I began with a hot shower. I fixed my hair. I chose a bright blue blouse and matching skirt and put on some lipstick. When I gazed at myself in the mirror. I still saw the shadows in my eyes. I tried to smile, but my face felt so brittle I thought it might shatter if I tried too hard.
Mommy knocked on my door. "Winston is here. honey."
"Coming." I called back. I glanced at myself once more and then joined her. She looked as beautiful as ever, and she was wearing something else new, an off-the-shoulder red silk dress with a high slit. She had a new pair of gold earrings and a pearl necklace I couldn't recall.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
"Our Palm Beach boutique," she replied. Our Palm Beach boutique?
Winston was at the door. "Ladies," he said, holding out his arms. Mommy moved quickly to his right, and they both looked to me. After a slight hesitation I took his left, and he escorted us to the limousine. I really felt silly.
"Where are we going tonight?" I asked. "Not Bermuda or something, are we?"
Winston laughed. "No. Just a place on the water. Twenty or so minutes' driving. No big surprises." Then he turned serious, "I know what it's like for you. Grace. To lose a young friend like this." he said, shaking his head.
"I was hoping we wouldn't talk about it." Mommy interjected.
"No, no," Winston said. "We can't run from our disappointments and hide. We must find ways to grow stronger because of them instead."
I liked that. I liked that he was confident enough in himself to do what he wanted, what he thought he should, even if it displeased someone he wanted to please very much.
"When I was in college I lost my best friend in a similar way, automobile accident. He and I were runners."
"Runners?" Mommy asked.
"Yes, you know, track and field. I happen to have been a four-letter man. too. I was on the school's championship relay team. and I came in second at the all-state conference in the three-thousand-meter steeple-chase. I looked like a gazelle in those days, all legs. lanky. My mother used to say I was so thin she could see my breakfast."
I laughed.
"Anyway, my roommate. Paul Thoreau, was a runner. too. He was actually the fastest in the twohundred-meter and might have gone on to be in the Olympics. You couldn't meet a nicer guy, sensitive, considerate, very family oriented, and religious. In all the time I knew him I never heard him say a bad thing about anyone else. He would say nothing rather than do that, and he rarely cursed. We used to make fun of him for that." he said, remembering with a smile. ''He would say things like 'Holy cow!' or 'Jeepers!' He was killed on his way back to college. A drunken truck driver hit him head-on. He never had a chance. The truck just veered into his lane.
"I like to think he's running in heaven, winning trophies. Anyway. I wanted to quit the team, give up running myself afterward, and my coach... I'll never forget him. Rolly Allen, pulled me aside and said. 'Don't you know. Paul will be running alongside you for the rest of your life, Winston. You can't outrun him.'
"I smiled at that, and you won't believe this. but I ran my best race soon afterward, and when I stepped off the track Mr. Allen was there. and I said. 'You were right. He was with me step for step.'
"If you're close with someone. Grace, you take them with you forever. Just think of that. It won't stop the pain and the sadness completely, but you can go on and run your races and do your work, and after all that's what is most important."
I didn't realize I was crying until he leaned forward with his handkerchief and wiped the tears from my cheeks. Then he touched my hand. and I seized his. We held on to each other for a long moment. I saw Mommy watching, a smile on her face, and then I sat back and listened to them talk about an upcoming charity event Winston insisted we attend with him.
.
Life was meant to ad on, and go on it would at an even faster pace than before. Mommy returned to work at the restaurant, but as the weeks and months went by it soon became more and more of a part-time job. Every time Winston had a place to take her or take us both, she would call Dallas and get off that evening. Of course, I wondered how she could be buying all the new clothes, the new shoes, and the jewelry for herself and me as well, and then one morning she revealed that Winston paid our bill at the boutique.
"How could you let him do that?" I asked. astounded.
"It was his idea from the start. Grace. I didn't know anyone in Palm Beach and certainly didn't know my way around boutiques and beauty salons."
"You mean he even arranged for that, your hairdo?"
"It's something he enjoys doing. It means nothing to him financially. and..."
"But that's like.., like taking advantage of someone," I blurted.
"Hardly," she said. "I can't imagine anyone taking advantage of Winston Montgomery. It's probably the other way around." She sounded almost critical. By now I had come to like Winston very much. I didn't see how he could be nasty to anyone. "I didn't ask him to buy these things for us. Grace. He offered."
"But..."
No buts about it He's on top of the world, and if he wants to rain down some of that gold upon us. I'm not going to throw up any umbrellas. I told you. I'm tired of being the victim, the suffering casualty of an unforgiving, relentless, and cruel fate. We'll beat it back until it leaves us alone and goes looking for weaker prey.