“Yeah, they wanted me to meet them tonight, both of them.”
“A tempting offer, I received one also.”
“Why couldn’t I have met them a year ago?”
“Before Carol?”
“Yeah, but it’s not just Carol, it’s June too.”
“What do you mean?”
“Davey, they’re identical, it would seem too much like being with June. June’s my friend and your girl. It would creep me out. Do you know what I mean?”
David nods his head. “I see your point.”
Simon, Carol and June walk over to David and Al.
Simon speaks to Al. “I see that April and May have taken a liking to you Mr. Salvatori.”
“Yes, they’re very friendly.”
“I don’t think you need any new friends Al. If you make any new friends you may lose one you have now.” Carol says.
“I explained that to the girls myself Carol.”
Carol smiles without warmth. “As long as you understand it Al, that’s all that matters.”
David is laughing to himself over this exchange.
“David why are you laughing, what’s funny?” June asks.
“I’ll explain it to you later honey.”
April and May are in their bedroom. May, incensed, throws a lamp across the room, smashing it against a wall.
“Who does that hoodlum think he is turning us down? I’m getting tired of being rejected by June’s friends.”
“He’s just a lovesick fool May, just like David, forget them. I think we’d better contact Mr. Parker soon. I overheard father on the phone earlier instructing his lawyers about the new will, it’s almost ready to be signed.”
“What are you going to tell Parker to do?”
“Mr. Parker has to kill father and make it look as if it were an interrupted robbery and then plant evidence to make it seem that David had him killed for the inheritance.”
“And then David will be gone and we can tempt June into playing our games. Oh April, June told me the most horrible thing, David is the only man she’s ever been with. Can you imagine? We have to bring her along, she’s missing so much fun.”
“Our little sister will join us May, it’s just a matter of time.”
That night, David and June lie in bed holding each other and talking.
On June’s nightstand is Dickens’s, A Tale of Two Cities. The nighttime reading habit that began before June recovered her speech continues, only now it is June that reads to David. Her vocabulary, reading and verbal skills improve constantly from this habit, as do David’s, whose job it is to search the dictionary when they come across an unfamiliar word.
The room is dark now, save for a sliver of light emanating from a nightlight in the adjacent bathroom. David notices that June seems quieter than usual and decides to find out why.
“June is something wrong? You seem preoccupied.”
“I was just thinking about something that May told me.”
“What’s that honey?”
“She said that men like women who have a lot of experience…in bed.”
“I guess that’s true of some men.”
“Is it true of you? Alison seemed experienced and you were with her.”
“Please tell me you’re not still jealous of Alison.”
“No, it’s just that, what May said made sense. Do I really please you?”
“You satisfy me completely. I wouldn’t listen to your sisters’ views on sex too much…they’re a little one-sided.”
“What do you mean?”
How do I say this delicately? David thinks. “Honey, do you remember earlier when I was laughing at Carol and Al’s conversation?”
“Yes, Carol was telling Al not to make friends with my sisters. I don’t think Carol likes them very much.”
“Well, she wasn’t concerned about them being friends, she was worried about them having sex.”
“David, are you saying that my sisters asked Al to have sex?”
“Yes Honey.”
“But they know he’s with Carol, why would they do that?”
“I don’t think they care who Al’s with, your sisters just really like sex.”
“But David I really like sex too, I can’t imagine not making love to you.”
“Who else do you want to make love to?”
“No one. I only love you, with someone else it wouldn’t…feel right.”
“I feel the same way. That’s what makes your sisters different, it feels right to them with just about anybody. I don’t think either one of them has ever been in love.”
“That’s so sad. I hope they fall in love someday.”
David reaches over and turns on the light. “June?”
“Yes?”
“Do you want more experience? Is it something that you feel you need? I’m a very selfish man. You’ve spent most of your years locked away and I come along and monopolize your life. If you want to wait to get married if…you think you’ve missed out on something by only being with me, if you’re curious about other men…I’ll understand. I’ll step aside and wait. I love you enough to let you go—if that’s what you want.” David closes his eyes as he awaits her answer.
“No David. I don’t know what I’ve missed by not having a normal life but I know that I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“Thank God. I don’t think I could live without you now; I wonder how I ever did.”
“David I would be lost without you too. May was wrong, you don’t need experience to be good in bed, you just need to be in love.”
“I love you June. I love you more than life.”
“I love you too David, and you are my life.”
They kiss, and the kissing turns passionate. Touching turns to holding turns to feeling, and David and June increase in their experience.
20
The next day, while Blake is meeting with his lawyers to sign the new will, June is shopping with her sisters in New York City. June’s eyes boggle at the prices while April and May never even think to look at them.
At the end of the afternoon the three women have purchased over sixtyeight thousand dollars in clothing. A large portion of the cost is a sable fur coat for June that April and May insist no civilized woman should be without.
