41
I’LL BE MISSING YOU
It was the twins’ last evening in town. Labor Day. They were getting ready for their farewell dinner at Goose’s Landing, which was opening that night, at long last, to great fanfare. The dock was strewn with fairy lights and ribbons in celebration. There was going to be a lobster bake under a full moon.
Trent would be there, of course, along with Freya, Ingrid, and Matt. Graciella had offered to babysit for Jo and Henry. Jean-Baptiste, his mission accomplished, had already headed home to New Orleans, so they would raise a glass to him as they ate. He had given each girl her own pocket square as a souvenir, suggesting that they carry them as handkerchiefs. Mardi’s was jet black. Molly’s was hot pink.
“Let me dress both of you tonight,” Freya had offered. “That way you can pack all your stuff so you won’t have to deal tomorrow.”
At first, Molly had been skeptical. She thought she had made it perfectly clear that she was not so into the vintage.
“Come on, Molly, I have some classic pieces that will look amazing on you.” Freya winked a bright green eye. She was irresistible.
Half an hour later, Molly was wearing a pink leather body-hugging jacket and skirt.
“Oh, Fury!” Molly squealed, picking up her little dog and standing on tiptoes to admire herself in one of Freya’s many full-length mirrors. “Check us out!”
“You can keep it,” said Freya.
Molly didn’t know how to thank her.
While Freya worked with Mardi on something more down and dirty to wear, Molly tried on several pairs of strappy sandals, finally settling on a simple white option that looked reassuringly new.
When Ingrid poked her head into the attic wardrobe wonderland to say it was almost time to leave for their reservation, Mardi gave Molly a significant look.
Molly knew it was time to bring up the subject that she and her sister had stayed up half of last night discussing. She had said she would ask, and she was going to be as good as her word. Molly took a deep breath and dove in. “Ingrid, Mardi and I have something we want to ask you, but we don’t think we should do it in front of Matt at dinner. Can we have a minute now?”
Ingrid nodded kindly. Freya looked intrigued.
Molly continued. “Do you remember the night of the storm, when we were searching for Mardi on the water, and we found that little drowned boy, and you, well, you called on your mother and you were able to bring him back from the other side?”
“Of course,” Ingrid replied softly, understanding now why they would not be able to discuss this matter at the dinner table.
“Well, here’s the thing: Mardi and I were hoping you could do something like that again. For our friends. What happened to them was so totally unfair. And even though we didn’t do it, our magic was involved. We want to make it right. Please, Ingrid? Can you and Freya please get your mother to help bring them back from the Underworld? They don’t belong there yet.”
Molly found she was crying. She looked at Mardi, then Freya, then Ingrid. They all had tears welling up in their eyes too.
Ingrid put her arm around Molly, while Freya took both Mardi’s hands. The two older witches looked long and searchingly at one another and shook their heads.
“It’s a beautiful thought, girls,” Ingrid said gently. “But it’s impossible. It’s much too late. They have been dead too long. There is nothing of their souls left anymore in the mortal realm. If we were, by some miracle, to be able to bring some part of them back, the results would be disastrous.”
“They would come back as zombies,” sighed Freya. “Or, maybe even worse, as wraiths.”
“So,” Molly sniffed, “there’s nothing at all we can do to show them how much we care?”
“Nothing?” Mardi echoed.
“Well,” Ingrid said, “there is one possibility.”
Freya gave her sister a questioning look.
“Freya and I could ask Joanna about the possibility of getting a message to them in the Underworld. A message from the two of you. I know it’s not what you really want. But would that help?”
“You would do that for us?” Mardi asked.
“On one condition,” Ingrid said. “Because getting a missive through the passages is not something we can just do on a whim overnight. If you are serious about this, you girls have to promise to come back to the East End next summer.” She smiled, her bright blue eyes alive with mischief. “Think about it. The kids would be over the moon.”
Molly and Mardi looked from Ingrid to Freya and back again. Then they all burst out in laughter.
Faintly at first, then progressively louder, a childish cackling mingled with their laughter. They followed the sound to find Henry hiding in a box of lingerie. He had managed to encase his chubby little body in at least seven layers of Freya’s clothing, blouses, skirts, dresses, hot pants. It seemed an impossible feat.
“Hey.” Matt’s voice came from the foot of the stairs. “Sounds like you’re having a ball up there, but can you bring it with you? I’m starving.”
• • •
After dinner, Mardi and Trent took a long walk across Gardiners Island Bridge to Fair Haven. They were quiet as they strolled arm in arm over the glittering bay, but both were stirred inside by a thousand racing currents. Was this really good-bye?
They barely spoke. Without discussing it, as if by silent agreement, they reached the end of the bridge, crossed the vast lawns of Fair Haven, and found themselves at the greenhouse. They opened its old-fashioned glass door and fell into each other’s arms on the wrought-iron bench where they had first gotten acquainted, what seemed like an eternity ago. The hothouse atmosphere was heavily fragrant.
