She Who Must Be Loved

Evelyn switched her phone off and called out: "Darling! Are you in your den?"

A muffled reply led her to Tom's writing room, office, den, whatever you would want to call it.

He held a hand up and she waited, then he hit the 'save' icon. "There you are. What was that, dear?"

"Important stuff?"

He grinned. "No, just a nice fluffy piece that's been in my head for a while. What were you saying?"

"Mary just called to ask if we did not want to join them at Sunset Cove. The two weeks beginning on the 30

th

."

He grinned. "Why not? I won't hear from the publishers in a month, and all I have to do is exorcise some ghosts. There's a lot of reading I want to do, Hemingway, a few like that. It would be nice to have some free time there. Puts a different colour to the reading, no?"

"And the kids are all out of our hair at last. Suzy will be there too."

Tom smiled at the thought of the little mop-head. "Haven't seen her in ages. What is she now, second year? I remember when she came for sleepovers with Em and Sally. Lots of catching-up. Dave is going to make it?"

"Mary hopes so. His project is going well, but you know the guy. If duty calls..."

"It's going to be fun beating his ass again. That golf course suits me."

The door bell went, and she rose. "I ordered out, your royalties will have to stand for it!"

***

Sunset Cove held many fond memories of holidays past. The large apartment they used to share with Dave and Mary must still remember the echoes of sand-encrusted children rioting through the corridors and along the verandah. They all settled in quickly, and caught up with Mary, Dave and Suzy. She had brought a room-mate and fellow Engineering student along, a foreigner, Amanda. A stunning young girl.

Evelyn smiled as she heard Tom remark: "Amanda! What a lovely name. 'She who must be loved.' I am pleased to meet you."

The girl blushed under her dark skin, held a hand to her breast, and asked: "Must be loved? How... What do you mean?"

Tom grinned and said: "My apologies. I am in a latinist phase.

Amare

means to love in Latin. Amanda means 'she who must be loved.'"

She looked down. "Oh, yes, I think someone had mentioned that. Thank you."

As they were going to bed Evelyn remarked on the girls. "Suzy looks good, don't you think? And the friend is quite something."

Tom nodded, pawing through the books he had brought along for bedside reading. "She has become a nice young woman. It's so good to see her blossom into a successful engineer. Really a pleasure."

"And Amanda?"

Tom nodded, riffling through a hard cover. "Pleasant young lady. Epitomises the fecund attraction of her age. She seems to know what she wants to do with her qualification. Have you seen my Hemingway anthology? I thought it was in the backpack."

***

The men went golfing and fishing, the women went shopping, the girls went dancing. All was well. Until two calls changed everything.

They were on the deck, criticizing a new craft beer when Dave's phone went. He spoke for a minute, then swore. "Damn, I'm going to have to go back. There's a massive screw-up, but they just cannot see it. Tom, can I ask you to excuse me? I really regret, but you know..."

Tom shook his head. "Don't mention it, Dave. You have to do what you have to do. I'll ride herd on the women, don't worry. And I must admit that, with all the golf and catching up, I have not done the reading I wanted to. So you go ahead and we'll catch up when you come back."

Two hours after he had left Suzy's call came. Mary sought Evelyn on the deck.

"Eve, I have a situation. Suzy has a repeat examination in Strength of Materials and it is essential for her next year. She has to leave right now to be able to get there in time. Do you mind?"

Evelyn took her hand. "I'm so sorry! Of course she must go, is there even a question? Why ask me?"

"Well, that leaves Tom with only the three of us. And there's Amanda, you know... She will stay over if that's all right with you. She can't go home, and..."

Evelyn laughed. "But of course she must stay. Such a delightful girl. There won't be a problem, dear. Tom is going to be so buried in his reading you won't even know he is here. I just hope Amanda doesn't get too bored with us old fogies."

The girl was embarrassed and wanted to look for alternative accommodation, but admitted to Mary and Evelyn that she did not have anywhere to go. She went with the women on a shopping expedition, but that added to her unease because she could not afford to buy much and did not want to make them feel obliged to buy anything for her. At dinner she informed them that she will be working on her tan and on her studies. Tom made a joking remark that her tan needed little help, and she laughed at him.

