She heard him whistling as he walked down the path. He was happy about the New York appointment, then.

A Live Coal in the Sea225 She went into the kitchen, sitting where she could keep an eye on the children, and poured herself a cup of coffee, glancing at an article on some strange radiomagnetic phenomena, when she saw Dr. Edison coming up the path.

The older woman knocked lightly on the door and came into the kitchen. 'Any more coffee in the potsV 'Plenty.'

'Here's your mail. I pa.s.sed the postman on the way in.' Camilla handed Dr.

Edison the coffee and a pitcher of milk, then looked through the mail.

Begging letters. Catalogues. A package from Rafferty which looked like books for the children. A letter from Noelle, who was still living in Boston. Noelle was happily married and pregnant. Camilla would save her letter to read later.

'What I really came for'-Dr. Edison put down her cup'was to see if I could take the children for the morning, it's such a superb day. I thought I'd take them for a walk, and maybe we could blow bubbles or something outdoors.'

'That would be marvelous, Dr. Edith. I have a million things to do, and I can't really concentrate when I'm keeping an eye on the children.'

'I enjoy them, and you look tired and as though you need a break. I'll bring them back after lunch.' She waved at Camilla as she went out the kitchen door and headed toward the children. Taxi leapt into her arms. Frankie stood up on the seat of the swing again, and Dr. Edison pulled her down. Quantum dashed across the yard to the house and pushed and pulled at the screened door, which he had learned to open.

Camilla returned to the article, which she planned to incorporate into her next lecture. Quantum sat on her lap, purring. She worked until the sun was high and she realized that it was after noon and that she was hungry. Bless Dr. Edith.

And, yes, she was tired. Two extremely active children saw to that.

Madeleine L'Engle 226.

A Live Coal in the Sea227 'She's marvelous,' Camilla said. 'I can't thank you enough.' 'You deserved the best,' Grange said. 'I'm glad I could give you and Edith to each other.'

Harriet pulled a handkerchief out of her small handbag and blew her nose.

Camilla looked at her, at Grange. Why were they here? What underlay this visit?

They had not stopped for a casual chat.

Harriet touched her husband on the shoulder. 'Red, darling-'

'Camilla-' His voice was hesitant. 'Something has happened, something totally unexpected, and-perhaps-hopeful.' She looked at him, fear beginning to tingle along her spine.

'Where are the children?' Harriet asked.

'They're out with a friend.' Why did she not want to tell them that the friend was Dr. Edison? Wouldn't that have been the normal response? But this was not, could not be, a normal visit.

'But you knew we were coming?' Grange asked.

She shook her head numbly. What a strange question. How could she have known?

'Noelle didn't tell you?'

Again she shook her head. Noelle had written bitterly of her father's remarriage. Camilla suddenly remembered the letter which had come from Noelle that morning and which lay unopened on the kitchen table.

'Red, darling,' Harriet said again. 'Don't keep putting it off.

Quantum came leaping toward them, sprang onto the picnic table, and sat on Camilla's ma.n.u.script.

Grange reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope, which he handed to Camilla. 'Read this.'

She took the letter. There was a faint, familiar smell of tea rose. The envelope was addressed in her mother's round hand Her time at the university was her time off, and although teaching was tiring as well as challenging, it was tiring in a completely different way from mothering, and she would drive home after cla.s.s feeling refreshed.

She fixed herself a bowl of soup and took it outside. The azaleas were a blaze of color. She had deep red camellias in a gla.s.s bowl on the picnic table, shaded by the pine tree. She settled herself at the table. The top needed a good scrubbing. She would do that later.

She turned back to the article, then looked up as an open red sports car drew into the driveway and a man and a woman got out. The woman was younger than the man, with short, curly fair hair, and she was wearing jeans and a short-sleeved T-shirt. Camilla focused on her, instinctively not wanting to recognize the man with his receding reddish hair. But he walked toward her.

'Camilla,' he said.

'Profes--' she started reluctantly.

'Grange,' he finished, and held out both hands to her. She took them, wondering what on earth had brought him to Corinth.

'Camilla. You're lovely as ever. Harriet-' He turned to the woman. 'Come and let me introduce you to one of the best students I ever had. Camilla, this is my wife, Harriet.'

The woman's hand was cool, and heavy with rings. She dropped it loosely into Camilla's outstretched hand, and withdrew it, turning away, her eyes filling with tears.

'Won't you sit down?' Camilla asked. 'It's really pleasanter here than in the house.'

Professor Grange sat across from Camilla at the picnic table, gently pulling his wife down beside him, and putting his arm about her waist. To Camilla he said, 'Has everything gone well with you and Edith Edison?'

Madeleine L'Engle228 writing, with the return address of the apartment in Paris. Inside the envelope was another, blue, marked in capital letters: TO BE OPENED [N THE EVENT OF MI'.

DEATH. Camilla looked at Grange.

