The Juliet Spell (19 page)

When rehearsals were over, Bobby took off with a girl named Maggie Brown and Edmund took off with Vivian. He came home late, tiptoed into bed and slept until noon. I hardly saw him except at rehearsals the rest of the week. When I did, I made sure to keep my Beatrice up.

“Ah, my lord. I see that thou art red of eye and feeble of body. Could it be that thou art something too old for the life thou art leading?” I said when I came home Friday and saw him lying on the couch.

“Withered crone, thou speaks’t of matters beyond thy ken.” He laughed. “Come and see the reason why thou finds’t me reposing in rest richly earned.”

And he levered himself up and took me to the back of the house.

“Thy good mother and I speak of many things of which you know naught,” he said. “And one of these is her gardens. Exit, and behold.”

I went out the back door and was blown away by what I saw. Everything Mom hadn’t had a chance to do with her flowers was done, and from what I could tell, it was done better than she knew how. The small trees were trimmed. The lawn was mowed. And more than all of these, there was an air of precision about the yard that had never been there before.

“’Tis thus I have been spending my time, fair dudess,” he said to me. “For a Warwickshireman is the finest gardener since Adam, and I mean to earn my keep. D’ye think your mother will be pleased?”

“I think she’ll plotz,” I said.

“Plotz?” Edmund said.

“Faint,” I said. “Dang, man, you work fast!”

It was beautiful, but I almost wished he hadn’t done it. It made my love for him flow over me, and I didn’t want that. So instead I said, “’Tis wondrous to find there’s something you’re good at besides sleeping and eating.”

And then Mom came home a little later and when she saw the yard she hugged Edmund and kissed him on the cheek, and damn it, I even felt jealous of her for a second.

Phil called another party at his place on Friday night. Most of the older actors didn’t go. Maybe they had some other place to hang, maybe they were just sick of Gillinger, Bobby and the tension. Anyway, they weren’t in his big old house in the bad part of town that night. Apart from Phil, Maria

and Gillinger himself, everyone there was a kid. I noticed that we all pretty much grouped into Capulets in the back.yard and Montagues in the front. Nobody was down in the basement because that would have meant mingling.

I, however, was down there, looking for Drew. I thought that maybe we could have another long, intimate talk that would make the time pass until he drove me home.

But the basement was empty except for the grinning piñata devil. For no reason, I lay down on the floor and looked up at it.

Edmund and Vivian came down the steps.

“Alas, fair cuz, are ye dead?” Edmund said when he saw me. “If so, the devil must fear for his throne.”

“The only devil down here is the one up there,” I said. “I’m just lying here wondering why he looks so much like you.”

Edmund laughed. He always appreciated my zingers.

I started to get up. Those two were going to start playing tonsil hockey and Beatrice wasn’t interested in watching that.

As I got to my feet, I heard angry voices. Excited voices. And the word, “Fight, fight.”

Suddenly, everyone was running, sauntering, trotting, from the backyard to the front. Capulets joined a ring of Montagues on the front lawn where Bobby Ruspoli was cir.cling, and swinging and shouting at someone. At Drew.

And Drew was fighting back, sort of. He was blocking Bobby’s punches, ducking and backpedaling, but not really hitting.

The people in the ring were shouting, “Go, Tybalt,” “Go, Bobby,” “Death to Mercutio,” “I don’t believe it,” or were just flat-out laughing.

Bobby swung his right fist in a wild arc that connected with Drew’s, which had clearly been connected with a few times already. This time, Drew’s face was involved. Blood spurted out.

I broke through the circle and pushed myself between them. Bobby slugged my boob by accident.

“Get outta my way,” he shouted, while Drew tried to push me from behind.

“You two jerks cut it out!” I yelled. “Either cut it out or hit me again, ’cause I ain’t leavin’. And, Edmund, stay out of it.”

Because, of course, he was right there, grinning like an angry wolf at Bobby.

“He hit ye,” Edmund shouted.

“It’s all your God damn fault,” Bobby said, and started to.ward Edmund.