Mardi focused her dark gaze on Trent, committing his features to memory. It seemed impossible to say good-bye to this face. She would carry it off in her mind’s eye and gaze at it forever. It was a crazy feeling. White hot. Had she found her eternal soul mate?
Reading her mind, he whispered, “Mardi, do you feel like hanging out together for a few more centuries?” His smile was radiant and kind. “I promise to age gracefully. You can trust me.”
“When you put it like that, the nine months until next summer don’t sound so endless.”
“Yeah, but just in case you ever even think about trying to forget me, I got you a present that will totally keep my memory alive.”
“Where is it?”
He kissed her full on the lips, murmuring, “It’s hiding in plain sight.”
She looked around the greenhouse for a clue. Freya’s herbs were lush and overflowing. The giant ferns glowed in the moonlight. The plant life seemed riper and more beautiful than ever. But she couldn’t spot anything specifically different. And within a few seconds, she found her eyes magnetically drawn back to his.
“I used to be scared of your eyes,” she said, “of getting lost in them, of drowning.”
“I used to be scared of yours too. I guess it’s a healthy fear. You know, the fear of eternity.”
“Have you shaken it?” She ran her tongue over his lips.
“Have you?”
She pressed herself into the muscles of his chest, willing her body to soften into clay in order to take an impression of him that would last until they met again.
“So, next summer?” His breath was hot in her ear. “You up for another spell in thrilling North Hampton?” He ran his fingers along the snaking curves of her rainbow tattoo.
“Maybe,” she teased him. “I mean, this hasn’t been nearly as dead a summer as Molly and I thought. But I guess what happens next summer kinda depends.”
“On?”
“My present.” She beamed gentle mockery at him.
“So that’s how it is!” He laughed. Releasing her from his ropy arms, he stood. “This gift of mine is so much cooler than anything your sister will ever own.”
“I like the way you talk. Don’t stop.”
He wandered over to the Venus flytrap. She noticed now that there was more than one. A second plant was flowering behind the original.
He reached beneath the leaves and pulled the plant up from the ground.
Mardi expected to see hanging roots and clumps of dirt. But instead he was holding a sleek black pot, from which the plant grew.
“You’re kidding!” She had never been more purely delighted.
“I could tell you coveted one of these from the second you laid on eyes on mine. I can read you, Mardi Overbrook. I know what you want to eat and drink. I know what makes you feel good. I was put in this universe to please you, Goddess of Rage.”
She took her exotic plant from him and began to caress it with her gaze.
“You’re giving me a carnivorous plant to remember you by? What kind of symbolism is that?” She laughed.
“Our kind.”
She really loved this this guy.
“Bye, Trent.” She kissed him one last time, pulled away, took her flytrap under her arm, and raced off into the night before he could see her cry.
He knew not to come after her. “Good-bye, Mardi.”
She could feel his deep blue gaze licking at her back like an undying flame. Through her tears, she smiled. Trent Gardiner wasn’t going anywhere. He was the appointed guardian of Fair Haven. He’d be waiting here, beautiful as ever, when she pulled into town next June. Ever after, he’d be waiting.
• • •
The next morning, Molly climbed into the Ferrari beside Mardi. Matt had devised an elaborate system for strapping her three large Louis Vuitton suitcases onto the back of the car. Killer and Fury curled up together on a small dog bed at her feet. The Venus flytrap nestled beside them.
Everyone crowded around to say good-bye.
“Hey,” Molly said as Mardi shifted the car into gear, “you found a keeper. We’re coming back next summer, right?”
Mardi nodded. Her rainbow tattoo shone bright in the morning sun, and a green light twinkled from between her slightly parted lips. She was silent for a long time as they sped through the farms on the outskirts of town toward the foggy field of forgetfulness that they would need to pass through to get back to their real lives.
Finally, Mardi spoke. “You know, Trent took the ring to Fair Haven for us. He went through the passage in the ballroom, and he buried it in the gloaming. I didn’t want us to know where exactly it lies. This way, we can never be blackmailed. We’re safe now, Molly. The curse can’t ever touch us again.”
Molly felt a profound relief spread through her body. But a question lingered. Their mother, the Rhinemaiden. Where was she now? Why had she left them only to miraculously protect them from afar? Molly had always assumed she and Mardi were abandoned. But now it was clear that their mother was watching and protecting them in mysterious ways. Molly furrowed her brow as she burrowed her bare, beautifully manicured feet in between Killer and Fury in their soft bed.
Once the Ferrari had crossed the misty borderline encircling the secretly magical town of North Hampton and the twins were heading west on the Montauk Highway, following signs to New York City, Mardi spotted another Ferrari. A black one. Brand-spanking-new.
Molly watched as her sister shifted gleefully into fifth gear, gunning it, leaving the douchemobile in the dust.
“Nice work,” she told Mardi. “Let’s crank some tunes.”
“Now you’re talking. What do you feel like?” Molly asked, realizing she truly no longer felt competitive. The ring’s curse of discord was finally lifted.
Molly and Mardi were twin sisters. Identical. Together they could meet anything in their way.
Mardi smiled, her identical dimple deepening in her cheek. “You decide. Anything but opera.”