He said, 'My wife, my ex-wife, preempted the letter. She gave it to me when she knew she had to go to the hospital for surgery. Cancer. She didn't want to die with this on her con science.' He looked toward Harriet, then back to Camilla.

'Read it,' he ordered.

My darling Red, I'm five months pregnant and all is going well. I don't expect to have any problems, because I'm incredibly healthy, and my darling doctor says he can't believe I'm over thirty. But it's a chancy world, so I want you to know that I.

think this baby is yours, and if anything should happen to Raferty, or to me, you need to know this. After Camilla was born, Rafferty and I never conceived again, so I doubt that this baby is his. Thank G.o.d Camilla looks exactly like him.

Dearest Red, I don't want you to do anything with what I am telling you until both Rafferty and I are dead. It would kill him if he thought the baby wasn't his, and I can't do that to him. You know how good Rafferty has always been to me. But after we're both gone, then, of you want to, you can do whatever you think best.

Am I wrong to tell you this and then ask you to do nothing? I don't know. But this morning I felt compelled to let you know. I trust you, dearest love.

Your one, true Rose Camilla folded the letter, put it back in the blue envelope, then the white, outer one, and handed it to Grange. She had carefully suppressed any suspicion that Taxi's father might be Red Grange. Taxi had black hair, and he had Camilla's eyes, too. He looked like Camilla's child. There was nothing reminiscent of Grange about him.

A Live Coal in the Sea2,19 'Are you all right?' Harriet asked.

'No. Yes. No.' The color drained out of everything. For a moment she thought she was going to faint. She blinked. Blinked. Slowly color returned to sky, trees, gra.s.s. To Red Grange and Harriet.

'Camilla, you really didn't know? You didn't guess?' Grange asked.

'No. No. Father thought-a French diplomat-'

Harriet asked, 'Camilla, can you have any idea what this news means to us?'

No. She could not guess. She had no idea. Harriet asked again, 'Where are the children?' 'With a friend.'

'When will they be back?' 'I'm not sure. After lunch.'

Grange said, 'Can't you understand? I want to see my baby.'

Her voice shook. 'He's not a baby. He's four years old.' Harriet said, 'I was thrown from a horse three years ago. It was a bad fall. I can't have children.

It's a terrible grief to me. Red and I were actually talking about adoption when-' Grange put up a warning hand. 'Not so fast, Harriet. All we've come for today is to.let you know about-'

'To let you know that we desperately want to see Red's son.'

Camilla said, 'I'm sorry, but I truly don't think that's a good idea, without any preparation at all. Taxi's a happy, contented little boy. All he knows is that Mac, my husband, is his daddy. He's not strong, and I don't want him upset, and he does get upset easily.'

Harriet picked up one of the camellias, dropped it back in the bowl. 'We don't want him upset either, but don't you think his father has some rights? And I-'.

She broke off as tears came to her eyes again.

'Perhaps,' Grange suggested, 'I could just see him and not say anything.'

Madeleine L'Engle,230 'No, Red.' Harriet held up a warning hand. 'He's your son. You have some rights.

And he has a right to know, doesn't he? To know who his father is?'

Camilla shook her head as though trying to wake up from a bad dream. 'I'msorry.

I was completely unprepared-' 'Didn't you think,' Grange asked, 'that something like this might happen?'

'No. Not now. At first, perhaps ... But it was all so horrible, my mother's death.'

'And your father?'Grange asked. 'He knew, didn't he? Did he really fool himself into thinking the baby was his? He must have known...'

'Taxi looks like me,' Camilla said. 'Not like my mother or-' She looked at him.

The reddish hair. The hazel eyes. There was nothing of him in Taxi, nothing to make her suspicious.

Harriet looked at her watch. 'It's after one. Won't the children be back soon?'

'I need to see my son,' Grange said. 'The little son I didn't know I had.'

They all looked up as they heard children's voices. Laughter. Taxi and Frankie were holding Dr. Edith's hands, pulling her along with them. , 'Mommy, Mommy, we blew bubbles!' 'Like rainbows!'

Grange and Harriet jumped up, their eyes on the children, who were both wearing jeans and dirt-streaked T-shirts. Taxi's hair needed cutting, a process he fiercely resisted. Frankie's hair had been cut short for summer. Harriet moved toward her, holding out her arms. 'Taxi?'

Frankie stepped back. Giggled.

Dr. Edison, flushed, slightly out of breath, looked at Grange and Harriet.

'Red!'

'Edith, dear Edith.' He hurried to her, taking her hands, looking at her, saying, 'Gad, you're still a handsome woman!' He drew her to him, kissing her on both cheeks.

A Live Coal in the Sea231 She asked, 'What on earth are you doing here?'

Camilla had her arms about the children, nudging them toward the house. 'You may each have two cookies from the cookie jar. I'll be in to pour you some milk in a few minutes.' 'I can do it,' Taxi said.

'All right, Taxi love. Go slowly, and try not to spill.' Grange watched them scamper toward the house. 'Which one is-'