Chapter Eighteen

THE NEXT MORNING, A knock on the door announced that breakfast had arrived. The room service waiter quietly and efficiently set up a table with a white linen cloth, a crystal glass for orange juice, and fine china with the signature MH logo. He had no sooner let himself out of the room than the phone rang.

“I hope I’m not calling too early. I can pick you up in an hour. Bev has planned a little dinner party for this evening. She wants you to see her house, which is quite a showplace, and introduce you to a few of our friends. Nothing fancy.” Alice spoke so fast she was breathless.

“I’m overwhelmed. What did you say about reeling you back in like a kite?” Bennie smiled and shook her head.

“Too much? I know, I know. I promise to come back down to earth after today. We can skip the Buena Vista Café if you like.”

“We’ll see. I’ll expect you at ten or so?”

“Great.”

Bennie poured another cup of coffee and called her father. He sounded glad to hear from her, but his voice held a tinge of concern.

“What’s this about, Bennie? It seems like a strange, spur-of-the-moment trip,” he said.

“Alice lives here in San Francisco now, and she invited me to visit. I wasn’t sure I could get away, but as things developed, I was able to after all. I want to see you, Father. It’s been a long time, and a few things are happening that I could use your advice about.”

“What things? Is Livie alright? Is this something between you and Will?”

“Livie is thriving. She got a new pony for Christmas, and she’s learning to jump.” Bennie paused. “Can we talk about the rest when I see you? It’s complicated. I’ll call you in a few days when my travel plans are firm.”

 

***

 

Bennie rushed to eat her breakfast and dress in time to meet Alice in the lobby. Alice was the perfect enthusiastic tour guide around the large urban green space that was Golden Gate Park.

“It’s bigger than Central Park.” Alice was already proud of her newly-adopted city. “It’s a thousand acres to Central Park’s eight hundred. There were times when it was first built that half the city’s population would crowd in on a Sunday afternoon.”

By the time they toured the park’s two art museums, the Japanese Garden, and North and South windmills, it was three in the afternoon. Bennie stopped at a bench. She sat down and rubbed her calves.

“Please tell me your legs are as tired as mine.”

“It’s the perfect time to go to the Buena Vista for a drink,” Alice said.

They found two seats together at a big table in the back of the crowded café.

“It’s the custom here to share tables wherever you can find empty seats.” Alice winked at Bennie and inclined her head toward a pretty blond woman across the table. “You never know who you’ll meet.”

They each ordered the Irish Coffee that the Buena Vista claimed to have invented and watched the performance of the bartender lining up ten glasses in a row and pouring the right amount of whiskey in a steady stream across them without spilling a drop. They sipped their cocktails and enjoyed the view of the Bay. Bennie scooted her chair closer to Alice’s to be heard over the loud buzz of conversation in the bar.

“Today has been wonderfully entertaining. I’ve missed you so much. Can we walk down by the water for a while? I’ve got something to talk over with you and maybe the fresh salt air will clear my head.”

“Okay. I’ll let the driver go, and we can take the cable car to your hotel from here. That’s another San Francisco must-do experience.”

After Alice paid the bill, they followed the sidewalk down the hill to the Bay and headed toward North Beach. The day was clear, and the water of the Bay was calm. Alcatraz Island appeared close enough that an inmate could swim to freedom. They walked along in companionable silence.

“This is hard for me to admit, Alice, because I’ve been very foolish, against your sage advice.” Bennie waited for a response, but Alice merely shook her head.

“You’re going to make me tell it all, aren’t you? I may be selfish confiding in you, given the feelings you’ve had for me, but you’re the only one I can talk to.” Bennie paused and took a deep breath. “I’ve gotten involved with Laura Clayborn. I know you suspected I might. Now I’ve found out that I mean nothing to her, that I’ve put my relationship with my child in jeopardy for nothing.”

Alice kept silent as they continued to walk.

“Say something,” Bennie said, taking Alice’s arm and turning her so they made eye contact. “Do you want to hear details? Ask me any question, and I’ll answer honestly.”

