Gates of Paradise (Casteel 4)

At the moment one of the things that bothered me was Luke's silence. It just wasn't like him to keep away this long. It was so frustrating not being able to call him, not even to know which dorm he was in.

Millie came in to get my supper tray, and I thought of something.

"Millie, would you look in the desk drawer there to see if there is a pen, a sheet of stationery, and an envelope, please."

"Yes, Annie." She did so and found the stationery and a pen. "It's perfumed stationery," she said, bringing the sheet to her nose and inhaling. "Still smells very nice."

"I don't care. I just want to write a quick letter. Please come back in fifteen minutes to get it and have it mailed out for me."

"I will."

She left with the tray, and I used the bed table to write my letter to Luke.

.

Dear Luke,

I know you have spoken to Tony since graduation, and I was happy to hear about the reception you received for your speech. You deserved it. I wish only that I could have been there, that my mother and our father could have been there.

Drake has visited me at Farthy and told me of your arrival at Harvard. The doctors want me to continue my quiet rest and recuperation, so I have no phone yet, otherwise I would try to call you rather than send this letter. I'll ask that it be sent special delivery, so you should get it quickly.

I can't wait to hear from you and to see you. I'm already planning just how to go about our

explorations of Farthy.

Please call or come as soon as you can. Love, Annie

.

I addressed the letter to Luke Toby Casteel, Dormitories, Harvard College, and wrote "Special Delivery" on the bottom of the envelope. When Millie returned, I called her to the side of my bed to give her special instructions,

"Take this to Mr. Tatterton, please, and ask him if he would put the rest of the Harvard address on here for me and send this right out in the morning."

"Right away, Annie," she said.

I watched her go, and thought Luke would surely respond immediately when he received that. Confident that he would be with me in a day or so, I lowered my head to the pillow and closed my eyes. I opened them slightly when I, heard Mrs. Broadfield come in. She took my blood pressure and checked my pulse, fixed my blanket and then put out the light.

With the sun down and the sky overcast again, darkness fell around me like a heavy curtain. It was my second night at Farthy, but unlike the first, I had something to listen for: Rye Whiskey's spirits. Maybe I dreamt it because he had been so dramatic when he spoke, but sometime during the middle of the night, I thought I heard the soft tinkle of a piano playing a Chopin waltz.

Was it only my desperate need to remember, to envision my mother's soft smile as she gazed at me while she brushed my hair? Or was Rye Whiskey right? Was there a spirit that wandered through the house searching and searching?

Maybe he was searching for me. Maybe I had always been expected.

THIRTEEN Mystery Man

. Mrs. Broadfield yanked open the curtains so abruptly the morning light burst upon me like a bomb blast. She looked as though she had been up for hours, but I thought she always looked that way.

"You should want to get up early, Annie," she said without really looking at me. She talked as she moved about the room setting things up--unfolding my wheelchair, getting a robe from the closet, finding my slippers. "It takes you longer to do everything now, and you will need the extra time.

"After a while you will be able to get yourself up and out of that bed and into the wheelchair to do your bathroom business and have your breakfast, but you're going to have to build up to it, just like an athlete builds up to a task. Understand?" she asked, finally pausing to look at me.

I pulled myself up and sat back against my pillow and nodded.

"All right, then, let's get you out of bed, washed, and into a clean nightgown."

Still groggy from what had turned out to be a very deep night's sleep, I simply nodded. Quietly, almost as if the two of us were performing a mime show, she assisted me out of the bed and into the chair. She wheeled me into the bathroom and took off my nightgown. I washed my own face and she brought in the new nightgown. Then she brought me back into the room and left me by the window.

"I'll get your breakfast now," she said, starting out.