by Etienne Bennett
Part One:
Early February 2006
I never thought I’d think this...but I’m going to miss all this.
It was hard to believe, but she was beginning to feel homesick already, and she was not leaving that night but in the morning – bright and early – and despite all her years of travel, both individually and with her family, she knew how much she would miss things. They were spread out everywhere: within the United States, on duty overseas; only a few were currently within her immediate reach, with instant messages and emails and the occasional conference call reuniting them when the need arose. But always in the back of her mind was the thought that no matter where she was, she would again return home, whether her parents’ house – the one she had grown up in – or the apartment where she had spent the last five years.
Tomorrow would be different....
I have no idea how long I’m going to be gone...and she casually pushed the soft honey blonde curls back from her face, the cool March breeze tossing it over her eyes. She was willing to brave the temperatures for a last opportunity to stand on her balcony and gaze southward, over the ink black Ohio dotted with the white lights here and there of a passing barge heading to the locks and dam, and then to the brilliantly glowing skyline and waterfront that made up the city of her birth. To think that in a month or so, the skies overhead would be filled with magnificent color and dancing designs; the George Rogers Clark Bridge and the makeshift flatboats launching even more fireworks or having them spill over into the River while the light show played. Before moving into her current residence, she would have steered clear of the crowds of nearly a million that crowded the shore on both sides. Having a home that was eleven stories off the ground and with such a view....On those Saturdays when Thunder was on display and she was not working, she and her guests could stand on the balcony or at the glass sliding doors and pretend it was for them alone.
Now – with the exception of the city lights and the barges and the headlights on the Clark and Kennedy Bridges – the night was still. The only sound was from the traffic down below and around her as people came and went, and she was so accustomed to that it hardly bothered her. No, she had other things on her mind – more pressing things, and after the longest she turned and looked back into her apartment...her soon to be former apartment, and at the numerous boxes stacked one on top of the other or the furnishings covered in protective wrap.
That’s the story of my life, huh? Bubble wrap and cardboard she laughed to herself, just as a big greyish fur ball rubbed against her leg. Reaching down, she gave the cat a rub around his neck. “Oh I haven’t forgotten you. Were you thinking I’d leave you behind? Silly boy. I’m not going anywhere without you. We’re a team, remember? And here we are...going where no man has gone before....” She noticed that he was suddenly staring quizzically at her, a most human look in his amber eyes. “Okay...whereI have been before but not you. Don’t be so darn nick-picky or you’ll be staying behind,” she teased. She was thankful her new place would let her have a pet. At first she thought they might not permit it, only because she knew how some were about having animals about their dwellings, but there had been no problem, no need for a damage deposit. “And you’re going to love our new place...” she told him, squatting down so she could better reach him. “There’ll be plenty of room for you to roam and we have a little yard too, and they said there are other cats about but you have to promise to be good, okay? Oh and I saw dogs...and horses...and...” She sighed, sitting back on her heels. “I really think you’re going to love it as much as I do.”
The doorbell interrupted the conversation and she glanced at her watch. Eight o’clock. She had said her farewells to everyone over the last few days, so she was not expecting any company...but the doorbell rang again followed by a soft knocking on the wood. “Well...whoever they are, they’re persistent, aren’t they? Hold on a sec,” she called, jogging to the door and standing tiptoe, took a glance through the viewer. Squealing in delight, she turned the locks, removed the chain and once her guest was in view, threw her arms about him.
“Josh!”
“I didn’t think you were in bed yet,” he told her, chuckling at her reaction. He then looked at her very casual wear and raised an eyebrow. “You...weren’t in bed, were you?”
“Bed? Nah...too early yet. Just on my laptop and entertaining Casey. The laptop’s the only thing not packed. Don’t just stand there. Come in...Come in. What are you doing here?” Only now did she notice that he was carrying several white plastic shopping bags as well as a small backpack-type item slung over one shoulder.
“I come bearing gifts little girl....Dinner. Figured you wouldn’t even think about ordering Papa John’s at the rate you were going.”
