“Ark ark ark ark ark!” it screamed at her, rearing up on all four of its fins and getting ready to do battle.
Laura screamed in terror, jumping to her feet and running down the beach. The sea lion immediately began to chase after her, ark arking all the way.
“Neesh, help!” Laura screamed, terrified.
“Oh my god!” she heard Neesh yell back. “Inland, Laura! Get out of the water!”
Out of the water? Yes, that was probably a good idea. She didn’t know how fast an angry sea lion could run on land, but it probably wasn’t as fast as it could move in the water. She hooked left, leaving the surf behind and the creature remained in pursuit of her. Adrenaline flooded through her body as full panic took over and she ran right into a piece of driftwood, tripping her again, sending her tumbling to the beach again. Her face struck the sand this time and she felt grit on her tongue.
“Fuck!” she barked, scrambling to her feet again and resuming her sprint. This time, the sea lion broke off the pursuit, perhaps because it was tired, or perhaps because it felt it had made its point.
Laura was finally able to slow down and catch her breath. The adrenaline started to fade away. She stood in the sand, her hands on her knees, bent over, panting.
Neesh came up to her. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” she said with a nod.
“I think you’re bleeding,” Neesh said.
“Yeah? Where at?”
“Your arms and your wrists.”
Laura looked and could see just enough by the moonlight that her forearms were all scraped up and abraded. Also, her toes, the ones that had struck the driftwood, were all throbbing with pain. “I don’t suppose that you found our clothes?”
Neesh shook her head. “Not a stitch,” she said.
“Lovely. Where’d the sea lion go?”
“I think it went back into the water,” Neesh said. “You’re lucky you got away. That thing was pissed off.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It really was.”
“Come on,” Neesh said. “Let’s go back to the house and get you cleaned up.”
“How are we going to explain this?” Laura asked her.
“It’s easy,” she said. “We tell as much of the truth as feasible. That’s the way you keep girl time between girls.”
“I see.”
Chapter 3: Questions and Answers
Los Angeles, California
July 18, 1994
Celia and Greg arrived at Pauline’s house just before six o’clock in the evening, their limo dropping them off out front. It was a muggy, smoggy late afternoon and the sky was an ugly shade of grayish-blue. No clouds were present and there was not a stitch of wind. Celia was wearing a pair of white shorts and a sleeveless maroon top. Greg, as usual, was dressed a little nicer than his wife. He was sporting a pair of two-hundred-dollar slacks, a Pierre Cardin dress shirt, and a tie. He was also sporting a contented smile on his face. Celia had landed at LAX after a flight from Logan International in Boston twenty-four hours before. The two of them had become reacquainted with each other several times since.
Pauline herself answered the door after they rang the bell. She smiled and hugged both of them, even giving Greg a peck on the cheek. She seemed in a very good mood.
“I’m glad you could make it, C,” her manager told her.
“This is an important meeting,” Celia said. “I kind of needed to be here for it.”
“True,” Pauline said. “Everyone else is already here. We’re having drinks in the living room and we’ll talk business during dinner.”
“Sounds good,” Celia said.
They made their way into the living room, which looked out over the lake. Obie was sitting in an easy chair, sipping from what appeared to be a scotch on the rocks. Jake and Laura were sitting on the couch. Jake had Tabby, who was now just a few days shy of six months old, sitting in his lap and he was making her giggle by pretending to sneeze. It was Laura that caught Celia’s attention, however. She looked a little like she had been through a wringer. She had an abrasion on the right side of her face and some discoloration that looked suspiciously like a black eye on her right side. There were more abrasions that looked like road rash on both of her lower arms and a brace of some kind on her right ankle.
“Madres de Dios, Teach,” Celia exclaimed. “What the hell happened to you?”
“I had a little run-in with a sea lion the other night,” Laura said sourly.
“A sea lion?” Celia asked, astonished.
“While she was naked,” Jake added, smiling.
“What?” Celia asked.
“It’s a long story,” Laura said.
“You have got to tell it to me,” Celia said, walking over to her. “Are you okay?”
“A sprained ankle, a black eye, two broken toes, three toenails that aren’t going to make it much longer, and various scrapes and abrasions,” Laura said. “I’ll heal.”
“And hopefully you’ve learned not to run naked on a beach in the middle of the night,” put in Obie, who had apparently already heard the story.
“Well, at least not without a flashlight,” Laura said with a laugh. She got to her feet and held out her arms to Celia, who gave her a big hug.
“I can’t wait to hear this one,” Celia said.
“After hugs,” Laura said, holding out her hands to Greg, who quickly obliged her while Celia herself moved onto to Jake, who stood, Tabby still in his arms, and gave her an affectionate one-handed embrace.
“And look at you, little Tabs,” Celia proclaimed. “You’ve gotten so big since the last time I saw you.”
“She’s growing like a goddamn weed,” Obie said, coming over to collect his hug as well.
“Yeah,” Pauline said. “And biting at my goddamn nipples now.”
“Most women kind of like that,” Jake offered, earning himself a murderous scowl from his sister.
After the hugs, Greg and Jake did their customary handshake and then Obie and Greg did the same.
“All right,” Celia said, snatching Tabby away from Jake. She went willingly enough. “Tell me the sea lion story.”
“It’s not really that interesting,” Laura said, sitting down and picking up her wine glass.
“I seriously doubt that,” Celia said. “Give it up.”
“Well ... it was after the Soul Train Awards the other night,” Laura said.
“Oh yeah,” Celia said. “I caught Jake and G’s performance while I was in the hotel. Not bad for lip-synching.”
“I always feel like such a sellout when I do that,” Jake said with a shrug. “Still, it was a good time.”
“And I got the most beautiful dress out of the deal,” Laura said.
“I caught a couple of glimpses of you in it,” Celia said. “It was gorgeous.”
“I still can’t believe they just gave me a Versace dress,” Laura said. “I can only image how much that thing actually cost.”
“Welcome to the big-time celebrity life,” Pauline said. “You gotta love those endorsement deals.”
“There is a lot to be said for it,” Laura agreed.
“Anyway,” Celia said. “The sea lion?”
“Right,” Laura said. “Well ... after the ceremony, Jake and I went over to G’s place on the beach in Malibu. Neesh was with us.”
“And Neesh is...” Celia prompted.
“Gordon’s fiancé,” Laura said. “She lives there with him. They’re going to be getting married next April. She’s really quite beautiful.”
“That would be the woman sitting next to G at the ceremony?” Celia asked. She remembered her as an exotic looking dark skinned woman. Laura was right. She was quite beautiful.
“That’s her,” Laura confirmed. “She comes across as kind of, you know ... uh...”
“Bitchy?” Jake offered.
“Right,” Laura said. “She seems kind of stuck up when you first meet her, but she’s really not. I like her a lot. She’s very sweet.”