Letting Loose

by Joanne Skerrett

  More than twice, Drew stopped to talk to people he knew.

  “So, what’s this about you becoming the Minister of Education?”

  He shrugged. “That’s just gossip,” he said. “One person said it and now it’s going around. I’m not ready for politics.”

  But I wasn’t convinced. It sounded serious when yet another person stopped us and asked him whether he was going to accept the position.

  “Vanessa has you on track to be the prime minister someday, and everybody else thinks you’re going to be education minister. Am I missing something?”

  He only looked at me and laughed.

  What would that mean for us? For me? Could this even go anywhere? This guy was so tied to this place, and I didn’t see how in the world I could live here. I had yet to see a single Gap, Banana Republic, or Ann Taylor. How would I survive? Did the stores here carry Häagen-Dazs? Since there was no winter, did that mean I’d never get to wear my knee-high leather boots ever again?

  His hand went to my leg as we drove away from Roseau. “What are you thinking about?”

  “I guess, just that you seem so much a part of this place. Everyone knows you.”

  “That can happen when there are barely thirty thousand people in an entire metropolitan area. And they know my father—not me. They miss him; we haven’t had a truly great leader since he died.” Drew paused. “They think I’m their great hope.”

  We drove past the high school, Dominica Grammar School, where Drew attended high school. “Maybe we’ll go in tomorrow,” he said.

  It was a huge school, and I could see a few students playing basketball on a court in the front. They were wearing uniforms, the girls as well as the boys. They looked so well behaved. I had already built an image of these Dominican students in my mind, based solely on my Harry Potter knowledge of English schools. I expected the kids would be witty, well disciplined, and formal. I couldn’t wait to meet them.

  We drove through Bath Estate, a community of small and midsize houses bordered by a huge mountain. I snapped a few pictures.

  “This used to be a huge lime plantation,” Drew said. “Way, way back when my parents were kids.”

  I snapped more pics as I saw a barefoot girl walking two goats down the street.

  “God, you live really far away!” I said after we had passed Bath Estate.

  “We’re almost there,” he said.

  I just wanted us to get out of the truck and really be with each other. Ten minutes later, we were in the country again. I could hear a river flowing nearby over the engine of the truck. Tall, majestic trees leaned over the road on one side and a rocky cliff bounded it on the other. The sun was somewhere high in the sky, but I couldn’t see it through the trees; the air felt pleasantly cool. We had to be nearing his place. This was exactly how he had described it. We turned up a dirt road, passed one other house high up with its own private road, and then stopped outside a white house.

  “This is it,” he said as he put the car into park.

  He grabbed my bag and I followed him up the stairs onto the tiled porch. A huge German shepherd bounded out from nowhere. That was Sonny. I’d heard of him but didn’t expect him to be so big. His nose went straight to my crotch. I yelped.

  “Sonny!” Drew grabbed the dog by its collar. “Sorry, he’s one of those negroes who just doesn’t believe in small talk first.”

  I had to laugh. I patted the dog on its head and it licked my hands enthusiastically. I wasn’t a big dog fan, but Sonny seemed friendly. As long as he kept his nose out of my business, then we should get along fine.

  The house was cozy, very much Drew. There were hundreds of books on bookshelves, on the floor, and on the coffee table. The furniture was simple and tasteful. It looked to me a scaled-down version of Vanessa’s style. The furniture was upholstered in blue chambray; mahogany bookshelves lined the living room. There was a huge stereo system and a plasma television system. He had satellite. “For sports,” he’d said.

  He looked a bit sheepish as I surveyed the place. When he’d said the place was small, peaceful, and in an isolated area, I’d truly expected some little log cabin out in the middle of nowhere. Instead, this was a nice house with every comfort. He took me out to the back where I could see a mountain looming in the distance, a thicket of trees a few dozen feet away, and the roar of some river in the background.

  “Is the river near here?” I asked.

