"Watch Neptune," Holly warned me as I walked with her toward the jeep. "He likes to bury Kenneth's socks in the sand and might just do the same to you and Cary."

We hugged.

"I guess your chart was correct after all," I whispered.

"Yes, yes it was, and if it wasn't, I would have made it right," she declared with a gleeful smile. Then she got into the jeep beside Kenneth. She reached back for me and we joined hands.

"Be careful," she said. "Mercury is not in a harmonious position this month."

"I will," I said and let go of her hand just as Cary stepped beside me. We turned to each other and smiled and thought about the days ahead when we could share the beach house, alone, on a sort of honeymoon of our own.

However, it turned out to be a busy week for both of us. Cary actually began Mr. Longthorpe's boat and I had to start preparing for final exams.

Nevertheless, he was there at the end of every school day to pick me up and then to go get May. May had become more friendly with some of her friends and fortunately for Cary and me, wanted to do things with them after school. Aunt Sara let her bring a girlfriend over after school most of the time or allowed her to go to her girlfriend's home so she was occupied.

Usually, I sat on a blanket and studied while Cary worked on the new project. Just before he stopped to take me home, we would go for a walk on the beach or just sit and look at the ocean. Toward the end of the week, it grew unusually hot and on Thursday afternoon, he put down his tools, turned to me and asked if I wanted to go swimming.

"Swimming?"

"Skinny-dipping," he challenged.

Even though we were far from the nearest neighbor and the beach was almost always deserted, the very idea of swimming nude in the daytime frightened me.

"What if someone comes?"

"No one will."

"They might."

"Well, I'm not afraid," he said with that devilish grin and started to take off his shirt. He sat on the sand and pulled off his shoes and socks, looked back at me and then slipped off his pants and underpants. For a moment he just sat there looking at the water. Then he turned back toward me, his eyes so deep, so inviting.

"Well?"

My fingers went to my blouse. He rose and walked out to the water to wait. Seconds later, naked, I joined him and he took my hand.

"Ready?"

"No," I said. "It's going to be cold."

"Freezing, but delightful," he promised and we ran into the water, screaming at the tops of our voices, and laughing until the water actually covered us in what felt like icicles. I turned and ran out as fast as I had run in. Cary followed, laughing hysterically at my shrieks. We both collapsed on the warm sand and quickly wrapped our arms around each other.

I was shivering when his lips brushed mine. He rubbed my back vigorously and we kissed again. The sun was warm enough to dry us quickly, but it was the heat of our own passion that drove the chill from our bones. Making love under a daylight sky, out in the open for all the world to see, heightened every tingle, every sensation. The wind was in my hair; there was sand on my face, and my lips were salty from the sea and from his lips. Yet nothing mattered but our great hunger for each other. Before it was over, Neptune came to us and began licking both of us, making us laugh.

"I feel like we're in our own private Eden,"

Cary said. "Nothing can touch us here. We're blessed, Melody. I'm the luckiest guy in the world."

We pledged our love, wrote our promises in the sand, lay beside each other and gazed up at the blue sky, not thinking about our nakedness.

"I don't know how I will get through each day without you when you go to that snobby prep school,"

Cary said.

I sat up and braced myself on my elbow, gazing out at the water.

"I'm probably going to hate it," I said. "Maybe I won't go."

"What do you mean? I thought that was settled."

"Grandma Olivia thinks it is, but I'm not sure."

"Really? Well, what will you do?"

I gazed into his face and he smiled.

"Would you just stay here with me?"

"I might," I said and his eyes brightened as if there were tiny candles behind them. Then, they darkened and he shook his head.

"You're the class valedictorian. Everyone will say you've wasted your life."

"I don't live to please everyone, just myself," I said, but he sat up and began to dress. "Cary?"

"Let's not make plans and promises we can't keep, Melody. I'd better get you back to Grandma Olivia's."

I dressed quickly and we left.

"I had a wonderful afternoon with you, Cary," I said after we pulled into Grandma Olivia's driveway.

"I've been working on our weekend, too. She thinks I'm sleeping over at Theresa's."

"I know how much you hate to lie," he said.

"If it means being with you, it's not a lie. It's a necessity," I said and he smiled.

"See you tomorrow," he promised and drove away. I watched him go and then I turned and went into the big house, a house that had somehow grown more empty and darker every passing day. Almost as soon as I closed the door behind me, Loretta came hurrying down the hallway to greet me.

"I think you better go up and see about your grandmother," she said.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"She don't answer when I talk to her. I was about to call the doctor."

"Doesn't answer?"

I started up the stairs slowly. Loretta watched me a moment and then walked away as if she had washed her hands of the problem. I knocked gently on the bedroom door, waited and then entered. Grandma Olivia was lying there, her head sunk into her large pillow. She didn't turn to see who it was who had entered. I approached the bed.

"Grandma Olivia?"

