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Part 1

Robbie had been restless since they had returned to the cabin four days ago, Janet thought as she looked out the window to where her lover sat on the porch. Robbie had always been on the move, filled with a surplus of energy and ideas, but now it was different. Her actions were random and lacking purpose. They shared the same bed but they had not made love since Robbie's release from prison. On the surface, life went on but the happy teasing, joking and banter did not include the moody figure who paced from room to room.

Janet sighed and walked across the livingroom and up the hall to their daughters' bedroom. She paused at the door, Reb was making the soft baby noises of sleep but Ryan's figure was still and quiet in the darkness. "Ryan, love, are you still awake?"

"Yeah."

Janet walked in and sat on the edge of Ryan's bed.

"Has she come back yet?" asked Ryan casually, although worry made her voice rough.

"About half an hour ago. She's sitting out on the porch," said Janet. She knew Ryan wouldn't sleep until she knew her mother had returned from the run Robbie had suddenly decided to take.

Ryan nodded and relaxed a bit. For a minute there was silence. "I didn't support her like you did," she confessed. "I was kind of mean to her."

"Yes, you were," agreed Janet honestly, then went on to lessen the sting, "But I think your mom understands. Your relationship with your mom is still pretty vulnerable."

"I shouldn't have stopped calling her Mom," sighed Ryan, the tears now evident in her voice.

"Well, that is easy to fix. Just start calling her Mom again," laughed Janet.

"She might get angry. Maybe she doesn't want me as her daughter anymore," came the anxious reply.

Janet took Ryan's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Maybe, and maybe pigs can fly! Come on, Ryan, if you know anything by now it is that your Mom worships the ground you walk on! Get out of bed!" commanded Janet, pulling on Ryan's hand as she stood. "That's right! Now march out there and tell your Mom that you'd like to build that boat she gave you for your birthday!"

"What if she says no!" demanded a panicky teen.

"Then I'll be running outside to see the flock of pigs fly over the lake," snorted Janet, giving Ryan a push in the right direction. "Go on Ryan, here is your chance to help your mother. She needs you, sweetheart."

***

Robbie looked moodily out across the lake. When she had first come here the horizon seemed endless. Now the trees seemed to have grown in close around. "Hi, Mom," said a voice from behind her. Robbie's heart skipped a beat as she leapt to her feet and spun around. Ryan was in her arms almost immediately.

Robbie held her close and rubbed her cheek against Ryan's soft hair. "Hi, Ryan," she managed to get out, although her voice was cracking with emotion. Robbie pulled back but kept her arm around her daughter's shoulder. "It's a nice night."

Ryan nodded. "You enjoy your run?"

Be open, be honest! Don't make the same mistakes a second time! Robbie warned herself. "It helps control my panic. I can't seem to get over the fear of being confined," she confessed.

Ryan turned and looked at her, searching for something in her mother's eyes. "If we built that boat you gave me for my birthday, we could take it out on the lake and then you could really feel free," suggested Ryan nervously.

Robbie's emotions almost crumbled under the surprise offer. She smiled through tears that rolled down her face. "You know, Ryan, that would be just about perfect!" She pulled her daughter close and thanked whatever powers there might be for giving her yet another chance to bridge the gap between herself and her daughter.

Ryan pulled back awkwardly. "Well, I'd better get back to bed, Aunt Janet is enrolling me again at Bartlett tomorrow."

"Sure," smiled Robbie, and she leaned forward to kiss her daughter on the cheek. Ryan gave her Mom one more hug and then hurried off to bed. Robbie sat down on the stoop again and watched the stars reflected in the still, deep waters of the lake, as she wiped the remaining tears away with a shaky hand.

"Hi, can I join you?" asked Janet, coming out with two cups of tea.

"Sure," said Robbie, feeling the tension returning to her frame.

"Nice night," remarked Janet, sitting down next to Robbie but leaving space between them. That's the way things were now, close but not quite one. They sat for a long time watching the changes in the early summer night.

Then Robbie put down her cup and, still looking out at the lake, she said, "I need to ask you something. I need to know."