"Jealous! Don't think you can pick on my because I am a darkie!"

He looked shocked for a moment, but realised she was pushing his buttons, and the rest of the evening passed with light banter. But when the two friends came back for lunch the next day Mary held up a hand. "Eve, you know, I trust your husband, but do you think it is wise to leave him here alone with..."

Evelyn looked at the scene on the deck. Tom sat at a table, reading three books at the same time and making notes, while Amanda was stretched out on a lounger, her olive skin contrasting a fluorescent bikini that showed off a lithe young body. Evelyn smiled. "Don't worry, Mary, I know my Tom. He is a tomcat, and I'm sure he admires god's creation, but he can handle himself."

"But you know the old saying, don't store hay next to the fire. She is a lovely young girl and men..."

Evelyn laughed. "Don't worry, Mary. He will be all right."

The two spent the afternoon chatting, but also observing Amanda's slow rotation in the sun, her guarded glimpses to Tom. He seemed quite unaware of her, and after a while she got up and sat near him, applying after-sun lotion, then asked: "Mister Tom, can I bother you? I don't suppose you could help me with some lotion on my back?"

Tom looked up, smiled, and said: "I think you got everything covered, Amanda. Sorry, I don't want to get lotion on my notes. But if you have a problem, I'm sure the ladies will help."

She frowned, then asked: "What are you reading so attentively?"

He laughed. "I fear I get lost in my reading sometimes. I am working through a few old friends by Hemingway. I want to refresh his style in my mind for my next book. He is so good with the short, punchy sentences, and his use of words is just great. I tend to be too long winded."

She looked at the books and notes. "Hemingway? I remember reading something by him. Something about bells?"

He smiled. "For Whom the Bell Tolls, I guess. War story, guy meets girl, guy dies? That one?"

"Yes! So tragic. So sad that they were not able to discover their love."

Tom marked his place and closed his book. "Good point. But did they really have a chance to find love? Think about it, they were from different worlds, backgrounds, lives. Let's suppose they married, survived the war, left Fascist Spain, and found a life in Hemingway's America. Do you see that work for them? Or is the book rather about two dissimilar lives getting entangled in an impossible love, and his death is somehow a relief?"

She frowned. "I never saw it like that. I just believe love stories should all end in happiness."

He laughed. "Of course that is the winning formula. Most literature is based on some form or another of that model. So the trick is to do something different. You didn't study literature by any chance?"

Amanda shook her head, the long hair swinging. "Only at school. I always wanted to be an engineer and I am going to be one."

Tom nodded approvingly. "Good for you, knowing what you want. No problem with the mathematics? My brain turns to mush at the first equation."

"I love maths, it's my best subject. I'm going to do an extra elective on calculus, vectors and scalars next term."

Tom sat back and threw his arms up. "Now you've impressed me. I have only a basic idea what you are talking about, but I know enough to admire you. You passed with distinctions, I heard?"

She nodded. "I had to, I needed to push my scholarship up a notch, see. My parents have little extra, so it is up to me."

Tom smiled at her. "Great, I am sure they are proud of you. What do they do?"

Maria and Evelyn heard bits of the conversation through their own gossip, and after a while Evelyn asked: "You noticed how he steered her conversation into a discussion of her parents? My Tom is great at that."

Over dinner the two women noticed that Amanda practically ignored them and spent all her time talking to Tom. After a while he told the girl: "Come, now's your chance to impress them. They cooked, we clean up. Old camping rule, if you don't cook... Do you wash the dishes or do you dry them and stack them?"

She frowned for a moment, then sprang up. "Ok, that's fair. I used to help my dad, he insisted that I dry the dishes, he did not want my hands to get damaged by hot water."

***

Evelyn smoothed her nightie over her hips and settled into bed. "Amanda seems to have made a conquest, my love."

He turned a page, then said: "Mmmmm. Nice kid. Really bright. Even knows something about Hemingway."

She laughed. "She is making eyes at you, you know."

He put his book down and smiled at her. "Of course, all women do. I'm used to it. Especially when they wear sexy nighties, or less."

His hands slipped under the hem and over her belly. She sighed with anticipation and reached for him.