“Dinner?” She took a deep whiff, then gave a toothy grin. “Kingfish.”
“Kingfish....It helps with them being right down the street so everything is good and hot. And...I brought a bottle of something I thought would work; one of those Andrea Immer favorites.”
“Mmm...What?” She headed toward her kitchen. “Shoot...All my glasses are packed. I’m not even sure I have plastic cups. I’ve been drinking bottled water.”
“Lageder Pinot Grigio.”
“Lageder? Ooooooooo....You sure know a way to a girl’s heart.”
“Just wanting to make your last night in town memorable. You have no idea when you’re going to have Kingfish again.”
“Yeah.” She was touched that he would think of that. The restaurant chain – of which there were now three – had been part of a local franchise dating back to nearly World War II, an eatery that was filled with history and some of the best seafood in the area. And because they were local, it was not like finding a neighborhood Starbucks or McDonald’s on every corner of every city in America. “Probably not until I come back again...whenever that might be.”
“Hey, you don’t have to look for glasses. I brought some...” and as he placed the bags on a kitchen counter, hoping that Casey didn’t try to attack, and proceeded in unpacking the backpack. “You know me – the former Boy Scout....Always prepared.”
“I gave you that a few years ago, didn’t I?”
Josh nodded. “There is nothing like taking your favorite lady on a picnic and making it even more romantic with your own little wine carry-on, complete with the...bottle of wine – already chilled; corkscrew; and real live crystal.”
“Lucky ladies,” she smiled back, deciding that while he did that, she could unpack the bags. “So what did you bring?”
“Oh I’m loaded....Fish box for two....”
“Oh God,” she nearly drooled, thinking how much she loved the taste of the fresh fried whitefish from the North Atlantic. She was always trying to sort out what they used for the batter, but finally gave up, deciding that savoring the dish was better than analyzing it. “What else?”
“Shrimp box for two....And I got fries in the fish box but there’s onion rings with the shrimp, and I got tossed salads and corn on the cob for sides. Hope that’s all right.”
“Perfect.” She opened one Styrofoam container and whispered, “Crab cakes.”
“Crab cakes and their rolled oysters....That’s the appetizers. I told them to throw in plenty of napkins and utensils and plates, and Louisiana hot sauce...”
“Bless you.”
“Tartar...cocktail sauce...salt...pepper...ketchup; I knew you wouldn’t have any condiments sitting around.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh and I didn’t forget Casey – got him his own broiled salmon sandwich.”
“Hey! You’re feeding my cat better than you’re feeding me,” she joked, jabbing him in the side.
“I’ve made it up to you. If you’re not too stuffed after dinner...there’s dessert.”
“Dessert? From where?”
Josh held up the final bag then removed four clear plastic containers.
She immediately recognized the dishes – how could she not considering the many times she had not only dined on them, but once assisted in preparing them. “How did...?” she stammered.
“I reminded them it was your last night in town and asked if they would make sure they saved some for me to pickup before I headed over here. They couldn’t refuse. Said this would be something to remember them by.”
“Like I could ever forget his....Oh my God. Oh my God, Josh...that is...that is so sweet. That was so sweet of them...and it was...it was...it was good of you to be so...”
“You’re not going to cry on me, are you? I hate it when you cry,” he teased.
“Cry?” She quickly wiped her eyes, then washed her hands at the sink. “No....No, I’m not crying. I’m just...I’m just thinking of all this food.”
“Well, let’s dig in before it gets cold. It’s still steaming hot right now and you probably haven’t eaten, have you?”
She shrugged. “I had a couple of White Castle cheeseburgers for lunch.” A very early lunch in lieu of breakfast.
Josh laughed. “Figures. White Castle for lunch and Kingfish for dinner. Two landmarks. Very appropriate....Okay Casey, quit whining....I’ve got yours right here. It’s like he knew he had something, isn’t it?”
