CHAPTER 10
"I hope you're free today," Jason said at breakfast the next morning. "We have business to attend to."
Farah looked at him over her coffee cup. "What kind of business?"
"First, we'll go open a checking account for you. Then let's look at cars; you'll have to have a car. And we'd better see about scheduling your equivalency test."
This announcement startled her, until she remembered that as her prospective father, it was normal for him to spend money on her.
Jason noticed her expression. "Did I say something wrong?"
She shook her head. "It's only that for a moment I was feeling like a kept woman."
He laughed. "A man is entitled to keep anything he fishes out of the ocean. Now, about your car. What kind would you like? I'm not up on what the younger set is driving, but I noticed Margaret's grandson has a Corvette. Would you like a Corvette?"
"Oh, no, that's too sporty and too expensive for me."
"For Donna or for Farah?"
"For a college freshman who wants to keep a low profile."
The amount of money Jason deposited in an account for Farah astonished her. "You're being too generous," she told him.
"Not at all. When you start school you'll probably want your own apartment nearer the campus. Driving these hills in bad weather can be tricky."
"You're a dear, Jason." She kissed his cheek.
"I've never had a daughter before," he said, looking pleased. "Spoiling her will be half the fun."
The saleman at the car lot was a young man of college age who recommended a Corvair Spider as an "in" car in the lower price field. Its design, its size and its maneuverablility pleased Farah, and Jason pronounced it of sound construction. Farah wavered between a white or a red model, but finally settled on white. She shuddered at the pinks and purples that were currently popular. She drove it off the lot and departed to arrange for her equivalence test, while Jason went to see his lawyer about the adoption.
Arriving home before Jason, Farah had started dinner when Hack dropped by. They hadn't seen him since their return, although Jason had spoken with him on the phone. Farah gave him a hug and invited him to dinner.
"I've been grubbing all day and need a shower and change," he said. "I'll be back. What time's dinner?"
"It depends on when Jason gets home. Come on back and we'll have a drink while we wait."
After dinner Hack asked about their trip, then said he had some news for them. Funds were being allocated for an excavation in the principality of Zhad, where exploratory digging had turned up some promising fossils and artifacts. It would be awhile before everything was arranged, he told them. He glowed with excitement at the prospect of getting out in the field again.
"This calls for a celebration," said Jason, pouring them all a glass of wine. "A double celebration, for I found out today that the adoption hearing has been moved back to early November. But first a toast to you, Hack. May you discover the origin of man."
"That's a big order, Jason." Hack lifted his glass for a sip, then raised it again. "To Jason and Farah Fuller. May the adoption go through without a hitch and bring happiness to both of you."
Farah glanced at Jason for his reaction to this. "Do you want me to take your name, Jason?"
"Only if you want to. But I'd be pleased."
"I like it," she said. "And I'd consider it an honor."
"I'll drink to that," said Hack.
"Now it's my turn." Farah raised her glass again. "To wonderful friends. May our friendship last forever."
It was a busy time for Farah. She passed her test and applied for entrance to UCLA at the midterm. She also enrolled in a dancing school and made arrangements to take voice lessons from a private teacher.
"I may want to do something in the performing arts," she told Jason. "I love music. I've studied piano and I sang in a school chorus and the church choir. I want to find out if I have talent in any of these areas to do something with it."
Jason was digging around his rose bushes preparatory to adding rose food. "Do you want to be an actress?"
"I don't know. I just want to learn everything I can. I'm fascinated by so many subjects. I think I could go to school forever and never get bored."
"You're wise to test the wind before making a decision. When you love your work and it keeps leading you into new and unexplored territory, there's never any danger if its becoming stale."
"I'm lucky to have time to make up my mind." Dressed in blue jeans, Farah was on her knees pulling weeds. "I'll take all the courses I can. No frivolous subjects for me. The music and dancing lessons can be squeezed in somewhere."
Jason rested on his trowel. "When are you going to have time for fun and recreation?"
"I'll work that out when the time comes. Right now I have to channel all this energy into something."
"That's one result I did anticipate," said Jason. "What I didn't anticipate was the effect all this was going to have on me. I seem to have found a new life also."
"Jason, have I told you lately how much I appreciate everything you've done for me? And how fond of you I've become?"
Such talk embarrassed Jason. He said gruffly, "The feelings mutual."
The teacher at the dancing school, Max Weber, was a man of about forty, with a lithe and compact body, infinite patience and an air of dedication. When he learned that Farah had studied ballet as a child, he put her in an intermediate class.
The class started with limbering up exercises. Farah's forty year old body was now as limber as a girl's, and the exercises proved surprisingly easy for her. Her initial nervousness disappeared. After the workout Max put them through some fairly intricate steps. A quick learner, Farah had no trouble following.
"You're doing well," Max told her.
