Faith

The sun was high and bright when Brian stepped outside. He found the streets as he had found them yesterday on his drive in--full of children fresh out of school. He felt the surge of freedom himself. As he headed north, he saw a girl break away from a group of children and come toward him. Even bundled in a coat and scarf he recognized Claire.

"'Scuse me. Did you used to live here?"

"That's right." He wanted to tuck her hair away from her face but stopped himself.

"My mother said you did. Today in school, the teacher said you went away and got famous."

He couldn't stop the grin. "Well, I went away."

To Claire he looked like a regular person, not someone who bounded around the world on adventures. Her eyes narrowed. "Did you really go to all those places like they said?"

"That depends on what they said." In tacit agreement they began to walk together. "I've been to some places."

"Like Tokyo?" That's the capital of Japan, we learned that in school."

"Like Tokyo."

"Did you eat raw fish?"

"Now and again."

"That's really disgusting." But she seemed pleased all the same. She bent and scooped up a rock without breaking rhythm. "Do they squish grapes with their feet in France?"

"I can't say I ever saw it for myself, but I've heard tell."

"I sure wouldn't drink it after that. Did you ever ride a camel?"

He watched her bullet the rock into the base of a tree. "As a matter of fact, I did."

"What was it like?"

"Uncomfortable."

It was a description she readily accepted because she's already figured it out for herself. "The teacher read a story today about a tomb they found it China. Did you see the statues?"

"Yes, I did."

"Was it like Raiders?"

"Like what?"

"You know, the movie with Indiana Jones."

It took him a minute, then he laughed. "I guess it was, a little."

They were standing on the sidewalk in front of her house. Brian glanced up, surprised. He hadn't realized they had come so far and found himself regretting he hadn't slowed his pace a bit. "We have to do this report on Africa." Claire wrinkled her nose. "It has to be five whole pages long."

"How long have you had the assignment?" It hadn't been that long since his school days and he used to wait until last minute to do his reports.

Clara drew a circle in the sand at the edge of her lawn. "Couple of weeks."

"I guess you've started on it."

"Well, sort of." Then she turned that quick beautiful smile on him. "You've been to Africa, haven't you?"

"A couple of times."

"I guess you know all kinds of things about climate and culture and stuff like that."

He grinned down at her. "Enough."

"Maybe you should stay for dinner tonight." Without giving him a chance to answer, she took his hand and led him around to the shop.

When the walked in, Faith was boxing a doll. Her hair was pinned up in the back and she wore a baggy sweatshirt over jeans. She was laughing at something her customer had said. "Lorna, you know you wouldn't have it any other way."

"Hi, Mom!"

Faith turned to smile at her daughter. As she spotted Brian the spool of ribbon in her hand spin in a red stream to the floor. "Claire, you didn't wipe you feet," she managed to say, but kept her eyes on Brian.

"Brian! Brian Haner," The woman rushed over and grabbed him by both arms. "It's Lorna---Lorna Michaels."

He looked down into the pretty round face of his longtime neighbor. "Hello, Lorna." His gaze drifted down to her pregnant belly, then back up. "Congratulations."

With a hand on her stomach she laughed. "Thanks, but it's my third."

He thought of the scrawny, bad-tempered girl next door. "Three? You work fast."

"So does Billy. You remember Billy Thompson, don't you?"

"You married Billy?" He remembered a boy who had hung out in the town square looking for trouble. A few times Brian had helped him find it.

"I reformed him." When she smiled, he believed it. "He runs the bank." His expression had her giggling. "I'm serious, stop in sometime. Well, I've got to be moving along. This box has to go into a locked closet before my oldest girl sees it. Thanks, Faith. It's just lovely."

"I hope she likes it."

To keep her hands busy, Faith began to rewind the spool of ribbon. A puff of cool air came in, then was cut off as Lorna breezed out.

"Was that the bride doll?" Claire wanted to know.

"Yes, it was."

"Too fussy. Can I go over to Marcia's?"

"What about homework?"

"I don't have any except that dumb Africa report. He's going to help me." Brian met her smile with a lifted brow. "Aren't you?"

Brian would have dared any man within a hundred miles to resist that look. "Yes, I am."

"Claire, you can't--"

"It's okay, because I asked him to dinner." She beamed, almost sure her mother would be trapped by the good manners she was always talking about. "There's no school tomorrow so I can do the report after dinner, can't I?"

Brian decided it wouldn't hurt to apply a little pressure from his side. "I spent six weeks in Africa once. Claire might just get an A."