Placing his glass on the nearest surface while relaxing on the carpet, Josh stretched then emitted a thoughtful sigh, cocking his head to one side. Casey had enjoyed his dinner and was now peacefully lounging An hour and a half had passed since his arrival, time filled with reminiscences and laughter, of catching up on the latest news, and now he knew – as time grew short – he wanted to become serious without becoming too serious. The last thing he wanted was more tears after all the ones previously shed over knowing she was leaving. “You know I’m going to miss you, right?”
“No you’re not. Well...you’re going to miss this apartment and that wonderful Thunder Over Louisville view.”
“That’s a fact.”
“I told you to make me an offer before I sold.”
He shrugged. “It was going to be next to impossible to break my lease though.”
“Yeah....Oh and besides...you won’t have much time to miss me. You’ve got...what’s her name...uh...Debbie? Macy? Carrie? No...That’s right...it’s a flower: Magnolia.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “Lily.”
“That’s right: Lily.” Her teasing attitude now softened as she nodded. “I like her.”
“She likes you too.”
“That’s sweet. And you do know you should have been with her tonight instead of keeping me...”
“She understood. I think she would have quit speaking to me if I’d done that and besides, you know what I say: girlfriends will come and girlfriends will go but sisters...sisters go on forever. I am going to miss you, little girl.” He paused, noticing that his sibling – the one closest to him age and personality and with whom he spent so many happy times – had turned her head, trying her best to keep from getting overly emotional.
“I’m going to miss you too. I’m going to miss...just...everything. And it’s not like I haven’t been away from home before, and so far from home but...”
“But you’ve never been...” Josh stopped, eyebrows knitting. “Hell, I don’t know what to call it. I thought you’d been drinking when you told me.”
“I never make decisions – or announcements – unless I’m sober,” she reminded him, her right index finger tracing the rim of her nearly empty glass. “But I know....Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”
“More like Bizarro World....No...I take that back. It’s bizarre...you can’t deny that, but...I...I was thinking about it again on my way over here and it’s...it’s just hard getting my brain wrapped around the entire concept about this place.”
“I know....but I felt like I had to tell somebody, Josh and...well...the two of us always tried to explain things to each other.”
“True and I’m glad you did...but this is beyond...it’s beyond...anything, anything I’ve ever run across in my life...or my...work or my studies or... Do you know how many professors, scientists would kill for a chance to see that this place allegedly exists? Oh forget them: Entertainment Tonight, Extra and E! would kill them to get in the front door.”
“It’s not alleged, remember?”
“Right, right....And you’re sure about it? I mean...I know you call it a retreat – for want of a better word I suppose – but you’re not walking into some kind of potential Jonestown, right?” His sister laughed, shaking her head as Josh continued. “And this isn’t some Scientology experiment hidden from public eye?”
“Little Tommy Mapother has nothing to do with this, I promise,” she said, using Mr. Cruise’s real surname. “In fact...” A sly smile came to her lips. “In fact...I think he might be incredibly jealous.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You never have been a fan of his.”
“Oh let’s not get started...” she joked back.
“No, for real...you are very sure about this place? You’re not going to wander in there and then get trapped and we’ll never hear from you again.”
“I’m very sure....Look...like I told you...if I’d had the least amount of hesitation, do you think I would have taken the job? No. I was skeptical too when Annabella first asked me there. If...If I hadn’t gone there a few years back to help her with that wedding, I...no...I wouldn’t have believed it either. But it’s there Josh....I swear to you...I’ve seen it and it’s...it’s...it’s as real as those bridges out there...” and she pointed towards her balcony, “...and the Ohio and Louisville and right here in Jeff...and the people are as alive and real as you and me.”
Josh poured a little more of the Pinot Grigio, nodding the bottle to silently ask if his sister would like more. She held her glass forward while he mumbled, “A world of Russell Crowe clones.” The concept had knocked him for such a loop when he was first told that for hours he had urged himself to wake up, because none of it could exist outside of a writer’s vivid imagination. However, the more his sister talked and in such vivid detail, laying out her explanations with the greatest clarity, then permitting him a view of one particular Internet group to which she belonged, he knew she was being truthful. Add to that the printed details of her contract and agreement with her new employer, even the plans to assist in her relocation and the costs....The mind that had put him at the top of his law school class, made him valedictorian and graduated him summa cum laude began to accept the idea laid out before him, as improbable as it might first appear.
