The Color of Heaven (14 page)

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Just drive.”

Without a word, we continued west along Central Street. Every so often, Matt angled a glance at me. I met his eyes in the dark car and felt as if we

were fugitives fleeing a crime, with no clue where we were going.

I tapped my heel repeatedly on the floor of the car –
tap, tap, tap
– and clutched my handbag on my lap. I twisted it, wrung it, squeezed it.

“What are we doing, Cora?” he demanded at last, when we seemed only to be fol owing the white headlight beams into the darkness.

“I don’t know.” We had no particular destination, and it felt wrong. “Maybe you should just pul over.”

He turned onto the shoulder of the road, where the tires crunched over the gravel, then he switched off the engine and lights.

The world – and al the raging thoughts crashing around inside my brain – suddenly grew quiet. Matt rol ed down his window and rested his arm on

the door. The cool night air drifted in, and I took a deep, cleansing breath. Crickets and frogs chirped in the wet ditch. Moonlight streamed in

through the front window. We were surrounded by trees.

“Why did you stop talking to Peter and me back in high school?” I asked, feeling angry as I pushed my hair away from my face. “What was so

special about Doug Jones and his old pickup truck? Was he more interesting than we were? Were you bored with us?”

The question had nagged at me for too long. I had bottled up that rejection years ago and stuck a cork in it, hidden it away. Now it was bubbling

over.

He took his hand off the wheel and turned toward me. “I wasn’t bored. I just knew I was different from the two of you. I was fed up and headed for

trouble. You were better off without me.”

“We didn’t believe that. At least I never did,” I insisted. “We were friends, no matter what, and maybe if you had stayed with us, you wouldn’t have

gotten into trouble in the first place, and you wouldn’t have…” I stopped.

“Wouldn’t have what? Left town?” He gazed out at the night. “I needed to be on my own,” he explained. “That’s al it was. I had to get away from my

father, who took some kind of perverse pleasure in beating the crap out of me.” He paused. “I just couldn’t be part of that group we’d become.”

“But you joined another group – Doug and his idiotic friend. I don’t even remember his name.”

Matt shook his head. His eyes held no expression. “They were both assholes. I never thought otherwise.”

“Then why were you friends with them? Why not us?”

God, I sounded like a pathetic, spurned lover, as if he had cheated on me and abandoned me. But I was not his lover. It had never been that way

between us.

But what was it, exactly? There had never been a word for it. There stil wasn’t.

I covered my forehead with a hand and shut my eyes. “I’m sorry, Matt. I’m acting like a fool. It doesn’t matter what happened back then. It was a long time ago.”

“You’re wrong about that. It does matter. It’s why I came here. To tel you I was a jerk, and that it wasn’t anything you did. It was me. I hated my life and my father and I just needed to get out. The problem was…
you
made me want to stay, in a place that was pounding the life out of me.”

The bitterness in his voice was almost palpable.

“I didn’t know it was that bad,” I replied.

“That’s the kicker. It real y wasn’t. I was just young and stupid. I could have done better in school if I’d tried. I could’ve handled my father differently, but al I ever did was chal enge him, which only provoked him more, and then I just had to leave. I was always so angry.” He reached across the seat

and surprised me by taking hold of my hand. “But I shouldn’t have left without saying goodbye to you. I should have kept in touch. It’s not that I didn’t think about you. I did. I thought of you al the time.”

“I thought of you, too.”

A car sped by. Its noisy engine overpowered the crickets, then the red tail lights disappeared around the bend and it was quiet again.

“Sometimes,” Matt said, looking down at their clasped hands, “I had dreams about you that were so real, I would wake up and think you were in bed

beside me. For days I wouldn’t be able to get you out of my head.”

I felt dizzy, as if I were floating up the crest of a wave and plunging down into the trough.

He had missed me. He’d had dreams about me.

And he was sorry for leaving.

It was remarkable how that those two smal words –
I’m sorry
– could cure so much hurt over something so insignificant. These were things that happened in high school when no one knew what they were doing half the time.

