Chapter 36
Thirty-Six
Of course, Gwen was glad to drive Tana. And on the first day she took Tana to work, she dropped by The Briars straight after
and knocked on the doorframe to the study.
Arthur was sitting across the chessboard from Colin. Arthur knew he had no great gift for the game, but he had been in the
chess club in junior high and later at Fryeburg Academy, and he had done the reading. He approached all his interests in much
the same plodding, methodical way, making up for a lack of talent with a tireless capacity for study. For months, he had pounded
Colin without pity or apology, believed it was condescending to offer pointers or encouragement. But Colin could do the reading
too. He had started to win games over Christmas break, and Arthur now had the uneasy sense that all his early dominance was
slipping away. Colin had a knack for setting traps and Arthur had one for walking into them. He was studying the board with
a sense of acute dismay, conscious he had just wandered into another, when he saw Gwen at the door and all thoughts of the
game went out of his head.
Her eyes wouldn’t meet his, and when he stood up, there was so much adrenaline zipping inside him, his legs felt watery and
loose. He supposed Tana had told her everything. He decided to accept whatever Gwen thought of him without argument. If she
hated him now, then he had at least earned her contempt honestly. When I get to Oxford, I can start again, he thought, although it felt like a hollow consolation.
He stepped into the hall. Gwen put her hands in her back pockets and leaned against the wall.
“You don’t know how long I’ve been practicing this in my head,” she said.
He nodded and braced for it.
“My senior prom,” she said, and stopped and started again. “Bracken McLeod asked me this afternoon. I love Bracken, but the
only thing he ever talks about is graduating and going to work with his dad selling tractor parts, and I don’t care about
farm machinery. If you don’t want to—and why would you want to? You’re in college. You’ve moved past this juvenile shit.”
The words were coming in a rush, but he was slow piecing them together, couldn’t figure out what any of it had to do with
Tana. Finally, it came to him that she wasn’t talking about Tana at all.
She put her face in her hands. “Christ. Say something?”
“Are you asking if I want to take you to your senior prom?”
She peeked between her fingers. “Katrina Ward is taking a kid from Bates. Sarah Pinners is dating a dude who graduated from UMO—he’s six years older than her! It isn’t totally weird.”
Then he understood that Tana hadn’t said anything, that she wasn’t going to say anything, and if a part of him was still ashamed,
another part of him felt as if an elephant had lifted a foot off his chest. He was so relieved, he leaned toward her, thought
he would hug her, rest his chin on her head. Only she leaned toward him at the same time, and he looked into her face and
quite naturally her mouth found his. He did not know if she decided to kiss him or if he decided to kiss her, only that her
lips were warm and gentle and to feel them against his sent a ringing electrical shock of pleasure through his whole body.
A needle of happiness speared him through and stuck him in place. His hands were around Gwen’s waist. Hers were lightly pressed
to his chest.
“Huh,” he said, when he drew back.
She laughed. She wore a pretty flush on her round face.
“So, anyway,” she said. “About that dance.”
“About that dance,” he said. “Sure. Sounds fun. I just want to apologize in advance for my car. I didn’t put all those Jesus
bumper stickers on it, that was my mom. I’ll park a couple blocks from the dance so no one has to see you getting out of it.”
“Fuck that!” Colin called from the study. “Take the Caddy. If it’s warm you can put the top down. Also, you’re three moves
from check.”
“Thank you and I surrender,” Arthur called. Gwen laughed again, a low ripple of mirth that gave him a shivery, pleasant feeling.
She rose on her tiptoes to kiss him again, and this time he took off her glasses first. That second kiss was longer and slower
and left his heart racing.
She found her fit in his arms, her head right under his chin. It felt good. If there was a karmic opposite to the ugly triumph
of revenge, this was it, Arthur thought.
With his chin resting on her head he said, “Did you and Tana talk about anything?”
“She asked me if I thought she oughta switch to light beer since she’s pregnant,” Gwen said. “And I said that’s probably an
all right idea. We’re going grocery shopping after she gets out of work. She ain’t so bad. Little rough around the edges,
but anyone who’s been trampled like she has will get that way.” Gwen looked into his face, eyes shining with happiness. “At
least you were nice to her. She said that almost first thing. She said you were one of the nicest people she knew, and I have
to say, I couldn’t agree more.”
They kissed a third time then, but a worm of shame squirmed in Arthur’s heart, to let him know it was there—it would always
be there.