"Okay," agreed Janet, mentally bracing herself for what might be coming. Don't leave me, Robbie!

"Would you have slept with Alberta if you hadn't had the surgery? Is that what stopped you?"

Janet absorbed the blow to her senses for a few seconds. "I think if it had gone that far it would have been a factor, Robbie. So much of what we are as women is tied to our concept of our bodies. But it didn't. That evening, I was very vulnerable and the moment was very sexually charged. I never planned to kiss her, and I never would have slept with her. When I did kiss her, I told her right away that I'd made a mistake. That you were my soulmate."

The figure beside Janet was stiff and quiet. "Ryan wants to build that boat."

"That's a good idea," replied Janet, fighting for emotional control. Oh God, Robbie, don't do this!

"Yeah... I'm having trouble with all this, Janet. I thought I'd found everything that I could possibly want in life and then suddenly it all just turned to sand and ran through my fingers. Hell! I don't even know who my father is! Who I am, anymore!"

Janet turned to kneel in front of Robbie. "Do you know that I love you? Can you believe that?" she asked.

Robbie looked down at her feet. "I know what you went through to get me out of there. I don't know if that was loyalty or love. Alberta and you..."

Janet leapt to her feet and jumped down the stairs to pace angrily back and forth. Then she stopped in front of Robbie. "There is no Alberta and I! There never was! Can't you get that through your thick head?" she stormed. "I kissed her. I shouldn't have. It wasn't fair to you or to her. I'm sorry but damn it all, Robbie, I'd had it! I don't often feel sorry for myself but I'd gone through cancer and struggled with the insecurity of losing a breast. Out of the blue, I find out my wife is being arrested for a murder that she didn't trust me enough to tell me about. Then I had to cope with the press and your refusal to talk! I was kicked out of my church and my job! I was beaten-up for loving you by a bunch of skinheads and had you yelling at me and accusing me of sleeping with another woman! I'm sorry I kissed Alberta, it was a lousy thing to do to her and you but damn it, I am NOT super woman and I've had enough, Robbie! Enough!"

Turning on her heel, she stormed up the stairs and into the cabin and left a stunned director sitting on the steps. For a long while nothing made sense. Then the list of things that Janet had given her registered one after the other. Christ! They fired her! Teaching was Janet's life; that must have been devastating for her. I never questioned why she had time off. I just presumed she'd taken a leave! God, I'm arrogant! Okay, Robbie, here it is, bottom line. You can either walk away because she kissed Alberta and told you, or put it behind you and try to make a life with Janet and the kids. What's it going to be?

As if there was any question!

***

Janet had a blistering headache. One of the worst she had ever had. Nice play, Janet! Oh all the times to feel sorry for yourself this had to be the worst! If Robbie wasn't planning on leaving you, she is sure to be now! She rooted around in the medicine chest but could not find any pain killers. Then she found a bottle the doctor had given Robbie after she hurt her knee last year. It was almost empty but there were a few pills left in the bottom. In relief, she swallowed two and got ready for bed.

Her head started to swim and she felt dizzy and disoriented. Oh no, she thought and went to get the bottle to read the label. Now you read the label! Sure enough, the pills had codeine in them! She knew from past experiences that codeine caused her to have a drug reaction and pass out. I'd better get to bed and sleep this stuff off! That was the last thought she had for a while.

***

Robbie got up and straightened her back that had stiffened in the damp, cool air. Okay, Robbie, it's time to stop wading knee deep in self pity and get on with life. She entered the cabin, locked the door and turned off the lights, using the brilliant moonlight to find her way to the bedroom. Laying on the floor was the ghostly figure of her wife. In her hand was an empty pill bottle with two white pills spilled out on the floor. Robbie's heart lunged and stopped.

***

"Damn it, woman, if you aren't the worst patient I've ever had to treat I don't know who was!" grumbled George Drouillard, as Robbie fought to get out from under the paper bag he was holding over her mouth and nose.

"W..What?" asked Robbie in confusion, becoming aware of a room full of people. George Droullard leaned over her with a paper bag on one side and Ryan with a bloody tissue held to her mouth stood on the other. "Ryan! What happened?!" exclaimed Robbie, sitting up and almost sending George on his back side.

