Triptych
Twenty-four
GYPSY, HAVING GOT WHAT SHE WANTED, consented to sit while I sketched her at the table with the deck of cards in her hand. She even signed a model release for me. Kate didn’t get back from her walk with Willow, Sunday, and Rainbow until Gypsy rang a big bell for lunch. By that time, I’d been outside and sketched the entire enclave. Then went behind the house and sketched the caravan. I had a whole village at my fingertips—and pretty much no one had ever seen it.
Kate’s grandfather joined us for lunch. I thought Ken Holsinger was the first normal sounding name I’d heard since I got there, but there was nothing normal about it. He was six-two and half Japanese. His name was Kenichi. His mother was a World War II bride and his father was an Austrian-American. Kate’s exotic good looks with her Romani mother were a blend of cultures and races.
Grandpa Ken wanted to talk about books and music. What did I read? What did I listen to? He seemed particularly fascinated when I told him about listening to music when I paint and Kate had to relate the story of me painting the mural and how she’d watched me for hours. I had no idea how long she had watched me. She carefully told the story, though, without mentioning the actual subject of the mural. I don’t think she fooled her mother.
By midafternoon, we were visiting neighbors and I’d been introduced to pretty much everyone who lived in the commune and to most of the farm animals. Kate’s normal wear of bib overalls and a T-shirt pretty much summed up the standard dress, though the older ladies tended towards brightly colored skirts and blouses. I wondered if they were more influenced by Gypsy’s style or the Grateful Dead.
There was just one downer. We were visiting with Grandma Bliss and Grandpa Leo. Frankly, they didn’t seem much older than Oke and Vadoma, but apparently Papa Jim was their son and that automatically made them grands. While we were visiting, their other son, Dusty, came in. He didn’t seem any older than Kate and me.
“So you brought the proof,” he said to Kate. “Now you can’t use that as an excuse anymore. It’s about time. I’ll see you tonight, Katie-girl.” Somehow it seemed threatening and Kate pulled herself tighter to me, her fingers digging into my biceps.
“Dusty, behave yourself,” Grandpa Leo snapped. “We have guests.”
“Yeah. Right,” he said and turned on his heel to leave.
“What was all that about?” I asked Kate when we left.
“He’s a jerk,” Kate said. I’d never heard her speak so vehemently.
“That much was obvious,” I said.
We walked a ways beyond the cluster of houses into the woods and sat on a stump. Kate just sort of melted into my arms and kissed me. We hadn’t had much alone time—scratch that. We hadn’t had any alone time since we came into the house for breakfast this morning. It was nice to feel her lips on mine.
“Okay,” she said at last. “Dusty thinks he’s my boyfriend. I promise, I never gave him any reason to think I agreed with that. We grew up together and he just assumes we’ll be a couple here in the community. When I was here last, he got kind of aggressive and I yelled that I’d choose who I gave my virginity to. That’s when I blurted out that I had a boyfriend. I don’t feel safe around him and you said…”
“I said I’d protect you from anyone who made an unwelcome move on you,” I finished.
“Yeah,” Kate said.
“As far as anyone here is concerned you are my girlfriend. Not my sister,” I said.
“Thank you, Tony. There’s something else you should know.” Oh boy. What now?
“You should tell me then, Kitten,” I said gently.
“There’s going to be a bonfire tonight.”
“Sounds like fun. We had those on summer nights in Nebraska.”
“Did you get high and drum?”
“Um… no. I don’t do drugs, Kate.” I couldn’t believe she seemed to be suggesting that I smoke something. I knew her dad was high last night, but everyone seemed to be pretty normal today.
“I don’t either, Tony. None of the kids do, but you’ll smell it in the air tonight. How about drumming?”
“Can’t say I’ve ever done that, either.”
“Well, you will tonight. That’s not an option. Everybody will get a drum. And there will be dancing.”
“Um… clothed?” I was suddenly having visions of a bunch of stoned men and women gyrating in front of a fire.
“Yes, silly,” she said squeezing me. “Don’t get too excited. But you might want your sketchbook handy. You never know what might happen.” She grinned at me and I finally figured out I was being a bit of a jerk myself. I laughed.
“You really had me going there, Kitten.”
“Well, it will probably be a little strange for a city kid like you, but out here it happens almost every weekend when the weather is decent. They held off last night because we were just getting in. Tonight, everybody plans to cut loose.”
“As long as I can keep you and a shred of my dignity, I’ll play along,” I said. “Things are pretty weird out here for a city slicker like me.” We laughed and headed back to the community.
There was more food than I’d ever seen outside of a Nebraska potluck. They started the fire at about four and they actually roasted meat over it. Well, that was one thing about this hippie commune—they weren’t vegetarians, even if they didn’t drink coffee.
After the cooking was done and the spits were removed, the fire was built up and we all sat around on logs. The fire pit was pretty much in the middle of the circle of houses and trailers that made up the community.
