El Rancho del Corazón
10 Fantastick
“LET’S LOOK AT THE POSITIVES,” Ron said as we walked around the barn. “It’s a good solid structure. It has its own water supply. It’s got plenty of room.” Ron paused and dug at some wood near the foundation.
“When you summarize it in three sentences, it doesn’t sound all that great,” I sighed.
“Those are major good things,” Ron said. “This baby is weather tight and has withstood the worst that Indiana can throw at it. It’s been well-maintained right up until it wasn’t.”
“What’s that mean?”
“After the big auction a couple years ago, they cleaned out the entire property. Everything that wasn’t bolted down was taken. You remember we talked about that when we were looking at the house for renovation. There wasn’t even any carpet left on the floors. But after the auction, it was just empty property on the market for two years. You’ve got half a dozen bird nests. Some of the windows have been broken out. It’s dirty. And there is less internal structure than there was in the house. Converting it would be a major undertaking. Not impossible, but probably more than renovating the house would have been. Of course, you don’t have to convert the whole thing. The biggest expense would be plumbing for the baths and kitchen. Wiring would be second. Insulation would be third.”
“Any ballpark figure?” I asked.
“You know it all depends on how fancy you get. A hundred thou? One-twenty-five?”
“Shit.”
“Well, don’t give up on it. You could probably cut the cost some by doing a lot of the work yourselves. If you have guys who would work on the project. If it’s just you and some girls, you might not be able to cut that much,” Ron said. I glanced around and was glad that none of the girls was within hearing range.
We got a lot of work done the next two days and by Saturday, Casa del Agua and Casa de la Tierra were moved into their new homes. I kept leaving and walking through the barn, even when the moving truck arrived with Doug and Doreen’s stuff. They’d pretty much stripped their home of anything their parents weren’t moving to Florida and had enough furniture for their whole house and part of Carl’s. Brenda and Louise hadn’t been able to do any shopping for their house other than immediately installing the huge waterbed.
I felt better about leaving the property on Saturday, knowing that there were six people living there now. I was still anxious about them, though. I was feeling more and more stressed over trying to care for my family and get us a place to live. I took off for three hours Friday afternoon and went to campus to look for housing. It was pretty bleak.
Saturday evening, we headed to Indianapolis for Elaine’s dinner theater performance of The Fantasticks. We met Hannah, Samantha, Jennifer, and Courtney in Indy and Elaine jumped all over us. We didn’t have time to go to her apartment to make love, but she promised she would see us all later.
Dinner was sort of passable. There was a salad, baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and zucchini. There was a small ice cream for dessert and coffee was served.
“Your Irish mashed potatoes are so much better than these,” Courtney whispered. “These really need something.”
“Besides the gravy,” Jennifer added, pushing them around on her plate.
“Garlic,” I said. “Anything is better with garlic.”
“That’s a good idea, Brian,” Hannah said. We hadn’t seen each other since early Wednesday morning and I have to admit that she was kind of hanging on one side of me and Samantha on the other. “Harvey says that we should develop some themes to work around. ‘Improving things with garlic’ sounds like it could be a great theme for a week. Think of all the things the Italians do with garlic.”
“That would be funny since it’s how Elaine and I first got together. Do you suppose we could get her to come down and do a week of taping with us?” I asked.
“What a great idea! Sam…” Hannah leaned across me.
“I’ve got it,” Sam said. She produced a notebook from her purse and started writing things down. I started thinking about all the things we had to do to produce a show this fall. We didn’t even have a shell of a kitchen now. I could not take this opportunity away from Hannah. I was going to find some fucking way to get us down there.
We didn’t have much more time to talk because the lights flashed three times, and an announcement was made that the show would start in five minutes. All the waiters and waitresses in the room shouted back, ‘Thank you, five!’ They started scrambling around clearing plates and silverware but leaving a pot of coffee and cups on the table. In five minutes, we were all turned toward the stage in the center of the room and a small orchestra on one side started playing the overture. The lights dimmed and El Gallo started singing ‘Try to Remember’ from beside one of the tables. We realized he’d been one of the waiters.
Then we got a real treat. Elaine played Luisa and her first big number was called ‘Much More.’ Wow! I knew she had a nice voice, but I didn’t realize she had a great voice. They’d really been teaching her stuff in college. She completely filled the room with her voice. And it was kind of sad at the same time. I listened to the girl who really had what she ultimately wanted in life living right next door to her but singing that she wants much more. I couldn’t help but think of Heaven. And then I thought of Sarah. And then of Elaine singing the song and knowing that she was going to go searching for much more. Whitney would find someplace to play basketball. Jennifer and Courtney would want to move to a city. Rose… It was all going to fall apart. Fuckfuckfuck!
The show was funny and entertaining, and I guess maybe I was the only one under fifty who was crying by the time El Gallo finished singing ‘Try to Remember’ again at the end of the show.
