Part 3: Confrontation
Don came to the door just about the time Gaele's knuckles were wearing out
from knocking. He was still tying his bathrobe, as he stood aside to let
Gaele pass. She stood in the middle of the room, arms folded, trying hard
not to tremble with cold and agitation.
"Is there something amiss?" Don finally asked, in a quiet voice.
She brought herself to look at him a moment, before focusing on the shuttered
window. "I learned something about you tonight. We- we need to talk," she
managed to say.
"Right now? It's nearly one a.m." Don said, as he calmly looked at his
watch.
"Can't sleep until you answer some questions," Gaele said before she choked
a little in her nervousness.
Don sighed, and gestured at a chair, and sat in the opposite one. "Talk,
then. I'm listening."
Gaele let her breath out a little too sharply, as she sat. "All right, I'll
just cut to the chase. I talked to Mom tonight, and- she wanted to know how
things- I have-" She ground her teeth, angry at herself for stammering. "I
have a question for you."
Don continued to look at her, head cocked a little in curiosity.
"Have you been planning something... that has to do with me?"
"Planning?" He echoed the word slowly, and lightly scratched at his lower
lip. "Could you elaborate?"
"I get this feeling..." Encouraged by his open expression, her confidence
returned. "I feel as though I'm being "fixed up" with you- like there's been
some kind of- of arrangement. Mom told me you had blood tests to see if you
were related to us, and you've been talking to Dad, and I-" She finished
her sentence with a shrug.
As she spoke, Don leaned forward a little, and rested one elbow on the chair
arm, lower lip against his forefinger in a pensive pose. He looked at her
a long time, in an expression that was calming and neutral.
"We have known each other a long time, Gaele. At least we have been acquainted
a long time. You have always been special to me, ever since I found you,
as a baby, sitting in the middle of the driveway, lost, and freezing... do
you remember?"
Gaele shook her head. "No, but I'm quite familiar with the story."
Don smiled a little, for the first time since her unexpected return. "We
talked a while, until we got up to your house, and..." He fell silent, and
seemed to be re-enacting the scene in his mind. "It was the most extraordinary
thing," he said at length.
He was so calm, so even, she couldn't help but feel her anger slip away.
"What was?"
Don studied her a moment. "How I felt about you," he said at length. "You
see, I hadn't felt any tenderness or caring for anything more than when I
held you inside my coat, warming your chilled, trembling little body, and
you clung to me, as though you never planned to release me again. I confess,
it was difficult for me to give you back to your mother. I wanted so much
to keep you with me, always. And... raise you as my own."
Gaele realized she had been holding her hand over her mouth, and lowered
it to her lap. His words coursed like a warm current through her, loosening
something somewhere in her chest, which until then she was unaware that there
had been any tension.
"Yes," Don said, as though she had asked a question. "That is what I wanted,
but it was best not to acknowledge it at the time, there were other things
going on, and I had to put my attention elsewhere." He was quiet a moment,
looking at his hands. "Every time I saw you, I'd feel lighter for a while,
but the other children... I realized if I paid you any sort of special attention,
I'd have to do the same for the others, so it was best I kept my distance.
It was easier that way."
Gaele watched him, absently chewing on her lower lip.
"Until..." he went on. "I saw you the other day, and it all came back in
a rush. No- it was earlier, after my... ah, breakdown." He said the last
word so faintly, it took a moment for Gaele to realize what he had said.
She stirred suddenly, as a thought came to her. "You aren't saying you had
a breakdown on my account, are you?"
"No," Don said. "Not on your account. It was a very old, complex matter that
brought that on. You were one of the healing elements in my recovery."
"I was?"
"Yes."
"Oh."
He settled back into the chair, fingers laced across his middle. His eyes
seemed to unfocus in the silence that followed. He stole a glance at her,
as though expecting her to do something.
She read the look, and frowned at him. "So, what are you getting at, Don?"