“Not clones though....Thanks....They’re not clones. They’re not carbon copies. They’re more like...I don’t know...I guess incarnations. Yeah...that might be a better word. You remember that Michael Keaton movie from a while back?”
“Clones? Copycat? No...that’s not right. That was that movie with Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter and the serial killer. What was the name of it? Oh well...I know what you’re talking about.”
“Well, remember he cloned himself, but then he made a clone of the clone, and then a clone of that clone and so on, but the secondary clones became paler and less...well, less like Keaton, until the last one was barely able to string a sentence together. It’s not like that at the Point. I mean...these...incarnations....They’re not alike. I mean...they sort of are if you looked at them all together, but then you start to think that they’re more like siblings that kind of resemble but not exactly twins or triplets or sextuplets. All of them have similar features or maybe little quirks or habits that resemble...”
“But they’re all individuals.” Not a question, but a statement – he had asked more questions of her than perhaps of a witness during the most intense cross-examination in his career.
“Right...and remember all the times we’ve talked about him when we’ve seen his movies and we...we talk about how he changes and seems to morph from one film to the other.”
“That’s a fact.” He chuckled. “Hey...remember that review a couple of years ago in the Courier-Journal, when they were comparing him in that naval movie to Cruise in The Last Samurai?”
“Oh! Oh I loved that review.”
“What...What was it about um...Cruise in a kimono is just Cruise in a kimono but Crowe is never the same character and you just wonder what he would have done with that role.”
“Something like that. I know I loved it.”
“Sure you did. I’m surprised you didn’t email the critic and tell her...” He saw his sister’s knowing smile and laughed. “Figured you did. So...he’s there too?”
“Cruise in a kimono? No...I know you mean. Yeah...as far as I know, Captain Aubrey is there.”
“And the one he played in uh...LA Confidential? Uh...” and he and his sister simultaneously said, “Bud White. Yeah...Bud White.”
“He’s there...and Maximus definitely is. I caught a glimpse of him out riding when I went there for my final interview.”
“I was getting ready to say: if he’s not there then there is definitely something wrong with the place! Oh and I guess that means the one from Beautiful Mind too?” He knew this was territory previously covered during their other conversations, but Josh felt that the more he discussed it, the more comfortable he would feel about his sister leaving their real world and entering one that was baffling to even the most logical mind. “Nash was a real person and as far as I know he’s still alive. So is Jeff Wigand. And what about...what about Braddock...I mean...all the real people he’s played? I sort of get the fictional ones being part of the place, but the real guys too?”
“They are all there along with a few you probably don’t even know....Remember the owner I told you about that’s from Louisville.”
“Right...um...” He conjured the name he had seen throughout the paperwork. “Etienne?”
“Etienne...well...her nickname is Tina – that’s what everybody calls her, but it was her wedding I worked on when Annabella had me there.”
“So who is she married to? Good grief – I didn’t even know they got married!”
“Someone from a Russell Crowe movie you probably never even saw,” she laughed.
“Try me.”
“Mystery, Alaska?” The title elicited a bewildered expression. “He was the sheriff that played hockey.”
“Sheriff that played...No, no...I definitely don’t remember that one. So...she’s married to him?”
“Yep.”
“Wonder why she didn’t hook up with somebody more well-known?” he wondered aloud, taking a sip of the wine. “I’d think if you were going to marry a Russell Crowe character you’d choose someone like Maximus or Bud White.”
“Maybe because she wasn’t in love with either one of them,” came the matter-of-fact answer. “Josh...you have to think about it like we’re discussing relationships...I mean...life there is like life here. It would be like me asking why you don’t marry some runway model or Hollywood bimbo or the latest millionaire idiot heiress because she’s better known...instead of someone like...well...” and along came a wink, “Lily?”
