We woke late in the afternoon. I turned my head and felt the twinges of discomfort that bespoke of dehydration, also known as the great American hangover. I looked over and Eric Lover was still asleep. I got up and went to the loo and peed for what seemed forever. (Is the phrase ‘Like a Russian Race Horse’ familiar to everyone?) I washed my face and took a couple of Excedrin and b12, (the vitamin of chug-a-lug champions and Vampires everywhere) and drank my weight in tap water.
I came out, moving quietly, setting a glass of water with Excedrin and b12 on Eric Lover’s bedside table and I went to my bag and picked out a white silk blouse and red twill leggings. I dressed quickly and quietly, brushed my hair and put it in a pony tail and went down stairs in search of a cup of Joseph.
Westexan was up reading the local paper, having a glass of the house wine of the South, the ubiquitous sweet iced tea and rubbing the baby bump. The hostess brought me a cup of coffee. I sipped it and savoured the taste.
“Hung over?” she asked.
“The wrath of grapes,” I said nodding. The fire was going and I heard the clock strike three. “I don’t know about this sleep all day, stay up all night thing.” I mumbled to no one in particular. Westexan laughed at me. “They will be up in three hours or so.”
“Well, they are used to it,” she said. “What are you wearing tonight? This is our last night together.”
“I brought something in basic black,” I said. “The food has been incredible. I can’t wait to find out what we are having tonight.”
“I think the lady said we were having barbecue,” said Westexan. Liz and Mel came down and sat down by me on the couch.
“You feeling alright?” I asked Liz. At the bar, Liz was feeling real fine, dancing with a gorgeous young man with coal black hair and pecs to knock on. Liz was a happily married woman, as so many of our ladies were, but that didn’t mean that any of us were dead.
“My head,” she said. About that time, the hostess brought Liz and Mel and coffee. I got up to smoke a cigarette and found God Speed, Hoyt and Dude and Mrs. GS outside on the veranda. “So, what did you boys do last night?”
“Played poker with the counselors,” said GS.
“Win any money?” I asked.
“Are you kidding?” asked Dude. “The lead counselor racked up.”
“Ummm, why doesn’t that surprise me?” I said, lighting up my sin.
“I think he was cheating somehow,” said Hoyt, sullenly.
“He could probably hear your heart beating faster when you got a good hand,” I said.
“See, that is one reason I will never play cards with him again…you work for years, learning to hold your poker face, killing off any nervous ticks and the only thing left is your internal excitement and now, with these people, you have no way of hiding anything,” complained Dude.
“Those are the disadvantages,” I said, agreeing with him.
By five the day was disappearing and we began to drift up to change into our more formal attire for our final dinner together. I took a bath and shampooed my hair and got out and Eric Lover did the same. I dressed in the simple black dress and put on my few gold accessories (I am a silver girl, but out of deference to the counselors, I did not wear my silver jewelry). Eric Lover was wearing a snazzy red dress, cut low and raised high, showing her dancer’s legs.
We went down together and found the others looking great in their dress clothes. The lady counselors were sitting by the fire, the young one wearing a pretty blouse Liz had bought her in baby blue. The lady counselor was wearing black, an expensive cashmere sweater and black silk blend slacks. Dude was wearing a medium blue sweater, a gift from the lady counselor and darker blue pants. Lina was wearing the steel blue dress I’d seen her unwrapping from the lead counselor and Linzy was wearing her gold hoop earrings to compliment the cloth of gold dress she was wearing. Burke was sitting and chatting wearing the oatmeal colored sweater that the southern counselor had bought her and playing with the long gold necklace with the representation of the Celtic goddess Brigid on a heavy medallion the lead counselor had given her. Apparently, he liked giving jewelry to his favorites. I looked in the mirror at the lovely heavy gold earrings my counselor had given me. Renee was wearing her gold watch our counselor had gotten her.
We were all just waiting for the other counselors to come in. The hostess and her staff moved between us, bringing us glasses of wine and bottles of beer and other refreshments and circulated with trays of munchables. I found my appetite returning as I could smell the wonderful smells of barbecue wafting through the house.
Finally they came in, looking lovely as ever. The lead counselor was wearing the blue sweater he had received and I noticed the lovely Thor’s Hammer necklace I had helped Burke select for the lead counselor. My counselor was wearing black and he reached into his pocket and took out the pewter pocket watch I had bought him, demonstrating to me that he was using my gift.
“Are we late?” asked the lead Counselor. We demurred that they were right on time and we were escorted into the dining room. This time, I was sitting with the lady counselor with Eric lover and Nia and Westexan and Mel. Like last night, platters of sides were set out, but the wait staff came around asked which would we like, ribs or pulled beef, or steak. I chose the steak, rare, and carefully tucked my napkin into my dress and prepared for messy eating. I watched the wait staff pour the lady counselor’s drink and I leaned forward to her. She leaned forward.
“Does it bother you to watch us eat?” I asked.
“Some of our kind may be a little uncomfortable, but I enjoy having meals with those like you. I love the smells of food,” she said. I nodded. Another little tid bit to tuck away.
We ate largely of the food. And it was good. The beef was done to perfection and the sides of potato salad and fresh green beans and cole slaw were perfect. Dinner was topped off by pecan and fruit pies. I shared a large slab of apple pie with Nia.
