Part One: Graduation
"C'mon, Gaele, hurry up, willya?" Devon threw his t-shirt onto the lounge
beside her, as they got ready to go into the pool.
Gaele brushed a windblown lock of hair out of her eyes as she peered up at
him. "Gimme a minute, okay? I just want to finish putting this in my
journal."
June 9th, she wrote. Tomorrow I graduate! Tomorrow... is the beginning
of a new era, a new life. No more boring little subjects, it's on to bigger
and more exciting things! What a summer this is going to be. I am confident
it will be a summer I will never forget.
Devon stood in his typical stance of impatience, feet apart, fists resting
on hips. "Why do you have to do that NOW?"
"Because otherwise I'll forget, that's why," Gaele said, holding the pages
down with her right hand.
"Hurry u-up," Devon growled, then he slowly knelt at the side of the pool
and lowered his hand in the water.
"You'd better not," Gaele said quietly, chewing on the end of her pen.
"And she narrrrows her eyes..." Devon drawled, his broad mouth widening in
a mischievous grin."KNOWING what will happen..."
"You get my journal wet, and I'll-"
"And you'll WHAT? Can't hear ya!"
Gaele snapped the book closed, and leaped up to chase Devon, just as the
droplets of water sprinkled her. She slung off her terry robe and dove in
the direction Devon had disappeared, deep into the cool, aquamarine depths
of the pool. She could see his grinning, bubbling face as he crouched near
the drain at the bottom, waiting for her. She latched onto him, and they
wrestled, until Devon broke loose and they rolled like otters to the
surface.
"Ahahah! Wii-imp! Five minutes, is that all?" Gaele laughed, treading easily
beside Devon as he coughed and choked.
"Cheater! You -" Devon cleared his throat and gasped for another breath.
"You kicked me in the gut- knocked the wind right out of me. What was I supposed
to do?"
"Sorry," Gaele said, and giggled as she backpaddled away from him.
"Bubblenose!"
Devon reached for Gaele, to push her head under. "YOU'RE gonna be bubblin'
through your-"
"Hey!"
Gaele and Devon glanced up at the sound of Mike's voice, from the edge of
the pool. "Take it easy, willya? Don't go drowning each other."
"No chance," Devon retorted, as he swam away from the side.
Gaele clung to the edge to shield her eyes from the sun with one hand, as
she peered up at her father.
"What's doing, Daddy? Gonna come in with us?"
"Not today, babe, we have a visitor."
"Oh," Gaele said, squinting, then swam to the ladder. She heaved herself
out with the expertise of an accomplished swimmer, and halted when she realized
she was the subject of their conversation. Wiping the water out of her eyes,
Gaele noticed the second figure, obviously one of Mike's brothers.
"Gaele, you remember Donatello?" Mike asked her, giving his guest a little
backhanded punch on the arm.
Don smiled faintly, and politely nodded to her in greeting.
Gaele looked down at the water puddle at her feet, and suddenly feeling self
conscious, went to get her robe in the chair. After she put it on, she turned
around to see Don still looking.
"Looks inviting," Don said, winking at her.
Mike cocked an eyebrow. "What does?"
"The pool. Looks great."
Mike pulled off his bandana to scratch the top of his head. "Yeah, got it
finished in time for Gaele's graduation party, tomorrow night. You got here
just in time, Donnie-boy." He sniggered. "You'll get to check out some of
Gaele's cute little girl friends."
"Daddy," Gaele said in mock disgust. "Promise me you'll behave yourself."
Mike held his hand over his heart in feigned innocence. "Wha-at? I always
behave myself! Just ask your mother."
"Besides, most of my 'cute little girl friends' will be bringing their cute
BIG boy friends."
Don chuckled. "Sounds like it's going to be quite a party."
"With plenty of chaperoning, too," Mike added, giving Gaele a friendly poke
in the ribs.
"Daddy, stop it," Gaele muttered, and started toward the house. She looked
back to see Don still looking thoughtfully at her.
"I don't know what the heck he
was STARING at," Gaele said later to Devon as she watched him play a video
game.
"What do you think, Einstein? He's probably HUN-gry," Devon said, giving
her a wicked grin. "Besides, I heard he's been living in the looney bin."
"No, he hasn't! Mom said he'd been under a lot of stress, and needed a quiet
place to get away from social pressures for a while- what do you mean, hungry?"
Gaele got up on her knees and rested her hands on her hips.
Devon sniggered and gave her a slow wink. "Maybe he's on the hunt... lookin'
to get himself a little Gaele-chicken pie."