"You happened. I was trying to help Mr. Droullard hold the bag on your face and you socked me!" complained Robbie's daughter good-naturedly. "You hyperventilated and passed out. Boy, did you lose it when you thought Aunt Janet had killed herself!"

"Janet!" screamed Robbie, as she bounded over the back of the couch and ran into the bedroom.

George Droullard looked at Ryan and shook his head. "Now that's where your artist's temperament comes in, Ryan," he observed, nodding his head wisely.

"Aunt Janet says the Williams are like olives; we're nice but we take a lot of getting used to," smiled Ryan.

George laughed in agreement. " You know, she was just as wild the night Jim Ableton put you into the boards at the skating rink. If Lou Enrico and Bill Perkins hadn't pulled her off, I was a thinkin' we'd have been taking Ableton out of the rink feet first!" Ryan smiled, pleased that her Mom had come to her defense with the same intensity that she had fought for Janet's life. By the time Ryan had leapt out of bed, her Mom had already called out Doctor Perkins and the Bartlett Volunteer Fire Department.

"Mary," George called over to his wife who had come along when she had heard that Janet had tried to commit suicide. "You'd better be making some sandwiches to go with that tea. I know the guys aren't going to want to leave Robbie in the state she's in, her bein' one of the boys and all."

Mary waved and laughed and happily took out a few loaves from the cupboard. She couldn't be happier than to find herself in a kitchen with an entire room of hungry people to feed. Several O.P.P. officers emerged from the bedroom with Doctor Perkins and through the window Mary could make out the arrival of several more cars by the glow of red and yellow emergency lights that flashed on several vehicles. That would be the Ladies' Auxilliary come to lend a hand with the emergency and find out what was happening.

***

"Janet!" cried Robbie, bounding into the bedroom and almost knocking down the two police officers who were trying to find out what happened.

"Easy, Robbie, or you'll be hyperventilating again!" warned the local doctor, Bill Perkins. "She's fine."

Robbie sank to her knees by the bed and took Janet's limp, cold hand in her own. "Janet, sweetheart..."

Green eyes opened a crack with effort. "What has my favourite olive done now?" she asked sleepily.

Robbie looked up at the doctor. "It took me awhile to wake her up enough get some sense out of her but it seems she had a headache and was out of pain killers so she took two of some I had prescribed for you. They had codeine in them and Janet is allergic to codeine. It knocks her for a loop. Give her twelve hours for the stuff to work through her system and she'll be fine," explained Perkins with a grin.

Robbie visibly slumped with relief and placed her head on the bed. "Oh God! I thought she'd done something drastic because we'd had a fight," Robbie admitted.

Perkins patted Robbie on the shoulder. "She'll be fine, Robbie. It was just an accident." He signaled to the police officers and the three of them left the room, Perkins closing the door to give the women some privacy.

"I didn't mean to scare you," Janet said, her voice slurred with sleep.

"I've never been so afraid. I think I panicked," admitted Robbie, kissing the small hand that her own was intertwined with.

Janet laughed softly. "So I hear! I love you, Robbie Williams!"

Robbie looked up so their eyes met. "I love you too, Janet Williams," she smiled and leaned in for a kiss. Janet was asleep again before the kiss had ended. The Bartlett Fire department, two O.P.P. officers, one doctor, and two children, one with a fat lip, were served tea and sandwiches in the living room while Doctor Perkins explained to everyone's relief that it had just been a misunderstanding.

Some time later, Mary stuck her head into the bedroom to find Robbie lying curled up beside Janet, both women fast asleep. She saw to Reb and Ryan getting back to bed and then shooed the men home again in the pre-dawn sky.

The women did the washing up and left a plate of sandwiches and squares for the family before they left for home too. "You know, Mary," observed George as he drove, "Them two are very much in love."

"Really, George," Mary commented.

The sarcasm was lost on George. "Yup, almost as much as I love you, pretty-thing," he chuckled, taking Mary's hand in his own. Mary leaned her head on her husband's shoulder. She was a very lucky woman.

