“See? I told you it wasn’t easy.”
“Work with me. I’m a willing student.”
She held me with a gentle gaze. “The best way to learn is to close your eyes.”
“Really?” “Yes. Go ahead.”
I closed my eyes and waited for her to tell me to begin. I couldn’t quite understand how this would help, but as I was puzzling over it, I heard the soft shuffle of movement as she slid closer to me on the couch.
And then, I felt her warm hand on mine. Her fingers gently, carefully shaping mine to form the next letter. “N,” she said, and then the next: “O… P…” One letter at a time, her fingers guided mine through the remainder of the alphabet.
“Let’s start over at the beginning,” I said, my eyes still closed.
“I’m not sure I’ve quite got hold of it yet.”
Without a word, Lien-hua took my fingers slowly through the entire alphabet. Every letter she formed made the rest of the world retreat farther and farther away. And every time our fingers flexed and curled together, my heart raced faster. And when we were finished, I opened my eyes.
“Close them again,” she said softly.
I didn’t want to be disagreeable, so I did as I was told.
With my eyes closed, my other senses seemed more acute. I could hear the soft waves bumping against the shore five stories below us, and the tender rustling of palm branches in the breeze. All around me, I smelled San Diego’s ever-present scent of spring swirling, coloring, covering the night. And of course, with my sense of touch, I could feel Lien-hua’s knowledgeable fingers guiding, teaching mine.
After we’d finished the alphabet, she said, “Keep them closed.”
She made me wave my hand. “This is ‘hello.’”
“That’s an easy one.” I waved to her.
“That was good.” I heard a smile pass through her words. “I hope you can remember it.”
“Might be tough. I’ll do my best.”
“And this is ‘How are you?’” I felt her fingers, full of confidence, full of grace, glide across mine. I repeated the words as I did the gesture by myself. “This is ‘please.’” She led me through the sign. I repeated it, and then she paused for a long moment, her hand resting on mine. I heard her soft breath beside me in the night, and I caught the scent of her shampoo, herbal and rich with the smell of meadowed flowers. I could almost sense the beat of her heart, rising through the dark expanse of my closed eyes. “This,” she said, “is the sign for ‘come closer.’” Her voice had fallen to a whisper.
“Come closer,” I said, I signed. Lien-hua’s hand remained on mine. A touch of discreet wind whispered against my cheek and the anxious trembling of my heart sent chills riding across my back.
“And this,” she said, “is ‘I’m here for you.’” She let her fingers teach mine.
“I’m here for you,” I said with my words and my fingers.
She didn’t take her hand away from mine at all anymore. “I need you,” she said, and she took her time teaching me the sign.
“I need you,” I repeated with my mouth, with my hand.
Her fingers curled lightly around mine, didn’t let go, although now she’d stopped teaching me sign language. She placed her other hand gently against my closed eyes. “Don’t open them,” she said.
“Not yet.” The feelings for her that I’d been trying to quiet for months rose, climbed through time, and became a restless melody drawing me deeper and deeper into the moment.
“Monday night, after I brought Tessa back to the hotel and I saw you in the hall…” Her voice was a cool caress that calmed me and thrilled me. One of her hands on my hand, the other across my eyes. “That’s what I wanted to tell you, Pat, but I couldn’t find the words. I wanted to tell you: ‘I need you.’”
My heart was on fire. The world became a sprinkle of joy and wonder and promises as new as dawn. “I need you,” I whispered the words, and then added two more: “Come closer.”
I said the words and I signed them. “Come closer.” I repeated them again.
And again. Until she did.
And that’s when I heard the knock at the door.
Victor Drake had just finished printing out the boarding pass for his flight to the Philippines and was busy shredding papers when the three men arrived at his home. Victor hated the word henchmen. He hated the idea of using henchmen. And even more, he hated giving money to his henchmen. But that was exactly what he was about to do.
He saw their cars pass across the video monitor of the surveillance cameras at the front gate, then he headed downstairs to usher his three henchmen into his home.