"EW! You are so gross, sometimes!" Gaele threw a floor pillow at him, as
she got up. "Why do I even hang out with you?"
"I dunno. You keep inviting yourself in here, so..." Devon gave her an expansive
shrug, and went back to the game.
Gaele left his room, and wandered down the hall. Sometimes Devon could be
so rude... even more so, now that he was reaching physical maturity. He seemed
more and more restless, and his mind seemed to constantly creep into the
gutter. She bit her lower lip. Not that she could blame him... she brought
the subject up herself, sometimes. Jokingly, of course. It was all meant
in fun, but with Devon... she wasn't too sure. He could get rather odd, at
times.
She went to her room and looked over her mail. Another big, thick envelope...
this time from Princeton. She let it flop back to the desk, unopened. Seemed
her problem was not whether she would be accepted, but which college would
she choose? They all seemed to be honored to have her as a student. Maybe
it would be good publicity for them, seems everyone would want to go where
she was going, to get a glimpse of the mutant turtle-iguana-girl student.
Maybe the more exclusive the school, the less attention she would get, as
everyone else would be at or near celebrity status, as it were. She put it
into the already overstuffed file folder, along with the other letters of
acceptance and accompanying registration forms.
"Ah'll think about it tomarrah," she said aloud, in her best Scarlett O'Hara
voice.
It wasn't until late the next night that Gaele had said goodbye to her last
guest and collapsed on the living room couch.
"That's my girl, taking after her old man," Mike said, grinning appreciatively
at Gaele as he came in. "Hey, that was an excellent party. It was looking
real good from up here."
Gaele gave her father a weak grin in return. "Glad to hear that from you,
since you are such a party connoisseur."
"Heh! Not since I married your mother. She's all the partying I could ever
want."
Gaele sat up, and sighing heavily, rested her chin in her hands.
Mike sat down next to her. "S'matter with you?"
"I dunno. Seems everybody was a little too... paired up."
"Huh. They looked pretty content to me." Gaele looked up at him and their
eyes met, and he pressed his lips together in a half grin, and cleared his
throat. "Uh... I catch your meaning."
"Daddy, what would you have done, I mean, if mom had never... if you guys
hadn't... met?"
Mike shrugged expansively. "Probably just gone on, doing my thing, I
guess."
"Would you have ever considered marrying an ordinary woman?"
"She would not have been very ordinary to want to hang with me, sweetheart.
I'm not exactly the status quo. Know what I'm saying?"
"You know what I mean, a HUMAN," Gaele said impatiently. "I mean, what am
I supposed to do with myself?"
"What? You mean WHO are you gonna marry? Hey, don't be in such a hurry,
eventually somebody will come along."
"Who?" Gaele said the word with great feeling. "Who in their right mind is
going to want me? Look at these!" She held out her hands, each one manicured
as best as iguana-like talons would allow, gleaming with translucent, lavender
nail polish. "No guy is going to want these... dragon claws."
Mike grinned again. "I doubt those are gonna be the first things about you
a man's even gonna notice."
Gaele caught his glance, and looked down at her chest in surprise. "Daddy,
you can be so WIERD. Fathers aren't supposed to notice things like that about
their daughters!"
"Sure they are," Mike said, straightening. "How else are they supposed to
know when to haul out the ol' shotgun and stand point guard on the front
porch on a Saturday night?"
"The boys are nervous enough around me, Daddy... and they're scared to death
of YOU."
"Ah, come on, there's no reason for them to be scared of me! What, do they
think I'm gonna bite or something?"
"Remember Nathan? He came over to help me study for an exam, and just because
we had the door to my room locked to get away from Devon, you started asking
if he had good accident insurance coverage! Geez, his family moved to another
state, after that!"
Mike chuckled. "Pure coincidence. Besides, I was just joshing him, he knew
that."
"Yeah? Starting the next day at school, he would run in the other direction
every time he saw me!"
"There you go, clear evidence of a guilty conscience. He had ulterior
motives."
"Come on, you totally freaked him out!"
Mike sobered at her outburst. "Gaele... I can't help it if I freak people
out. Some people just can't seem to see past the ol' green skin. Besides...
I was just looking out for you, that's all. I just don't want anything bad
to happen to you."
They stared at each other for a long moment.
"You aren't planning to follow me when I go off to college, are you?"
"No, I guess not. But... I guess I'll hire somebody to keep an eye on you."
"Daddy!"
Mike suddenly looked stricken. "I guess you're nearly grown up, huh," he
said in a faint voice.
"Trying to be," Gaele muttered, and leaned her head against Mike's near
shoulder.