"She could use it," Faith muttered. They stood together, looking at her. Her heart already belonged to both of them. "I guess I'd better start dinner then."

Claire was already racing across the yard next door before Faith pulled the door of the Doll House shut and turned the sign around to read Closed.

"I'm sorry if she was a nuisance, Brian. She has a habit of badgering people with questions."

"I like her," he said simply and watched Faith fumble with the latch.

"That's nice of you, but you don't have to feel obligated to help her with this report."

"I said I would. I keep my word, Faith." He touched a pin in her hair. "Sooner or later."

She had to look at him then. It was impossible not to. "You're welcome to dinner, of course." Her fingers worried the buttons of her coat as she spoke. "I was just going to fry chicken."

"I'll give you a hand."

"No that's not---"

He cut her off when he closed his fingers over hers. "I never used to make you nervous."

With an effort, she steadied herself. "No, you didn't." He'd be gone in a few days, she reminded herself. Out of her life. Maybe she should take whatever time she was given. "All right then, you can help."

He took her arm as they crossed the lawn. Though he felt her initial resistance, he ignored it. "I went to see my mother. I had cookies right from the oven."

Faith relaxed as she pushed open the door of her own kitchen. "She has every newspaper clipping about you. Every case you worked."

The kitchen was twice the size of the one he had just left and there were signs of a child in the pictures handing on the front of the refrigerator and a pair of fuzzy slippers kicked into a corner. Moving with habit, Faith switched on the burner under the kettle before she slipped out of her coat. She hung it on a peg by the door then turned to take his. His hands closed over hers.

"You didn't tell me Nicholas left you."

She'd known it wouldn't take him long to hear it, or long to question it. "It's not something I think about on a daily basis. Coffee?"

She draped his coat over a hook and turned to find him blocking her way. "What happened, Faith?"

"We made a mistake." She said it calmly, even coolly. It was a tone he had never heard from her before.

"But there was Claire."

"Don't." Fury came into her eyes quickly and simmered there. "Leave it alone, Brian. I mean it. Claire's my business. My marriage and divorce are my business. You can't expect to come back now and have all the answers."

They stood a moment, facing each other in silence. When the kettle let out a whistle, she seemed to breathe again. "If you want to help, you can peel some potatoes. They're in the pantry over there."

She worked systematically, he thought angrily, as she poured oil to head in a skillet and coated chicken. Her temper was nothing new to him. He had felt the brunt of it before, sometimes deflecting it, sometimes meeting it head-on. He also knew how to soothe it. He began talking, almost to himself at first, about some of the places he had been. When he told her about waking with a snake curled next to his head while he was camping in South America she laughed.

"I didn't find it too funny at the time. I was out of the tent in five seconds flat, buck naked."

Chuckling, she put a pan of water on the stove and dumped in the potatoes Brian had peeled and washed. "I guess you just have to take the good with the bad--so to speak. I saw a picture of you a couple of years ago," she adjusted a pin in her hair and her voice was bland. "I think it was taken at some glitzy charity function. You had a half-naked woman on your arm."

He rocked back on his heels. "Did I?"

"Well, she wasn't actually half-naked," Faith temporized. "I suppose it just seemed that way because she had so much more hair that dress. Blond---very blond if my memory serves me. And let's say---top-heavy."

He ran his tongue around his teeth. "You meet a lot of interesting people in my business."

"Obviously." With the efficiency born of habit she turned the chicken. Oil hissed. "I'm sure you find it very stimulating."

"Not as stimulating as this conversation."

"If you can't stand the heat," she murmured.

"Yeah. It's getting dark. Shouldn't Claire be home?"

"She's right next door. She knows to be home by five-thirty."

He went to the window anyway and glanced at the house next door. Faith studied his profile. It was stronger now, tougher. She supposed he was too, had to be. How much was left of the boy she'd loved so desperately? Maybe it was something neither of them could be sure of.

"I thought of you a lot, Faith." Though his back was to her she could almost feel the words brush over her skin. "I could usually block you out when I had work to do, deadlines to meet, but you wouldn't let go. I remember every day we spent together, the way you would drag me through the streets. Those few years with you made up for all the times as a kid I woke up to a drunken father."

The door slammed open. Wet and beaming, Claire stood dripping on the mat. "It's raining!"

Faith raised a brow. "So I see. Well, you've got fifteen minutes to get out of those wet things and set the table."

She struggled out of her coat. "Can I show Brian my fish?"

"Go ahead."

"Come on." Claire held a hand out for Brian. "They are the the brightest blue you have ever seen."

Emotions humming, Faith watched them walk out together.