Chapter 12
I was up to my elbows in cedar mulch on the side of the house when I heard them come back and sit down on the front porch. This time, Andrea lit a cigarette without asking, but when she saw Jonathan’s look of disgust, she said,
“I’m really going to quit…very soon. As soon as I know I won’t be living with Joan. Really!!”
I gathered Jonathan must have looked doubtful, and it was then that I heard a car pull into the driveway. Before I stood up, I thought I recognized Marshall’s voice, but the accent was different now.
“Looka da young’un! Da hair is sumpin’ special, pretty la-dee.”
I just could make out enough of Jonathan’s face to see the look of utter dismay. Of course, he had no idea who Marshall was, but I think he was more surprised that anyone would think Andrea’s hair was nice. Marshall obviously read the confused look on Jonathan’s face and didn’t miss a beat as he stuck out his hand, and in his normal voice said, “You must be Jonathan. Hi, I’m Marshall.”
Jonathan returned the handshake, but still looked rather puzzled. But Marshall turned back to Andrea, and in the first accent said, “And who might dis lovely la-dee be?”
Before she answered him, I came around to the front of the house as I pealed off my gardening gloves. Marshall took long strides over to me, and gave me a little hug as he said, “Mara, I hope you don’t mind me stopping by again without an invitation, but I just had to know if you’d thought about my idea?” He had spoken quietly enough that neither Jon nor Andrea heard what he said.
Now Jonathan looked downright perplexed. He had no idea who this man was, this man who I clearly knew.
“Marshall! It’s so nice to see you! I heard you introduce yourself to Jonathan, and this is his long lost friend, Andrea.”
Andrea said “Hey,” but it was clear she couldn’t figure out who he was, how I knew him, and why he had two different accents. “You really like my hair?” she finally asked.
Back in the accent, he answered, “Oh yes, very much. Had da dreads myself back in da day.”
“Back in what day?” I asked, shocked that this beautiful, clean-cut man had ever been anything else.
“My university days, Mara! Lots of the brothers had the Rastafarian look going back then! Actually, some still do!”
“I just can’t picture it,” I giggled, then realized I still hadn’t told Jonathan my connection with Marshall. I felt a bit reluctant, actually more timid than reluctant, as I explained, “Jonathan, Marshall is a client of mine, and he came to dinner when Patrick was here.”
A look of comprehension spread over Jonathan’s face, and more than that, but I couldn’t figure out exactly what. In any event, he said to Marshall, “Please don’t tell me you think her hair really looks good! She’s a mess!”
“Jonzo! That’s not nice. I already told you I didn’t want to keep it. Hey, Marshall, if you used to have dreads, but don’t any more, maybe you could tell me how to get rid of them?” Then more quietly, Andrea continued, “Do I have to shave my head?”
“Ah, so da young man do’n like da hair?” Marshall picked up a lock of the wool, then reached up to her scalp. “May I touch up here?” She nodded, and he parted the hair, revealing light brown roots, over an inch long, and nearly two more inches of straight, black, un-dread locked hair. “So you’re not a natural raven haired beauty! No, you won’t have to shave your hair, although that IS how I got rid of mine. You have about three inches of your own hair under that, uh, “mess” as Jonathan calls it.”
“You think if we cut it just a little longer than that, we might get her real hair back?” I asked the question, because I still was having trouble seeing Andrea, at least the Andrea I remembered, under that black head of dreadful dreadlocks.
“Well, I’m not a hairdresser, but I think so,” Marshall was sincere, but he smiled broadly. “I can’t picture her any other way, though!” He hesitated a moment, then continued, “Now, you know I came here to ask you a question.” He was quiet again, and I hoped he would realize I didn’t want to answer his question in front of Jon. Also, I was feeling a bit concerned that he might mention Bob – once he did, I felt worried that Andrea would figure things out. In my motherly way, I felt protective of Jonathan, not really knowing what Andrea knew and not wanting to be the one to reveal anything. I didn’t know how she’d react, but inwardly, I realized I hoped that perhaps I could soften her up on the subject of “gay” before she said something that might hurt him. I was silent for a few uncomfortable minutes, trying to decide if I should invite Marshall in or walk him to the car, when Andrea announced that she thought this would be the right time to call her mother.
Jonathan jumped up and said, “Sounds good…I’ll come in with you.” They both told Marshall they had enjoyed meeting him. As they were walking inside, I heard Andrea asked Jonathan, “So is your mother dating that guy? He seems a bit younger than her.” I didn’t get to hear Jonathan’s response because they went inside. As the door closed behind them, Marshall and I sat on the steps nearly at the same time, as each of us said the other’s name. We both laughed, and he said, “You first.”
“Honestly, I really haven’t had a chance to give your big idea a lot of thought, and I don’t want to talk about it in front of Jonathan yet, but my initial reaction is that I’m open to it. Of course, I must see your condo before I can think seriously about it.”
“And that is exactly why I’ve stopped over. Bob had to work for a few hours today, and we decided we’d like you to come to our place for dinner…next Sunday afternoon. How’s that sound?” It sounded great to me. I really enjoyed Marshall, and I was curious to see if their condo would be right for me. Plus that would give me all week to look at other places I might consider…something else I should have been considering for a while now, but kept avoiding.
“Yes, Sunday afternoon sounds great. What should I bring?”
“I’d tell you to bring your friend, Lily…she was pretty entertaining, really, but only if you want her to be in on this idea. Or I had thought you might want to bring Jonathan.”
“Marshall, remember I told you Lily isn’t exactly my friend? She’s more of an acquaintance, really. A friend would never have done that to Jonathan. I’ll admit, she’s turned out to be quite complicated, as we all experienced at my dinner. She was quite a bit of fun at our lunch, wasn’t she? I hadn’t known that about her husband until just recently.” I paused for a minute, thinking that was a really uncomfortable thing for me to say to Marshall. Then I continued, “I wasn’t asking who I should bring, anyway. I was asking what you’d like me to bring.”
“You don’t have to bring a thing,” he answered. “We’ll take care of dinner.”
I wondered if he found my dinner food too ordinary, but I simply said, “I’d love to come.”
We set the time, and Marshall left because he was going to church. I suppressed my desire to ask what church he went to; after my experience this morning, I wondered if he had a church that would make him feel accepted more than he would have with me this morning. He also reminded me that the four of us – Lily, Bob, himself and me- already had lunch plans again during the week. Rather than going back to the mulch, I went inside to see how Andrea’s phone call was going.