r /> Wade shook his head and looked away. He drank more than usual, too, and kept quiet most of the remainder of the evening. Basil insisted I drive everyone home that night and put Wade and Arai in the rear of their own car.
"Not bad, huh?" he said, bragging about my driving. "I guess the old man can still perform miracles, huh, Wade?"
"What's the miracle?" Wade replied, sounding a little drunk. "You've been telling us all night how talented she is."
"Ho-ho, listen to him. No matter what, you still need a good teacher, a guiding hand in this world. Don't you forget it either, buddy-boy. Don't you get too big for your britches."
"No chance of that," Wade muttered.
Basil looked at Ami and then turned his back on Wade for the remainder of the ride home.
He didn't turn over his automobile to me right away, but three days later he was there to pick me up at school and hand me the keys. I didn't know it was permanent until we drove onto the property and I saw his brand-new Mercedes parked in front of the house.
"That's my new one," he said. "In here are all the papers on the car, the telephone number of the service department I use for it, everything you'll need," he added, opening the glove compartment.
"You're really giving me this car to use?"
"Enjoy it, sweetheart," he said, and kissed me just at the corner of my lips. "I'll tell Wade to make room for this car in the garage. He should be happy. He won't have to take you to school every morning, and Ami won't have to pick you up. Good luck with it," he added, and got out.
I sat there running my hands over the leather and the wood. This was mine, mine to drive whenever I wanted. Just a relatively short while ago, I had two small suitcases of clothing to my name and title to an old property I hadn't seen in years and years. Now I had a closet full of designer clothes and shoes, valuable jewelry, a beautiful large bedroom with my own phone, vanity table, and makeup. I attended an expensive private school, went to expensive restaurants, and had a weekly allowance equal to all the money I had possessed in a year at the orphanage. I was given piano lessons and driving lessons, and now a car worth well over a hundred thousand dollars was at my disposal.
How quickly my thoughts and desires to return to the farm, to a restricted and isolated existence, dwindled. Never had my memories of Noble and my family spirits, all of the wonders of my infancy, seemed as vague as they did now. Why shouldn't I attend a prestigious college and develop a career in the business world? Why shouldn't I travel as Basil traveled and meet people, eat wonderful new foods, and see magnificent scenery? Why shouldn't I be as sophisticated as the snobby girls at my school, and most of all, why shouldn't I find a wonderful young man with whom I could share my life? Why was all that coming to those other girls and not to me? Why had I been trapped in orphanages and made to feel less than worthy of having a family and a home?
Too excited to go into the house and start my home-work, I started the engine and drove away. I didn't have anywhere in particular to go. I just cruised the side streets, then suddenly found myself turning onto the road that would bring me to Basil's property. I pulled to the side of the road and looked out over the choice acreage. I could see a house on that hill, I thought, a big, elaborate home, a modern-day castle with elegance as well as all the bells and whistles that come with gates and pools and tennis courts. I could be Ami, but I'd be happier than she is, I thought. Was that arrogant of me?
The sun was going down quickly. Days were far shorter now, and winter was just over the horizon, the colder winds and grayer clouds inching forward to announce its impending arrival. As shadows deepened, I thought I saw a figure walking up the knoll where Basil and now I envisioned a house. It looked like Noble. He turned my way, and then he disappeared over the crest.
"You're imagining things," I told myself, took my foot off the brake, and accelerated to put distance between me and the illusion. I turned up the radio to drown out any warnings or dark thoughts, and I sang along as I seemed to float over the highway until I reached home again and drove up to the garage. Anyone who saw me probably thought I was just another crazy teenager.
"Where have you been?" Ami asked as soon as I entered the house. I was still humming the last song I had heard on the radio. She had been waiting in the living room, and she stepped out when I opened the door.
"Basil gave me his car!" I cried. "I just had to take a ride on my own for the first time. I just drove to drive. I didn't go anywhere special."
Ami's hard look quickly softened.
"Oh, how wonderful. I'm happy for you, Celeste. But from now on, especially since you have a car to use, please let me know where you are and when you'll be back, okay? I don't want to sound like Wade, a worrywart or anything, but it's important."
"Of course. I'm sorry, Ami. I should have told you. I should have taken you with me."
"We'll go plenty of places together in your car," she said, laughing. "Don't worry about that. Come upstairs." She hooked my arm. "I have to show you the new coat I got you for winter. It has a fox fur collar."
"A new coat!"
It was truly as if heaven was raining gifts down on me. Hopefully, it would never end, I thought, and hurried up the stairs with her.
Naturally, she couldn't simply buy me a new coat without buying new gloves, new boots, and a pair of pants with a matching sweater. It was all laid out on my bed. I tried it all on quickly and paraded about, modeling it for her. We were laughing and giggling so much we didn't hear Wade come up the stairs and to my bedroom door. He knocked on the partially opened door.
"Dad's here?" he asked, looking in curiously at us. "No," Ami said. "Unless he came after we came up here."
"His car is parked out front, so I just thought . . ." Ami gave me a conspiratorial smile and turned back to him.
"It's not his car anymore, Wade. He made good on his promise to Celeste. He gave it to her."
"Gave her his car?" he asked, obviously shocked.
"To use," I said. "I don't think it's actually signed over to me, although," I said, looking at Ami, "I didn't look at the papers."
"Don't be surprised if it is," she told me.