The Girl in Hemingway's Studio Page 6

  Julie texted back “How about tomorrow after work for Happy Hour at The Keg in Tempe? Around five, unless your exciting news means you can’t drink alcohol! LOL.”

  Give it a rest, thought Alexis as she texts Cathy to see if she could get away to meet tomorrow. Cathy texted back, “Great that works for me. Both kids are spending the night with their grandmother. Should I start knitting?”

  Oh my God, thought Alexis, she and Marcus hadn’t yet decided if they were going to have children. She knew she was running out of time; her biological clock was ticking away. After this summer, they would make a decision.

  Frustrated, she thought about the one person she knew who would be thrilled. She called her father to ask if she could stop by his office in a couple of hours.

  “Of course, sweetheart, I will be in the office all afternoon. If you’d rather meet me at home, I could call Judith and you and Marcus could stop by for dinner.”

  “Thanks, Dad, but I would like to tell you my news now. I’ll see you shortly.”

  Judith, UGG! Alexis laughed. I really believe my mother sent me Marcus to make me happy. But I’m positive Mom never sent Judith to Dad. She makes him miserable.

  The traffic to her dad’s office off Mill Avenue was light. Now that most of the students had left for summer vacation, the University looked calm and quiet. She turned on South Ash Avenue and parked her car behind the historic bungalow that was so distinctive. It was a two-story, light tan building with the windows all trimmed in bright blue. It originally was built as a residence in the early 1900s. This historic building had been disassembled and rebuilt. After her father had purchased the house, he had it completely remodeled by a highly regarded contractor. It was gorgeous. The sign across the top of the covered porch read:

  Residential Architects

  John Malone & Arthur Strong

  Her dad greeted her with a kiss and a hug, “What’s the great news, you want to share?”

  Alexis told her dad about the Florida Keys Fiction Contest and showed him the letter confirming she had won. She told him about staying at the cottages at The Studios of Key West for twenty-one nights in July and the best part spending ten days in Hemingway’s writing studio at his Spanish colonial estate to finish her book.

  Her dad did not disappoint Alexis. He was thrilled for her; he wrapped his arms around her waist and they danced and twirled around the small space between the drafting tables.

  “You said the tickets and accommodations are for two, will Marcus be able to take that much time off?”

  “No, he told me that would be impossible. July is the beginning of the new fiscal year for the college district and no one in accounting is allowed to vacation during that month. I’m going to see Julie and Cathy tomorrow night, and I’m hoping one of them will be able to go with me.”

  Arthur smiled, “I know someone who would love to go with you. How about your sister? She needs a little fun in her life, and it would be a good chance for you two to bond. I remember when you were little girls you were the best of friends and did everything together. What happened to those two sweet little girls? What changed?”

  Alexis looked at her dad, “Charlotte changed. When she started sixth grade, she became part of a ‘mean girl’ gang and never returned to the sweet girl you remember.” Alexis put her arms around her dad, “Okay Dad, I’ll think about it. If neither Cathy nor Julie can go, I’ll seriously consider asking Charlotte. But, who will take care of Ashley?”

  “You decide whomever you want to take with you and then we will work on the details,” Arthur said as he hugged his daughter. “Let me know if I will have to do some fancy talking to convince Judith to play grandmother.”

  Alexis said good-bye to her dad and walked out of the office to her car. Things had really been difficult for her dad after her mother died. Her mother was the glue that had held their family together. Charlotte had just begun to get her life back on track after her divorce and had gone back to college. With their mother’s encouragement, she was successful. Alexis was in the middle of her senior year of high school, but lost her sense of focus after the accident.

  Arthur tried so hard to be a mother and father to his girls in spite of his shattered heart, somehow they muddled through. But for some reason, Charlotte just seemed insistent on spinning her life down a turbulent road.

