Sociopath? (16 page)

*

“You’re so lucky he’s your brother, Laney,”
Kim Leedy told her.

“No, she’s not,” Heather Dunsmore replied.
“She can’t dream of going to bed with him like the rest of us
can.”

*

He danced the last slow dance with Miss
Britt. “Will you go out with me, Melanie?” he whispered in her
ear.

“I’m in the book. I’m free all week.”

“I have to check the band’s schedule but as
soon as I know, I’ll give you a call.”

*

Rhonda Fisher did try to talk her out of
it.

“For God’s sake, Mel, you’re a teacher. Don’t
forget that even though he’s out of school, he graduated at 16. How
would it look? What would the administration think? Besides, you
don’t know what Rafe Vincennes is really like.”

Melanie Britt’s full lips turned pouty. “I
don’t care. We’ll be discreet. Even if he is young, he’s the most
exciting male around. You can’t change my mind so don’t even
try.”

Rhonda shrugged. She’d given it her best
shot.

*

They were on their way home after dropping
Cal off.

“So did you have a good time, Laney?”

“Oh, yes, it was fun!”

“Are you starting to trust me when I tell you
that there will be life after Rafe?”

She turned serious. “I don’t have any choice,
do I?”

“No, Honey, you don’t.” He grinned at her.
“Did he kiss you, Lane? I tried not to look in the rearview mirror
to give you your privacy.”

“Yes, he did.”

“Did you enjoy it?”

“It was okay. I didn’t feel like when you do
it though.”

“No, you probably never will, but it can
still be good, Sweetie.”

“If you say so, Rafe.”

He gave her shoulder a squeeze. “I do say so,
Lane.”

“Rafe?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you going to go out with Miss
Britt?”

“Probably.”

She was silent for the rest of the way and he
let her be.

* *

Duke was realistic. He finally hired another
guitar player because he didn’t want to be stuck without one when
the summer was over and Rafe went off to college. This guy was an
okay musician too but he sure didn’t have the same magnetism that
Rafe had. He guessed they’d been lucky to have him for a year, a
year in which both their bookings and prices had increased. Rafe
himself was glad. He was looking forward to a lazy summer, spent
mostly on the water, before he went off to school in the fall. He
wasn’t even going to drive for Chester.

* *

He’d had a few dates with Melanie Britt. In
the kick-back mood he was in, at first, he’d thought he might just
settle in with her for the next few months. In a way, it would be
sort of pleasant to have a regular woman and always know where your
sex was coming from without having to be on the prowl all the time.
It was pretty convenient that she had her own house and she’d given
him a key so he could just hang out whether she was home or not.
She fixed dinner every night he was there (after all, her class was
Marriage and Parenting Skills), not that Rafe really cared much
about regular meals. He ate when he was hungry but food had never
been a big priority for him. And Mel was always up for energetic
and adventuresome sex. She had one drawback though. It had seemed
like a small drawback at first but it was looming larger as time
went on.

She was one of those girls he’d told Laney
about who had to be in love, and what was worse, think her partner
was in love with her too, before she could justify having sex to
herself. Rafe wasn’t above telling a girl he loved her if that’s
what she needed to hear to take her clothes off, but Jesus, he
didn’t want to hear it or say it every fucking 15 minutes and that
was beginning to be what Mel wanted. He was starting to recognize
those nesting qualities some girls got too. She’d taken a picture
of him with her digital camera and had it enlarged and framed and
now it had the featured spot on her fireplace mantel.

When he saw that, warning bells started going
off in his head. When she bought him a toothbrush to put in her
bathroom, the bells got louder and when she told him to bring his
dirty laundry over and she’d wash it for him, they got louder yet.
Next thing you knew, she’d want him to move in with her and that
was flatly never going to happen. So, all in all, he’d just about
reached the conclusion that it was time for one more for the road
and Sweetheart, it’s been fun.

Mel hadn’t been discreet as she’d told Rhonda
Fisher she’d been going to be. It was pretty hard to be discreet
with an ice-blue Corvette parked in your driveway over night.