"I want to get to know you better, Gaele, spend time with you, be... friends
with you. I'm not asking for any commitments." His look was close to
innocence.
"No? Then why talk to my parents- and why the blood tests? You haven't answered
that yet."
Don pulled gently at his lower lip, making Gaele wonder if he was hiding
a smile. "Well, that was to satisfy something that had been plucking at my
curiosity for quite some time. A personal quest, nothing more."
"Well, I don't see what difference that would make, if everyone thinks you're
my uncle, and-" Realizing what she was saying, she stopped in mid sentence.
"What makes you think I will go along with this?"
"Go along with what?"
Gaele ignored his question. "Are you hoping that I'll feel the same way about
you as you do me?"
"Yes."
"Do you HAVE any idea of how I may feel about you?"
"Not exactly... but I have my suspicions." He seemed a little too amused
for her comfort.
"Doesn't it bother you to be putting your feelings for me out there, before
you know whether or not I have the least bit interest in you?"
"No. In the business world, you take whatever information you have on a
particular subject, and then you make projections as accurately as possible,
commensurate with the information at hand. It's called speculation. Same
as with people. You see a few indicators that give you either a bank of red,
yellow, or green lights, and you act on them. Not that it's completely foolproof.
I have made my mistakes."
"I doubt it happens very often," Gaele cut in. She cocked her head at him.
"All right, what sort of lights do you see, regarding me?"
He gazed at her, a smile forming on the corners of his mouth. "I see some
yellows, and... a few greens."
"Okay, whatever," she said with a little shrug, in a show of nonchalance,
but her heart was now hammering in her chest. She swallowed. "But- listen,
I- I won't be coerced, I already have my work cut out for me. Nothing is
going to keep me from that, you know."
"Of course not," Don said quietly. "What makes you think I would coerce you
into anything you didn't want to do? I for one, am not about to impose on
your life, Gaele. I have far too much regard for your independence, it's
one of the things I like so much about you. You have chosen to follow your
own path, and whatever you decide, I will respect that decision."
"I'm only seventeen," Gaele said faintly.
"It's a good age."
"Good age? But... isn't that.. illegal?"
Don frowned at her, clearly looking puzzled. "Illegal? What is illegal?"
"Uh... um, you know, getting romantically involved with someone much younger
than you, who isn't even of age yet?"
It was Don's turn to look confused. "I beg your pardon?" He studied the belt
on his robe, and then looked up at her, a light of amusement in his eyes.
"Is that what you thought this was about? My initiating some sort of...
romantic... liaison?"
"Ohh... n-no, not at all. It just kinda SOUNDED that way, and I just wanted
to clear that up," Gaele said quickly, hoping he wouldn't see through her
masking her embarrassment.
Don shook his head and chuckled a little. "That certainly was not my
intention..." He looked up at her. "Not that I have failed to notice just
how very attractive you are. However, I did not have any intentions of the
romantic kind, it was simply a wish to take you under my academic wing...
as your mentor."
She sat and thought a moment,
feeling another wave of relief washing over her, and she smiled at Don. They
sat quietly for a few minutes, then Don stirred from his seat.
"Forgive me, I have a meeting in San Jose tomorrow morning, and I need to
get a little sleep-"
"You will come back afterwards?" Gaele asked without thinking, as she stood
up with Don.
He studied her a moment in mild amusement. "If you are interested, we could
get together again, perhaps next weekend."
"Okay..." Gaele said, looking at her feet. She looked up at him. "I'm sorry
if I was rude, I was a little bit confused."
"That is understandable, it is an unusual situation." Don grinned at her,
and showed her to the door. "I take it you will be able to sleep now?"
"Eventually," she said.
After leaving Don's guest house, Gaele expected to be writing in her journal
for a while after she got back to her room, but by the time she'd changed
for bed and climbed in, she knew she wouldn't have any trouble sleeping at
all.