***

Amanda had another bikini on in the morning, even smaller than the previous one, and Mary raised eyebrows but said nothing. Tom also said nothing, just drew a new book from the pile. By mid-morning Mary invited the girl along to the fruit and vegetable market.

A little while after their return Amanda sat down next to Tom. "You have been reading too much, you know? It's not good for the eyes."

He made a mock frown and said: "You are probably right, but looking at you will give me more eye strain."

She smiled and ducked her head, then asked: "Your Hemingway, are all his stories about war? I like stories about people and their relationships more."

He sat back. "Most of his stories are about the macho man who fishes, hunts, or goes to war, but there are many relationships intertwined. Even in the Old Man and the Sea there's a line of relationship between the man and the fish he is fighting. Did you ever read that?"

She shook her head. "Tell me about it."

He gave a short summary, and she frowned. "That's sad. It sounds so futile."

"True, and yet he knows he had conquered the fish, and he is not defeated. But if you want to read about intricate relationships, you should read his uncompleted book, Garden of Eden. I have an electronic copy here somewhere. Read it and tell me what you think."

Amanda devoured the book, and by the next morning she had a dozen questions. Tom fended them off. "I'm not going to tell you what to think, or even what I think. You have to make the story your own, read in there what you want to, and then you tell me what you found, what you think. Come on, give it another try."

Amanda frowned. "I'm not sure what I was supposed to read in it. Ok, I see the girl was having an identity crisis, and she sort of learnt that he was not what she wanted him to be, so she gets involved with the other girl and then pushes her on to her husband. And they went swimming naked. Would you mind if I do that?"

Tom smiled. "I'm sure the men for miles around would applaud that. Do ask yourself, though, if that is the sort of person you want to attract?"

"No, I mean would you mind?"

Evelyn smiled at Maria's open mouth and made a shushing motion. Tom shook his head. "You know, there is nothing for me to say about such a decision by you. I would not mind at all, the female form is something I greatly admire, and if I may, yours is an example of female pulchritude at its best. I can see that you take care of yourself. And I am sure you will want to gift the appreciation of such a body to someone as special as you are. Do you think their sun tanning habits, daring as it was in those days, contributed to the breakdown of the relationships? Does it contribute to the development of the story?"

Amanda sat for a few moments digesting what he had said, then said: "Ok, that was a great book, but rather complicated. Maybe I should read it again. I mean, they were swapping partners. And doing some things they were not supposed to do. That's a recipe for disaster, no?"

"Well, in their case it certainly was, wasn't it? But had their relationship not broken down already by then? If we allow ourselves to step out of the story it does in a way reflect Hemingway's own life, his search for female companionship and approval, the essential loneliness in him. But if we see it just as a story, complete in itself, do you think that brought happiness? He never finished the story, you know. How do you see it ending? Do they live happily ever after?"

She looked at him with big eyes. "What do you think?"

He laughed. "I'm a story teller, remember! I think Catherine went back to Paris, fell in love with a publisher and disappeared off the scene. David settled down with Marita and wrote many best-sellers. She took up painting and they became a settled artistic couple, had a dozen babies, and lived happily for ever. Does that suit you?"

She frowned. "A dozen? You're making fun of me."

He stood up. "I do, because I like you, see? Now, I think it is our turn to get lunch. I have a round of golf this afternoon, let's not take too long."

Amanda had decided to go dancing in the evening, shrugged off Maria's words of caution, disappearing into a taxi wearing a sunny, rather daring dress.

The three friends had a pleasant evening, and Evelyn was a little surprised at Tom's ardour. She grinned at him and asked: "Is the little foreigner getting to you, tomcat? She is a delectable dish, isn't she?"

He laughed back and nodded. "A body like that will get a statue excited. And a brain like that too. What a lucky man it will be to share her life."

It was past midnight when his phone rang. He sat up in momentary confusion, and Evelyn wondered what was going on. He looked at the number and grunted. "Sorry, love."

The voice on the speaker was unmistakably Amanda: "Uncle Tom, we are having such fun, and I just wanted to ask if I could stay out later. I know..."

