The Madness Of Love | The Secret History

XII

I'm going to skip a lot, all that where Richard finds signs that the others are going to Argentina. This is going to start with the first Greek class after vacation.

The weekend passed, as they will do, and for me it went by in Greek, solitary meals in the dining hall, and more of the same old puzzlement back in my room. My feelings were hurt, and I missed them more than I would have admitted.

Bunny was behaving oddly besides. I saw him around a couple of times that weekend, with Marion and her friends. Once I saw him with his old friend Cloke Rayburn. But I didn't know Cloke well, and I was hesitant to stop and say hello.

One evening I went to Francis's and Lilith's apartment. Since the operator on the phone said that Henry bought four tickets, I had a weird feeling that she was the one not going. I knocked and knocked but no one opened. Either she was on the plane with them or just simply not opening the door.

I awaited Greek class, on Monday, with acute curiosity. I woke that morning at six. Not wanting to arrive insanely early, I sat around my room fully dressed for quite some time, until I realised that if I didn't hurry, I'd be late. I grabbed my books and dashed out; halfway to the Lyceum, I realised I was running, and forced myself to slow to a walk.

I had caught my breath by the time I opened the back door. Slowly, I climbed the stairs, feet moving, mind oddly blank.

They were all there, all of them: the twins, poised and alert in the windowsill; Francis, with his back to me whispering something to Lilith; Lilith, sitting with a water bottle in her hand (though I'm pretty sure it wasn't water in it), paying no attention to Francis; Henry beside them; and Bunny across the table, reared back in his chair. Telling a story of some sort.

"So get this" he said to them. Francis had stopped trying to talk to Lilith. Everyone's eyes were riveted on Bunny; no one had seen me come in.
"The warden says, 'Son, your pardon hasn't come through from the governor and it's already five after. Any last words?' So the guy thinks for a minute, and as they're leading him into a chamber he looks over his shoulder and says, 'Well, Governor So-and-So has certainly lost my vote in the next election!' "

Laughing, he tipped back even further in his chair; then he looked up and saw me standing like an idiot in the doorway.
"Oh, come in, come in" he said.

The twins glanced up, startled as a pair of deer. Except for a certain tightness around the jaw, Henry was as serene as the Buddha, Francis was so white he was almost green. Lilith looked very calm. She gave me a small smile but still refused to look at the other members of the Greek class.

"We're just chucking around a couple jokes before class" said Bunny, leaning back in his chair. He tossed the hair out of his eyes.
When Bunny started again, Camilla edged over on the windowsill and smiled nervously at me.

I went over and sat between her and Charles. She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "How are you?" she said. "Did you wonder where we were?"
"I can't believe we haven't seen you" said Charles quietly, turning towards me and crossing his ankle over his knee. His foot was trembling violently and he put a hand on it to still it.
"We had a terrible mishap with the apartment." I didn't know what I'd expected to hear from them, but this was not it. "What?" I said.

Charles started telling me about how they left the key in Virginia. Lilith, followed by an apologetic looking Francis, came closer to us.

There was the slight sound of a throat being cleared and I looked up and saw Julian closing the door behind him.

"Goodness, you magpies" he said into the abrupt silence that fell. "Where have you all been?"

Charles coughed, his eyes fixed on a point across the room, and began rather mechanically to tell the story of the apartment key and the car in the ditch and the olives and the Bisquick. The wintry sun, coming in at a slant through the window, gave everything a frozen, precisely detailed look; nothing seemed real, and I felt as though this were some complicated film I'd started watching.

"Why didn't you call me?" said Julian, perplexed and perhaps a little slighted, when Charles finished his story. The twins looked at him blankly.

"We never thought of it" Camilla said.
Julian laughed and recited an aphorism from Xenophon, which was literally about tents and soldiers and the enemy nigh, but which carried the implication that in troubled times it was best to go to one's own people for help.

I know this was very short and uneventful, the next chapter should be much more interesting.