  “Kind of. But that’s not what you hear. That’s a waterfall.”

  My eyes opened wide. “Really? There’s a waterfall near here?”

  “Just a short walk away.”

  “Can we go see it?”

  “Can we eat first? I’m starving.”

  I realized, too, that I was hungry. It seemed like forever since I’d had that croissant and coffee on Vanessa’s porch. All I’d had since was about half a gallon of water.

  “I made us something earlier, but I’m going to have to warm it up.”

  Whatever it was, it smelled good. It was some kind of fish and vegetable dish and I was growing hungrier by the second.

  I tried not to shove the food into my mouth once we sat down to eat, but I was ravenous, and the food was delicious.

  “Wow. You are a great cook!”

  “Thanks. I can’t wait to see what you can do.”

  I’d show him all right, though it probably wouldn’t be as healthy as this.

  We ate on the back patio, looking out at the forest of trees in his backyard. A hammock swung from a beautiful jacaranda, the one he’d described in his e-mails. I could hear all kinds of birds chirping. I saw a few blue jays mucking about and grabbed my camera.

  “You don’t have to do that so often,” he said.

  I was embarrassed. “Why? Does it bother you?”

  “Not really. When you take all these pictures it looks as if you don’t ever plan to be here again.”

  I thought this over as I sipped passion fruit juice, which would be my new favorite drink.

  “I want to have memories. And I promised my friends I’d bring back a lot of pictures.”

  “I see,” he said.

  “Do you mind if I take a shower after we’re finished eating? I’m really hot and sticky.” I’d brought a change of clothes in my canvas tote. Just in case.

  He nodded, then we began to clean up the dishes. “You don’t have a dishwasher?”

  “Nah, don’t need one. The electricity up here can be really sporadic, so it’s just not worth it.”

  “So the lights go out all the time?” I didn’t like the idea of being out here in the woods in the dark. On the way here I’d only seen one house that could be described as belonging to a neighbor.

  “I have a generator, but I hardly ever use it. I’m used to the unpredictability.”

  “Are you thinking that I’m incredibly spoiled?”

  “Not at all. I think it’s kinda cute,” he said as we stood over the sink.

  I looked at him and smiled. And then I kissed him. He pulled back a bit. “Hey, I wanted that to be my move.”

  “Sorry, I beat you to it.” I kissed him again; I didn’t even feel self-conscious about it. Everything just felt so right; me being here with him, kissing him.

  He put his arm around me and I felt so, so held. I mean, he was a big guy and that was a good thing for me; I felt truly enveloped in him. We kissed deeply, passionately, and he ground his body against mine. I swooned as his hands traveled the length of my body. Before I knew it I was following him to what I guessed was the bedroom.

  Oh my God! I don’t think that my mother would approve of what I was doing. Vanessa probably wouldn’t either. But he was peeling off my dress and soon I was under him on the big, king-size bed in the middle of the room. I opened my eyes just a bit to look around me. My eyes made contact with a white fan, circling. It was too late to suddenly become a good girl.

  I moaned as his mouth went around one of my nipples. His hands traveled downward. Who was I? What was my name a
gain? I felt so inexperienced as he undressed himself. I guess I should have done that? But I wasn’t too sure. Maybe it wasn’t too late to warn him that I didn’t know what in the heck I was doing because it had been so long. But his mouth was on my nipple again and I went off to la-la land.

  It didn’t last long. I heard a noise. A loud bang. I think I must have screamed.

  “You okay?” he asked, concerned.

  “What was that?” I pulled away from him, looking around the room.

  “That’s the housekeeper’s car. Her engine backfires sometimes.”

  “Housekeeper?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “She’s here now?”

  He nodded and kissed my forehead, my lips. “We were just getting to the good part, Amelia.”

  I was a little distressed by the inelegance of the housekeeper’s entrance. “So, there’s someone else in the house now?”

  “Is that a problem?”

