I'll Be There by Iris Rainer Dart Page B

Cee
     
    I’LL BE THERE
    41
     
    LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
    August 1990
    THERE WAS no missing Kevin in a crowd. It wasn’t just his rolling walk that always stuck out so dramatically when he moved down the street with the other boys, but the high-spirited whinny of a voice ringing above the others, as he cracked endless jokes, teasing his friends mercilessly, always confident not one of them would dare to retaliate.
    Cee Cee caught sight of him the minute he walked out of the front door of the school, and she watched him, surrounded by his usual gang, as they all walked down the front path. She had been sitting outside the school in her car for half an hour, waiting to tell Kevin the news face-to-face, afraid if she didn’t get there early she would miss him. Her hands clutched the steering wheel at ten and two o’clock, the way her teacher at the California Driving School had taught her to do so long ago, only now she was parked.
    See me, Kevie, Cee Cee thought, staring at his face, which was contorted with animation while he told a story to a few of the guys who responded with a laugh so raucous mat even Cee Cee at a distance was sure it had to have been a dirty joke. See me, Kevie, she thought again, and then as if in answer, he looked right at her, nodded a special Kevin nod, and then moved away from the others toward her car as she opened the window on the passenger side.
    “You cruising high schools now, lady?” he asked leaning in the window. “I mean, I know a good man is hard to find.., but really, Cee.”
    Cee Cee got out of the car and walked to where he was standing to give him a hug, startled when she did at the bony frailness under the layered clothes.
     
    I’LL BE TttERE

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    “Kevin,” she said, “I guess you know what’s been going on in our lives.”
    “I’ve known for a long time.”
    “Hey, Myers, you coming with us or what?” a voice yelled from the parking lot.
    “Tell him I’m taking you home,” Cee Cee said. “Please.” “I’ve got a ride,” Kevin hollered. “What’d you say?” the kid hollered back.
    “He’s got a ride,” Cee Cee shouted back toward the parking lot.
    “Wow, you’ve got a nice set of lungs. Ever think about being a
    singer?” Kevin laughed at his own cuteness.
    Cee Cee opened the car door for him.
    “Get in,” she said to him, “before I punch your lights out.” “Oooh, sweet-talk me and you own me,” he said, and sank slowly onto the black leather seat of the BMW. Cee Cee walked around to her side, got in, and started the car. She drove back to the Coast Highway and when she reached the parking lot just north of the pier she made a right and pulled the car into a parking spot facing the sea. It was a clear day and there was a line of white sailboats on the horizon. Cee Cee could tell by the way Kevin’s right hand held on to the open window that he was bracing himself for the worst. Bad news, otherwise why would she have come to tell him in person?
    “Well,” she said, “I thought you should hear this from me instead of on an answering machine after a beep.”
    “Jesus, the suspense is killing me,” he said, laughing an uncomfortable laugh, which she interrupted by telling him the news. Then the laughter stopped and she saw him try to act as if he wasn’t feeling choked up, but he was.
    “So can I count on you?” she asked him.
    “I can’t think of anything that would keep me away,” he promised, and then he reached out a hand and took hers. After a while he let out a little giggle.
    “What’s funny?” Cee Cee asked.
    “Remembering when I met you when you first moved to Malibu. The first time I was ever in your house.” Cee Cee grinned as she remembered too, and then they reminisced, looking out at the view for so long that eventually they watched the sun, which had moved slowly down in the sky, drop like a giant orange egg yolk into the sea.
     
    MALIBU, CALIFORNIA
     
    October 1983
    CEE CEE sat on the deck of the new house in