The three planned to lunch before returning home and have a reservation at The Oak Room inside the Plaza Hotel. They each wear identical dresses that were purchased while shopping. June feels uncomfortable by the higher than usual hemline and is also feeling self-conscience about her dress’s plunging neckline.
“Next week June we’ll come back for shoes, that’s a day of shopping in itself.” May says.
“So tell us,” April says. “Now that you’re legally alive, have you and David set a date?”
“No, but we know we want to marry soon.” June says.
“I don’t know how you can think of getting married when there are so many luscious men about, like that one over there, oh my God.”
May is looking at a man in his early thirties with an obviously athletic build and a suit tailored to enhance it. He has curly blond hair with a goatee and is smiling at the three of them. April and May smile back and he walks over to their table.
“How do you do ladies? I can honestly say that I have never seen three more beautiful women in my life. My name is Mitch Daniels, what’re your names?”
“April, May and June, Mitch why don’t you have a seat?” April says.
“April, May and June are my favorite months.” Mitch says, as he sits.
“I am April, this gorgeous creature to my left is my sister May and to her left and your right is June. June is getting married soon.”
“Is that right? He’s certainly a lucky man.” Mitch says, and June smiles shyly at him.
“I was just telling June that I don’t know how she can think of getting married when there are so many delicious men around like you Mitch.”
“Well, she’s not married y
et. She can still make a memory or two.” Mitch says in a mid-west twang. As he talks, he subtly leans toward June and looks down her dress.
“What do you say June? This is a hotel and we promise not to tell David, after all, you’re not married yet.”
At first, June doesn’t understand what April means, then realization comes and she is appalled.
“You mean…just have sex? With him? No! April I could never do that. I love David. I don’t even know this man.”
“June are you trying to tell us that you don’t find Mitch attractive?”
June looks at Mitch. “No May, he’s a very good-looking man.”
“Do you think he couldn’t please you sexually?” April asks.
June looks from April to May and then to Mitch, who gives her a smile that could arouse a dead nun. June then answers in a soft voice while blushing a deep red.
“I’m sure he could.”
“Then what’s the problem? Go have some fun with Mitch, we’ll wait for you. You’re not married yet, it’ll be fine.” April says.
June shakes her head while hugging herself. “April, I love David and he’s the only man I want to be with like that. I need more than…lust.”
“Suit yourself,” May says. “Oh Mitch, would you possibly be kind enough to show me where the ladies room is?”
“Sure, It’s right over there.” Points a dejected Mitch.
“No, I want you to show me where it is.”
Mitch awakens from his disappointment over June as he now understands May’s meaning. “Oh, yes I’ll walk you over there; it will be my pleasure.”
May whispers, “You’ve got that right.” as she walks away with Mitch.
April and June, left alone at the table, are quiet for a few minutes, but then April breaks the silence. “I hope you’re not angry at May and I, June. We just want to see you have some fun. You’ve had such a sheltered and hard life and there’s so much pleasure to experience.”
“I’m not mad. I just think we’re very different.” June says.
“We’re not different June, we can’t be. We are one. Don’t you remember what it felt like to be one of three? To move as one? To think as one? The worst thing mother did when she took you away was to break our bond. I hate her so much for doing that.”
“I remember April. I was very young but I remember. It was like being three people at once.”
“Exactly, and I hope in time that we can rebuild that.” April appears to drift off into memory. “I’d give anything to feel that again. To know what someone else thinks and feels and needs, and to have them know the same about me. I would give anything.”
“But April that’s what being in love is, I already have all that and more with David.”
April turns a hard gaze on June. “No, that’s not love. That’s only love’s beginning. Men are weak. They really are good for only three things: making money, making love, and making fools of. You have a lot to learn June, May and I will teach you. We love you very much.”
“I love you too April. I just wish we were more alike.”
“We will be in time, trust me. Oh good, I see May is rejoining us.”
May comes to the table while still applying lipstick and fluffing her hair, her face has a very high color.
June stares at her, concerned. “May are you feeling well? You look very flushed. Maybe the food didn’t agree with you.”
“Oh yes, it…must be something I put in my mouth. Are you two ready to leave? I have the dire need for a cigarette and you can’t smoke anywhere in Manhattan these days.”
As the limousine makes its way through the heavy midtown traffic, April takes a small bag out of her purse. “June, May and I were going to give you this at a later date but I feel as if we’ve upset you and I want to cheer you up.” April then hands June the bag.
June removes six long, colorful strands from the bag. “What are they April?”
“Just a small gift, May and I have some of our own. We wear them on special occasions.”
June suppresses an involuntary shiver. “I see, thank you…they’re quite nice.” In her hands lay six bright red ribbons with the capital letter J all over them.
21
David and Simon are in a corner of the great kitchen of Davenport Manor discussing Simon’s computer problems.