Mike smoothed her hair. "Don't try too hard, that's all. Just... don't be
in such a hurry. Being a grownup is difficult enough."
As she walked down the path to the pool very early the next morning, she
saw a dark, unfamiliar robe lying neatly over the back of the nearest chaise.
The water barely rippled as the silhouette of a head emerged against the
water's reflection of a peach and lilac sky.
"Good morning, Gaele," it said, with Don's TV anchorman voice.
Too late to back out now, she thought, and continued down the last steps
to the pool's deck. She stood by the line of chaises, uncertain of what to
do next. "Hi. Uh, good morning."
Don grabbed the edge and effortlessly levered himself out of the water, and
Gaele watched him curiously. He was just a bit slimmer than Daddy...
and he seemed more poised in his manner, as though his appearance were
a high priority with him. He smiled at her as he walked over to pick up his
bathrobe. "I hope I'm not interfering with your schedule, I didn't realize
you'd be up so soon, especially after last night."
"I'm always up early, I like to be up before the sun," Gaele said quickly,
and belatedly wondered if she sounded too flippant.
"Oh?" He tied the robe and wiped his face with the sash. "And why is that?"
"I don't know... I mean, I've always been that way. I feel it's the best
time of day, it's when I can think the clearest. When I get up, I have to
write down everything I've assimilated during the night, sit quietly and
gather thoughts together... then I come down here and swim. Gives me a head
start on the day." She found herself sitting in the chaise next to his, because
he was listening so intently, and nodding in agreement.
"Interesting," he said lightly, leaning back in his chaise. "What sort of
things do you usually think about on mornings like this?"
Gaele looked at him, and then at the steadily lightening sky.
"That is, if I may ask," Don said.
"Well... a lot of times," she said, "I think about my work. I might be presented
with a problem, and I will mull it over as I fall asleep, then when I wake
up, the answer may be somewhere in the tail end of a dream, or a stream of
consciousness-" The attentive look on Don's face as he watched her made her
stop. She suddenly felt self conscious, and inspected her cuticles.
Don looked out over the purple valley far below them, still deep in shadow.
He looked so at ease, Gaele couldn't help but feel at ease, herself, in spite
of her initial shyness.
"You are planning to go to University, are you not?"
"Yeah, I plan on it... but it's hard to make a choice. They've all accepted
me!"
Don chuckled. "You must have some grade point average."
"It's okay... but I think they kind of want me as a kind of mascot,
instead."
He looked puzzled. "A mascot?"
"I think they are more interested in what I LOOK like than what is in my
head," Gaele said in mild disgust.
"Hmm..." Don pulled at his lower lip a little. "That's understandable."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because I've been there," Don said, shifting into a more comfortable position.
Gaele stole another glance at him, and he calmly looked back at her.
"What is your course of study?" he asked.
"Bio-Technology." She couldn't help but feel a burst of pride at such an
impressive title.
"Very good," Don said, and turned his attention to the sky again. "Tell me,
Gaele," he said at length. "How often do you watch the sun rise?"
"Every morning that isn't overcast-" She caught the mischievous glint in
his eye. "Oho, WAIT a minute! You aren't gonna pull that old Buckminster
Fuller joke on ME. I do happen to know the earth rotates to the right, every
24 hours, and orbits the sun approximately every 365.25 days. But we earthlings
are subject to the force of gravity exerted on our bodies, and therefore
the center of the earth is considered "down" below us, and the outer atmosphere
is the sky "above" us, so THEREFORE the sun always rises in the East, and
sets in the West. It's all relative, you know." She said all of this in one
breath.
Don watched her, eyebrows raised, and then grinned at her when she finished.
"Very good," he said.
She said nothing, feeling silly after her outburst.
They watched the sun come up over the mountain, and then Don got up and
stretched. He hitched and settled his robe into place, and tightened the
sash, and then turned to her. "Well, another day, another dollar... I suppose."
He laughed a little, as though realizing belatedly that he had said something
foolish.
She laughed in return, and decided now would be a good a time as any to get
ready for her swim. She stole a glance at him to see if he noticed, but he
was looking thoughtful.
Finally he looked up at her. "Would you be interested in having dinner with
me tonight? I'd like to learn more about your work."
"Sure," she said without thinking, as she tentatively swept a foot through
the water. "That would be fun."
"All right, how about you come by the guest house at around seven?"
"Okay," she shrugged, and then smiled. "Fine with me."
"Okay!" He gave her a smile in return, and then headed back toward the
house.
This is gonna be an interesting entry in my journal, she thought as she dove
into the pool.