After supper, we retired to the front room and chatted while the wait staff hurriedly cleaned up the dining room to get it ready for the rest of the evening’s goings on. I know that Lina was looking forward to dancing with the lead counselor; her mouth fairly watered looking at him. And God Speed was looking forward to dancing with his counselor as well. She was standing very close to him, showing him all the songs she had downloaded on her ipod and God Speed was looking down over her shoulder at the tiny digital screen. Hoyt was showing off the cell phone the young counselor had bought him. I suppose she wanted a more direct link to him. God Speed was not amused.
Finally we were invited back into the large dining room. The chairs had been put against the walls and the tables removed. Vi and our counselor were the first to hit the floor. The lead counselor and Lina joined them, he holding her very closely, her arms reaching up to encircle his neck. God Speed took the wife out but I knew that when she was distracted by the lead counselor, he would grab a dance from the young counselor, dressed in her pretty pale blue blouse , her red hair long and silky on her shoulders. Dude claimed me for a dance.
“Well, Aslinn, we are what, 24 weeks before the new adventures, will we make it?” he asked.
“I think we will. We have the counselors and we have the forum and we have each other. This has been the bestest Yule ever,” I said.
“I think so too,” he said.
I don’t think the counselors got to stop dancing the whole evening. We drank and danced and talked about what we were hoping for the New Year, joked about our mild rivalries and crushes and the coming excitement with new adventures. I found myself at one point dancing with the lead counselor.
“Have you had a nice time Aslinn?” he asked.
“I have, the accommodations are wonderful,” I said. “Thank you so much.”
“I was our pleasure,” he said. “You know, Aslinn, you never answered my question.”
I looked up at him. I didn’t like seeing his face so clearly without the solace of the shadows. I liked looking into my counselor’s heart shaped face and into his lovely blue eyes, but the lead counselor was a cipher. He was lovely, of course, and he had those strange pale eyes that at one moment seemed blue, then sometimes they were grey and others they seemed green. I had once joked he had mood ring eyes, becoming whatever color he was wearing or perhaps even his mood. Tonight they were green and sparkly.
“I’ll be your friend as much as I can,” I said.
“I suppose that is as good as I am going to get from you, head strong, obstinate,” he said, not really disproving.
“Sort of like you…see, you need to think opposites attract. Take Nia, for example, she is totally devoted,” I said. We looked at her dancing with our counselor, her gaze only on him, and her fingers in his dark hair.
“Too devoted,” he shook his head slightly.
I sat down by GS while Mrs. GS was dancing with the lead counselor, he was spinning her in his arms and drawing her in very tightly to his body, pressing her against him. Eric Lover and the young counselor were dancing.
“Eric Lover is some fantastic dancer, “God Speed.
“She is, and so is the young counselor. How come you don’t dance fast?” I asked, watching the Lady counselor cutting a rug with Dude.
“I’m good with the slow dancing, but I can’t fast dance,” he said. I was watching my counselor dancing with Renee, who was well matched. The rest of the girls were either resting or dancing with each other in that unselfconscious way girls dance with each other. Hoyt was standing there as well.
“No fast dancing Hoyt?” I asked.
“Nah,” he said.
“You know, if I had a lady counselor like her, I would figure out how to fast dance a little,” I said.
After the music ended, I noticed Renee and my counselor stepping away for a private moment and the lead counselor was joined by Linzy. He took a glass of wine from a tray began walking her toward the front door and the porch, handing her the glass, encouraging her to taste it.
There was a great dynamic between us, the junkies and the objects of our addiction. I knew that at the night wore on, this being the longest night, Liz and Mel, Burke and Lina, Hoyt and Dude, Vi and Minnie, we would all spend some special time with our counselors. It seemed important to them as much as it was for us. They craved us, just how, that remained to be seen. I for one had not seen any tell tale marks on my person…perhaps that is not precisely what they wanted us from us. I know we craved them and these little moments with them were fleeting, precious times for us. They would all make it just right, the moon perfect in the sky, the music of there be any, memorable, the sentiments sincere.
I suspected our seduction was complete, but who was the seduced and who was the seducer. Sometimes it was us and sometimes it was them. Lina told me about one episode when she drove like the hounds of hell were behind her to get to her one on one and she practically burst through the front door of the lead counselor’s house and wrapped herself around him. Nia whispered about a night that she was met by our counselor in the front yard and he picked her up and carried her away, making her breathless before they even reached the door. God Speed was always too much of a gentleman to say anything about his one on one meetings, but I know that when he held the young counselor he sometimes seemed to be straining against some other desire. I was trapped in those reveries, so much so I did not notice my counselor standing in front of me.
“Aslinn, the sun is coming, won’t have the last dance with me?” he asked.
“I would be delighted,” I said.
After the last dance, we hugged and kissed and were hugged and kissed by the counselors. They were going to their day time rest and so were we. We would be leaving tomorrow but we would never forget our wonderful Yule together in this lovely haunted plantation. As I took the stairs to go to my room, I looked back down. I saw a young black woman in a long skirt and blouse had walked into the room. She crossed the room and passed through a solid wall. There, I had seen the ghost of the Myrtles. My visit was complete.
Merry Yule everyone.
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