“Makes sense.”
“And I’m not saying Bud or Maximus are idiots – you know better than that from their movies.”
“I get you.”
“Tina fell in love with John Biebe and...John Biebe fell in love with her, and Annabella said he proposed to her and they’ve been married a few years and from what I’ve seen...”
“You’ve met him?”
“Uh-huh. From what I’ve seen...he’s a real nice fellow...and...he really loves her.”
“And she packed her bags and left Louisville behind and moved to this...place.”
“Crowe’s Point.” She wanted to stress the name, wanted her brother to realize that the location had an identity.
“Crowe’s...Point....And now off you go.”
“Off I go.”
“And you’re sure you don’t want to tell the others about this place. I think Mom and Dad...”
“Would worry...or think I’m insane...or wonder why you didn’t have me committed immediately or talk me out of it....Josh...look...I told you because...because I knew that the more I detailed it, the more you would accept it and understand and realize your sister wasn’t losing it. This...This is the opportunity of a lifetime. I’m actually getting my own kitchen after all these years and...it’s...what I’ve been working towards.”
“I know.”
“Like you getting that senior partnership last year.”
“Yeah...”
“Or David making Captain and Yelena getting...”
“I know, I know, I know....You have worked hard for this...for everything. I’m not going to deny that. I just wish...I wish it was somewhere around here...or in Kentucky or Indiana or Ohio or some place in any other of the fifty states...or Canada or Britain...”
“But it’s not in any of those...I don’t guess. I don’t know.”
“And that’s another thing! You can’t even Mapquest this place. It’s just...” He waved a hand in the air. “...out there, like Never Never Land and Through the Looking Glass.”
“I like to think...You know...I really like to think of it more like...okay don’t laugh.”
“Trust me – I’m not going to.”
“Middle Earth.”
“Middle...?”
“Or Narnia. Both of those seem so...real, like they were always part of Earth but then something happened that split them away, but they’re there and we just have to find the right way in.”
Joshua nodded. “Okay...not as fantastical then as Oz or Never Never Land You could actually believe they exist. Makes sense...I think,” he chuckled. “What Einstein would think of all this I have no idea....Look...I know how much you want this. Let’s face it...it’s not every day that a first class kitchen is going to drop into your lap like this...”
“And not just the kitchen, but I’ll be head sommelier too, so I’m going to get to put all my training to use. I was praying every single night that they’d pick me and...it’s crazy, but I swear...every time I was interviewed or tested, I knew how those people feel on some of those stupid reality shows, wondering if you’re going to get eliminated or not. I could wait for years to get a head position at one of the top restaurants around here or even somewhere in the region but this...” She shook her head, still amazed at how fortunate she was. “This is the proverbial chance of a lifetime, Josh. I can’t let it go. I don’t know when something like this will happen again.”
“Well then...”
“Well?”
“I think I just realized how grown up you are.”
“Awww...you’ve known that for a long time.”
“Yeah...but having you so far away...in this place...I think I’m realizing exactly what happens when you put your mind to something.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“And you’ll email...or text message or call somebody at home or send up smoke signals or something. Just...let us know you’re all right, okay?”
“Okay...I promise.”
“And maybe someday...Lily and I will have to pay this place a visit.”
“So it is serious...you and Lily....You’ll let me cater the reception, right?”
Joshua shook his head, hoping his face had not turned red in a dead giveaway. “When it gets to that point, you will be the first to know...and I want a discount because I’m your brother.”
“We’ll...talk.”
Emitting a short laugh, he thoughtfully considered how much he would miss her, no matter how much he teased her over the matter. It seemed that only yesterday she was squatting in front of her little Easy Bake Oven and whipping up tiny cakes and brownies for the family. Now she was not only a graduate of one of the finest culinary schools in the world, but had a lengthy résumé behind her, one filled with glowing praise from every instructor and employer that crossed her path. He knew in his heart it was right accepting the position, but also sad thinking that the last of his siblings in the area would be heading out once more.