  Alexis pulled into her garage and walked into her house. It was early afternoon, and the temperature on her car gauge was already 105˚. This was going to be a hot summer. As she walked through the kitchen door, her phone rang. It was Kyle returning her call.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “Oh, Kyle, you won’t believe it. I just got a huge envelope from the Florida Keys Flash Fiction Contest. I won, Kyle, I really won it all.” Alexis took a breath as she gushed about her thrilling news. “I’m actually going to have the opportunity to spend time in Ernest Hemmingway’s writing studio. The actual place where he wrote so many of his novels. Can you believe it?”

  “Alexis, I really had a good feeling that you would win this contest. I believe in you and your writing talent.” Kyle was jubilant about her winning the contest. He had read her short story and offered her some constructive advice, which she took and was thrilled that it made her story even better.

  He now told her, “Alexis your unfinished book is really great. I just know it is going to be a bestseller and put you on the map as a world-class author. Who is the lucky person that gets to go with you to Florida?”

  Finally, she was getting the reaction she craved for winning the Florida contest. Too bad she couldn’t take Kyle with her. She smiled as she thought about the reaction she would get from her husband and family. She explained her plan of action that she was hoping either Cathy or Julie would be able to accompany her. Kyle wished her well and hung up.

  Alexis quickly fixed a sandwich and glass of ice tea and sat at her kitchen table and thought about her sister.

  She did remember those happy childhood years when she and Charlotte were the best of friends. They played together and even dressed alike. She remembered those wonderful road trips to San Diego during summer vacations when their parents would rent a house on the beach for a week.

  Charlotte was a miniature Nora. She had her mother’s beautiful dark, shiny hair, the blue eyes, and even the scattering of freckles across her nose. Their mother was cute and spunky; Charlotte was beautiful. Alexis would always joke the only thing she got from her mother was her cute upturned nose. Charlotte was always the most popular girl in her class, and all the little boys in elementary school were madly in love with her. Alexis was just her little sister.

  Something happened when Charlotte began the sixth grade, her new best friend was a girl even more popular and prettier than she. Together they controlled the class; they brought a couple of other girls into the group and called themselves “The Beastly Girls.” They were ruthless. Many a sixth grade girl went home in tears because of the cruel remarks thrust at them during the school week. Nora had to field calls from angry mothers and promised she would talk to her daughter. She did. Charlotte always blamed someone else and promised her mother she would try to make the girls act nicer. It never happened. Junior high school was more of the same. In high school, Charlotte dropped her girlfriends altogether, and collected a series of boyfriends. Most boys only lasted a week or two, until she met Jordan.

  When Charlotte got pregnant in the beginning of her senior year, her parents were devastated, but promised their daughter things would be okay. They would help her and she would get through this difficult part of her life. After she lost the baby and divorced Jordan, things calmed down a little. She found a job at a large bank working in the mailroom. She decided to take a year off before resuming college.

  Alexis got up to rinsed off her dish and glass and put them in the dishwasher. She shook her head as she then remembered that weekend of her grandparents’ fiftieth anniversary party. Vividly she remembered why she didn’t want to spend time in Key Wes
t with Charlotte.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Memories

  June 1996

  The summer Charlotte graduated from high school was the year of their grandparents’ fiftieth anniversary party in New York. Nora threw a fabulous graduation/eighteenth birthday party for her daughter.

  Alexis remembered that all of Charlotte’s popular friends attended the party while she sat with Julie and Cathy in a corner of the patio watching the really cool kids interact with each other. One of Charlotte’s former boyfriends stopped by and offered Alexis a smuggled-in beer. She declined; he smiled and patted Alexis on the head like a puppy.

  Alexis recalled, I had just finished my first year of high school and would turn fifteen in September. Charlotte and I were so excited about traveling to New York. We had been there a few times to visit Dad’s parents, but this time we were going to stay at a very fancy hotel and not the Holiday Inn. Charlotte and I could never understand why our grandparents never invited us to stay in their home. They had so many empty bedrooms.