***

Janet woke to the happy sounds of her family.

"Up, Obbie! I want up, peas!"

"Up it is, Reb, voom, voom Rebair coming in for a landing in Highchair Airport!" came Robbie's voice over Reb's giggles.

"Hey, Mom, should I wake Aunt Janet? She's supposed to take me into Bartlett and enrol me again."

"No, let her sleep, Ryan, I'll take you and Reb in. Do you want cereal or toast for breakfast, because that's all I can cook?" came Robbie's voice, and Janet smiled sleepily, feeling a hummy sort of warmth spread through her being. She had her Robbie back. Her eyes closed and she slept peacefully for the first time in a very long while.

***

Robbie and Ryan dropped Reb off at the Bartlett Day Care and reassured Lily Chen that Janet was fine. All of Bartlett knew, of course, about the incident the night before. Some had heard it on their police scanners, some from husbands in the Bartlett Volunteer Fire Brigade, and others at the donut shop that morning.

Now daughter and mother walked side by side down the still empty halls of the school. "Ahhh, Mom, you're not going to make a scene are you?" asked Ryan nervously.

"Scene? What do you mean?" asked Robbie tightly.

"About Aunt Janet getting fired. I can tell you're mad cause your clamping your jaw."

"Stupid, damn Bored Trusses! I ought to..."

"Mom!"

Robbie stopped and glared down at her daughter who glared right back at her. "My other Mom is pretty cool and she can fight her own battles," Ryan said quietly.

Anger flashed across Robbie's face to be replaced almost immediately by a slow smile. "Okay, kid, I'll be good," she promised. Ryan looked relieved and they continued up the hall to the school office.

As they entered, Carolyn Carr came out from behind her desk and hugged Ryan and then Robbie. "Oh, it's wonderful to see you two back! Welcome home! How's Janet?"

"She's fine. We left her to sleep in. Things got a little hectic last night," admitted Robbie, as a blush crept up her neck.

"Mom went postal," Ryan giggled.

"So Burt told me," laughed Carolyn. "That is so sweet, Robbie," she said, giving the embarrassed actor a poke.

"Robbie, Ryan! Hey, how's Janet?" called Milka, as she came out of the principal's office and hugged each Williams in turn.

"She's fine," offered Ryan. "She always was. It was Mom here who had the problem," snorted Ryan.

Robbie gave her daughter a dirty look as the three laughed at her expense. There was a time when that would have set her temper off but now, well, it just made her feel like she belonged.

"I'm here to enrol Ryan. We can't stand having her around the house all day," Robbie growled playfully. "We're willing to pay for you to take her off our hands."

"Nice, Mom!" exclaimed Ryan, snuggling into Robbie's side as her mother wrapped a protective arm around her daughter to reassure her that her words were just in fun.

"Well, come on in then and we'll see to the paper work. Looks like we might get some rain today. We sure need it! It was a really dry spring."

***

Robbie let Rufus outside to run when she got back to the cabin. Then quietly, she stole into the bedroom to check on Janet. "Hi," came a sleepy voice from the tangle of sheets.

Robbie dropped to her knees by the bed and leaned over to place a soft kiss on Janet's cheek. "How are you feeling?" she asked softly.

"Take your clothes off and get in here and I'll show you," whispered Janet, reaching up to draw Robbie down into long, sensual kiss.

They spent the morning in bed, talking out their feelings and reclaiming each other's bodies with slow, burning passion. Eventually, hunger drove them out for a leisurely lunch by the fire. Now they lay on the couch, Janet tucked between Robbie's long powerful legs, her head resting on the actor's chest.

"Looks like there could be a storm brewing," observed Janet. "I'd better fill the oil lamps in case we lose power tonight."

"Hmmm, I'll bring some extra wood in for the fire before I leave to pick up Ryan and Reb...Janet, about your job, I don't think they had a legal right to..."

Fingers came up to caress Robbie's lips. "I know. I did think about taking them to court, Robbie. But I just don't want to bother with anymore lawyers and reporters. It would be such a hassle and I'm not sure I would want the job back under those sort of conditions. It's hard, but I've got a little saved and I can get on the supply pool at the local public highschool. It might give me some time to finish writing that novel!" she laughed.