Kate had left me with Papa Jim and Mamma Sara just after dinner and she, her sister, and Rainbow went with her mother to the house. We laughed and talked, told improbable stories, and joked with each other. Willow joined us. Jim had served one tour of duty in Afghanistan and considered himself no longer subject to Uncle Sam. He’d come back to the commune where Sara and his three-year-old son were waiting for him. Now he and Sara were expecting another.
I asked Sara if she was going to dance tonight and she laughed.
“Only once I get this horndog back to our trailer,” she said. “I’d knock someone out with this belly if I danced.” She and Jim let me sketch them together, partially nude, and it was really a good sketch.
It wasn’t long before drums were being distributed around the circle. Grandpa Leo, Grandpa Ken, and Papa Dave rolled a huge drum made out of an oak barrel to one side of the circle and the three of them sat around it with big sticks. Most of the rest of us had smaller drums that we were supposed to beat on with our hands. I figured I should be able to at least keep a rhythm going. I could already smell the sweet aroma of weed burning as some of the guys were passing around a joint. I found a place among the kids to sit with Willow. We avoided the pass.
The big drum started the festivities. These folks all drummed together on a pretty regular basis, so it wasn’t hard to just follow along. Grandpa Ken struck the drum once with his mallet. Before the sound had totally died down, Grandpa Leo struck. Then Papa Dave. In a matter of a few heartbeats, the three men were hammering out a rhythm on the big drum and the rest of us joined in. The surrounding woods rang. I wondered how far away people heard this and ran for shelter.
I was happily pounding away on the little drum I’d been given when I heard something new. I looked across the fire and Kate’s dad, Oke, was holding a guitar. At least I thought it was a guitar. It was a little bigger than any I’d seen before and he was making sounds with it that I’d never heard from any other guitar. The big drum stopped and all the little drums fell silent behind it. The show was all Oke. Man, could that guy play!
He got through his riff and there was a renewed roll of the big drum that culminated in three sharp whacks and fell to silence.
I heard a bell.
My head snapped around and four unbelievably beautiful women entered the circle of firelight, tapping their finger cymbals together as they strutted in a parade around the fire. Gypsy, her two daughters, and Rainbow were starting the dance. I could only look at Kate. She stopped right in front of me. Oh my god, she was beautiful!
I grabbed my sketchpad.
Starting at the top… oh so many places I could have started… her hair was loose and flowing around her shoulders. Her eyes were made up with some dark liner and her crimson lips glistened in the firelight. The top she was wearing was cropped just below her breasts, which I couldn’t help but notice moved freely beneath it. She had a long skirt on that matched the other women and was slit up her left leg. That leg, she stuck out.
Then the guitar and drum started again and the ladies danced.
It wasn’t belly-dancing, though I could see some elements of that in it. It was totally free and flowing. Fiery. Man! Sometimes I thought I saw some hula moves, too. But the dominant style, if you could call it that, was what you’d imagine a gypsy camp dancing to. They wove, pranced, spun, and undulated around the fire as the drums beat and the guitar wailed. I was too mesmerized to pay attention to rhythms, but somehow my hands were still able to sketch. When the dance ended, all four women were together with their heads thrown back toward each other and their arms out-stretched. Eight lines were all I could capture, but I knew it would be enough. I would paint this scene.
Then the rhythms started again and I found myself facing my beautiful Kitten.
She beckoned me with a flowing movement of her hands that drew me up off the log to face her, the drum and sketchbook forgotten at my feet. She took my hands and we began dancing around the fire together. I noticed that Sunday and Rainbow pulled her brother off the log. Others were up and dancing as well. Oke danced with Gypsy and even Sara and Jim were moving around in spite of what she said about her belly. It wasn’t long before the big drum was providing all the music and they were pounding out messages that I couldn’t begin to comprehend.
“You aren’t tricking me into some Gypsy marriage ceremony, are you?” I asked Kate as I leaned in toward her.
“Wouldn’t be legal even if I was,” Kate said. “So don’t worry. But, I am marking you as mine. No matter who you dance with tonight, you have to have the next dance with me.”
“You make it sound like we’ll be dancing for a long time and that I’ll be dancing with someone besides you.”
“Only a few hours. And if you don’t dance with my mother and my sister and Rainbow, they’ll kill you. I think even Sara has her eye on you.”
Oh dear. Hours. And hours. I grabbed a drink of water occasionally, but I was a hot sweaty mess before the night was over.
I saw Kate dancing with Dusty as I danced with Grandma Bliss. We spun around and just as the drumming shifted tempo again, Bliss moved us smoothly between them and took her son off on a dance around the fire. I’d had enough of other partners and danced only with Kate for the rest of the night.
Normal bands take a break every few numbers, but most of them actually have music and don’t beat a drum in a dope-induced trance. I swear Ken never took a break and others moved smoothly in and out of the rhythm either on the big drum or on the smaller ones. Oke did several more sets on his guitar.
It was the fire that decided we were finished. It had died down to embers and the tempo had slowed to the point that Kate and I were in a clutch, hardly moving around the fire at all with our lips pressed together. Damn. We should get them to play for a school dance sometime. I looked up from our kiss and saw that only Kate and I and Helen and Dave were still dancing. Gypsy leaned against her husband as he strummed soft chords on his guitar. Ken had moved to a drum I recognized as a tabla from India and the big drum stood silent.