Loud music and a number of other voices sounded in the background. Tom answered. Sharply: "Amanda, you were supposed to be back some time ago. You know I promised your parents we will look after you. You get into a taxi this minute, young lady, and come straight here, or I will come to fetch you."

They heard her say to someone: "Sorry, but I told you. Real nanny types, but there you are. Maybe I'll catch you next week."

Evelyn sat up and asked: "What is that about?"

Tom grinned. "You remember the safety call we set up with our girls? I told her if she wanted to get out of a situation to call and pretend she is having fun but had to ask permission. You had better be there when she comes in, I think she may have had a rough time."

The story came out at breakfast. The evening had been a whirl of dancing, music and interesting company, but one guy had become possessive and clingy, until Amanda had decided to call in the cavalry. Tom's decisive voice on the speaker phone was enough to break the interest, and Amanda came out of it with nothing worse than the memory of being groped and partly undressed. She was profuse in her thanks, and rather subdued for a while. She participated in a grocery shopping outing, then lounged in the sun, watching Tom surreptitiously.

Maria gasped when she heard the girl ask Tom: "Do you like me?" Evelyn smiled and whispered: "Young girls!"

Tom took a few seconds to shake himself out of his reading. Holding a finger on the page he asked: "What? Oh, do I like you? Of course. You are a very likeable person."

He made to resume his reading, but Amanda insisted: "But really like me? Would you like to see me naked?"

Tom marked his page and put the book down. "Now, really like? And would I want to see you naked? Of course, any man would wish to admire such a vision of delight. Stand up and let me look at you."

She stood up in her tiny bikini and twirled before him. Her face was serious, his had a light smile. She made to untie her top and he held a hand. "A vision of perfection. You are really beautiful, and I can see you do a lot of exercise to remain in shape. Is that right?"

She grinned. "Hours and hours of work went into this body."

He nodded. "A body that inspires a man's primitive urges to grab you and make babies. You have the bone structure to make a good mother. What do you say we run away and find a deserted beach, live on coconuts and fish and endless sex? And have a dozen babies?"

She sat down, an uncertain smile on her face. Tom grinned. "Or would you prefer the 'use and throw' sort of relationship? Some people only live for the thrill of a new relationship, the discovery of a new love. Is that you? I don't think that is what you want. I think your beauty is worth much more. If you would allow me to be serious, Amanda, you deserve your beautiful body to be admired, but so also the brilliant mind you tend to hide. You will find someone with whom to discover love, to build a partnership, an understanding that goes much deeper than just a quick, superficial meeting at a party, a roll in bed, and then the next one. With you as a partner a man could really build a meaningful life. You will become a successful engineer and manager if I am any sort of judge of humanity. So I would hope you do not throw the hard work you put into that beautiful body and wonderful mind away on casual relationships and abusive men. Don't you agree?"

She nodded, uncertainty clear on her face. She persisted: "But you, Tom, would you not..."

His face was serious. "Amanda, you do me an honour I don't deserve. Of course I would love to have been the man you choose in your life. But you and I know that this would not work out in this incarnation, don't you think? I would be delighted to stand in as your father, to help you out of sticky situations like last night. But would I be able to go dancing with you like you did last night? Won't you be just a little embarrassed by me as a partner? Would I fit into your circle of friends?"

She nodded. "But love can grow to overcome a lot of differences."

"You are right. That is a very mature way of looking at things, you know. The idea of romantic love, the lightning stroke at first meeting, and then moonshine and roses ever after is so beloved of writers of romance, but reality is different. Love does grow, love does overcome many differences. But one has also to make it easy for love to grow, don't you agree? As an engineer, now?"

She gave a little laugh and said: "I never thought of love as an engineering problem. But a girl has to wait for a boy to approach her, and the ones that do..."

Tom asked: "And is there not a special boy somewhere, that stirs your heart strings?"

She looked down. "Well, there is a guy but he doesn't even know I exist. I mean he ignores me."

Tom leant forward and took his note book. "Now I must have all the details, you may just be in my next book."

She laughed and waved him away. "No, it's nothing important. You know how it is on campus. There are all these parties, and people meet and check each other out. And this guy is just never there. I know he was invited to a few, but he just doesn't come. He is a bit of an athlete, and he is all ok at events and post-match parties, but then he goes off."