Venus Envy, page 26
Mandy tiptoed in. “Her mothership. Should I tell her you’re out?”
“No, she’ll keep calling to catch me. I might as well get it over with.” She lifted the receiver off the cradle as Mandy left. “Hello, Mother.”
“You’ve read the papers?”
“I have.”
“What would the Central Virginia Tribune do without the Armstrongs?”
“Pick on someone else, I guess. Look at it this way, Mother. If we’re getting it, it means someone else is getting a rest.”
Libby’s voice dropped. “I don’t care about someone else. Now I want to know exactly what happened. I was so distraught last night that your father took me directly home and then I woke up in the middle of the night because I thought Frank was having a heart attack.” Libby waited for the desired response, which she got.
“What?”
“Oh, yes, all this commotion—starting with you, Miss Mary Frazier—has caught up with him. That hideous article in the papers about his business and then last night. Oh, I don’t know how he’s managed and it caught up with him. He complained of pains, woke me by getting out of bed—you know any little motion awakens me, I’m such a light sleeper—and he went into the bathroom. Well, he had every medicine out on the counter. I asked him what was wrong, he was sweating so. He put his hands over his chest and I knew it was his heart. I ran for the phone but he stopped me. ‘Heartburn,’ he said, and I said, ‘At your age I don’t know. Let’s call a doctor.’ Your father hates doctors and he said, ‘If it is a heart attack I prefer to suffer it alone and die in peace. If Yancey Weems were the last face I saw on this earth I’d be furious.’ As it turned out he was right about the heartburn, but he’s under so much pressure and you and Carter add to his woes. He was appalled by Sarah.”
“He didn’t look appalled to me. Her boobs were pushed to high tide and I thought Dad got a kick out of that.”
“Your father is a leg man. You were probably the one peering into her cleavage!”
Braking for an instant to let her mother’s comment pass, Frazier rejoined, “It’s hard for me to fathom how unhappy and full of hate you are.” She hung up the phone and dialed her dad. “Hi, Mildred. Is Pop there?”
“Listen, honey, what a mess last night. I’m so sorry, and of course you’ve got to be shaken up too.”
“Thank you. I’m just glad no one was hurt.”
“I’ll punch you through to Big Frank.”
“Dad?”
“Yeah.”
“You okay? Mom said you were sick last night.”
“Oh, that damned crab. The new chef at the club puts all those sauces on everything and I think it was too rich for me. Your mother thought I was having a heart attack.” He paused. “Maybe she wants me to have one so she can control everything again.”
“Dad?” Frazier couldn’t believe her ears.
“Things are changing at home. I should have taken hold a long, long time ago, but better late than never. Frazier? Frazier, are you there?”
“Yes. Just amazed.”
“One day at a time. I don’t want to be ugly but I can’t stand it anymore. What a jellyfish I’ve been. And, Frazier, I want you to be the first to hear this: if we can’t work things out, then I am leaving your mother. I don’t know how many years I have left in this life but I want them to be … peaceful. I gave up on happiness when I came home from Korea.”
“Dad, don’t ever give up on that.”
“I’ll try, and you try to forget the article in the paper. Both articles. It’s all shit.”
“I know.”
“Say, Carter came in to work early this morning and checked out equipment with me. After last night, and his girlfriend—isn’t she a hot tomato, whooee!—I figured he wouldn’t get to work until late but he was here at seven-thirty.”
“He’s trying, Dad. He’s a good man.”
A silence followed. “Frazier, I think I have a lot to learn.”
“Daddy, so do I.”
“Talk to you later. Goodbye.”
“Sure.” Frazier hung up and thought that maybe her father would talk to her later. Maybe those bottled-up decades would finally be decanted.
The phone rang again and this time it was the lovely and mature Ann Haviland. “I’m suing you for bodily harm.”
“That’s a nice hello.” Frazier blinked.
“I’ve had photos taken of my bloodied face and I have a chipped tooth and I just wanted you to know that I’m suing you before the papers come in the mail.”
“Calling me first means in your mind that you’re responsible and a Virginia lady? Ann, if you were a Virginia lady you wouldn’t have gotten drunk in the first place, and in the second place you wouldn’t have tottered down the lawn to harass me. Get a grip.”
Ann retreated into frosty superiority to prove, against all odds, that she was mature, responsible, and in control. Ah yes, the great American vice, being in control. Her voice sounded as though it issued from the bottom of a well. “We’ll let the courts decide.”
“You know, I’m sorry.” Frazier could hear the eager intake of breath on the other end of the phone while Ann waited for Frazier to grovel. “I’m as sorry as I can be that I didn’t tear your face off. My lawyer will call your lawyer and I hope that makes you happy, you dumb bitch, because it means you’ll still be connected to me in some way.”
“I don’t want anything to do with you!”
“Hey, if you’re suing me you’re going to have a lot to do with me. What’s the buzz, Ann? If you can’t be the positive center of my attention, you’ll be the negative?”
“I was never the center of your attention. You think only of yourself. You never wrote me love letters. You rarely sent me flowers. You never loved me.”