“No, no.” Alice held her hands up, as if to shield herself from Bennie’s revelations. “Details about your affair with someone else are the last things I want to hear.”

Bennie felt a heavy weight of guilt on her heart. Alice didn’t deserve to be subjected to this, but Bennie had no one else.

Alice sighed and looked across the Bay. “I am willing to be your friend, though, if I can. What makes you say you mean nothing to her?”

“Well, she’s married, as far as I know, happily so, and now I find out she’s involved with another woman at the same time as me. It’s that girl she brought to the dinner party where you met Laura, her design assistant.”

“How do you know she’s involved with her?”

“Carolyn, the girl, spent the night with Laura at her house in New Canaan.”

“Did Laura break her word about that or lie to you about it?”

“No. She seemed to think it was fine that we were both there.”

“Did you talk to her about it?”

Bennie looked down as she shook her head. “No, I left her a note and got a plane out without talking to her at all.”

The breeze off the bay had grown stiffer and both women pulled their coats tighter around their bodies.

“Bennie, how old would you say Laura is—ten years older than us or so?”

“Thereabouts.”

“She came up before the war. Things are difficult enough for us now, but they were even worse then. She has set up a double life–a public one, married to a man, and a hidden one with women. She’s used to episodic relationships. It’s normal for her.”

“I don’t think I could be happy living that way.”

Alice nodded. “I don’t have to tell you that I’ve done my share of that, but I know you couldn’t be happy with a double life. If you could, you and I might still be together.” Alice’s voice turned sharp. “I can’t tell if you’re more concerned about Laura’s being married or her being involved with both you and Carolyn at the same time. Which is it?”

Bennie thought hard before answering. “She says her marriage is one of convenience.”

“Would you want her to leave him for you? Would she do that?” asked Alice.

“I don’t know. I’m more upset about her involvement with the girl.”

“I don’t think it’s fair for you to judge Laura by your standards, especially since you’re not exactly clear about your own direction. If you care about her, shouldn’t you at least give her a chance to tell you what she’s thinking?”

“I was embarrassed and afraid I had assumed too much.”

They walked a little farther in the gathering twilight.

“It seems all I do anymore is lecture you, and that’s not my style. I’ll just say that you should have talked to her before leaving, if not for her benefit, for yours.” Alice turned back toward the Buena Vista. “It’s getting late. Lecture done. Let’s go back and catch the cable car.”

Bennie nodded.

Back in front of the Buena Vista, they watched a cable car pull onto the giant turntable which reversed the car’s direction for the return trip to Market Street. Bennie was fascinated to see the ticket-holders, who had been waiting in the long line, pitch in to help turn the heavy car. Instead of joining the line at the turnaround, Bennie and Alice walked up the hill and jumped on as the car slowed for a red light.

“Another insider trick.” Alice laughed as they took seats on a bench facing the street.

“It’s marvelous what you can see from out here.” Bennie leaned over to look back down the steep hill. She applauded when the grip man played his signature cadence on the cable car’s bell. She glanced at Alice. “I’ve missed doing things like this since you left. You mean so much to me.”

“I know.” Alice’s voice held a little sadness.

She checked her watch when they jumped off the car at the corner of Powell and California.

“Your hotel is just there, in the middle of the block. I’ll catch a taxi from here. There will be plenty of time for you to relax before dinner. We’ll start about eight, and remember, very informal. There will be only ten of us or so.”

Back in her hotel room, Bennie ran a tub of water and added bath salts. Her leg and hip muscles ached from the unaccustomed walking in the hilly city. She sighed in contentment as she sank into the tub with a magazine she found on her bedside table. The magazine, ‘Inside the City by the Bay,’ featured a cover article about Bev’s house.

The house was built by a former mayor of San Francisco. When Bev bought it, it had fallen into disrepair. The article showed remarkable before and after pictures. Bennie was excited to see the house and meet Alice’s new friends.