All She Ever Wanted (20 page)
“That was the nicest thing anybody ever did for me,” she sniffed.
“Rick is a very nice guy,” Cynthia said softly. “Even if he is rich.”
The following night Cynthia’s throat felt a little scratchy, too. The previous evening hadn’t been much fun without Eleanor, so Cynthia decided to skip the dance at the USO and stay home. They were both sitting up in bed, listening to the radio with their pajamas on, when they heard something strike their bedroom window.
“What was that?” Cynthia asked. “Turn the radio down a minute.”
They heard the noise again.
“Someone is throwing rocks at our window!” Eleanor said. They climbed out of bed and ran to the front window, lifting the blackout curtain. Rick stood below, preparing to throw another rock. He had his friend Steve with him.
Eleanor slid the window open. “Go around to the back, you idiots!
We’ll be right down.” She put her coat on over her pajamas and slipped into her shoes. Her face beamed like a searchlight. “Come on, Cynthia.”
“Like this? I’m in my pj’s!”
“Put your coat on. They won’t know.” She shoved Cynthia’s coat into her hands and they ran down the back stairs. Rick pulled Eleanor into his arms and whirled her around, laughing.
“What are you doing here? How’d you find us?” she asked.
“Detective work, my dear! I overheard you mention catching a bus to Riverside. And you’ve told me several times that you lived in the Cadaver Hotel. I simply put two and two together and decided to come to Riverside’s only funeral home.”
“That’s amazing!” Cynthia said, truly impressed.
Eleanor gave her a nudge in the ribs. “Don’t be so gullible. They probably asked Doris and Lucille where we lived.”
“But how did you know which window was ours?” Cynthia asked.
“We’ve been pitching rocks at all the ones with lights on,” Rick said with a grin. “Hey, it’s cold out here, and Eleanor’s already sick. Invite us up.”
“We can’t!” Cynthia said, horrified at the idea. “Mrs. Montgomery said no gentlemen callers!”
Rick laughed again, mischievously. “That’s okay. We’re not gentlemen.”
Cynthia shook her head. “It’s really not a good idea. …”
“Oh, come on, Cynthia,” Eleanor said. “They came this far. The least we can do is let them come in and get warm.” She was looking at Rick as if he were the medicine she needed to cure her. Cynthia was still unsure.
“But… I don’t want to get into trouble. What if we get kicked out?”
“We’ll be
really
quiet. Right, guys?” Eleanor held her finger to her lips and tiptoed to the door with exaggerated stealth. Rick and Steve mimicked her, laughing and shushing each other. Against Cynthia’s wishes—and better judgment—the two men sneaked upstairs to her room.
“Ta-da! Here it is,” Eleanor said. “Welcome to the Presidential Suite at the Cadaver Hotel. Want some hot chocolate?”
“Ellie!” Cynthia quickly shut the door.
“What?”
“They were only going to stay a minute. We’re in our pajamas!”
“You’re welcome to take them off if you’re uncomfortable,” Rick said. Steve gave a wolf whistle, and Cynthia felt herself blushing clear to her toes. Everyone laughed except her, and she suddenly felt as prudish and uptight as an old spinster. She laughed in spite of herself and made up her mind to relax and enjoy their visitors.
“I’ll make hot chocolate,” she said, “but somebody else will have to go down to the dungeon and get the milk out of the refrigerator. I’m not going down there at night! It’s spooky enough in the daytime.”
“We don’t need hot chocolate,” Rick said. “How about a game of cards?”
They didn’t have a table and there weren’t enough chairs, so they all sat on the floor on the rag rug and played gin rummy, the girls still wearing their coats over their nightclothes. It was the best Saturday night that Cynthia had spent since coming to Riverside. Steve was a nice guy and a fun date, but his charm paled compared to his friend Rick. As Cynthia had gotten to know Rick better, she understood what Eleanor saw in and liked about him. Too bad he hadn’t been this much fun when she had danced with him.
Eleanor seemed to have a gift for tearing down people’s facades and bringing out the best in them. She’d certainly transformed Cynthia from a boring, ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. And the change in Rick was no less miraculous. He told hilarious stories, some at his own expense, and sang along with Frank Sinatra and the Andrews Sisters on the radio. He was so attentive to Eleanor, and so affectionate, gently caressing her neck or her shoulder and stealing kisses whenever she made a good play or won a hand of cards. They were all having fun. Hours passed and no one cared.