“I never said I loved you. You said you loved me. Sounded like a baited trap to me. A woman says, ‘I love you,’ and if you don’t return the compliment you’re heartless and if you do and you don’t feel it, you’re a liar. Which is worse?”
“I don’t know, in your case you’re both.”
“Are you smart enough to tell the difference? What the fuck are you complaining about? We dated for a year or so—”
“A year and a half! Don’t make light of it.”
“I paid for the trips for the most part, I took care of things. I remembered your birthday and Christmas, and for me that’s a big deal. I didn’t want to settle down and if you think about it, with both of us lying through our teeth about being gay, how could we have lived together without creating ten times more stress? I didn’t love you? What am I supposed to do, pay forever because I didn’t? I wasn’t mean. I tried to be good company. That was it.”
“I feel sorry for you.” Ann’s voice embraced the superior tone. “Sorry because you’ll never let yourself be vulnerable to another human being. You’ll be alone—old and alone.”
“Vulnerable seems to be the catchword these days, doesn’t it? You tell me what intelligent animal wants to be vulnerable? Nature gave animals fangs, claws, hooves, speed, whatever, so they wouldn’t be vulnerable. I think you people who use words like that are so goddam far away from reality that the only reality you have is the vocabulary you use with one another. I didn’t love you. I liked you but I didn’t love you. Big fucking deal.”
“You hurt me and you’re going to pay.”
Frazier calmed down and said quietly, “Thank you, Ann. Finally you told the truth.” She hung up the phone. “Jesus H. Christ, what’s going on? Is Mercury sliding through the slops of the universe or what?”
Mandy called in from the other room, “Retrograde. That’s when Mercury travels backwards.”
Frazier walked out. “Aha! You and the Reagans. I knew it. I knew you were going mystical on me.”
“Nah, I just like astrology. It’s the wisdom of the millennia, and the Christians wrecked as much as they could but the remnants are better than nothing. Anyway, you don’t want to hear about how I know you feel about things you deem irrational. I want to know what’s going on.”
“Mother is majoring in child abuse and Ann is suing me for bodily harm.”
“You’re kidding me?” Mandy’s deep eyes widened.
“I wouldn’t kid about a thing like that. Better to fall into the hands of the Devil than those of lawyers. But then again it’s better to feed one cat than many mice, so I’m calling my lawyer and he can handle it. Be back in a flash.”
Mandy pulled the aluminum stepladder out of the closet as Frazier reappeared. “So?”
“So, I’ll run up a bill but I think Ann will back off.”
“Why? She’ll see how much it costs her to get her rocks off via the legal system—you realize I use that term in jest—and depending on how angry she really is, she can keep it going for years.”
“I suspect when Link Critzer lets her know that the nature of our relationship will be central to the case, she’ll shut up. She’ll fume at me, of course—can we deny her the emotional satisfaction of screaming and hollering about what a victim she is and what a powerful, mean, manipulative person I am? Ever notice how both parties in a busted relationship are just dying to be the victim? Women are much better at it than men.”
“Maybe they have to be.”
“Why the hell would you say that?”
“Because men reward women when they’re weak, and being a victim means that you’re weak and you need a protector.”
Frazier helped Mandy to set up the ladder. “Mandy, one of these days you and I are going away for a day and I want you to talk to me about everything. You see things I don’t.”
“Your vice is my versa.” Mandy smiled. “We’re supposed to see things for one another. We’re a herd animal, remember? Anyway, the lights finally came in from Eck Supply, so let’s try this over Mount Olympus.”
“Let me get up there. I don’t know if the light is on the fritz or if it’s the bulb. Is the switch off?”
“Yes.”
Frazier climbed up the ladder and reached down for the pink bulb. “Did you hear that?”
“What?”
“A giggle.”
“I think it’s on the tape that’s playing.”
“The ‘Divas’ tape?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I don’t remember giggles on that tape. I remember people talking. Don’t you hear it? Damn, now I don’t hear it either.”
“Frazier, watch what you’re doing up there.”
“Well, hold the ladder.”
“I am holding the ladder but if you step off, what good’s it going to do you? Goddammit. Listen to me for once.”
“I used to change the light gels when I was in junior theater. I know everything about lights.” She reached up and unscrewed the defunct bulb. “Life’s been so hectic I keep forgetting to tell you that I’ve made you a partner in the corporation. I sent off the amended corporate report to Richmond, and Link completed the rest of the paperwork.”
Mandy dropped her hand a moment. “Are you serious?”
“Absolutely. I should have told you over lunch or some significant moment, but the last of the paperwork went out Friday and I sure didn’t want to talk about it at the Dogwood Festival. It’s been crazy. Actually, I made up my mind when I thought I was dying. I left you the company, but since I lived you’ll have to settle for a partnership.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Mandy gulped. “Do I know enough?”
“If you don’t, you will. You’re attuned to different periods than I am. I think you’ll bring a lot of money into the company and an expanded clientele. I’m happy about this.”
“Thank you.” Mandy reached back up to hold the ladder as Frazier reached into the light fixture to push back the cup, which had slipped.