The session ended at noon, and a blonde girl with beautiful legs came over to Farah and said, "I'm Suzi Morrison. Some of us are having lunch together down the street. Why don't you join us?"
I'd love to," she said. "I'm Farah Fuller." She had begun using the name "Fuller" in order to avoid changing it after the adoption was approved.
They went together to change, then met the others out front. Suzi looked willowy in a crisp cotton dress, a tight belt accentuating her small waist over a billowing skirt. Her bouffant hairdo made her look taller than her average height.
A dark young man with rather unruly hair joined them, and was introduced by Suzi as Barry Baker. "My real name's Elmer Biggs, but I changed it," he said. "Can you imagine "Elmer Biggs" on a theater marquee?"
"I can just see it now." The voice came from Farah's left. "Elmer Biggs in "The Great Lover"."
Farah turned to see a young man with a muscular build and very blue eyes smiling directly at her. He moved in beside her, looking like a college boy in a pullover sweater, and they all set off down the street. "I'm Greg Gonzales, and that's my real name."
"Farah Fuller," she said. "I noticed you dancing. You're very good."
"I'd like to do musical comedy," he told her. "Max thinks he can get me a part in a local production one of these days."
"You sing, too, then."
"Enough to get by. I'm no Gorden MacRae."
"Don't be fooled by his false modesty." Barry had overheard. "He's headed for the big time."
"My number one fan," Greg said, smiling. "What's your ambition, Farah?"
"I haven't decided yet. I want to find out what I'm best at. But I think anyone wanting to get into show business should study singing and dancing, so I thought I'd see where it leads me. Anyway, it's good exercise and fun."
Greg turned his head as they walked and looked her over from head to toe. It was not a senuous look, but rather as if he were assessing her qualifications. With your looks you can be anything you want to be, Farah."
His appraisal seemed so detached that she said couriously, "Do you really believe that? What if it turns out I have no talent?"
He laughed. "Nobody'd ever notice." This time his look was intensely personal. Will you go out with me, Farah?"
She wasn't ready for this. This boy was young enough to be her son.
She was saved from answering by Suzi, who called, Come on, you two."
They followed her into the restaurant, where everyone crowded around a big table. Farah was wedged between Greg and Suzi, who introduced Farah all around.
"Hey, Farah," said one of the young men sitting across from her, "when you get tired of those two losers, I'm available."
"You haven't got a chance," said another. "Any girl who has looks like Farah has got to be taken already."
"Are you taken, Farah?" Greg looked at her anxiously.
She shook her head. "I'm the new girl in town. Literally. So I know hardly anyone."
Suzi said, "We'll take care of that."
Why did I tell them that, Farah thought in dismay. I should have said yes or just let them think what they pleased. That way I could avoid all this boy-girl stuff.
It was a lively crowd, and Farah enjoyed the banter and their more serious talk about their hopes and ambitions, new contacts they had made, and their chances of getting jobs.
As they were leaving, Greg asked Farah again if she would go out with him. Overhearing, Suzi said, "Barry and I are going to a play Saturday night. Why don't we make it a foursome?"
They all agreed on that, and Farah went home to report to Jason on her first day at the dance studio. She found him outside by the pool. The dry rust of October covered the hills under a smog-free sky. Recent fires had left a slightly acrid odor in the air.
"How did things go?" Jason asked.
"Quite well." Farah went on to tell him about the class, the teacher, and all the young people she had met. One thing about Jason, she thought as she looked at him stretched out on a chaise, he always listens to what I have to say.
"For someone who was terrified at having to associate with teenagers," he said when she told him about Greg, "you seem to be jumping in with both feet."
"A foursome seems pretty safe." Something in his tone made her look at him sharply. Was he disapproving?
"I just wondered if perhaps you should know more about them before you start going off alone with young people your age."
She laughed heartily at that. "My age! Jason, that young boy asked me for a date made me feel like a dirty old woman."
He looked at her in astonishment, then he, too, laughed. "I keep forgetting. I always think of you as a young girl who has to be protected."
"That's because you see me from the outside. I see myself from the inside, and inside I'm mostly middle-aged Donna. Oh, Jason, do you think I'll ever be comfortable in this body?"
"Of course you will. You don't regret what we did, do you? Are you unhappy?"
"Unhappy, no, she said slowly. "Unfocused, yes. I don't know where all this is leading. I'm between two worlds. Sometimes I think I'll never fit into either world. But I'm not unhappy. If I could just go to school and travel and stay with you and not have to relate to other people.... But I suppose that's not enough. Especially with all this energy I have."
"Would you do it all over again?"
"I ask myself that sometimes. The answer is not an unqualified yes, but it is never no." She thought about it for a moment. "It's really too soon to know, isn't it? But I believe things will work out eventually."
"I think so, too. I've seen you change a great deal already."
"Do you have any regrets, Jason?"
"How can you ask? I'm pleased as punch."