“Hey, let’s make popcorn,” Eleanor decided after Rick won another round.
“Good idea. I’ll make it,” Cynthia jumped up to plug in the hot plate, then halted. “Wait, I can’t. The oleomargarine is down in the basement refrigerator.”
“Can’t we go get it?” Steve asked. “I’m not afraid.”
Rick began making spooky, moaning noises, like a ghost. “Who’s down there, Frankenstein?” he asked.
“We’ll all go down together,” Eleanor decided. “Come on.”
They crept down to the basement, giggling and hushing each other. The blackout curtains hadn’t been closed, so they didn’t dare turn on a light. But when Cynthia opened the refrigerator door to get the margarine, it cast enough light for Rick and Steve to have a look around.
“Leave it open a minute,” Rick said. “Let’s see how many ghouls are down here.” Cynthia watched nervously as they explored the basement, joking about seeing ghosts and daring each other to open one of the coffins. When Rick lifted a lid and found the coffin to be empty, he climbed inside, lying down on the satin lining with his hands folded and his eyes closed like a dead man.
“Don’t, Rick! Come on, that’s morbid,” Eleanor said, but she was laughing along with everyone else. “Come on, get out of there,” she urged.
Rick waited until she came over to nudge him, then suddenly sat up, shouting, “Boo!” Eleanor shrieked, then clamped her hand over her mouth.
“I’m getting out of here,” Cynthia said. She closed the refrigerator and hurried up the stairs with the oleomargarine. Steve followed close behind her. The two of them had the popcorn cooked by the time Eleanor and Rick came back a few minutes later. Cynthia could tell by their flushed, happy faces that they had been kissing.
They all munched popcorn and laughed some more. None of them wanted the evening to end. Cynthia had forgotten her earlier misgivings and had lost all track of the time until she heard Doris and Lucille clomping up the steps.
“Hey, I smell popcorn!” Doris called.
“Quick! Hide!” Cynthia gasped. She jumped to her feet, pulling Steve with her, and shoved him into the closet. It wasn’t big enough for both men, so Rick rolled onto his stomach and crawled under Eleanor’s bed. Eleanor leaped on top of the bed and dove beneath the covers.
“Ouch! That’s my head!” Rick grunted.
“Shh!” Cynthia hissed. She ran around in circles trying to hide the playing cards and the two extra water glasses.
“Knock, knock!” Lucille sang. She and Doris walked in the way they always did. “How’s the patient? Up awfully late, aren’t you?”
“Miserable,” Eleanor moaned from under the covers. “I tried to go to sleep and couldn’t.” She coughed convincingly a few times.
“Why do you have your coat on, Cynthia?” Doris asked. Cynthia felt the blood rush to her face.
“I… um… it’s warmer than my bathrobe.” She breathed a sigh of relief when Doris changed the subject. The two neighbors rattled on and on about their evening at the USO, describing all the fellows they’d danced with.
“Your boyfriend was looking for you, Eleanor. Big-mouth Lucille spilled the beans and told him where you lived. I hope he doesn’t come around and pester you.”
“He said he wanted to send her a card,” Lucille explained. “I didn’t see the harm in telling him.”
“I don’t mind,” Eleanor said. “Don’t worry about it. The army keeps him much too busy to become a full-time pest.”
Cynthia turned out all but one light, hoping their two neighbors would get the hint. They didn’t. Lucille picked up the bowl of leftover popcorn and sat down on the sofa to share it with Doris.
“You’re breaking the rules, you know,” Doris said. “Mrs. Montgomery told us we weren’t supposed to cook in our rooms.”
“Making popcorn isn’t considered cooking,” Eleanor said. “It’s no different than boiling water. Hey, I hate to be a spoilsport, but it’s late, and I’d better get some rest or I’ll never make it to work on Monday.”
A few more minutes passed before they finally finished eating popcorn and left. Cynthia quietly locked the door behind them so they couldn’t barge in again. When she turned around and looked at Eleanor, they both started to giggle. Eleanor leaned over to peer beneath the bed.
“They’re gone. You can come out, now,” she said. Rick rolled out from under the bed, sneezing. Eleanor brushed dust bunnies from his hair. Steve opened the closet door a crack and stuck his head out.
