Olivia stood there, her mind full of what had happened and what was going to happen, and she could feel the tears coming back. She started to turn away, to take her sadness into privacy, but Kit put up his hand, as though telling her to wait. As she watched, he opened a door in a side closet that was full of beat-up old boxes and pulled one out.
“I brought these with me from home and I think that right now we need them.” He took the box to a big mahogany cabinet on one side of the room. Olivia had never been curious as to what it was, but then, it would take weeks to explore all the furniture in the rambling old house.
When he lifted the top, she saw that the cabinet was a record player and the whole bottom was a speaker. Inside Kit’s box was a double stack of 45 rpm records.
She frowned. “You can’t play music now. Everyone is asleep. They need their rest.”
“Yes, they do. But we need joy more. Uncle Freddy is safe; Mr. Gates will recover; Ace’s mother is alive. Right now, today, this minute, we have everything to be happy about.”
“You’re right. But just play something soft and quiet, okay?”
“You got it.” He dropped a pile of records onto the fat spindle and turned the sound up full blast. To Olivia’s horror, out came the raunchy, throaty blast of Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild.”
Olivia nearly leaped across the room as she tried to turn the music off, but Kit grabbed her and began to dance with her, his hips grinding provocatively against hers.
She fought him for all of about eight seconds, then she yelled, “Oh, what the hell! We’re alive! No one died today!” She gave Kit a look of challenge, a sort of sex challenge. “Come on, Worthless Boy, let’s see if you can dance.”
“I can’t leap cabbages,” he yelled back, “but with sex, baby, no lessons are required.”
She kicked off her shoes and started grinding. Using her hips and thighs that had been strengthened by years of dance classes, she went down to the ground and kept moving.
Kit went with her. He turned so her leg was between his and went down. And down.
When he leaned toward her as though to kiss her, she pulled back so far her hands touched her ankles. Kit stayed with her.
Ace was the first one to show up, standing there staring, his eyes sleepy. A minute later, Letty appeared in the doorway—and that made Olivia and Kit start laughing. She was supposed to be at home with her parents, but it wasn’t surprising that she had sneaked out and was sleeping somewhere near Ace—and probably Uncle Freddy.
The boy ran over and pushed his way between Olivia and Kit, as though laying claim to her.
“Hey, kid,” Kit said, “this is my girl. Get your own.” Letty, rubbing her eyes, went to Kit.
The record stopped and there was a moment’s silence as the next one dropped down.
It was the band Cream, named for being the Cream of the Crop: Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton. The best there was. “Sunshine of Your Love” blasted out.
Kit made another attempt to get to Olivia, but Letty and Ace thwarted him. Laughing, he picked up Letty and began dancing around the big room with her.
It was no surprise when Uncle Freddy and Mr. Gates showed up. Mr. Gates twirled the wheelchair around in a way that looked like they’d done it many times before.
What was a surprise was when Nina and Bill walked into the room. They had on swimsuit covers, but no suits on underneath—which sent all the adults into howls of laughter. Obviously, they’d been out having a moonlight swim in the nude.
“A mating couple,” Kit said to Olivia as Letty’s parents went to the far side of the room and just held each other and swayed.
The records kept changing and everyone danced. Jefferson Airplane, Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Creedence Clearwater Revival. All of it played at a deafening level.
Somewhere after midnight, the oldest and the youngest gave out. Letty’s parents slipped away into the darkness outside, and Kit lifted Uncle Freddy out of the chair and put him in bed. Mr. Gates took the cot near his friend, refusing to leave the room. Olivia managed to get the kids up the stairs and they fell across the twin beds in Ace’s room. She left them dressed, but put them under the covers.
When Kit turned off the music, the house had a feeling of being silent, but of also being gratefully, wonderfully awake. The house was an old lady who’d seen wars, births and deaths, and right now she seemed pleased that everyone she loved was safe.
Olivia stepped into the hall and pulled the door to Ace’s room nearly shut. Kit was standing in front of his bedroom door. He looked so very, very good. He was like all the dreams of male fulfillment that she’d ever had. More than anything in the world she wanted to touch him, feel him, put her skin against his. Their dancing, so close together, had made her very aware of him.
He was looking at her in invitation. She knew that if she made the tiniest step toward him that he’d open his arms to her, then they’d...
Before she could have another thought, she mumbled, “Good night,” slipped into her own room, and shut the door firmly behind her.
*
The next morning, before going downstairs, Olivia had a long talk with herself about her and Kit. She knew that he was infatuated with her, that he watched her. But it can’t happen, she thought. He would go back to his Yankee college and she’d go to Broadway and end up falling for some producer. She could bear that, but it wouldn’t be fair to him. It was one thing to tell her friend who was playing Jane that she’d had a summer fling with a lusty college boy, but what happened when he showed up with a bunch of his beer-drinking fraternity brothers?
She’d probably die of embarrassment on the spot.
No, whatever happened, she needed to be the adult and not let the sight of his beautiful, gorgeous, naked body make her do something that she’d regret.
She remembered when her mother had first seen Kit. She’d dropped by to give Livie a chinois and pestle to make liver paté and Kit had walked by on his way to the pond. As usual, he had on very little clothing.
Her mother lowered her reading glasses and watched him walk the entire distance, until he disappeared in the trees. “Now I understand.”
Her tone was so suggestive that Olivia was shocked. “Mother!”
“Dear, you may have come late in life to your father and me, but we spent whole years trying to create you.”
Olivia was so stunned that she couldn’t speak.
Mrs. Paget opened her car door. “Actually, young Kit reminds me of your father at that age. Don’t you just love those flat, washboard stomachs?” As her mother started the engine, she said, “Have fun, dear. And I hope you do everything your father and I did.” Laughing at her daughter’s continued silence, she drove away.
After The Great False Alarm, as Letty’s father dubbed Uncle Freddy’s near death, things changed. Bill had a right to be sarcastic. Because of what happened, he got a lot more work dumped on him. In the past, he’d had the whole thirty-five acres to oversee. High school kids were hired to help, but he said that ever since Woodstock happened last year, all the kids wanted to do was smoke grass and grow hair.
Then Kit had arrived and taken over nearly everything. For the first time since their daughter was born, he and Nina’d had time to themselves. Bill smiled. Lots of time to themselves.
But since the near tragedy, Kit spent most of his time giving physical training lessons. He gave two swimming sessions a day to the children, and he spent an hour in the water with the old men. Mr. Gates had never been able to swim, but he needed to help Uncle Freddy, so Kit worked with both of them.
Kit said that Mr. Gates had some muscle on him. After all, he’d been lifting Uncle Freddy for years, but since he hated the water, that caused problems. Kit had to do a lot of coaxing. As for Uncle Freddy, Kit said that marshmallows had more muscle than he did.