Not that I knew what I was doing now. Truth be told, I was more confused at twenty-one than I had ever been in high school, because I felt a greater

pressure to settle upon one path for the rest of my life. I once felt as if the whole world was open to me, that there were hundreds of paths to choose from and I would always be free to explore as many as I wished.

Lately al I felt was constraint. Pressure to pick one path – the obvious one – and to pick it now and live with it forever.

I squeezed Matt’s hand. “It’s fine. Al that matters is that you came back to tel me. I’m glad you did.”

“So am I.”

It was a strong hand wrapped around mine, warm and comforting, and it reminded me of those evenings on the beach when we were children.

“So what happens now?” I asked uncertainly, as I swal owed over the painful lump that was forming in my throat. “You found me and made amends.

Wil you go back to Chicago?”

I didn’t want him to say yes. I wanted him to stay here.

Matt turned my hand over and stroked my palm with the pad of his thumb. It made the stubborn lump in my throat grow even bigger.

“I guess so,” he replied. “Now that I’ve seen you and apologized, I can tick this off my long list of regrets and move on to the next one.”

“I hope it’s not too long of a list.” I tried to sound light-hearted, though inside I felt nothing of the sort.

“It’s getting shorter,” he told me. “I’ve dealt with a few things already – like the stuff with my dad. We talked, and it’s better now. But what happened between you and me, the way I left without saying goodbye… I needed to make it right.”

I could not, for one second, deny that I was pleased he considered me an important part of his life. He was an important part of mine, too. In this

moment, nothing else even seemed to exist.

We sat for a long time in the tranquil hush of the night.

“I should take you back.” Matt reached for the keys and started the engine. “I don’t want to get you into trouble.”

He smiled at me, but his eyes were melancholy.

A short time later, he dropped me off at the door. “So this is it?” I asked, not yet ready to get out of the car. “I won’t see you again before you go?”

He shifted uneasily. “Probably not.”

I couldn’t bear to think that he had come here only to say he was sorry, and we would never see each other again.

“Are you sure? If you’re here for a week, we could do something together. I could take the bus to Boston. We could meet somewhere.”

He stared out the front window. “I don’t think that would be such a good idea.”

“Because of Peter?” I quickly asked.

There was something strange and unreadable in his eyes. I wished I could understand it. “Yeah.”

“He wouldn’t mind,” I assured him. “I’l tel him you’re in town. He’l understand.”

“It’s not just that.” Matt opened and closed his fist over the steering wheel.

“What is it, then? Do you have other people to see?”

I could feel him drifting away from me, into that distant, unreachable place, and I didn’t understand why.

“No,” he replied. “I just don’t want to complicate your life.”

“How would it complicate it? We’re old friends and you’re here for a visit. It seems very simple to me.”

Stil , he hesitated, and I realized I was pushing myself on him, begging and pleading for one more day of friendship and togetherness, when clearly

he didn’t want it.

“Oh, let’s just forget it,” I lightly said, wanting to sink through the vinyl seat cushions and disappear. “I have a busy week anyway.” I reached for the door handle. “But I’m so glad you came to see me, Matt. I had a nice time tonight, and if you ever come home to Camden, please look us up.”

I was about to get out of the car when he grabbed hold of my wrist. “
Wait
.”

I froze.

“When?” he asked. “When do you want to get together?”

For a few frantic seconds, I couldn’t seem to get my lips to move, then at last they began to work.

“The day after tomorrow? I only have one class on Tuesdays. I can miss it.”

“How about in the morning? I’l pick you up at ten.”

I wondered if Peter might be hurt by this, but I didn’t let it hold me back. “Al right.”

Matt let go of my arm, and I got out of the car. He was leaning over the seat I had just vacated, looking up at me from the dark interior, frowning. “I’l see you Tuesday then?”

I nodded and shut the car door. A second later, he drove off, and I knew – even after al they had shared that night – that he was stil keeping his

distance.

I wanted to know why.

The next morning, I slipped a coin into the slot on the payphone. It jangled down inside, then I dialed the number for the plant and sat down on the

stool.