“Is it safe? Phew! It smells like mothballs in there. Another minute or two and I would have conked out.” They were all laughing and whispering and shushing each other.
“You’d better go,” Eleanor said. Rick pulled her into his arms.
“That really is a terrible cold you have, ma’am. Dr. Rick better give you a kiss to make it better.” Cynthia saw the tender way he looked at Eleanor as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and she wondered if she would ever meet a man who would love her that much. He and Eleanor kissed as if it was their last hour together on earth, and Cynthia and Steve turned away to give them a moment of privacy.
“Thanks for a fun evening,” Steve whispered.
“We’ll do it again sometime,” Cynthia promised. “But probably not here. It’s too nerve-wracking.” They both snickered.
Rick finally tore himself away from Eleanor, and Cynthia herded the men down the pitch-black stairs, the wooden risers groaning and creaking as they went. She breathed a sigh of relief when the door was safely bolted behind them. When she tiptoed back to their room, Eleanor was sitting up in bed with tears streaming down her face.
“Are you falling in love with Rick?” Cynthia asked.
“I’m not ‘falling,’” she said miserably. “I already fell… and landed hard.” Eleanor swiped at her eyes, then blew her nose. “I never intended for this to happen, you know—it just did. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. And neither has Rick.”
Cynthia hung up her coat and switched off the light, then climbed into her own bed. “Didn’t you tell me that all rich guys are liars?” she asked after she’d snuggled down under the covers.
“Rick is fed up with that phony life. That’s why he defied his father and enlisted. Now that he’s free from his father’s shadow for the first time and making his own decisions, he doesn’t want to go back to that country club life. He wants a real life, with kids who live at home instead of in fancy boarding schools and who go fishing with their dad on the weekends. Rick’s father worked all the time, and he hardly even knows him. He plans to give the company to Rick so that he’ll have to work hard all the time, too, and be miserable. That’s not a life. Rick is going to chuck it all when the war is over and make it on his own. I respect him for that.”
“What about all that stuff you said about GIs having a girl in every port?”
Eleanor laughed softly. “This is Rick’s first assignment. He hasn’t had time to collect a bevy of women.”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to marry a man who had something in common with you?”
“We have more in common than you think.”
Cynthia waited. Eleanor never talked about herself or her family, except for her brother, Leonard. “My father was very wealthy, too,” she finally said. “Very upper class. But he cared more about money than anything else—including Leonard and me and our mother.”
Cynthia waited for more, but that was all the information that Eleanor was willing to disclose. She was silent for so long that Cynthia wondered if she had fallen asleep.
“Maybe I’m a fool for falling in love,” she finally said, and Cynthia heard tears in her breaking voice. “But this is more than just physical attraction—although I’ll admit that’s part of it. We spend more time talking than we do kissing, believe it or not.”
“What do you talk about?”
“Everything. What we want from life, how we’re looking forward to really living when the war is over. The places we want to visit, the things we want to see. Rick is as excited about seeing the world as I am. I never met a guy like him before. Most guys just want to make piles of money and boss their wives around. As soon as the war is over, we’re going to forget the past and start all over again, together.” She paused for a moment. “I’ll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell anyone.”
“Of course, Ellie. I promise.”
“Rick asked me to marry him. I told him yes.”
“Oh, Eleanor! That’s wonderful! I wish I could meet somebody special— rich or not.”
“You will, Cynthia. You will. Probably when you least expect it.”
C
ynthia gazed at her reflection in the darkened bus window, the laboring engine droning in her ears as the bus swayed down the now familiar route from Bensenville to Riverside. The rural road was deserted this late at night, and with blackout curtains shrouding the windows of any houses they passed, Cynthia felt as though she traveled beneath the sea. She could see Eleanor’s reflection beside her own, gazing silently into the darkness, and she wondered what was wrong. Eleanor usually came alive at night, entertaining Cynthia and everyone else with her laughter and witty jokes as they rode back to Riverside after a dance or the movies. But Eleanor and Rick had both been subdued all evening, huddling together at one of the corner tables at the USO. They hadn’t even gotten up to dance.
“Did you have a fight with Rick or something?” Cynthia asked her. “You’ve been awfully quiet all evening.”
“No, we didn’t have a fight,” she said with a sigh. “But we’re living on borrowed time.”
“What do you mean?” Cynthia couldn’t imagine their relationship ending. They seemed so deeply in love, so happy together.