Robbie wrapped her close, knowing that the loss of her career must have hurt Janet very deeply. "You don't have to worry about money, damn it! What is mine is yours, you know that! You are far too qualified to be supply teaching at the local highschool!" she grumbled.

"I know you're rich, Robbie, but I don't want to be kept. I want to have an independent income. It is a matter of pride. Nor am I so arrogant that I think I'm too good to work in the classroom. That is after all where the real job is done!" protested Janet, giving Robbie a kiss for being so protective and loyal.

"Hmmmm, that tasted nice," purred Robbie, stretching her frame like a cat. "Come here."

***

"Janet, do you know how to teach the talented as well as the gifted?" Robbie asked, her voice husky with love making. They were now on the rug by the fire, having found the couch way to restrictive for their needs.

"Well, my degree is gifted education and that includes both the academically gifted and the creatively gifted. It really shouldn't because talent is a totally different process of thinking than gifted. The academically gifted are very logical and methodical in the thought processes that lead them eventually to understanding. The talented, however, tend to work backwards. They start with this spark of an idea and then make it happen. We really need to do a lot more research into what makes people talented."

There was silence for a minute, then Robbie slid over Janet and scooped a handful of ash from the fireplace, spreading it evenly over an area of the hearth. Janet smiled; if ever there was a definition of a truly creative thinker it was her Robbie. She got that intense look and then just did whatever she needed to achieve the concept which had materialized in her imagination. Janet realized that genius made Robbie a tyrant to work for, but it also had made her and her companies the amazing successes that they were.

Robbie, totally absorbed in her ideas, was unaware of the mess she was creating. With a dirty finger she put a dot on her ash canvas. "Okay, here we are and here is Long Lake," explained the director, adding a line with her finger. "Down here is Saw Mill Road. My plan, as you know, is to tear down the mill and build a state of the art studio complex there. Real high tech stuff. Down here, east of Saw Mill Road, is Kettle Lake. I'm going to run a road around it and subdivide it. A lot of people will be moving into town and Williams Construction is going to put in a pretty nice subdivision here. There will be park land around the lake to protect it from overuse, and a public dock. We'll have a rule that people can't use motor boats on the lake too. Gwen is going to love it! She's from the north you know."

Janet leaned over and kissed her ash covered lover. She did love this woman so very, very much! Robbie took a break from her ideas to return the kiss. Then went on. "I shared this cell with a woman who had killed her boyfriend cause he had been cheating on her. We got talking about comic books and Greek art and things and I got this idea...don't laugh now...what if we built a school for the talented that would be affiliated with my studio?"

Janet blinked, then blinked again. Robbie waited. "Are you serious?"

"Well, yeah. Would it be really hard to do? I figure you ought to be able to handle it," stated Robbie cavalierly.

"Me!?" exclaimed Janet.

"Who else. It will be a lot easier for you now that it will be your only job," Robbie pointed out.

Janet lay back and laughed. Robbie smiled, liking the feel of the warm body vibrating with mirth beside her. "You are such an olive!"

"Well, will you help me start The Kettle Lake School for the Talented?" asked Robbie, leaning absently on an ashy hand.

Janet looked up with sparkling eyes. "Only if you have a bath before you make love to me again, Robbie Williams! You are an absolute sight!" Janet laughed.

"Hmmm, so does my new principal give back rubs?" purred Robbie, leaning in to kiss Janet and unintentionally spreading the ash to her partner.

"Hmmm, sounds good," whispered Janet.

***

Robbie was a little late arriving at the school to pick up Ryan and Reb. She blamed it on the thunderstorm that was now under way. Picking up Reb, she ran with Ryan to the car where a very worried Rufus sat with his large orange muzzle pushed through the window that Robbie had left down a bit for him. A soggy pile of Williams piled into the car and Rufus licked each of his humans in greeting.

"No, Rufus! No, lick," ordered Reb sternly. Rufus' ears dropped. He looked so pathetic that Ryan reached back and petted his massive, shaggy chest.