At Jeb Kroner’s annual summer barbeque, some
of the Benedict teachers had made up a pool. Ten bucks a piece
bought you a number, starting with two and going up to 12 (the
number of weeks left before Rafe went to college). They put the
numbers in one of Jeb’s Baltimore Orioles hats and drew. The one
who came closest to the number of weeks Rafe Vincennes stayed with
Melanie Britt collected the money.

“Shit,” said Jeb, “I got 12 but I don’t think
there’s any way in hell she’s going to hang on to him that
long.”

“I got 2,” Rhonda Fisher told them, “ and I
hope that’s right, not because I want to win so badly but because
the longer it goes, the worse it’s going to be for her when it’s
over. I think the girl actually thinks he’s going to give her an
engagement ring before he goes off to Princeton.”

They all rolled their eyes at their
colleague’s foolishness.

*

It was exactly two weeks and two days when
Rafe finally bailed. They’d just had a rollicking time on her
waterbed. Not too many people had waterbeds anymore but she said
she loved hers and wouldn’t part with it until she had to. He
thought the bouncing wave action added an extra element of fun to
fucking.

When it was over and she was completely and
thoroughly satisfied, she said, “Rafe, why don’t you stay here
tonight and every night? Why don’t you just move in? I love you so
much, Rafe, and I know you love me too.”

And what little bit was left of his hard on
just shriveled into nothingness.

He rolled off of her and off the water bed
and slipped into his jeans. He always liked to have his groin
protected before he pissed them off, especially the redheads. He
was putting on his shirt, when she asked, “what are you doing,
Rafe?”

“Listen, Sweetheart, this just isn’t working
for me. You’re a great girl but I guess I’m just too restless to
settle down. I’ve enjoyed it but I’m leaving now and I’m not coming
back.”

She was stunned. “But, Rafe, what about how
much we love each other?”

“Mel,” he asked her, “didn’t anyone try to
warn you about me? I bet Mrs Fisher did, didn’t she, or Miss Dee?
They’ve always had their little posse out after me.”

“Well, yes, but….”

He flashed his gleaming smile. “You probably
should have listened, Sweetheart.” He slipped on his shoes. “Oh,
and Mel, tell Mrs Fisher, they’ll never get me. I’m too quick
for’em.”

He snagged his picture off the mantel before
he left.

*

Tears were running down her cheeks. “He said
I should have listened to you and to tell you you’d never get
him.”

“What?” a startled Rhonda Fisher asked her.
“What did he mean, Melanie?”

“He said he bet you’d tried to warn me and I
should have listened to you, then he said you and Miss Dee had
formed an anti-Rafe posse but he said to tell you, you’d never get
him because he’s too quick for you.”

Rhonda Fisher thumped down in her chair and
started to laugh.

“I’m sorry, Mel. I know you’re hurting but I
just can’t help it. He’s right, you know, you have to give him
credit, he’s out-witted us every step of the way.”

*

A few days later, she got a card addressed in
an angular, back-handed writing she recognized. There was a cartoon
of race cars on the front. The one in the lead had fire coming from
its tailpipe. In a balloon above, it said - “see ya’ around”.
Inside were the handwritten words:

Mrs. Fisher:

Thanks for the memories.

Best wishes,

RAFE

*

She smiled and tucked it under her desk
blotter. She would never have dared to let Linda Dee see how much
affection was in that smile.

~ ~ ~

He was gone. He’d stayed away a lot in the
last two months, not that he had much to do, but he spent time
riding, just him and Destiny and Raven. And he practically lived on
the boats, the sailboat, the cigarette boat, the little pirogue.
Sometimes, he even spent the night, sleeping below deck. Raven was
always with him during those times too. He was dark as a pirate
from being so much in the sun.

She was old enough to notice what was going
on by now so she knew all the times he had girls at the cabin and
that he sometimes took them to the boats. Occasionally, he invited
her to go along when he rode or went sailing but not often.

He still let her come to bed with him when he
was in his room but it wasn’t nearly often enough to satisfy her.
She felt she wanted to store up as much time with him as she could
before he left but he was just the opposite, trying to get her used
to the time when he’d be gone.

The last night was bittersweet for her. Tears
were flowing down her face the whole time.