  Flying on Delta Airlines in first-class was the beginning of a wonderful adventure. The wide seats, special food, slippers, and privacy gave them the comforts of flying like a celebrity. The Plaza Hotel was everything and more than they had imagined. The Legacy Suite had a sitting room and two bedrooms. The second bedroom even had a private door to the hall. Charlotte noticed the escape route as soon as she began unpacking her clothes. The private party at their grandparent’s apartment was being held the following night; so on their first night in the Big Apple, their dad took his family out to dinner near the hotel. They walked around a little while, and then he hailed a cab and they soon found themselves in the middle of Times Square. The colored lights, the constantly changing illuminated signs, the glitz and sophistication of this square was spellbinding. The girls had visited Times Square before in the daytime, but at night it was almost too much to take in. Everything and everyone was in motion and continually evolving. Alexis still vividly remembered the excitement of that special night and how she and Charlotte held on to each other pointing out all the thrilling sights.

  The next evening at the soirée at their grandparents’ elegant apartment, Charlotte and Alexis met Aaron Baker, the son of their dad’s friend, Patrick. Charlotte and Aaron sat in the corner, laughing and whispering about all the people attending this very classy party. Alexis walked through the cold, but stylish apartment wondering how her father could have lived in such a sterile environment.

  Alexis turned on the stove to heat the teapot. As she pulled a cup and teabag from the cupboard, she looked out of the kitchen window waiting for the water to boil. Alexis shook her head and smiled as she continued to reminisce about that fiftieth anniversary party in New York so many years ago.

  Charlotte and Aaron continued to whisper and laugh. At one point, Charlotte sought out Alexis and asked for a pen and piece of paper.

  “Why do you need that?” Alexis asked as she shook her head.

  “Aaron wants to give me his address,” responded Charlotte. “He will be moving to Princeton in August and living in his own apartment.”

  “Oh, I did see a pad of paper in Grandfather Douglas’s office. Maybe you could find a pen in there too.”

  “Thanks.”

  Charlotte found the paper and a handsome heavy-duty pen and brought them back to where Aaron was sitting.

  “Here, write down your new address,” she demanded.

  “Your sister,” inquired Aaron as he quietly held the paper and pen. “Is she always this quiet? She’s cute, but really different from you.”

  “Yeah,” laughed Charlotte. “I’m the ‘throwaway kid’—you know the first child that parents practice on and throw away when the child doesn’t turn out like they hoped. Alexis is the perfect child. She has all the attributes a parent would want in their children; she’s obedient, good-natured, gets good grades, worries about world peace and the environment, and obeys my parents without question.”

  Aaron laughed, “In other words, she doesn’t have any fun?”

  Charlotte playfully hit Aaron on the arm, “You could say that, she really doesn’t know how to have a good time and she never does anything that would upset Mom and Dad. I, on the other hand, always have fun. I try forbidden things and, you might say, I upset my parents all the time.” Charlotte took back the paper from Aaron and put it in her purse. She checked out her grandfather’s pen and decided she really liked it and stuck it in her purse too.

  “Hey Charley, that’s an expensive pen,” Aaron said as he pointed to her purse. “I know because my dad has one just like it, and I’m not allowed to remove it from his office.”

  “Yeah so what, my grandparents are loaded, they can afford a new pen.”

  Aaron smiled. “Is it okay if I call you Charley? Charlotte just doesn’t fit you.”

  Charlotte smiled and nudged shoulder to shoulder with Aaron. “Yeah, I like that you have a special name for me.”

  After the party, Arthur gathered his family and wished his parents and Aunt Nancy a good evening.

  “Mother, Nora, and I would love to have you, Father, and Aunt Nancy join us for breakfast tomorrow morning?”

  His mother laughed, “Arthur, do you have any idea how many details I must check on before tomorrow’s gala? I’m already exhausted from this evening and still have so much yet to do. We will see all of you tomorrow evening.”

  As they walked out of the building, a cab came to a screeching stop. Arthur opened the door and ushered his family into the cab’s back seat while he sat in front with the driver and gave him the address of The Plaza Hotel.

  Charlotte and Alexis walked into their bedroom, and Alexis started to undress.

