The building the plant was housed in was immaculate. I could see how proud of it Trevor was.

"After we separate the stems from the grape berries." he began. "the skins are broken to free the juice. The mixture of juice, skins, seeds, and pulp is called must."

We followed him about as he explained. Every once in a while. I glanced at Echo and saw she was doing an odd thing. She was signing to herself, thinking aloud, and what she was doing was repeating what Trevor was telling me, but repeating it from memory.

Tyler's right about her. I thought. She is very bright and she's not being permitted to develop as she should. She's like a bird kept in too small a cage to exercise her ability to fly. Do I dare try to convince Mrs. Westington of this, convince her to put Echo in a real school? Once she entered, there would be no reason for me to stay. It was selfish to think that. but I couldn't help it.

"And as you can see here,' Trevor went on.

"yeast converts sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The clear white is separated from spent yeast cells and other solids after fermenting. White wine should be fermented at cooler temperatures than red and white wines are consumed when they are relatively young so they retain fresh and fruity aromas and flavors."

He looked at me. I had been watching Echo.

"I'm giving a test on this later." he said.

"Oh. I'm sorry. Trevor. I really did hear everything you said."

Here.," he said, walking to a stack of cases and pulling a bottle out of the top one. "I'll give you a taste of a finished product."

He uncorked it and then poured a little in a gla.s.s. He did the same for Echo. I was surprised.

"If s all right. Mrs. Westington lets her have a little now and then."

We both tasted it. I hadn't drunk much wine in my life, but I thought it tasted very good and told him so.

"Yeah, well, there was a time when pride in all this was waving over this property like a flag." he said sadly. He glanced at Echo and then turned back to me.

"Everything all right between you and that tutor fellow?"

"Yes," I said.

"You just be careful about how much you invest in him," he warned.

"Invest? What do you mean? Invest of what?"

"Of yourself," he said. "A good relationship, like this wine, needs a hospitable environment and time to age properly."

I smiled. "Okay."

"I got no right to advise anyone about relationships with other people. Been living like a hermit too many years, but sometimes, what's true and right is as clear as the liquid gold."

I agreed with him and thanked him for his concern. Afterward. I again worked with Echo on signing. She had endless energy when it came to her need and desire to communicate. I was happy that she was distracted and involved so much in our work that she didn't ask me any more questions about Destiny, boyfriends, or s.e.x. She appeared to have forgotten my promise to write it out and I didn't remind her. I didn't want to hear any more about her love for Tyler or what she perceived as his love for her.

Mrs. Westington was sitting in her chair and knitting while we worked anyway. She looked very pleased with how well Echo and I were getting along.

Was this a good time to bring up her need to be in a real school environment? I was gathering the courage to do so when the phone rang.

"Now, it better not be one of those people trying to sell me something," she complained, and went to the phone in the kitchen. A little more than ten minutes later, she returned, her face ashen, but her lips trembling red with anger. I wondered if it had been Tyler telling her how his mother wanted him to stop tutoring Echo. She gazed at Echo, who was busy correcting the way I held my arm and fingers for the word day.

"Something wrong. Mrs. Westington?" I asked.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and pulling back her shoulders. "That," she said. "was my daughter. After all these years, my daughter."

"Rhona? How is she?" I asked.

"How is she? I'll tell you how she is. She's in a Mexican jail because she was caught crossing the border with drugs in her car, so they confiscated her car and she's in a pretty kettle of fish. My first reaction is not to give a picayune and let her fry in her own fire."

She settled in her chair, looking stunned. "Of course, her father would rant and rave and then make sure she was taken care of, and if I did any less, he'd probably rise from the grave. She's the way she is because he spoiled her spared the rod and spoiled the child.

"Well. I can't very well leave her down there. I know what sort of things go on in those places and even she doesn't deserve that. Maybe she does," she added after a moment. "but I don't have cold enough of a heart to let it happen. I called my attorney and got him on it. He'll pay off whoever has to be paid off to get her out. Where she'll go and what she'll do is anyone's guess, but don't be surprised if she shows up outside this door finally. The only reason someone like her comes home is because no one else will take her in,"

"You took me in," I reminded her.

"That's a different story. You're a legitimate person in need. No matter what I do to help her, she'll only go bad again and again. She's the rotten apple who spoils the bunch, believe me.

"Oh well, maybe she won't come here. Maybe she'll use what I gave her to go on another fling. It's like paying off the devil to keep him from your door. I can't imagine what would have happened to that poor child if she had not deserted her." she added, nodding at Echo, who fortunately wasn't paying any attention to what was being discussed. "She'd have dragged her through the muck."

"I'm sorry about all your trouble. Mrs.

Westington."

"Yeah, well, grin and bear it, my grandmother would say." She sighed. "I'm suddenly very tired myself."

She started to rise and I could see she had suffered an emotional shock that added age to her old bones instantly. I got up quickly to help her.

"Thank you. dear. You two go on to bed. I'll just clean up a bit," she said. "It's not good to lay down your head when it's so full of agitation. You'll spin around like a top for hours. Of course, she said, smiling at me. "you already know all that."

I watched her amble off and then I turned to Echo, who was staring up at me, concerned. She quickly signed, asking if her grandmother was sick.