“You know, Lane,” he joked, “it’s not really
very sexy when the girl you’re screwing has to keep stopping to
wipe her nose.”

“I can’t help it, Rafe.”

“I know, Honey, it’s okay, I’m only teasing
you.”

She begged him to let her stay. “Please,
Rafe, just this one last time. Please don’t make me leave. It’s
going to be so long. I won’t ever ask you for anything ever again
if you just let me stay this time.”

And finally, he relented and made an
exception to his rule. She wouldn’t even let herself fall asleep
until he hugged her tightly and said, drowsily, “Jesus, Lane, go to
sleep. I can’t stand feeling you lying here beside me wide awake.
If you don’t, I’m going to send you off to your own bed so I can
get some sleep myself.”

So she forced herself to close her eyes and
she guessed she must have dozed off because the next thing she knew
it was morning and she awoke to his lips on hers.

*

Renny had heart-to-hearts with both his kids.
Rafe, the evening before he left and Lane, the evening after.

*

“Sit down, Rafe, I want to tell you a few
things before you go.”

Rafe sat in the chair in front of the desk,
noticing, as he always did, the family portrait over the carved
wooden fireplace at the end of the room - the one of Renny and
Magdelene and their first seven kids, painted when Annecy was four
and they thought their family was complete.

Then he turned his attention to his
father.

“Knowing you as well as I do, Rafe, I don’t
think you’re going to settle into Princeton very comfortably. It’s
not that you’ll have any trouble with your classes or getting on
any team you decide to try for. You’ll do fine in those areas. But,
private as you are, you won’t like the social aspect of it all.
You’ll be a lot more crammed together with other people than you’ll
like.

But, it doesn’t matter, Son. I expect you to
adapt as best you can and succeed as you always do. If you have to
grit your teeth to get through it, then that’s just what you’ll
have to do. And when you’re a sophomore, you’ll join the Ivy eating
club, just as every Vincennes has done. Again, you probably won’t
appreciate what you’ll have to go through to do that. I know you’ve
heard me or the other talks about bicker, the interview process by
which you get invited. It will be a formality for you seeing as how
you’ll have been preceded by great-grandfathers and grandfathers
and me and your brothers. You’d have to shoot someone on the
cottage lawn to be turned down. But you’ll think it’s Mickey Mouse
bullshit, Rafe. You’ll hate being forced to do it, but you will do
it.”

He smiled. “You’re a lone wolf, Rafe, and
lone wolves and dorm life aren’t the best fit but you’ll have to
overcome your nature. It’s why I’m letting you take your car and
why I offered to pay to have it garaged in Princeton, so you’ll
have a means of escape when the bindings get so tight you think
you’re choking. It’s the best I can do to help you get through it.
I know what you’re capable of, Rafe, I won’t settle for anything
less. Are you clear on all that, Son?”

“I’ve got it, Dad. I won’t disappoint
you.”

“No, Rafe, I don’t think you’ll disappoint
me.”

*

And then Lane, who was intimidated as hell,
because she didn’t ever remember having a face-to-face discussion
with her father in her whole life. He’d always been a handsome but
distant and somewhat forbidding figure to her, the authority in the
family, whose judgment was never questioned.

He studied her appraisingly, noticing the
dark circles under her eyes and the way her mouth drooped at the
corners.

“You look like you lost your best friend,
Lane, and I expect you think you did with your brother gone. I’ll
tell you the truth, I have a little sympathy for you but not a lot.
I know he’s been the center of your life and that’s mainly because
yourMother and I opted out. Maybe you’re lucky that he was here to
take up the slack and even more, that he was willing to do it, but
maybe not. It’s made you more dependent than you should be on him
for lots of things. He’s never really made you fend for
yourself.”

His expression was implacable. “That’s over
now though, Girl. You’re going to have to learn to be strong on
your own, which you’re perfectly capable of doing, and I think it’s
past time for you to do it. So I don’t want to see you crying
around here, Lane. You’re smart and you’re beautiful. I know you’re
popular at school. You’ve got lots more going for you than most
people so self-pity isn’t going to cut it with me. I expect you to
get on with your life without your brother. Do you understand me,
Elena?”