"Needs you? What the hell does that mean? I need you too.""I'm so sorry, Harper." Chelsea began to cry freely. "You've no idea how hard this is for me. I hate doing this to you." Chelsea's shoulders shook as she attempted to hold back sobs.

Harper, beginning to understand that she was about to lose her darling, took Chelsea in her arms and kissed her deeply, transporting them both into the familiar territory of arousal.

She felt Chelsea respond to her, moving closer, kissing more insistently, pressing her fingertips into Harper's back until Harper pulled away, breathless, and asked, "Do you want to give this up?"

"No, of course not," Chelsea said. "I don't want to. I adore being with you. But I have a history with Mary. We had something real. I have to give it another chance."

"Aren't we real?" Harper asked.

"I'm sorry," Chelsea repeated. "You and I, we're really good together, but it's been less than three months. We don't know each other that well. We're still in the initial hot physical stage.

It's so good partly just because you're new at this. You love being with a woman. I don't know if you love me. I don't even know if you know me."

Harper didn't know that either. She knew how powerful her physical attraction to Chelsea was, but only time could prove an enduring emotional attachment.

"It feels like love," Harper said, helplessly.

Chelsea touched her cheek tenderly. "Yes, it does to me too. You can't tell the difference between lust and love in the beginning of a relationship."

Chelsea thought it was just about sex, Harper realized.

Whatever her version of love was, this apparently didn't qualify.

And Chelsea, like Harper, certainly knew that if it was just about sex, it would burn itself out and leave nothing of substance behind.

Harper, in a desperate maneuver, proposed that they could still see one another, on occasion. If all they had was sex, then why not? Mary apparently didn't require or value sexual fidelity.

"I can't do that," Chelsea told her. "It doesn't matter if Mary wouldn't mind. I'd mind. I'm not made that way. Besides, that's part of the deal. She's promised me there will be no one else."

"Please don't do this to us," Harper pleaded. "Make her wait.

Give us a chance to find out if we really dislike each other under all of this incredibly good sex."

Chelsea smiled, but it was a sad smile. There were no arguments that could dissuade her. She seemed to think she had no choice. She behaved as if she had no ability to defy Mary's will.

Within a couple of days, she was simply gone, swallowed back up into the sphere of Mary's dominion, like Persephone returning to the underworld.

Harper and the world above ground grew cold and rotated into autumn.

Chapter 31.

JULY 27.

"So Chelsea is back in the picture, huh?" Danny asked, cracking sunflower seeds with his teeth.

Harper sat with her brother on the porch in back of their childhood home, looking out over the pines behind the house.

The Greek Myths, which Sarah had returned to her, lay open in her lap.

"Yes. It nearly killed me to come here this year. I didn't want to leave her."

"It's going well, then?" Danny shoved another handful of seeds into his mouth.

"Extremely. The better I get to know her, the more I can't see myself ever being with anyone else."

"Is it mutual?"

"I think so. There's that nagging idea in my mind all the time, though, because of what happened before."

"Have you asked her about that? Have you asked her what she would do if Mary wanted her back?"

"No. I'm afraid to. Things are so good. I don't want to spoil it. And I'm not sure she would be able to answer me anyway. She might not know until it happens."

"I hope it doesn't happen, then."

"Thanks."

Danny uncrossed his legs, stretching. "So, I guess the sex is as good as before?" he asked, grinning.

Harper looked askance at him. "Don't get me thinking about that or I'll have to go lock myself in the bathroom like you used to do when you were a teenager."

He laughed. "She couldn't come along this trip and meet the wacky family?"

"No, she's teaching. They have year-round school and the summer break is over."

"Too bad, since it's your birthday tomorrow. She'll miss that.

The big three-nine, right? Wow, nearly forty! How does that feel?"

"Not as bad as you make it sound."

"You're still young at heart, though."

"Yes, even though I'm not young in body, apparently."

"Didn't really mean it that way. But, as usual when you're here on your birthday, you're sharing your party with a real youngster."

"Yes, Sarah is about to turn seventeen, a scary prospect, I'm sure, for her parents."

"Wow," Danny exclaimed, "what did you think when she showed up at your house?"

"I was shocked, of course."

"Yes. Everybody here was so relieved, though. Before you called, we were imagining all kinds of horrible things. Poor Neil was out of his mind."

"I guess that was sort of a dangerous thing she did."

"We're lucky she made it safely." Danny adopted a pseudo-Asian accent and said, "There is much evil in the world, Grasshopper."

Harper smiled. "Well, all's well that ends well. They seem to be happily reunited."

Danny nodded. "Was she a pretty big handful, then?"