David is typing delete commands and purging disk space as Simon sits beside him with a fretful look on his face.
“I’m so glad you know something about computers David, everything is on this one, recipes, schedules, even the personnel files of the staff. Oh, if I can’t retrieve that information I’ll be lost.”
“Don’t worry Simon, this problem is easily fixed, you just used up all of the available disk space with redundant files. You know, this computer is ancient, you really should upgrade to a newer model, but in the meantime I’ll back-up your important information on floppys.”
“Floppys? That sounds like some sort of embarrassing sex problem. Oh, I am so hopeless around computers.”
“Nonsense, I’ll give you a few basic lessons and you’ll be a pro in no time. I’m glad I can do something to help you, you’ve been so nice to me and June, thank you.”
“Now who’s talking nonsense? June is a sweetheart. She’s so different from those sisters of hers. She really does remind me of her mother the most.”
“Did you know Angeline well?”
“As well as a servant’s son could get to know the lady of the house in those days. She was very kind to me, very sweet. I abhor drugs to this day because of what her addiction made her become.”
“She certainly caused a lot of pain.”
“Yes, but David, it really was the drugs. Angeline was educated and cultured. Did you know she spoke five languages?”
“No, I actually know very little about her. I guess you share Blake’s view that she’s dead, you speak of her in the past tense.”
“Yes, she’s dead and poor June suffered because of it. When Blake identified that other child’s body as being June I had thought the pain was over. Now all I keep thinking about is poor June locked away in some dungeonlike place all those years.”
“What were April and May like after June was taken?”
“You’ve never seen anything like it, they were robots. If you told them to do something they would do it, nothing more, just what you told them to do.”
“It sounds like what June said of herself under hypnosis, only it took her years to ease out of it even slightly due to her isolation.”
“April and May were no different, those twenty seven months they were in that catatonic state were the worst of my life. Thank God for Samuel, Dr. Jenkins.”
“Is he the doctor that brought the girls out of their trance?”
“Yes, he was a genius and the sweetest man I ever knew…we were very close.”
“Where is he now?”
“Dead, I’m sorry to say, he died in a small plane crash several years ago, such a loss.”
“What treatment did he use that finally worked?”
“Chemical injections of some sort, meant to effect the girl’s pituitary glands. It was experimental, but Blake thought it worth the risk. I think if it had failed, Blake would have placed the girls in a hospital or mental institution of some sort, he was losing hope.”
David stands. “Well, you’re all set. The computer’s working again. I’ll drop back down here later this week and give you a few lessons.”
“Thank you so much, um David, forgive me if I’m being nosy, but do you and June still plan to wed?”
“Yes. Why do you ask? Did you overhear Blake testing me?”
“Yes, I’m glad to see you turned him down, and may I say that June has chosen her future husband well, you are a gentleman.”
“Thank you, I’ll see you later.”
David opens the door of his bedroom to find that June has returned from her shopping trip. June has just finished changing clothes. She runs over to David and falls into his arms.
David swoops her up and carries her over to the bed kissing her all the while. They fall atop the bed laughing.
“I missed you so much today honey, how was shopping?”
“Shopping is never bad David. I bought so much stuff. I bought you a few things too, they’ll be delivered tomorrow.”
“Thanks, I think I’ve tripled my wardrobe since I’ve met you.”
“You can never have too many clothes.”
“No, I suppose you can’t. How was it being alone with your sisters?”
June’s mood turns serious. “It was OK. I just wish they weren’t both so lonely. I think you’re right, I don’t think they’ve ever been in love.”
“Maybe they will be someday. Do you still get that bad feeling when you’re around them, or has that passed?”
“It’s strange, sometimes I feel very uneasy around them and at other times I feel they love me. I know I love them, they’re my sisters, we used to be one.”
“People change and go in separate directions, it happens sometimes.”
June frowns as she recalls April’s ominous views on love.
“David, do you think we’ll ever grow apart?”
David takes her hand. “We my love will never grow apart. Nothing could keep me away from you June. Even when you were my Miss Mouse I knew I was yours forever. You own my heart, my soul and my life, I will always love you and I will always protect you. I am yours.”
“I’m yours too David. I love you so much.”
“June honey,”
“Yes?”
“I was going to take you to dinner tonight and everything…but I can’t wait.”
David reaches into the side pocket of his khakis and brings out a ring box. He hands it to June. June opens the box to reveal an oval-shaped four-carat diamond engagement ring and is made speechless by the ring’s beauty. She gasps as David slides it onto her finger, it fits perfectly.
“June Davenport, will you do me the privilege of becoming my wife?”
“Yes David, you know I will.”
“I thought it was time we made it official.”
“Oh, I can’t wait to show Carol.”
“We’ll drop by tomorrow morning.”
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