"It's okay, Rufus. You're a good dog," she said.

Reb smiled up at her massive canine buddy. "Ryan said you are a good dog, Rufus!" she bragged. At the sound of "good dog" Rufus barked happily into Robbie's ear. The director's startled reaction almost put their truck in the ditch.

"So when does the good part come in?" grumbled Robbie. "I should have left him in a snowbank!"

"No, Obbie. Rufus is a good dog!" Reb declared, defending her pal from the criticism.

Robbie and Ryan laughed. "You're right, Reb. Rufus is a perfect dog," agreed Robbie, as she pulled out of the long school driveway and put them on the road for home.

A pair of pale male eyes watched from an old pick-up truck hidden in the bush. On a scrap of paper, a strong hand wrote the time of the Williams' departure in big, clumsy numbers. On the sagging seat beside him, was a messy pile of pictures torn from various newspapers of the Williams. The hand reached up and put the vehicle in gear. It bumped out on the road and followed at a safe distance. When the Williams tuned off down their lane, the rusted, grey truck kept on going.

***

The storm produced sudden downpours of rain that lasted only a few minutes and were absorbed into the dry soil instantly. But the sky lit up with lightening. Neon forks crackled across the sky or arced to the ground and sheet lightening lit up the heavens, silhouetting the black rolling clouds.

Of course, the power went off. Robbie lit a fire while Janet got a few oil lamps going. The kids were teasing Rufus in boredom. "Eh! Leave poor Rufus alone," warned Robbie, as she poked at the logs irritably, feeling trapped by the storm. Janet came to the rescue. She had a plate of hotdogs, several long handled forks, a basket of buns and a bag of marshmallows. The mood of the Williams immediately improved as they settled to their cook out on the livingroom floor.

When they had all eaten, Janet began to tell them a story. "The False Faces are spirits of the woods. There are many of them but the most powerful are Broken Nose, Spoonmouth, and Blower. When you walk in the forest, they will often play tricks on you, tripping you up with a fallen branch hidden under the leaves, placing a muddy puddle under your mocassin or warning the animals that you have come to hunt.

"Once Manitou and Broken Nose argued about who was the greatest god of the First Nations. Broken Nose took a stick and carved his image into the land. Then he bounced about bragging about how powerful he was and the greatest of all the False Face spirits. Manitou smiled quietly and raised his hand. Slowly, the earth responded to his command and lifted up high into the sky forming the great Rocky Mountains.

"Broken Nose was so full of himself that he didn't notice until he turned around and slammed face first into the mountains. That is how he got his broken nose and that is why our masks of him always have a crooked nose! Broken Nose cried a river of tears filling up the holes he had dug and forming the Great Lakes in the process."

"Is that a true story, Mom?" asked Reb, her eyes big with wonder.

"It is one variation of an ancient myth," responded Janet, letting her daughter crawl into her arms sleepily.

"I like Miffs," concluded Reb.

***

When Janet came out from tucking Reb in her bed, she found Robbie and Ryan playing poker for pennies by the fire. "Aunt Janet, come and play with us!" Ryan called.

Janet smiled. "No thanks, Ryan, I never play cards."

"Ahhh, come on schoolteacher, live a little," Robbie teased.

"No."

"Afraid of being beaten?" grinned Robbie, poking Ryan, who giggled. "We'll, go easy on you, won't we, Ryan!"

Janet stood arms folded tapping her foot. A lesson was going to have to be taught here. "Okay," she said, walking over and sitting on the floor with the others around the sled coffee table. She took the cards from Ryan's hands and shuffled them as quick as the flash of lightening outside. She spread the cards out in an even row on the table with a sweep of her hand and pulled out the Ace of Hearts. With a flip of the last card, the row turned over and Janet swept them up again.

While Robbie and Ryan watched in open mouthed fascination. Janet added the ace, shuffled and dropped the deck to the table. The top card flipped up; it was the Ace of Hearts. She shuffled again and dropped the cards to the table. Remaining in her hand was the Ace of Spades. Then she reached over and removed the Ace of Clubs from Ryan's hair.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16