“I need to shower before bed,” Kate said. “I want to cuddle with someone who is very important to me and I don’t want him offended by my stink.”
“Here I thought I was the only one who worked up a sweat and got accused of smelling bad,” I laughed.
“Well, you could use a shower, too. Come on.”
Kate led me into the house and up to the bathroom. I thought she was going to take me right into the shower, but she just pointed it out.
“I’m going to shower while you run out to the caravan and get me my pajamas and get your own so you can shower. Then we can walk back together.”
I kissed her and ran out to the wagon.
We were headed out of the house when both Oke and Vadoma stopped us. They each kissed Kate on her cheeks and then me. Neither had showered yet, so they wished us pleasant dreams and disappeared toward the bathroom.
We walked out of the house under a perfectly clear sky with more stars than I’d seen since Nebraska. There was absolutely no ambient light and a perfect sliver of moon hung low in the sky.
“It’s about fuckin’ time,” I heard a voice say nearby. “Come on, Katie, we’ve got unfinished business.”
“No. Nothing’s changed,” Kate said. Her hand was pulled from mine.
“Hey! Back off!” I yelled at the intruder.
“This is a commune, cityfuck. We share and share alike.”
“I don’t care where it is. No means no.”
“She got you believing that now? Fuck off.”
“Tony!”
I couldn’t see for shit, but Kate was being dragged away right in front of me.
One second, I’m screwed. No light, only shadows and sounds; then it all made sense. Racquetball. When you play in the glass box, you have to really not see the walls. You have to act on where you know the ball will be. With just that last shout from Kate, I could see exactly where she was and where Dusty was.
“Ow!” I heard him yell as I reached out and snatched his ear in my hand and twisted. I heard Kate fall as he let go of her.
I ducked back and to my left and felt the wind of a wild punch. I heard Kate scrambling for the door of the house, but I didn’t have time to catch up with her. A kick grazed my thigh and I reacted automatically. I rained blows down on Dusty. I knew right where he’d be every time I swung. I didn’t need eyes. I didn’t need to see the walls. I just had to strike where I knew the ball would be.
Forehand. Backhand. Exactly on target. I clasped my hands together as if they were both on my racquet and backhanded across his face just as the yard was flooded with light. I could see it behind my eyelids and realized I’d had my eyes closed tightly. In less time than it took me to describe it, I heard Dusty hit the ground.
I squinted my eyes open against the light and opened my arms in time for Kate to come rushing into them.
Justice in the commune was swift. By the time my eyes had adjusted to the light, all the adults and a couple of the kids were standing around us and Dusty was trying to pick himself up off the ground.
“We’ve warned you before, Dusty,” Ken was saying. “Now it’s time for you to leave. You can’t live here anymore.”
“No!” The protesting voice was from a girl I’d met briefly. “Don’t send him away. I love him.”
“Ya what?” Dusty said, looking at her. Lillith was a nice girl, maybe a year younger than us—Helen and Dave’s oldest daughter if I got it right. She was pretty in the way that all teenaged girls are. She had a little bit of a belly, but not a lot. We’d have called it baby fat in Nebraska. Her face wasn’t special and she’d had some problems with acne, but it was the passion in her voice that made you forget about any physical flaw she might have had.
“You keep waiting for Katarina and I’ve been waiting for you. I’m sorry Kate, but I’m glad you left. You were always in the way of me having Dusty.”
“But you’re a kid,” Dusty said. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt because he was probably still stoned, but shit, man, you gotta wake up sometime!
“I’m not a kid. I know what I want and I want you. If you’re really so stupid as to think you should leave, then take me with you. It doesn’t make a difference. If you go, I go—one way or another.”
Dusty pulled himself upright and limped over to Lillith.
“You really want me?” he asked. In answer, she kissed him. He winced. That jaw had to hurt, but he didn’t pull away. “Is it okay?” he asked the assembly at large.
“No,” Ken said. “But it delays judgment. You’re not to be alone with Lillith until you’ve been sober a week. By then the two of you should have talked this through and decided if it’s really what you both want. Don’t protest, Lillith. You’re underage. We won’t have you taken advantage of just because it’s an easy out for Dusty. In a week, we’ll either have a wedding or a shunning.”
Dusty hung his head and Leo and Bliss took him by the arm and led him away.
The crowd left. I don’t know how I suddenly considered fifteen people a crowd. Grandpa Ken came up to us on his way back to his trailer.
“Tony, thank you for defending my granddaughter,” he said.
“I would never let anything happen to Kate if I could prevent it.”
“Good. That is a good philosophy for the outside world. But in forty-five years of this community—in which at one time there were nearly fifty souls—we have never condoned fighting under any circumstances. Consider this your first warning.” The old man shambled on toward his trailer as I watched in amazement. He was warning me?
“What the…? That’s pretty Shakespearean.”
“Tony, let’s go to bed,” Kate whispered. “I’ll explain.”
Just before we reached the caravan steps, the lights went out and the world was plunged into darkness again.
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