I spun around with my arms out, trying to keep the three of them apart.

“By God, it shall be my fault,” Edmund roared and tried to punch Bobby over my shoulder which resulted in me get.ting a lightning bolt to my jaw, snapping my head back and knocking me to the ground.

“Shit!” said Bobby

“Damn!” said Edmund.

“Miri!” Drew said.

Well, I stopped the fight.

They all got down beside me and Edmund lifted me gen.tly by my shoulders.

“Oh, God. Oh, God,” Edmund was saying. “God damn me for a whoreson. Oh, Miri.”

“We gotta talk,” I said as well as I could. “In private. Me, you. And these two jerks. Now.”

“Right,” Drew said. “As soon as I get a nose rag.”

“What about me?” Vivian said.

“Wait for me,” Edmund said.

“Say, what?” Vivian snarled.

“I say, wait,” Edmund repeated.

“Like hell,” Vivian said.

Edmund looked surprised. “These are friends,” he said. “And there is much amiss here. Let me do what I can and I will come back as soon as I may.”

“You came with me to this party. You’re not going off with her,” Vivian said.

“I say I am,” Edmund told her.

“Damn it, you’re always keeping secrets from me,” Vivian said. “And I resent it. If you go off with those twits, you’re not coming back to me.”

Edmund looked thoughtful. Then he bowed. “Be damned to ye then, Vivian. And good night.”

Someone had brought Drew a washcloth. He cleaned off his face, including his swollen nose.

We left Vivian standing on the sidewalk while we went down the street to where Drew’s car was parked. Edmund steadied me, and Bobby walked on my other side saying, “I’m sorry, Miri,” and, “you should have stayed out of it” while I tried to walk straight. Damn, Edmund had a fist on him.

Drew opened the door for me and I slid into the front seat. He got in on the other side and put his head back. Bobby and Edmund stood on the sidewalk.

“Now. What. The. Hell?” I said.

“It’s my fault,” Drew said through his washcloth. “But I’m not quite sure why.”

“The hell you’re not,” Bobby said.

“You asked me where Vivian was, and I said, ‘Attached to Edmund’s hip same as always.’ And you started slugging me,” Drew said.

“It’s not just about Vivian,” Bobby said. “Look, I know there’s some big-ass secret about Edmund. I don’t care. I don’t care if he’s an illegal alien from England or an ille.gal alien from Mars. I don’t give a damn. What I do give a damn about is you and Miri and him treating me like I can’t be trusted. Like I’d blab to everybody. That is bullshit, man. Because if there is one thing you know about me, Jenkins, it is that I can keep a secret.”

Drew took the washcloth away from his face. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re right.”

He looked at his friend like a dog that’s bitten you and is trying to apologize.

“It’s my fault, Bobby,” I said. “I made Drew promise.”

“I shouldn’t have,” Drew said.

“’Tis my fault,” Edmund said.

“Look, like I said. I don’t care what the big secret is,” Bobby said. “If you’d just said, ‘There’s something going on that I can’t tell you about ’cause I promised Miri I wouldn’t,’ that would have been cool. But you didn’t even do that.”

“You’re right,” Drew said. “I’m a rat.”

“At least,” Bobby said.

“Okay. I’m a rat bastard,” Drew said.

“Yeah,” Bobby said, and his shoulders dropped. “But you’re a pretty cool rat bastard underneath.”

“Thanks,” Drew said.

“Bobby, I would tell ye the truth now if ye would care to hear it,” Edmund said.

Bobby shrugged. “Like I said. Not important.”

“Not to ye, maybe,” Edmund said. “But I would have ye for a friend, a true friend, if ye will have me for yours. And to such a friend I must open myself. What say ye?”

“Sure. Whatever.”

“But first I must tell ye that Vivian knows nothing of it,” Edmund said. “Nor can she. Fond as I am of her, I know she is loose-tongued. But ye, as ye say, are a man for secrets.”

Bobby stood there, a man for secrets, waiting for Edmund to go on.

So Edmund did.