  “Wait,” commanded her sister. “Aaron’s coming over to our hotel. He said he was going to meet us in the lobby. He promised to take us to see some really amusing places in New York.”

  “Tonight? Charlotte, it’s almost 1:30 in the morning!”

  Charlotte picked up the hotel phone and dialed a number. “Meet you in fifteen minutes,” she said and hung up the receiver.

  “This is New York. The city that never sleeps, when will we ever have such a terrific opportunity to see the ‘real’ New York? Mom and Dad will never know we left; come on, live a little.”

  I gave in to my sister’s demands even though I knew in my head that it was wrong and probably a terrible mistake. My stomach started to churn and I was developing a headache. I thought about how frightened our parents would be if they happened to discover we were gone. Would they call the police? Would they even suspect that we were with Aaron? How in the world would we contact our parents if we were kidnapped or worse? Sipping her tea, Alexis remembered the thoughts that were going around and around in her mind that nerve-racking night when her cell phone rang. Looking at the “Unknown” number, she declined answering it. Staring at her phone, she thought, cell phones are great, but can also be a curse; you are always connected. However, if I had a cell phone back when we were in New York, it would have eased some of my anxiety.

  Charlotte and Alexis stuffed pillows under the covers of their beds, just in case their parents came into their room to check on them. They quietly opened their room’s private door and ran to the elevator. Aaron was waiting for them in the lobby, and the three of them walked out of the hotel. Aaron hailed a cab, and their adventure began.

  Aaron instructed the driver to take them to Harlem. They drove by the Museum of Modern Art and Carnegie Hall. There were garbage trucks picking up the piles of trash from the curbs of the City. It was somewhere between very late night and early morning, but there were still people walking down the street and eating in restaurants. They passed the famous Apollo Theatre, and the atmosphere changed. Alexis became frightened and slumped down in her seat, keeping her eyes glued to the cab window. The cab drove slowly through Harlem. Soon they were back to the bright lights of the Twin Towers and the Empire State Building. Suddenly Alexis noticed the meter in the taxi, and she
leaned over Charlotte and asked Aaron,

  “Do we have enough money for this ride?”

  Aaron asked, “How much money do you girls have on you?”

  “Dad gave us each $30 when we got here. I still have mine. Charlotte, how much money do you have?”

  “$55,” she answered.

  Aaron asked to cab driver to take them to Central Park and drop them off at the Dakota Apartments. “John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived at the Dakota and that is where he was shot on the front steps back in 1980,” he whispered. “We can stop and see Strawberry Fields Memorial and then I’ll walk you back to your hotel from there.”

  It was now 3:00 a.m., and Central Park was creepy. Even though a devoted fan of the Beatles, Alexis didn’t take any pleasure in seeing the black and white mosaic inlaid with the word, “Imagine” in the center. Her heart was beating at an accelerated pace as she imagined a crazy person jumping out of the shadows and attacking them. Her fear grew even worse, when Aaron explained they would have to walk through Central Park to get to the Plaza Hotel. But quickly Aaron had second thoughts about walking through Central Park at night. It was too eerie, so instead they walked back to the Dakota Apartments. When Alexis saw the building flickering in the darkness, she remembered it was featured in that scary movie Rosemary’s Baby; she began to complain and started to cry. While they were standing on the sidewalk, an off-duty cab driver saw them and stopped. The cab driver rolled down his window,

  “Hey, what are you kids doing out here this time of night? Don’t you know that Central Park is very dangerous at night? There are creepy bad people, drug dealers, and gangs roaming through it.”

  “We have to get back to the Plaza Hotel, and we don’t have any money,” Alexis answered with tears running down her cheeks.

  The cab driver smiled and told them to get in his cab. He said he was going by the Plaza on his way home, this would be his good deed for the evening. With a huge sigh of relief, Alexis jumped into the back seat of the cab followed by her sister and Aaron. They arrived at the Plaza Hotel a few minutes later. Thanking their rescuer, Aaron walked the girls safely inside the lobby and then he walked back to his family’s apartment.