A jolt seared through Frazier’s right arm. When she looked up she was flat on her back, staring into the face of Mercury. He was laughing at her.
54
WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”
Frazier peered into Mercury’s smooth face. “I think I need a cigarette.”
“Thought you gave those up?” The god of communications nudged her with his winged sandal.
“What?” Frazier, befuddled and feeling highly peculiar, felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“When you lay dying, or so you thought, you promised to give up cigarettes.”
Dionysus butted in. “Don’t turn into a health fascist.” He raised his golden goblet to her, the very goblet that she’d seen sitting on the floor of her gallery.
Venus leaned over Frazier, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, honey, let me help you. You’ve had a shock.”
Frazier felt golden light suffuse every pore. She couldn’t look the goddess full in the face; she was too beautiful.
“Hardly a shock. More of a buzz.” Jupiter studied her, his stupendous visage bemused by the sight of this beautiful but confused human.
Frazier stood up, wobbling, and Mercury slipped his strong arm around her waist. “I think I’m going crazy.” She addressed Mercury again: “How do you know me?”
“I’ve been keeping an eye on you for some time now.” His smile, high voltage, hurt her eyes. “Do you know my family?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I told you they hadn’t forgotten us.” Neptune struck the earth with his trident in emphasis.
“Don’t do that—please, brother.” Jupiter smiled benignly on the powerful sea god, who plotted against him too many times. “Think of the San Andreas fault.”
“I’ve practiced restraint for too long,” Neptune growled. “Tokyo? Los Angeles? San Francisco? Or how about New York? That would send them into a tizz. They’re too complacent down there.”
“But here’s one who knows us.” Juno’s cool voice commanded attention.
Apollo leaned toward her, his golden curls shining like silk. “We’ve gotten together for this family portrait, Frazier, and we’ve forgotten our manners. Would you like anything to eat or drink?” He nodded and Ganymede, the cupbearer, appeared with nectar.
“Thank you.” Frazier sipped from the magnificently tooled cup as Ganymede winked at her. She felt fabulous after one sip. “What beautiful workmanship.”
“My husband.” Venus smiled in the direction of Vulcan, god of the forge.
Frazier called to Vulcan and he moved closer. “You truly are a god to create something this beautiful.”
“Oh, balls,” Diana said. “Watch this.” She slipped a silver arrow out of her quiver, put it next to the enormous bow, and aimed at a distant spot on the earth. The arrow hit the Times Square teletype on the side of the Allied building. The lights fizzled and went out. The close-up of this event then faded from the large screen Mercury had instantly supplied. “What do you think of that?”
“You’re, uh, divine.” Frazier gulped.
“Diana, don’t be so selfish. This mortal was praising my son and he gets precious little respect from the rest of you.” Juno defended her boy. As Diana and Apollo were not her children but twins sired by Jupiter on another woman, she couldn’t stand them. Nor could she stand the fact that her husband detested Vulcan just because she bore him without help from his sperm. She really did it just to get even with her husband, who said he gave birth to Athena from his brow.
“Do you know there’s a statue to you on top of Iron Mountain in Birmingham, Alabama?” Frazier innocently asked the muscular blacksmith.
“Oh, so what. Nashville’s got a statue of Athena, and Rome is full of statues to all of us. Don’t encourage him or he’ll—”
Vulcan cut off Diana. “What the hell have you ever done except run around and kill animals?”
“Don’t talk that way to my sister!” Apollo leapt up, his lyre clanging to the ground.
“You think you’re so goddam beautiful,” Vulcan spat back at him. “Well, you’ve never been lucky in love and human women even pass you up, given the choice.”
A huge row broke out, with Pluto, god of the underworld, remaining silent but keenly observing.
Frazier whispered to Mercury, whom she instantly adored: “Are they always like this?”
“What family isn’t?” He shrugged.
“Aren’t you supposed to be above all this?” Frazier innocently inquired.
Venus drew nearer to her. “Why would you want gods who couldn’t feel as you feel?” Her breath enveloped Frazier in a pleasurable cloud.
Frazier, feeling giddy, replied, “I never thought of it that way. I mean, I was taught that there was only one God and He was perfect. Humans are worms by comparison.”
“Yeah, well, don’t believe everything you read,” Mercury solemnly said. “I ought to know. After all, I am the god of communications and this is my century.”
“It’s mine,” Vulcan shouted, his brow furrowing dangerously.
“The nineteenth was yours, darling. Now you’ve got to give ground. Everyone gets a turn.” Venus smiled.
“The twentieth century is mine.” Mars smiled broadly.
Pluto spoke at last, his voice cool, stentorian, and deep: “Every century is yours, Mars. As Vulcan gives them better and better technology, they use it to kill one another. After World War Two, I had to judge fifty-five million of them. I’ve never worked so hard in my life.”
“You could have jobbed it out.” Dionysus stood up, then plopped back down on his haunches.
“That would have been irresponsible,” Pluto, who considered Dionysus a lightweight, shot back.
“I don’t see why we should be responsible when they’re not.” Neptune pointed his trident at Frazier, and a ragged rip of pure fear scared her so, she nearly jumped out of her skin.