And when he was done, all Bobby could say was, “Man. That is so cool.” And half hugged him. Then he said, “You really Shakespeare’s brother?”

“Aye. The ass of the world and I came out of the same mother,” Edmund said.

I started to laugh, but my jaw hurt too much. “Ow. You know, I don’t feel much like going back to that party right now.”

“Me, either,” Drew said.

“Plus, you’re all covered with blood,” Bobby said.

“Let’s take you back to the house and get you cleaned up,” I said. “And then maybe we could all go somewhere quiet together.”

When we got back to Phil’s house, everyone came out on the lawn to see us. Nobody knew how to react. Then I kissed Bobby on the cheek, and he hugged Drew and Ed.mund hugged Bobby, and the cast cheered and clapped.

All but Vivian.

“She took off in a snit,” Tanya Blair said. “She left me with a message for Edmund. Politely rephrased it’s some.thing like, ‘if you don’t call and apologize tomorrow, forget about—uh—dating me ever again.’”

“Harsh,” Bobby said, looking slightly happy.

“Ah, well,” Edmund said.

We went into the house. Bobby gave Drew his jacket to cover the bloody shirt. I took a couple of aspirins for my throbbing jaw. Then, with Bobby riding shotgun and Ed.

The Juliet Spell

mund and me in the back, we took off for an hour drive around quiet streets.

It was one of those truly great drives. By the time it was over, the only things that weren’t healed were Drew’s nose and my jaw. But our relationships had undergone major sur.gery, and the patients were doing well.

Chapter Twenty.

Two

It is a great thing to have a mother who is a nurse. Because when she saw my jaw she knew just what to do about it. She put some stuff on it to draw out the swelling, taped me up and gave me a painkiller that was stronger than aspirin. I slept hard, and when I woke up, it was late Saturday af.ternoon.

I didn’t tell Mom exactly how I had gotten the jaw. That would have been Too Much Information. I just said there’d been a fight, I’d tried to stop it, and someone had slugged me by accident.

Mom let it go at that. But she did tell me I wasn’t going to any more parties at Phil’s.

Edmund was working outside, all sweaty and wonder.ful. He had seen some agapanthus flowers in a neighbor’s yard and told Mom that she must have some, too. So she’d bought the plants and he was making a new bed for them in the middle of the front yard.

It was amazing to see Edmund use tools. It was like they became part of him. And he sang while he worked. And Mom, who worked much more slowly, was happy digging in the flowers along the front of the house, knowing won.derful things were getting done behind her back.

It was a warm, misty afternoon, and I thought something to drink would complete the picture. So I made a pitcher of iced tea and one of lemonade with lemons from our own tree, and brought them out.

“These drinks ye make are fine and strange,” Edmund said after he’d drained his third glass of my, admittedly amazing, tea. “I like them well, better than colas.”

“I gotta tell you, Edmund,” my mom said. “If Doctor Dee ever figures out how to get you back to England and Good Queen Bess, he’s going to have to deal with me. This place never looked so spiffy.”

“It pleasures me to do it,” Edmund said. “To find that there is yet something I can do well, is a comfort. I was always the best gardener among the Shakespeares, so our mother said.”

His face grew very serious. I was sure he was thinking about England.

“But, no, I would not go home if I could,” he said. “No longer. I have hopes here that I may rise higher as an actor than ever I could there. Greatly do I miss those I left behind. But—anyway, ’tis impossible.”

Well. Edmund and Vivian were on the outs and he wanted to stay here. This was turning out to be a pretty good day.

“Welcome home, cuz,” I said, and hugged him.

After a couple more hours of picturesque gardening scenes, Bannerman called, asking if Mom could come in and work in surgery. They were short a nurse and it had to be done ASAP. Of course, she said yes. She hurried off to the hospi.tal and Edmund and I were left alone.

The sun was going behind the rooftops now. Evening was coming on. I felt my blissful little mood of late afternoon turning into the sadness I usually felt when day turned into night. Dad said this was a perfectly normal feeling, that our species was so well adapted to daylight that the loss of it made us unhappy. Most mammals see better in twilight. We don’t.