  “It’s…I don’t know if I can…”

  “She’s not going to come in here,” he said.

  “You didn’t tell me you had a housekeeper.”

  “She only comes a few times a month. I forgot to tell her not to come this week.”

  I sat up in the bed. The mood was gone. It had backfired with the housekeeper’s car engine.

  He sighed.

  “I’m sorry. I just can’t do it with her out there.”

  Drew seemed largely unfazed. He lay next to me, playing with my hair. “It’s okay. We have all week.”

  I lay back on the bed and tried to relax. The air conditioner was really kicking in and I felt chilly. I snuggled up to him. His body felt hard and warm against my softness. I realized then that not once in the last half hour or so had I thought of being fat. I did not even remember to feel self-conscious about my stomach or my thighs or my butt. And that had felt good. I wanted to stay in this nonfat mental place forever.

  We did not see the rest of the island that afternoon. Instead, I begged him to take me to see the waterfall.

  “You realize that you might have to actually see the housekeeper once you leave this room,” he joked.

  The woman was pleasant, but cool. She shook my hand limply when Drew introduced us.

  “She works for my mother,” Drew said apologetically. “Her son does landscaping up at the house.”

  Of course, I thought. All things lead back to Vanessa.

  We trudged through thick grass and prickly bushes, and I could hear the waterfall crashing down closer and closer with each step. I so wanted to see it. Then his cell phone rang.

  I didn’t like the expression on his face. “Mom, why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

  He looked at me, an apology already in his eyes. What was Vanessa up to now?

  “What’s wrong?” I asked when he switched off the phone.

  “Nothing,” he shrugged. “Looks like Mom’s got more people for you to meet.”

  “Drew!” I couldn’t stop myself from groaning. “I thought we were going to be together this week.”

  “We are,” he said. “We will be. We’re just going to have to go to her party tonight. That’s all. We don’t have to stay long.”

  “So do we have to leave now?”

  “We probably should. We’ll need to get ready…”

  So, no waterfall. I was so disappointed. Grrrrr! Vanessa!

  “Can’t we just ditch her party?” I laughed, but I was only half kidding.

  “We could. But she tends to hold grudges over that sort of thing. We don’t have to stay long,” he said again.

  Fine. Fine. Fine. I’ll go off to another party and be the charming American.

  As I showered in Drew’s bathroom I thought of how close we had come to doing the deed. There had been enough electricity in that room to light up Texas. Yeah, chemistry would definitely not be a problem. Yes! I thought. This trip was not a wash. Now if only I could get Vanessa to just leave us alone for the rest of the week.

  “You might end up having a great time,” Drew said as we climbed back into the Range Rover a few minutes later.

  “I’m sure I will,” I lied as I looked back at the housekeeper peering at us from the front window.

  Chapter 15

  Sweating was something I was only lately getting accustomed to. And here I was doing it in front of the man I was trying so hard to impress. But I couldn’t help it. On Dominica, the heat was constant and relentless. Once outside, there was no escaping it.

  Thank God for spin class, at least I’d developed a passable level of fitness. Six months ago, I would have keeled over after a half hour of walking up this steep mountain.

  “You all right?” Drew looked concerned. “If you want we can stop to rest.”

  I nodded. Yeah. I needed to just catch my breath and have some water.

  I felt the warm, tawny earth on my behind, not caring that my khaki shorts would probably be stained. I was so wiped out. Drew hadn’t even broken a sweat yet. He was up before dawn every day for long, punishing runs on hilly trails behind the house. I felt horribly out of shape next to him and I worried that he might think I was some kind of slug. Well, I was a slug, but I was working on not being one! He sat next to me and leaned back on his elbows, his knees up to the sky.

  “Maybe we should head back down if the climb’s too much for you.” I thought I caught a sliver of disappointment on his face.