The plan had been for all of us to head back north after the show, including Elaine. But it was the last performance and the set had to be struck and no actors could leave until everything was cleaned up. I wanted to stay and help so Elaine could get out. Liz and Nikki took off immediately on their motorcycles. It made me a little nervous for them to be riding 150 miles that late at night, but they were kissing me goodbye before I could express an opinion. Josh, Cassie, and Mary stuck around for a while, but they wanted to get home, too. Pretty soon, Samantha and Hannah sidled up to me with Jennifer and Courtney and told me they were heading out. I looked around and saw that only left Sora, Rose, and Whitney.
Rose came up to me when she saw me looking at them.
“May I have your car keys? We’re headed north. Why don’t you catch a ride with Elaine so she doesn’t have to drive alone? Tomorrow,” Rose added.
“Huh? I thought…”
“Don’t think, honey. Elaine needs you as much tonight as you need her. We could all see it. And don’t rush. We all plan to sleep late tomorrow. Probably won’t be around at all until, you know, late afternoon. Understand?” Rose stood on tiptoe to kiss me and burned out part of my brain with her tongue. I kissed Sora quickly, but passionately.
“The miniature golf courses have all opened and we haven’t been yet. I think this week is going to be very hot!” she whispered.
Then I stood on tiptoes to kiss Whitney.
“It won’t be long, Brian. None of us will be saying goodbye at night. I love you,” she said.
“They just left you? What if I planned to go out and party with the cast tonight?” Elaine said when I caught up with her. I was caught off guard.
“I’m sorry, Elaine. I thought they talked to you. They… I could… If you could give me a lift to that Holiday Inn I could just stay there. Then you can go ahead to your party.” I was stunned. It had never even occurred to me that Elaine might not want me with her tonight. She grabbed me in a hug that nearly crushed me.
“Don’t ever think that way, Brian. I’m teasing. You don’t ever have to worry about me not wanting you with me. Yes, there is a party tonight and if you want to go for a while we can. But I don’t usually do more than put in an appearance after any show. There’s too much booze and dope. Now opera parties, that’s different,” she laughed.
“What’s different about an opera party?” I’d been half-afraid I was going to sleep on the street tonight. This might be important information.
“Well, you see, theater parties have a lot of drinking and drugs, loud music, and sex in the corners. Opera parties have a lot of food. Really good food. And really good wine. And soft music. And sex in the corners. Don’t miss an opera party. Only go to a theater party if you want to get drunk, high, deaf, and laid—not necessarily in that order,” she laughed. “Of course, as an alternative, you can simply come home with me and hold me all night long. After we make love.”
“Elaine, you scared me so much!”
“I’m sorry, honey. Closing a show… It’s like saying goodbye to a lover. That’s why the parties are so wild afterward. We’ve been living together for five weeks, and now you’re saying goodbye, and putting all my clothes on the front yard, and my key won’t work in the lock anymore,” she sighed. “Can you take me home and love me?”
“Um… if we can use your car. Rose and Whitney took mine.”
“We can hitchhike.” She grinned at me. “Kidding. Let’s go.”
I did hold Elaine all night long. She just wanted to be held. She didn’t want a lot of loving, though a few gentle kisses were exchanged and we went to sleep with our lips near each other. In the morning, Elaine still seemed sad. We didn’t get out of bed except to take care of necessary functions. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but she didn’t seem to want to talk. She just wanted to be held. That’s just what I wanted. We dozed on and off all morning.
“I have a problem, lover,” she sighed at last. My stomach growled. “Sounds like you have one, too. Come on. I still have some oatmeal in the cupboard and I’m sure there’s enough milk for us.”
I hadn’t looked around the apartment when we got in last night. It was late and we went straight to Elaine’s bed. As I followed her bare butt out of the bedroom, though, I realized the apartment was almost empty. The furniture was there, but there were no books, artwork, or little things sitting around. It almost echoed. In the kitchen, Elaine had a small sauce pan and boiled water in it.
“Where is everything?” I asked, not realizing how stupid I was being.
“Gail is doing summer stock in Minnesota at Theatre L’Homme Dieu. Probably the only reason I managed to land the part of Luisa. Lena has moved in with her boyfriend, Jim, and they plan to get married when we all graduate next year. I had to pay all of June’s rent myself in order to stay here. My landlord said it was okay to leave today. Most of my stuff is gone thanks to Cam coming up last weekend and taking a load home. I think the rest will fit in the car when we leave this afternoon,” she sighed.
“So, not only did you close a show last night, it was your last night here, too? Sweetheart, I had no idea how sad you must be,” I said.
“Yeah. But that brings me to my problem. I’m homeless.” Her lip was quivering and I wrapped her in my arms. I reached over and turned the stove off before lifting her in my arms and taking her back to bed as she cried on my shoulder.
“Come and live with me this summer,” I whispered.
“I… um… can I? I love you, Brian. I don’t want to say goodbye. Ever.”
“Elaine, my little love, my pseudo-sister, and cónyuge, anytime you say goodbye it’s only for a little while. I love you and I always will.”
“Make love to me, Brian.”
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