It rang three times before Mrs. Weatherbee picked up at the other end. “Wentworth Industries.”

“Hi, Mrs. Weatherbee. This is Cora. Can I speak to Peter?”

Her voice warmed instantly. “Oh, hel o dear. How are you? How is school?”

“It’s wonderful, thank you. Is your mother doing okay?”

“Yes, she’s much better. The doctor gave her some pil s and they’ve helped. Say hel o to your mother for me, wil you?”

“I wil .”

“I’l put you through now.”

There was an audible
click
, then Peter picked up.

“This is Peter.”

“Hi, it’s me.” I shifted uneasily on the hard stool.

He paused. “Why are you cal ing me in the middle of the day? Is something wrong?”

I tried to keep my voice light and cheerful. “No, nothing. I just wanted to cal and tel you who I saw yesterday.”

“Yeah? Who?” He sounded distracted, then I heard the buttons clicking on his adding machine.

“Matt.”

The buttons stopped clicking. “You’re kidding me.”

I hadn’t known what to expect, and was relieved that he didn’t sound angry or concerned, but merely surprised.

I began to pick at a yel ow sticker of the sun on the payphone, which was already half torn away. “No. I’m not. He showed up at the dorm. He’s in

Boston visiting his brother and stopped in to say hi.”

The adding machine buttons started clicking again, and I heard the crank rol the tape. “So what did he say? How’s he doing?”

I told Peter about Matt’s job in construction and the fact that he had patched things up with his father.

“I never thought we’d ever hear from him again,” Peter said.

“Neither did I. I was real y surprised to see him.”

I continued to pick at the yel ow sticker, trying to slide my thumbnail under the glue to peel away the rest, but it wouldn’t budge. I had to scrape at it.

“So when is he going home?” Peter asked.

“In a week.”

He was quiet for a second. “Are you going to see him again?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, knowing this was why I had cal ed – to tel Peter exactly what was happening, so I wouldn’t feel as if I were

sneaking around on him. But the words seemed to lodge in my throat.

“Yes, I think so,” I said at last.

There was nothing but silence on the other end of the line. No buttons clicking. No crank to rol the tape.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

I could just see his face. He was probably shaking his head at me.

“Because it’s Matt. Come on, you know what he’s like.”

For a number of seconds, I didn’t speak because I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. Part of me felt guilty for wanting to see Matt again. Peter would

be very hurt if he knew just how badly I needed to.

Another part of me was annoyed at him for doing what he always did. He was holding me back, talking sense to me, as if I were a child who needed

to be sheltered and protected.

Sometimes he was just too sensible. And to suggest that Matt was not worth my time for whatever reason made me want to scream. Yes, he had a

history of being reckless and wild – unreliable, too – but he was stil Matt, our childhood friend, and he’d matured and admitted he’d made

mistakes. I couldn’t just cut him off.

I suppose I stil harbored some resentment toward Peter over the way our trio broke apart al those years ago, when I had wanted to at least try and

hold it together. Peter had discouraged me. He had told me it was hopeless.

I looked up at what was left of the torn yel ow sticker and spoke in a firm but reassuring voice. “It’s no big deal, okay? He’s just in town for a week.

He’s not going to corrupt me.”

I didn’t know where that had come from.

He let out a brisk huff. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I wouldn’t trust him, Cora.”

I clenched my jaw. “Look, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m a big girl.”

He was quiet on the other end.

“And maybe he’s not like he used to be,” I argued. “Maybe he deserves a second chance. Maybe he wants to make his life better, and if he does, I

think we should be there for him. Not just me, Peter. You, too. Try to remember the good times we used to have – the snow forts and swimming in

the summer. And you know how rough he had it with his dad. He didn’t have a mother. It wasn’t his fault he got so messed up.”

I hadn’t meant to say al that. I’d only meant to tel him I was going to spend a few more hours with Matt.

Nevertheless, I continued in a calmer voice. “I just think that we should forgive certain things. He real y seems like he has some regrets.”