I gazed down at her. Her eyes moved toward me, but her mouth was twisted grotesquely in the right corner. Suddenly, her tongue jetted out like a small snake and she made a horrible guttural sound that made me step back.

"What's wrong?"

I lifted the corner of the blanket and looked at her small body. Her right arm was bent against her bosom, the fingers of her hand frozen into a claw. I saw where she had scratched her chest and neck.

"I'll call the doctor!" I cried and hurried to the telephone. Afterward, I called Judge Childs, too.

Later, I waited downstairs in the living room while the doctor examined her. He and Judge Childs finally appeared.

"Your grandmother has had a stroke," the doctor declared. "I wanted to send for an ambulance and put her in the hospital, but she insists on remaining here under nurse's care. Nearly shook her head off 'No!' I've sent for someone, a Mrs. Grafton, who will be here shortly. She's a fine special duty nurse, but I think it's only a matter of days before we will just have to get your grandmother to the hospital.

Her vitals are stable at the moment," he added and turned to the Judge to see if he wanted to add anything.

"I'll see to everything," he said.

"Will she get better?" I asked.

"At her age a complete recovery is unlikely.

She might improve with therapy, but for all that, she is just going to have to be in the hospital. For now, I'd rather she be comfortable and happy."

"Happy?" How could anyone be happy like that? I wondered, and besides, I didn't think she was happy before this had happened.

"Well, comfortable, anyway," the doctor said.

"For now, she is asleep. The nurse should be here momentarily," he added and then the Judge escorted him, but returned to me.

"It's no fun being old," he said with a small smile. "However, she's an incredibly strong woman.

She might make more of a recovery than the doctor thinks. Anyway, after a few days of this, I'm sure she will be taken to the hospital. At that time I'd like it if you came to stay with me. At least until you're off to school," he concluded.

"Thank you," I said, really not sure what I would do. "Well," he said glancing up toward her room and then at me, "you going to be all right?"

"Oh yes, I'm fine."

"Call me if you need anything or anything changes," he said and left.

Twenty minutes later, Mrs. Grafton, a woman in her mid-fifties, stout and very professional and businesslike, arrived. I showed her Grandma Olivia's room and she went in to examine her. I had Loretta prepare the bedroom next to Grandma Olivia's for her as well. Then I went to the phone and called Cary to tell him and Aunt Sara what had happened.

"I'll come right over," Cary said.

"No, I'm fine. In fact, I'm tired and I want to go to sleep. I have a math exam tomorrow."

"Okay, we'll check on her tomorrow," he said.

"I'd like to go up to see Grandpa Samuel in a day or so, Cary, to tell him."

"He won't even know you," Cary said, "much less understand what you're saying."

"Still, we should tell him. No one else will."

"Okay. You can't break old habits, can you, Melody?" "What do you mean?" I asked.

"Even now, you can't stop thinking about other people first," he said and then he laughed. "It's all right. I'm just teasing. I can't imagine Grandma Olivia trapped by a stroke."

"She's human, Cary."

"Could have fooled me," he said.

Afterward, before I fell asleep I thought how terrible it was for a woman to have ruled her family so firmly and authoritatively that they felt no love, sympathy or sorrow for her in her time of greatest need. Surely, no matter how vigorously she claimed it, she couldn't be satisfied with herself and what she had accomplished, even in the name of family.

Grandma Olivia did make some improvement over the next thirty-six hours. The doctor returned and declared that she had regained some of her speech ability.

"It will still be difficult to understand her, but there's been more improvement than I expected," he said.

"She's even gotten more control of her hand.

We'll see," he added, not as ready to make dire pronouncements now as he had been before. "The nurse will remain another few days and stop by every day," he promised.

Judge Childs was there most of the day as well.

Loretta told me. She said it as if she were complaining he made more work for her. I imagined she thought she would have to do less with Grandma Olivia so incapacitated. When I returned from school the next afternoon, Mrs. Grafton told me my grandmother was asking to see me. I went in immediately. I approached the bed slowly. Mrs. Grafton had her sitting up and had her hair brushed. Her mouth was still twisted and her arm lay awkwardly against her body, but when I drew closer, she fixed her eyes on me and reached out with her left hand to take my hand and pull me closer.

"Naia," she uttered.

"Take it easy, Grandma Olivia," I said softly.

"Naaaa . . . thinssssss chaaaa," she continued. I shook my head. I didn't understand. She tried again and again, but the same confusing sounds emerged.

Finally, Mrs. Grafton stepped over and took her hand from me.

"Please try to relax, Mrs. Logan."

Grandma shook her head vigorously.

"She has the spirit," Mrs. Grafton said. "Full of vim and vigor."

Grandma Olivia attempted her sounds again.

Mrs. Grafton listened and then she smiled.

"What is she trying to say?" I asked.

"She's said, Nothing's changed.' Whatever that means," Mrs. Grafton added.

I nodded and looked at Grandma Olivia.

"I know what it means. It means that even now, she wants to run our lives," I muttered. "I'm sure she's going to get better."