"No, not really. She was actually a lot of fun. She's really smart. She's got the motivation, you know, to do something with her life."

"What does she want to do?"

"I don't think she knows. She seems to have suffered from a lack of role models. Her head is bursting with undirected ideas and passions. Before I leave, I want to talk to Neil and Kathy about their plans for college."

"So you feel like you have a stake in that, do you?"

"Well, she is my niece. She's got potential. No point wasting it." "No, you're right. We should do what we can for her. Do you see yourself as a role model for Sarah, then?"

"Well, not really. I see her too rarely because of the distance.

I'm hoping she'll get a couple of really inspirational professors."

The book in her lap lay open to the story of Icarus. The accompanying illustration showed him falling out of the sky, his wings dripping molten wax. Harper stood. "I think I'll go talk to them about it now, while it's on my mind."

She stepped into the house and immediately heard yelling from the kitchen. She arrived to see Sarah in tears, confronting her father whose face was a deep and alarming shade of red.

"Did you think you could just run off like that," he said, "and worry us all to death and then waltz back here without any repercussions?"

"I can't believe you're doing this!" Sarah screamed. "This is such bullshit! I wish I'd never come back! I wish I was dead!"

Neil and Sarah both noticed Harper simultaneously. Sarah ran past her out the back door. Neil took a deep breath, frowning.

"So?" asked Harper, leaning against the counter.

"Apparently she's surprised that she's being punished for all of the trouble she caused us, and you, by running off to California."

"What's the punishment?"

"I've grounded her for three months, and that includes pushing back her driver's license."

"Yikes," Harper said. "That's got to hurt."

"Yes, well, that's what punishment is about. They have to be punished."

"I suppose."

Neil, gradually calming himself, sat down at the kitchen table.

"Unfortunately," she said, sitting in the chair beside him, "that punishment is the same thing that drove her away in the first place. Are you sure you aren't just trying to prevent her from growing up?"

"What are you trying to say? Do you have some special insight, now that you've been in charge of her for, what, one whole month?"

Harper realized that Neil was angry at Sarah and that it was spilling out onto her. She didn't resent it. "No," she said. "I really can't imagine what frustration you must feel."

He drew a hand through his sandy hair and looked dejected.

"Sorry. I know you're just trying to help. And we appreciate the time you spent with her the last few weeks. She couldn't stop talking yesterday about everything she did while she was there."

"We had a good time. This may not be the best time to discuss it, but I was wondering what your plan is for her higher education."

"Oh, Harper, I don't know. I don't think we're even going to survive high school. We were hoping to send her to Wheaton and let her live at home. At this point, I don't think any of us would go for that. Kathy and I have discussed other possibilities, like sending her to the university and letting her live in the dorm.

The money isn't really a problem. We've prepared for that, but I just wonder what we could expect from her if we gave her that much freedom. I'm afraid she'd just go wild."

"Sarah isn't into drugs or anything like that, is she?"

0.

"Not that I know of. She's just defiant. Up until recently, she was the most well-behaved girl you ever saw. We were patting ourselves on the back for what a good job we did raising her. No sex, no drugs, no crime, not even cigarettes. And then all of the sudden, bang, she turned into Ms. Hyde."

"It would be a real shame if she didn't get a degree."

"Yes, it would. She's a bright girl. The offer is still on the table, but I don't think she's going to take it. She can't wait to get away from us. If she thinks she can do it all on her own, she's going to be in for a shock. Maybe one semester, maybe two if she's determined. When you first start supporting yourself, money is tight and, suddenly, you just don't see the point of pouring it all into school when the whole world is lying at your feet, or so you think."

"I did it," Harper pointed out.

"Yes, you did. You were exceptional. Sarah reminds me of you. That little scene just now, in fact, reminded me of the day you told Mom that you were going to California no matter what.

You said you would rather die than stay here."

"I don't think it's unusual for teenage girls to rather die than do what their parents want them to."

He laughed shortly. "I guess that's true. Maybe Sarah will run off to California too and make a fine life for herself. She definitely seems to think it's the land of enchantment."

After giving Neil a reassuring hug, Harper left the kitchen and went looking for Sarah. She found her, eventually, sitting at the end of the dock with her legs dangling over the water, just where the two of them had sat two years earlier talking about epic poetry.

Harper sat next to her, noting the solemn look on her face.

"Hey," she said, knocking against Sarah's shoulder with her own."Hey," Sarah replied half-heartedly.

"This is a beautiful place, don't you think?"

"Yeah. I've always liked visiting Grandma and Grandpa."

"I really missed this place when I left."