"Just tired," I signed back. The words and the gestures came like a true second language. I smiled at how quickly I had drawn them out of the well of knowledge I had just acquired over the past few days.

Echo smiled as well. She could see how happy I was about it.

I reached out for her. She took my hand and we went upstairs together, she to surely dream about Tyler. I wouldn't be all that surprised to find him wandering about in my night musings as well I thought.

He returned right on time the following day.

Worried about my test results. I held my breath when I saw him drive up. I was finishing up the grape harvest with Trevor. Tyler looked my way and waved emphatically, beckoning me to meet him.

"Go on," Trevor said. "You won't be no good to me itching to get over there as soon as you can."

I handed him my basket of grapes and hurried to join Tyler as he approached the house.

"All right," he said. "I'll confess I thought you'd do very poorly on all this, but you really surprised me.

You must have been a decent student."

"Decent but not terrific."

"Good enough," he insisted. "I think we can get you past the high school equivalency all right." He indicated a bag of books. "These are yours. We'll start on it right away. There's a bottle of our chocolate wine sauce in there for you to taste as well,"

"Thanks," I said, taking it all.

We heard Echo call to him and turned to see she had come out on the porch.

"How is she?" he asked. "Any more talk about...?"

"She hasn't said a word about any of it.

especially Destiny. I think it's still frightening to her."

"Don't worry about it. I have some ideas about how to handle all this. For now, let's forget about all that and get to work."

One of the first things he did when he entered the house was seek out Mrs. Westington to tell her how well I did on the evaluation tests.

"You don't have to tell me. I knew that girl was good material." she told him.

I was surprised at how much work Tyler had already done in regard to my test preparations. He had developed a structured series of lessons in every subject.

"We'll work it as close to the actual school experience as we can." he explained. "You'll read the work, do the exercises, and then we'll go over them together to be sure you understand it all."

Echo watched us, clearly annoyed about the time he was devoting to me. She interrupted us continually with questions we both knew she didn't have to ask. He exchanged a knowing look with me and directed himself more to her.

"I'm glad you're not filling your ears with wax today," he whispered. "Although, I'll admit now, it wasn't a terrible idea. In fact," he confessed. "we did similar things in school to prepare for teaching the disabled."

It felt good to get compliments from him. My self-respect was like a crumbled house of cards. It would take a lot of patience and glue to build it up again. I bore down on the a.s.signments, motivated more than ever to do well. Time flew by. Mrs.

Westington called us to lunch and at lunch Tyler was more chatty, directing himself to me now almost as much as he did to Echo. He asked me questions about Memphis, about my earlier life, and about the shows Uncle Palaver and I did on the road. Wisely, he included Echo in everything, relating my answers to her. I could see she was torn between wanting me as a friend and wanting all of Tyler's attention as well.

We returned to our work, but halfway through the afternoon. Tyler surprised me with a bag.

"What's this?" I asked, and looked in to see the batteries I would need to install in Destiny.

"I thought it might be a good idea to visit the motor home and show Echo how you get the doll to perform."

"Really?"

"Sure," he said. "That's the fastest way to get her to understand."

"Shouldn't we tell Mrs. Westington first?"

"We'll do it after so she doesn't worry about it,"

he said. "For now it will be our little secret. I'm curious about it myself. I want to see how good you are as a performer."

"I wasn't the performer. It was my uncle."

"But you said you were part of the show and knew how to do same of the tricks. That will help relax Echo. too."

"Okay." I said, although if there was one thing I had already learned in my short lifetime, it was that keeping secrets from people you loved and respected was a recipe for trouble.

"Good. Let's go."

"Now?" I asked.

"It's as good a time as any and everyone deserves a break from work, especially if you consider how intensely we go at it," he said.

He turned to Echo and signed quickly, explaining what he wanted us to do. She looked pleased.

"What did you tell her?" I asked.

"Just that you were going to put on a show for us in the motor home and surprise us."

This was all happening so fast and seemed too good to be true. The three of us getting along so well was a hope and a dream. Sh.e.l.l-shocked from one disappointment after another. I was still nervous and skeptical. How radically Tyler's att.i.tude toward me had changed.

"Are you sure it's all right?" I asked, desperate for more and more a.s.surance.

"Don't worry." he added. "She trusts me." Yes.

I thought, she does.

But should 1?

4.

Magic Show .

Mrs. Westington was asleep in her easy chair when we left the house to a to Uncle Palaver's motor home. Trevor Washington was on the roof of the winery plant doing some repairs. I didn't think he saw us because he was concentrating hard on his work.

Echo looked nervous as we approached the vehicle.

but Tyler continually rea.s.sured her, telling her we were going to have fun.

When we entered the motor home. Echo stood off to the rear and stared at Destiny, now seated in Uncle Palaver's chair facing the sofa. Turning it over.

I lifted the blouse in the back to show her the battery compartment. She drew closer gingerly and watched as I inserted the new ones. She was even more curious now and sat on the sofa to wait for me to complete the installation and preparations.

Tyler sat beside her. "We're ready for our magic show," he said.

I wasn't sure what I should do first. Without Uncle Palaver, it felt strange to do anything involving Destiny. It was almost as if I believed she wouldn't perform for me the way she had performed for him.