  “I’ll be fine,” I said. I took a deep breath and I was beginning to feel better. My heart had stopped pounding and my vision had cleared. Wow, I thought. Had I been on the verge of a heart attack? “I’m sorry I’m not very athletic.”

  He shrugged. “You’re fine. Stop apologizing.”

  I scrutinized his face. Was the fact that I was always apologizing irritating? Would it irritate him further if I even asked that question?

  “I think you’re sexy when you’re all tired and helpless like this.” He turned to me on one elbow.

  I grinned. “At this point you can go ahead and have your way with me because there’s no way I could fight you off.”

  “Is that right?” He leaned in to me and kissed me hard on the lips.

  I grabbed the waistband of his shorts and pulled him closer, and we began to go at it again under the bright, blue sky in front of God and nature. I hoped there were no other hikers in the vicinity else they’d certainly get an eyeful, and judging from the way I was finding that I couldn’t control myself, an earful, too.

  Then we heard voices. Children laughing. “Oh my God!” I pulled up my shorts and searched for my bra in the grass.

  Drew swore.

  The voices drew nearer and I struggled to put my clothes back on.

  I stood up quickly, the same moment that a kid, about 12, came walking up to us.

  “Hi,” I said, smiling innocently. Drew stood up, cool as a cucumber, taking a swig of water from a bottle.

  “Hello, Mr. Anderson,” the kid said.

  The kid knew him?

  “How are you, Marcus?” Drew gave the kid his I’m-future-prime minister smile.

  “I’m well,” the kid said. And soon an army of 12-year-olds were on us, led by an attractive young sister.

  “Drew! Long time no see!” she squealed.

  They embraced and he turned to introduce me. Her name was Daphne, Miss Daphne he called her, because I guess that’s what everyone, including the kids, called her.

  “We’re doing our nature hike today,” she said in her sing-songy accent. “We don’t have time to stop and chat, though, Amelia. Come on, children!” She clapped her hands and a dozen boys came running.

  “Maybe we’ll see you at the top of the mountain?” She gathered the kids and trudged off, not looking tired at all. I felt like a fat slug.

  “That was close,” Drew said.

  “That would have been really embarrassing,” I said.

  This was the third time we’d been rudely interrupted this way. First it was the housekeeper. Then the night before at Vanessa’s
party, we’d tried to escape to my room. Vanessa came knocking on the door two minutes later. She had yet another friend who wanted to meet me. I was beginning to think that we were under some kind of forced abstinence curse. It was highly frustrating.

  I followed Drew up to the top of the mountain and I felt my lungs heaving and straining. Would I die? Would Grace Wilson have to come down to this little island to claim my body? I could just imagine her reaction: Amelia went hiking and then she died? Amelia went hiking? Hiking?

  “We’re almost there,” Drew said, grabbing my hand as I stumbled over a rock. Sweat was pouring down my back and between my legs. It wasn’t even very hot this high up, but the effort made me feel like this was spin class on steroids. “You’ll get used to the climbing after a while,” he said. Then he stopped. “That is, if you decide to come back.”

  “Oh, I’ll definitely be back,” I said. Though probably not to this mountain.

  “Here we are,” Drew said fifteen arduous minutes later.

  I looked around, and yes, we were at the top of Morne Trois Pitons. I could see the two other peaks in the near distance. I was up three thousand, three hundred and forty-two feet into the sky. I could see Daphne and her students eating lunch a few hundred feet away. The area was otherwise deserted except for some mournful-sounding birds. It was almost two P.M. Where had the day gone?

  “This is spectacular,” I said, snapping pictures of the marvelous view from atop the mountains. I could see green, plenty of green. We’d passed waterfalls and hot springs on the way up and all kinds of strange-looking plants and trees, some of which I thought were alive.

  “Actually, we’d have to climb about another thousand feet to truly get to the top, but it’s a rough climb. I think you’ve had enough.” He took the camera from my hand. We sat at the base of a big, shady tree and ate our unglamorous lunch of trail mix, water, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.